Tale of Two Queens and a King (eBook)

THE FRAME

Often when we begin to hear a story or read a book, we would benefit greatly by understanding where this person is coming from. We all have life experiences that shape how we see and explain life. These next few stories are real life experiences that had great impacts on my life. The first person ever was my mom who for the sake of this book is called “The queen of hearts.”

During my entire childhood there was always a holiday that my mom loved tremendously. It was Christmas. She would fully decorate the house from top to bottom inside and out. I remember helping her for days hanging up all the lights, ornaments, statues, signs, yard art, Christmas village sets, etc. It was a lot! She would be playing Christmas music the whole time. Her favorite song was “Oh Holy Night.” I will always remember that when that song came on she would get on her knees by the Christmas tree and just weep as she sang that song. It was very puzzling to me as a young boy and very moving as well. Why was my mom crying when she should be happy? Why was she so emotional? What was this song about? Why did she get so teary eyed over words about a Savior’s birth? I never really fully understood until later in life why she did that.

You see we were not church people at all. No one in our house talked about God or had a Bible. I was never brought up in a Christian home or hung around other Christians. To me Christmas was just another holiday to drink and get presents, throw parties, and invite people over. Then it culminated by opening presents on Christmas morning. To my mom though it meant so much more. There was some hidden meaning obviously that touched her soul. I just did not know why. To really understand my mom you need to know about her challenging background.

My mom had gone through some very tough times early in her life. I had an older brother named Derrill Wayne Mainous that was a few years older than I. I also had an older sister named Kelly Lynn Mainous that had died in 1960 before I was born from pneumonia due to the horrible living conditions we were forced to live in. According to my mom my father William Bruce Mainous was a taxicab driver and an alcoholic. He would come home on Fridays from work drunk and slap my mom around. Then he would take my mom’s paycheck she made from waiting tables and go blow it at the bars. He would be gone from Friday night till Sunday afternoon. My mom would often have to go to churches in the neighborhood and beg for groceries just to feed us because he had taken all the money. My mom used to tell me these stories later in life of how humiliating it was and how she felt so trapped.

The living conditions were so bad that to this day I still have a small scar on my face from a rat bite. My mom told me she put me to bed one night with a baby bottle of milk. Later that night she heard me scream. She ran into the room and turned the light on only to see a rat had gotten into the crib and bit me on the face while it was licking off the milk that had spilt on my face. She also told me how he beat her up and that she was fearful for her life and our wellbeing. Finally, when I was eight she had had enough and left my dad Bruce in Louisville, Kentucky and moved to Dallas, Texas around 1970. My brother Derrill who was 4 years older than I was left in my dad’s custody. My mom had custody of me, and my father had custody of my brother Derrill Wayne Mainous. I had always hoped growing up that perhaps one day I would see my dad and older brother again who I never got to really know.

When my mom and I came to Dallas she met Ben Conway who was a bus driver and a liquor store owner. My mom who had never finished high school and was looking for any job she could get, got a job waiting tables during the day at a breakfast restaurant, and also danced at a bar at night as a go-go dancer. She wore fringe skirts and tops with tall leather boots on stage. Not a stripper, just a dancer. Ben’s liquor store was next door to the bar my mom danced at. He would come over to the bar after he closed his store to hang out with her. That is where they first met and eventually they got married in 1970. From that point on things seemed to have taken an upturn in our lives.

Unfortunately, it was short lived. Over the years while in Texas while I was growing up between the ages of 8 and 16 my mom would go from marriage to marriage. Seven marriages in all, three times just with Ben. I watched her for years cry as she went from one relationship to another. As my mom cried in fear of what would happen to us, I always held her hand as we were looking for the next place to live and I would say, “Mom I will never leave you and I promise to take care of you all my life.” As her child it was always heartbreaking to see her cry. In my opinion she was a lonely queen of hearts who never found her king. All she ever wanted was a man to love her and protect her. During these times of separations it was very difficult to make ends meet. With her never graduating high school she always had to take minimum wage jobs working her way through life providing for us. Working low paying jobs, degrading jobs, multiple jobs. I saw the struggles. I lived them with her. Life was extremely hard, lonely, and very uncertain.

That is why it was so puzzling for me to watch her cry under the Christmas tree every year weeping to Oh Holy Night. No matter where we lived or how poor we were she always believed in Christmas. It was as though that song made a promise of hope for her soul that she desperately wanted to believe in. Even to this day when I hear that song, I still get goose bumps on my arms and tears in my eyes as I think of my Christmas queen singing under that tree to “Oh Holy Night.”

Day 1. IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.

Unfortunately, this world in its fallen state is not fair. I met a very close friend I grew up with during those times of my mom going from marriage to marriage. He was basically in the same boat in his family situation, and that is how we became friends. We met at an apartment complex while our moms were out trying to make a living. Neither of us at that time had a dad in the picture. In getting to know each other we would swap stories. Here is just one of the many things he told me he encountered as a young child prior to meeting me.

His mother was a “player” if you will. One day my friend and his younger brother who were in their teens were asleep at their home. In the middle of the night, they get woken up by their mom in a panic. She says, “grab what clothes you can and quickly get in the car.” Startled and in a hurry they ran to the car and got in with only what they could fit in a backpack. Leaving everything else they owned behind. All their other clothes, coats, toys, shoes etc. They get in the car with their mom, and they see her newest male friend at the wheel. They are told to lay down in the back of a car and go to sleep as they speed off in the middle of the night. Sometime during the night, my friend wakes up as the car is parked near an ocean it seems. He peeks over the seat while his younger brother is asleep and sees his mom and her newest male friend outside the car talking as he is throwing what looks like a gun into the ocean. In fear my friend lays back down in the seat covering his brother. He pretends to be asleep as they enter back into the car and drive off again. A few hours later they awake at the border of Mexico. They make it through the border and get to a hotel at daylight. His mom and her new male friend say they are going shopping, leaving both kids in the room alone in Mexico. A few hours passed and they have not returned. A couple of more hour’s pass, and the door is busted down by the Mexican police looking for their mom and her male friend that is suspected of murder. However, they have fled and left the kids behind. No food. No money. No explanation. The Mexican police take the kids to the station and try to find the next of kin to come get them. They have no money, no belongings, no car, or family anymore. They are not even in their own country and have no freaking idea what has happened to them or why? Scared and abandoned feelings flood their souls as the police take them away. They have now become the property and responsibility of Mexico.

IS IT THEIR FAULT?

My friend this is the result of being born into a fallen world. God never intended this earth we live in and the people we encounter to be this bad. Every individual when they are born has a vacancy of the spirit of God. The Bible teaches that Adam and Eve walked and talked with God at one time. Then they were tricked into disobeying God by outside evil sources. The result for this rebellion was separation from God’s presence and the penalty of a struggling life. All of us have come from Adam and Eve and live under that same curse. Now all of humanity is born into this fallen and broken world with a vacancy in their spirit. Yes, everyone has that vacancy. The result of that fallen state is that our world now is filled with evil and hatred. Just look at the news. Kids murdering their parents. Other kids go into schools with guns and mowing down helpless students. Nations invoking genocide on other people groups they don’t like and then wiping them out. Mothers, Fathers, and even babies are murdered in the name of hatred. There is no regard for human life anymore. At some time you have to ask yourself...