Abandoning Faith (eBook)

Chapter
2

“Beautiful mornin’, Ms. Tucker. How was your weekend?” Mr. Creedy asked. He’d arrived right at nine for his appointment with Faith. “Good morning. It was pretty quiet. How was yours, Mr. Creedy? Oh, and you can call me Faith.”

“Ooh, Faith, what a name! That’s my mother’s name. What’s the inspiration behind that name? Were you raised in the faith? Or were you a miracle baby?”

Overwhelmed with Mr. Creedy’s slew of intrusive questions, Faith simply responded, “No, I wasn’t, sir.”

Picking up on Faith’s annoyance, Mr. Creedy immediately retracted. “Oh, man, I did it again,.” He remorsefully responded in his deep Louisiana accent. Faith immediately picked up that he was not a Texas native. “I got so excited when I heard that name; had an instant flashback of my Ma who went on to be with the Lord three years ago. Ya know, my wife, well, she calls me beefy, not because I’m hefty. As you can see, I could use some more meat on these bones. But because she says I’m just hard to digest sometimes.”

Internally rolling her eyes at the thought of hearing about that religion that she’d left years ago, Faith she immediately reminded herself that this was business and she had to fake the funk and actually converse and laugh at awful jokes, since this was a paying client. “It’s okay, I understand.” Faith decided to further elaborate. “My parents were not people of faith, but I was. Well, when I was a teenager, a long time ago. They said they named me Faith because it resonated the most with my face, whatever that meant. They were big on that sort of stuff. Guess they meant I looked like a Faith.”

“Oh, okay, now that’s pretty darn neat. You look like a Faith. I like that,” Mr. Creedy answered responded with a huge smile on his face. Mr. Creedy was a thin, White, middle- aged man. Even though Faith could tell he was a Louisiana native, He had the whole Texas vibe going. He had on tight blue jeans and a big brown leather belt with the biggest buckle Faith had ever seen. To top it off, it donned a silver longhorn. He completed the look with a button-down white blouse, brown chukka boots, and a cowboy hat to match. He was sweet, intrusive, and yes, possibly hard to digest, but really sweet, and Faith noticed that.

“If you don’t mind, you said something that just jumped out at me, like BAM!” Mr. Creedy’s very loudly elaborates, so much so that it startled Faith as she was sipping her morning green tea. Her sip was now on her favorite purple suit jacket. “Ah, man, I’m sorry, pretty lady. I ‘den ruined your beautiful jacket, and it’s a color of royalty. Did you know purple signified royalty?”

“Yes, I did, Mr. Creedy,.” Faith assured him as she took her suit jacket off to place it on the back of her chair.

“I really am sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it., I can get it cleaned, it’s not a big deal at all.”

“Okay, okay, good to know. I’d hate to ruin good clothes, ya know?! But—, oh, yeah, that’s what I was going to say. You mentioned that your parents were not people of faith, but you were. Now, that’s something I don’t see too often. Were you a Christian?”

Internally rolling her eyes once more, yet faking it so well, Mr. Creedy would never notice, Faith said,.

“Yes, I was. When I was twelve, my childhood friend invited me to this Christian summer camp for middle schoolers. I decided to become a Christian there and it lasted about two years until I changed my mind and decided to walk another path. Ironically my parents became Christians about two years ago, so the tables have turned.” Faith briefly explains, purposely omitting key details. Mr. Creedy quietly stared at Faith while shaking his head slowly up and down as if she was still speaking. He sat comfortably in Faith’s leather guest chair that she always had conveniently pulled up to her desk. His hands were folded around his crossed knee, and he had a concerned and curious expression on his face. “Well, pretty lady, I know you got a story in there. Maybe one day we can talk about it, if you’re game, of course. But let me just say this, if I may. I really do hope you come on back. I’m not sure what you found when you left Christianity, but I on’t reckon it was better than Jesus. That’s an impossible possibility, better known as an impossibility. Now, I know your time is valuable and I don’t want to mess with that anymore, so how about we get into this case?”

Faith was relieved. That was the best thing she’d heard come out of Mr. Creedy’s mouth since he walked into her office. “Yes, of course. You mind if I run to the restroom first?”

“Of course not. I am not in a rush.”

As Faith stood up to walk to the restroom, she felt disturbed. If she was being honest, she would’ve admitted to herself that his admonishment did not fall on deaf ears. The truth was, Faith had thought about coming back multiple times throughout her life. When she decided to become a Christian that summer night at camp, she’d never experienced anything so beautiful, so life-changing. She knew she was different; she knew she had changed. For two years she walked with Christ. It was challenging getting used to her new faith in an environment that didn’t help to cultivate that faith.

Faith’s parents were atheists. They didn’t subscribe to the idea of God, but they allowed Faith to choose her own way of life, which is why they’d allowed her to go to the Christian camp with Lucretia in the first place. When Faith would get stuck on something she was studying in the Bible, she would ask Lucretia’s parents for clarity. She always wanted to go visit them at their house. Her own house became a place where she just wanted to sleep. They would also pick her up for church on Sundays and Wednesdays. This created tension between Faith and her parents because they felt as though they were losing her to religion and to Lucretia’s family. They couldn’t support her the way she needed to be supported, and Faith was aware of this. In spite of this, they tried to love her the best way they knew how. Although Faith was frustrated with them because she just really wanted her parents to get to know this Jesus that was just so awesome to her, she loved them and made sure that they were aware of how much they meant to her. She also assured them that she didn’t love Lucretia’s family more than them.Faith felt as though her parents were being stubborn regarding their faith for no reason. But the truth was, they were severely wounded. Tanisha had suffered six miscarriages and one stillborn child due to an unknown illness before adopting Faith. They’d tried to trust God in the past, but after enduring that many tragedies, they decided it was just safer to not believe in anything anymore. There was no more risk for them.

The summer before Faith entered high school, her parents decided to finally come clean. They’d always planned to tell her she was adopted but never knew how or when. The closer it got to Faith entering high school, the more concerned and burdened they felt about the secret they were holding on to and felt it was finally time to tell her. They no longer wanted Faith to believe a lie, and felt she deserved to know the truth as she entered her last four years of school before becoming an adult.

Telling her was more difficult than they’d ever imagined, and her reaction was even more painful than they’d hoped it’d be. They began by telling her that Tanisha had an autoimmune disease called antiphospholipid syndrome, which resulted in her having six miscarriages and one stillborn baby. After Tanisha delivered Justus, their stillborn baby boy, she and Tom gave up on the idea of having children naturally and elected to adopt. As they broke down their painful past, they watched in distress as Faith began to break down as well. They saw the disappointment and confusion sink into her face. She didn’t utter a word until they were done talking.

Faith’s first question to her parents was, “So who are my real parents?” They couldn’t answer that for her because they honestly didn’t know. Then came the most painful part—telling Faith she’d been left at the fire station with no record of her birth parents’ identity. They later regretted sharing those details with her, at least in that moment. They felt those details pushed her so far off the edge. Faith felt worthless. She couldn’t think of any other reason someone could leave an entire human being at a fire station. She no longer felt like her adopted parents loved her; she just thought they felt pity for her. She saw life differently, people differently, love differently, and, most importantly, she saw God differently. To her, Jesus was just something else in her life that couldn’t be trusted.

Faith stopped hanging around Lucretia and began hanging around Tia and Lois, two girls who had a reputation of picking fights and gossiping. She didn’t want anything to do with anyone who reminded her of Jesus, so she was comfortable with those two, even though her parents disapproved. Lucretia and her family were extremely hurt and saddened that Faith was in so much pain and didn’t want them to help. She had become like a second daughter to them. Both Lucretia and Faith were the only child in their families, which is one of the reasons they became instant best friends...