Stephenie said she almost had a conniption when she heard Pastor Len’s show about Pamela’s message. He always discussed what he was going to say on his radio show with his inner circle after Bible study, but that time he just flat came out with it. I barely slept after I heard it. Couldn’t figure why he wouldn’t have shared something so important with his church first. Later he said the truth had come to him just that day and he felt called to spread the news as soon as he was able. Stephenie and I both agreed that those children couldn’t have survived something like that without God’s guiding hand, and those colours on the planes matching John’s vision in Revelation, well, how could that be a coincidence? But when Pastor Len started saying that Pam was a prophet, like Paul and John, well, I found that hard to take, and I wasn’t the only one.
Now, I know the Lord has a plan for us all that we can’t always make sense of, but Pamela May Donald, a prophet? Plain old Pam who’d get her panties in a knot if she burned the brownies for the Christmas fundraiser? I kept my doubts to myself, and it was only when Stephenie brought it up when she was visiting with me that I even aired my views on the subject. We both had all the respect in the world for Pastor Len back then, we really did, and we decided not to breathe a word about how we felt to him or Kendra.
Not that we saw much of Pastor Len in the days directly after that show aired. I don’t know when he found the time to sleep! He wasn’t even there for Bible study that Wednesday; in fact he called me up and asked me to head up the meeting. Said he was driving down to San Antonio to meet with a website designer, wanted to start his own Internet forum to discuss what he called ‘the truth about Pam’, and would only be back late.
I asked him, ‘Pastor Len, you sure you should be messing with the Internet, isn’t it the devil’s work?’
‘We need to save as many as possible, Reba,’ he said. ‘We need to get that message out there however we can.’ And then he quoted from Revelation: ‘ “When Christ returns, every eye shall see Him.” ’
Well, how could I argue with that?
My daughter Dayna showed me the website when it was up a couple of days later: ‘pamelaprophet.com’ it was called! There was this huge photograph of Pam on the main page. Must have been from years before as she looked a good decade younger and at least thirty pounds lighter. Stephenie said that she’d heard that Pastor Len was even on that Twitter and that he was already getting emails and messages from all over.
Well, a week or so after the website was up and running, the first of what Stephenie and I privately called the ‘Lookie-Loos’ started showing up. At first, they were mostly from the neighbouring counties, but when Pastor Len’s message went ‘viral’ (which is what Dayna says it’s called), Lookie-Loos from as far away as Lubbock arrived. Congregation just about doubled overnight. That should have made my heart sing, so many being called to the Lord! But I will admit, I still felt a sense of doubt, especially when Pastor Len got a banner made up for outside the church, ‘Sannah County, Home of Pamela May Donald,’ and started calling his flock the Pamelists.
A lot of the Lookie-Loo folks also wanted to see Pamela’s house, and Pastor Len was talking to Jim about charging an entrance fee, so that he could use the money to ‘advertise the message far and wide’. Not one of us thought that was a good idea, and I felt it was my duty to take Pastor Len aside and air my concerns. Jim may have taken Jesus into his heart, but he was drinking more than ever. Sheriff Beaumont was forced to give him a warning for DUI once or twice, and whenever I drove over to fix him something to eat, he stank like he’d been bathing in whiskey. I knew Jim wouldn’t be able to cope with strangers bothering him day and night. I was mightily relieved when Pastor Len agreed with me. ‘You’re right, Reba,’ he said. ‘I thank Jesus every day that I can always count on you to be my good right hand.’ And then he said we should keep a closer eye on Jim, as ‘he was still struggling with his demons.’ Me and Stephenie and the rest of the inner circle drew up a rota so we could make sure he was eating and check that the house didn’t fall into disrepair while he went through his mourning period. Pastor Len was keen to get Pam’s ashes flown back to the US as soon as they’d finished their investigations, so that we could hold a proper memorial service for her, and asked me to find out when Joanie was going to send them. Jim wouldn’t even hear me out on this matter. I can’t be sure–he wasn’t one to tell you anything, even when he wasn’t under the influence of alcohol–but I don’t think he’d even spoken to his daughter. You could see plain as day that he’d just given up. Folks would bring him meals and fresh milk, but a lot of the time he just left them to rot; didn’t bother putting them in the refridgerator.
It truly was a whirlwind couple of weeks, Elspeth!
After he set up that website, Pastor Len would call me or Stephenie up almost every day, saying how the signs he’d predicted were coming thick and fast. ‘You see on the news, Reba?’ he’d say. ‘There’s that foot and mouth disease in the UK. That’s a sign that the faithless and ungodly are being stricken with famine.’ Then there was that virus that hit all the cruise ships–the one that spread to Florida and California–which had to mean that plague was rearing its ugly head. And of course as far as war was concerned, well, there’s always plenty of that, what with those Islamofascists our poor brave marines have to contend with and those deranged North Koreans. ‘And that’s not all, Reba,’ Pastor Len said to me, ‘I been thinking… how about the families those three children are living with? Why would the Lord choose to place his messengers within such households?’ I had to admit there was something in what he was saying. Not only was Bobby Small living in a Jewish household (although I know the Jews have their place in God’s plan) but Stephenie said she’d read in the Inquirer that he was one of those test-tube babies. ‘Not born of man,’ she said. ‘Unnatural.’ Then there were those stories about the English girl being made to live with one of those homosexuals in London, and the Jap boy’s father making those android abominations. Dayna showed me a clip of one of them on that YouTube; I was shocked to my very core! It looked just like a real person, and what did the Lord say about making false idols? There was also all that ungodly talk about evil spirits living in that forest where Pam’s plane crashed. I did feel sorry for Pam, dying in such a horrible place. They do believe strange things in Asia, don’t they? Like those Hindus with all those false gods that look like animals with too many arms. Enough to give you nightmares. Pastor Len put all of this up on his website, of course.
I can’t quite recall exactly how long it was after Pastor Len’s message started going viral that Stephenie and I went over to the ranch to visit with Kendra. She’d taken Snookie home with her, and Stephenie said it was our Christian duty to check that Kendra was coping. We both knew she had problems with her nerves and both of us had discussed at length how she seemed to be getting worse lately, what with all the Lookie-Loos flooding into town. Stephenie took along one of her pies, but to be honest, Kendra didn’t look that pleased to see us. She’d just given that dog a bath, so it didn’t stink too bad, and she’d even tied a red ribbon round its neck like it was one of those celebrities’ pets. All the time we were there, Kendra barely took any notice of us. Just kept fussing with that dog as if it was a baby. Didn’t even offer us a Coke.
We were just about to leave when Pastor Len came roaring up in his pick-up. He sprinted into the house, and I’ve never seen anyone looking as pleased with themselves as he did that day.
He greeted us, then said, ‘I’ve done it, Kendra. I’ve done it!’
Kendra barely took any notice, so it was up to me and Stephenie to ask him what he meant.
‘I just got a call from Dr Lund! He’s invited me to talk at his conference in Houston!’
Stephenie and I couldn’t believe our ears! We both watched Dr Theodore Lund’s show every Sunday, of course, and Pam had been real jealous of me when Lorne bought me a signed copy of Sherry Lund’s Family Favourites recipe book for my birthday.
‘You know what this means, don’t you, hon?’ Pastor Len said to Kendra.
Kendra stopped fussing with that dog and said, ‘What now?’
And Pastor Len grinned fit to burst and said, ‘I’ll tell you what now–I’m finally gonna be playing with the big boys.’