Page 73 - The Houseguest

LAURA
“When the little one was eight days old, they gave him a name; and the name given was “Jesus,” a word which means salvation...so the very name of this child told what he should do for men; bring salvation.” Laura Gabel spoke the words aloud to her Sunday school class in a voice that was gentle and grateful for they were the same words she’d read from the Stories of the Bible booklet gifted her by a preacher as she lay recovering from a near-death overdose just six years before. Salvation – a word she had to research to understand. The word was defined as a deliverance from the power and effects of sin, but was her addiction a sin, really? She knew the deeds she had committed because of its power over her were sins, but she didn’t feel like a sinner. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, ever. She had a kind heart and blamed, rightfully so, the abuse she’d suffered in her childhood for her addiction. She felt cheated, shortchanged by the universe whenever she watched all the “normal” people living their “normal” lives. Yet, the word salvation stayed in her mind as she detoxed for the third time. The first time was ten years before, after a suicide attempt when her pimp found her in the dirty tub of a seedy hotel, having slit her wrists. She couldn’t even do that right, she thought as she woke up in the indigents’ clinic bandaged, scared and alone. She handled the physical part of detoxing better than the mental part. The clearer her mind became, the more vivid and true became the memories of her past, and again she would begin feeling shortchanged by humanity. The second failed attempt was two years later, after a rape and brutal beating from one of her “customers.” They say three time’s a charm! She thought
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The Houseguest by Linda Ellis www.LindaEllis.life