I'm Waiting
“[W]e declare it is a grievous sin before God to adopt restrictive measures in disobedience to God's divine command from the beginning of time to ‘multiply and replenish the earth.' Surely those who project such measures to prevent life or to destroy life before or after birth will reap the whirlwind of God's retribution, for God will not be mocked.”
- President Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, October 1972, p. 63
“Mick, do you have all the lesson materials packed up and ready to go?” Catherine called out as she rushed to finish putting on her makeup.
“Yep! All ready to go!” Mick affirmed from their bedroom where he was putting the finishing touches on his double windsor knot. He examined his handiwork in their dresser mirror and tugged at the tie making sure it was securely in place. Then ran his fingers down the length of its soft silky surface.
“This tie you got me is sooo soft” he said, “thanks again honey.”
She came out from the bathroom and gave him a quick kiss. “I’m happy you like it!” she said.
They hurriedly zoomed down the stairs then into their car which waited for them in the driveway. Mick backed out and sped them off to church.
They had a tendency of arriving late, but they didn’t mind sitting in the foyer or in the back of the cultural hall. They felt more comfortable back there anyways instead of up front where they felt the whole congregation staring at the backs of their heads.
Sacrament meeting came and went without any hiccups. As the closing hymn started to play they ran out to set up their classroom. They taught the CTR 7 class which meant they had a lot of baptisms to attend during the year. It also meant they tended to get a bit more attention than some of the other classes, as the whole ward seemed laser focused on helping them all prepare for baptism.
The primary children started trickling in as they heard the chapel organ churn out the postlude. As the last few stragglers made their way into the classroom the bishop appeared in the doorway.
“Mind if I join you today?” Bishop Harding asked.
“Not at all Bishop, come on in.” Catherine replied.
Bishop Harding was a tall man with a gentle face. His balding head was covered with wisps of hair that were trying to do more than their fair share of work atop his cranium. He smiled warmly, adjusted his golden rimmed glasses then took a seat at the end of the row. Only small child seats remained, so his legs stuck up comically higher than they would have otherwise.
Mick and Catherine presented their lesson with the Bishop adding a comment or two here or there. They finally concluded with a closing prayer and set the children loose. Bishop Harding jumped up to help them clean up their materials.
“That was a wonderful lesson today Brother and Sister Johnson.” He said genuinely. “You certainly do seem to have a way with the kids in your class.”
“We do love getting the chance to teach them.” Mick said. “They are a great group of kids.”
“We don’t put just anyone in the CTR 7 class!” Bishop Harding replied. “Though, and I hate to intrude, but with how good you are with the children, when do you plan on having and teaching your own?” A look of genuine concern leapt upon the Bishop's face as he said it.
“Oh, well, we uh… we aren’t sure yet.” Mick said quickly. “You know, wanting to make sure its the right time and all.”
“Well, the prophets have told us to never delay bringing Heavenly Father’s spirit children down to earth. They are up there waiting for us to provide their mortal bodies for them. I understand we all have our own timelines, but we just need to make sure that we don’t place our own timelines above the Lord’s. Again, I don’t mean to pry. But this has been weighing heavily on my mind lately for some reason. So I felt it best to heed the promptings about it. I really don’t mean to make you all uncomfortable… but I try and never let a prompting fall through the cracks…”
“Thank you Bishop, we will keep that in mind.” Catherine said. With that, the Bishop excused himself as they finished tidying up the room.
***
The ride back was silent as Mick and Catherine contemplated their exchange with Bishop Harding. Catherine eventually sighed heavily.
“Should we have just told him we plan on never having kids?” she asked.
“I’m not sure how well that would have gone.” Mick said “Bishop Harding is nice enough, but very old school that way. It doesn’t matter what he thinks in the end. We can make our own decisions. We’ve prayed about it, we both agree it just isn’t right for us. It is for some people and that’s great. But I feel fine with the decisions we’ve made.”
“So do I. But I’m not looking forward to the questions about why we have no babies we will get for the rest of our lives.” she said.
“Me either.”
They drove the rest of the way home in silence.
***
A few hours later, they were lounging around in their church clothes after dinner when Mick’s phone started ringing. According to the caller id, it was Bishop Harding. Mick pressed the green button to accept the call.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Hello Mick, this is Bishop Harding, how are you doing?” the voice on the phone responded.
“Good Bishop, just enjoying our Sunday evening, how about yourself?”
“Well, I’m doing alright, I just wanted to check and see if you had thought anymore about our conversation today?”
Catherine, who had come over near enough to eavesdrop, scoffed inaudibly.
“Well Bishop, to be honest we haven’t too much. It has only been a few hours!” Mick responded. “But we will keep it in mind.”
“No, I don't think you understand.” Bishop Harding replied a bit more forcefully than necessary. He sounded a little frazzled. “I need you to strongly consider this once we get off the phone. Can you do that for me?”
Mick and Catherine paused. This seemed very out of character for Bishop Harding.
“Well, Bishop, to be honest with you, we don’t plan on ever having children. We thought about mentioning it earlier but…”
“Well I need to ask you to reconsider… please…” Bishop Harding’s voice sounded troubled.
“We really feel this is the best for both of us personally. We hope you can understand.”
“I understand you feel that way, but I want you to consider what God wants for you.” Bishop Harding replied. “Please, I am begging you to reconsider.”
“I’m sorry Bishop but we decided this a long time ago, before we even got married. I know it's not what you want to hear, but that is our decision.” Mick said exasperated at needing to explain himself repeatedly.
“Well… then I am sorry for what is coming….”
“What do you mean?” Mick began to ask, but the call cut out in the middle of his sentence.
“What in the world was that?” Mick asked Catherine, still reeling at the odd conversation. “Was he… was he threatening us?”
“It sounded like it…” Catherine said, shivering. “Do you feel a draft?”
“It does feel a bit nippy. I’ll go turn up the heat.” Mick ran upstairs to where the thermostat was located and turned it up a few notches. The thermostat was located right next to their bedroom. As he turned to head back downstairs, he thought he caught a glimpse of two small eyes peering at him through the mirror above their dresser.
He did a double take, shivering at the thought. But when he turned his head back around, nothing was there but the reflection of their darkened bedroom. As he stared into the blackness, he heard a sudden crash downstairs, followed by a startled scream from Catherine.
“What happened? Are you alright?” Mick asked as he rushed down the stairs. He came into the kitchen and saw that their silverware drawer was scattered across the floor.
“I don’t know… I don’t know what happened.” Catherine said, distressed. “I was just walking into the kitchen when the drawer flew across the room.”
“Things don’t just fly across the room. It must have fallen and then… bounced over here.” Mick said, suddenly unsure of himself.
They bent down and started to pick up the forks and knives, only to realize that some of them seemed fastened to the ground.
“What… in the world… is going on?” Mick said between tugs on the silverware.
They picked up all the ones that weren’t stuck to the ground and put them in the sink. Catherine turned back around and yelped again.
“Mick…Mick, it says something.” Mick turned around as well.
The silverware that had refused to budge was arranged in such a way that words had been spelled out on their kitchen floor.
I’M WAITING
“Whose waiting? What is this? Do you think… Does this have anything to do with what Bishop Harding was saying?” Catherine asked.
“I’m not sure… Maybe we should go to your parents for a bit. This is all feeling very freaky.” Mick said. “I… thought I saw something in the mirror upstairs a minute ago…”
“Saw something? Saw what?” Catherine demanded.
“It… it almost looked like a little boy. But I blinked and he was gone. It was just my eyes playing tricks on me is all.”
“This is no trick.” Catherine said as she went to try and lift a fork off the ground again. “Ok… yeah, let's get out of here.”
They grabbed their jackets and headed towards the door. Mick turned the deadbolt then reached for the doorknob. As he did so, the deadbolt flew back into place, locking them inside.
“What the hell…” he cursed, as he reached up to turn the deadbolt once more. His hand stopped abruptly as some unseen force pulled on the tie still around his neck. It yanked him backwards, dragging his feet across the floor while the rest of his body hung suspended in the air.
Catherine screamed as she tried desperately to pull Mick back. But the force was too great. It slowly pulled Mick backwards toward the staircase, draping his tie over the railing. Mick was then forcefully spun around so that his back was to the staircase. The force then proceeded to slowly move up the railing. Mick clung to his neck as the force of his tie against his neck increased. He was slowly lifted completely off the ground with only his tie supporting him. His legs and arms flailed as he sought to support himself. Catherine screamed then ran over to try and hold his legs up so he wouldn’t be strangled. But the force kept pulling him higher until he was completely out of reach. She turned to run up the stairs, but felt something pull her backwards towards the couch in the living room behind her. She strained against the force to no avail and was forced to watch as Mick struggled until his body went limp.
Suddenly she heard another crash in the kitchen as she felt the force against her body release her. She got up and slowly crept into the darkened room. She flipped on the lights then turned around to look at the silverware scattered once again across the floor. A new message was visible. Catherine gasped as she read the words.
WE’RE WAITING, MOMMY