The Quest for Paradise

I stood staring into the cool gray eyes of a rather handsome looking man that had dangerous written all over him in a way that the other two men didn't come close to matching. He smiled at me and gestured to the other side of the car, "Won't you join me?"

Swallowing I made my way around the front of the car and opening the backseat door behind the driver I pulled myself up to sit on the leather upholstery of a seat that I wondered absentmindedly as to what it might have been silent witness to through the years.

My door was closed by Beef Man, who then slid into the driver's seat, while Smooth Dude took his seat on the passenger side opposite. The walls of the spacious SUV seemed to close in on me almost instantaneously.

Finding it hard to maintain composure I glanced out my dark tinted window in need of distractions from the stifling environment within the SUV, which was created in part by my own fears of the unknown. I was really trying hard to not question God right now, but the niggling thought that He had made a mistake popped up again and again within my mind.

I commanded the errant thought into subjection and willed myself to continue to keep trusting in God's mercies. I knew God was with me even now, but it was hard to reconcile how much like a trussed up lamb ready for the slaughter that I felt like right now in the presence of wolves.

The pack leader spoke, "You know I really can't figure it. Just how can someone with a buffoon of a father like yours come to be so different from him?"

Startled I glanced at my co-occupant of the backseat and unsteadily I asked, "In what ways do you see us as different?"

The man snorted and with a sardonic smile he turned to gaze out his window before saying, "Pardon my choice of words, but in all essentiality your father is nothing more than a useful idiot. You on the other hand are one of those rare individuals that comes without a price tag. I respect that as there is so little these days that isn't for sale."

I didn't know what to say to his unexpected complement of me so I said nothing.

"And oh by the way the 18,000 is paid weekly not monthly."

Gasping I asked before I could think better of it, "Is there nothing you people don't know? How do you know about my surprise at the money? Have you bugged my car already?"

"As a matter of fact we have, but I assure you of one thing. I'm glad to see you have the money that you now possess so you can hopefully go buy yourself something better to drive from now on. That car of yours is a death trap on three wheels and a half!"