The Quest for Paradise

Hurrying to my car I jumped inside and turned the key and faithfully my little pile of nuts and bolts roared to life before then coughing painfully.

"Easy. Easy." I cajoled, as I feathered the gas pedal a little. The engine caught on with a little gentle nudging and its mechanical cough was left behind.

I eased it into Drive and began making my way to the highly expensive Italian restaurant named Roberto's. Annoyingly I hoped that my father intended to pay as I was on the lean side of the month currently.

The restaurant's parking lot was full, but I managed to squeeze into a small space at the back. One of the benefits of having a small car.

As I made it to the front of the restaurant I saw my father waiting outside. Approaching him I watched him shake his head ruefully as he asked rhetorically, "Still driving that rust bucket around?"

"Every day."

"Why?"

"Well I decided that eating was more important. Shall we?" I said in gesture to the restaurant's doors behind him.

My father blinked several times in the face of my rather uncharacteristic briskness of bearing before turning to hurry through the doors behind him. I watched the restaurant doors slam shut and the desire of one day having a man who cared enough to wait and hold the door open for me occurred to me all over again with potency of spirit.

Belatedly my father turned back and half shoved the door open. I caught it before it hit me and said, "Thanks.", without really meaning it.

We were seated at an elegantly laid out table with a good view and silently I thanked God for the opportunity of having good food tonight. All I'd had all day was a couple of granola bars and the promise of food not out of a wrapper or can had my stomach yearning for the sumptuous event of consuming good Italian food to begin.

We ordered and after I had prayed silently I began to enjoyably sample the first offerings of food that came in the form of fresh bread and a salad.

I noticed that my father kept glancing up from his food to gaze at me curiously. Finally he began a more serious topic of conversation than the idle chitchat that we had engaged in since being seated, "So what's professionally new for you lately?"

Looking up I shrugged before saying, "I had an article published in Bible Archaeology Comes Alive Magazine. I even had a radio interview to go along with it."

Beaming with a smile rather uncharacteristic of him in relation to anything to do with me his youngest child he said, "I know! I read it and I'm not the only one. Some very influential people read it as well. People who have contracted with me to do some work for them."