Page 200 of Sing with Me

“Is everything okay?” Mom asked.

“Yes. I texted you last night.” Diehl spoke into the phone that was docked in his car. By the time he reached the office, the phone would be fully charged.

“I got it. You were caught in an electrical storm in Athens and stayed overnight at Sebastian’s apartment.”

“Right. You should have seen the damages. Trees are down everywhere. In fact, last night, a giant tree fell across the parking lot. Good thing my car was on the other side of the building.”

Mom sounded shocked. “Good thing you were not in the car.”

“Right. God protected us all.”

“Maybe He did,” Mom admitted.

It did Diehl good to hear Mom mention God in a positive light. Perhaps there was hope yet for her to have the peace of God in her.

“I better let you go. I want to go back to bed—after I pack your clothes for you and put them in a garment bag.”

“Maybe you could give the garment bag to Murray. He won’t forget to take it to the office.”

“Good idea. Okay.” She yawned. “Bye. Drive safely. Have a good meeting, etc., etc.”

After Mom hung up, Diehl found himself talking to God.

“Siri, start reading Galatians 1 audio,” he said after he prayed. He’d have to check with Matt where they were at in the men’s Bible study, but there were only six chapters in Galatians. He was sure he’d hear the entire book by the time he reached Atlanta traffic.

Before he reached Atlanta, he had gone on to listen to the next book of the Bible, Ephesians. By the time he navigated through heavy rush hour traffic to get to his office in midtown Atlanta, he had gone past Ephesians and Philippians, and all the way into Colossians, the next book.

The longer rush hour was, the more books of the New Testament filled the car.

Diehl felt like a sponge, and yet he knew he had to re-read almost all of what he had heard. God’s Word was deep and wide, for sure.

When he pulled into the parking lot of Brooks Investments, it was almost 9 a.m. He had a couple of minutes to change—or not.

He walked straight into Dad’s office wearing everything he had worn the day before. The shirt was slightly wrinkled. Even though he had hung it on a hanger as soon as it came out of the dryer in Sebastian’s apartment the night before, he had worn it on the hourlong drive from Athens this morning. He opted to roll down the windows and roll up his sleeves, adding more wrinkles.

“You look slightly untidy,” Dad said. “Didn’t shave this morning, did you?”

Diehl snapped his fingers. “Forgot to ask Mom to pack my razor. Then again, even if she did, I didn’t have enough time to change when I got into the office.”

“You look like you’ve been through a storm.” Dad laughed as he logged into his secure video conference account. The screen on the wall displayed a split screen.

Diehl sat down on one end of the sofa and Dad sat down on the other end. The camera pointing their way displayed them on one side of the screen. The other side was still dark.

“Ready when you are, Riley,” Dad said.

“I’m here. Let me get set up,” Riley replied.

“Here where?” Diehl asked as the screen showed Riley at a table in a sitting room of some sort. She had all the curtains closed. Her hair was cut short, and she looked older and worn out.

Diehl wondered if Dad had been right about Riley not wanting to get back to the corporate world.

“Berlin,” Riley said. “This is the last leg of our tour. Then we fly to Houston to see my parents. How are you, Diehl?”

“Better than ever. Thanks for asking.”

“How are your kids?”

“Adventurous.” It was the only word Diehl could think of. “I’ll have to tell you later about them. Long stories. Painful to tell.”

---