The Religions

RELIGIONS

ROBERT LONG, JR

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© 2013 Robert Long. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 03/14/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2976-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2977-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2978-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013904788

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Contents

About the Author

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

TO OUR FALLEN ANGELS:

SCOTT EDWARD MERULLA, ROSS HEIMLICH, CHRIS CANZANESE, AND LAST, BUT ESPECIALLY TO

GARY ALBERT GARCIA II

About the Author

ROBERT LONG, JR

I have lived in southern New Jersey my entire life. During my school years I realized I had a great passion for LITERATURE. I graduated high school with honors; I received a scholarship offer from Rider University but life’s plan had an entirely different journey for me than school.

Preface

PURPOSE: We as humans all have a purpose. No one’s fate has been preordained. The majority of people can choose to ignore their purpose and do what pleases them instead; however, for a few, the minority, the very small minority, their purpose is sealed with the fate of mankind. They can neither ignore their destiny nor choose a different path. They must fulfill their purpose at any or all costs, and the longer they delay the more punishment they put themselves through.

No purpose is greater than another purpose. This goes along with the same divine concept found in the scriptures, No sin is greater than another sin. As humans we can not comprehend the true meaning behind either statement when they are being spoon-fed to us by society as quotes; nonetheless, if you look at each one individually you might have a chance to understand their meaning. Maybe even accept them as truth.

Is murder not greater a sin than stealing? We must look past the obvious flaws of the statement and look for its true message. Trying to understand the statement as human is near impossible as is; consequently, when you try to comprehend it by standing by man’s law you have already lost the battle. Man’s law, a justice system that sees no justice, just satisfies the masses with its verdicts of sin. Mankind has lost its way and hope is wearing thin to the point that the few that understand their purpose are losing the battle to keep strong.

If you could only take one thing, and one thing only, from this story remember everyone has a purpose and no purpose is greater than another. The chess game between good and evil has been going on since the beginning of time; it has never threatened to involve the masses until now. The event that the good and evil have both feared is about to take place. There is nothing that can be done now. We made our beds and now must lie in them. The war of good versus evil will happen; incidentally, as it stands the good doesn’t have a chance. Their fate of prevailing in this war against evil rests in the hands of one man fulfilling his purpose; thus, convincing the masses to do the same.

Will Martin succeed—or does evil finally prevail as champion?????????????

Chapter One

I t’s the year 1986, in the month of January, on the twentieth day. A young mother is about to give birth for the first time; she is high as usual. The doctor is not only concerned for the baby’s health but also the mother’s. He feels the best way to ensure the safety of them both is to delay the delivery as long as possible, but the mother goes crazy the instant he explains his strategy to her.

This baby is coming out now—today—not tomorrow, or the next day, she yelled. I want this thing out of me right fucking now! She leans up, smacking her hands against her thighs. If I have to I’ll rip this baby out myself. The choice is fuckin’ yours… you fuckin’ idiots!

The doctor has no choice but to do the delivery because he believes her threats; also he doesn’t want innocent blood on his hands. Before starting, he dryly tells her it will be done naturally and that she won’t be given an epidural.

Upon hearing his words, she immediately throws a tantrum; but before she has the chance to get into her paroxysm the doctor interrupts her, irascibly stating:

"No rant will change the fact that you will not be given anything at all. I’m very concerned with the baby’s health—now—more than ever and, I, personally have no doubt that you’ve been doing drugs throughout the entirety of your pregnancy. I refuse to allow you to jeopardize this baby’s life any longer."

She blankly stares at him, silently wishing for this whole ordeal to be over with. He tells her to start pushing harder because the baby has crowned, but little does he know the baby’s head is enormous. Although the mother is pushing as hard as she can the baby is not moving.

Beads of sweat begin to trickle down his forehead as he panics.

You must push harder, he said, or the baby will die!

The mother, terrified and dazed, breathes in and breathes out before pushing with such force that the baby rips her from her vagina to her rectum on its way out.

With one, decisive swing of the left arm, he firmly spanks the blood-covered baby on its ass; afterwards, he’s instantly astonished, yet worried, because it doesn’t make one sound. Surprisingly enough after everything that has taken place the baby looks at peace; it doesn’t even seem concerned with the bright lights or strange people.

He has successfully delivered the baby, but now must try and save the mother before she bleeds to death. He knows by the look of things that he must act with the gravest celerity to contain her bleeding until he is able to get her to the operating room.

Clean him off and get him situated. he stated. I will see to it myself that the mother doesn’t retain custody of him.

The nurse obediently shakes her head and immediately steps towards the doorway with the baby safely secured in her arms.

She is about to take her first step into the hallway when he indolently adds, Time of birth tonight is 10:24.

Now his full attention and focus is on the mother. Perplexed at how much damage has been done, he reacts. After plugging away at her injuries with towels, cotton balls, and gauze, he hasn’t the slightest clue on what else to do since anything that he’s tried doesn’t seem to be working. He rushes her to the operating room, telling the surgeons as much as he can before the doors shut on him. He silently prays they can promptly figure out how to resolve all her complications before it’s too late. Believe it or not he has never lost a patient during his fifteen year tenure at this hospital, and he doesn’t want to start now.

With her being under the surgeon’s care, he immediately begins looking for the nurse who assisted him in the delivery room to make sure the baby is fine. Twenty minutes pass by and he can’t seem to find her, so he decides to page her over the intercom without having much success. Engrossed with frustration, he glances down at his gold Rolex; he sees that it’s nearly midnight. It suddenly dawns on him that her shift has now been over for nearly an hour.

She must have gone home.

Now in place of all that frustration is anger and annoyance because there is only one thing in this world that he hates above all else: wasting his time. He irately begins heading towards the nursery. When he gets there though he instantly notices that there are only four newborns in it when there should be five. He inches as close as humanly possible to the glass of the nursery.

With incisive eyes, he starts scrupulously examining all the babies; he swiftly deduces that the missing baby is the male newborn he just delivered. He runs over to the log books to check if he was logged in. He’s thunderstruck to discover that all five babies have been correctly logged in. Highly concerned at this point, he asks the other nurses at their station if the male newborn was sent to intensive care.

None of the nurses present have a clue what he’s talking about and one of them politely replies:

Not that any of us are aware of. Nurse Betty would have informed one of us, if not all of us, before she left.

The doctor, standing akimbo, stammers uncouthly, "I han—— a male newborn to Nurse ——etty two hours ago—at exactly ten twenty four this evening—I want to know where this baby boy is right now."

The nurses, all at once, respectfully reply, Have you checked the log book doctor?

"What—you think I’m some kind of idiot? Of course I checked the log book."

"Don’t take this the wrong way doc, but you should know more about this male newborn than us, considering the delivery happened during second shift, your shift," the head nurse added obstinately.

The nurses just sit there, stupefyingly looking at one another because they have no idea where this baby could be if he’s not in the nursery.

After the doctor momentarily stares at all of them, he abruptly and loudly states, Code red—shut down all the exits immediately! Get security!

He starts running down the hall to the operating room where he was paged well over twenty minutes ago. As he arrives at the doors of the operating room, the mother is being pushed through them.

Where are you taking her, he asked, is everything okay?

The surgery was a success. I’m taking her back to her room. The surgeons tried paging you, the nurse responded hastily as she continues pushing her down the hall.

He stops her; he tries his very best to softly whisper to the nurse that the mother’s son is missing; however, despite his valiant efforts the mother still somehow hears him and freaks out:

What the fuck do you mean my son is missing… this isn’t a playground! she yelled. How’d this happen?

Turning his attention directly towards her, he placidly replies, We will find your son… I promise you that.

With her right hand, she weakly grabs hold of his left wrist and indignantly responds, You fuckin’ better ‘cause I’ll burn this hospital down if you don’t.

You need to calm down because the added stress isn’t good for your health, especially considering your current condition.

"Added stress… are you fuckin’ serious? How in the world can I calm down knowin’ the hospital lost my son?"

All I’m saying is that you have nothing to worry about because you can consider the baby belonging to the state now anyhow. He easily yanks his arm away from her before taking a few steps back. Nurse, take her to her room please.

You can’t do that! She tries leaning up in her bed.

I don’t have time for this right now. With his right hand, he rapidly and firmly presses down on her right shoulder until she stops moving. If you keep this behavior up I’m going to strap you down to this bed.

You can’t do that.

"I can’t—you have no idea what I can or can’t do little lady. He removes his hand. Just keep your outlandish antics to yourself because we don’t need you putting this hospital in an uproar."

Once again he tells the nurse to continue pushing her back to her room. Without hesitation, she does as she’s told, placing her back in the room where she gave birth to her son.

The mother was never too keen on having this baby. Ironically, she wants her son now. She starts to tear up, and as she turns her head to the right she sees a silhouette of a person in the back corner of her room; however, she doesn’t fear this person’s presence.

Who’s there? she asked softly.

I was the nurse that assisted the doctor in delivering your baby…, the silhouette answered softly, … and I’m here to help you.

How can you help me—she conceals her face with both hands—my baby is missing. And even if they find him the doctor is making it his personal mission to see to it that I lose custody… before I ever had it.

Demand to be discharged once they realize the baby isn’t in the hospital anymore. Then meet me in the alleyway across the street from this hospital.

What is this about—I don’t understand—what’s going on?

In due time my dear, in due time.

She weakly cries out before the nurse rushes out of the room, Can I at least know your name—she removes her hands from her face—please?

The nurse hurriedly responds in a James Bond like matter, Betty, Nurse Betty, before absconding out of the room like the wind.

The hospital has been shut down for an hour already. No one in and no one out, but still the hospital staff and security has had no luck locating the missing newborn. They’ve looked everywhere, and the baby is still nowhere to be found; as a result, the disappointed doctor now has to put an end to this search party and let the police handle it from here. As he walks toward the break room to rest for a few minutes, he gets a page to report to the mother’s room at once.

When he arrives the mother is shouting and demanding to be discharged, screaming, I don’t feel safe in a hospital that loses babies!

Extremely fed up at this point, he exhaustively says, Go get the discharge papers—have her sign a disclaimer, while looking only at the nurse as he spoke.

Doctor, I don’t think we should be discharging her.

"Who’s in charge here—you—can you please answer that for me?"

You are doct—— but I wasn’t questioning your authority.

Well, where I come from when someone tells another person to do something… and instead of just doing what they’re told—he briefly glances at the mother before redirecting his attention back to the nurse—that person decides to respond with an opinion on the subject… to me that is questioning what they have been asked to do.

I’m sorry doctor. I will go right away to get her discharge papers.

Make sure she signs that disclaimer. I don’t need or want this hospital being liable for anything that has to do with this woman.

Yes sir, I won’t forget sir.

Before you go I have something I want to ask you. Did you happen to see Nurse Betty before she left the hospital tonight?

Of course I did doctor. She is a very caring person; she always says good night to each and every one of us.

So in other words you’re saying that basically the whole nursing staff saw her before she left for the evening?

"Yes… and whoever else that was around that wasn’t busy dealing with life or death matters."

I’m assuming you didn’t see her leave with anything that she could’ve carried a newborn in then?

What you are implying is insane and unjust!—she disdainfully shakes her head at him in disgust—"Nurse Betty is the best thing that has ever happened to this hospital. I don’t even want to justify your question by giving it an answer; I have work to get back to, doctor, so please excuse me sir." She briskly exits the room, not giving a damn if he has anything else to add.

He follows her out of the delivery room, turning right, as she turns left down the hall. He continues to walk back towards the break room. When he arrives he is infuriated to discover that it’s filled with a bunch of resting interns and other staff members of the hospital. The unveiling of that sight ticks him off even more; incidentally, forcing him to think of somewhere else to momentarily withdraw to. He decides that he is going to go out to the parking garage to rest in his car, so he shuts the break room door, turns around, and makes his way to the elevator. While he is waiting for the elevator to open one of his colleagues, who is passing by, spots him and makes his way over towards him.

I just heard what happened. I was stuck outside when the code red was in progress… how are you handling everything?

I’m handling everything just fine, he answered demurely without removing his eyes from the elevator doors.

I’m very surprised to hear you say that especially since you’re known for putting such a vested interest in your patients.

Yeah, well, let’s just say even though I would never want this to happen… at least the mother doesn’t have that baby.

Wow. That’s a pretty strong statement… even for you.

Not if you knew what kind of life the mother was living during the pregnancy. He finally turns his head to make eye-contact with him.

How old is the mother?

Sixteen—he impatiently presses the button for the elevator—why do you ask? What relevance does age have in the matter?

That is a very young age to be giving birth. You don’t think she deserves a second chance? To have given birth to a son and to have already lost that son all in the same night… now that is something that would be extremely hard for any mother to deal with at any age, especially sixteen… wouldn’t you agree?

"A second chance? Give me a freaking break. You think she deserves a second chance because of her age? Her son gone missing is the second best ending that could’ve happened in this situation." He shakes his head in annoyance, giving the elevator doors his complete attention once again.

"Well, damn, I hope I never do anything to cross you. I better get going. I have quite a few patients to check in on. Have a good night, alright?"

Yeah, well at least now you know I mean business.

His colleague begins to walk away when he turns around and nonchalantly adds, "I almost forgot the whole reason I came over to you in the first place—duh—boss lady said to go home and get some rest. You have to be here first thing in the morning to explain everything to the detectives."

The elevator opens and he hops on it with the utmost celerity and rapidity as if he were going to get a prize for being the first one in it. As the doors are closing, he sees that the other doctor is still looking at him as if he was expecting him to say something else, but he doesn’t. Finally, feeling safe from all scrutiny with the elevator doors closed, he leans back against the walls, calmly placing his hands behind his head. A malicious smile accompanies his face on his way down to the underground parking garage.

The nurse returns to the mother’s room with the discharge papers and disclaimer for her to sign, but to her surprise she is sound asleep.

She is about to wake her up when another nurse, walking by, steps in and utters, Let that poor girl sleep.

Oh my god! she exclaimed as she catches her breath. You scared the living shit out of me.

That wasn’t my intention dear. I was only trying to stop you from waking her up. Let’s go on break and get something to eat while everything is calm in this place.

Sounds good, but what about her?

What ‘bout her?

She wanted to be discharged and the doctor wanted me to make it happen as long as she signs a disclaim——

"Let that poor girl get some rest. When she wakes up and still wants to be discharged we can take care of it. Until then there is nothing that anyone can or should do. She needs her rest more than anything else."

That sounds like the right thing to do to me. She walks out into the hallway to join her co-worker. I can’t believe I was about to wake her up. I don’t know what I was thinking.

It’s not only the right thing to do, but also the professional thing to do. Where do you want to go for lunch?

I don’t know—it’s weird—I’ve been cravin’ a hoagie all night.

I know this great little hoagie spot a few blocks away that’s open all night. She smiles at her. Let’s see if we can’t satisfy that cravin’ of yours missy.

"Let me grab my things. I’ll meet you in the lobby in five, okay?"

I’ll see ya in five.

She goes and gets her things like she said and meets her in the lobby. They both decide since the weather is unusually warm for being January that it’s easier and faster if they walk to the hoagie place.

After walking the first block in silence, the nurse that was in the mother’s room enthusiastically states, "You know that I have been working at this hospital for five years and I’ve never heard of this mysterious place you’re taking me."

Trust me dear, not many have.

How long have you been working here?

Oh God! Let me think now… almost twenty seven years.

Whoa! I assume it’s safe to say you’ve been here the longest then?

Well, yes, but Betty has been here just as long. We were both hired ‘bout the same time.

They both stop at the curb to wait for the few cars on the street to pass so they can safely cross.

That woman is amazing. To watch her in action is unbelievable. It’s like no matter the situation she always has such a calm demeanor about her.

They both swiftly cross the street.

"She sure is a living-saint—well, well—here we are… the best kept secret in da city. It may not look like much but you know what they say, ‘Never judge a book by its cover,’ dear." She opens the door and waits for her to enter first.

Thank you.

You’re quite welcome missy, she replied, letting the door close behind her now that they’re both inside.

You’re right about it not looking like much, but I’m willing to try almost anything at least once.

Back at the hospital the mother is still sleeping. The nurses have checked on her a few times already since they have been back from their break.

Five hours pass by of going in and out of the mother’s room, making sure everything is alright and that she hasn’t awoken yet. The nurse is very happy that the mother fell asleep because she is getting the rest that her body so desperately needs. She peeps down at her watch and sees that she has about forty five minutes left in her shift, so she begins making her rounds one final time before she has to go home. When she returns to the mother’s room for the last time, she unexpectingly finds her awake.

The mother, a little disoriented, asks, Why am I still in the hospital?

By the time I came back with all the paper work needed for you to leave you were sleeping… so I decided against waking you up.

How long was I sleeping for?

About five hours, she answered after a quick glance at her watch.

Shit. I need to leave now. I have to meet someone. Oh, God, I hope she’s still there.

Not a problem. I have the necessary paperwork right here. All you have to do is sign wherever you see the letter, x. She hands the paperwork over to her. If you don’t mind me asking… who do you have to meet at this hour?

Um… never mind that. Do you have a pen I can use?

Yes. Here you go sweetie. She kindly hands over her own personal pen. You sure you want to do this?

Positive! She illegibly scribbles her name down.

"Okay. I’ll take those from you; I’ll send someone right away with a wheel chair to escort you out—the mother promptly hands over to her all the paperwork and the pen—I hope everything works out for you. If anything goes wrong please don’t hesitate to come back."

Can you hurry up and get whoever you have to get. I want to leave this fuckin’ place.

No need for profanity. I’ll go and let someone know right away.

As she waits for someone to come up and wheel her out, her attention at once goes towards what she is about to do the second she leaves this hospital. She starts wondering if this Nurse Betty is really trying to help her or set her up. She’s accustomed to people acting like they care just to use her or to humiliate the shit out of her. She begins wondering why this would be any different from the rest of her short life. Her anxiety kicks in, and now she is debating if she should even go see what this woman wants, contemplating if she should instead go do as many drugs as she can get her hands on, hopefully dying in the process. Something inside her is telling her that she should give this woman a chance and meet her so she can see what this is all about; besides, no one has talked to her that kindly in a very, very long time.

Finally—I thought you guys forgot about me! she exclaimed as a male orderly pushes a wheelchair into her room.

No, ma’am. That isn’t the case at all. We are a little backed up tonight.

I don’t care; I just want to get out of here if you don’t mind.

Not at all ma’am, let’s get you out of bed and into this wheelchair.

She rudely states, Stop calling me ma’am—she removes the blanket from her body, leans forward, and begins gingerly moving her legs until they are hanging over the side of the bed—especially since I’m ninety-nine percent sure I’m younger than you are.

She’s escorted out of the hospital, and as she is being helped out of the chair at the entrance, the doctor that delivered her baby is coincidentally making his way into the hospital.

What the hell is going on? He roughly scratches the top of his head with his right hand as he glares at the male orderly. Don’t tell me that this woman is just being released now?

The orderly, not sure how to respond and abashed on why the doctor is being so aggressive, decides not to say a word.

"Can you please tell me what in the world is going on here—please? This woman should have been released hours ago!"

Sir, I’m just doing my job. I do what I’m told, when I’m told, and don’t have anything to do with the politics of this place.

Whatever you say kid—he shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head—"I’m just glad that woman is finally out of my hospital."

He makes his way into the hospital; subsequently, pissed off that he has to come in