Smoke erupted into the air. The tree was badly damaged, but the car and all of its inhabitants were totaled. It was such a waste of young life.
Ella was a dancer. She was graceful and polite, funny and a joy to encounter. She had just turned twenty- four in the spring. She was elegant and beautiful just like a cat.
Ella was always, (by those who knew her,) compared to a cat. For instance she was a woman of many lives. She loved to play and metaphorically purr. Most of all she was determined. She could be temperamental and moody, but she could love you beyond anything you could ever imagine.
Her childhood had been hectic, unfair, and full of abuse. Her father an alcoholic had given her frequent beatings, and her mother a victim of Sexual abuse herself would touch her in places one would rather keep secret. It was a detrimental situation that eventually tore her into several pieces. On her eighth birthday she ran away from home, and found herself on the streets. If it hadn’t been for her Christian Aunt Miriam, she probably would have died.
Miriam lived on a farm. She trained and boarded horses as a profession. But most of all she had a barn-full of cats. Red cats, black cats, white cats, alley cats, tomcats, and any other type of cat you could possibly imagine. Ella fit right in learning from nature as God had intended it. She was the happiest she’d ever been in her entire life.
Unfortunately Aunt Miriam developed cervix cancer, and was given two weeks to live. No one was more hurt then Ella, who had found a mother in her.
On her deathbed her aunt took her weakly to her side and said, “You are a prophetess Ella. Take my bible, in Love, and live its message.” It was then at eight years old that Ella gave her life to Jesus. She didn’t know much about Him, but He showed up to her in a dream.
She was beside a meadow, a peaceful meadow, but she was bleeding profusely. Then she saw him. He was a shepherd with a staff. He was beating back wolves that sensed her blood. She knew she was about to die.
However the Shepherd neared her. He appeared as a normal man, but in His eyes those precious eyes there was so much Love. He had in his arm a sewing needle and thread.
“This won’t hurt.” Methodically he began to sew her back together, and when she was sewn he picked her up carefully and carried her on his shoulders. “This one’s mine.” He declared. Ella never turned back.
She was sent to an orphanage for boys and girls who had significant challenges in their lives. She was the youngest one there at only eight and a half years old. The Orphanage was privately administered and it was coined Bulla, Bulla house. She might as well have been sent to hell. If it hadn’t been for her Aunts bible, and most of all for Jesus she would have done herself in.
She was beaten several times for no reason, placed in solitary confinement, and again sexually molested. But her dreams were filled with Eden like scenarios where Jesus would take her in His loving wings and bless her. Despite the harsh treatment she was never alone. Jesus was always with her, and they talked and read for hours. He promised her he’d send her friends and that her life would make a difference. Sometimes Jesus would weep, and she would tenderly ask him “What’s wrong?” He’d wipe the tears from his eyes and say, “All I want to do is Love them, yet they want no part in me.”
When He wept Ella would start to weep, because she knew that there were times when she had been a bad girl and broken Jesus, dear sweet Jesus’s heart.
“I’m sorry Lord”, she’d always say, when she thought badly about people, or wanted them to hurt. He’d look at her with compassionate tears, and say, “Come to me little one. You’ll always be my child, and I Love you.” Then she’d spend hours in His arms, crying, laughing, praying, and playing. All the while in the middle of the night one of the teachers was molesting her. Ella didn’t even realize this, and it was a good thing, but she also didn’t live in the real world. She lived with Jesus.
After a year there was a great disturbance at the orphanage. They brought in a new boy as wild as Barabbas. His name was Jeremiah, and he had to be physically constrained. They immediately locked him in isolation. He yelled and cussed and threatened everyone around him. Ella knew that he just needed a friend.
“Jesus the new boy, what’s wrong with him?” Jesus waited a moment, and spoke softly, “He doesn’t know me yet, but don’t you worry… He will.” Ella looked into a mirror, what she saw shocked her, there before her was a young woman, a teenager; she must have been fourteen.
“Hi Ella, do you remember me? I can’t wait till your fifteenth birthday.”
“Who are you?”
“You’ve been dissociating for three days.”
“Dissociating?”
“You lose track of who you are, and you have the mental functioning of an eight and a half year old.”
“Oh… I’m sorry.”
“You say that every time. It’s not your fault.”
“Elizabeth?”
“You got it!” The two hug.
“Is she back?” Queried Jeremiah.
“Jeremiah you’re out of isolation!”
“Yes, thanks to you.”
“What do you mean?”
A single tear came to Jeremiah’s eyes, he just wept, but why no one knew.
A few weeks later Ella awoke and there was Jesus. “I want you to talk to Jeremiah.”
“How my Lord? I’m scared of him.”
“I’ll give you the courage Ella.”
So Ella obeyed and approached the isolation room. Jeremiah was howling profanities.
“Um Sir, are you all right in there?”
“What?” He screamed.
“Are you all right?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Ella.”
“Are you bloody suicidal?”
“No? What’s suicidal?”
“Meaning do you want to die?” She thought about it for a moment, and then simply replied "No"
“Then get the bloody Heck away from me.”
“I would, gladly, but Jesus says you need a friend.”
“Jesus? What’s wrong with you? Are you mocking me?”
“I’ll leave now.”
“Good.”
She may have kept her promise and left, but she returned again and again. She knew that is what her best friend Jesus would do.
At first her voice behind the door infuriated him. Later it began to soothe him. Ella never gave up on him, because she knew Jesus was with her.
“Happy fifteenth birthday Ella.” Chorused Elizabeth and Jeremiah.
“What?”
“And happy returns. You’ve been gone for three days.”
“Gone?”
“She never remembers Jeremiah, don’t get your hopes up.”
“You don’t remember us singing together, and reading the Bible together, and watching your favorite movie “A tale of two cities”?
“No.”
“Come on Ella, we danced. Don’t you remember dancing?”
“I can dance?”
“You can soar.”
Then she was with Jesus again. Jesus was very angry.
“Why are you upset Lord?” Jesus took her in his arms and said, “You were pregnant Ella, but they aborted the baby.”
“Aborted the baby?”
“They killed him.” Ella began to bawl. “Why would they do such a thing?”
“To protect their own necks.” Ella jumped into His arms again and He just held her. One day she woke up and she was twenty-four. She didn’t know where she was or how she got there. Soon enough she realized she was in the hospital sitting beside a man she’d never seen before. He was breathing through a machine, he was on life support. To her surprise she too was wearing a hospital gown. A nurse was busy attending to patients. Ella called out. “Excuse me where am I?”
The nurse nearly fainted, but wrote down a note on her pad. “Ella.”
“Yes Madam.”
“You’ve returned. You were just singing to Jeremiah, you have a lovely voice.”
“Jeremiah?”
“He loved you so much Ella. He loved you enough to die for you, and he almost did too, but he’s in a state of peace now I suppose.”
“He died for me?”
“Yes he pushed you outside the car window before it front ended a tree. You sustained minor scrapes and bruises. He, well he’s sleeping. And Elizabeth, bless her heart has gone to be with the Lord.”
“He left you a video recording if you should ever return. You’ve been dissociating for nine years.”
“May I see the video?”
“Certainly, your return is nothing but a small miracle.” The nurse brought in a projector, and she played the tape.
“Hi Ella, Love you so much. We were married in September of this year, you are twenty-one, and we have a baby on the way. Her name is Cadence.” The film cut out, but then continued. “Ella we must have bought two dozen cats, you love them so much, and so does Cadence. Here you are playing with Poesy the skinny red haired one. You’re so cute. Every night we sing hymns together and I tuck you in. Tomorrow we’re going to a new church. Elizabeth is coming. Unfortunately Cadence is a bit sick, so she’ll have to stay at home with the baby-sitter.” The film cut out for good.
“What happened?” Asked Ella.
Smoke erupted into the air. The tree was badly damaged, but the car and all of its inhabitants were totaled. It was such a waste of young life. Elizabeth was dead and Jeremiah was a vegetable. “I remember.” Ella drew a breath. Cats have nine lives, but she would have traded them all for one more kiss. But now it was too late.
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