Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller

Chapter 3
“You were quiet after the sermon on Sunday,” Selah said as she took the blanket from Dylan’s hands and unfolded it to lay it on the ground.
Dylan set the picnic basket down and knelt down, grabbing the two corners of the unfurled blanket closest to him to help straighten it.
Selah watched him as he remained on his knees quietly looking at the ground for a few minutes after the blanket was settled. “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine,” she said as she leaned around him to grab the basket and see what he had packed for her birthday picnic.
Dylan stirred from his thoughts and reached into the picnic basket after Selah removed a couple of the food containers on top and pulled out the plates he had stacked beneath the food. “The pastor just said a lot of things I’m trying to process,” he said as he handed her one of the plates.
Selah nodded. “Do you want to talk about any of it?” she asked cautiously. She knew this was all still very new to Dylan and she didn’t want to push him too fast or turn him off so soon into his personal discovery of finding out what God meant to him.
Dylan handed her a water bottle. “Maybe later?” he asked.
Selah smiled, glad he didn’t seem put off by her question. “That’s perfectly fine. And, like I said. If you don’t want to talk about it, or if you’re not ready to talk about it, that’s fine too.”
Dylan returned her smile, thankful for her patience on this journey the last several months. She never pushed or shoved the subject down his throat, which made him feel he could take this whole faith subject at his own speed and not worry about her judging him or forcing him to believe something he wasn’t ready for.
“What magnificent feast have you prepared for us tonight?” Selah asked with a sparkling gleam in her turquoise eyes that made Dylan think of the most exquisite gems every time he looked at them.
“Well. As you know, my skills as a world-renowned chef pretty much fizzle out after things that aren’t in a box or jar, but I can make a pretty mean sandwich,” Dylan said with his own twinkling smile.
“Mmm. Can’t wait,” Selah replied.
Dylan took one of the containers from the center of the blanket where Selah had set it down and popped the lid off. “Ham and cheese for madame,” he said with a flourish as he held the container out to her.
“Why, thank you,” she replied with a smile.
“And, peanut butter and jelly for me,” Dylan said as he picked up another sandwich container.
Selah laughed and shook her head. “You are such a little boy sometimes,” she said as she set her sandwich on the plate he had handed her.
“Hey. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he shot back with a mock seriousness. “I’ll have you know this has been my go-to sandwich pretty much since I was three. It’s easy to grab and have on hand on trips too, so don’t judge my sandwich choices, Miss Peanut Butter and Jelly is too lowly for her sandwich tastes.”
Selah smiled and took a bite of her sandwich. “Speaking of trips, Uncle David hasn’t sent you on any faraway missions lately.”
Dylan took a bite of his sandwich and made a show of enjoying his childhood favorite. Selah rolled her eyes and took another bite of her sandwich.
Dylan smiled. “No. He hasn’t. It’s been strange to be in the same place for so long. I don’t remember the last time I wasn’t running off somewhere new nearly every time a mission ended. I’m even renting my own apartment now, which hasn’t happened in a long time. There was no point in paying for a place when I was never going to be there. When I started working for Dr. Judah, he let me crash at his place sometimes and let me store my bigger stuff there. Not that I have much.” He opened his water bottle and took a drink.
“I’m glad. You still never told me what mission was so urgent that he asked you to leave for as soon as we got out of that cave several months ago.”
Dylan eyed her for a moment before he took another bite of his sandwich. He opened one of the other containers and offered Selah some chips. She held her hand up in a polite refusal of the chips. When he finished chewing his bite of sandwich, he grabbed a couple of chips to put in his mouth.
“And, you never told me where you went in your mind that day we were in that park,” he said coyly as he took another bite of his sandwich.
Selah gave him a teasing glare. “No. I haven’t.” She opened her water bottle and took a drink. Setting her water bottle down, she opened one of the other containers and found some cherry chip cookies inside. She lifted surprised eyes to Dylan. “I am impressed now. Did you make these?” she asked as she took out one of the cookies that had been her favorite growing up.
“Peters helped,” he confessed as he set his empty plate down on the blanket and stretched his legs out front of him so he could lean back and watch the sun set.
“They’re delicious. How did you know to make these?” she asked.
“Peters,” Dylan confessed again with a playful smile on his lips.
Selah caught a crumb that fell from the corner of her lip. “I should have known. He probably knew from something my mother told him at one point.”
She offered a cookie to Dylan and he took one.
“So, will you ever tell me about the park?” Dylan asked.
Selah stopped with her second cookie halfway to her mouth. She lowered it and looked at it for a few minutes before answering.
Dylan watched her. He knew he shouldn’t push it, but he had always wondered what had happened to make her go off to a distant place in her mind and shy away from talking about it when it had obviously been a special place for her and her parents before they died.
Selah took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Even though he hadn’t known her long, he could tell when she didn’t want to talk about something. On the flip-side, he had learned to read when she was open to talking about something, even if it made her uncomfortable. She looked ready to talk.
“My ex and I used to go down to that park all the time,” she said at last.
Dylan’s eyebrows arched in surprise at her statement. He didn’t know what he had been expecting her to say, but it wasn’t that. She never talked much about her past – her parents, her life with her guardian after they died, school. Nothing. The only time she had even mentioned her ex had been in the cave near Jerusalem when she had told Dylan that the reason she kept pulling away from him was because of how things had ended with her ex. He hadn’t understood at the time why her ex-boyfriend’s lack of similar faith had been a big enough deal to push her away from a potentially new relationship with someone like Dylan who didn’t share her faith in God. As he had gotten to know her more and had started learning more about her faith in the last few months, he had come to understand a little bit as to why she couldn’t allow herself to be with someone who didn’t believe the same way she did, but Dylan still had so many questions. Selah’s unexpected statement about her ex made him wonder if he would finally find out what had fully happened between them. Maybe then he could actually understand why she had been so hesitant to be in a relationship with him. He sat silently waiting for her to continue. If she wanted to continue to share, he would let her. And if she didn’t….he would have to learn to be ok with that again.
Selah bit her lip and kept her eyes on the ground in front of her. She took in another breath and let it out, readjusting how she was sitting so she could be more comfortable. “Joseph Nathaniel Bradford and I met in college.” Selah paused and smiled slightly at the memory of how Joe had always reacted when she called him by his full name. She usually did it to get his attention or if she was reprimanding him in fun, but she always got a reaction out of him, which made her want to call him that just because sometimes. She shook her head and continued. 
“He was charming, and handsome, and even though he had a crowd of women interested in him that he could have easily kept on a rotation if he wanted to, for some reason he picked me to be in a relationship with. We hung out in the same friend group, which caused us to be together a lot, and as time went on, we started talking and hanging out more on our own. We attended the Christian organization events on campus, participated in Christian events and ministries off campus, went to church together – all of it. It was so easy for us to talk to each other and it seemed we were on the same page about so many things, including our faith and desires to follow God. He eventually asked me out on an official date – the date where you dress up and go to a nice dinner. Neither of us had been seeing anyone else, but we weren’t “official” until we went on that special date.”
Selah let out a soft chuckle. “His car broke down. My heel broke. And it was a hundred degrees plus humidity.” She let out a soft chuckle. “Some first date, huh?”
Her laughing smile sombered as she continued her story. “I guess the mishaps of our first official date didn’t matter. We ended up dating all through college. I took Joe to that park once for a picnic because I wanted to share something that had meant a lot to me and my parents with him. It kind of became our spot after that. Joe and I would go down to that park for study dates and picnics all the time. Sometimes, he would nap while I read a book for fun. It was just a peaceful place we could go to get away from the craziness of college. Fast forward to our senior year. Joe convinced me to take a break from studying for finals and go on a picnic with him one Saturday. I was super stressed about studying, and we had both been working a lot and not seeing as much of each other as we used to, so I agreed. He was extremely nervous when he picked me up and kept touching his pocket all night to make sure something was still there.”
“You thought he was going to propose,” Dylan interjected.
Selah glanced at him. “Yes. I thought he was going to propose.” Selah turned her attention back to the ground and her features dimmed even further. Closing her eyes, she took in a shaky breath and let it out. Dylan continued to watch her, unsure of what could have been so bad about a proposal that hadn’t happened.
Selah licked her lips and swallowed to get past the dryness that was settling in due to the anxiousness she was starting to feel before continuing. “We went down to our favorite spot by the stream. The stream that runs along the end of the road you and I didn’t take that day. Everything was normal, except for his unusual nervousness. Dinner was finished. The sun was setting. It would have been the perfect moment for him to pop the question. I saw him reach into his pocket and was psyching myself up for what he was going to pull out of his pocket, but we were interrupted by loud shouts coming from the other side of the stream.”
Selah swallowed and licked her lips again. Keeping her eyes closed, her mind replayed the events that happened next as vividly as if they had happened yesterday. “We didn’t want to be seen by whoever was fighting, so we ducked into the trees along the bank. Joe held his arm protectively in front of me and kept me behind him. His body was so tense and his face had gone white. I had never seen him so scared in my life. He told me to get ready to try to sneak back up to the car so we could get out of there without being seen. The shouting grew louder. The two men across the stream were extremely angry at one another. One of them started pushing the other and it sounded like the one hadn’t come through on his end of some deal, or owed the other man something. I honestly don’t know. Joe was supposed to signal to me to head up the hill to the car, but he never did. He just kept watching the two men. I eventually felt his hand squeeze mine, and as I was about to turn to run, the one man that had seemed the angriest raised something up in his hand and he struck the other man in the head.”
Selah paused as the memory played across her mind yet again. “The man that had been hit went limp, and collapsed to the ground. I gasped, and Joe gestured for me to get up the hill – and quickly – hoping my gasp hadn’t been heard across the stream. We snuck up to the car and got out of there as fast as we could. Everything changed after that night.”
Dylan sat and listened to her story, surprised to say the least. She had already been through the extremely difficult circumstance of having her parents die in a tragic accident at an archeological dig site they were at when she was twelve. He couldn’t imagine what she must have gone through witnessing something like that in college. He still remembered the first time he had seen a dead body up close, and that was not something he wanted to re-live either. It never got easier, no matter how many times he saw something like that.
“I’m so sorry, Selah. I had no idea,” he said after some moments of silence passed between them.
Selah opened her eyes and looked at him. “You couldn’t have known. I’ve honestly never told anyone that story,” she admitted as she brushed a tear from her face.
Dylan reached over and gave her hands a sympathetic squeeze as he looked at her. “I can understand why. I’m sorry I pressed you about it.”
“I’d rather tell you than anyone else I’ve ever had in my life,” she said with a small smile.
“I am honored that you felt you could share such a story with me,” he replied. He moved some of the empty containers from between them and scooted closer to her. They both looked out at the pond in the city park for a few minutes and watched as several geese glided onto the pristine waters. Turning back to Selah, he asked, “Did you ever find out what happened to the two men? Did the man who got hit survive?”
Selah took in a short breath and shook her head. “No. Joe almost didn’t even want to go to the police, but I made him. When they went to check it out, there was no evidence of anything happening there and no body, so we can only hope that he survived and walked out of the park on his own.”
Dylan’s brows knit together at her answer. “Not to discount your hopes and beliefs in the greater good of society, but do you really think that second man walked out of there on his own?”
Selah glanced at him and shrugged. “Honestly? I try not to think about it at all. So much happened that night and I never wanted to think about that night ever again. Joe and I never talked about it, and he started to drift away after that night. We broke up several months later, and that’s when I almost crossed a line I never imagined I’d cross to get him back. My faith was so shaken after we broke up and I doubted everything in my life. It took me a long time to get back to a good place after that. And, I clearly never went back until the day you and I drove down there to try to throw the police off our trail.”
Dylan nodded. “I can understand why.” He sat up a little straighter so he could wrap his arm around her. “Selah. I’m truly sorry I asked. You shouldn’t have had to relive that incident,” he said apologetically as he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head to show how sorry he was.
Selah nestled into his comforting embrace. “Actually, I’m glad I shared it with you. Hopefully it helps you understand some of what makes up Selah Cross.”
Dylan gave her a small, but sweet, smile. “My favorite subject,” he said, squeezing her shoulder as he continued to keep his arm wrapped around her.
Selah blushed and pulled away slightly. Dylan’s smile widened. He held onto her and refused to let her pull away. Lifting her face towards his with his other hand, he stared into her beautiful eyes.  “I could never tire of unlocking the mysteries that lie behind your gemmed eyes.”
He tipped his head down and caught her lips in a tender kiss.