All According to the Divine Plan: Chapter 1 – Forceful Changes

*I'll be showing off these chapters without the reaction pictures since I want to focus on getting the book out as soon as possible and putting them in the blog post would just slow me down. Thank you for understanding.

Chapter 1 – Forceful Changes

I’m glad that I managed to get out of work today with no one noticing. There was a project I was supposed to finish but that can wait until tomorrow. Besides, the other guys on the team can handle it. It’s not like my input is important. Now that I’m back home, I throw aside my jacket and everything in my pockets on my bed and sit down on the floor and turn on my favorite show while browsing my phone for the next thing I want to spend my paycheck on.

“Hello, Gabriella,” a monster-looking thing says as it comes out of my TV.

 Startled by this thing’s appearance, I take out the sawed-off double-barreled shotgun and shoot it only for my shot to hit everything behind it. “What the?” I say not believing that my shot had no effect.

 “Don’t be so rude. I’m your guardian angel.”

“Get out of my house!” I shoot the thing again to no effect.

“Aren’t you worried about all your precious possessions?”

“I can always buy more and repair the damage done. If you were my guardian angel, you’d know how much money I have.”

“I know of your possessions all too well. They are the reason why God has allowed me to manifest myself today. Soon, a storm will pass by here and take all of it away, so you better get to the basement before you are destroyed with them.”

Before I mention that I haven’t heard anything about a storm coming through here, the sound of thunder, rain, and heavy winds outside. Even though it looks bad, I’m not worried. I prepared my house for this and my house should be strong enough to endure the brunt of it. Still, I go downstairs and hunker down just in case.

Uck. I can’t believe that thing ruined my night’s plans and now I have to worry about paying for damages because of the bad storm. On top of the things that I bought, my bank will have a really bad dent that sets back the future vacations that I have planned this year plus the other stuff I want to buy.

The monster appears in the basement with me. “I’m glad that you took my advice.”

“Listen, you, I don’t care what you say you are. Just leave me alone-” The sounds of tearing and things being destroyed above me shut me up and make me doubt if my house is really okay, especially since the walls of my basement are beginning to crack. Is the storm really that bad? The storms around here haven’t really been known to destroy homes. I’m tempted to go upstairs to check right now, but I wait until the storm calms down before I do and sure enough, my worst fears are realized as I see that my entire house is gone along with most everything in it. Around me is what remains of the house and a few of the things I had. It doesn’t matter that they’re here since everything is broken beyond repair.

“It’s time to leave this all behind and move into a better life that’s been prepared for you.”

“A better life?! Who are you to say what’s better for me after destroying everything that I had and leaving me in the rain?!”

“You’ll see soon enough. Go down the road and a young man, faithful to God, will pick you up in his car. He’ll be the one providing for you from now on and be your husband.”

“I don’t need anyone to do anything for me! I’ve been taking care of myself for years without anyone’s help, so I don’t need that boy, you, or God’s help.”

“So, would you rather stay here in the pouring rain in the wreckage of your old home or find shelter?”

“I still can stay in my basement-” When I take a look back in my basement, the cracks have given way to mud as all the walls cave in and ruin the last of what I had. Now, I have nothing that I own besides my phone, my shotgun, and the clothes on my back.

“Will you take my advice now?”

Damn monster. I don’t need its help. I don’t need anyone’s help. It’s going to cost me a lot to rebuild since I haven’t bothered with home insurance because I wanted to put my money into building it to be stronger and buy more things and go on expensive vacations. I’ll have to work overtime and push my plans back even further, but I can get it done without anyone’s assistance.

Because it’s still raining, I decide to partially take the monster’s advice and go down the road. The closest apartment building is miles away in a different part of the state and will take me a while to get to any place to rest. Cars pass by me every now and then with one driving through a puddle and splashing me with water further drenching me. This is the worst day of my life. I’m both hoping for and dreading someone stopping to help me. If it’s the boy that monster talked about, I’ll have to turn him down. Sure enough, just like the storm, a car unexpectedly stops on the side of the road without me waving at it and a young man steps out of it.

This boy puts on a smile as he approaches and waves at me. “Excuse me, miss? I can drive you to my house to help you get out of this storm.”

“Get lost, kid! I don’t need anyone’s help, especially from your God. He’s taken away my home and everything I had in it through a monster that won’t stop following me.”

“What are you talking about? Your house and everything in it is destroyed? I’m sorry to hear that. Look, we’ll go back to my home, I’ll cook us up something, and try to help you out as best I can from there.”

“I said get lost!”

“Woah, woah, woah! Calm down! I’m just trying to help.”

“Calm down?! How could I possibly do that when your God ruined all my plans?! I will not have him taking any more control of my life and I don’t care what I have to do to get him out of it!” I pull the trigger on my gun only for it to click. Oh, that’s right. I never loaded it again after I fired it twice. Since I’m out of bullets, I try hitting the boy with the gun, but he takes it from me, throws it away, and then grabs me by the wrists.

“Get your hands off me!”

“If you stop trying to hit me I will! Listen, you have three options here; calm down and go home with me, stay in this storm in the hopes of someone else pulling over to pick you up, or walking hours in the storm to find someplace safe.”

“Tch. You have a point. Okay, I’ll go back to your house.”

“Thank you.” The boy lets go of my wrists and keeps his hands up as if I’ll hit him again before turning around and running to his car with me behind him. “So, what’s your name?”

“Shut up! I don’t want to talk right now.” Deciding to take my advice, the boy nods and keeps his eyes on the road. You’ll get your way for now until the storm is over, monster, and then I’m leaving this kid.

“We’ll see about that.”

“Can you leave me alone for a second?!”

“Who are you talking to?”

“That monster that’s been ruining my life! Can’t you see it in the car? It was just talking to me!”

“I don’t see it and I didn’t hear anything.”

“God has allowed you to be the only one who can see and hear me. He is also dulling the young man’s sense of reason as is beginning to think that he should be dropping you off to authorities to be put in a psych ward, so I’d calm down if I were you.”

I’m assuming you can hear my thoughts as well?

“Yes, it’s for your convenience so you won’t look crazy in public if you want to talk to me.”

Ignore it, ignore it! I don’t want to acknowledge its existence, so it has less of a reason to talk to me. Thankfully, it says nothing else before we get to the boy’s house. It’s a small rancher in a neighborhood of small houses. The inside of it is decorated with crosses, what look to be religious statues, and pictures of him with presumably his parents.

“I’ll start making soup and tea for us. Feel free to take a snack from the cabinet, drink from the fridge, and turn on the TV. Oh, you can also use the shower and use the clothes I have since you’re soaked.”

After sneezing, I say, “I’m fine! I don’t need anything except for a phone charger.” Once I get a phone charger, I plug in my phone since it’s dead. With nothing else to keep me busy, I turn on the TV and watch the news. They admit they didn’t know of the storm passing through the area before talking about the daily news. The newscasters talk about where I work at going bankrupt.

“What?! How?!” My question is answered by a guy from where I work saying that they were losing lots of money because of mistakes made by their accounting department and specifically calls out me by my full name and talks about how lazy and incompetent I was. “Bastard! You piece of trash, how dare you say that about me and call me out like that!” Before I know it, I receive an email from the company telling me that I’m fired. Now I’m really screwed with hardly any money, no job, and my name publicly ruined. I also doubt that I’d be able to get a good job in this economy where businesses are more likely to fire employees than hire them.

“Wow, that guy must’ve hated you with the way he described the way you worked and how he blamed you for the company falling into bankruptcy. Can he even publicly do that?”

“I hope not so that he suffers for it!” I’m sure that monster has had its part to play in this. Admit it!

“Come now. I can be the reason behind everything. It’s true that you were lazy at your job and the mistakes that you made cost it too much in the end.”

I didn’t think that all the little mistakes I made would add up like this. With all my plans in shatters, I sit on the floor unable to think of what to do next. Wait a second! Hey, monster, fix this! You said there’s a better life prepared for me right?

“Correct and your prayer has been answered before you mentioned it. You are currently in your better life. As I have said before, this young man will be providing for you and will be your husband.”

Hearing that the boy will be my husband again actually starts to have an effect on me as I realize what it means. Husband?! That boy is going to be my husband?!

He is. Besides God, the young man’s heart was made for you and your heart was made for his.

“Dinner is ready. Come and sit at the table with me.” The dinner that he’s made is irresistible to me because I’m hungry and thirsty. I’ve managed to eat it all without fully enjoying it or really wanting to eat it. “I’m glad you liked it,” the boy says with a satisfied smile on his face.

“Sh-shut up. I’m just hungry is all,” I say before sneezing.

“I really think you should-”

“Yes, I know!” Since I’m still feeling cold and drenched, I give in to the boy’s request and take a shower. The clothes that I pick out are like the red sweater that I have, but because it’s a boy’s it looks like I’m wearing a large sweater dress. This feels so ridiculous wearing his clothes.

“I’ve changed the TV since nothing good is on the news like always. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I prefer it actually.” If I saw that guy’s face and hear his voice for a second longer, I would’ve destroyed the TV. Sitting on a separate chair, I watch TV with the boy while not really paying attention to it. It’s really starting to hit me now that everything has completely changed and I have no control over it. Even if I were to do something, it could be instantly ruined as I’ve been shown today.

Before I know it, the boy hands me a blanket and looks at me with that smile that he always has on his face. “You looked like you were still cold so here’s this blanket. Do you need anything else?”

“N-no, I don’t. I don’t need anything. Also, stop looking at me like that.”

“I’m sorry for what happened to you today. You can stay here as long as you like.”

He’s being so kind to me despite the fact that I’m a stranger and was going to kill him. “Th-thank you. Can you stop smiling at me like that?”

“Like what?” he says before I slap him in the face.

“What did you do that for?”

“For smiling at me the way that you were. Now leave me alone. I’m beyond tired.”

“Okay. It’s about time I’d get to bed since I have work tomorrow. The couch turns into a bed by the way so you can use that to sleep on rather than just sleeping on the couch itself. If you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask. By the way, my name is Connor.”

“I know they said it on the news, but my name is Gabriella.” Connor says it’s nice to meet me and gives me that smile of his one more time. I get up and am about to slap him again, but he leaves the room before I do. As I lay on the couch bed, I feel colder than usual now that he’s gone. He is a nice guy. Still…my future husband? Ridiculous. It may not be too outside the realm of possibilities given what’s happened today. Everything I had including the control over my life that I thought I had is gone today. Truthfully, I could just go back out into the storm again and defy this life that’s being given to me, but who knows what God would do to put me back on his track. Connor would also go out looking for me and I already feel like I wouldn’t want to trouble him with that because of how nice he’s been.

 “Someone is starting to have feelings.”

Shut up! I don’t know what it is. I’ll figure out what I’m going to do tomorrow morning. All I can do right now is sleep hoping that the future will not be as worse as today was and that this so-called better life is actually what it’s supposed to be.