A00021 - The Call: Part Two

 For now, I will not provide much detail about the horror of confinement endured by The Boy nor about the wonder of the mystical journey undertaken by The Boy.  But I will say that by the time The Boy neared release from his confinement, The Call had grown more specific.  For the rest of his life, The Boy would need to serve and, as best he could, he would need to serve African American people. In order to facilitate such service, The Boy would ultimately need to break up with his White Girl Friend.  But that would have to wait until The Boy returned to Amherst ... that is, if The Boy was to return to Amherst.

The Boy was actually hospitalized from August 15, 1972, to November 7, 1972.  November 7, 1972, was a noted day in history.  It was the day the Richard Nixon was elected for a second term as President of the United States.  In the clouded mind of The Boy, it was a bizarre "coincidence" which would disturb him for many years to come.  It was a quiet ride going from San Bernardino to the High Desert. After all, The Boy had been the "Golden Child".  As the "Golden Child" The Boy should not have been confined and, most certainly, should not be laying down on the back seat of car going over the Cajon Pass to an uncertain future.

The Boy did not know whether he would ever be what he once had been. And truthfully, he never was.  However, the God Who Was With The Boy did have a plan for The Boy.  Quite frankly, The Boy was never meant to preach the Christian Word of God.  The God Who Was With The Boy had other plans.  And those plans became evident, as soon as The Boy walked into the living room of his parents pink house.  

Sitting next to the wall that divided the living room from the kitchen were two large boxes addressed to The Boy.  On a whim, in June of 1972, The Boy had entered a mail-in contest. The boxes indicated that "miraculously" The Boy had won the contest.  The Boy had won a 54-volume set of the Great Books of the Western World.

It seemed like a message to the The Boy that the God Who Was With The Boy wanted The Boy not only "To Serve" but also "To Learn".  

52 years later and The Boy would still have much to do and much to learn.