Glimmer of Hope (Land of Tomorrow Book 1)

Part II, Chapter 5

Timothy “Brazen” Walker never believed in fate. He always thought each man made his own life by his own decisions. He lived that way and didn't question the purpose of it all…until recently.

Brazen sat near the back of the Freedom Baptist Church of Paducah. The church doors remained unlocked most times, but Brazen was the only person there at such an early hour. He never prayed anymore. People who knew him would probably be shocked by the idea of Brazen actually inside a church. Nevertheless, simply being here gave him some semblance of peace. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in God, he believed in Him with all his heart; he simply did not believe in God’s forgiveness. At least not in his case.

Timothy Walker came from a broken home and was raised along with his little sister by a strict and religious grandmother. His mother was an infrequent and unreliable presence in their lives and the siblings never knew their father. Timothy grew up among numerous extended family, all of which made a living through various nefarious “trades” frowned upon by lawful society. Brazen’s friends were in gangs and most had been arrested at least once.

His grandmother, Noni had certainly tried, and at one point Brazen would have admitted she succeeded with him. She saw the dark path he was on growing up without a father figure, instinctively seeking that figure in all the wrong places. Noni convinced Pastor Lancourt of Freedom Baptist to try to mentor her grandson. It was a rocky road, and not one Brazen accepted willingly; but Noni could be very convincing. Brazen found himself smiling at the memories and dropped his head as they flooded through him.

Pastor Lancourt had been a hard man to figure out. He was tough and serious at the same time he was kind, sincere, and generous in all he did. In a world where manhood was defined by empty words and pompous displays of false courage, usually measured through illegitimate children and random acts of violence, Lancourt was something different. Brazen knew Lancourt had more stones than any gangbanger he ever met…and he knew why.

Lancourt firmly, and with all his heart, believed that God was with him at all times and in all circumstances. Brazen eventually came to believe it too and wanted the same. Pastor Lancourt showed Brazen the true nature of courage and manhood. He came to believe that he made his own fate through God’s help and did not have to lead a life like those he saw around him.

Still in high school then, the teachers were shocked at the depth of Brazen’s intellect. Beneath a shell of rebellion and disinterest lay a mind that soaked up knowledge and demanded more. They said he was a prodigy and held him up as an example of how the school district "turned around" a troubled teen. Eventually that got him noticed by good universities very far away.

Truth was Brazen was an absolute whiz with mathematics and engineering. The day he received a full academic scholarship to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in far off Cambridge, was one of Noni’s proudest. They all believed he had defied the odds and made it. That he had made his own fate.

The bright future was eclipsed by tragedy. During his senior year of college, he got the call from Noni. Brazen's little sister was dead, caught in the crossfire of rival gang activity two blocks from home. The target of the attack lived, despite suffering numerous gunshot wounds.

Noni was still strong, drawing strength from her faith, but to Brazen it all seemed like a bad dream. Pastor Lancourt took his hands on several occasions and talked about God’s will and why bad things happen to good people, but Brazen couldn’t hear any of it. None of it came home until the day he received the envelope that changed his life. If not for the envelope, he might have overcome his grief and gathered his dreams around him like a comforting cloak and found a life, but that was not to be.

The envelope came with little fanfare a few days after the funeral. The door buzzer rang, but by the time he got to the door no one was there, just a little kid running off down the street casting darting looks back over his shoulder at him as he ran. Brazen looked down at a large manila envelope with “Timmy” written on it. Inside was $10,000 in dirty bills in various denominations and a scrap of white paper with two words scrawled on it, “Sorry Bro”. Brazen let the money fall to the floor as he clutched the paper and stared at it in amazement.