Trevor's Place
By Marcia K. Leaser
September 20, 2011
Josh Finley and Trevor Williams had been friends for eighteen years, even though they
were as different as two people could be.
Josh had been a rebel from little on up and Trevor was the quiet type who attended church weekly and lived his life for Jesus. Something Josh often chastised him for.
Josh quit school in his junior year and his life had gone from bad to worse from that
moment on. He was into drugs and had gotten mixed up with a local gang that used
and sold.
Trevor tried to talk Josh out of his loosing ways and talked to him daily about turning his
life over to Christ. “It’s fun to be good,” he’d say with a wink. Trevor was getting ready to leave for college when he began having fainting spells. Further testing revealed a malignant tumor on his brain that required surgery and months and months of radiation and chemotherapy. The prognosis was bad, but Trevor relaxed in whatever the Lord chose for his future.
This particular day Josh had come to spend the afternoon with his friend.
"Josh, I have to talk to you," Trevor began in a slow steady voice. "Please, give up your
drugs. There are no programs around here, but in Benton, just a short distance from here, there is a rehabilitation hospital. I know they could help you."
"I suppose it's a Christian place, huh?" Josh said with a sarcastic grin.
"As a matter of fact it is," Trevor replied. "But, I've done a lot of checking and it doesn't
matter if you go to church or not. It takes anyone who is willing to try. Please, Josh." The ashen
young boy lying on the bed pleaded. "Please, at least try."
"I'm in too deep," Josh hissed in a garbled whisper.
"That might be so - in man's eyes- but not in God's. He loves you, Josh, and always has.
He..."
"Like He loves you?" Josh jumped from the bed and spit out the words angrily. "Look at
you. You're eighteen and you're dieing!
The young rebel walked swiftly to the other side of the room. He fumbled with one of the
model airplanes he and Trevor had built together when they were just kids. He stood silent until he could trust his voice to speak. Then he began in a low steady tone. "You have talked about this God, and His Son Jesus, your entire life. You've always told me how we need to give our lives to Him. You did, and look at how He rewards you." Josh turned to view his gaunt, sickly friend lying in the bed across the room. "If this is how your Jesus works, I want no part of Him."
Trevor looked across the span between himself and his troubled friend. He patted the bed and motioned for Josh to come sit beside him. Josh walked the few feet and sank down onto the bed.
"Please, Josh," Trevor, pleaded. "There are worse things than death." His voice took on an urgency the dark-haired boy had never heard before. "Like going to hell, for instance." The weak voice suddenly became spirited. "I’m going to Heaven to live forever with my Lord and Savior, but if you don't change your ways -- and soon – you’ll never taste glory. I beg you, Josh, turn these guys in. I know the police will be lenient with you if you turn states evidence. Get at least some of the scum off our streets." Trevor raised a frail hand and touched Josh’s shoulder. He looked directly into his friends eyes. "Do it for me." Josh's eyes reluctantly met Trevor's sunken stare. "Look at the lives you could save," he implored.
"I never killed anyone," Josh said loudly, as if the very thought repulsed him. He turned
his face away and stared with troubled eyes at the pattern of the wallpaper.
Trevor continued. "Maybe not directly. But read the papers, Josh. Kids die every day from drug overdoses. How can you deny the fact that maybe some of the stuff you pass around isn't responsible for that?"
Josh looked to the floor. "Uh, I gotta go," he said quickly. He rose and walked directly out the door without looking back.
Trevor sank back against the pillow and closing his eyes, said a weak but fervent prayer.
"Oh, Lord Jesus, please give Josh the strength he will need to combat this evil in his life." He, then closed his eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep.
Josh spent the entire night in and out of fitful sleep. Trevor's words played over and over in his mind. "Do it for me. Do it for me." It was beyond Josh's comprehension why Trevor cared
about what happened to him, when he wasn't even going to be around to see how it played out.
Josh flopped onto his stomach hugging his pillow beneath him. "I think I'm going to ask him that
tomorrow," he said in a tormented voice. He finally fell into a coma-type sleep at 5:30 a.m.
Josh stumbled out of bed after only a few hours of sleep and was out the door before
anyone could say a word to him. He jumped into his car and drove to Trevor's. He had to ask his friend why he cared about a future he wasn’t even going to be a part of.
But, when he pulled up to Trevor's house, a sickening feeling hit the pit of his stomach like
a canon ball. There was an ambulance parked in front and he saw them bringing out a stretcher
with a sheet covering what laid upon it. Trevor's parents were standing close by with their arms
around each other.
Josh's eyes instantly filled with hot angry tears. "Why!" he screamed into the empty
morning. He sped off down the road and lost himself in the hills beyond the little town.
He turned into a small cove off the well-beaten path and skidded to a stop. Dust from the now motionless wheels drifted into the atmosphere and disappeared into nothingness a few hundred feet above him. Josh watched through red-rimmed eyes until the air was completely clear. "Just like life," he said mockingly. "Here for an instant and then gone. Gone... like this stupid dust. It's just meaningless." He covered his face with his hands and sobbed.
"Do it for me." seemed to echo from all directions. He sat for hours reliving his past. He
had to admit it wasn't a lot to brag about. Josh thought of his friend, who had spent the last few
days of his life checking out a place that could help him make something of his future that lay
ahead of him.
He couldn't help but think, If Trevor thinks I’m worth it, maybe I should at least give it a
shot.
He decided the first step was to go to the police station and talk to them about what would happen to him, if he told them all he knew about the gang.
His legs were weak as he stood just inside the doors of the big brick building.
"Can I help you?" one of the uniformed men asked as he walked up to him. "Hey, aren't
you Josh Finley?"
Josh's mouth was dry and he wasn't sure he would be able to speak, but he swallowed hard and answered the man who stood before him. "Yes, I am, uh, I need to talk to someone about turning some people in that are selling dope."
"I think Captain Tyree is who you want to talk to young man. He has been hoping you
would come clean one of these days. Follow me, please."
The big man turned and strode toward the end of the hall.
Suddenly Josh's heart began to pound and he could hardly catch his breath. He turned and ran out the doors he had just come through, sprinted to his car and tore off down the street.
It was getting dark when he pulled into his driveway. He slammed the car door climbed the stairs and walked into his room. He sat on the edge of his bed, as his tortured mind ran in a million different directions. "What if one of the gang saw me go into the police station." He mumbled. The phone's shrill ring startled him. He held the phone in shaking hands as he recognized the voice on the other end of the line. It was Jim, one of the gang members.
"Willy wants us to meet out at the land fill. Got some business to take care of. Can you
come?"
Josh froze. They surely couldn't have seen me he thought.
"Can you come?" the voice repeated.
"Uh, sure," Josh answered in a tiny voice.
When Josh arrived at the landfill, and saw all the other cars he knew the whole gang was
there. His palms were sweaty and his legs shaky as he got out of his car and climbed the slight
incline to the area where they always met.
"Hi, Josh, glad you could make it," Jim's voice boomed. "Heard something today that
kinda' upset me. I'm hoping you can tell me it aint true."
The entire gang was walking toward Josh, and the looks on their faces told him what they
had in mind.
He turned and ran to his car. As he started it up he heard Willy yell, "After him." Josh put the car in drive and took off, throwing dust all the way to the main road.
Josh intended to drive straight to the police station where he knew he’d be safe, but
accidentally turned onto the wrong street and found himself in a dead end alley. He quickly glanced in his rear-view mirror and saw Jim's big car blocking the entrance. There was no way out now. Josh jumped out of his car and hid behind an old dumpster.
"Hey, Josh," a gnarly voice cut through the blackness. "Might as well come out. We know you're here."
The voice grew steadily louder the closer the big guy got to Josh "Ya really didn't think
ya'd get away with goin' to the cops, did ya?"
Josh's heart was pounding. Guess Trevor was right, he thought. He always said nothing
good would come of this. He also said Jesus would hear me if I prayed. Hummm, I wonder.
"Jesus," he whispered. "I hope Trevor was right when he said You could handle any situation. If I ever needed You, it’s now. Please help me."
Josh crouched behind the dumpster with eyes closed and teeth clenched.
Suddenly he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Got ya,” a deep voice yelled as Willy, the biggest gang member, dragged Josh out into the dimly lit alleyway.
"Now you’ll learn first hand what happens to stoolies." He laughed a caustic laugh and
whipped a knife out from his boot. The bearded face took on a look of utter hatred as he held the knife high. "We'll just cut ya up a little bit to remind ya to forget what ya was gonna tell the cops.
"No," Josh yelled, as he collapsed into a crumpled heap in the filthy alley.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light and the knife dropped harmlessly beside him.
Barely believing, Josh heard footsteps running away. Still huddled on the trash-strewn blacktop he looked up at the glow that made the dirty alley as bright as day. And there standing in the midst of it with a big smile on his face, was Trevor. His frail body strong and new and his eyes clear and sparkling.
"Didn't I tell you?" His friend said with the old grin Josh loved.
Then just as quickly as Trevor appeared, he was gone and standing where he’d been was
someone else. Josh knew this person too, even though he had never met Him until that moment. It was the Jesus Trevor had talked about his whole life. Josh covered his face with quivering hands and thanked God.
Then he heard someone running toward him. He began to tremble until he saw it was the
policeman he’d seen at the precinct that morning. "Are you all right, kid?" he asked. "We caught
every one of the gang as they ran out of here. Then he laughed heartily. "What in the world did
you do them, kid, they looked like they’d seen a ghost."
He helped Josh to his feet as he continued. "Man it was a good thing you had that cell
phone and could call the precinct or we would never have known what was happening here."
"But, I don't have," Josh began. Then he smiled a secret smile. "I've got a lot to tell you
officer. "And what I have to say will send those pushers up for a long, long time."
"What made you change your mind, son?" the officer asked, as they walked toward the
police cruiser.
"Let's just say I'm doing it for an old friend," Josh said with a grin.
Josh had to do some community service, but was back working at his job within a few
months. He worked hard and got his G.E.D. Then he began a Christian youth center in his parent's shed where kids could come on Friday and Saturday nights. There they were taught about Jesus and how much He loves them.
The hand painted sign above the door read; "IT'S FUN TO BE GOOD." Or as Josh
preferred to call it.. Trevor’s Place.
the end
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