Chapter 18 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”
XVIII Job
1 6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were ploughing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind, swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!’
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Job: Chapter 1:6-22 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)
In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 12-2 Kings-where we left Dwayne considering a job offer from a Mrs. Harper. Dwayne’s current boss, the restaurant owner, Mr. Rawlings had just shocked Dwayne by indicating that he was the one who had recommended Dwayne for the driver’s position at Mrs. Harper’s.
1
The fact that Mr. Rawlings had recommended Dwayne for the job at the Harpers had settled the issue for Dwayne. Such a recommendation was really an “order” for him to accept the job offer. There was no way now that he would even think of not taking the job.
“Are you able to start immediately, Dwayne? I want you to be with Luke for his last week at work,” Mrs. Harper asked. Luke was the driver who was retiring.
“Yes, Mrs. Harper. Mr. Rawlings said he could release me immediately. If it’s okay with you I can start tomorrow,” responded Dwayne.
“Yes, you can start tomorrow. You can come to the house at 9 a.m. Just hold on for Luke and he will give you the directions to the place.”
2
The Harpers’ place was in Kensington. Dwayne arrived at the house a few minutes before nine the next morning. The idea was that Luke would show Dwayne what he should do when looking after the cars. There were five cars at the house but Luke only looked after Mrs. Harper’s two cars, the Rolls and the Range Rover. James Harper had his own driver who looked after the other three cars.
Close to the house was a fully furnished flat where Dwayne was now expected to stay as soon as Luke had moved out at the end of the month. Luke explained that the job did not really have fixed hours. Dwayne would be expected to be on call over the entire 24 hours of the day. In reality, though, there was not much to do. Mrs. Harper usually liked to go shopping on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She would also combine these shopping trips with visits to her hair-dresser. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she would devote most of her time on painting some landscapes, a great hobby of hers. She would think of a spot, normally just outside London and of course, Dwayne would have to take her wherever that might be. Otherwise Mr and Mrs Harper would spend time together over the weekend, Saturdays and Sundays and only one driver would be required to be on standby on those two days. What normally happened was that the two drivers, Mr. Harper’s driver and Joyce Harper’s, would discuss amongst themselves the weekend duties, with the driver who worked on Saturday taking the day off on Sunday.
Dwayne wanted to ask Luke about “Mrs Harper’s reputed amorous behavioural tendencies” towards other males besides her husband. He did not know how he could phrase the question so in the end he just said lamely, “What sort of boss is Mrs. Harper? Is she easy to get along with?”
“Well, let me tell you this, Dwayne. She is the best boss I have ever worked for. You are going to enjoy your stay here,” said Luke.
Dwayne was not quite sure what to make of this. Was she or was she not the kind of “lady-boss” who liked to fool-around with the help? This is what he really wanted to know so he could better prepare himself to what might come. But he did not ask this direct question. ‘Anyway’, he thought, ‘I am soon going to find out one way or the other.’
3
After Luke left at the end of the month, Dwayne moved into the flat that the departing driver had vacated and quickly settled into his routine. Just as Luke had told him, there was not much to the job. He actually found himself with a lot of time on his hands. He brought some books from his uncle’s place and spent a lot of time reading in the flat.
Joyce Harper, on her part, did not show any signs of being a promiscuous woman. She did not give Dwayne any indication whatsoever that she might be romantically interested in him. After the first two weeks, Dwayne started to relax and decided that his boss had been treated unfairly by whoever had started the rumour that she liked to “fool-around” with the staff.
It was during the second month of his tenure at the Harpers that everybody’s life was turned upside down. One Friday evening, when Mr Harper and his driver were coming from an official dinner organised by one of his companies, the driver somehow lost control of the big Mercedes and the car rolled over several times before it came to rest on its roof. Mr Harper died on the spot but the driver was unscathed. As it turned out, the safety features of the S600 had lived up to their excellent reputation and what killed Mr Harper were not injuries sustained from the accident. Mr Harper had a heart-attack, precipitated of course by the shock of the accident. His driver hardly had any scratch on him and was discharged from the hospital they had been rushed to on the very same day.
Mrs. Harper took the death of her husband really badly. Two weeks after the funeral she still refused to go out of the house even to her hair dresser’s. Friends and relatives who tried to get her to start leading a normal life met with stubborn resistance. For her the mourning period was going to take a long time.
4
James Harper had been a very wealthy man. When his will was read, it showed that his net worth had been well over three hundred million pounds. All this fortune now went to his widow, Joyce. The fact that she was now an extremely wealthy woman did not seem to have much significance on Mrs. Harper. Her thoughts only seemed to be with the husband who had been taken away from her.
Under these circumstances, Dwayne was at a loss as to what he should be doing to assist the situation, if anything at all. He now spent his working days either reading in his flat or polishing the five cars. The late Mr Harper’s driver had, of course, not come back to Kensington after the tragic accident. Dwayne tried to persuade Mrs. Harper to start taking up her painting hobby but she did not seem to be interested in anything.
One day, six weeks after the death of James Harper, Joyce Harper seemed to suddenly “come alive.” She instructed Dwayne to drive her to her hair dresser and from there she wanted to go to one of her favourite spots for painting. Dwayne was delighted to see this change in her boss. Over these past weeks, he had grown very fond of her and genuinely wanted her to recover from her loss.
When some of Mrs. Harper’s friends heard that she seemed to have recovered, they started inviting her to all sorts of activities but she refused. She seemed now to only enjoy driving out to the country-side with Dwayne where she would pick a spot and paint for hours. During these periods, Dwayne would just sit at a distance watching her paint. He began to see her not as a boss but as a very lonely woman who really needed someone to lean on despite her immense riches.
Bit by bit, Dwayne began to entertain thoughts of initiating some sort of romantic relationship with his boss. When he first thought about this he laughed at himself. How ironic that when he took the job he thought he would have to “defend his honour” against this lady, now he was the one who was thinking of seducing her. Yes, how ironic!
The request that came from Joyce Harper one day, when they were driving home after yet another pleasant excursion, was quite surprising. It was the last thing that he could have imagined.
“Dwayne, you know what I would like to do now?” she said to him. “I would love to do a portrait of a male nude!”
As she said this, she looked at him from across the her seat, for she had long ago stopped the practice of sitting in the back, preferring to sit in the front passenger seat beside him.
“It’s only that I have not had the courage of employing a male model to sit for me,” she continued. “I once asked James to do it but he flatly refused saying that it was the work of professional models.”
“Would you like to sit for me, please Dwayne, so that I can finally paint my portrait of a male nude?” she asked.
The next chapter-Psalm- will be published not later than Sunday, 5 June, 2011
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