Free The Last Stand (Book 3) (The Repentant Demon Trilogy) by Samantha Johns Page A

really adventurous.  He went wild over seeing my plane.  I hope I can find a model Cessna for him.”
     
    “This really is fun,” said Uma, “What you don't buy, I will.  I can practice for spoiling that grandson of mine.”
     
    “If stores still exist by that time,” sighed Abigail, “Who knows what the world will look like by the time he's eight or ten.”
     
    An uncomfortable silence followed those thoughts.  Then the women turned their attention to Jodie's two children.  What to get seven-year-old David Decker and the little girl, Claudia.  Then Abigail mentioned that she wanted to get something really special for Cal.
     
    “I heard him talking to Brady about getting you something, too,” said Uma, teasingly.  “And the auto body shop is right next door to a very classy jewelry store.  But that's all I'm going to say.”
     
    “Actually, you've put my mind at ease,” said Abigail, “I was worried he might feel funny if I gave him something and he hadn't thought about getting a gift for me.  It's not like our traditions are familiar to him.”
     
    “Why is that?” asked Uma.  “Is he a foreigner?  He sure looks American.  Actually he kinda looks like Superman, our number one all-American hero.”
     
    “He was raised in a closed religious community,” answered Abigail, prepared for this quiz by the incessant drilling each of them had given the other.  “When he was sixteen, the state took away all the children due to the crimes of their leader.  He was raping the young girls in the name of God.  So Cal was sent to a foster home, then to a boarding school when they discovered his remarkable intellectual gifts.  We met on a dig in Iraq where he was helping to translate ancient tablets.”
     
    “How fascinating,” said Uma, looking appeased.  “That really explains a lot.  Sometimes he seems like he's from another planet or something.  I don't mean that as an offense at all.  He's so innocent, almost naive.  Often he doesn't understand euphemisms or get jokes.  Now I completely understand why, God love him.”
     
    Abigail was thinking that she couldn't wait to tell Cal how well their cover-up had worked.  She mentioned that she was thinking of buying him a gun for Christmas, but both Brady and Agent Foley had endowed him with ample firearms.
     
    “Brady is giving him another pistol,” she informed Abigail, “but don't tell him.  It's a surprise.  We figured the laws are going to mean nothing in a short time.  And if he needs a permit or license, maybe Agent Foley can pull some strings.  It's from his time in Viet Nam.  Brady wants him to have it since he never had a son to whom he could pass it on.”
     
    “Do you know if there's a Catholic religious goods store in town?” exclaimed Abigail suddenly, “I know the perfect thing to get him.”
     
    Uma told her where to drive, and she seemed uncomfortably surprised that the two of them were Catholic.  Being inside the store made her more ill at ease, so she excused herself to wait out in the car.  This did not faze Abigail.  She had come across religious prejudices before, and she knew that Uma had just probably been misinformed about the faith in some way or another.  In time, she would see that Catholics weren't all freaks, and they would be able to discuss whatever misgivings had made her so upset.
     
    Abigail found a large exquisitely formed statue of Saint Michael the Archangel with raised sword and resplendent wings.  The features were delicately carved and realistically painted.  Suddenly, she realized this would only remind him of what he had given up for her and for humanity.  I can't do this, she realized, changing her mind and suddenly at a loss for what to get him.  When a sales clerk came up to her and asked to be of assistance, she said, “I'm looking for a gift for a new father-to-be, something for a man about to welcome his first son into the world.”
     
    Thinking that she was interested