Boswell, LaVenia by THE DAWNING (The Dawning Trilogy) Page A

Although, her male hero had been modeled after Jason, now that she thought about it.  Though during the writing she hadn’t been aware of it.  Hum, wonder why she hadn’t realized that till now.  Her hero had been overly thoughtful and considerate like Jas, was extremely handsome, like him, of course, also had a number of his mannerisms.  Except, her hero was very bold, much bolder than Jason, or the Jason she thought she’d known.  He was surprising her here of late.
           He parked in the front of a steak house she liked.  He knew Jennifer enjoyed this place and she gave him a nice smile for his thoughtfulness.
          
    When the food arrived, out of courtesy Jennifer paused while Jason said his blessing over their food: 
          
    “Bless us, oh Lord, and these Thy gifts we are about to receive     from Thy bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
          
           This time Jennifer had taken special notice of his exact words, instead of hearing blaa, blaa, blaa.  Using her fork to play with her food she finally decided to ask, “Jas, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your faith?”
           “Ask away,” he responded, seeming at ease.
           “Why did you ask your God to bless us and refer to the food as gifts, just now?” she inquired.
           Looking across the table at her she noticed he had a slightly surprised expression.  “I always ask Him to bless us Jen, every day.  Without fail.  And about the food – well, it is gifts.  There are people all over the world starving, but here we sit with food to eat.  It’s His gift of love to us.”
           She frowned up.  “You really feel that way, don’t you?”
           He nodded, waiting for her to say or ask something else.
           She just had to know, it was bugging her terribly and so she asked.  “Okay, since you don’t seem to mind enlightening me - you don’t worry over why your God is allowing those other people to starve?”  She twirled the straw in her glass.  “That’s what gets me.  How can a God that you think of as so loving allow so much pain and anguish in the world?”
           He sat back against the booth seat and smiled.  “Is that why you don’t believe?”
           Her eyes grew large.  “Huh, maybe.  One of the reasons, perhaps.”  She did not want to remind him that she considered all religions nothing more than superstition.  Gave a lot of folks comfort but also caused many to commit murder in the name of their so called loving god.  Didn’t seem intelligent to her, and how Jason, who she knew had a brilliant mind could be so hoodwinked was puzzling and aggravating at the same time.
           Cutting off a piece of steak he popped it into his mouth and chewed while looking thoughtfully at her, but with a little smile, like he was pleased she’d asked.  “Jen, you have noticed that some people are quite wicked, full of evil deeds and enjoy the terrible things they do to other people, right?”
           “Serial killers and stuff,” she answered, “child molesters, and folks who torture and animal cruelty too, yeah sure.”
           “Now, Jen,” he stated while looking into her eyes, “consider the people who have gone about doing so much good in their lives, like Mother Teresa, Ghundi and a hoard of others.”
           Dipping an onion petal into some dipping sauce she nodded.  “So?”
           He speared a piece of tomato and slowly chewed it.
           For heaven’s sake, why was he being so slow?  Jenny wanted answers and it was like he was holding back to tease her.
           Jason finally swallowed.  “What would you say the basic difference is between these two groups of people?”
           Sipping on her iced sweet tea, she considered, actually she had often thought about it.  “I think the bad ones are probably born with defective