Left Behind: Chapter Six

The Settings

Rayford Steele, evidencing a latent alcohol problem, wanders through his empty home reflecting on his children Ray Jr. (aka Raymie), Chloe, and his wife Irene
Buck Williams, in a flea bag motel outside Waukegan, awaiting a charter flight to New York, contacting his father

Internal monologues occur. Didactic points are made

"It had been ages since Rayford Steele had been drunk .... Irene ... had become a teetotaler during the last few years ....[and] insisted he hide any hard stuff if he had to have it in the house at all ... 'I'm just saying you don't have to make it obvious to your preteen son [Raymie] that you drink hard liquor.' .... He reached behind the empty cake cover in the highest cabinet over the sink and pulled down a half-finished fifth of whiskey .... He was already getting a buzz when he replaced the bottle, then thought better of it. He slipped it into the garbage under the sink. Would this be a nice memorial to Irene, giving up even the occasional hard drink?"

More thoughts on the raptured Raymie

"It was Raymie's age and innocence ... his spirit .... [h]e wasn't effeminate, but [he] had worried he might be a mama's boy -- too compassionate, too sensitive, too caring."

Chloe the Un-raptured, on the other hand "was competitive, a driver .... She took care of herself."

Ray comes to believe

Rayford decides "if there was still a way to find the truth and believe or accept what ... Irene said one was supposed to do, Rayford was going to find it."

Buck calls his Dad. Family issues made plain. "He had been resented by the family ever since he'd gone on to college, following his academic prowess to the Ivy League." On religious matters: "It was the lack of any connection between his family's church attendance and their daily lives that made him quite going to church."

Dirk calls on Buck

The American and English Puppet Masters have plans, "apparently something on a huge scale" for "a third party ... from Europe, probably Eastern Europe"

Moving along

Ray finds a copy of the preceding day's pre-Rapture newspaper. The "surprise move in Romania" item captures his attention

"Democratic elections became passe when ... a popular young businessman/politician assumed the role of president of the country. Nicolae Carpathia ... had ... taken the nation by storm with his popular, persuasive speaking ... sweep[ing] [him] to prominence and power."

Buck secures a charter flight that will get him "near" JFK

The action in brief

Ray, no longer drunk, determined to be born again. Buck, predictably complicated backstory, en route to en route to New York

A random thought on the preceding

You're throwing the bottle out with out having emptied it first Ray? Good luck with that.

Brief note on Raymie

Ray's son is described as his and Irene's "tagalong child" in Chapter 1. If Ray is 42, and Ray is 13, by my reckoning Irene was no older than 28 at the time of this pregnancy. Using the "surprise" pregnancy of a woman in her late 20s as part of a character's back story has got to be one of the strongest indictments of faith based sex ed this reader has ever seen. Also good to know Raymie/Ray Jr. is "compassionate," not "effeminate." Because we all know where those people go ...

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