Moral Fabric: It’s a Thin Thread

By Lee R. Wesley II

“Moral Fabric is a Thin Thread” addresses issues of individuals, encounters in their lives where they have to make various choices between right and wrong; i.e., to do or not to do, to say or not to say. They challenge their moral fabric and make attempts to straddle the fence of righteousness with their actions or thoughts failing to acknowledge the strength of the thread therefore experiencing the consequences of such.
Let’s take a moment and find a quiet place, clear the mind, relax and go on an adventure and every now and then reflecting. Remember all have fallen short of the glory of GOD.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664119970

Lee R. Wesley II

Lee R. Wesley II is the author of the book titled “Right to Passage His Story” and artist. When not toying with thoughts of another manuscript he engages in drawing and acrylic painting which adorn the walls of his home. He feels that his work in literature is spiritually inspired. He has embarked on what he calls ministry in manuscript with an entertaining flair and soul-searching touch. Writing has always been a passion which like a planted fruit seed once nourished becomes a tree that matures and bears fruit; so, he has. Theology is his theme and psychology his scheme.

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Copyright © 2020 by Lee R. Wesley II.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 07/27/2020

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Dedication

Wisdom

Introduction

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Epilogue

Biblical Verses KJV

Acknowledgement

I give thanks to Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior for without him none of this could have been possible. I would like to thank my lovely wife of many years Brenda Wesley for being so patient with me during this process and lending a much-needed ear and criticism; she has been very encouraging and most of all a good listener.

To God Be the Glory!

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wife Brenda who has been very patient with me as I ventured off into another dimension searching for a literary adventure.

Wisdom

Be it understood, the moral fabric of man is woven by God and because of one’s sins there is a thin thread between heaven and hell. Break not the thread but strengthen it through faith and fervent prayer. Continue to lean in the wrong direction and the thread will break condemning one’s self to the subjection of demonic control, ways of the world and ways of the flesh. The wages of sin are death…………Romans 6:23(KJV).

Introduction

This story should evoke a response in you that makes you reexamine yourself as to whether or not you are doing the right things in your life; especially if you consider yourself a Christian. You are about to embark on an adventure in morals. Will you see yourself?

It is mid-April and in Louisiana the temperatures are climbing and the humidity too. Feels like one hundred degrees outside and I’m talking about in the shade; a wet hot; a kinda hot that makes you sweat even when you are standing still. Me and Anthony, that’s my little brother, cain’t wait for the school term to end. We spend most of our time down by the local pond fishing for crawdads or trying to catch a big bullfrog for mama to cook. Anthony is three years younger than me. You see, he ain’t growed up yet like me. This year we decided to hang out in the bayou to see who’s the scaredest. I heard it been told you can hear the dead whispering to each other just as the sun goes down if you be quiet and listen closely. Wanna go with us? C’mon. Wait! You gotta promise you won’t tell Daddy Seymore. He done warned me to stay away from down there. He said I’m too young to be getting to know certain things. I forgot to introduce myself my name is Nathaniel Moses but, everybody calls me Nathan. I’m the oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Seymore Moses. That’s me!

Chapter I

Its Friday and school let out early. I gotta wait on my little brother Anthony ’cause mama said he’s not old enough to walk home by himself. The path home is kinda tricky since it ain’t paved; a lot of uneven places, holes and things like that. Anthony finally comes out of the building; man, is he slow. Oh boy, I’m in big trouble. He’s wet and I forgot to bring his change of clothes. I keep telling him not to drink so much water from the fountain and when he feels it to ask to go to the toilet so he won’t wet himself. He’s kinda shy and don’t know how to speak up for himself but, he’s tough to be so small. Why I saw him get into it with a boy bigger than me and he didn’t back down. He lost a tooth when that bigger boy grabbed him. Yep, Anthony bit down hard on that bigger boy’s arm; that bigger boy let out a yell and pushed Antony down to the ground. He ran home crying, yelling he was going to tell his mama. Ole mama’s boy!

As me and Anthony got closer to home, we could smell mama’s cookin in the air. You know that smell that makes your tummy growl and mouth water. We took off running for home trying to beat each other into the house to be the first one to see what mama was cooking. It smelt so goooood! We entered the kitchen door together. Anthony pushing me and I’m pushing him. Mama yells, stop that pushing and no running in the house. Before she got all the words out of her mouth, I done pushed Anthony and he fell into mama, and mama, she fell back against the stove. She placed her hand on that hot stove to brace herself to keep from falling; mama pushed off from the hot stove quickly and jumped forward shaking her hand, dancing and speaking in tongues. The next thing I remembered she was wiping my face with a cold rag telling me every things gonna be alright. You see mama lost it when her hand hit that hot stove and she quickly picked up a small skillet sitting on the counter next to the stove and swung it hitting me upside my head before she knew it. Mama held me tightly rocking and saying all the time she was sorry. Right then, daddy Seymore Moses came into the kitchen and in a deep voice said," Mrs.

Moses, you gotta calm yourself down sometimes before you seriously hurt somebody one day. All that day I could hear daddy in my mind saying, hurt somebody one day". I rubbed the knot on my head and wondered what did daddy mean by that and I weren’t about to asked either.

My daddy, Mr. Seymore Moses. The coolest cat in around. He stood six feet without his shoes on. Mr. Seymore Moses was a dapper dresser and a jive talken dude. He walked with a bounce and wore his stingy brim hat cocked on the right side of his head. When he smiled you could see the silver tooth in his mouth that seemed to be complimented by the mingled gray in his hair, mustache and goatee. He was clever but in a settle way. Mr. Moses loved to joke but he didn’t play. He had this thing about people touching him. My daddy would step back and give them a look that shouted don’t do that again. Although Mr. Moses was a deacon in the church he was still superstitious. You see, he believed the devil was everywhere and since the devil was everywhere, he believed that if the devil was in a person, and he didn’t know who, and they touched him, he would lose part of his soul; especially that part that weren’t saved. Mr. Moses believed that the moral fabric of a person was a thin thread. One-minute thanking Jesus and within the next minute raising hell. You would think Mr. Moses was just one of the cool corner cats ’bout nothin; but to the contrary, he was intelligent, educated and a hardworking God-fearing man. Now I must point out that Mr. Moses ran with some shady characters and one or two of them looked as if the devil spit them out. Some evenings they would all get together. They’d be four deep in three cars heading down to the bayou and they’d be there for a spell. I was kinda curious as to what they be doing down there in the bayou so long; so, I asked my mother, mama, why is daddy always going with those men to the bayou? Mrs. Moses would tell me, son, your too young to understand the goings on down there besides be careful what you ask for. I shrugged my shoulder, stuck my hands in my pocket and walked away. When my mother talks like that it usually means don’t bother me or none of your business. C’mon Anthony lets go down to the creek and skip some rocks over the water; first we gotta find flat ones, they’re the bestess. Anthony’s eyes popped wide open and his heart rate increased; he was so excited that his big brother asked him to come be with him down at the creek. He jumped up and began dancing around singing, I’m gonna play wit my big brother today.

As we walked along the creek bed skipping rocks across the water a cool breeze blew over us causing a slight chill. You know some places can get quite spooky. Anthony and me shrugged our shoulders and continued to skip rocks as if nothing happened. As I stooped to pick up another rock Anthony tripped over something and fell into the water. It was a small revolver. He picked it up and as he stood up it went off; scared the bejesus out of us. I ran towards him and snatched it out of his hands. What’s wrong with you, I shouted still shaking from the initial shock. Anthony began to cry and I had to comfort him, every thing’s cool my brother. This is our secret, right and had to say it twice to let him know this is some serious stuff. I pocketed the revolver and Anthony and I walked up a slope near the creek. We walked down a piece and noticed we were on a road between two cornfields. We began walking looking for a way out when we came upon a farm house and behind the farm house was a smoke house. I told Anthony to take off his shoe and give me his sock; he was always running around without any socks on anyway. I dug a hole in the ground behind the smoke house, placed the revolver in the sock, placed it in the hole and covered it up. I placed a red brick over it so I could remember where it was. Anthony and I took off running in the direction of home. Man, we didn’t realize we had walked so far from the house and it took every bit of twenty minutes to get home. As we stepped through the door of the house mama immediately noticed that Anthony had only one sock on. Gotta think fast! Where’s your sock, Mama asked. I spoke up quickly, it got wet when he slipped into the creek while we were skipping rocks and he took it off to dry. Mama looked at both of us with a glare as if to say, you must think I’m stupid; she then turned back to doing what she was doing. That was our cue, me and Anthony took off running down the hall to our room. Man, that was close. Mama has a way of prying things out of you if you stand in front of her long enough, especially when you don’t want her to know something and Anthony cain’t hold water. It was almost supper time so we washed up and changed clothes. Mama always said we smelled like little puppies when we came in from the outside so she would always have us clean up before we sat down to eat. I was kinda nervous ’cause daddy would be sitting right next to me at the table. During supper is when we usually discuss the events of the day and stuff like that. Oh boy, this ain’t gonna be good. After daddy blessed the meal, he would ask mama first how was her day, Mrs. Moses, how was your day? Mama and daddy never addressed each other by their first name, it was always Mr. Moses or Mrs. Moses. Daddy’s name was Seymore Andrew Moses, SAM for short and mama’s name was Mamie Ann Moses, MAM for short. Well, the conversation continued at the dinner table and I kept my eyes on Anthony all of the time praying he would not tell our secret. Mama never got a chance to tell about her day ’cause daddy just started talking; he would always hog the conversation. As he began to tell us what had happened, he was interrupted by a loud knock at the door, you know the kinda knock the authorities would make. Daddy growled, pushed himself away from the dinner table and got up out of his chair. He stomped his feet as he walked towards the front door. My daddy barked in a deep voice, who is it. It was a friend of his named To-b-low; he answered, it’s me. Daddy recognized To-b-low’s voice and opened the door. They did a fist bump, slapped five, hand shake and an elbow bump. To-b-low entered and the two went into the den but, he had to speak first, how yaw doing MAM, he grunted out. He was with daddy only for a minute at which time he spoke briefly and he departed; good night all, he grunted and he left. Daddy sat back down to the dinner table and put his face in his hands. We were all still sitting there and our eyes were on him. He removed his hands from his face and began telling us why To-b-low stopped by. According to To-b-low, Ole Saul, daddy’s other friend, got into a scrape down at Sammy’s Bar & Grill down in the district and there was a shooting of some sort; the authorities were after Ole Saul and they were shaking up the neighborhood. Daddy told us to mind ourselves and to avoid crowds ’cause everybody is on edge and all it would take was a twig to snap and the whole down town district would go up in smoke. My daddy would always tell us before we walk out of the house to make sure we were girded in the full armor of God; girded with the helmet of salvation to protect our minds, the breast plate of righteousness to protect our heart, the shield of faith to protect our soul, the sword of the spirit to fight wickedness with and the belt of truth speaking it boldly Ephesians 6:10-15(KJV). I told you daddy was a deacon in the church and he was a little superstitious; that meant he walked out of the house with God in his heart and something in his pocket; he would always say better to be caught with it than without it; whatever it was.

Low and behold, a week later there was a funeral. In Louisiana a funeral was a reason to throw a big party; like they needed a reason to party. If you ask me, they had shifts of partiers, one shift would sleep while the other shift would be up clapping their hands and stomping their feet, calling it dancing. I thought the funeral was for daddy’s friend Ole Saul but it weren’t. Ole Saul was still on the run let tell it. Well school was out now and it was the beginning of summer; hot, sticky and frustrating. It was frustrating ’cause you didn’t want to be close up next to anybody and you didn’t want them close upon you. Now, I think I know why you’d hear people say most babies are made in the winter. That’s a whole nother story though; we can talk ’bout that when I’m all growed up. Me and Anthony gonna have some fun; we gonna find us some creek to cool off in and raid the watermelon patches. Man, ain’t nothin like a big sweet watermelon; we’d spit seeds fo days. Still planin to go down in the bayou, curiosity has got us and we cain’t shake the urge. Daddy used to say when somethins got a hold on you like that its worse than havin to pee and cain’t find no where’s to go; something like that. I still didn’t get it. He was always saying somethin clever. I think he was the only one who knew what he was meaning. Anthony’s got his legs now, so I’m letting him hang with me; besides, I’m kinda gettin tired of looking around to see if anyone heard me talking to myself. With all that was going on Anthony and I decided to take a walk out to the farm where the smoke house was that we buried the sock with the revolver under. Man, we began walking and walking, we didn’t realize how far out we had gone. Wait a minute! I bet you thought we lived in the country somewhere. Naw, ain’t so. What it is, we lived in a housing subdivision that was built right in the middle of cornfields and forest which was connected to other housing subdivisions but, here were areas where you could find a horse or two and maybe a cow. You know, now that I think of it I ain’t never heard a rooster crow, ain’t seen no chickens neither. You get the picture. Anthony and I finally found the road leading to the smoke house. We ran frantically towards it. When we got there, I saw the red brick that marked the spot. I got on my knees, removed the red brick and began digging. Help me Anthony, help me! The area where we buried the sock with the revolver in it had gotten muddy and there were now a lot of little rocks making it difficult to dig with your hands. Ouch! Ouch! There it is. I pulled the sock with the revolver in it out of the hole. We smiled at one another and quickly put them back in the hole and covered them back up. We were glad it was still there but we didn’t feel good about it. Did Ole Saul use this revolver that was in the sock in the hole under the smoke house; who was the funeral for; how did they die; was this the revolver used in the shooting at Sammy’s Bar & Grill? Should we tell daddy what we had found? In our minds were many unanswered questions. As we began the long walk back home, we agreed that it was still our secret and we ain’t telling no one; and you ain’t neither! While Anthony and I were walking and talking the lyrics to an old song by Aaron Neville came to my mind and I began to sing, tell it like it is. I stopped quickly and yelled out, I ain’t telling nothing. Anthony yelled out too, I ain’t telling nothing neither. The moral fabric of a man is a thin thread, echoed in my mind. We finally made it to town; that is, paved