This is an excerpt from the novel "Providence: Leading of the Spirit":
Lilia snuck warily out to the tool-shed, quietly rolled the door open a couple of feet, and entered on her tiptoes. She lifted Jim’s tool belt off the hook on the wall, pulled the pliers out of its pocket, turned on the tiny two-way radio with a twenty-mile range, dropped it into the bottom of the pocket, and replaced the pliers back in the pocket carefully. She looked around for any sign of the men, silently closed the tool-shed door, and scampered to her grandpa’s end of the ranch house. When she heard hammering outside of her window, she glimpsed out to see Jim and Bill as they built the framing for one of the walls of the barn. She watched from behind the curtain in her bedroom as Jim laid down his hammer and handed Bill the next two-inch by four-inch piece of lumber. Jim and Bill held it in place while Jim reached back without looking and felt for his hammer with his free hand.
Lilia said into the little two-way radio, “A little to the left Jim.”
Jim glanced up and around and expected to see Lilia. “What the heck? I could have sworn I just heard Lilia’s voice. Did you hear it too Bill?” Jim asked with befuddlement.
“Nope Chief, I can’t say that I did,” Bill replied as he gazed at Jim curiously and wondered what was wrong with him. They nailed the board in place. “I’m getting hungry Jim, would you like to go to the ‘Blue Plate Special’ for lunch today, and give Millie a hard time?” Bill asked with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
Lilia yelled into her two-way radio, “She won’t like that! You’ll get yourselves kicked out!”
“What the heck! That time I heard her voice, but how can that be? She’s nowhere in sight,” Bill declared as he and Jim peered around their environment to see if they had missed something. “It sounded like she stood right here!” Bill announced in a perplexed tone of voice as he wiped the sweat off his brow with his shirtsleeve.
Jim chuckled, “You don’t suppose we’ve finally spent enough time around Lilia that we’re now imagining her voice?” He shook his head back and forth at the thought of her ability to climb inside their heads.
“Don’t even suggest it!” Bill cried and shook it off like a wet dog shaking out his hair.
Jim and Bill returned to their work building the framing for the wall. Lilia said sweetly into the little radio, “Hey Jim, if you go to the ‘Blue Plate Special’ for lunch, can I go, too?”
Jim and Bill’s eyes quickly darted upward and peered around at any possible hiding places. Bill said with bewilderment, “Maybe she’s brainwashed or hypnotized us. You know how clever Lilia is. Remember when she made me sneeze time after time by mentally suggesting it?”
Jim shook his head again, “No Bill. She’s got to be hiding around here somewhere,” Jim said with complete confidence. He’d experienced enough of her pranks to predict her behavior. “Let’s look around.”
Bill searched behind the lumber pile while Jim trotted to the tool-shed. He didn’t find any sign of Lilia. He scuttled back to Bill, “Where do you think the little stinker is hiding?”
“Let’s look under the bellies of the horses in the paddock and see if we can spot any feet. Maybe she’s hiding behind one of them,” Bill said as he opened the paddock gate. Jim followed him in and closed the gate. They looked under the bellies of all twenty-three horses, and saw no telltale signs of Lilia. They checked under the bellies of all the cattle in the back paddock too just for good measure. Lilia peeped out from behind the curtain and observed their search with a deceitful giggle.
The little protagonist said sassily into the radio, “Hey Bill, I thought you said you were hungry!” Bill and Jim whipped around in a circle scouting for her, and then slammed right into each other. “You men look like two of the three stooges,” she teased them and sniggled with glee.
Bill whirled around as he tried to catch sight of her. He cried in a flustered voice, “It sounds as if she is standing right here!”
Jim’s head jerked sharply around as he said, “She probably borrowed a megaphone from the school Bill, to throw her voice.” He purposely walked to Jacob’s pickup truck and Francine’s car, and peeked inside of each one of them, but he didn’t find Lilia. “I must be going crazy,” Jim said to Bill with frustrated discomposure. He slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand to knock himself out of his unfocused haze.
Lilia squealed into the little radio right on cue, “You’ve always been crazy Jim! What are you talking about?”
Jim speedily spun in a circle to see if he could catch her somehow. “What’s going on here Lilia?” Jim demanded as he talked to her ghost.
“Why whatever did you mean Jim? Are you hearing voices in your head?” Lilia goaded him as she taunted him further.
Jim slapped his hands together with impatience, and pressed his lips tight with annoyance. Bill could tell that Jim’s ire had shown up. “Check the tops of the vehicles Bill,” Jim ordered with exasperation. Jim climbed up on the running board of Lilia’s Jeep and viewed an empty luggage rack.
Bill hopped up on the running board of Jacob’s pickup truck, but found nothing but some fallen leaves. “This is wigging me out Jim!” Bill yowled with thwarted success.
“Don’t put anything past the imp Bill. She’s got to be around here somewhere!” Jim pounded the side of the Jeep with his fist as his angst built.
“We should check the tops of our trucks too Jim,” Bill said feeling baffled, “if you want to be thorough.” Bill jogged to his pickup truck, bounded up on the running board, and found nothing.
Jim followed the same routine as Lilia yowled into the miniature radio, “Catch me! Catch me, if you can!” Jim eyed his surroundings carefully while his anxiety at her distraction from their work escalated to a level of infuriated rage.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this dilemma. Let’s go ask Mandy,” Jim said as he stomped to the back door of the ranch house and rapped on the door.
Mandy opened the door and asked, “What can I do for you, men?”
“Is Lilia here?” Jim asked Mandy with a frown.
“Yes Jim, she’s working back in her bedroom.” Mandy noticed his foul mood and replied cautiously.
Bill alertly took over before Jim lost his temper. He said, “Do you mind if we see for ourselves?”
“No, go ahead,” she replied as she stretched out her arm and hand in an invitation to them, and wondered why Jim seemed so peevish. Jim clomped down the hall, and rapped on Lilia’s door with vengeance.
“Come in!” Lilia cried sweetly with a snicker.
Jim and Bill entered her bedroom and witnessed Lilia, who sat at her desk and worked on her computer, “Hi fellas, what’s up?” She looked up at them with eyes as innocent as a lamb’s. Jim gazed at Bill, and Bill gazed back at Jim and they both felt confounded.
“What’s going on here?” Jim demanded hotly. He planted his fists on his hips and stared Lilia down.
She answered as she typed her measurements into the computer. “I’m designing an ice skating rink Jim. I’d like to start another children and young people’s ministry. Do you like to ice skate Jim?” She looked up at Jim, blinked her eyes blamelessly, and maintained her naiveté.
Bill burst forth laughing at the irony of the situation and yipped, “She’s designing an ice skating rink Chief!” He bent over with laughter and held his bouncing belly at Lilia’s deception.
Jim’s state of exasperation reached a new pitch. “Lilia, you’d better come clean right now!” He spat out at her and expected her to tell him immediately.
“I already took a shower Jim. Do I smell or something?” She gazed up at him with an accusing look, which said that she felt insulted. Bill sat down on the bed and flopped back with laughter at her response.
“You stink!” Jim snapped out as he peered down his nose at her and eyed her with suspicion. He slammed his hand down on her desk to get her full attention.
“Well, you’re certainly in a nasty mood today Jim! Why are you taking it out on me?” She asked with umbrage while her mouth pouted downward.
“Yeah, Chief,” Bill roared with laughter and rolled over on his side. “Why are you taking it out on her?”
“Hey, maybe we should go to the ‘Blue Plate Special’ for lunch! That might cheer you up, Jim,” she said as she reached for her purse.
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