Delivering groceries to Ral, who operates the lighthouse on Jupiter Island, should have been an easy assignment for Anna. But an empty casket and a strange man who calls himself the Prophet make her extremely uneasy. After all, the Prophet said the casket was meant for her!

Setting: 1868 in Jupiter, Fla.

Ral’s face grew as dark as the sky.

“Look out, Preacher,” Ral said as he brushed by Mr. Burl and headed toward the man known as the Prophet. “You got a mighty big nerve, Mister.”

Undaunted, the man stepped from out of the bushes and pointed. “My word is the authority. I’ve seen the heavens streaked with fire and the sun turned to sackcloth.”

Mr. Burl waved his hand. “Every one of us has seen a meteor shower and an eclipse, my good man.”

The man held his hands toward the sky. “But ah, have you brought life to parched earth, such as I have?”

Ral hesitated.

The man nodded. “No, you wouldn’t be so foolish as to touch one who has been anointed.”

He turned and pointed to Anna. “Hear me! Lest you turn from this island, yea and this town as well, then you will surely face death. Hesitate not! If you remain in that house, the spirits will surely snatch the breath from your body!”

Ral’s pa came around the corner, wrapping a towel around his hand. “The bleedin’s stopped. Say, did you deliver our groceries, Gi—?”

Old Bannister stopped mid-sentence when he saw the pale man. “Who are you, and why are you on my property?” he demanded. “Take your spirits away.”

The man closed his eyes and smiled. “I leave now by my own doing, but remember my words, Girl. By nightfall.”

He turned and headed for the shoreline toward his boat.

A Miracle Man?
Ral looked perplexed. “You know this fellow, Pa? He’s the one they call the Prophet?”

“That’s true, Son,” Pa said, watching him untie his boat. “He’s done some dark things.”

Pa glanced at Anna and nodded to me. “You know the stories, Burl. Tell them.”

Mr. Burl shook his head. “Truth is the Prophet was over in Coastville on that flat piece of dry land at the edge of town, where nobody could grow a stubble of anything during the drought. No rain for two months, mind you, when he came into town. He stayed out there at night, raising and waving his hands in prayer.”

Pa looked directly into Ral’s eyes. “Within a few days, grass and some flowers grew up there, as sure as I’m standing here.”

Ral nodded. “Now I remember. People in Coastville who’d been watchin’ him say he’s got some great Northern mysticism in him.”

The man shouted from the shoreline. “I have the authority to say that this girl’s habitation is wrong! She and her mother are an intrusion upon the peace of this city!”

Mr. Burl scratched his head. Small-town preachers don’t face the likes of the Prophet every day.

“Leave, I say,” the Prophet continued shouting at Anna from his boat. “You are not a native of the land. Nor do you have the rightful household. A house with no man to oversee the ways of the home! Disgraceful. It’s not the way of the land.”

Ral shook his head and shouted. “The girl’s pa died during the war. Surely you can’t blame her for that.”

The man sat down and started rowing as he called back. “My final words. That homestead is tainted by the likes of this fatherless child and her transient mother! Away with them before the nomadic spirits take offense and death comes to the town!”

His boat disappeared in the gloom. Within a minute, Ned, the village constable, came ashore.

Long Arm of the Law
“Problem, folks?” he asked.

Pa shrugged. “We had a visit from that one called the Prophet.”

“Oh?” Ned pushed back his battered hat. “The one who grew the patch of grass in Coastville? They say he also cured some sickness up north near Hobe Sound. People are both amazed and afraid of him.”

Ned motioned to Mr. Bannister. “If I could have a word with you, Sir?”

Anna sat down on the stool next to me. “Why would God allow such a monstrous man to scare me, Mr. Burl?”

He plopped down on the sand. “Perhaps this is what you have been wanting all along, Lassie.”

Anna glanced up sharply. “How can you mean—”

He raised his cane and continued. “No less than three times in the past week you’ve been telling me that your walk with God has gone sour . . . stale, I think you called it.”

She nodded. “Having Jesus in my life seems more like a ticket to a social gathering on Sunday. I meet friends in a comfortable surrounding, but that’s it.” She looked up quickly. “No offense to you, Preacher.”

“None taken,” Mr. Burl said, grinning. “So what do you do now?”

“Well,” Anna said, slowly, “since my call to Jesus for salvation last year, I haven’t placed Him first in my life.” She paused. “But especially in the face of this ‘prophecy,’ I think I need some changes.”

Then she stood and walked past Ral toward a boat.

Ral stepped forward. “Anna, you won’t need to worry. I’ll make sure nobody bothers your house tonight.”

Pa stepped away from Ned and coughed loudly. “Ah, Raleigh, better tarry a moment.”

Ned raised a hand. “Both Bannisters must go with me. As constable, I’ve been sent over here to find out about you attacking some innocent men.”

Raleigh blinked. “Why those men weren’t innocent. One of ’em attacked—”

Ned nodded. “Could be nothing, Ral, but my job is to see that the laws of the town are upheld. We just need you to come to the town jail and say a few things to the judge. He’s due to be in late tonight, and he’s only passing through Jupiter once this month.”

Ned set his jaw. “It’s not like you haven’t had run-ins with the law before, Bannister.”

Pa shrugged. “True enough. And now my sins are visited upon my son. OK, Ned, we’ll come along.”

He looked at Anna. “We’ll see if we can be released soon, my girl. That Prophet means some scary business.”

Anna’s Last Night
Night had come. The wind blew through the main street of the little town. Anna sat on the wooden bench next to the jail window and handed Ral a cup of tea through the bars.

“Thanks much. Fightin’ can work up a powerful thirst in me,” Ral said, gulping the tea. He stopped, realizing what he said. “Say, uh, Anna, I’m really sorry about the fight that you had to see . . . and, well, I’m really sorry about gettin’ smart-mouth with you and throwing them eggs.”

Anna barely heard Ral’s apology. Her eyes were fixed far in the distance. “Raleigh,” she said quietly. “What would you do if you knew you had one more day to live on this earth?”

He grinned. “Don’t know. Eat a lot, I guess.” He then became thoughtful. “Well, now, I believe I’d get my affairs in order.”

“What affairs?”

Ral shook his head. “Don’t know. I just heard someone use that phrase once, and I thought it sounded good.” He drained the last drop of tea and handed her the cup. “And what would you do?”

Anna closed her eyes. “I didn’t know until this afternoon, but now I do.”

“What do you mean?”

Anna shifted and put the cup next to the teapot. “I’d visit everyone I know and give them a sincere goodbye and let them know what influence—good or bad—they’d had on my life while I was here on earth.”

She looked up at Ral. “And I’d sit down and write out what my first formal greeting to Jesus would be in heaven.” She looked away. “I want to have the right words to say, so I need to think it out. Then I’d go look for Papa.”

Ral leaned his elbows on the jail’s window. “You really think this day is your last on earth because of what the Prophet said?”

Anna stared at the lighthouse for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m not sure. But tonight is when my talking faith becomes a walking faith.”

Ral’s eyebrows raised. “What do you mean?”

Anna saw Mr. Bannister come to the window and put a hand on Ral’s shoulder. “Come on, Son, the constable says we’re a-going to have to talk to the judge. There’s three prisoners ahead of us, and we gotta get in line.”

He looked out at Anna. “Sorry, Miss, but we won’t be outta here till way past midnight.”

Anna smiled. “That’s all right. I’ll be OK.”

“Your mother’s out of town, so why don’t you just stay at your aunt’s house tonight and we’ll sort this Prophet mess out in the morning.” Ral offered.

“No,” Anna said. “There’s been a challenge to the faith I have in Jesus, and I want to meet it head on.” She stood up. “I’m staying in my house tonight. I’m not leaving that house. It’s our home.”

Before Ral could answer, Anna walked into the darkness.