KITH AND KIN
I don't know which surprises me more: that Gene Purdy used to be a charlatan faith healer named Ray Franklin, or that I rushed immediately to his defense when I saw his life being threatened in a vision.
What was that about? I didn't even hesitate. Why, when my feelings toward Purdy have always been so ... complicated?
On the one hand, I have never been able to really trust the guy. Gene has always been just too ambitious, too willing to compromise himself in order to further his agenda or expand his power base. His moral compass is always pointing all over the damn map. And, though I've never really resented Purdy for my mother naming him as my guardian while I was in a coma, for making him the custodian of my inheritance, or even for donating a substantial sum of her own money to Faith Heritage, I could never quite shake the thought that he had somehow conned her into it. That he had somehow fooled her into believing in him.
On the other hand, my mom did believe in him. In her last years, which must've been difficult and lonely, Gene was there for her when I couldn't be. Whether his feelings and concern for her were genuine or not, she felt loved and valued his friendship. Though not, apparently, enough to keep her from despair. But when I saw Purdy grieve when she died, I couldn't deny that he suffered her loss deeply. For that reason alone, I guess, I've always felt a kind of bond with him, a sort of connection to my mother through our shared bereavement, our joint intention to honor her as best we can.
Somewhere along the way, though, Gene became more to me than someone my mother cared about. More, even, than someone my dad had trusted. Was it his belief in me? Being the first stalwart believer in my newfound psychic abilities? Lending me his unswerving support when most people were still skeptical? Somehow, he became more than just an old family friend. Purdy became family.
I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but he's now family -- OK, maybe a dodgy uncle, but family nonetheless.
And family takes care of family, even when they don't see eye-to-eye, even when trusts have been broken or they don't particularly like one another.
Remind me, again ... who set the rule that you don't get to choose your family? I'd like to have a word with them.
Past Entries:
- (8/6) Maybe It's Time
- (7/30) O.B.E.
- (7/23) A Life More Ordinary
- (7/16) Lack of Faith... or New Angle?
- (7/9) Stop The Madness!
- (7/2) The Unexpected Evening
- (6/25) A Touchy Subject
- (6/18) Does Janus Know About Armageddon?
