The Penny Paradox

Here's the next chapter! And as always, please review!

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Chapter Four

 

 

            “I think I’ll have a beer…”

            “Please don’t.” Penny’s plea was soft, nearly begging him not to drink. “This is hard on all of us.”

            Looking at her alarmed, Sheldon asked, “Have you…” She shook her head no. “Do you swear on my Mother’s God’s Bible that you’ve had nothing to drink that is alcoholic in nature this morning?”

            Turning to look at him, she said, “I’ll even swear it on the Bible that your Meemaw gave you that you keep in the nightstand next to your bed.”

            Eyes narrowing, he demanded, “Who told you?”

            Standing up, she very assuredly answered, “You did.”

***

            Now she is in what could only be a church. It was empty with only one man sitting in the front of the room. If the body build and the severe hair cut didn’t give him away, it would have been his voice. Sheldon was singing hymns.

            She walked over to him, sitting down a few rows behind the man, not wanting to disturb him. He turned finishing the song to her face. A chill went up her back as his creepy serial killer smile lingered on his face telling her that there was much more there than met the eyes.

            “Penelope,” he murmured. “I should have known the good Lord would send you to me.” He stood up and she along with him.

            “What for, Sheldon?” she whispered.

            “Why, to repent your sins, dear child,” he said, moving closer to her.

            Or at least trying to as she wasn’t letting him gain any ground with the actions she was taking.

            “There’s no need to fear me,” he told her. “I am but a messenger of the Lord our God and I am here to heal all of my brothers and sisters.”

            “Then where is your parish, Sheldon?”

            A tick developed in his cheek and eye. Just then men were creeping up from behind dressed up like S.W.A.T. and looking ready to take him down.

            “What did you do?” she asked, horrified when she realized that his white shirt is dotted with blood.

            “Why are you so scared, Penelope?” He pulled out a .45 mm Beretta “Have you sinned as well?” Sighing heavily. “How you disappoint me…”

            He was tackled from behind, pinned to the ground. Sheldon was yelling and screaming that he was only doing the work of the lord. He was lifted off of his stomach snarling and cursing.

            Sheldon looked straight at Penny hissing, “I thought I killed you, woman.”

            “Ma’am? Ma’am?” She looked to the officer talking to her. It was Raj. “Penny? We thought you were dead!” He hugged her. “How did you get away? Was that your twin sister that he killed?” He pulled back. “Never mind that. We have better get you to see a doctor…”

            “Are they all dead?” she whispered. “The entire parish?”

            He took a deep breath, but couldn’t say the words. All he could do was nod yes.

***

            “Why tell me that?” Sheldon yelled. “I asked you how you knew…”

            “Because it would have been really weird having to explain after the fact the reasoning behind creepy killer Sheldon being on death row in Texas when he told me where you would always keep your Bible, that’s why!” she snapped, getting to her feet she went to him and told him, “Remember what you told Leonard. You wouldn’t do that, Sheldon.” She took his hands, trying as she might to telegraph that to him. “Never.”

            He squeezed her hands back, whispering, “Thank you, Penny. I…” He looked to the others, his long time friends, who were still looking at him with horror in their eyes. “We all needed the reminder of that as well, it would seem.”

            “Hey!” Raj crowed, looking around. “Something just occurred to me! I was the hero in that one!”

            “And you could talk to women without booze too!” Leonard exclaimed, holding up his hand for a high five. “Way to go!”

            “Are they really…” Penny whispered to Sheldon as they watched the odd celebration.

            “Yes, but then again I’m shocked it hasn’t happened sooner,” he replied dryly.

***

            Everyone called in sick that day. Everyone that is except for Penny who decided to quit her job at the Cheesecake Factory with Sheldon’s encouragement.

            He pulled her aside into his room, telling her once the door was closed, “Quit.”

            “What?”

            “Quit your working there,” he told her. “I know you have no reason to trust me…”

            “I trust you,” she said, interrupting him.

            Blinking at her in amazement, he asked, “You do?”

            Nodding she said, “Yes, I trust you. I trust you with everything in me or am.”

            Dazed by her answer, he breathed, “Why?”

            She went over and sat down on his bed, half expecting him to start demanding she get off of it, but never said a word.

            “When I came running over here with this crazy story at three in the morning and ended up writing down the equation that you and every other String Theorist has been working on since goodness knows when…”

            “It started…”

            “I could care less,” she cut in. “When I did that, you didn’t call the police or take me to a funny farm…”

            “There’s nothing funny about those farms,” he mumbled, but said nothing else on that point.

            “What I’m getting at is, Sheldon, you trusted me enough to honestly listen to and believe my every word—even the painful ones.”

            He sat down next to her. Absently he took up her left hand, tracing the place she would wear a wedding band on her ring finger. “Were we ever married?”

            “More than a few times,” she stated, watching as he seemed to take stock of her digits and palm. “Lived in sin during others.” That had him snorting with laughter. “Your mother didn’t like that much.”

            “Sounds about right,” he replied. “Did…” The query seemed to stick in his throat. “Did we ever have progeny?”

            “I don’t know,” she told him. “I never saw any of them, if we did.”

            “You know I’m quite shocked that you didn’t seem to run across yourself in any of these nocturnal adventures of yours.”

            Penny worried her lower lip, turning away from him as she did so.

            Frowning, he asked, “What aren’t you telling me?”

            “Does it matter?” she asked weakly, wishing he would drop it.

            “Of course it matters! It would be like discounting one of the laws of motion because you might not think it applies. Well, it applies, sister! It applies!”

            Standing up, she asked, “Don’t you get it yet? After everything I’ve told you, you still don’t understand?”

            “Understand what?” he asked intensely.

            “I’m it, Sheldon,” she told him. “I’m the last Penny.”

 

TBC...

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There you go! Chapter four is done. Review and tell me what you thought of it. Thanks and have a great day!