Left Behind
Chapter One
Rayford Steele's mind was on a woman he had never
touched. With his fully loaded 747 on autopilot above
the Atlantic en route to a 6 A.M. landing at Heathrow,
Rayford had pushed from his mind thoughts of his family.
Over spring break he would spend time with his wife
and twelve-year-old son. Their daughter would be home
from college, too. But for now, with his first officer
fighting sleep, Rayford imagined Hattie Durham's smile
and looked forward to their next meeting.
Hattie was Rayford's senior flight attendant. He
hadn't seen her in more than an hour.
Rayford used to look forward to getting home to his
wife. Irene was attractive and vivacious enough, even at
forty. But lately he had found himself repelled by her
obsession with religion. It was all she could talk about.
God was OK with Rayford Steele. Rayford even
enjoyed church occasionally. But since Irene had hooked
up with a smaller congregation and was into weekly
Bible studies and church every Sunday, Rayford had
become uncomfortable. Hers was not a church where
people gave you the benefit of the doubt, assumed the
best about you, and let you be. People there had actually
asked him, to his face, what God w ... read full excerpt from: Left Behind ebook
