Marriage Seasons 03 - Falling for You Again (23 page)

Patsy held her breath as the big man pushed back his chair and got to his feet. “To each his own is what I believe,” Pete said, walking toward Esther. “If Bitty wants to eat vegetables and I prefer pork, well, so be it. We ought to all do our best to get along with each other—especially us members of the TLC.”

Gently, he slipped an arm around Esther’s shoulders and helped her sit down. “I think we’ve about covered all we need to discuss today,” he said, dropping the notebook into her purse and snapping the clasp. “You can adjourn the meeting now, Mrs. Moore.”

Esther smiled up at Pete. “Thank you, sweetie pie. Yes, let’s end the meeting. Why don’t you sit down here by me and tell me what’s going on with you and Patsy? I hear the two of you went to the movies the other night. How about that? A real date!”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

C
harlie was climbing into his golf cart when he spotted Cody walking toward him.

“Hey there, young fellow,” Charlie called out. “What are you up to this fine autumn day?”

“I’m up to the Haneses’ house, but I still have a long way to go,” Cody said. “I have to walk all the way to Tranquility to work at Just As I Am.”

Charlie couldn’t help but chuckle at the typical Cody comment. Laughter was a welcome respite from his glum mood. This morning, he had risen before dawn and found that he couldn’t stop thinking about George Snyder and the sketch. Each time Charlie tried to bring the man’s name into conversation, Esther deftly changed the subject. That was a pretty good trick for a woman who had taken to putting nearly everything in sight into the dishwasher. Charlie regularly opened the machine to find artificial flowers, lace doilies, place mats, and even candles set in among the plates and glasses.

Not only was Esther putting things into the dishwasher and refusing to discuss George Snyder, but she wouldn’t let Charlie even broach the subject of her artery condition. Everything he did annoyed her, it seemed, from his TV game shows to his muttering to his efforts at bead sorting. The more Charlie thought about these things while lying in bed watching the sunlight creep across the wall, the more he wanted out of the house for the day.

So he had eaten a hasty breakfast, left Esther a note, and driven his golf cart over to the Hanes work site. He arrived early enough to greet Brad and discuss the construction problems they’d been working on. Both were concerned that the seam where the old roof joined the addition might leak.

Ashley left the house a couple of hours after Brad had driven off to his job. She was on her way to make beads at the Hansens’ house. In all, it had been an uneventful morning—Charlie stapling insulation to the studs and visiting with the occasional passerby until he decided it was time for lunch.

For once, Charlie had been able to concentrate on the job rather than on his wife, and that gave his nerves a chance to begin untangling. But at the sight of Cody coming along, he felt himself tighten up again. Cody had a way of being warm, kind, and helpful while at the same time driving Charlie a little wacky with his talkativeness and oddities. But Charlie had answered Cody’s cheerful wave and greeting with one of his own.

“It’s high time for window washing, Patsy told me,” Cody was saying now, as he paused beside the golf cart. “And I’m the man for the job.”

“I’ll bet you are.”

“If I had a driving slicer …” Cody paused. “I mean, a driver’s license, then I wouldn’t have to walk everywhere. But I don’t have one, and also I don’t have a car. Sometimes Jennifer drives me to Tranquility when she’s on the way to her missionary classes at Hidden Tribes near Camdenton. But not today. She’s packing her suitcase because she’s going on a trip to help build a church in Mexico. She’ll be gone for two weeks. That’s seventeen or maybe twenty days. It’s a long time.”

“It’s shorter than you think. Only fourteen days,” Charlie said. “I hadn’t heard about the mission trip. I guess you’ll miss her.”

“My spirits are as flat as a turtle that got run over on the highway, and that’s a very good metaphor for how I feel about saying good-bye to Jennifer.”

“It’s difficult to see someone leave, but she’ll be back.” Charlie glanced down at the empty section of cushion beside him. “How about if I give you a ride to Tranquility, Cody? I was thinking of buying one of Bitty’s wraps for lunch today. I can drop you off right at the door to Just As I Am.”

“Thank you, Mr. Moore,” Cody said, climbing into the cart and seating himself.

Charlie stepped on the gas pedal and guided the vehicle along the roadway toward the entrance to the Deepwater Cove neighborhood. He knew Esther would be all right if he didn’t show up at the house for lunch, but he considered phoning her just to check in. On the other hand, both of them needed a break from each other, and he might as well leave her in peace.

“Saying good-bye is much harder than you think, and I have said good-bye to a lot of people.” Cody was gazing out at the lake. “What if Jennifer likes Mexico so much that she doesn’t come home? I went to Kansas and I missed everyone, so I decided to come back. But Jennifer told me she loves Jesus more than anyone or anything, and she is planning to tell people about Him no matter what. I think I’m the
what
that is no matter.”

“Aw, now, that’s not true,” Charlie said, hoping to cheer Cody up. “Jennifer likes you a lot. I’ve heard her say that myself. Besides, she won’t live in the jungle all the time. Missionaries return to the States to be with their families every few years or so. She’ll take a break from the jungle, and you can see her then.”

“Here’s a metaphor for that idea. It stinks.” Cody gripped the rail that held up the golf cart’s roof. “That’s not really a metaphor, but it’s how I feel about only seeing Jennifer now and then. What if she dies in the jungle, Mr. Moore? I nearly died when I lived in the forest. I nearly died two or three times or even more. If Jennifer dies, I won’t be able to think about anything but going to heaven to be with her.”

“Now, hold on just a minute. You wouldn’t want to do that, Cody.”

“Yes, I would. Heaven is a much better place than earth. I can hardly wait to go there.”

“You don’t mean … kill yourself, do you, Cody? Surely you wouldn’t feel that bad.”

“No. I would never want to suicide myself, because think how sad everyone would be if I died that way. Everyone loves me a lot. A
whole
lot. People say I’m handsome and funny and artistic and also autistic. They’d really cry a lot if I died. But let me tell you for sure that I’m looking forward to heaven. It’s my favorite place, and I wish I was there right now.”

As the golf cart meandered up the hill toward the road to Tranquility, Charlie considered the young man’s words. He had never given heaven a lot of thought. Life had always been so full of work, children, hobbies, books, television, and all the things that had occupied his mind and hands through the years.

When he did ponder the afterlife, Charlie quickly snuffed out the image. He had given his life to Christ as a child, and he knew he was destined to spend eternity with God. Though he didn’t have to fear the fiery lakes and endless torment of hell, he hadn’t ever been too crazy about the idea of heaven either. The Bible called it a place without pain or suffering. No one cried there. People worshipped God all the time. But truth to tell, it sounded fairly boring to Charlie—especially in light of the almost incomprehensible idea of eternity.

“Heaven will be a happy place, I know,” Charlie told Cody, “but you don’t want to be in any hurry about getting there. Even if Jennifer or someone else you love dies, you wouldn’t want to be in heaven rather than here on earth, where the autumn leaves fall, and the snowflakes drift down, and summer brings fresh vegetables. Earth is a beautiful place.”

“Maybe so. But heaven is better.”

“Now why would you say that?”

“‘For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,’” Cody quoted, “‘For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.’ That’s from Philippians 1. My daddy used to talk about heaven a lot because he thought it was going to be wonderful to live there. Me too. You know Hebrews 11, don’t you? That’s the chapter in the Bible where all the people of faith are listed. In verses 13 and 14, it says, ‘These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.’ We’re strangers here on earth, Mr. Moore, because our real home is afar off in heaven. Heaven is a country, and God has built a big city for us there.”

Charlie drove in silence. He had probably heard those verses before, but they hadn’t meant much to him. No doubt while some minister was reading them, Charlie and Esther had been trying to control their restless children with glares or occupy them with cereal and crayons.

“‘They desire a better country,’” Cody said, “‘that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.’ See, Mr. Moore, heaven is better than earth because God will be walking around with us there. ‘God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’ That’s Second Corinthians 6 :16 . If God is in heaven and so are my daddy and my mother, then that’s where I want to be.”

“Well, that does sound nice,” Charlie admitted. “It’s just that I do love this good ol’ earth.”

“Just you wait and see, Mr. Moore. God is the King of heaven, and He has a new heaven and a new earth all ready for us. On this old earth, we see through a glass darkly. My daddy and I had a glass darkly in our old trailer. It was in my bedroom. I used to try to look out of it, but I couldn’t see anything except blobs of color. If I opened the window, I realized that the blobs were trees and rocks and a river and the big house of the grouchy man who didn’t know we lived in a trailer on his property.”

“Where was that?” Charlie asked.

“I don’t know, but one time my daddy was outside the trailer and he knocked on the glass darkly to get my attention. I got really scared. I couldn’t see him too well, so I thought it was the grouchy man from the big house. But then I stood on my bed and opened the glass darkly, and there he was. My daddy. I saw him face-to-face, just like God.”

Charlie pulled the golf cart to a stop in front of Patsy Pringle’s beauty salon. It bothered him that Cody understood a lot more about the Bible than he did—and he’d been reading it practically his whole life. When Cody had come to Deepwater Cove, he couldn’t even read. He and his father had memorized reams of Scripture, though, and Cody could rattle off verses at the drop of a hat. Even more impressive, he understood what the words meant.

“Here we are,” Cody announced. “Time to wash windows in the salon. Nobody likes to look through a glass darkly, Mr. Moore. That’s why heaven will be so much better. Okay?”

“Okay, Cody.” Charlie nodded as the young man loped toward the salon’s front door. What an odd kid. It seemed as though God had forgotten to put a filter between Cody’s brain and his mouth. One thing for sure, no one could ever accuse him of lying. He said exactly what he was thinking, no more and no less.

Pondering heaven and Cody’s surprising eagerness to go there, Charlie drove over to the Pop-In. He couldn’t imagine being in heaven without Esther. Or living on earth without her either. No matter how often they got on each other’s nerves, no matter that she had distressed her husband by keeping a sketch drawn by another man, no matter that she seemed to be getting foggier by the week. In fact, no matter what, Charlie loved his wife.

He loved her with a passion that went beyond all reason. That passion went down deep into the very center of who he was as a human being. If anything happened to her, he knew he would feel bereft—as though part of himself had died too.

“Hey there, Charlie Moore! I didn’t expect to see you here for lunch. Come on in!”

Bitty Sondheim’s cheery voice dispelled Charlie’s gloom the moment he stepped into her little restaurant. Although he and the other men from the Wednesday morning Bible study had planned to build Bitty some tables, Charlie had gotten caught up in the construction of the Haneses’ room addition. Nevertheless, he noted that she had set up a little wrought iron bistro on the sidewalk, and someone had put several tables and chairs inside near the large front window.

The place was bustling with lunchtime customers, and Charlie realized he would have to wait in line. Not an easy task. The aroma inside the place always made his mouth water. Cheese, onions, garlic, fresh tomatoes, basil, thyme, and all sorts of other herbs, vegetables, and meats melded into a fragrant blend that filled the room and caused his stomach to growl.

“I’ve got my fajita wrap on special today, Charlie,” Bitty called out as she handed a heavy sack to a customer. “If that’s not enough for you, well, I have the meat-loaf-and-dinner-roll special going too. You look like you’ve been working hard. You’ve got sawdust on your cap.”

Charlie removed the offending cap and shook it over the large waste bin in one corner. As he tucked it under his arm, he spotted Jennifer Hansen headed toward the door with her hands full. He tipped his head in greeting. “So you’re off to Mexico. Cody tells me that you and some of the other missionaries will be building a church down there.”

The lovely young blonde awarded him a broad smile. “I cannot wait, Mr. Moore! This will be my second trip outside the country. We’re going to a remote part of Mexico near Oaxaca, and I’ll get to practice my Spanish while we work.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It’ll be great!” She was fairly bouncing up and down on tiptoes as she spoke. “Most of our team will be doing construction, but I get to work with children. I’ve planned all the Bible story lessons I’ll be teaching. My mom is helping me sew puppets today, so I thought I’d run over here and get us a quick lunch. The team leaves tomorrow morning.”

“I guess you know we’re all going to miss you, young lady. Especially a certain curly-haired fellow who thinks you hung the moon.”