When Love's at Work (3 page)

She needed to jump in the shower and clear a
path through the rubble in her house so Court and Meg would have a
place to walk. Not that they would care. Courtney’s house was
always strewn with canvases, papers, boxes, easels and heaven only
knew what else. There were explosions of color everywhere and so
many types of artist mediums: paint, clay, charcoal pencils, grease
paint, colored pencils, watercolors, and many other items Pure
couldn’t even identify.

Meg, on the other hand, had a place for
everything and everything in its place. If you asked Meg for a pair
of scissors, she knew exactly where they were, every time. Meggie
had a great sense of style in her decorating. She used soothing
colors and everything looked like a picture from House Beautiful
magazine, but guests and family members never hesitated to kick
their shoes off and put their feet on the coffee table.

Purity looked up at her ceiling fan. Was
that dirt? She peered closer. It was disgusting. Pure knew once she
began cleaning she wouldn’t be able to stop with the ceiling fan.
Three hours later, her home was clean, organized and Pure felt the
lightness in her body that always came when her surroundings
weren’t full of clutter and chaos.

After a quick shower, Pure chose white
shorts and a pink tank top as her attire for the day. She pulled
her hair back into a ponytail and secured it with a thick stretchy
burgundy band.

E-mail could no longer be
put off so she logged onto the internet. She opened Meg’s e-mail
first:
Hey P, so glad the fundraiser went
well. I knew it would. I’ll see you a bit after 2pm today. I signed
up to help clean-up after the senior dinner at church, so I’ll be a
few minutes late. Did you hear that Emily Cravens is in the
hospital? Apparently she fell on her back porch when she was
heading out to water her roses. She couldn’t get up and no one
found her for two days! Can you imagine? Ack! When I get older, I’m
getting one of those things you wear around your neck and you just
press the button if you need help. Anywho… see you later on.
XOXO.

Poor Emily. Mrs. Cravens refused to move
into an assisted living environment, even though she really
shouldn’t be living alone in that big old house any more. Her
husband had a heart attack and died three years ago. He was the
love of Emily’s life. If it hadn’t been for the ladies of the
church, Pure didn’t think Emily would have made it through that
challenging time.

The church women had made sure Emily had
activities to participate in and women who were ready and willing
to listen, should she feel like talking. They also made sure to
check in on her every other day or so. Pure wondered how people who
didn’t have a church family got through times like that. What did
people do without committed friends or family to help out and
without God to lean on for strength?

That was such a great example of the church
at its best, offering support and love and hope. Too bad all the
other crap went with it, too. She’d seen more than her share of
hypocritical and judgmental behavior by church members. That was
the part that turned Purity off about organized religion. Why they
thought they were better than anyone else was beyond her.

There was just as much infidelity, child
abuse, substance abuse, and lying among “religious” people as
anyone else. The whole idea that this group of people was somehow
immune and set apart from the rest of the world was such a
misnomer. It totally set up an “us” versus “them” mentality that
Pure abhorred. We, she thought to herself, it’s all about we --
working together, building one another up, being guided along by a
loving, caring Creator who has our very best interest at heart. Why
was that so hard for people to understand?

She deleted Meg’s e-mail and began opening
the work-related messages. An hour later, she logged off the
internet, satisfied that everyone’s questions had been answered and
their needs had been met.

Pure spent the next hour straightening out
the items in her briefcase and making a to-do list for Monday
morning. She was just closing her briefcase when she heard a knock
on the door and Courtney’s voice.

“
It’s me, and Ben and
Jerry.”

Pure made her way to the door easily, now
that there was a clear path. and welcomed her friend, eyeing the
large Diet Coke from McDonalds in Court’s hand.

“
I so hope that is for
me.”

“
It is. You know I hate
that diet crap.” Court handed the Diet Coke to Purity and then gave
her a kiss on the cheek.

“
What happened in here?!”
Courtney exclaimed, surveying the clean apartment. “The last time I
was here I almost wanted to start cleaning the joint
myself.”

“
It started with a dirty
ceiling fan. It snowballed after that.” Purity took a big swig of
the Diet Coke. “Ah, good stuff. Did you hear about Emily
Cravens?”.

“
Oh man, yes, Meggie
e-mailed me this morning. Can you imagine laying on your porch for
two days before someone found you?” Court was horrified at the
thought. “She needs to get out of that house, but you know she
won’t ‘cuz she and her husband lived there all their lives. Their
kids grew up in that house. I can’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to
leave either.”

“
Me, either.”

“
She needs one of those
Life Alert things,” Court said, after putting the ice cream in
Purity’s freezer and then making herself comfortable by removing
her shoes and stretching out on the sofa.

Court brought the drawings she made last
night with her, but she wanted to wait until Meg arrived before
showing them to her friends. Pure would be the first to notice the
earrings. Meg would have to look for a long time to see any image
other than the obvious, then she would probably burst out laughing.
Meggie never knew quite what to think of her artistic
creations.

“
I don’t smell pasta
cooking?” Courtney observed.

“
No, you don’t,” Pure
replied, letting Courtney’s mind wonder about the dish she was
providing. While online, Purity had visited the Pizza Hut website
and ordered a pan of their chicken fettuccini for
delivery.

“
Thanks for the Diet
Coke.” Purity sat on the couch opposite Courtney and spread her
body out the length of the sofa.

“
No problem. Has your rug
always had that swirly design in it?”

“
Yeah, you’ve just
probably never seen it because there’s always junk piled up
everywhere.”

“
I like it.”

“
Me, too.”

Purity and Courtney were knee-deep in a
discussion about which flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was the
best, when a knock on the door interrupted their debate.

“
That’s either food or
Meg,” Courtney commented. “Either way, I’ll get it.”

“
Money’s on the counter if
it’s the Pizza Hut guy.”

When Courtney opened the door, Meg came
barreling through the entryway stating, “Some people should not be
allowed to drive a moving vehicle!”

“
As opposed to driving a
non-moving vehicle,” Court said, closing the door behind
Meggie.

Meg nudged her in the ribs with her elbow
and said, “You know what I mean.”

“
Who might you be
referring to?” Purity asked.

“
The jerk who ran the stop
sign, for one. And, for two, the gal that decided to switch lanes
on the freeway without even looking to see if a car was in the lane
she was turning into,” Meg said as she placed a grocery bag on the
counter and placed her purse next to it, then bent down to remove
her shoes and place them neatly out of the way so no one would trip
over them.

“
What’s in the bag?”
Courtney asked, peering into the large paper grocery
sack.

“
Oh, I grabbed a couple of
munchies while I was getting the french bread. You can never have
too much food.”

“
I like the way you
think,” Purity responded, joining the duo and trying to see what
items lay below the bread.”

Another knock on the door delayed the
investigation. This time Purity answered the door. It was Sean, the
Pizza Hut guy. She wondered how she always seemed to get the same
delivery driver. He was a nice young man and they had engaged in
several conversations so Pure was getting to know him a bit. He was
a college student and had a wife and a one and a half year old baby
boy named Ricky. She always tipped him double what she thought was
appropriate because she knew he could use the money.

“
Cheater!” Meg said with
amusement in her voice.

“
Hey, I never said I was
going to cook, I just said I was providing the pasta dish,” Purity
defended.

Meg made herself at home by turning the oven
on to broil and finding a sheet pan to put the french bread on.

“
I have salad, too,” Pure
stated. “I figured it would balance out the ice cream.”

“
There’s ice cream?” Meg
asked.

“
Ben and Jerry’s,” Pure
said.

“
I was in charge of the
ice cream,” Court said proudly. “I brought four different
kinds.”

“
Way to go, Court!” Meg
gave her friend a high five.

Purity had already tossed the salad
ingredients together, leaving off the dressing until the last
minute so the leaves wouldn’t get soggy.

All three women were standing in the
kitchen: Meg watching through the oven door to make sure the french
bread didn’t burn, Courtney propped up against the wall with one
leg bent with her foot against the wall, and Purity by the sink
putting the dressing on the salad.

How many times had this scene unfolded? Too
many to count. Pure wasn’t sure how her apartment became the hub
for their gatherings, but she loved.

When the bread was golden, Meggie busied
herself by cutting it into wedges while Courtney cleared off the
coffee table in the living room and placed the chicken fettuccini
on a trivet so it wouldn’t scorch the table. They always chose to
sit on the floor and use the coffee table as their dining surface.
Old habits die hard with this group, Courtney thought as she piled
up the tile coasters and silk covered boxes that Purity loved and
set them aside.

Meg grabbed silverware, plates, napkins and
the bread and Purity carried in bottles of Diet Peach Snapple and
the salad, equipped with serving tongs.

As was their tradition, the three women held
hands and gave thanks to God for the food they were about to eat
and were grateful for the nourishment for their body and spirit.
They also gave thanks for the friendship they shared and included
Emily Cravens’ well-being in their prayers.

They talked, laughed and shared stories of
events since their last gathering two weeks prior.

Meg complained about her boss, which was
nothing new, and vowed that she was going to quit her job if he
didn’t acknowledge her contributions. Meggie threatened to quit her
job at least four times a year, but no one took her seriously as
she had been employed at the accounting firm for more than twelve
years. Court and Purity figured she’d end up retiring before she
quit.

Courtney was working on an article for a
children’s magazine about drawing your way through grief. She was
well-known and respected in the community for her work with
children and young adults and she had chosen art as her way to
connect and communicate. It also gave her the opportunity to set
her own schedule, work from home, and continue expressing her own
creativity through art.

“
Hey,” Court said, jumping
up from her position on the floor and grabbing the large bag she
had brought with her. “Check this out.”

Court handed Purity one of the drawings she
made and handed Meg the other, then watched their faces. Meg had a
look of concern for Courtney’s mental health as she looked at the
hideous drawing of a woman’s head exploding and her brains spilling
out. Her body was mangled and had several knives protruding from
her pelvis. There was also a bloody handsaw lying on its side and
the stump of the woman’s leg drenched in a pile of dark goo. Meg
did not understand Courtney’s illustrations at all. Art wasn’t her
thing in general, but she had a hard time even calling what Court
did art.

Purity was surveying the man, minus his
family jewels, and noticing that his hands had been replaced by
oven mitts. He was wearing glasses like a blind man might wear and
his mouth had been covered with duct tape.

The women switched drawings and Purity began
to laugh. “Very nice,” she said to Courtney. “I wish I had those
lovely earrings.”

“
What earrings?” Meg
wanted to know, leaning over to look at the sketch again. She
didn’t see anything special about the earrings, except they didn’t
match. “What’s so special about them?”

“
They’re made from the
genitalia of the guy in the other drawing,” Purity
explained.

Meg looked closer. Purity was right.
Courtney was truly weird, Meg thought, but couldn’t help but
laugh.

“
I wonder if I can get a
pair of those online?” Purity asked aloud.

“
I drew them after your
phone call last night,” Courtney explained.

“
Did you have another
flashback?” Meg asked with concern.

“
Yeah. Derek called me
yesterday and wanted to talk.” Pure relayed what she had already
told Court.

“
That guy is unbelievable.
What do you have to do to make him stay away from you?” Meg
questioned.