Monday morning, Paul sat at his desk. He had some pretty important work to do, but he found himself mentally "twiddling his thumbs." No, I'm not exactly wool-gathering, he told himself. I know exactly what I'm trying not to think about! He gave himself a couple of soft fist pounds to both sides of his head, grimaced a time or two, and called for Betty. She was there, immediately. Sometimes, this office is too small! She waited, expectantly.
"Sit down a minute, Betty."
She did, and waited expectantly. He "sort of" smiled; she "sort of" smiled back. "How are things going, Betty?" What a great start!
"All right." She waited. "We're not really too busy right now," she added, when he didn't respond.
He "sort of" smiled again. "Well, we should get a little busier soon." Wow, that really got to the heart of the matter!
"That's good. I always like it when we're busy." She waited again, but she was getting nervous now. "Everything's okay, isn't it? I mean, I didn't make a mistake with one of our billings, did I?"
Holy cow! "No, everything's just fine," he said.
She relaxed a little. "Oh, that's good. I don't want to cause any trouble."
"You don't." He felt himself wishing he hadn't started any of this.
"Oh, not usually, but I remember when I got all the invoices in the wrong envelopes last year."
"Betty, anybody can make-a mistake."
"Oh, I know, but it caused you so much trouble. I still feel bad about it, every time I think of it. I worry I might do it, again."
"Betty, for pete's sake, that was a year ago."
She lowered her eyes. Sensing she was on the verge of tears, he quickly came around the desk and stood beside her. He started to put his hand on her shoulder. She winced. Oh God, she is impossible! Then, he found himself picturing his large body towering over her, and his large, powerful arm coming toward her. She thought I was going to hit her! Tears came to his eyes. He drew back as smoothly as he could, and sat down a little distance away from her. He brushed the two tears away before she looked up.
"Betty, I'm sorry," he said, quietly. "I'm not upset with you. I'm just... Well, as we said, that was a year ago. Even if it had been terrible then - which it wasn't - it can't be terrible now, can it?"
She looked up at him, and shook her head tentatively. "No, I guess not. I just don't want to be a burden to you."
"You're not," he said, positively. "You're definitely not."
She smiled, gratefully. Good grief, I feel like I just took a newspaper to a naughty puppy, and now the puppy is thanking me for it!
He came back to awareness to find her watching him, expectantly. "Did you want me to do something?"
He shook his head. "No, I just wanted to talk for a minute."
She smiled, and went back out to her desk. He stared after her. Good going, Grayson. You have big plans to help her with her bullying husband. So what do you do? You yell at her, make her cry, and remind her of her failures. Why didn't you hit her, too, while you were having your nice little chat? You could have made her feel right at home!
***
Bob and Charley followed Greg back to his dorm room after breakfast. They were telling him about the previous weekend, whether he wanted to hear about it or not. He was pretty sure he did, but he didn't want them to know it. He had suggested that they leave at least a dozen times. Either they were real clods, or he hadn't been assertive enough, he guessed.
"But the thing is," Charley was saying, "I don't see how the church could fire him. I mean, Pastor Josh hasn't done anything!"
Greg scoffed. "No, he hasn't done anything but introduce voodoo into the church."
" Greg, he has not!"
"Hey, you said it, I didn't. Weird music and strange voices and God speaking from the lips of a middle-class house frau. That's not radical?" He shrugged, expressively.
“But that was all explained to us," countered Bob, "You're making it sound weird."
"It wasn't?"
"Okay, it does sound weird. But it wasn't, not if you'd been there, and then studied the Bible verses that told what it was. I mean, it wasn't what it sounds like, at all. It was more like... " He shrugged, unable to come up with the right word or thought.
Greg was going through the motions of locating some papers, but he was interested, "Okay, no voodoo, So, what do you think is the real problem? Why would he think they might can him?"
Bob shrugged. "That's what we were trying to figure out, remember?"
"Well, I don't see how they could," said Charley, bringing the conversation back to where it had started.
Greg picked up his books. "Adult games," he said, as he headed for the door.
"What does that mean?" asked Bob,
"Power trips. He's ticked off somebody. Somebody wants his job. Hey, it's a tough world out there." He went out the door.
"But this is church!" Charley yelled after him.
He stuck his head back into the room. "What's your point?" he asked, with a big question mark in his look. He disappeared again. "Lock the door when you leave, guys."
***
"Seven more hours," Donna said, as much to herself as to Pete. They were at the church, putting together the weekly bulletin.
"Seven... Oh, until the meeting with Denomination’. Now, that should be fun."
"Oh, yeah. I can hardly wait." She stapled newsletters for a while. "Do you really think Josh could lose his job?"
He shrugged, but she wasn't looking. "Well?" she asked, turning toward him.
"What? Oh, sorry, I forgot you didn't have eyes in the back of your head. Anyway, I don't know. It doesn't seem likely, what with the Graysons and Carolyn siding with us, but anything's possible, I guess."
She was quiet for a minute. "Siding with us," she repeated.
"Excuse me?"
She gave a brief shake of her head. "Oh, I was just thinking about the words you used just then - about board members 'siding with' one person or another. That doesn't sound right for church."
"Sorry, I guess I could have said it differently."
"Oh no, don't apologize. You said it exactly right. It's just sad that that's the way it is. It sounds like words you'd use in a war, or for a big business deal - not about a church!"
They finished the stack of bulletins in silence.
"Do you remember?" he asked, at last. "A couple of weeks ago, we were joking about Josh and Ev hiring us."
"Um hum."
"Have you given any thought to what it might mean to us if Josh was fired?"
She hadn't, but she did now. "You mean that our jobs are tied to his job?"
He nodded. "Pastors usually pick their own youth ministers. If Josh goes... Well, we probably do, too."
"Nice thought, Newsom. You may have just spoiled my appetite for lunch!"
They didn't talk about it again until they were home, eating tuna sandwiches, but both had been thinking. "What would we do, Peter?" she asked.
"Well, we might take an extended vacation, and do all those things we don't have time to do while we're working."
"I'm serious."
He reached across the table and touched her hand. "Sorry. I guess it would be better to save that idea for later in life, like maybe when we had some money to live on." He paused. "I didn't really start thinking about this until last night, and I haven't got far. I do know that I like it here."
"Me, too."
"I like the kids, and I feel a real responsibility for them."
"Me, too."
"I don't want to leave."
She was silent. "No 'me, too'?" he asked. She still wouldn't speak, or look at him. "Donna?"
She looked at him, then. "I'm angry," she said, but didn't need to.
"At me? Sorry, babe, I didn't mean to tease you."
"No, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad that this is all coming about because of stupid church politics. Because a few stupid people in the church have their stupid feelings hurt, they're causing all this stupid trouble! How can any of us do what Jesus would do when we have to put up with such a bunch of jerks!"
She had started to cry, and Pete came to her and stood behind her chair, gently kneading her shoulders. "It'll be okay, babe. We don't even know that anything will happen. Chances are nothing will."
"Peter," she said through clenched teeth, "Please don't be practical or realistic with me. I want to be angry, for a while!"
He continued to knead her shoulders, "Anything you say, my love. Anything you say!"
* * *
"Hi, Bill." Debbie's voice came through the phone line. "Can you talk?"
"For a minute. I have customers, but nobody's ready yet. What's up?"
"Bev and Harry want us to be with them while the church meeting is going on. They thought we could pray together. Can we?"
"Sure. Food first?"
"Okay. I can't wait."
"Me, neither.”
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