Don White stalked impatiently to the window and looked out, for the third time in five minutes. "Where's Herb?" he demanded rhetorically for the third time.
"He's probably on his way, Don. Calm down," urged Ted. "Your pacing around isn't going to get him here any sooner."
"Here's coffee," announced Connie.
Don stalked to the coffee table, picked up a cup, and marched it back to the window.
"Don, you're driving me crazy!" complained Ted.
Don started back. "But this is important. Why can't you see that, and why can't Herb be on time? We need to talk."
"Too late to talk," opined Margaret. "We need to act."
Just then, Herb drove up to the front curb. Don had the front door open before Herb was halfway up the walk. "Come on, come on!" He saw that Herb was alone. "Where's Carolyn?"
"Not coming.”
"Not coming?"
"What part of that didn't you understand, Don? She's not coming!" Herb sat down on the sofa beside Connie. He refused coffee.
"All right, Don," said Ted. "The floor is yours. I assume you want to talk about the meeting with ‘Denomination’ tomorrow, which I assume you arranged."
"Yes, I arranged it. Somebody had to do something.”
"As I recall, we're supposed to handle things at the local level before we call in Salem."
Don set his coffee cup down hard enough to spill the contents on the table. "How in Hell can we do anything at the local level when half the board has defected to the enemy camp?"
"Enemy camp, Don?" challenged Connie. "Isn't that a little harsh?"
"Well, what would you call it, when people are trying to destroy the church? They've become enemies to us, and to God!"
"No question about it," chimed in Margaret.
"Nonsense!" rejoined Ted. "There may be disagreement about what's being done, but that's all it is. No one is intent on destroying the church."
"Nonsense, you say?" challenged Don. "You don't think false teaching, secret meetings, and Satanic worship are meant to destroy the church?" Then, as an aside to Herb, "And where's Carolyn?"
"In the enemy camp," replied Herb, unemotionally.
Don leaped to his feet, overturning his and Connie's coffee in the process. "In the enemy camp! What do you mean by that?"
"Well, I'm speaking figuratively," responded Herb, almost lazily, as he watched Connie mop up the spilled coffee. “Actually, she's home now, having chosen not to come with me, but she's been with the Feltons as recently as yesterday. She seems to like the enemy camp more and more."
Margaret was scandalized. "And you let her go? Why didn't you stop her?"
Each time he responded, Herb's voice got quieter and his outward attitude less interested. "What would you have me do, Mag - drag her here in chains, or maybe lock her in her room?"
"You're treating this pretty lightly!" thundered Don.
"No, actually, I think I'm treating it more heavily than it deserves." He got up from the couch. "I need to go."
Don was dumbfounded. "But we need to talk!"
Herb stopped at the front door. "We have talked. We'll have another meeting tomorrow. I'll be there, and I'll say what I think. So will everybody else. Then maybe something will happen, or maybe it won't. Either way... " He shrugged, and went out the door.
"I can't believe this!" exclaimed Don.
"Maybe he's right," said Ted. "Clearly there's no chance of agreement among the board members on anything. Even those who have complaints and criticisms have different ones." Don started to protest. "Wait, now. 'Denomination' will be here, and each one of us will have a chance to speak our mind. I'm sure that, before the day is over, everything will be out in the open. Then we'll see what's to be done."
The Whites left, and the Blackers were alone, again. Ted helped Connie carry the coffee things back to the kitchen. "What do you make of all this, Con?"
She looked at him, trying to guess his mood before she answered. "You mean, all the shouting, or what's really going on?"
"Good question. Let's start with what's really going on: what do you think that is?"
They walked back to the living room, and settled down. She thought a minute. "Well, I think Josh received some new 'illuminations' about the church and about Christian life. Some church members are positively - very positively - excited about those new ideas, while some are just as excited in a negative way. Most members probably don't even know that anything's going on!"
"Yes, I suppose you're right - about all three groups." He eyed her, mischievously. "Which group are you in?"
She raised her eyebrows at him, "Well, certainly not the third - I know that something is going on!" She became more pensive. "We've missed a lot, of course, being gone, and even now are more ‘outside’ than 'inside.' But what I've seen excites me in a very positive way. Without understanding it all, I must say that I've felt more power and more love in Josh's recent sermons than I've ever felt before, here or anywhere else."
He didn't comment, but just looked thoughtful. "What about you?" she finally asked.
"I feel like you do, Con. I'm not sure it's all been handled very well, but I think Josh is clearly on to something. And, really, I can't find much to quibble about with his sermons - I mean, it would be quibbling to find fault with anything.”
"So then, the other question is, what's all the shouting about?"
"That's right, and when you get right down to it, ‘all the shouting' may be a rather relative term. Some of the old-timers have been frustrated by changes in the way church services have been run, but I doubt that there are more than a handful of members talking about enemy camps and heresy. As a matter of fact, it may not be many more than the Whites and Herb."
"And I get the feeling that Herb isn't very excited," she said.
"No, that's a good point," he replied, thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, Herb worries me. It doesn't seem like anything excites him. He acts like a man in a deep depression. I think we'd better keep an eye on him."
"He and Carolyn aren't seeing eye to eye on this, that's clear."
"Which is also strange, when you think about it. Carolyn has never been one to assert herself with Herb, and I've always thought that she was the more likely candidate for depression."
"So maybe we had better keep an eye on both of them," she concluded.
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