Don White was quietly fuming, conjuring up more and more grievances against Paul for his non-appearance the previous night, when Ed Watters walked into the coffee shop. Ed sat down without invitation, and beckoned to the waitress for coffee.
"You get rid of old Pastor Josh, yet?"
That was all Don needed to boil over. "No, but I'm going to! Single-handed, if I have to. As if things weren't bad enough before, now he's into devil worship, or some such thing!"
Ed wanted to hear about that, and Don obliged him with a highly entertaining (if highly stylized and inaccurate) version of what went on at the Tuesday night meeting. Ed shook his head, sympathetically. "I can't say it surprises me. I had a bad feeling about what I'd been hearing about that group. I can see I was right, getting Betty away from them. She's not even going back to that church until Felton is gone. If you can move him along, more power to you!"
Don was wound so tight, he slammed his fist down on the table, causing glasses and cups to rattle. Several patrons looked around to see what was going on. Don didn't notice. "I just wish I knew what to do. Several of us are ready to go - have been, for some time - but we can't seem to get the board members together. Now, Paul seems to be waffling."
Ed sipped his coffee. "Well, you said you'd do it single-handed, if you had to. Maybe you have to."
Don looked at him. "What do you mean?"
Ed shrugged. "Well, I don't know much about your church business, but do you really need the board to back you up? As I see it, a man doesn't wait around when things he believes in are threatened. He takes matters into his own hands, and doesn't wait for the slower ones in the group to see the problem. That could be too late."
Don thought about that. "You mean, I could bypass the local board, and go right to the regional people?"
Ed shrugged again. "As I said, I don't know how these things work, normally. I just think, one way or another, you can make things hot enough for Felton that you won't need your whole board to agree with you."
By the time Ed left the coffee shop, Don knew he was going to do something. He called to say he would be late getting to work, then drove to the Grayson's. Jenny answered the door.
"Don! We didn't expect you this morning."
"I'll bet you didn't! Where's that traitor Paul, and where were you both last night? We had important church business to take care of."
Paul came into the front room with shaving lather still on one cheek. "Don, what's all the ruckus?"
Don came across the room until he was almost stepping on Paul's feet. He pointed his finger at Paul's chest as he talked. "I told you I wanted you at my elders' meeting last night. We had important business. Where were you?"
Paul brushed Don's pointing finger away. "Hold on. This is my house, remember? And I'm not accountable to you. What do you mean, coming here before breakfast and pointing your finger at me and yelling at my wife?"
Don only got madder. "You're protecting that loony! You didn't come to the meeting on purpose because you knew we'd vote him out, then and there. Because he's your friend, you're letting him tear the church apart. Well, I won't stand for your meddling, anymore. I'll get him, myself!"
Paul was over the initial surprise of Don's visit, and was ready to calm things down. "Hold on, Don. Let's cool off, and talk about it." He reached for Don's shoulder, but Don spun away from him and headed back across the room. He turned at the still open door.
"The time for talk is over. You can't protect him, anymore." He started out the door, but turned back. “I called him a loony. That would be bad enough, but he's more than that. He's depraved. He's possessed!"
With that, he was gone. “What will he do?" asked Jenny.
Paul shook his head. "Who knows? My guess is that he'll make an end run on the board. I don't think there's a chance we can calm him down. Rambo couldn't be any more ready to fight than Don is, right now!"
***
"Ev, this is Paul. When's Josh due home?”
Something in his tone made her feel like her heart had stopped for a moment. "About noon. What's wrong, Paul?"
"Is it so obvious? I thought I was being pretty cool. Well, you're right, we've got trouble, and I think it's big trouble. Don's on the warpath. I don't know what he'll do, but I know it won't be good for us!"
"Thanks for saying 'us', Paul."
There was a pause. "What?"
"You said we've got trouble, and what he does won't be good for us. I said thank you; that means an awful lot."
There was another pause. "I don’t think I understand. Aren't you upset?"
Ev smiled to herself. "Oh, I'm upset, all right. But the operative words today are ‘all right’, not ‘upset’. We're going to be just fine!"
***
Don didn't go to work after leaving the Grayson's, and he was too worked up to tell anyone he wasn't coming in. Instead, he drove directly to Salem. Del Solitz, who served on the council overseeing denominational activities in Oregon and Washington, gleaned as much sense as he could out of Don's impassioned and rambling accusations.
"It certainly sounds like things are not as they should be," responded Solitz, in what he hoped was a reasonable tone. "But why haven't we heard from your board? You know that we have strict procedures for handling local church business, and nothing gets to our level until it's beyond the control of the individual church board."
Don slammed his hand on the table in frustration. "But don't you see that it's already beyond the control of our board? Look, four board members are directly involved in the problem, and two others are letting their friendship with the pastor get in their way. There's no way we can get a vote."
Del Solitz stroked his chin, in meditation. "I see your point; it is an unusual situation. Still, we're bound by our rules not to begin a formal investigation until asked by the local church." Don started to protest. "Wait, now, I think that on the basis of what we've heard, we can ask your board for information. We don't even need to say you came to see us. We'll just say we've had complaints, and need to get some facts."
Don didn't care a bit whether his name was used or not. He just wanted action. Still, he had to be content with the promise that Solitz would contact Josh and Paul and set up an "informational meeting."
***
Ev and Josh hugged for a long time when he arrived home shortly after noon. "I'm really okay," said Ev. "I didn't need you here, but I'm sure glad you're back!" She filled him in on the details of what had been happening. She emphasized Paul's concern that Don would precipitate some action, regardless of what the rest of the board wanted.
Josh agreed. "It could get messy, all right, but we can't really do anything about it. The thing that seems most important to me now is to be sure we take our best shot - whatever that is - while we still have a chance."
Evalyn felt a little shiver. "What does that mean?"
Josh shook his head. "I don't know, Ev. I'm just getting strong vibes that this is a 'no turn back' course we're on, and that things are going to be really different before long."
"Things are 'really different' already, in case you hadn't noticed."
He laughed, and hugged her. "I had noticed, my love, but I think I mean really different. And all we can do is what seems right, and not try to guess the conclusions or consequences."
She shivered, again. "That sounds awfully final to me," she whispered.
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