Authors: Jan Karon
Light From Heaven (51 page)
< And—because of the hyphen, tax-deductible is charged as one word, it’s your lucky day!!!
“But who’ll
play
it?” asked his wife.
play
it?” asked his wife.
“Cynthia, Cynthia! If we provide it, somebody will come along who plays it. Mark my word.”
“Consider it marked,” she said.
“Sammy!” He knocked on the bedroom door. “What’s going on?”
“Watchin’ TV.”
“I can’t find anything to watch. What did you find?”
“Pool.”
“May I come in?”
“Yeah.”
“They have pool on TV?”
“Yeah.”
He stood and gazed at the screen. Pool on TV!
“She’s got to make a 1-long sh-shot,” said Sammy.
Women shooting pool! Amazing.
“May I watch with you?”
“Yeah.” Sammy got up and removed a pile of unfolded laundry from the other chair.
“Thanks,” said Father Tim, making himself comfortable.
Sammy’s eyes were glued to the screen. “No problem.”
Cynthia was beaming as she undressed for bed. “Sammy and I talked today.”
“And?”
“And the Holy Spirit gave us a wonderful Sunday School lesson. I’m thrilled! We’ll go over it with you later.”
“No clues now?”
“We’re still polishing.”
“How did he feel about doing it?”
“I think he likes the idea.”
A certain hope kindled in him.
“The kitchen was dreadful today,” she said. “Maybe we should walk out to the barn after supper tomorrow. I can’t imagine working there, really; it sounds romantic, but surely it wouldn’t be. Aren’t there mice in barns?”
“You could take Violet with you; let that girl do an honest day’s work for a change!”
She turned back the spread and gave their down pillows a good wallop. “In any case, we’re having my new and revised fries tomorrow night. Dooley comes home in four days, and with this one further experiment, I’m sure they’ll be fabulous.”
“If it ain’t broke, Kavanagh ...”
She ignored his wisdom, and crawled into bed. “Burgers with blue cheese ... and cole slaw, Puny’s recipe.”
“Count me in,” he said, sitting on the side of the bed to remove his socks. “I’ll be home in time to grate the cabbage.”
The time had arrived to stop “drumming up business,” as Lloyd called it, and get down to the fine particulars of ministering to their flock. Thus, today’s round of Wilson’s Ridge and environs would be the last for a while.
“Want to come?” he asked Barnabas.
Was the pope Catholic?
He and Barnabas were trotting to the truck when Lloyd hailed him.
“You asked me t’ keep a’ eye out for y’r boy.”
“I did.”
“He’s been smokin’ in th’ barn. Thought you ought t’ know that, bein’ that’s one way to lose a barn.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“I seen ‘im light up a couple of times when he was walkin’ over there. Then, too, I got a nose for it. Since I give it up twenty years ago, I can smell t‘bacco smoke far as th’ wind’ll carry it.”
“Thanks, Lloyd.”
“I know smokin’s off-limits around here; Buster sets in th’ truck to smoke. It’s awful hard to get good help, so I don’t say nothin’. I hope that’s all right.”
What to do? Find Sammy and deal with it now? Or get up to Wilson’s Ridge and talk to Sammy this evening? George Macdonald had put a fine point on it:
“You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o’clock. Do not blacken nine and ten and eleven, and all between, with the color of twelve ...”
“Have you seen him this morning?”
“He’s grubbin’ manure out of th’ henhouse. For y’r okra patch.”
He was struck by this comment. How could he do what he had to do with a boy who was mucking chicken manure to satisfy a culinary whim of Timothy Kavanagh’s?
“He’s lucky to have you to kick ’is butt,” said Lloyd. “I wish my daddy’d kicked mine; might of saved me a whole lot of grief.”
Tough love is what they called it these days. But tough for who?
For both parties, it seemed to him.
He stopped on the path to the chicken house.
If he nailed Sammy for smoking, Sammy would know he’d been spied on. Who was doing the spying—Willie? Cynthia? Lloyd? Buster? He wouldn’t be able to trust anyone at Meadowgate.
He’d give to Sammy Barlowe what God had given time and time again to Tim Kavanagh: grace.
He’d also ask God to keep the barn from burning down in the process.
He screeched into Jubal’s yard and turned off the ignition.
“Stay,” he said to Barnabas.
Jubal had seen him coming; as he walked toward the porch, the door opened.
“Jubal? It’s Father Tim.”
Suddenly, he heard his dog lumbering up behind him.
“No, Barnabas! Go back!” A scripture, a scripture! His mind was a blank.
“Lord God A’mighty!” Jubal Adderholt was brandishing a pistol and yelling at the top of his lungs.
“Don’t shoot, Jubal! Don’t shoot!”
Barnabas hit the porch with such force as to rattle the windows. Standing on his hind legs and wagging his tail, he slammed his front paws onto Jubal’s shoulders.
“Lord he’p me an’ save me!” shouted the old man, staggering back.
“I am crucified with Christ!” pronounced the vicar. “Nevertheless I live! Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ...”
His dog sank slowly to all fours.
“And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the grace of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me!” Father Tim’s heart was pounding as he polished off the verse from Galatians 2:22.
Barnabas lay sprawled on the porch floor.
“I’m sorry, Jubal, please forgive us. My goodness, he hasn’t done such a thing in
years
. It must be the squirrel tails. Are you all right? I think he likes you.”
years
. It must be the squirrel tails. Are you all right? I think he likes you.”
“Likes
me? Hit’s a good thing he didn’ git ’is head blowed off.”
me? Hit’s a good thing he didn’ git ’is head blowed off.”
“He’s harmless, I promise. Just overly friendly.”
“I was jis’ startin’ t’ clean m’ snake pistol when I seen ye drive up. What in th’ nation do ye want with me, now? I cain’t hardly git a minute’s peace since you‘uns opened up y’r church.”
“Just stopping by to say hello, see how things are going.”
“Set down.” Jubal wagged his gun at the sofa, newly delivered from its winter tarpaulin.
Other books
Living the Charade by Michelle Conder
Daughter of Fire by Simpson, Carla
Unchained (Wolf in Exile Part 2): Werewolf Shifter/Vampire Paranormal Romance by Amber Ella Monroe, Ambrielle Kirk
My Lucky Days: A Novel by S.D. Hendrickson
Taste of Desire by Lavinia Kent
Ballad Beauty by Lauren Linwood
Grounded by Kate Klise
Make Me by Turner, Alyssa
19 Purchase Street by Gerald A. Browne
The Ethical Engineer by Harry Harrison