Texas Weddings 3 & 4 (6 page)

Kent looked at his watch once again. Six-oh-eight. “Yes, I
do know you.”
Better than you think.
“I’d like you to at least think about my suggestion,” he said. “Promise?”

“I promise,”
Vicky
flashed a weak
smile. “If it will make you happy.”

“What makes me happy is irrelevant.”

“You’re such an important part of our lives,” she argued.
“And I trust your judgment completely. I really do.” She gazed up at him again,
her long lashes blinking away the tears.

“Thank you, Vicky.” Kent moved toward the door. “But it’s
the Lord’s judgment you should trust, not mine or anyone else’s. He has an
answer for you and the boys.”

“Yes.” She reached out to take his hand. “I believe He does.”

six

Kent sat at his computer, scrolling through E-mails. He
noticed a letter from his sister Jessica in Dallas and opened it immediately.
As he read the letter, he couldn’t help but whisper a quick, “Praise the Lord.”
It looked like Jessica and her husband would be able to visit the Houston area
during the winter holidays after all. That meant they could participate in the
church’s Christmas Eve candlelight service.

“I know it’s a long
time till Christmas,” he had written in his most recent E-mail, “but it just
won’t be the same if you’re not here to sing ‘O Holy Night.’ ”

His parishioners would
be thrilled and so would his mother. But his daughter, above all, would be
filled with joy. She loved her Aunt Jessica and Uncle Colin. And they had
played such an important role in her life since Faith’s death. Every person who
took the time to invest in his daughter’s life had become a critical part of
the equation.

Kent read over the
rest of his E-mails, erasing most.
Nothing but advertisements
and forwards.
Nothing life changing.
But
speaking of life changing, he had a sermon to write. The pressure to come up
with something fresh, something from the heart of God, remained a weekly
challenge. He loved this part of ministering—listening for the voice of
God and acting on what he heard.

But hearing seemed to
be a bit more difficult tonight, for some reason. Perhaps this was due to his
ongoing lack of sleep. Or maybe it had something to do with his workload, both
at the church and home. Somewhere between caring for a congregation, cooking,
washing dishes, doing laundry, bathing a toddler, and tucking her into bed at
night, he had worn himself out. At times like these, he truly relied on the
Lord to get him through. How else could he possibly take on the role of two
parents at once?

His heart grew heavy, as it always did when he allowed his
thoughts to shift in this direction. How could he manage without Faith? Then
again, he had to confess, he had somehow managed to get through the past two
years, day-by-day, minute-by-minute. And with the Lord’s help, he would go on.
Together, he and his beautiful daughter would get through this season of
sadness and emerge with faith and hope intact.

Charity chose that very moment to slip behind his chair and
startle him with a passionate, “Boo!”

“Boo
who
?” he echoed as he scooped her up in his arms. He held
her close, tickling her tummy, her damp hair still carrying the fresh scent of
shampoo. She laughed until her little face turned pink. Kent gave her a tight
hug. “I love you, Charity.”

“
Wub
u.” She sprang from his lap and raced toward the television. “Movie, Daddy.
Movie!” She bounced up and down.

“We can’t watch the
same movie every single night,” he argued as he turned back to his computer
screen. “Why don’t you be a good girl and play with your toys. It’s almost
bedtime, anyway.”

“Movie, Daddy!”

He sighed deeply, and
then stood to grab the all-too-familiar movie case from the bookshelf. “You’ve
seen this hundreds of times,” he mumbled, pulling the animated feature from its
jacket and slipping it into the DVD player. Within minutes Charity lay curled
up on the couch.

Kent sat back down at
his computer, trying to concentrate, but the magical world of
toddlerdom
kept him distracted from the business at hand.
He whispered his thoughts aloud as a prayer, “If you could just give me some
idea what to preach on this Sunday, I’d be so happy, Lord. I need You,
Lord—not just to help with a sermon, but also to infuse my life. I need
your strength. I need
Your.
. .”

“Cookie, Daddy,”
Charity reappeared, giving his sleeve a sharp tug.

“It’s too late for a
cookie, honey,” he said. “It’s almost bedtime.”

“No bed. Movie.”

Kent glanced at his
watch. “Ten more minutes. That’s all.”

She scrambled across
the room and tossed herself down in front of the large television set. Within
moments, she sang along with the familiar animated characters. Kent rubbed his
brow and tried to type, but nothing seemed to come.

***

Shauna sat at her computer, rubbing her aching brow.
I know you’ve called me to work with
children, Lord, but I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I really
didn’t expect it to be like this. I’m losing my voice. My temper is rising. My
head is killing me. And, to top it all off, I think I’m coming down with a
cold.
At that, she abruptly sneezed.

With the left-click of the mouse, Shauna signed online,
anxious to check her E-mail. Hopefully, Joey had written today. She needed to
hear from him. Somehow his words would calm her. They always seemed to.

She thumbed through her E-mail. Junk.
Most
of it, anyway.
Finally, the name and address she had longed to see.
Joey. It’s about time.
She anxiously
opened the E-mail, taken aback at its brevity.

“Hey, babe,” it read, “just wanted to drop you a line to let
you know I’m not going to be able to write much. These professors are killing
me, and I spend every free minute studying. Hope you understand. I’ll try to
call sometime next week. I do miss you and hope to see you soon. Let’s don’t
let the distance keep us apart. Love you, babe. Joey.”

“That’s it? That’s what I’ve been waiting for?”

Her mind reeled as she tried to figure out an appropriate
way to respond. Finally, an idea came to her. “I’ll mail the letter I printed
the other day.” She had held onto it for days, not wanting to look pushy. But
mailing it the old-fashioned way made perfect sense. He probably just didn’t
take E-mail seriously enough. A lot of people didn’t. She opened the familiar
program and entered her letterhead information. “He’ll take this seriously,”
she said. “I hope so, anyway.”

She leaned back in the chair, relaxing. She didn’t want Joey
to think she was overly anxious, but if he didn’t take a vested interest in
their relationship soon, she would have to have a serious talk with that boy.

As she started to close out the word processor, she stumbled
across an unfamiliar file. “What’s this?” Her eyes rested on the words, “Living
the Dream.”
Living the dream?
What in
the
world.
. . ?

She clicked the file open, shocked to see the whole page
fill up with sermon notes based on the life of Joseph. “Oh my.”
Mr. Twenty-First Century Pastor left this on
my computer. I wonder if he needs it. I
wonder.
. .
She
looked the page over, surprised to see how well formulated the notes seemed to
be.
And he thinks he’s not good at
putting his thoughts on paper. Looks pretty good to me.

She quickly signed back online and added the name “
21stcenturypastor
” to her Buddy List.
His name immediately popped up. “Good. He’s still online.” Her heart pounded in
her ears as she typed. “This is Shauna. We met at the computer store.”

“Hey, there,” appeared in the box. “I looked for you in
church last Sunday. You were a no-show.”

“True,” she responded. “Sorry about that.”

“You missed a great sermon.” He followed the comment with a
smiley face and Shauna had to chuckle. She could almost see the smile in his
eyes.

“I’m sure I did,” she typed in response. “I went to church
with my parents. Their call.”

“Understandable,” he responded. “So, what’s up?”

“
I.
. .” She paused momentarily as
she glanced back over his sermon notes. “I found one of your files on my
computer and thought you might need it. I think it’s a sermon.”

“Great! Can you cut and paste it into an E-mail and send it
to me?” he wrote back.

“Yeah. Hang on just a minute.” She went back to the
word-processing document, highlighting every word of the sermon, then copied it
and pasted it into a new E-mail. She typed the address, “
[email protected]
.” With the click of a button, it was on
its way to him. “Done.” She typed in the Instant Message box.

“I can’t thank you enough,” he wrote back. “I was just
sitting here trying to get inspired for next Sunday’s sermon.”

“You have to get inspired?” she wrote back.

“If I’m not,” he responded, “my congregation won’t be
either. Chances are they’ll be snoring in the pew. I can’t be responsible for
that.”

“Sounds like my home church.” She couldn’t help but smile as
she typed the words. “I get a lot of rest on Sundays.”

He sent a bright yellow smiley face in response to that.
“Maybe you’re at the wrong church,” he wrote.

“Maybe.”

“Well, the invitation still stands. Come for a visit
sometime. We’ve got a lot of programs to offer.”

“Programs?” She couldn’t help but wonder what he meant.

“We’ve got a great singles’ ministry,” he typed back, “and
an awesome discipleship program, as well as an inner-city outreach group that
helps families in the government housing projects.”

“Wow. You must be really busy.”

“Yes. In
fact.
. .” At that, he
signed off abruptly.

Shauna leaned back in her chair, thinking about the
conversation. “Interesting. Very interesting.”

***

Kent stared at the computer monitor as the screen faded to
black. “Charity, don’t ever do that again!” he scolded. She had deliberately
pushed the button, turning the computer off while he was in mid-sentence.

“Daddy
pway
wid
me!” she coaxed.

“It’s too late to play,” he said, scooping her up in his
arms. “Time for Charity to go to bed like a good little girl.”

“No!
Pway
, Daddy!” Kent tossed her
up in the air, and she squealed in delight. “More, Daddy!” He tossed her again
and again, until his arms ached.

“Daddy has to work, baby girl,” he said kissing her
forehead. “And you have to get some sleep. You’ve got school tomorrow.”

“No school,” she pouted as he carried her into her room then
laid her in the white four-poster bed.

He pulled the covers up to her chin. “Yes, Charity. You know
you have to go to school.”

“I work
wid
you.”

“No, honey.”

She burst into tears and flung her face in the pillow. “No
school, Daddy. Teacher mean.”

“Your teacher is mean?” He reached down to stroke her hair.
“What did she do to you?”

“She mean, Daddy,” Charity said, shaking her head. “No
school. No school.”

Kent shook his head in disbelief. This was not the first
time Charity had complained about the new teacher. Why would Mrs. Fritz hire
someone who truly didn’t know how to connect with the children? And what should
he do about it?
Is it my place?

As Kent tucked Charity into bed, he struggled with his
feelings of frustration. She needed positive influences in her life. She needed
her school to be a peaceful, caring place. But these past few days had been
particularly difficult on her, and it certainly looked as if the new teacher
was to blame.

Looked like the time had come to do something about his
daughter’s complaints.

seven

“Charity, what are you doing?” Kent looked down at his
daughter and shook his head in disbelief. “Where are your clothes?”

The giggling youngster pointed to the floor, where her
crumpled Sunday dress lay wadded up next to her shoes and socks. Prancing
around in ruffled panties, she chanted merrily. “I no like dress, Daddy! I no
like dress!”

“I don’t care if you like it or not,” Kent said sternly.
“You’re going to wear that dress to church. Now let’s put it back on like a big
girl.
Daddy’s going to be late.”
He reached down to
pick up the delicate dress, holding it carefully. Somehow, just doing so
reminded him of Faith. This was one of the few items she had purchased before
Charity’s birth.

I know it’s
silly. The baby’s not even here yet. But it was on sale, and I loved it!

Kent closed his eyes, running his fingers across the lace
collar. A loud flush of the toilet brought him back to his senses. “Charity,
what are you doing?” He raced into the bathroom just in time to see the water
begin to rise to the top of the toilet. A shoe spun madly in the blue water.
Two socks, now tinged blue,
floated
nearby.