Chapter 22 #2
“It is a good thing you will still have me in the congregation, Brother Bron, so I can help you stay on task.” He laughed and patted Tyler on the shoulder in an outward sign of good humor, which fooled no one, at least no one who didn’t want to be fooled.
“Let us dismiss in prayer. That way God can give His own blessing for the coming week.”
Tyler’s face reddened as we bowed our heads. I wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or anger. I caught his eye and gave him a smile. He nodded back.
As we made our way out of our pew, Ms. Heinz, whom I hadn’t noticed, stepped across the aisle and reached out to give Maudra a hug. She then turned her attention to me. “Hello, dear.”
“Hi, Sister Heinz. How are you this evening?” I glanced behind her.
A few people were looking over at us, openly inspecting Jed.
Most, however, were shuffling toward the door, probably anxious to get home.
Those who wanted to speak to us were not willing to wait around for Sister Heinz, who was notoriously long-winded.
This was the second time she had saved me from countless inane and tense conversations. I was going to have to buy her flowers.
“I’m wonderful, dear. Simply wonderful. I love this time of year. Christmas was always Mr. Heinz’s favorite time of year. Most would say I should be saddest now, but this is when I feel closest to him still.”
Maudra put her hand on her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile. “Sherry, how’d ya get here, girl? You shouldn’t be drivin’ in this mess.”
“Maudra, you know I can’t drive anymore. Not with all this arthritis.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry. I clean forgot.”
“Mandy, the sweet girl she is, gave me a ride. I’m only a few blocks away, anyhow. I could walk if I needed to.”
Maudra’s face got stern. “Don’tcha dare. I’ll call that nursing home, have ’em come pick ya up.”
Sister Heinz just laughed. “And I’d do it right back at ya. You know I would.” She gently pushed Maudra aside. “Now get outta my way. I talk to you all the time. Didn’t come over here to make small talk with you. I thought I saw a new handsome man over here.” She took a step toward Jed and me.
“Sister Heinz, this is Jed, my—”
She interrupted me before I could make myself say “husband” in church. “Don’t be silly, Brooke. I know who this is. Your ‘special friend,’ right?” She lowered her voice and gave me a wink.
I laughed. “Yes. That’s one way to put it. He is my ‘special friend.’”
She stretched out her knobby hand toward Jed. “Awfully nice to meet you, Jed. I’m Sherry Heinz. Maudra tells me that you’ve been taking good care of our boy here.”
Jed gave her his hand and smiled warmly at her. “It’s a full-time job, which I’m sure is no surprise to you. Always getting himself into some sort of trouble.”
She gave me another big wink. “I’ve no doubt of that at all.” She focused back on Jed. “I hope you find El Dorado a pleasant enough home. You’ve gotta give it time. We’re small and we tend to gossip quite a bit, but most of us are harmless enough and warm up after a time.”
“Everyone I’ve met so far has been very welcoming.”
I thought about bringing up Iris, but then thought better of it. Sister Heinz’s attention was again focused on me. “I’m sorry I haven’t asked before, dear. How’s your mother?”
“Oh….” Where to start? She’s verbally abusive, she’s trying to seduce my husband, she’s the devil incarnate…
. “She seems to be doing fine, really. I don’t know that the stroke has had that big of an effect on her.
Her walk takes a little more effort, and her left hand is fairly useless, but other than that, and her speech, she seems pretty much the same.
I have noticed the past couple days, though, that she’s been sleeping later.
Most of the time when I get there, she is awake and sitting in her chair watching TV.
However, the last two or three times, she’s still been asleep for a couple hours after I get there. ”
Maudra looked at me curiously. “Rilly? You hadn’t mentioned that.”
“To be honest, I haven’t thought that much about it.” I only now realized how bad that sounded.
“Well, we’d better keep a closer eye on her, then, I reckon. Don’t want her ta take a turn fer the worse.”
“Now, don’t go worrying the boy, Maudra.
I’m sure she’s just worn out, or a bit depressed.
Goodness, after Mr. Heinz died, I stayed in bed for weeks.
” Sister Heinz looked back to Jed and me.
“So, are you boys planning on coming Wednesday evening and helping get the church ready for Christmas? I hear that your kind is good at that kind of thing.”
Your kind. From most, such a comment would be an insult, but with Sister Heinz, it was a genuine compliment.
Jed laughed loudly; the few people who were left glanced over to us. “Not all of us, unfortunately, but you lucked out with Brooke and I. We both know our way around garland and tinsel.”
“That’s wonderful. It will be fun to see you in action and see the tizzy you cause when the others see that you showed up.” She shared another wink, this time offered in Maudra’s direction.
“Don’t you know it! I normally wouldn’t come ta that; I wasn’t blessed with the decoratin’ skill, but I don’t think you’d be able ta pay me ’nuff ta miss it, what with these two boys and now with Mandy and her new plans.” It seemed Maudra had the same concern as I did with Mandy’s ideas.
Pastor Bron, Mandy at his side, walked up behind Maudra. “And what plans might that be, Maudra.”
“You was the one talkin’ ’bout her plans for all the Christmas decoratin’.”
He slid his arm over Mandy’s shoulders, giving her a squeeze. “She’s been talking about it all week. New color schemes, having the little kids make paper decorations for the tree in Junior Church, all sorts of things.”
Mandy looked between Sister Heinz and Maudra quizzically. “Do you think it will be a problem?”
Sister Heinz nodded a huge yes with a thrilled smile on her face. “Yes, it will be priceless. I can’t wait.”
“Now, Sherry, don’t you go causin’ problems,” Maudra admonished before turning back to Mandy. “She just means that people here are stuck in their ways. If every little decoration ain’t in the same place as the year b’fore, then there’s bound ta be someone complainin’.”
Mandy’s face fell. “Oh, well, I don’t want to cause an issue. I didn’t realize how important it was. We can do whatever you all normally do, of course.”
“Now, I didn’t say you needed to scrap yer plans. It’d be good fer a change. I’m jist surprised Donnie didn’t warn ya, that’s all.”
Donnie held up his hands. “I didn’t even think about it. I guess I should have. It just doesn’t seem important to me.”
“Spoken like a straight man.”
At Jed’s words, I looked at Sister Heinz for her reaction. When she laughed, I looked behind her to see if anyone else was close enough to hear. Most everyone had left. I gave Jed a dirty look.
His voice lowered. “Sorry, sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I forgot where we were.”
Sister Heinz looked at Maudra again. “See, I told you we wouldn’t wanna miss the show on Wednesday.”
“Now, Sister Heinz”—Tyler let go of Mandy’s shoulders and stepped closer to Sister Heinz and Maudra—“do you really think it will be a big deal?”
Donnie spoke up with a laugh before either of the women could respond. “Well, you saw how everybody reacted tonight when you forgot to close us in prayer…. What do you think?”
Sure enough, Wednesday evening lived up to everything Maudra and Sister Heinz had predicted.
The service, provided by Pastor Thomas, was even more dry, predictable, and scattered than Sunday night.
During the first part of the week, Donnie, Mandy, Jed, and I had gone into the church’s storage and sorted all the Christmas decorations in the back room behind the sanctuary.
When I was in high school, a wealthy couple had gotten married on Christmas Eve.
Donnie sang in their wedding. They decorated the entire church in their wedding colors of white, silver, and a tealish blue.
It had been like a winter fairyland. It was unlike any wedding that happened before or since; the town talked about it for months.
There had been six or seven white Christmas trees, silver metal reindeer, a variety of silver candleholders, and yard upon yard of the blue ribbon and fabric, with assorted decorations of the same hue.
Neither Donnie nor I could remember who the couple had been.
Even Maudra couldn’t remember, but she did recall that the bride had grown up here and moved away, but wanted to have her wedding in her hometown.
They had donated all their decorations for the church to use as a way of payment and thanks for the use of the building.
About twenty or twenty-five boxes filled with their wedding items were stuffed in the very back, behind all the church’s decorations.
Donnie couldn’t recall ever seeing them since the wedding.
The other six or seven boxes were filled with all the decorations the church had used since I could remember.
However, they looked a thousand times worse than I remembered.
The Christmas tree was scraggly, and many of the branches barely had any needles left on them.
The decorations were chipped or bent. Most of the decorations looked like they were homemade and had checkered or red apple and mistletoe prints.
I’m not sure how many times Jed made purposely dramatic gasps and fake screams as he held up some newly uncovered atrocity.
Mandy, who had never dreamed that we would stumble on such a treasure trove of classically simple and beautiful decorations, was in Heaven.
She forgot her nervousness of how people might respond, and she completely threw out the plans she had been working on and came up with an entire new vision of how the church could look.