Chapter Three
FROM: Pastor Charles Littleton
Sent: Monday, April 20 4:06 PM
To: Candi Canaberry
CC: Shade Blackledge
Subject: Meeting tomorrow
Candi:
I’d like to meet with you and Shade this week. How about tomorrow before practice? Is 5:00 too early for you? Touch base with Shade and let me know.
By the way, I’m also curious as to what that was yesterday.
Charles
Candi claimed her secret spot in the church parking lot. She got out, tugged her pink blouse into place, and made sure the hem of her favorite jeans had uncurled from their extended romp in the clothes dryer. At least this week she had a chance to go home and change before practice. Her strappy spring sandals were much more comfortable than the spike-heeled torture devices she had on last Tuesday.
She went through the back entrance with plenty of time to set up for practice before her meeting. But someone had beat her to it.
The lights were up, and guitar, music, and microphone stands stood ready on the platform. The control booth computer was turned on, and the buzz of the sound system hummed in the air. She dropped her music in a pew. So much for her quiet alone time.
The low rumble of male voices came from outside the sanctuary. She crossed the foyer and stopped short at the glass doors to the church office. Pastor Charles, Shade, and Max stood with their backs to the entrance. The three of them stared and pointed at the walls as though admiring them. The smell of fresh paint hung in the air, but that barely registered in her brain. All her mind could focus on was that Shade wore a kiwi-green polo shirt. Which meant his arms weren’t covered. Which meant that nasty lizard and whatever was on his other arm had come to their meeting with the pastor, and worse, had come to worship practice. He stood with those uncovered arms crossed, rocking back and forth in his paint-splattered boots as though nothing was wrong.
She grabbed the door with such force the clanging bangle bracelets at her wrist alerted the men to her presence.
Max rushed to push the large panel open for her.
She hesitated.
“C’mon in. Everything’s dry,” he assured her, and then proceeded to get the huge wad of used painter’s tape he held stuck to his yellow shirt. “We’re finishing up.”
“Oh hey, Candi,” Pastor Charles said. “We’re checking out Shade and Max’s handiwork.”
“How ya doin’?” Shade nodded her way.
She wanted to politely respond. Don’t look at his arms... Don’t look at his arms... Don’t look at his arms...
She looked at his arms.
The hollow empty eye sockets of a haunting skull looked back at her. She forced her gaze upward to meet his and choked out a response. “I’m fine, Shade, how are you?”
His relaxed half-grin half-smirk let her know she was caught. “I’m great.” His smile broadened and his left eyebrow arched. “Just great.”
“Great,” she mimicked like a stunned parrot, profoundly aware of how stupid she looked and sounded as she gave away her private thoughts about his tattoos. What irked her more? That he didn’t seem the least bit concerned about her reservations? Or that he seemed to be enjoying them?
She turned her attention to the freshly painted walls while Pastor Charles and Max made sure all the office chairs were in the right place. The dingy eggshell color was gone. In its place was an updated shade of light mocha. As a contrast, Ms. Mattie’s picture wall was now a warm chocolate brown. All seven paintings of Jesus in various Bible story scenes were arranged in an absorbing cluster that made her want to step forward and study each depiction as if for the first time.
“It’s perfect,” she said softly. “When did you do all this?”
Shade moved to her side. “We did the prep work Friday and came back yesterday to paint. Today was a final check and clean up and we re-hung the pictures.”
The paintings captured her gaze again. “I’ve always loved these. And now the brown wall behind the gold frames and rich colors just seems to make them come more alive.” She looked up at him. “Ya did good.”
“Thank you.” He paused. “Which one is your favorite?”
“Hard to say. I’ve always liked the one of Jesus praying in the garden, but this one of him with the children gets me too. What about you?”
Max bounded to her side like a happy Labrador puppy. “I gotta go. Running to Taco Bell before practice. Want anything?”
“No thanks,” she answered. “Hey, you did an awesome job here, Max. You guys make a great team, and I think somebody must have a talent for design and color.”
Max pointed to the brown swatch of paint that still decorated his forehead. “It’s not me. I could barely keep the paint off myself and on the wall. Shade’s the expert.”
Pastor Charles extended his hand to Max. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Thanks for coming.”
“Sure thing, Pastor. Thanks for the opportunity.”
The older man patted his shirt pocket. “Wait a sec. I’ll walk out with you. I think I left my phone in the car.” He turned to Candi and Shade. “You two go on in my office, I’ll be there in a minute.”
Shade rubbed the back of his neck. “I feel like I’ve been sent to the principal’s office. Know what I mean?”
Candi laughed. “Uh, hello? I’m in education. My whole life has been one principal’s office after another. And it’s not bad enough to be summoned, but here, you feel the additional pressure that God wants to see you for some reason.”
“Do you think he wants to talk about what happened Sunday?”
“Who? Pastor Charles, or God?”
“Funny.”
“Nah. I’m sure he wants to know, but that’s not why he emailed us an invitation to meet. He’s got something else on his mind.” Candi dropped into her usual chair. “Speaking of emails, I saw your email address. What does the BPS stand for?”
He took the chair next to her in front of the pastor’s messy desk. “Blackledge Painting Services.” He tugged at the logo on the left side of his shirt. “It’s not that creative, but it gets the job done. That email is through my website.”
Candi leaned in to study the embroidered paintbrush with the initials worked through the handle. “Did you design that logo?”
“No. My mom did it. She has an embroidery business and made me a dozen of these shirts when I moved back here and started the business. I asked for black. What I got was whatever shirt in my size she had left over from a custom order.”
“Cheap and easy advertisement,” Candi observed as she kicked off her left sandal and tucked her foot under her.
He glanced at his shirt again. “Yeah, well, this one’s a little bright for me.”
She froze as she pulled her planner from her bag. Rock and roll had surely fried his brain. The shirt was too bright? Ironic he would think so considering he had an electric orange flaming skull on one arm and a gigantic, multi-hued green lizard on the other.
She settled back in her chair. He’d set it up, she might as well knock it down. “I would’ve thought you were a big fan of bright colors.” She tilted her head toward his forearms to make her point without, well, pointing.
He stretched his arms out in front of him. “That’s a whole different story.” He looked at each image before he crossed them again. “Ancient history.”
She dropped her gaze to the floor. It might be his ancient history, but it was her ever-present nightmare. She could only imagine what those tattoos would look like from the back of the sanctuary during worship. Distracting, to say the least.
For that reason, and because of the shadows that darkened his face from time to time, she wanted to know. “Tell me about it.”
Pastor Charles entered the room waving his phone. “Got it. And Shade, I got a couple keys for you out of the key box.”
Shade hesitated to take them. “That’s not necessary.”
“No, take them. If you’re gonna help out around here you should be able to get in.”
Shade pulled his key ring out of his pocket and started to twist them onto the loop.
Candi had to know. “Keys?”
“Shade and Max were trying to set up for practice earlier, but they couldn’t get into the closet.”
“My music closet?” she squeaked. It was the only sacred place she had in the whole church. She squeezed the arms of the chair until her fingers turned white. Was she allowed no privacy? No safe place to keep her music and their expensive equipment?
Shade caught her gaze and twisted the keys back off the ring. He looked terrified. “It’s all right. I don’t need them.”
Her shoulders sagged. Was she really that scary? No wonder she didn’t get asked out more often. “No, Shade, keep them. Just please make sure you watch who goes in there and, if you’re the last one out, make sure all the doors are locked behind you, OK? It’s not the team I’m worried about, but lots of people use the church, and I don’t want us to get blamed for leaving a door open if something gets taken.”
“Sure.”
“Let’s get started,” Pastor Charles said.
Candi pulled the pen out of her planner. What could they possibly talk about now that he’d given a total stranger the keys to everything? There were apparently no more rules or regulations and her opinion meant nothing. Perhaps she should just go home.
Pastor Charles shoved a tall stack of papers to the side. “What happened yesterday?”
Candi prepared to fall on her sword. “It’s my fault. Shade and I have been discussing the use of computer software to enhance our worship. There was a folder on the computer desktop. Bill opened it by accident and it started to run a demo.”
“That’s my fault,” Shade interjected. “I thought I had the folder in a safe place. From now on we can load those programs on an external drive with a password where we can better control access.”
“That sounds like a lot of trouble. Especially if you decide to purchase the software and use it often.”
Candi and Shade exchanged glances. Neither seemed anxious to drag the subject further than it needed to go.
Apparently, the pastor didn’t either. “It doesn’t matter. Wasn’t that big a deal. Bill apologized that morning and said he’d misplaced his glasses. Couldn’t see a thing.”
Candi squirmed in her chair. If it was no big deal, why had he brought it up?
Pastor Charles scooted his coffee mug out of the way and lifted the pages of his large desk calendar one at a time. “When are finals, Candi?”
She opened her planner. “First full week in May.”
“You teaching summer session?”
“I think I’ve been approved to do a couple virtual Music Appreciation courses in June and July. I have to put in some office time and attend some workshops, but frankly, I’m trying to stay away from the college as much as possible this summer since my fall schedule will be so full.”
“What about you, Shade? How’s business?”
“Steady. Growing. I’m close to being busy full time, and I have a couple guys I can count on if I need to be somewhere.”
Pastor Charles let the calendar pages drop and sat back in his chair. “Here’s what I’d like to see happen. Candi, I’ve got parents clamoring for a children’s choir. They know you have the expertise, and we sure have a church full of kids. I’d like to brainstorm some ideas, and then have a meeting to see who’s interested. Thought you could have a children’s choir camp over the summer. We could do that after Vacation Bible School so we could use that time to advertise if you like the idea.”
“Sounds like there’s already been a lot of talk about it. When do you foresee starting this program?”
“That’s up to you, but as you know, it would be best to launch the program after school starts in the fall and everyone’s back into a routine.”
“When would we practice?”
“Thursday night practice in the choir room with the expectation that the kids would sing at least once a month in worship.”
“Couldn’t we practice Wednesday night during adult Bible study?”
“No, and Shade, that’s where you come in.”
Shade looked like he was about to bolt from the room. She just might have to follow.
“I’ve had a mid-week youth service on my mind for quite some time. We’ve been discussing it in Worship Committee and with some parents. If we don’t get this thing off the ground soon, we could lose the regular teens we have.”
Shade sat forward in his chair. Yep. He was gonna run.
“Don’t you have a youth group here?” he asked with such innocence. “I thought I saw something in the church bulletin.”
“Those Sunday evening programs are recreational and run by parents because we’re currently without a youth pastor. I’m talking about an actual worship service for teens. Thursday nights, no more than an hour.”
“I hear you, Pastor, but where do I come in?”
Pastor Charles laughed and leaned forward to rest his arms on his desk. “Don’t worry, son, I’m not going to ask you to be in charge of anything. It wouldn’t be fair to you, or us. I realize you’re new to all this. Kevin and Kelly are going to lead the music, and Max is going to lead an interactive Bible study. What I need from you is your commitment and your help.”
“To do what?”
“Be a part of this youth service team. Participate in the music portion, help Candi keep Kevin and Kelly reined in, and be there as support for Max.”
Candi shrugged. “I don’t understand. If I’m in the choir room directing a children’s choir, how am I supposed to help Kevin and Kelly?”
Pastor Charles lifted his calendar pages again. “I’m thinking July thirtieth for the launch of the youth service, and August twenty-seventh for the children’s choir launch. That gives us time to prepare and means the youth service should be up and running before you start the choir.”
Candi flipped through her planner like a crazy woman, noting dates and scribbling thoughts as fast as they came to mind. What he was asking was not impossible. She could even say she knew it was coming. How she felt about it was a whole different terror she had yet to explore. For the first time since Cornerstone began, there would be a new worship service—and she would be tucked away with a room full of screaming kids while an ex-dead lizard took the platform.
She looked over at Shade who had yet to say another word. While she nursed the sting of losing a certain amount of control over her music program, he looked to be two breaths away from actual medical shock. She wondered if the church’s first aid kit had one of those silver blanket thingies she could throw over his shoulders.
She turned her gaze to the pastor. Do something .
“Shade,” Pastor Charles started in his best pastoral tone of comfort and encouragement. “Just think about it. I know what you’ve been through and where you’re coming from. You’ve been nothing but honest with me, and I appreciate that. Things are happening fast for you here, but that’s because you’ve stepped into a whole new ballgame. I’m not ashamed to say that if I can get one messed up seventeen-year-old to come to church because the former lead guitarist from Dead Lizard Highway plays in worship, I’ll take it. The truth is, because of who you are now in Christ, you are an evangelist.”
Shade rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and clamped his hands together. Now who had the white knuckles?
“I’ll think about it.”
“Just so we’re clear,” Candi said. “You want a choir camp over the summer, and a children’s choir in the fall.”
“Yes.”
“Then you want Shade and me to work with Kevin and Kelly on worship music for a youth service to start in July, even though our teenagers will be scattered everywhere for the summer on vacation, at camps, and summer jobs.”
“Yes. We just need to get in a rhythm and build that core group.” He drummed his fingers on his desk. “And there’s one more thing.”
Candi and Shade again exchanged glances. This time it was clear they each expected their heads to explode if he handed them one more monumental task.
“I’ve been contacted by a pastor I know in Austin. He has a mega-church over there, two thousand people on any given Sunday. His church is hosting a worship conference. It’s so popular they’ve added more sessions. I’ve talked enough about you, Candi, that he wants me to send you to do a couple workshops. I gave him a tentative yes. Check your calendars for the weekend of June fifth through the seventh and let me know. You two can attend the whole conference. And if I can find the money in the budget, I want you to take Max too.”
Candi’s pen flipped right out of her hand. “You want us both to go?”
“Sure, why not?”
“To Austin?” Shade asked, just as bewildered.
“Yes.”
“What about worship that Sunday?”
“Kevin and Kelly can handle it. Just let me know as soon as you have an outline of what your workshops will be about so I can send it to the coordinator.” He picked up his phone and swiped at the screen. “I’ve got to get home.” He headed for the door. “I know I’ve given you both a lot to think about. We’ll talk again soon. Thanks for coming, and Candi, would you please lock up the office when you leave?”
“Sure,” she whispered as he walked right out the door.
Shade sat motionless in his chair. “I feel like I’ve been beat with a stick.”
Candi stood and turned off the desk lamp. “Or tossed over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”
Shade held the door for her. “Yeah, that too.”
They made their way to the reception area. Just as Shade reached the double glass doors, he stopped and turned. “I don’t think I can do what he asked me to do.”
Candi paused and met his worried gaze. The stubborn strands of hair that wouldn’t stay in his ponytail hovered around his face.
“I know it sounded like a lot,” she assured him. “But you won’t be alone and we have plenty of time to work things out.”
“I haven’t done this my whole life like you and Max. I’m not a leader. I’m not an evangelist. I don’t even know what that means.”
“Aw, Shade, just because I’ve been at this a while doesn’t mean I know what’s going on either. I know less now than I ever have.”
Late afternoon sun crept through the tall stained-glass windows in the foyer and danced on the carpet in front of the new picture wall.
Shade left the door and leaned against Ms. Mattie’s counter. “I doubt that.”
“He wants a children’s choir. I don’t know anything about children’s choirs. I teach at the college level. My students have beards and navel rings. I mean, I like kids, but I haven’t worked with them since my student teaching days. I don’t know where to start to develop a choir camp where they’ll have fun, learn music, and want to sing. If anything, they’ll cry and tell their parents they don’t want to come back the next day. I’ll be sitting by myself with a jug of apple juice and a bag of animal crackers.”
Shade laughed and poked the wayward strands behind his ears. “That would be toddlers.”
“What?”
“I think your choir is going to be older. More like juice boxes and peanut butter and jelly.”
She waved her hands in distress. “See what I mean? I know nothing. And how do you know so much about it?”
“I read a lot.”
Candi dropped her purse in the chair by the door.
He rested his hands on his hips. The glare from his body art assaulted her one more time.
“Can’t you tell him you don’t want to do it?” His question was logical enough.
“No. If you’ll remember, he didn’t attach a think about it to my orders. This is my ministry, Shade, and a job I do here. Pastor Charles is my boss. When he asks me to do something, I have to try my best to do it because I have to assume he’s prayerfully following God’s divine instructions for this church. It’s my duty to support him and follow his lead.” She sighed and fidgeted with the bangles at her wrist. “Besides, when I ask too many questions or buck the system, I just get myself in trouble.”
Shade pushed away from the counter and walked to the picture wall. He studied each scene. “This is my favorite. Fishers of Men .”
Candi joined him and gazed at the eyes of a soulful and imploring Jesus as he paused at the Sea of Galilee to invite Peter and Andrew into discipleship. “Why this one?”
“Because I like to fish.”
Candi narrowed her eyes and smiled. “Despite the nets and the boat, there’s more to this painting than catching fish.”
His grin was smug. “I know what it’s about.”
She turned and headed for the door. “And you said you weren’t an evangelist.”
“I do like to fish, though.”
She shouldered her purse. “Come to think of it, I do too. Fishing is so quiet and reflective. And sometimes you catch something.”
He pulled the door open for her. “So let’s go fishing.”
“We have to get to practice.”
“Not now, later this week.”
She stopped and stared straight into his sincere gaze. He was completely serious. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not? We now have an early morning regular meeting on Fridays. Let’s just push it to Saturday and take it to the pond.”
“I don’t have a license.”
“Private property. None necessary.”
“I haven’t had a pole since I left home.”
“I have several.”
“Digging up night crawlers tends to ruin my nails for church.”
He let out an exasperated sigh as she made a swift getaway across the foyer and into the sanctuary. “Aw c’mon now, Candi, I’ll get the bait. It’s just fishing.”
She stopped short and spun around. Get to know him... Help him... Ask him...
“OK, OK, I’ll go. There’s just one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m not going anywhere with you in the Del Rio Destroyer.”