Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
When ten o’clock rolled around, Caleb stood with Pastor Arnie in the makeshift parlor-sanctuary and slung his acoustic guitar’s strap around his neck. Although he wasn’t sure how all this would work out.
He’d chosen simple, well-known contemporary songs and a couple popular hymns. Time hadn’t allowed them to set up a screen for lyrics, but maybe the congregation would know the words.
With little time to prepare his mind or heart for the service, he’d looked back to the days when he led youth worship.
He’d focused on giving people an opportunity to worship, not worrying about the quality of music.
He’d do the same today. Nothing fancy, nothing showy.
Just an opportunity for people to worship Jesus.
He’d merely sing and play to the Lord, as he did every morning.
He waited for the pastor to step up to the “stage,” which was just a cleared area in front of the rows of chairs.
As a teen leading worship, Caleb had merely asked the Lord to show up in a service and listened for His voice as he sang and played a simple accompaniment.
Today would look the same. No hype, no complicated licks. Just worship from the heart.
Caleb had invited a boy and girl from the youth worship team to sing with him. The rest of the preteens and teens sat together in the front row. He surveyed the fifty or so people in the seats, including Granddad and a dark-haired female home health aide.
Then he spotted Ariel in the second row with her aunt, Uncle Augo, an older couple, and a man and boy, both with red hair. Likely her family. Ariel kept her eyes averted from Caleb, looking instead at her bulletin.
He’d considered asking her to sing but thought the attention needed to remain on the Lord instead of a celebrity visitor. Now he wished she was up here with him, partly so he didn’t have to see her downcast gaze.
Pastor was praying now, so Caleb strummed quiet chords, then started the first song about the goodness of God, cuing the young backup singers with a nod.
The words rang true for him as never before, hearing the mix of voices declaring that He had been faithful all their lives. And off to the side, Uncle Augo’s little dachshund added her own “awoos” of worship.
At least, that’s what his uncle always said they were.
When they reached the set’s end, and Caleb had played the last verse of “Amazing Grace,” he and his two singers left the makeshift stage. Caleb sat on the front row, where Ariel wouldn’t distract him.
After the preaching and last prayer, the congregation lingered, visiting and praying for one another, talking with Ariel and Miss Dahlia, drinking warm drinks, and eating berries and turnovers. The children and youth ran amok, which amazingly made Granddad smile.
Tara Chamberlain strode his way, on a mission as always. “Would you consider letting our Knitting for Jesus ladies meet here on Wednesday afternoons? They’ll go back to meeting in the church as soon as we get the new roof on and the drywall damage fixed.”
Knitting for…?
He hesitated, trying hard to keep a grin off his face but sadly failing. “What exactly is Knitting—”
When he let out an involuntary snort, Tara interrupted him with a whack on the bicep. “Stop. It’s the Golden Age Ladies’ knitting club, goofy. It’s not funny. They make prayer shawls for the nursing home on the mainland.”
He took a deep breath, schooled his expression. “Sure, they can knit for Jesus anywhere they want in the hotel.”
“Good. Now, what about Wednesday night Bible study?”
“Does it involve knitting?”
“No, but I’m about to knit your lips together. We’re studying the book of Revelation, and you’re welcome to join us if you dare.”
When the room cleared, Caleb stepped out onto the back street sidewalk, turned at the corner, and ambled toward the inn’s main entrance. Pastor Chamberlain stood there, chatting with a woman the age of the Knitting for Jesus group.
When she left, the pastor approached Caleb. “Thanks for hosting. Have you decided to stick around and run the inn?”
Caleb blew out a breath. “It’s hard to decide between a family obligation and a career I love.”
“You don’t love innkeeping, do you?”
“Nope. But I loved seeing Granddad walk from his seat to the wheelchair alone after the service.”
“With Ariel encouraging him.”
“Right.” Honestly, that woman could make any man think he could climb mountains, conquer an enemy, do the impossible.
Even when the man was almost seventy years old.
“How did you know you were called to ministry? Because I’m stuck here right now, living between two careers.
I’ve prayed until I’m prayed out, but I don’t know which path to take—my band or the inn. ”
“It took me a while. Sometimes the Lord speaks through circumstances, sometimes through another person, sometimes through the Word. Other times, He speaks to our hearts and we simply know what to do.” He sighed and gazed up at the church’s blue-tarped roof.
“Mostly, I think He puts in us a strong desire and the skills to carry out our calling.”
“If that’s the case, then I need to head back to LA and my band today. Because I’m failing here.”
“Failing how? You have some full rooms. You’re hosting the two biggest stars in Nashville, and you just provided a place of worship for fifty people on the spur of the moment. Plus you led worship well. What else do you want?”
Well, when he put it that way…
“Crickets chirped in this place before you got here. Give it to the Lord. When it belongs totally to Him, He’ll do with it what He wants. Keep listening for the Lord, and wait on Him.” Pastor Arnie started for the church then looked back. “You’ll get your answer when you least expect it.”
When the preacher walked on, Caleb strode to a grassy area along a back wall, where a few antique bricks lay discarded from an old, torn-down porch. He picked up a brick, then stood back and examined the structure he both loved and resented. Raised the brick to the heavens.
“Lord, this old brick used to help hold up this heap of a hotel,” he whispered. “Now I’m holding it up to You.”
He set the brick back on the pile. Then he reached in his pants pocket, pulled out a guitar pick, and pitched it on the ground. “I’m giving this to You too. Take the brick, take the inn. Take the pick, take the band. Do what you want with them both. With me.”
Until then, he’d do whatever his hands found to do.
And wait.
It was time to have a talk with Aunt Dahlia about the two men in their lives.
Heading for her family farm for the Sullivan family’s Sunday dinner, Ariel and Aunt Dahlia rode rented livery horses on the state park’s wide trail.
The path didn’t feel familiar anymore, although the park bordered the farm where Ariel would have grown up, if not for Mama and Aunt Dahlia deciding a different course for her life.
Strangely, she had no sense of coming home. Mama and Daddy came to some of her Midwest concerts. But her brother and sister felt more like beloved strangers than siblings, and the disconnect sometimes turned things awkward during their visits.
And Sam. Poor, angry Sam. Maybe her little gift of Jonathon Island fudge would cheer him up.
“We haven’t attended church as a family in years.” Her aunt rode Blaze, a buckskin gelding, beside Ariel on the tree-canopied trail. “I didn’t think I’d like parlor-church, but it turned out just fine. Caleb does better as worship leader than hotel manager.”
“Sam called Caleb a good church singer.” As Ariel and her chestnut mare, Reba, rounded a bend in the trail, she stole a glance at her aunt. She looked refreshed and pretty in her jeans, casual western-style shirt, and riding boots, with her wig in a low ponytail.
“I also heard that over a hundred kids signed up for your teen choir. It’s good marketing, it’ll bring in more money for the town, and the kids will never forget you.”
The compliment would have been sweeter and the ride more relaxing if Caleb hadn’t kissed Ariel. Or if Aunt Dahlia hadn’t caught them. “Thanks. But we need to talk about what you saw last night.”
“I would have known even if I hadn’t seen it, from the way you two looked at each other before and after the service.”
She pressed her hand to her chest, reins and all. “We did not!”
“Everybody knew it but the two of you.”
That couldn’t be true. Regardless…“Aunt Dahlia, I love you dearly, but isn’t it time you let me out of the bubble?”
“What bubble?”
“You and Doreen going everywhere with me and never letting me be alone, except in my room. If she’d been here, I wouldn’t have had one moment alone with Caleb.”
“Yes, and Isaiah let me down. I gave him strict instructions to stay with you last night, but he went to his room. When I asked him about it this morning, he said he wasn’t a watchdog, whatever that means.”
Bless you, Isaiah.
Regardless, it had to end. “It was a one-time kiss. We’re leaving soon, remember?”
“Distance doesn’t stop love,” she said a little wistfully.
Oh no. From the sound of her voice, Aunt Dahlia must be in love with Mr. Augo. But the band didn’t need a lovesick musician.
How do you broach the subject of your great-aunt’s love life?
“What else has been bothering you today, darlin’?”
Ariel should have known Aunt Dahlia would sense her strain. “I’m not bothered. Concerned, maybe.”
“I saw this coming,” her aunt said. “You want to get your love life out in the open, and we always discuss everything, so let’s do that with Auggie too. This is about him, isn’t it?”
“It’s none of my business, but since you—got involved in my little short-lived romance, I’ll get involved with yours. Aren’t you two moving a bit fast? I know you’re old flames, but you hadn’t seen each other in—how many years?”
Her aunt let out a deep breath. “Auggie and I met when I was twenty and he was twenty-eight. It was love at first sight, and he is the love of my life.”