Chapter Sixteen
Benson, Texas, might have been a small town, but there were three churches for people to choose from.
Mae had grown up in one of the major denominations, but when Cleo came to live with her and the ladies in her Sunday school class shunned her, she switched over to the Community Church where Cleo went.
Times had changed since then, and folks weren’t as judgmental as they had been decades ago, but Mae still attended services with Cleo.
Tina had been brought up in the Catholic faith, and her parents had taken her to Mass every Sunday morning.
If they still existed, there was a picture of her on the day she was baptized and one of her in her white dress at confirmation.
On that day, she became Martina Lynn Elizabeth O’Grady.
Her mother wanted her to use Virginia, but she had fought hard for Elizabeth since that was Cleo’s middle name.
When she walked inside the sanctuary with Cleo and Mae, the whispers sounded like the buzzing of bees. She tapped Cleo on the shoulder and raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, they’re probably talking about us. Just think of it this way: If they are, they’re giving someone else a rest,” Cleo said.
“How did you know what I was going to ask?”
“We know you,” Mae answered. “The noise will settle in about two minutes. Gloria will start playing the piano, and everyone will take their seats. Then we’ll sing.”
Tina would have gladly sat in the back, but Cleo and Mae marched right up front to the second pew. Cleo stood to the side and let Mae sit down first, then she nodded toward Tina.
“You go next,” she said.
“I’d rather sit on the outside. That way, if lightning shoots down from the rafters, I can get out faster,” Tina teased.
“Don’t you worry about God’s wrath.” Cleo shot a dirty look down the aisle toward the pew where Sabrina and Iris were sitting together. “He’s dealing with them right now. He don’t have time to mess with you.”
Tina took a couple of steps and sat down beside Mae. Cleo narrowed her eyes and set her mouth in a firm line and took her seat at the end of the pew. The whole place quieted down when a man went to the front, stood behind the pulpit, and cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry to announce that our song leader is down with the flu, so I’m going to call on Miz Cleo to come up here and take over this morning,” he said.
“He looks way too young to be a preacher,” Tina whispered to Mae as Cleo took her spot straight and tall behind the big oak lectern.
“Brother James has been with us two years now. I think he’s about thirty-five.” Mae cupped her hand around Tina’s ear and asked, “What do you think preachers look like, anyway?”
After growing up seeing her priest wearing a robe, Tina was surprised to see a man of God in blue jeans and a pearl-snap shirt. Brother James had sat down on the empty front pew, and Tina leaned forward to get a better look. Yep, he was also wearing cowboy boots.
“He is a hired hand on a ranch when he’s not preaching,” Mae whispered and picked up two hymnals from the pocket on the back of the pew in front of them. She handed one to Tina and kept the other for herself.
“We will begin this morning’s service with number 143,” Cleo said. “Pay attention to the words as you sing them. Love will surely lift all of us right up to a heavenly place, whereas bitterness keeps us grounded in ugliness.”
Tina had no doubt that Cleo was taking a little of Brother James’s thunder by doing a bit of preaching of her own. When the song ended, Cleo smiled at him. He shook her hand on the way to the lectern and looked out over the congregation until she sat down beside Tina.
“I thought there for a minute Miz Cleo was going to pick my berry bush plumb clean,” he chuckled.
“Evidently, she’s had the same teacher I had this week, because the Lord has laid it on my heart to preach about love this morning.
Those of you who brought your Bibles can turn to the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians. ”
Mae opened her Bible and shared it with Tina. “There’s an extra one at the house you can use if you join us next week,” she said out the corner of her mouth.
Tina didn’t have any idea if she would go with them again.
The real reason she was there that morning was to keep an eye on Sabrina and Iris, but her thoughts kept going back to Walker not wanting her to help with the tree.
She had thought that if she was there when the limb was cut away, she might have closure about her parents, about the past, about Gracie moving away—all of it.
She was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear a word of the sermon and was still off in her own little world when Brother James called upon Herman Richman to deliver the benediction.
“Sweet Lord,” Cleo groaned in a whisper. “Herman prays forever, and I’m hungry.”
“Shhh . . .” Mae shushed her.
Cleo was on her feet the second that Herman said, “Amen.”
“Let’s sneak out by the side door,” she said.
“We will not!” Mae said in a stern tone. “I want to properly introduce Tina to Brother James.” She stepped out into the aisle, and as luck would have it, she was right behind Iris.
Tina thought of the old saying If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
She hoped that Iris would just give them the cold shoulder and not say a word.
But, to be on the safe side, in case God didn’t grant her the wish, she leaned down close to Mae’s ear and said, “We still have time to escape out the side door.”
Mae stiffened her back and shook her head. “That hussy will not run me out of my church.”
Iris whipped around and glared at Mae. “Who are you talking about?”
It begins. Too bad there isn’t a mud puddle in here.
“It’s a sin to eavesdrop in church,” Mae told her.
Is that the truth, or something in the Gospel According to Mae?
“It’s a bigger one to call people names,” Iris shot back.
Sabrina turned slightly and tucked Iris’s arm into hers. “Come on, darlin’. We don’t need to shake Brother James’s hand this morning. That pot roast you have in the oven is calling my name.”
Run, little rabbit, run. Hide behind social media, but don’t ever stand up and let your accused face you.
“Does the Bible say anything about spreading gossip about things you don’t even know anything about? Inquiring minds want to know,” Tina asked in a sugary-sweet tone.
Sabrina looked up into Tina’s eyes with enough hatred to make the devil proud. “Don’t you even speak to me,” she hissed.
Cleo patted Tina on the back. “Well done, my child.”
Iris jerked Sabrina’s arm, pulling her forward to speak to Brother James.
“Wonderful sermon. I hope my neighbors weren’t sleeping, but I thought I heard Mae snore a couple of times,” Iris said.
“I was looking right at her, and she was paying attention. You must have heard someone else snoring,” James chuckled.
“I do love Sunday mornings,” Sabrina said in a syrupy tone. “I’d like to invite you to dinner at Aunt Iris’s. Your counseling has been so much help to me after the horrible way I was treated that we would love to repay you with a home-cooked meal.”
Poor man. If he’s not careful, he’s going to be hogtied and dragged down the aisle.
“I’ll have to take a rain check. The Richmans called last night to invite me,” James said. “Maybe next time.”
Mae stopped in front of the preacher and stuck out her hand. “Brother James, I want you to meet Tina O’Grady.”
He dropped Mae’s hand and shook with Tina. “Hello, and welcome home. You probably don’t remember me. I was about four years ahead of you in school. Will you be attending the all-class reunion in a couple of weeks?”
“I haven’t received an invitation,” Tina answered.
“We don’t send out personal ones,” James said. “It’s by word of mouth and flyers. I heard you were working at the feedstore. I’m sure there’s one on the window with all the information. I’ll hope to see you there. Please come back to our church anytime. We value Cleo and Mae so much.”
“Thank you,” Tina said. “So do I.”
The cool air inside the church rushed out when they opened the door, and sweltering-hot heat enveloped them. Cleo put a little extra speed in her step on the way to Tina’s vehicle and then moaned when she opened the passenger door to find that it was hotter still inside the SUV.
Tina slid behind the steering wheel, started the engine, and turned the AC up to the highest speed. “This is to give us a little taste of hell.”
“And to remind us that heaven will be perfect,” Mae added.
“Do you think Iris and Sabrina will have a sweet nature up there?” Tina asked.
“Honey, they won’t be there. That’s what will make it perfect,” Cleo said with a giggle.
Walker wiped sweat from his brow with a red bandanna and drank the last half of the water in his bottle. “I’m glad that job is done. Who would have thought that oak was so hard? Your grandpa’s chain saw was really whining there at the end.”
Lyle finished off his water, took aim, and threw the empty bottle toward the trash can thirty feet away. “That’s a three-pointer.”
Walker sat down on the back of the flatbed trailer, loaded with sticks, branches, and even some trash that the storm had dropped. “I bet recruiters from all over the Southwest will be after you to sign a contract.”
Lyle shook his head. “I love basketball, but it’s not my first love, or even second, right now.
I’d like to lead the team to a state championship next year, but I’m tired of school.
I want to be a farmer like my grandpa, but my folks are bound, damned, and determined that I’m going to be a pro player.
I feel like I’m living their dream, not mine. Got any advice?”
“Just to follow your dream, whatever it is,” Walker answered.
“If you don’t, then you’ll always look back with regrets, but be sure that it is what you want and not a little bit of rebellion rearing up its head.
If the latter is the case, you might be sorry that you listened to that voice in your head. ”