Chapter 11
As Anna reluctantly took her place in the pews between Caroline and Grandma, the warmth of the busy church made her ache with lingering tiredness. At least it was an hour or so when she could just zone out.
“I’ve got ten dollars for the plate,” Grandma said quietly. “Have you got yours, Claire?”
“No, Mom, not this week. And ten is too much anyway. We need every cent right now.”
“He helps us in our hours of need.”
“Yeah, well, I feel like I’m in my hour of need right now, so if he could work a lottery win, that would be great.”
Caroline’s sharp elbow nudged Anna, and when she looked across, her little sister rolled her eyes and grinned, finding it funny, Mom being treated like a kid again.
Anna smiled back, a rare moment of sisterhood.
Maybe they were getting closer, being in the house together again.
This time Anna had no social life distractions, no eagerness to spend all her free time out in the world having fun, and Caroline was nearly a teenager herself.
As the organist began to play, the full congregation fell into an expectant hush, and then Pastor Keene appeared from the back of the church and took his place center stage, holding up his hands as if lifting something and greeting them all with a benevolent smile.
“O God, our resurrection and life, the promise of your new life in Christ is like a breath of fresh air in a dry and thirsty land. We have gathered as believers, and as those who are honestly seeking the truth. Guide our worship in this hour.”
A streak of sunlight cut through the high windows like a spotlight on a superstar, and his dark hair shone and his eyes sparkled against his pale skin.
His gaze moved around the room, taking them all in—it’s my job to know my flock—and as his eyes landed on Anna she was sure she saw an extra twitch of a secret smile at the corner of his mouth.
Was that an acknowledgment of their meeting last night, or because he’d followed her home, lights out in the dark?
She glanced around. With perhaps the exception of Mom, who looked like she might fall asleep where she sat, the rest of the congregation was alert and focused on the pastor, almost rapt.
It wouldn’t be going too far to say that some among them stared at him with something close to adoration.
It was weird. Surely most people went to church out of a sense of duty, a habit, because their folks had, because it was part of the community, not because they were full of belief.
As the organ music rose and Pastor Keene flicked his hands as a signal for them to stand for a hymn, Anna reluctantly got to her feet.
She didn’t sing, just moved her mouth in pretense.
Not that it mattered. Grandma was loud enough for everybody, her head high, no songbook needed for her.
She knew all the words. She could remember those well enough.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
As she mouthed silent nothings, Anna looked around her, picking out the people she was starting to know.
Jeannie and Miles in their Sunday best, Jeannie’s hair frozen into place with half a can of hair spray as she held her head high.
Both she and Miles singing their hearts out.
The Millers and the McArthurs, the two families who’d been in the diner the previous day, were next to each other, the Millers’ carefully mended thrift store clothes faded next to the bright crisp colors of the McArthurs’ expensive outfits.
William McArthur’s silver belt buckle was large and garish, his initials stamped in it in gold, but he’d paid for the Miller family’s food and not made a big deal out of it, so Anna gave him a pass on its ostentation.
To her left and farther forward was the tall figure of Todd Greenbough next to the sheriff, both men in their uniforms. A woman with a sleek bun was beside the sheriff and must have been his wife, given that the two teenagers sitting with her had the same unruly dark hair as he did.
Todd’s little sister, Holly, Caroline’s friend, probably the only one of Caroline’s new friends Anna recognized, was up in the choir, which was a mixture of children and adults.
She was front and center, a perfect angel of prettiness.
No wonder Caroline was so keen to hang out with her.
Anna would bet money that she was the most popular kid in the class. Her brother had probably been too.
She looked again at the back of Todd Greenbough’s undeniably handsome head and broad shoulders.
She was glad she wasn’t in his sight line.
Suzy, over near Jeannie and Miles and with a woman who looked so much like Jeannie she had to be Suzy’s mother, was snatching hungry glances at Todd as she sang.
Anna had no intention of getting on her bad side over a man she herself had no interest in.
When the hymn ended, the pastor talked about entering some charity prize draw gifted by the sheriff’s office for a five-day city break in Omaha—which got even the teenagers paying attention—and then started delivering his sermon.
It was something about farming and community, as if God was going to hear him and make it rain.
Sitting there in the sweaty warmth, Anna couldn’t imagine it ever raining again.
She zoned out as her eyelids grew heavier.
She hadn’t had enough sleep. She felt like she hadn’t slept properly since the thing, and as the pastor continued his long and tedious sermon, Anna slid a little down in the pew and bowed her head, letting her hair fall across her face, hiding it.
She closed her eyes, immediately feeling better.
Ten minutes dozing, that was all she needed.
She’d be awake before the next hymn. A catnap.
No one would notice. The warmth seeped into her bones, and she tumbled into the void of half dreams before the thought was even finished.