ESCAPE - Chapter 12

   On Friday, November 12, just before I left the church at noon, the bank called to tell me that my accounts had been unfrozen. I had been carrying more than $1500 in large bills in my coat pocket. I went to Mr. Capon’s office to pay his bill and also to retrieve the audit, and the two envelopes containing cancelled checks and receipts. I paid him his bill which he made an even $500. He gave me the check from Matthew. I deposited it at the bank.

   Miss Doris Hammaker was doing a terrific job for me. I told her to wash and dry several piles of clothes in addition to cleaning the house. She left the house spotless and she had even ironed my shirts that were in the wash.

   I sent a check to the Presbytery for $1000 along with a note of thanks. In it I told Joe that the lawsuit was dropped.

   On Sunday my sermon was “Solus Christus” (only through Christ). The attendance was normal. Again, no one mentioned that I was leaving at the end of the month. After lunch I took a long nap. There was no one in the hospital, so after my nap I joined Bilbo Baggins and crew.

**********

   Matthew and his wife belonged to a large Presbyterian church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was faithful in attending church with his family, even though his business partners and clients were usually on the golf course on Sunday morning. Today it was raining, so they were probably going through the “Wall Street Journal”. Matthew wanted his boys to be in Sunday School and church. There was a junior church, but he wanted his boys sitting in the pew with Traci and himself and behaving. That hadn’t been easy, but they had been getting with the program lately.

   The minister’s sermon was on John the Baptist’s challenge, "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none;…” ( Luke 3:11). Matthew thought of Tom. That inheritance had meant far more to Tom than it did to him. In conversations with him, he gathered that Tom was under a lot of pressure from his wife and her family to buy a larger house. After all, he had three daughters living in a small two bedroom house. Matthew knew he could probably give Tom $60,000 of his own money. Traci didn’t know anything about his bank accounts and investment accounts. As long as the money was there for her shopping and entertaining, she didn’t know or care how much was left.

   Matthew lost track of the minister’s sermon as he thought about Tom. Charity would tear down Tom’s self-respect which was really getting battered as it was. He could send legal work to Tom. If he did satisfactory work, he would send him more. He would send him notes with the work like, “The firms here in Charlotte would charge such and such amount to do this work and would have it completed in a week.”  He would select work that Tom could do without a team of legal aides and secretaries. Yes, it was in his power to help Tom and he was going to start right away.

**********

   That evening, on the spur of the moment, I called Philip.

   “Philip, how are you and Molly and my two grandchildren?”

   “Just fine, Dad. More to the point, how are you?”

   “I’m okay. Still missing your mother. The reason I called is that I wanted to run an idea by you and Molly. I’d like to come out there for a couple weeks and be there for Christmas. That would be too long to stay in your home. Is there a place out there where I could rent a room? I’m leaving the church here at the end of this month. I thought I would go out to Texas and visit Nathaniel a couple days. He has a girl friend now. Has he told you?”

   “Wow Dad. I feel like a landslide of boulders has come down off a mountain – you are leaving the church; you’ll be here for Christmas; Nathaniel has a girl friend.”

When Philip said, “you’ll be here for Christmas” there was an outburst of cheering from the background.

   “Well, Dad, you can tell how we feel about you coming here for Christmas. That will be better than Santa Claus coming. As for renting you a room – we have enough room for you here.”

   “You probably do, but I will feel more comfortable about staying a couple weeks or longer if I have my own place where I can go and be to myself.”

   “I understand. I’ll look around. When I find something, I’ll give you a call. We can talk about those other two boulders when you get here.”

Monday morning I went to the bank and ask for the trust officer.

   “Good morning, Pastor Sterner, my name is Malcolm Donahue. I am the Bank’s trust officer. How can I help you?”

   “I’m afraid the business that I am bringing you will be a nuisance compared to the big estates you are probably accustomed to handling. My wife died last month. Her will is in my lock box here in the bank. According to her will, if I survive her, everything that we owned jointly goes to me. Whatever is in her name only is to be divided equally among our sons. Further, she designated me as the executor, or if I was not able, then this bank was to be her executor. As far as what is in her name only, it is in an account in your bank under her name, Laura Claudette Sterner. I was sued for mishandling the account so I had it audited by Graham Bilton. After the audit was sent to the plaintiffs, they withdrew the lawsuit. I am not able to execute her will because I am leaving town. This is my last month as pastor at First Presbyterian Church. I would not have time to submit the will for probate, advertise three weeks in the newspaper, and wait for bills to come in response to the ads. I wasn’t able to begin earlier because of the lawsuit.”

   “We appreciate your confidence in us. You understand that the bank will charge the estate the percentage established by law, plus any expenses we incur. These items will be deducted from the estate before it is distributed. You mentioned a bank account in your wife’s name. Did she own any real estate, stocks or bonds or jewelry?”

   “She has some savings bonds in the lock box, but they are payable to me upon death. All of her jewelry is in the lock box. She did not own any real estate.”

   “We will have the jewelry appraised by a jeweler. If you or any of her sons want any or all of the pieces, they will be given first opportunity to buy the jewelry at the appraised value. I have some forms for you to sign. I will need you to give me the names and addresses of your sons. Also, after you sign the forms, you may not write any checks against your wife’s account. If you have not written any checks since the audit was made, we will accept that audit and it will save the estate the cost of another audit.”

   After I signed the forms authorizing the Bank to act as the executor of Laura’s estate, I shook hands with Mr. Donahue and left. With only two weeks left, I began to concentrate on packing. I went to the U-Haul store and bought twenty-five boxes. I began by packing my books. When I had about a dozen boxes packed, I carried them out to the car. I had the trunk and all the seats filled. I picked up some pieces of wood to put the boxes on so that moisture from the concrete floor in the storage shed wouldn’t ruin the books.

   I made two trips to the shed that day. By supper time I was hungry and exhausted. I went to Jim’s Hamburger Heaven and ordered a large hamburger with pickles, onions, and mustard, onion rings, and a Lime Diet Coke. When I got back home, I sprawled out on the couch and watched a couple episodes of Doc Martin. I wondered if Philip ever watched the show and if he sometimes wished that he could talk to his patients like Doc Martin does.

   The next morning I took the remaining five boxes to the church and packed up the books that I had in the study. Then I went on the computer to see if I could find any material for next Sunday’s sermon “Soli Deo Gloria” (only to God be the glory). I found out that Johan Sebastian Bach carved “soli Deo Gloria” on his organ and that on every music piece he wrote he signed it with the initials of that phrase “S.D.G.” Also, it occurred to me that the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is “What is the chief end of man?” “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” So I had some ideas to start with.

   As I was going out to the car carrying the boxes one at a time, Diane said,

   “You have several messages. I didn’t want to disturb you. The most important one is that Mrs. Alfritz is in the hospital. I’ll put them on your desk along with your mail.”

   I went through the mail. One envelope was from Joe Sheetz. He enclosed a blank minister’s data form. One of the messages was to telephone him before I filled it out.

**********

   On Tuesday morning Nathaniel signed out on pass and drove to Pecos to see Joy. He had a heavy heart because he had bad news to tell her. He reached her home about ten o’clock in the morning. She was anxiously waiting for him.

   “Hey, soldier, I’ll bet you haven’t had a good breakfast yet, judging by that glum look. Not to worry I have some huevos rancheros ready for the frying pan. How does that sound?”

   “That sounds great, but I have some rotten eggs to throw out to you.”

   “You don’t have an appetite? You found a younger girl than me?”

   “I have to go away for several weeks. The units I advise are having their annual training at Camp Dawson, near Kingwood, West Virginia. I will have to go ahead of them and make arrangements. The thing of it is, I think they are going to be put on notice that they will be deployed soon. Probably in January they will be sent to Camp McGregor, New Mexico for predeployment training and from there they will be sent to Fort Bragg, NC from where they will be deployed to Afghanistan. If they go, I’ll have to go, too.”

   “Nathaniel, we have today and tomorrow together. You are a soldier; when orders come down, you have to go. I want you to know this: I will be here waiting. I have already decided that you are the man for me. Until you tell me otherwise, I will wait for you no matter how far or how many times the Army sends you away. I’ll write to you, I’ll pray for you, I’ll wait for you. Now let’s eat some Mexican omelets.”

   “I don’t know what to say. I’ve never had any serious attraction to a woman. I told myself that the kind of job I have just left a wife and children out of the equation. Then suddenly I met you and you turned me upside down. I never understood what people meant when they said that they were in love. I understand it now. I feel so happy, so complete, so much at peace when I am with you. I just love your children and they make me feel like I am important to them, not just tolerated for Mom’s sake, or accepted for politeness’ sake.”

   Joy went to the stove and fixed the huevos rancheros. They both applied themselves to eating until their plates were empty. Joy collected the dishes and took them to the sink to wash. Nathaniel picked up a dish towel and dried the dishes. Afterward they went walking around the neighborhood. One would ask the other a question about himself/herself and the other would answer. Both of them were eager and hungry to know all about the other one.  They walked and talked until it was almost time for the children to come home. They agreed to write to one another until Nathaniel returned. Then Nathaniel said,

   There is something that I have been holding back on telling you. Since my last tour in Afghanistan, I sometimes react strangely to sudden noises or sudden moves behind me. I sometimes have nightmares where I yell out or scream or cry. Then I have to get out of the house or building and walk for hours until I am all right again.”

Joy took his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder.

   “We will work our way through whatever it is. I want to be in it with you, through the good and the bad.”

   “Don’t you get it? I’m damaged goods.”

   “No. You are damned good!”

   Nathaniel hugged her.

**********

   Tom received several sheets of yellow, blue lined, legal size note paper with names, prices, various specifications, deadlines, and penalties. There was a note from Matthew:

   “Tom, use the enclosed data to draw up a contract between the parties whose names I have listed. The law firm we are using would charge us $750 to draw up this contract. You could probably do the job, charge $500 and still make money on it. When you send me the completed contract, I’ll try to make the case that we should send some of our legal work to you. It will make me look good that I have found a way that saves the firm considerable money.”

   Tom drew up the contract, and used the computer to make it look very professional. He made four copies. He sent them back to Matthew with this note:

   “Matthew, I appreciate you thinking of me and wanting to include me by having me do some legal work for your firm. I am enclosing the contract that I created from the information you gave me. I am not sending a bill because I do not have a license to practice law in North Carolina. You will have to either have a North Carolina lawyer approve the contract or let him start all over again. I am going to find out the next date that the North Carolina bar exam will be given. If I pass it, then I will get a license. Then, I will be able to practice law in North Carolina, and I will be happy to do legal work for your firm.     Thank you again.  Tom”