Molly had spoken to Mrs. Carruthers and she
had agreed to accept Philip’s father as a temporary boarder. Philip had not
been able to rent the manse. Mr. Lincoln, a lawyer and an elder in the Peck
Presbyterian Church heard that Philip’s father was a Presbyterian minister.
“What church does he pastor?”
“He just left a church where he had been
pastoring for ten years. He is coming here to rest up before he starts looking
for another church.”
“Do you think that he would be willing to
preach for us while he is here? It is almost impossible to get an ordained
minister, even a retired minister, to come to us and supply the pulpit. They
have these lay preachers. Some of them are okay, but some of them remind me of
those old codgers who sit around a table drinking coffee and jawing endlessly
in the community room at the bank. Some Sundays we just have one of the members
read from a book. Of course that is the way John Wesley was converted. A layman
read from the Introduction to Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians.”
“You can ask him when he gets here. If he
calls me before he gets here, I’ll tell him that you are going to ask him.”
*************
That evening I called Philip.
“Hi, Dad. How are you?”
“Well, I haven’t seen Nathaniel and Joy
hasn’t heard from him. I decided to hang around several more days in Pecos. The
executive presbyter of Wyoming Presbytery wants me to supply the pulpit in a
vacant church in Laramie, Wyoming on Sunday, December 12. The next day I will
drive to Billings, Montana, stay overnight and the drive to Wolf Point the next
day. Be the good Lord willing I’ll arrive at your house on Tuesday evening
December 14.”
“Dad I found you a place to stay. You’ll be
boarding with a widow woman in town, Mrs. Caruthers. You will be her first
boarder. She really should have started taking in boarders long before this.
Also, Mr. Lincoln, the only lawyer in town, and
an elder in the Peck Presbyterian Church is going to ask you to supply
the pulpit for them while you are in town. I wanted to warn you so he won’t
catch you by surprise.”
“Have you had any messages or mail for me?”
“None.”
“Tell the children that I love them and I am
looking forward to seeing them. Are there stores there where I can buy
Christmas presents or should I do my Christmas shopping in Texas while I am
killing time?”
“There is not too much left in the stores
here. However, for Molly and I, your being here for Christmas is all the gift
we want. Children are not so altruistic. You can’t go wrong with any kind of
doll for Polly. Billy wants a snow board, but I haven’t been able to find one,
so if you can find a snow board, I’ll get him something else.”
“Fine. You have my cell phone number don’t
you?”
“Yes. I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too, Philip.”
From Pecos, Texas to Laramie, Wyoming was
going to be a long drive. I decided to drive from Pecos to Las Vegas, New
Mexico on Wednesday, from Las Vegas, New Mexico to Cheyenne, Wyoming on
Thursday, stay overnight in Cheyenne, Wyoming Thursday night and spend Friday
shopping in Cheyenne. Then I’d spend another night in Cheyenne. It would just
be a short drive to Laramie. Saturday I could spend some time looking around
the town before checking into the Hampton Inn.
I still had several days to spend in Pecos. I
went down to the desk and extended my stay to include Tuesday night.
I called Joy to find out if she had heard
from Nathaniel.
“Yes, Reverend Sterner. I just got off the
phone with him. He doesn’t sound good. He is coming here on Tuesday.”
“Did you tell him that I was in town?”
“Yes.”
“If he calls again, please let him know that
I am staying in the Hampton Inn in Pecos. Give him my cell phone number. Tell
him that I will be in town until Tuesday night. I’m leaving on Wednesday
morning.”
“I will. I promise that I will.”
“Where do you and your children go to
church?”
“We go to a Methodist church in Pecos.”
“Would you mind if I went with you this
Sunday?”
“We’d love that.”
“What time should I come to your house?”
“We leave at 9:30 so that the children can go
to Sunday School.”
On Sunday morning I went to Wesley Chapel
United Methodist Church with Joy, Sean, and Eibhlin. The church was the adobe,
Mexican type of architecture so prevalent in West Texas, New Mexico, and
Arizona. After the opening exercises, the children went to their Sunday School
classes, Joy went to the Ladies Bible Class and I went into the Men’s Bible
Class.
There was a Sunday School booklet with a Bible lesson and then the
Sunday School lesson. However, the discussion twisted and turned from abortion
advocates to the Gay Power parade in Denver the day before, to the ineffectual
work of the Border Patrol and on and on. When I interjected a remark, no one
even looked at me. They just continued their discussion as though it had not
been interrupted. I believe that if someone would record their discussions each
week, they would probably be almost the same topics.
The Worship service was excellent. The choir
had obviously rehearsed diligently. The prayers, Scripture lessons and sermon
were all excellent and well thought out. After the service I introduced myself
as “Reverend Joshua Sterner” and told the minister that he had an excellent
sermon and I could tell that he had spent a good deal of time preparing it and
praying beforehand. He drank my words thirstily. It isn’t often that a pastor
receives compliments that acknowledge how much work he has spent on the sermon.
After Church I took them to a restaurant
which Joy assured me was the children’s favorite. After the children ate
everything on their plate, the waitress gave them each three tokens which they
could use in the video games at the back of the room. Joy and I then could eat
our pie and drink our coffee in peace.
That evening Nathaniel called me. He must
have called Joy first to have my number.
“Dad, things are falling apart for me.”
“How is that, son?”
“I was at Camp Dawson with six National Guard
units. One night out in the field I just fell apart. I fell down on my knees
and was crying and screaming. I thought I was back in Afghanistan. They took me
back to my trailer, gave me tranquilizers, and made me stay there several days
until the troops were going back to Texas. Now I am going to be ordered to go
back to Fort Bragg. There I will have to undergo psych evaluations and
interviews. It is up in the air whether I can even stay in the Army.”
“Son, I’ll be praying for you. I’ll be in the
Hampton Inn in Pecos through Tuesday night. Maybe we can get together.”
“I’d like that. Let’s plan on having supper
together Tuesday evening. I’ll call you after I get to town.”
“Good. Let’s have a brief prayer. ‘Lord, you
know how upsetting this is to Nathaniel. All that he ever wanted to be was a
soldier in Special Forces. Now the very thing he wants to do has turned on him.
Help him to know your will. Work in the hearts of the doctors and his
commanders to decide what is Your best for him. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.’”
“Amen.”
Tuesday Nathaniel walked in the door of Joy’s
house at 11 a.m. Joy ran across the room and hurled herself into his arms.
“Nathaniel, I have missed you so much!”
“I’ve missed you a lot. We have to talk about
something serious.”
“Sit down here. Let me snuggle into you while
you tell me all about it.”
When Nathaniel sat down on the sofa, Joy sat
as close as possible, dropped her head onto his shoulder and wrapped one arm
across his body.
“While I was at Camp Dawson, one night I just
fell apart. There were explosions and firecrackers to sound like rifle fire. I
thought that I was in Afghanistan. I fell to the ground and looked for shelter,
but in the darkness there was none. I covered my ears and started shouting and
screaming all kinds of things. At first the other soldiers thought it was part
of the exercise, but a lieutenant who happened to be there, and who has had two
tours in combat, recognized that I was in trouble. He had some soldiers take me
back to the Team headquarters. They called for a medic who gave me a shot. I
was taken to my trailer. A soldier stayed there with me. I wasn’t allowed to
leave it until they came back to Texas.
“ I had to report what had happened to my unit
commander at Ft. Bragg, NC. I have been ordered to PCS there. I will be put on
30 days leave, probably Thursday or Friday, until about the 7th of
January. Then I will be stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina permanently
while they put me through psych exams, physical exams, send me to counseling,
and the rest of the time I’ll be supervising other “Wounded Warriors” while
they pick up candy wrappers and cigarette butts or set up folding chairs. In
the end they will decide my future in the Army. I seriously doubt that they
will allow me to stay in Special Forces, but they might transfer me to another
branch. They could find that I am not able to perform military duty any longer.
In that case they would give me a medical discharge.”
Joy was clinging to him and sobbing.
Nathaniel didn’t know what more to say. He
put an arm across her body and they sat hugging one another for a very long
time.
“Joy, let’s go look at each other across a
pizza. I’m hungry.”
They went to an Italian restaurant that had
good pizzas and played Italian music in the background. The waitress brought
two very fresh, crispy salads along with two plates for their pizza. Then she
brought a large pizza and set it down on the other side of the table from them.
They ate slowly and looked at one another, as hungry to take in the face and expressions
of the other as they were to eat the salad and pizza. At one point Nathaniel
beckoned to the waitress.
"Do you have hot coffee?”
“We have coffee, espresso, and cappacino. My
recommendation is the specialty of this restaurant – black currant tea. No
other restaurant within a hundred miles has it. It is special!”
They both had black currant tea and continued
to sit in silence. Nathaniel thought of a line from a song, “The Trumpet Vine”
by Kate Wolf, “Sometimes we said the most when we never spoke a word.”
They were probably in the restaurant for two
hours and then they left. They drove back to Joy’s house in silence. Inside Joy
sat on the sofa and patted the seat beside her.
“Sit here. It is my turn to talk. My parents
live in Pecos. I’ve never taken you to their house. Mom is in a wheelchair most
of the time, although she can stand up for short periods of time. Dad has
Alzheimer’s. Mom hasn’t put him in a nursing home because she needs his Social
Security check. She will have to put him in a nursing home when he gets worse.
He will get worse, because Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease. When that
happens, Mom won’t be able to stay in the little cottage they rent. She will
either have to come and live with us or go into an assisted living facility or
even a nursing home. I can’t/won’t leave Pecos for the foreseeable future
because of my parents’ situation.
“At the same time, I want to marry you. I
don’t want to wait to marry you. I want to marry you as soon as possible. Your
father left your mother’s engagement ring with me. I want to be wearing it
before the end of this day. If you don’t propose to me, I am going to propose
to you. Or maybe I already have.”
Nathaniel’s jaw dropped. He was speechless.
Then he dropped down on his knees and looking into Joy’s eyes he said,
“I know this is crazy. You’ve hardly known me
- a little more than a month. I’m damaged goods. Will you marry me?”
“Oh, yes, Nathaniel, a thousand times yes.”
They stood up and kissed for a long, long
time. They were interrupted by the children coming in from school. Joy went
into her bedroom and came back with the ring.
“Children, be quiet for a moment. I want you
to see something special.”
She handed the ring to Nathaniel. He took her
left hand and slid the ring onto her ring finger. The children cheered and
clapped while Nathaniel and Joy enjoyed another long kiss.
“Yay. Sergeant Sterner is going to be our
daddy!”
“Okay, you kids go get washed up from school,
eat your snacks and then go to your rooms until supper. Your Mom and I have some
things to talk about. I won’t be here for supper. I’m going to have supper with
my father this evening. He has to leave tomorrow morning.”
After the children had gone to their rooms,
Nathaniel turned to Joy.
“Here is what I suggest. We can be married on
Saturday, January 1. We can go on a honeymoon after the wedding until January
5. January 6 I will leave for North Carolina. In the beginning I don’t know how
hard it will be to get a pass. I will try to come back for the weekend once a
month. It will probably have to be that way for as much as two years. After
that, if they allow me, I’ll transfer to somewhere closer. My future is so
uncertain, I can’t even guarantee that.”
“I am not asking for guarantees. I am asking
to be yours. I will be here for you, waiting and wanting you.”
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