Summer of Joy

by Ann H. Gabhart

  Enjoy. She and David had kept whispering that word to one another all through what surely had to be the zaniest wedding rehearsal on record. Tabitha and Robert Wesley were making eyes at one another in a little world all their own. Stephen Lee was crawling under the pews. Myra Hearndon’s twins had crawled under the pews after him while Myra sang “The Lord’s Prayer.” Jocie had to leave her spot beside Tabitha and Leigh at the altar to corral them and sit them down on the pew beside Miss Sally who thankfully pulled a sack of graham crackers out of her purse to keep the babies still for a few minutes. The ring bearer and flower girl, Leigh’s cousin’s kids, took turns banging each other in the head with the ring pillow in spite of their mother’s loudly whispered reprimands.

  As if all that hadn’t been bad enough, her Uncle Howie had said he wasn’t really sure he could do the preacher’s version of the wedding. As a judge he always just used a civil ceremony to marry people. Zella got right in his face and told him he’d say the ceremony the way they told him to and that was it. When Zella had paused for breath, Wes had offered to do the Jupiter version. Zella hadn’t been amused. Neither were Leigh’s parents if their glum expressions were any indication as they sat on the second row and watched the madness.

  But then the rehearsal dinner made up for it all. Miss Sally took Leigh’s mother in hand and had her smiling and laughing before she’d downed her first glass of iced tea. Matt McDermott sat down by her father and talked tractors. Leigh hadn’t even known her father knew the first thing about tractors, but before long the two men were agreeing on which make was best at pulling a hay baler.

  Zella had cornered Leigh before Leigh even had a chance to fill her plate. “A bad rehearsal always means a smooth wedding. If the wedding is as good as the rehearsal was bad, then the ceremony should go off without a hitch.” Zella patted her curls that were looking a little limp in the heat of the overcrowded basement and fanned herself with a paper plate. The whole church congregation had obviously decided they were close enough family to be part of the rehearsal dinner.

  “I don’t care, Zella. Not as long as I end up hitched. To David.”

  Zella had rolled her eyes at Leigh. “Horses get hitched. Not people.”

  Leigh had mashed down a giggle. Giggling was probably something prospective brides her age shouldn’t do either. But then David stepped up beside her and whispered in her ear. “Enjoy.”

  So Leigh had laughed and done just that. Enjoyed. And she was going to enjoy today. Rejoice and enjoy. And count her blessings. Number one, David. Number two, David. Number three, David. Number five hundred and six, David.

  She had just poured the boiling water over her tea bag and sat down with her toast when she heard something out on her stoop. She sat very still without making a sound and hoped it was David coming by to say good morning before he went in to put in a few hours working on next week’s issue of the Banner. But of course it wasn’t. She knew who it was even before she saw the edge of white pushing through her keyhole.

  The man just would not leave her alone. Even after she’d practically run over his feet getting away from him the week before. Even after David had called him and told him to stay away from her. Even after he no longer had a job or a reason to be in Hollyhill. Even after she and David had gone together to talk to Randy Simmons, the chief of police, about the man bothering Leigh.

  “He’s a strange one,” Chief Simmons had agreed with them on that. “But I don’t know that anything you’ve told me is against the law. He calls you on the phone. You see him hanging around out on the street around your place. I can’t arrest him for that. I need some proof of some wrongdoing.”

  “What about the notes in my door? That’s proof he was there,” Leigh said. “When I didn’t want him to be there.”

  “I understand, Leigh. Really I do. But did he do anything illegal? That’s what I have to think about as an officer of the law. He’s at your door, but he’s not breaking and entering.” The chief looked at them across his desk.

  “God forbid,” David said as he reached over to hold Leigh’s hand.

  “Well, see, that’s what I mean,” the chief said. “He may be bothersome and a pain in the neck, but he’s not dangerous. He’s just trying to get your attention, Leigh. Change your mind about getting married to David here.”

  “But I’ve asked him to leave me alone. Over and over.”

  “Is he threatening you in any way? Saying anything obscene?” The chief picked up a pencil and a little notebook and waited for something to write down.

  “No,” Leigh admitted.

  “Then I don’t think there’s really anything I can do. Except maybe give him an earful if he bothers you again. Tell him to take a hike, but I can’t arrest him for trying to catch your eye.” Chief Simmons looked sorry about that as he put the notebook down and sat back in his chair. “Like I said, the man’s a strange one. He was in here himself just last week.”

  “What about?” David asked.

  “Research, he said. For that great American novel he’s writing. Asked me if I’d ever shot anybody in the line of duty. Then he sort of laughed and added ‘or not in the line of duty.’ And when I said I hadn’t ever found it necessary, he asked me if I thought I could if it was necessary. If I even knew how to get my gun out of my holster.”

  “Did you tell him you saw action in France during the war, Randy?” David asked.

  “I didn’t see how that was anything he needed to know. Course he does appear to be drafting age. Single and all like he is, I’m surprised he hasn’t already been called up. Could be he might have to serve some time in ’Nam if things don’t settle down over there. I wouldn’t envy the man that.”

  They’d ended up with Leigh promising to call the chief if Edwin Hammond showed up in her yard or on her doorstep again, and David promising to let the chief handle it if that happened.

  Chief Simmons had walked with them to the door of his office. “What is it now? Not even a week till the two of you tie the knot. Once you’re married, legal and all, this Hammond nut will give up on it and head back north to wherever he came from. One thing sure, nobody in Hollyhill will be sorry to see the heels of his shoes leaving town.”

  Now Leigh looked at the phone on the wall across the table from her. Too far away for her to reach without getting up. She didn’t want to move or make any kind of noise that might let Edwin Hammond know she was awake and listening to him out on her stoop. She had a thick bath towel draped over the window in the door. He couldn’t see inside even if he did try to make her believe he could.

  Leigh held her breath as the doorknob turned and the door rattled. She said a thanksgiving prayer that she’d gotten up and double-checked to be sure the door was locked the night before.

  “I know you’re in there, Leigh. I know you’re awake. I know you’re listening.”

  He wasn’t shouting, but his voice slid easily through the cracks around the old door. She wanted to put her hands over her ears. She wanted to scream until he went away. She bit her lip and sat very still instead. Maybe the chief was right. Maybe after today, after she was officially and finally Mrs. David Brooke, Edwin Hammond would give up and go away. She wanted him to go away right now. She didn’t need him trying to spoil the most wonderful day of her life.

  He was talking a little louder now. Leigh could almost see Mrs. Simpson downstairs peeking out her kitchen window trying to see what was happening. At least Leigh would have a witness if Edwin did cross the line from legally driving Leigh crazy to something Chief Simmons might consider illegal.

  “You can still make the better choice. You can still love me. I’ll take you away from here. I’ll make you soar to the heavens.”

  Funny, Leigh thought. The man had never said the first thing about loving her. It was always her loving him.

  “Let me in,” he said and began shaking the door. “I’ll make you mine.”

  Leigh stopped sitting there like one of the three little pigs while the wolf tried to tear d
own her door. She stood up and grabbed the phone, but she didn’t know the police department’s number. Back in Grundy, her mother had always kept the telephone number of the police taped to their phone. The strip of paper was brown with age with the tape curling up on the edges. Never once had her mother had the occasion to use it.

  Leigh knew that number by heart from seeing it a thousand or two times. A lot of good that did her. The Grundy police weren’t going to come run Edwin Hammond off. She started frantically searching for her telephone book under the piles of newspapers she’d been using to wrap her dishes. There was something to say for paranoia. At least then she’d know the number for the Hollyhill police.

  “Are you afraid to talk to me, Leigh Jacobson? Hiding like a little mouse in a hole? That’s what living here is doing to you. You’re a tiger, not a mouse.”

  Leigh dropped the stack of papers. She knew the county clerk’s number. She dialed it and asked Judy to call Chief Simmons. Then she went right to the door and pulled the bath towel off the curtain rod. She stared through the window at Edwin Hammond who started smiling at her.

  She kept her face blank. “Go away.”

  “The door’s old. I could break it.” His smile got wider. “Just a little harder push. That’s all it would take.”

  “Go away.”

  “You don’t really want me to go away. Not really. Your future is at stake. My future is at stake.”

  “Go away. Now.” A few streets away, Leigh heard a siren. Not a common sound in Hollyhill. Half the town would be running to their doors to see if it was the ambulance or the police stopping a speeder. No one would think it was a mentally unbalanced man at her door.

  “Never,” Edwin said. “I’m here to rescue you.”

  The siren was getting closer. Leigh didn’t say anything more as she very deliberately hung the towel back over the window in the door. Then she went back into the kitchen and sat down to drink her tea. Nothing, not even Edwin Hammond, was going to mess up this day for her.

  Outside she could hear Chief Simmons talking to the man, but she didn’t try to hear what either of them said. She got a piece of paper and began making a list of things she needed to take to the church. Her suitcase packed for their weekend at Cumberland Falls. Her dress and veil. Miss Sally’s handkerchief she was going to carry in the wedding for the something borrowed. The garter Zella had given her for the something blue. Her grandmother’s gold locket for the something old. Her white slippers would do for the something new.

  Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue was supposed to bring luck. But she and David didn’t have to depend on making luck. The Lord had blessed them by giving them love. She was just going to depend on the Lord to take care of them and to keep blessing them.

  There was a knock on her door. “Are you all right, Leigh?” Chief Simmons called.

  “I’m fine.” Leigh went to the door and opened it. She didn’t even look around to see if Edwin Hammond was gone. “I’m better than fine.”

  The chief smiled at her. “I can believe that. And you don’t have to worry about that joker anymore. I’ve sent him packing. You just enjoy the day.”

  “Oh yes, indeed.” One of the verses Aunt Love was always saying bubbled up inside Leigh so she just said it out loud. “‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. ’”

  “You sound like a preacher’s wife already.” The chief laughed and turned to start down the steps. He glanced back over his shoulder to say, “I’ll see you this afternoon. Me and the wife are looking forward to the big event. If you need any more help before then, you just give me another holler.”

  41

  Jocie was glad it wasn’t too hot as she carried her bridesmaid dress into the First Baptist Church. She didn’t want to make sweat circles under her arms on the beautiful dress. First Baptist was air-conditioned, so the temperature outside really didn’t matter all that much. Still, the weather being so near perfect was nice. As if the Lord was smiling down on them, celebrating the day with them. And she hadn’t once thought to say a good-wedding-day-weather prayer, but her father said the Lord sometimes answered prayers a person didn’t even think to pray.

  Of course she wasn’t the only person who might be praying for the day’s big event. The Mt. Pleasant people had put the wedding on their prayer list months ago. They were a praying church. Jocie’s father said so. Said he could feel when the people were praying for him. That it lifted him up. If so, he might be floating today.

  He might be floating anyway. He was that happy. And Jocie was that happy for him. And herself. It was going to be good having Leigh living with them. A little more crowded, but good. Jocie had never had a mom, but that’s what she wanted Leigh to be. Her mom.

  Jocie still cringed inside when she thought about her last words to DeeDee. She should have just told her she loved her and left off the hating part. She didn’t always have to tell the complete truth. She could mash her lips together and keep some of it inside. And those crazy spiders not only crawled around inside her ribs, they started biting on her when she thought about her mother saying Jocie was like her. Jocie didn’t want to be like DeeDee. She wanted to be like her father. Or Leigh. She wanted to be someone who cared about other people and not just herself.

  Her father had assured her she was when Jocie told him what DeeDee had said to her. “She said I was like her. Too much like her.”

  “She is your mother,” her father had said.

  “But I want to pick a new mother. I want Leigh to be my mother now.”

  Her father smiled. “That will make Leigh happy. And me. But Adrienne isn’t and never was all bad. She has force of character. She always knew what she wanted and went after it. She always looked for her own answers. Those are good traits to have, and some that you share for sure.”

  “But she hurt people doing that. I don’t want to hurt people.”

  Her father put his arms around her. “Just because you are like your mother in some ways doesn’t mean you’re like her in every way. We all make choices, and a big difference between you and your mother is that she never made the choice to step into the circle of the Lord’s love. You have. You know about how the Lord can walk along beside you and lift you out of troubles. You’ve trusted your life to him. But your mother was always afraid she’d have to give up too much to have that kind of trust. What she refused to believe is that when a person turns over his life to the Lord, he is set free.”

  “I told her the Lord loved her before she left. He does, doesn’t he?” Jocie raised her head off her father’s chest to peer up at him.

  “The Bible tells us the Lord loves us all. God is love. For God so loved the world. The world pretty much includes everyone, don’t you think?”

  Jocie had nodded and her father’s arms had tightened around her. “I’m so proud of you, Jocie. And so glad you are my daughter.”

  Jocie was glad about that too. And she was glad about her father marrying Leigh, but she wasn’t as glad about the whole wedding business. People just got too carried away about the smallest details when they had wedding fever. A fever Zella had obviously contracted weeks ago. When Jocie came through the church door, Zella dropped the bunch of sunflowers she was holding and practically ran up the church aisle to confront her.

  “My heavens, Jocelyn. Your hair. It looks the same as always. I thought Pamela was fixing it for you.”

  “She did. She worked on it early this morning.” Pamela at the beauty shop had set aside the whole morning to do everybody’s hair for the wedding. She’d even offered to do Aunt Love’s, but Aunt Love said her usual bun would be fine. She’d just put an extra flower on her hat.

  “Well, mercy sakes, she should have used hair spray.” Zella touched her own curls that were cemented in place.

  “She did that too. Really. I almost choked on the fumes. But my hair just won’t hold curls. Tabitha says she can do some kind of little braids on top of my hair in the back and
twine ribbons in with the braids. She found some ribbons the same blue as our dresses. That’ll dress my hair up a little.”

  “I guess it’ll have to do,” Zella said with a heavy sigh. “Now don’t be doing anything to mess things up today.”

  Jocie managed to not roll her eyes until she turned away from Zella. She’d promised her father she’d go along with whatever Zella said because this was probably the biggest day in the woman’s life since who knew what had happened.

  “But she’s not even family,” Jocie had protested.

  “Close enough,” Jocie’s dad had said. “And in ways this wedding, Leigh and me getting together, is a gift she feels she gave us. To be honest, without her prodding I might not have noticed Leigh and Leigh might have given up on me.”

  “I think the Lord had more to do with that than Zella,” Jocie had mumbled.

  “Could be, but letting her have such a big part in helping with the wedding is kind of our gift back to Zella. And you have to promise not to spoil her fun.”

  So Jocie bit her tongue and headed back to the Sunday school room where Leigh was sitting in one of the folding chairs in her slip and stockings, fanning herself while Pamela fussed over her hair. “You’re gonna look just beautiful, honey,” the woman said as she pulled a curl free with the pointed end of her comb.

  Actually Leigh already looked beautiful. Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes were sparkling. She was glowing all over. That was what Jocie told her. “You look fantastic, Leigh.”

  “I don’t even have my dress on yet. Or my makeup.”

  “You don’t need it,” Jocie said. “The makeup, I mean. I guess you’d better put on the dress. We wouldn’t want to have to print the headline ‘Bride Forgets Dress’ in next week’s Banner.”