Time to Laugh Romance Collection

by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Using an artificial flower and a child’s doctor kit, she did a pantomime, showing how the flower was sick and needed healing. She then explained out loud how the idea was compared to people who have things in their lives that make them sin-sick. “Jesus is the Great Physician,” she said. “He will take away our sins if we ask Him to forgive us.”

  The children seemed to grasp the message, but they weren’t spellbound, as the audience was when she’d seen Joe perform.

  After class Lois washed her face, changed out of her costume, and slipped into a dress to wear to church. Maybe I need to take another clowning class. I could learn how to juggle or maybe do some tricks … anything to leave a better impression.

  After church, Lois went with Tabby and Seth to dinner at a restaurant along the waterfront. As soon as they were seated, Seth informed Lois that this was the place he and Tabby had eaten after returning from their first date in Seattle.

  Sitting at the table overlooking the beautiful bay, Lois couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of her sister. She was married to her soul mate and glowed like a sunbeam. Lois knew she was still young and had plenty of time to find the right guy, but she didn’t want to wait. She’d met a Christian man—one who made her laugh and feel accepted and who didn’t seem to care about wealth, power, or prestige. She saw only one problem: Joe kidded around so much that she didn’t think he’d ever take their relationship seriously.

  “Lois, did you hear what I said?”

  Tabby’s pleasant voice halted Lois’s disconcerting thoughts. She turned away from the window and offered her sister a halfhearted smile. “Sorry. I guess I was deep in thought.”

  “Tabby and I have an announcement to make,” Seth declared.

  Lois lifted her eyebrows. “I hope you’re not leaving on another trip. I really missed you guys while you were gone.”

  Tabby shook her head. “I think we’ll be sticking close to home for the next several months.”

  “Yeah—seven to be exact,” Seth put in. He slipped his arm around Tabby and drew her close.

  Lois narrowed her eyes. “I don’t get it. Why will you be staying close to home for the next seven months?”

  Before Tabby could reply, the light suddenly dawned. “Are you expecting a baby?”

  Her sister nodded, and tears welled up in her eyes. “The baby’s due in the spring.”

  With mixed emotions, Lois reached across the table and grasped Tabby’s hand. “Congratulations!” She glanced over at Seth. “I’m happy for both of you.”

  Lois was delighted to hear her sister’s good news. It meant she would soon be an aunt, and Tabby deserved the opportunity to be a mother. But somewhere inside was her own desire to be married and have a family. She only hoped it would happen someday. “You’ll both make good parents,” she said sincerely.

  “Sure hope so, ’cause we’re really excited about this,” Tabby said.

  The waitress came to take their order, interrupting the conversation.

  “I put on a little clowning skit for my Sunday school class this morning,” Lois said, after the waitress left the table.

  Tabby’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? What prompted that?”

  “I took one of Joe’s clowning classes a few weeks ago.”

  “You never said a word about it,” Tabby said, shaking her finger at her sister.

  “I wanted to see if I could do it before saying anything.”

  “So how’d it go?” Seth asked.

  Lois shrugged. “Okay, I guess. The kids seemed to get the message, but I think they were disappointed because I didn’t do anything exciting, like balloon twisting, juggling, or some kind of trick.”

  “If you think clowning is something you want to pursue, maybe you should take another class or two,” Tabby suggested.

  “I hear there’s going to be a workshop in Portland next weekend,” Seth said. “A clown from Salem will be teaching the class. He has a bubble-blowing specialty he’s added to his routines. Should be interesting.”

  Lois leaned forward, smiling. “I might look into that one. I think blowing bubbles would be a whole lot easier than creating balloon animals.”

  Tabby snickered. “As I recall, you always did enjoy waving your wand around the backyard and seeing how many bubbles you could make at one time.”

  Lois laughed. “And you liked to see how many you could pop!”

  Joe hung up the phone and sank to the couch. Still no answer at Lois’s place. She should have been home from church by now.

  Just then the phone rang, causing Joe to jump. He grabbed the receiver. “Joe Richey here.”

  “Hey, big brother! Long time no talk to.”

  Joe’s mouth fell open. He hadn’t heard from Brian in nearly a year. Not since he’d called asking to borrow money to pay his overdue rent.

  “Joe. You still there, buddy?”

  Joe inhaled sharply and reached up to rub the back of his neck. He could almost see his brother’s baby face, long, scraggly blond hair, and pale blue eyes. “Yeah, I’m here, Brian. What have you been up to?”

  “Keepin’ busy. And you?”

  “Oh, about six feet two.” Joe chuckled at his own wisecrack, but Brian’s silence proved he wasn’t impressed. “You still living in Boise?”

  “Not anymore. I needed a new start.”

  Joe shook his head. A new start, or are you leaving another string of bad debts? He could only imagine how much his kid brother had probably messed up this time.

  “I call Seattle my home these days, so we’re practically neighbors.”

  “Seattle? How long have you been living there?”

  “A couple of months.” Brian cleared his throat. “I’m driving a taxicab.”

  Joe wrinkled his brows. “You’re a taxi driver? What happened to the sporting goods store you were managing in Boise?”

  “I, uh, got tired of it.”

  Joe flexed his fingers. He thought his brother’s voice sounded strained. No doubt Brian’s previous employer had asked him to leave. It had happened before, and unless Brian learned to control his tongue it would no doubt happen again.

  “If you’ve been in Seattle for a while, why is this the first time I’ve heard from you? I was in that neck of the woods a couple of weeks ago and could have looked you up.”

  “Well, I’ve—”

  “Been busy?”

  “Yeah. Seattle’s a jungle, you know.”

  “I can’t argue with that.” Joe’s thoughts took him back to the date he’d had with Lois at the Seattle Center. He’d seen more cars on the road that day than he had for a long time, and people milled about the center like cattle in a pen. He didn’t envy Brian’s having to weave his way in and out of traffic all day, transporting irate customers to their destination.

  “Listen, Joe. The reason I’m calling is, well, I was wanting to—”

  “I don’t have any extra money, Brian,” Joe interrupted. “I can barely manage to pay my own bills these days.”

  “What bills?” Brian shouted. “Mom left you the house and the money from her insurance policy, so I would think you’d be pretty well set.”

  Joe felt a trail of heat creep up the back of his neck. If Brian hadn’t run off to do his own thing, leaving Joe to deal with their mother’s emotional problems, maybe he would have inherited more from the will. As it was, Mom was crushed when her youngest son left home and seldom called or visited them.

  Forcing his ragged breathing to return to normal, Joe plastered a smile on his face. He didn’t know why, since his brother couldn’t see him through the phone. Whenever Joe was riled, putting on a happy face seemed to help. It was the only way he knew how to handle stress. Besides, he wasn’t about to let Brian push his buttons. One emotional son in the family was enough. Joe would keep his cool no matter how hard his brother tried to goad him. “Let’s change the subject, shall we, Brian?”

  “Did you ever stop to think I might have called for some other reason than to ask for money?” Brian’s tone had a definite
edge.

  Joe snorted. “You never have before.”

  “You know what they say—there’s a first time for everything.”

  Joe’s patience was waning, and he knew if he didn’t end this conversation soon, he might lose control. He couldn’t let that happen. It would be a sign of weakness. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Why did you call, Brian?”

  “To wish you a happy birthday.”

  Joe leaned his head against the sofa cushion and chuckled. “My birthday’s almost two weeks away, little brother. It’s next Friday, to be exact.”

  “Next Friday, huh? Guess I forgot.”

  “It’s no big deal.” Mom used to make a big deal out of her birthday, Joe thought ruefully. But she usually ignored Brian’s and my birthdays.

  “Doin’ anything special to celebrate?”

  “Well, I’m hoping Lois and I might—”

  “Lois? Who’s she?”

  “A friend.” A very special friend. But I’m not about to tell you that.

  “Where’s the party going to be? Maybe I’ll drive down to Olympia and join you.”

  “I’m not planning any big wingding to celebrate my twenty-fifth birthday. If I do anything at all, it’ll just be a quiet dinner someplace nice.”

  “Okay. I get the picture. You don’t want your loudmouthed, hot-tempered little brother crashing your party. I can live with that. After all, it’s nothing new for you to give me the brush-off.”

  Joe opened his mouth to refute his brother’s last statement, but he heard a click, and the phone went dead. “Now what I have done?” he moaned.

  With a firm resolve not to dwell on the unpleasant encounter he’d had with Brian, Joe dialed Lois’s number again. Her answering machine came on, and this time he left a message.

  “Lois, this is Joe. I’m still pretty busy this week. I have two more birthday parties to do, not to mention a visit to a nursing home and a spot on a local kids’ TV show. Things are looking better for the following week, though, and next Friday is my twenty-fifth birthday.” He paused. “I, uh, was hoping you might be free to help me celebrate. Please give me a call when you get in—okay? Talk to you soon. ‘Bye.”

  Chapter 17

  It was close to six o’clock when Lois returned to her apartment Sunday evening. After dinner with Tabby and Seth, she had driven through Point Defiance Park then stayed for a little while at Owen’s Beach.

  Dropping her purse on the coffee table, she noticed her answering machine was blinking. She clicked the button then smiled when she heard Joe’s message asking her to help him celebrate his birthday. “I wonder what I can do to make it special,” she murmured.

  She reached for the phone and dialed Joe’s number. She was relieved when he answered on the second ring. “Hi, Joe. It’s Lois.”

  “Hey, it’s good to hear your voice. Did you get my message?”

  “Yes, I did. I just got in.”

  “What do you think about next Friday night?”

  “So you need someone to help you celebrate your birthday?”

  “Yeah, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend it with than you.”

  Lois grinned. Joe sounded sincere, and she was beginning to think he really did care for her.

  He cleared his throat. “We’ll get back to my birthday plans in a minute, but I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Lois.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I was wondering why you hightailed it out of my clowning class two weeks ago.”

  “I could see you were busy, and I didn’t want to cut in on your time with the people who stayed to ask questions.”

  “I thought you might not have enjoyed the class,” he said. “I was planning to ask you to dinner, but when I realized you’d left I figured the worst.”

  “The worst?”

  “Yeah. I thought maybe you hated my class and didn’t have the heart to say so.”

  Lois’s heartbeat quickened. Joe had wanted to ask her out, and he thought she didn’t like the class? She felt terrible about leaving him with the wrong impression. “I did enjoy your clowning presentation.”

  “Is it about the money, then?”

  “What? What money?”

  “The fact that most gospel clowns aren’t rich.”

  “Money’s not an issue with me, Joe,” Lois said, smiling. “It used to be, but not anymore. I realized it wasn’t so important when I broke up with a man who had money but wasn’t a Christian.”

  She heard Joe release his breath. “I’m glad we settled that.” He groaned softly then followed it with a chuckle. “I’ve had enough unpleasantness for one day.”

  “What happened today that was unpleasant?”

  “I had a phone call from my kid brother, Brian,” he replied. “It seems he’s left his job in Boise, Idaho, and lives in Seattle now.”

  Lois held her breath. Was Joe finally going to open up and talk about his family?

  “He called under the guise of wishing me a happy birthday, but I think he really wanted money,” Joe continued.

  “Is Brian unemployed?”

  “He said he’s driving a cab, but from past experience …” Joe’s voice trailed off, and he was silent for a moment. “Let’s not talk about my renegade brother—okay? I’d much rather discuss our dinner plans for next Friday.”

  Lois smiled. “I’d love to help celebrate your birthday, Joe. How about letting me pick the place? I’ll even drive to Olympia to get you.”

  “You’re going to be my chauffeur?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, boy! Does a white stretch limo come with the deal?”

  She giggled. “I’m afraid you’ll have to settle for my little green clunker.”

  He moaned. “Well, if I must.”

  “I’ll be by to pick you up at six o’clock sharp, so you’d better be ready and waiting.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Lois hung up the phone, feeling happier than she had all day. Joe wanted her to help celebrate his birthday, and now she could plan to do something special.

  On the drive to Portland Saturday morning, Lois was a ball of nerves. What if she took the second clowning class and still had no audience appeal? What if she lacked the courage to do a program in front of anyone besides her Sunday school kids? She knew she was probably expecting too much. After all, this would only be her second course in clowning, and Rome wasn’t built in a day. She didn’t have much time though. Joe’s birthday was a week away, and she was determined to give him a surprise he’d never forget.

  When Lois pulled into the parking lot of First Christian Church, she was amazed at all the cars. “There must be a lot of people interested in clowning,” she murmured, turning off the engine.

  Stepping inside the foyer of the large brick building, she realized why so many cars were parked outside. She saw that not only were classes in clowning being offered, but also ones in puppetry, ventriloquism, illusions, and chalk art. It reminded her of the story Tabby had told of her first encounter with ventriloquism and meeting Seth Beyers.

  Lois stopped in front of the table marked CLOWNING BY BENNY THE BUBBLE MAN and registered for the class. A young woman dressed as a Raggedy Ann type of clown handed Lois a small notebook and a name tag.

  A short time later, Lois was seated at the front of the class. Joe would sure be surprised if he knew I was taking another clowning class. I’m glad he’s not teaching at this seminar, or else he would have discovered my little secret by now.

  She forced her thoughts off Joe and onto Benny the Bubble Man, who with the help of his assistant, Raggedy Ruth, was demonstrating the art of making bubbles in different sizes and shapes. The pair expertly used a variety of wands and even a straw.

  Lois thought it looked pretty simple until everyone in the class was given a jar of soapy liquid and instructed to make a bubble chain. She’d always prided herself on being adept at blowing bubbles, but her childhood tricks had involved making only one, two, or maybe three effervescent ba
lls at one time. Making a string of six to eight bubbles was difficult, if not impossible. Even with Raggedy Ruth’s help, Lois fumbled her way through the procedure. Something as tedious as this would take weeks, maybe months of practice, and she had only until next Friday.

  “Maybe I should have taken one of the other clowning classes,” she muttered.

  “You’re doing fine. Just keep practicing,” Ruth assured her.

  Lois was the last student to leave the classroom; she was determined to learn at least one bubble maneuver that might impress Joe and show him she could act as goofy as he did. If she could learn to be a clown, maybe Joe would start to show his serious side. It seemed like a fair trade to Lois.

  Chapter 18

  Lois leaned back in her office chair and yawned. How could she ever stay awake the rest of the day? For the last four nights she’d been up late, practicing her clown routine and blowing bubbles until her lips turned numb. She’d finally managed to make a chain of eight small bubbles and a bubble within a bubble, but she didn’t think either trick was too exciting. Neither was her hillbilly clown costume.

  Maybe I should forget the whole idea and take Joe to dinner as he’s expecting. At least then I won’t be as likely to embarrass myself.

  Lois grabbed the stack of bulletins in front of her and started folding them. On the front cover was a picture of a nurse taking a child’s temperature. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. A new outfit—that’s what she needed. A costume and some props. A small shop on the other side of town sold tricks, costumes, and other clowning aids. She would go there as soon as she got off work.

  Joe stared out his living room window. It was raining, which was nothing unusual for fall weather in the Pacific Northwest. He wasn’t going to let it dampen his spirits, though. Today was his birthday, and he was going to dinner with Lois. Sure hope she drives carefully on the freeway. It’s bound to be slick with all this liquid sunshine. She should have let me drive to Tacoma and pick her up. He glanced at the clock on the wall. Five minutes to six. She should be here any minute.

  Joe sat on the couch to wait and turned his thoughts in another direction. He’d been presenting a program at a nearby nursing home the previous week when the son of one of the patients offered him a job. The man owned a hotel and needed several full-time entertainers. The position paid well and had some fringe benefits, but it involved secular clowning and would leave little time to minister as a gospel clown. He pulled out the man’s business card and studied it for a minute. He’d told him he would think about it, but Joe knew he couldn’t accept the position no matter how well it paid. He always seemed to need money, but his primary goal as a clown was to see people’s lives changed through faith in Christ. If he spent most of his time entertaining, simply to amuse others, he’d lose precious opportunities to witness about God.