Running Home

by Bill Sanderson

  Chapter Five

  Miriam looked in the mirror at her new church dress. It was a short sleeved cotton shirtwaist dress in a pale turquoise blue that contrasted nicely with her olive skin. The hemline was at the top curve of her calves, to which her new shoes gave some definition. The cheap hose she bought were too long in the leg, so she was going to have to keep pulling them up, or not wear them. She decided that bare feet would be better than saggy hose.

  She hardly recognized herself. Her long black hair was pinned up in a loose bun. She had used a razor she borrowed from Maddy to smooth her legs. She did not have any makeup to wear, not that she had ever used much. She told herself it was vanity to try to attract attention. But she wanted to look nice for Jerry. She took another look in the mirror. She looked like she could be any one of the well dressed women walking around the mall in Halifax and relaxed about seeing her bare ankles and elbows.

  At breakfast, both Maddy and Rose complimented her on her dress and hair. Maddy gave her some mascara and lipstick from the recesses of her oversized purse that she'd bought but hadn't suited her. Maddy had the same light blonde hair and reddish eyebrows as Jerry and Rose and dark mascara looked artificial on her, she said, but it should suit Miriam.

  Maddy reminded Miriam how to put on mascara, something she'd tried as a student, but hadn't worn for several years. The extra volume of lash framed her eyes and drew attention to her face. The dusky red lipstick highlighted her almost full lips and looked good against her olive complexion.

  "You didn't have to do this, Maddy." Miriam was blushing a bit at her face in the mirror. She could almost believe that she was as pretty as Jerry's glances at her seemed to imply.

  "Well, you don't need much to look good. You don't want to wear lots of makeup to church anyway. This just brings out your beauty a little more." Maddy looked satisfied and continued. "I always wanted to be dainty and pretty, like you, but I ended up big and blonde and square."

  "Alex thinks you're beautiful. You can tell by how he looks at you." Miriam replied.

  Maddy's face softened and she sighed as her eyes glanced up toward the guest room. "Yes, I know he does. Other than him though, it would be nice if the first thing men looked at was my eyes and not my chest." Maddy shook her head. "I'll bet the first thing they look at will be your eyes."

  "Well, it's not like I have much of a chest, is it?" Miriam responded with a twinkle in her eye.

  "Listen to us. God gave us both perfectly good bodies and all we do is complain. You best get over to Jerry's. He'll be wanting to leave soon to help set up. And you have that wonderful dessert to bring along." Maddy shooed her away from the hall mirror and toward the door. The fog was still thick, so Miriam put on her new rain jacket and headed over to Jerry's.

  The morning fog was heavy enough to transform the outlines of the trees and houses into soft shapes. Mrs. Schwartz's bright yellow house had dimmed to a pale shade of light saffron. Jerry's white house with the bright purple shutters could barely be seen from Rose’s porch. She walked up to Jerry’s side door and knocked. "It's me, Miriam."

  "Come on in. It’s open." Jerry smiled as she came in then turned back to continue preparing breakfast for Michele. She hung up her jacket on the hook by the back door. Without turning around he said "Help yourself to the coffee. We'll be a few minutes while Mitchie eats." He finished buttering the toast and called "Mitchie, breakfast!" then turned around to greet Miriam properly.

  "How are ..." He stood there like a statue for several seconds, with his eyes wide and his mouth open in mid-sentence. He'd seen her in this dress at the store, but she didn't have her hair up or her new high heels on or the mascara that made her eyes look like he could drown himself in them or the lipstick that he wanted to kiss away. "Wow...You l-look beautiful." He finally stammered.

  "Thank you." Miriam smiled shyly and blushed then moved over to the counter to pour herself a cup of coffee. Jerry was dressed in his Sunday best, his dark blue suit jacket draped over the back of a kitchen chair. His outfit displayed the lean hips and broad shoulders that made Miriam want to snuggle into him. "You look good, too." She licked suddenly dry lips.

  Michelle interrupted the mutual admiration society by zooming into the kitchen. She was dressed in a smocked dress made of red gingham with white tights and patent leather shoes. "You look very pretty this morning, Michelle. Who made your dress?"

  "Grandma Dotty made it for me. She says I need to look pretty when we go to church."

  "She did a good job."

  Jerry finally recovered from his surprise and said, "Mum likes to knit and sew."

  "That is one thing I have no talent for. My sister Micheline loves to sew and embroider, though. She was the one who made Elena's wedding gown and headdress. There was lots of silver braid on it."

  Michelle said "All done. We can go now."

  Jerry swooped in to wipe the butter and cinnamon sugar from her hands before she wiped them on her stockings or her dress. "Now we can go."

  The three of them drove a short distance to a school.

  Miriam said "I thought we were going to church."

  Jerry said, "We are. I belong to an Anglican Network plant that hasn't found a building yet, so we rent the gym here at the school. A few of us from the local Anglican Church of Canada parish were worried that the minister was avoiding preaching certain topics, things like sin and sacrifice. Instead, he emphasized being nice to each other. Then the Diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia decided disregard the Bible and allow some of its ministers to bless gay marriages. Our priest didn't see anything wrong with that. In fact, he called us narrow minded bigots, and that was the last straw for us. We asked the bishop to replace him and got a visit from the bishop where he implied that we were a bunch of morons for taking the Bible so seriously. He's the chief bishop for the Anglican Church of Canada now.”

  Miriam looked terribly confused. “A bishop who doesn't take the Bible seriously? You are making a joke, right?”

  “I wish I was. He as much as told us that we weren't good Christians. So a bunch of us got together and found a young conservative priest who was having a hard time getting a job. He was willing to help us plant a new church. We started last year with eight families and now we have over forty families that come regularly. We're hoping to buy a proper building soon."

  As they got out of the car, a stocky man of medium height wearing a clerical collar came out of the side door to the gym and headed towards a minivan. "Good morning, Jerry, Mitchie."

  "Good morning, John."

  "Who's your friend?"

  "Father John Storey, this is Miriam Nadif. She's an old friend from university."

  John held out his hand to shake Miriam's. "Call me John. Welcome to Hubbards and to St. Michael's. I hope to see you more often."

  "I hope so, too, John." Miriam smiled with the anticipation of attending a church service.

  "Jerry, could you help Marty get the chairs set up?" John continued to his minivan to retrieve a box of bulletins and service booklets.

  "Sure thing." Jerry took the container of baklava out of his car and ushered Miriam and Michelle into the gym.

  In one corner a pair of risers had been set up with a waist high table covered with a green cloth that had a gold cross embroidered on the front. The table was topped with a white cloth. In the center of the table there was what looked to be a box covered with a green embroidered cloth flanked by two candlesticks. In front but to one side of the table there were four music stands with mikes and two amplifiers that had a bass and a lead guitar attached to them.

  Jerry led the way across to a counter where there was a coffee urn starting to make percolation noises. He put the baklava down and nodded to the ladies in the kitchen behind the counter. "Some treats for coffee time."

  Teresa Storey said, "Good morning, Mitchie. Good morning, Jerry. Who's your friend?"

  Miriam waved and said "I'm Miriam. Miriam Nadif. I went to McMaster with Jerry." Jerry nodded at
the stack of chairs and went over to help set up.

  "I'm Terry, John's wife. I'm guessing you made the treats. It doesn't look like anything Jerry would know how to do."

  "Baklava the way my mother made it."

  "Looks delicious. I'm sure we'll enjoy it." Teresa busied herself unpacking a box filled with paper cups and plates.

  Miriam took a look around the gym while keeping an eye on Michelle. In short order the chairs had been set up facing the high table, a lectern was set at one side and a keyboard was being set up near the band. In a matter of minutes the space was transformed into a temporary chapel.

  Father John gathered a small group together to pray and Miriam bowed her head as well, adding her Amen with the group. The prayers brought a sense of peace to the room although the activity level and noise continued to pick up. Most of the group moved to the microphones to do a sound check and run through a set of warm ups on some of the choruses.

  Michelle came running up and asked "Are you sitting with us today, Mireeyum?"

  "Yes, of course" replied Miriam. Michelle grabbed her hand and took her to one of the rows halfway back, near the kitchen. Over the next fifteen minutes, the chairs filled up as various families drifted in. Miriam noticed quite a few inquisitive looks coming her way.

  Jerry noticed them, too. Miriam was visibly different from the rest of the congregation. There was one black family from Barbados, the Sobers, and another local black family with roots in Africville, but she was the only one there who looked Middle Eastern. He took a deep breath to calm himself. There would be time after service for all of the questions.

  The service opened with a traditional hymn played on a keyboard with an almost credible organ sound. That was followed by two contemporary songs played by the band. As the music came to an end, Miriam was interested to see that several more families had come in to take places near the front.

  The priest opened the service with a series of prayers. The thanksgiving for a safe place to worship threatened to bring tears to Miriam's eyes, but she blinked them away and said a heartfelt Amen.

  Jerry read about Lydia's conversion from Acts. This was one of Miriam's favorite Bible stories. How much confidence and certainty would Paul need to approach a strange woman and speak with her about this strange and wonderful Good News that was the Savior of the world? More than she had, certainly. The fact that Paul chose a woman to speak to was also important to her. This was one of the many proofs that Jesus came to save women in the same way that he came to save men. Yes, men and women had their different roles in life, but they were equal in the eyes of the Lord, equally worthy to hear the Gospel and to follow Him.

  Much of the service was a blur. It was so overwhelming to be sitting in with a group of Christians praying together without fear of reprisals. She wanted to tell them that they should not take this freedom for granted.

  There was a sermon that tied together the three readings for the day. The common theme was spreading the Word of the Lord. The pastor wanted to inspire people to live the Word in their lives and share it with others. The Word was not a sterile treasure to be kept in a storehouse, but a seed that must be scattered in the sure hope that it will find fertile soil in which to grow.

  That had been the case for her conversion. The two Lebanese Christian girls from IVCF had invited her many times to meetings. Aliyah in particular had a calm assurance of being loved that she said stemmed from her Christian faith. Then Miriam attended a meeting and met other good Christians, including Jerry from her stats class. There were also a few that were not so good, pretending to be better than they were, but she was aware of her own shortcomings and was forgiving because of her own doubts.

  In the end it was Jerry's faith-inspired gentlemanly nature and Aliyah's calm confidence in Jesus’ love for her that convinced her that there something special at work in their lives. By the end of second year, she had opened the door of her heart to Jesus and invited Him in. In third year, she studied the Bible and the catechism in order to learn more about following Jesus and was baptized.

  There was more music, collection of the offerings, then communion. As she approached the high table to take the bread and wine she was almost crying with joy and relief. She blotted her eyes with a tissue as she sat down and prayed another thanksgiving. The service continued with final prayers and a closing hymn. A quiet joy filled Miriam's heart as she felt once again the Holy Spirit moving within her and around her.

  Jerry had slipped into the familiar rhythm of the service and drew comfort from it. As the closing prayers finished, he took a look at Miriam. She looked more than content – she was joyful and radiant, like she had looked when she attended chapel at Mac.

  The introductions started immediately after the service. Jerry looked around to see that some of the teenagers had gathered the smaller children into a group to play frozen tag, something that Michelle didn't quite get, but she was having fun running around. Miriam was introduced to forty or fifty people, all of whom made her feel welcome, except for one elderly woman who was introduced as Mrs. Conrad who was cool but not rude. Some of Jerry's students said hello and joked about having him give them a hint about the exam contents.

  Many people complimented Miriam on the baklava, which she took with good grace. After all, the Lord had blessed her with that ability, and false humility is just another way to express the sin of pride.

  John and Teresa came over to ask them if they had plans for lunch. Jerry admitted that they didn't have anything planned until supper. Teresa said that lunch would be sandwiches and salads from the ice box. Jerry knew that Teresa would have done up a number of salads the night before and maybe cooked extra roast for the sandwiches. Jerry caught Rose's eye and informed her about the lunch invitation.

  Maddy and Alex said their goodbyes after giving Jerry and Michelle hugs. Maddy wished Jerry good luck as she pointedly looked in Miriam's direction. Then she gave Miriam a sisterly hug and wished her good luck with everything.

  Getting Michelle into the car was difficult until she was told that they were going to Father John's house. Then she raced them to the car.