Dwelling Place

by Kathleen Y'Barbo

  Sophie let the words curl around her heart and sink deep inside. Never would she read Genesis without thinking of the verses being spoken in the genteel drawl of one of the last grand ladies of the South.

  Sinking into the carved rosewood chair directly across from Nell, Sophie closed her eyes and let her memory tumble back in time to the day she arrived at Nell’s doorstep. One more needy old lady to visit with a tape of the Sunday sermon and she’d have had her final good deed of the day checked off. She would have satisfied the Lord, earned her reward, and gone home to block out the worries of the world with a pint of ice cream and whatever was on television.

  An awful way to look at serving the Lord, but back then that had been her version of good works. No wonder she’d been so miserable.

  When Nell Landry had the bad luck to fall on her way to answer the doorbell that day, Sophie’s nursing training took over. Nothing since that moment had been the same.

  It was as if the Lord heard her cry and sent an elderly guardian angel just shy of earning her wings. That guardian angel, in turn, had pointed her in the right direction and given her the courage to adopt a pair of pint-sized angels in training. Every day she thanked Him for sending Nell Landry and the twins.

  “Sophie, honey, you haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you?”

  Her eyes opened to see Nell’s smile had turned down a bit at the corners. “I’m sorry,” she answered. “You caught me thinking.”

  Nell closed the Bible and rested her hand on the brown leather cover. “I was afraid of that. A penny for your thoughts?”

  Stretching her arm across the table, she covered Sophie’s hand with fingers still strong and agile despite nearly seventy-five years of use. Sophie tried in vain to suppress a smile. “I was thinking of the day you and I first met.”

  Nell nodded slowly. “Troublesome old woman, wasn’t I?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “And you thought you were just doing a kind deed for the church.” Nell patted her hand. “I’ll wager a guess you never expected to spend the night in the emergency room holding one hand of an old fool while the other got bound in a cast.” Her eyes, the color of strong-brewed coffee, barely blinked. “Ezra will like you.”

  Sophie glanced past the elderly woman to the broad expanse of hallway covered in brightly colored Persian rugs, the cause of her accident. She chose to ignore the subject of the imaginary grandson in favor of a more practical topic.

  “I don’t know why you don’t roll up some of these rugs. They’re a hazard, and you know it.”

  “They’re my memories, and you know it. Now stop trying to steer me off track. I’m not that old.” Her fingers tightened. “It won’t change a thing when Ezra comes to stay here, you know,” she said, quickly jumping from one subject to another.

  Sophie, used to the lightning-fast changes in conversation, merely shrugged and waited for her to explain.

  “In two weeks the carpenters come to finish the work next door.” Nell withdrew her hand. “When they’re done, you and the girls will be moving in, and that’s final. Besides, you do want to finalize the adoption before Christmas, don’t you?”

  “Of course.” Sophie sighed. “Miss Nell, if I ask you a question, will you promise to give me an honest answer, even if you think it might hurt me?”

  Nell seemed to consider this a moment. “I promise, dear, and what have I told you about making a promise?”

  “Never make one unless you’re prepared to live up to what you promise.”

  She sat back and lifted the teacup. “That’s right. Now what was it you wanted to ask?”

  Taking a deep breath, Sophie let it out slowly. “I was wondering. Do you really think I will make a good mom for Chloe and Amanda?”

  Her hostess set the cup down without taking a sip. “Sophie Comeaux, don’t you ever wonder that. You were handpicked by the Lord and a meddlesome old woman to be mama to those girls. If He didn’t want you to go through with it, how do you explain the fact that everything is falling into place so nicely?”

  “I assumed that was because you’re on a first-name basis with just about everyone at the orphans’ home.”

  Nell winked. “Well now, I will admit I know one or two folks down there, but, dear, if this is meant to be, it will be the Lord who gets the credit.”

  “Maybe so, Miss Nell, but somehow I think the Lord might have enlisted you to do a bit of His work for Him.”

  Three

  June 4

  “She is not moving in and living next door without paying rent or submitting to a background check. It’s neither practical nor safe.”

  Major Ezra Landry managed a carefully practiced look that would crush the most fearless marine. Of course, it didn’t faze Granny Nell.

  “That’s final,” he added with an authority he knew he did not carry inside these walls. “Now let’s get back to the Lord’s Word.”

  Ezra peered at his adopted grandmother, his father’s childless elder sister, and frowned. This meeting hadn’t gone nearly as he planned. While Granny Nell always welcomed him with open arms and never mentioned his extended absence, she’d sure given him a shock this time around when she told him her plans.

  True, she had reached the age where she needed more care than a woman living alone could manage. True, also, she did have half a house sitting empty next door.

  Still, did she have to take in a total stranger? Why, there was nothing but a paper-thin wall between the two dwellings, and who knew what sort of person might be on the other side? And if Nell weren’t playing another one of her practical jokes, this person had just showed up on her doorstep one day with a sermon tape and a hard-luck story.

  Okay, so he imagined she’d given Granny Nell a hard-luck story. It had to be true, though, for Nell held a soft spot in her heart for widows and orphans. Now that she was no longer up to the job of driving herself to volunteer at the orphanage in New Iberia, like as not she’d decided to go back to taking them in herself.

  If only he’d been in a position to move in. Unfortunately, in his line of work, that was impossible.

  “So when do I meet your friend? What was her name?”

  “Sophie,” she said. “Sophie Comeaux. And she’s with her great-aunt this week. The dear woman just had surgery, and evidently Sophie’s all she has left.”

  “Then let her stay there.” Ezra held up his hand to quiet his grandmother’s protest. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “The Word of the Lord says we should take in those in need and care for those who cannot care for themselves,” Nell said, defiance written all over her gently worn features. “He also says He will take the widows and the childless and place them in homes with families.” She thumped the brown leather volume in her lap. “Psalm 68, verses 5 and 6, of my King James Bible. Look it up for yourself. You do have your Bible with you, don’t you, young man?”

  No thanks, Granny Nell. I know that one by heart. “I’m nearly thirty. When are you going to stop calling me ‘young man’?”

  She peered up at him. “Long as I remember that I used to change your diapers and your daddy’s, I suppose.”

  “Ever hear from my dad?”

  “He’s in jail again.” She looked away, a tiredness etching her features. “This time up at Angola. I don’t s’pose he’ll come out alive this time.”

  The state prison—home to felons and hard cases. It figured. “Well, at least we know where to find him now. Not that anyone would want to do that.”

  Granny Nell swung her attention back to him. “Son, I know what you’re up to, and it won’t work.”

  Ezra had seen the look she gave him before, and he knew better than to continue with this kind of diversionary tactic. Instead he decided to guide the conversation to smoother waters.

  “I’ve got pictures from some of the places I’ve been,” he said. “I left them in the car, but I can go get them. I brought a couple of new handkerchiefs, too.”

  She nodded, and
peace was once again restored. For the next three days, the topic of the gold-digging woman from Latagnier Fellowship Church of Grace was ignored in favor of good conversation and even better home cooking.

  Ezra feasted on cheese grits and biscuits at breakfast; fried catfish, cornbread, and black-eyed peas for lunch; and the most delicious Southern ham and redeye gravy for dinner with bread pudding for dessert. Leaving would be hard, and not just because he would miss the good food.

  For all her advanced years, Nell Landry could still set a fine table. Of course he had the sneaking suspicion all the cooking, which she’d made him help with, had been designed to distract him from the unpleasant topic floating unspoken between them.

  Instead of discussing what was really wrong, they reminisced about years gone by, laughed over Nell’s latest practical jokes, and talked about the places he’d been. Once again he briefly entertained the thought that the story of the Comeaux woman moving in might be another of Nell’s jokes, but he dared not ask.

  Not as long as the company was good and the food even better. He’d be unfit for field command, however, if he stayed another day.

  A few hours before departure time, Ezra pushed away from the table, leaving a few bites of the best bread pudding on earth still uneaten. His stomach full and the last evening of his stay nearly at a close, the time had come to broach the topic of Sophie Comeaux.

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, folding the fancy white napkin with care as he asked the Lord to give him the words to convince Granny Nell of the error of her ways. Nothing definite came to him, so he struck out on his own.

  “Will you listen to a little advice?” he began, knowing full well these were the words she had used with him more than once. “And realize I’m only saying this because I love you.” Again words that had come from Granny Nell’s mouth too many times to count.

  She nodded. A good sign. Usually if Nell intended to put up a fight, she did it right away.

  A more straightforward female had never lived, and for this Ezra adored her. No other woman had ever matched up to his grandmother’s common sense, tough love, and decent Christian values. He trusted her opinions above all others and knew her judgment to be 100 percent correct on most matters.

  This made the current situation even more worrisome.

  Ezra squared his shoulders and began to fold the napkin in half. “Now I know you’ve told me this Sophie person was sent out here from the church, so in theory she can’t be all bad. The Lord does look after His own.” While his grandmother nodded, Ezra paused to choose his next words carefully. “And she has done a good job of keeping you company.”

  Nell opened her mouth to speak, then clamped her lips shut when he lifted his hand to stop her. Suitably chastised, she held her finger to her upper lip and smiled.

  A good sign.

  “Any woman willing to spend her days delivering sermon tapes and visiting with the elderly must have plenty of time on her hands. Doesn’t she have a husband or a job? A family, maybe? What about this great-aunt of hers?”

  Nell pursed her lips and seemed to be mulling over the questions. “Sophie is a good woman who should have had a husband and family a long time ago and would have if certain things hadn’t happened.” For a moment she seemed lost in thought. “She’s a precious thing, just about your age,” she said as she shook her head, “and not bigger than a minute. She’s a nurse for the county and going to school part-time, too.”

  He nodded. “And?”

  “And she has two precious girls, orphans both of them, like their mama, and—”

  “I thought so.” He slapped the top of his thigh with his free hand. “She’s looking for a babysitter and a place to live. Tell me you didn’t agree to this willingly.”

  Nell said nothing, but her soft brown eyes spoke volumes. Her backbone had gone stiff, most likely turned to solid steel.

  Ezra blinked hard and tried to remember he only held the dear woman’s best interests at heart. She’d pulled him out of more scrapes than he would ever remember and had stood by him in the biggest battles of his life.

  Now it was his turn to take care of her.

  “She didn’t talk me into anything, young man,” Nell said slowly, interrupting his thoughts. “In fact, it was me who had to do the convincing. That sweet young lady was almost at the end of her rope caring for those girls and trying to pay her rent when I offered to—”

  Something snapped inside him. “When you offered to give her my house and my place in your life. You just let some woman from the church waltz in the door and talk you into adopting her like she was your own.”

  “You didn’t seem to mind when I took you in,” she said, her brown eyes blazing fire. “And who told you this was your house, Ezra Landry, even if you are my only living blood relative? The Lord provided this dwelling place when your grandfather took up preaching. Do you think it belongs to anyone but Him?”

  She seemed to be waiting for an answer he couldn’t give. He looked away and tried to control the insistent drumming in his temples.

  “Ezra, this isn’t about a house or even about who’s right.”

  He gave her his attention but said nothing. Telling her she was wrong would only serve to bring an early end to the conversation. He knew this about Granny Nell, but then he always made it his business to know his opponent. In the field, it kept him alive; here in Granny Nell’s house, it didn’t seem to matter.

  “Then what is it about, Granny?”

  “It is about what’s important to the Lord. Sophie, she believes she’s got a corner on the guilt market. Now you—you’re a man who believes the Lord has some kind of list up in heaven that He checks off when you’re good and another He adds to when you mess up.” She paused.

  “Come to think of it, you two are very much alike. Neither one of you has completely grasped the full forgiveness that comes with the Lord’s salvation.”

  “I never said that.”

  Her expression softened. “Nor do you deny it.”

  Blood pounded in his temples. Any other person would have drawn an immediate reaction. But this was Granny Nell.

  “You’re not listening to me,” he managed to say through his clenched jaw. “I love you, and I want what is best for you.” He made a grab for the ancient black telephone and held the receiver in his hand, thrusting it toward her. “You’re just going to have to call and tell this woman you’ve changed your mind. She does have a phone, doesn’t she?”

  “I am not one of your subordinates, young man.” Nell shook her head and stepped back, out of reach of Ezra and the telephone. “I won’t do it.”

  “You’re not listening to me. I said—”

  “Ezra, when a man repeats himself, it’s a sure sign he’s run out of something worth saying.”

  Nell moved toward him and placed her pale hand on his arm. The dial tone began to sound as she looked up into his eyes through a shimmering of tears.

  The fact he’d made her cry set Ezra’s temples throbbing all over again. What sort of man had he become? Too many years away had turned him into someone he wasn’t proud of.

  He let the phone fall and cradled his grandmother in a hug, patting her iron gray curls. “I’m just trying to get you to listen to good sense. To me.”

  “Unfortunately, I heard every word,” she whispered, her shaky voice barely audible over the annoying sound of the phone company’s recorded message.

  Ezra released her to reach for the phone. One glance at his grandmother and rage boiled. That woman, whoever she was, had hoodwinked his dear grandmother. It was written all over her face. Well, he would have none of it.

  Ezra slammed the receiver down and attempted to glare at Nell, but his heart just wasn’t in it. Instead he found himself praying the Lord would talk some sense into her if he could not.

  “Young man,” she began gently, “I love you like the grand-child I never had, but I love the Lord more. I intend to listen to the both of you as long as I live, but I’ll only
take orders from Him. Now you can like it, or you can keep quiet about it.”

  Several responses formulated in his mind. He chose to ignore them all in favor of a hug and a kiss for his favorite girl.

  ❧

  As he climbed on the plane, he prayed Granny Nell would heed his advice regarding the woman named Sophie Comeaux.

  By the time he arrived back at his post, he’d decided Granny was too smart to do anything other than listen to him.

  Four

  March 5, two years later

  A surprise waited in Nell Landry’s journal this lovely spring morning. Rather than a blank page ready for her to write down whatever the Lord wanted to say to her, Nell beheld the most beautiful piece of art she’d seen in ages.

  Just below the spot where yesterday she’d recorded a passage from the book of Mark, a sweet kitten with short whiskers sat atop an apple-shaped cookie jar.

  “After my time with the Lord, I’ll have to go next door to get the artist’s autograph.”

  Nell exchanged her favorite pink slippers for a pair of sneakers, then walked next door to find the twins in the backyard helping their mother. As the cowbell on the garden gate rattled, Sophie Comeaux looked up from her work.

  “Sophie, sweetheart,” Nell called, “may I borrow the artist of this fine-looking kitty?”

  Her dear neighbor looked up from her work to frown. “Girls, have you been scribbling in Miss Nell’s books again?”

  “Don’t scold them, dear. You know I encourage them to leave me little notes. Besides, this time they’ve been doing the Lord’s work. One day you’ll see that I’m telling the truth.”

  While Sophie gave her a doubtful look, Nell ignored the protest of her old joints to settle on the step beside Chloe, the elder and more bold of the twins. Like as not, the culprit had been Amanda, but this one generally acted as spokesperson for the pair.

  “You’re wearing our favorite apron,” Amanda said.

  She looked down at the apron tied around her waist. Habit made her reach for an apron each day, even when the amount of housework she accomplished didn’t warrant a decent dust rag, much less an apron.