by Sable Hunter
Glory read the sign out front. “Presbyterian?” She’d been a devout Catholic her entire life, been raised in the church and even though she would’ve preferred it to be her religion of choice, she was just heartened to see T going into any house of worship.
A tiny cluster of people stood off to the side of the back door. They were smoking and conversing, but the talk stopped as Glory approached. She couldn’t believe she’d done it, she’d actually gotten out of the truck and was heading toward the door. There had to be something more to this. If T had come here for a service, he wouldn’t have gone in the back door. Would he?
Also, if he was religious, why hadn’t he mentioned it to her?
Why hadn’t it come up at all?
“Hello,” one of the smokers offered her a greeting as Glory drew closer.
“Good evening,” Glory responded. “How are you?”
“We’re glad to see you, friend. We’ve been waiting for you. Welcome.”
The group all stared and smiled at her.
Glory pressed on, moving through the door, not knowing how to respond to what had been said to her. She hoped to goodness this wasn’t some kind of a cult. “Why have they been waiting for me?” she asked herself when she was out of earshot.
Inside the back room, a couple dozen people all milled around. There was a table set up in the corner with boxes of donuts and a big steel coffee urn. Glory had found an old hat of Calvin’s behind the seat of her truck and tucked her hair up under it before going in. She doubted it hid her identity completely, but with all the people in the room, Glory was confident T wouldn’t spot her.
She got herself some coffee and went to take a seat in one of the chairs that had been setup in the fellowship room of the church. The walls were made of brown slats of wood and Glory thought it was just about the prettiest church fellowship hall she’d ever been in. She could tell this place had seen a lot of fundraisers and pancake breakfasts in its time.
The people in the room didn’t look like the usual church crowd, though. Glory hated to judge books by their covers, but this seemed to her to be sort of a rough group. A lot of the folks in the room had visible tattoos and shabby clothing. They left her alone, but Glory could feel their eyes on her, everyone had checked her out at least once and every time her gaze caught someone else’s, there was a smile on the other person’s face. She hadn’t spotted T yet and Glory was getting a bad feeling. Maybe she was mistaken and he wasn’t here at all. She told herself that as soon as the people from outside began to file back in, she’d make her escape. If anyone asked where she was going, she’d just say she’d made a mistake and offer to pay for the cup of coffee that she’d taken so they’d let her go without a commotion.
But before she knew what was happening, a man appeared at the podium in the front of the room. It didn’t take Glory but a moment to recognize that man. It was T-Rex, his skyscraper frame filled the space and another man joined him a moment later. The other man was at least twice T’s age and they stood there talking, T’s hand over the microphone so their conversation wouldn’t be broadcast across the room.
Glory had messed up, she was right in T’s line of vision and if she stood now to leave, he’d spot her for certain. The best she could do was pull the brim of her hat down and hope he didn’t look directly at her or the jig would be up.
Glory’s mind was racing. Unless this was some sort of weird sex cult, T wasn’t here to be with another woman. He’d clearly come here on some official church business, what that business was, Glory was yet to determine. Yea, she’d been a fool, letting her imagination take over and now she was in a real pickle. She’d made an ass out of herself. There was no explaining this, she’d followed T, disguised herself, and snuck into whatever this was all about. All that was left was for T to catch her and then the shame and humiliation could begin. She’d failed to trust him and no explanation she could conjure up would hide that fact. She just hoped T wouldn’t cause a scene in front of all these people.
“Hey everybody, come inside and find your seats.” The voice came from the front of the room and Glory could tell just by hearing that it was T speaking.
People all around her began to find their seats. An older woman with stringy gray hair and two missing teeth sat down a few spots over from Glory. “I’m glad to see you made it,” she said with a kind grin.
T left the podium and went to his seat only three rows in front of Glory. She slouched deeper into her chair, not moving a muscle until the chairs between her and T were filled. Whatever this was, it was about to start and Glory was frozen with fear. Her window to exit was closing quickly and once everyone was seated the room grew silent.
Crap! She was trapped. She’d just have to ride this out.
The man at the podium was short. Glory guessed not much more than five-foot-five or so. He looked around the room and then spoke. “Hi, everyone. My name’s Danny. And I’m an alcoholic.”
“Hi, Danny,” just about everyone except Glory responded in unison.
Danny smiled out at the crowd. “I see a lot of familiar faces here tonight and that’s good. But what’s even better, is that I see a few new faces. I just want to welcome you all and let the new folks know that we’ve been waiting for you and we’re glad you found your way here.”
The older woman beside her reached out and put a hand on Glory’s knee. “Welcome.”
AA?
Just when Glory thought she couldn’t have felt worse, she did. T was here at an AA meeting and she’d followed him thinking the worst. She felt a rush of heat in her stomach and then nausea hit. Glory was sure she was about to throw up. But just as the room began to start spinning, Danny looked almost directly at her and placed his hands on the podium.
“I’d like to tell you a little about me and why I’m here. I came up the hard way. Raised in a home with four other brothers. Pop was tough on us all, but I was the oldest and he was toughest on me. If you looked at him cross-eyed, he’d slap the taste out of your mouth before you knew what was happening.” There was a murmur in the room and Danny paused to let things settle down. “I don’t remember the first time he hit me, but I was young. By the time I was eight, I’d gotten used to the abuse. By that point, I had three younger brothers and I told myself that if I just let him hit me, then maybe he wouldn’t beat on them.”
“Needless to say, I was put on a sad path at an early age. I started drinking at eleven and left home at sixteen. I bounced around. Did petty jobs. Got in trouble with the law. Served a bit of time and started my own family. I’m proud to say I never once raised a hand to my two sons or my wife. I was never a mean drunk like my old man. Hell, I didn’t drink damn near as much as that miserable old bastard. I didn’t think I was an alcoholic at all. You’d never find me passed out, face down on the front lawn like we found my old man so many times.”
“No, that wasn’t me. But I was the guy who came home from work every night and drank a six-pack. I was the guy who let my drinking lead to bad choices. Affairs. Hell, I made over a hundred grand three years running in the seventies. But my drinking got in the way and I began to lose job after job after job. That kind of thing will put a real strain on any marriage.”
“If you ever wanted to see the look of fear in a child’s eyes, then all you had to do was come to my house thirty years ago. My wife and I used to get into screaming matches that would last for days. I don’t care how tough you are, that will affect a child.”
The more he spoke, the more Glory’s heart hurt for Danny. The emotion was visible on his face as he looked down at the podium.
“What I did for all those years was lie to myself. I wouldn’t ever admit my drinking was the root of my problems. It was always someone else’s fault. It was the guy at work who had it in for me. Or the cop who arrested me for drinking and driving. It was the system that was against me. I never did anything wrong in my life. They were the problem. Not me.”
“Life can become pretty lonely when all you ever do is fig
ht. Fighting with family. Fighting with friends. Fighting strangers. The cops. The courts. Anybody and everybody. About fifteen years ago, my wife finally had enough. The boys were out of the house and she wanted a divorce. I spiraled out of control pretty quickly after we went our separate ways. I ended up living in a trailer by myself. Lonely. I literally had nobody. Nobody but alcohol.”
Glory could hear a few people around her sobbing. Danny’s story was sad and her heart hurt for him. Forgotten was the fact that she’d made a huge mistake following T here. Forgotten was the fact she was stuck in here now, only moments from being discovered by what she could only imagine was going to be a very irate T-Rex Beaumont.
“I don’t have to tell most of you here,” Danny continued, “but alcohol can be a great friend when you’re lonely. It’s hard to feel pain when you’re drunk. And that’s what I felt. Pain. I’d been feeling it all my life. The pain of having an abusive father. The pain of never feeling loved by him. So, I drank away the pain. Numbed it with booze and drugs. But even that wasn’t enough to make me feel good anymore. When you’re completely alone, the bad thoughts creep in and I tried to kill myself. Yep. Drank a very large bottle of whisky, shoved a handful of pills into my mouth, and called my youngest son to say goodbye. Luckily for me, he could tell something was up and came over to check on me. I woke up in the hospital the next day with a whopper of a headache and nobody there. That’s right. Nobody was there. Nobody cared. I’d burned so many bridges that nobody even came to see me in the hospital after I tried to kill myself. That’s when I realized I had driven everyone away with my drinking just like he had. Shit. I’d turned into my old man when I didn’t want to be him. And that’s why I’m here and I’ve been sober for fourteen years.”
The room applauded. Not just because of the story, but because Danny was one of their own. They could all relate to him; he was one of them.
Glory wiped tears from her cheeks. She’d experienced her own pain in life, but not in the same way Danny or these other people had. She didn’t know the man, but she wanted to go give him a hug.
Danny invited someone else up to speak and their tale was just as sad as his. There was another speaker after that who spoke about why they were there and what the group was about and then to Glory’s absolute horror, the speaker asked if there were any new people in the room who wanted to come up and say something.
Every head in the room was suddenly on a swivel.
“It’s okay, dear.” The kindly woman beside her patted Glory on the arm.
The sick feeling again invaded her mid-section. Glory had been lost in the emotions she’d been feeling listening to the speakers. This had all been such a shock to her. A million more questions about T had flooded her mind. Now here she was, being dragged back down to earth at a fast clip.
More and more heads were turning her way. Glory felt like she stuck out like a sore thumb and now she knew that was true, because almost as if it had been choreographed, the three heads that bridged the space between her and T moved…and his perfect face came into full view.
She’d tucked those locks of hers up under a hat, but T would’ve recognized that beautiful face anywhere. “Glory?”
What was she doing here?
Glory had no idea what to do. Every set of eyes in the room was focused squarely on her. She stood from her chair and bolted, heading toward the door as fast as her legs would carry her.
T was still in shock. Again, he asked himself: What was she doing here? He didn’t think too much about it, he just acted, going after her.
Standing at the back door of the church, T scanned the parking lot and saw the flickering headlights of a truck which looked suspiciously like the one that had been gathering moss in his front yard for the past several weeks.
“Not now!” Glory scolded the engine for not turning over. T had never given her a reason to before, but she felt fear grip her heart at what he might do or say. She needed to get out of here and get out of here fast. “Start, you stupid machine!”
T approached the struggling automobile. He wasn’t angry per se, more shocked to have seen Glory’s face in the crowd. He’d been keeping more than a few secrets and now wondered if she was in the program as well. Maybe Glory had demons in her past and struggles similar to his. Perhaps they’d just never run across each other before.
He knocked on the window. “You shouldn’t have turned it off.”
Glory ignored him and turned the key again. It became apparent that her efforts weren’t going to lead to the result she was hoping for, but again, she had to keep trying. Cranking the key, she used the fruitless movement as an excuse to keep her attention anywhere but on the man standing beside her.
Why had she been so foolish?
Why hadn’t she just left well enough alone?
Silly girl, she had a good thing going with a good man and now she’d gone and fouled it up.
“I’ve got all night, sugar.” T went to the hood and leaned on it with his elbows. When the engine coughed under him again, he popped the hood with a big palm. “Try it now.”
Glory finally looked up at him. She resigned herself to the fact that the truck wasn’t going to give her the escape she desperately longed for. She sat behind the wheel for a moment. T was still leaning on the hood; an oddly placid look on his face. He appeared to be almost smiling. It seemed to Glory that she’d spent her entire life trying to decipher what people were thinking and this was no exception. She had no clue why T looked so peaceful, he should’ve been furious with her for following him, furious with her for invading his privacy. Glory couldn’t tell if this was the calm before the storm or if he actually wasn’t angry.
“Gonna have to come out eventually, little lady,” T said from his spot on the hood.
He still wasn’t sure why she’d been there, but T was anxious to get to the bottom of this.
Glory wrung the wheel with her hands. The color had worn off it years ago and she felt the roughness of the crackled leather. Slowly, she reached for the door handle. T was right, she couldn’t just sit here forever. She’d fucked up and now everything was about to change, she was about to return to her solitary existence without him in her life.
She clutched her bag to her chest after slipping out of the truck, her posture that of a scared child.
T spoke first. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in the program?”
“Program?”
“AA. How long have you been sober?”
Bless his heart, T hadn’t thought the worst of her. The man’s heart was as big as his body and he actually seemed glad at the thought of them sharing something so personal. This made Glory feel even worse about herself and she fought to keep tears at bay.
“I’m not in the program,” she admitted sheepishly.
“Then what are you doing here…” It hit him like a punch to the chest. She was spying on him. “You followed me? Why?”
Here it was, he was about to explode on her and tell her to get out of his life forever.
“I’m sorry, T. I was stupid.”
“You don’t trust me? What did you think I was doing exactly?”
“I thought you were seeing another woman.”
“Why?” T suddenly turned his back to her. He needed to think.
She put her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. Please talk to me.” He was freezing her out and that hurt more than Glory could stand. She loved him so much. “I’m stupid. My imagination ran away with me. I didn’t think I could be enough for you. You always leave on Sundays, and now tonight. What else was I supposed to think? I just assumed you had another girl.” He continued to ignore her. “T please. I’m so incredibly sorry.” He’d warned her he could get terribly angry. If this didn’t make him angry at her, nothing would.
The longer T thought about it, the more he understood this was partially his fault. He’d felt the need to be secretive about this part of himself. Hell, he felt the need to be secretive about a lot of things. He couldn’t really blame Gl
ory for being curious about where he’d gone. She was a little spitfire. The more he thought about it, the more it started to feel like a compliment. She was jealous. Granted, she had nothing to be jealous of, T only had eyes for Glory Bee Hudson, but she was jealous nonetheless and had actually gone on a mission to bust him in the act. A tiny smile began to form on T’s face.
He still had his back to her and even though the more T thought, the better it was for her, poor Glory stood there in silence, her heart flipping, her stomach twisted into a hideous knot.
“I’m not mad,” T said, finally.
“You aren’t?”
He turned to face her. For the first time, the smile on his face becoming visible to her. “Well, it kind of sucks you don’t trust me, but that’s partially my fault. Truth is, I’m more pissed off that you drove that old heap out here and now I have to get it towed back to my place again.”
Glory felt like a million pounds had been lifted from her shoulders. He wasn’t furious with her like she thought he’d be. He was actually taking her little reconnaissance mission quite well and she began to wonder why…
T took her by the hand. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll have Spicer get your truck tomorrow, it’s past time for that overhaul anyway.”
“Thank you, T. I’m sorry about all of this, truly.” He led her across the dark parking lot to his truck. She kept waiting for him to say more, but he didn’t. Glory now knew one of his secrets, but that didn’t mean he was eager to discuss the topic. The questions hung between them on the drive back to T’s. Glory wanted to ask them, but she’d somehow managed to escape this whole thing unscathed, so she sat like a good little girl and enjoyed the silence of the trip home.
When they arrived at the house, T went straight to his room while Glory took a seat on the porch, Buford came to join her.
“Sorry about that,” T said, coming to her side a few moments later. “I just had to make a quick call.”
Again, he wasn’t giving her much. She assumed he’d called Spicer. “They’re so beautiful,” she mused, gazing out into the front yard.