“This weekend is Common Ground’s community picnic,” she told him after Jeremy was buckled in his car seat and she and David settled in front. “I wasn’t planning to go to any of the Friday events, but I think it would be perfect.”
“What’s on tap?” David asked as he started his SUV.
“All three of the Common Ground churches are hosting events this weekend. The Chapel of the Groves is showing family films all day with all the popcorn you can eat and some musical entertainment between the features. The Chapel of the Groves is Cecelia’s church. Tomorrow, at my church, First Memorial, there’s a picnic and bazaar, then fireworks later in the evening. And on Sunday, The Fellowship has services and puppet shows and carnival games.”
“Sounds fun. Are you sure you’re up for it?”
“Most definitely.” To emphasize her point, she twisted around to look at Jeremy. “Want to go to the movies?”
“Yes!”
Spring sat back and glanced at David. “It’s all settled. Two votes for the movies.”
“Can we go to the hospital and see the girl?”
David and Spring shared a glance.
“The doctors are with her right now,” Spring said.
“Dr. Emmanuel?”
“I don’t know, Jeremy,” she said. “But that’s a good guess. He’s a very good surgeon.”
“I know,” the boy said in a tone that was a bit too wise for his years.
“Tell you what,” Spring said. “I’ll see what I can find out after our movie. Okay?”
“Okay,” Jeremy said, once again sounding like a four-year-old. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and stared out the window.
Watching in the rearview mirror, David looked at his son but didn’t say or do anything about the thumb-sucking. Under the circumstances, the gesture seemed a comfort. David reached for his own comfort, clasping Spring’s hand with his free one. She squeezed it lightly, then gave him directions to the Chapel of the Groves.
Jeremy fell asleep three-fourths of the way through the movie about talking cars. He lay curled on his side, his head in Spring’s lap.
“Any word yet?” David asked when he saw her reach for her phone.
“Just checking now,” she said. “He’s really worried about her. He asked me again about her condition.”
David ran a hand along his son’s brow. “I’ve never seen him like this before. It’s like he went from a little boy to a grown man.”
“He knows some of what she’s feeling,” Spring said. “While he didn’t have the type of injuries Maria has, he knows—whether consciously or unconsciously—that she’s in pain and probably very scared.”
“It puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?”
Spring nodded. “It sure does.”
* * *
The report about Maria de Silva that came in the next morning from the hospital was a good one. David gave Jeremy the news over breakfast in the hotel’s lobby. Jeremy made one request as he started out of the hotel’s parking lot to pick up Spring.
David glanced at his son in the rearview mirror. “Sure, buddy. We can do that.”
Then, following the directions she’d given him, David made his way to Spring’s house. She was watering a flower bed when they rolled up and walked toward her.
“I wanna help,” Jeremy said eyeing the water coming out of the hose in a streaming arc.
“Good morning,” she said. “Well, let’s put you to work, then.”
David watched in amusement as she guided him on where to spray the hose. Jeremy giggled as he got the hang of it with her help on the nozzle.
He hauled a bag of mulch to them and watched as Spring showed Jeremy how to spread it in the small flower beds after weeding.
“I see you finally found a helper for the garden.”
David recognized the voice and tensed.
Today was supposed to be a day of no stress, a respite from arguing about architectural renderings, land use or historic preservation. Yet there stood one of the chieftains of the opposition. She was dressed casually in capri pants and a smock with pockets and had a floppy straw hat on her head.
He straightened, dusted off his hands and said, “Hello, Mrs. Darling.”
Lovie Darling looked him up and down, and then she sighed. “Good morning, Mr. Camden.” The tone was civil if not warm. “And who is this?” she asked, bending toward Jeremy, who was now tugging on a weed in a small bed of colorful flowers. The weed was winning the battle against the boy.
“Mother, this is Mr. Camden’s son, Jeremy.”
“Hi,” Jeremy said. “It’s stuck.”
“Let me show you a little trick,” Lovie Darling said. She produced a pair of gardening shears and told Jeremy to watch as she made the cut. “When you do it here,” she told him, holding the pesky weed at the base of the plant and burrowing a bit in the soil, “you get more of the root. You won’t get it all, but it will take a little while before you have to weed again.”
“What’s your name?” Jeremy asked.
“You, my dear, may call me Lovie.”
With the four-year-old as her assistant, Lovie Darling cleared the small patch of three additional weeds while both a bemused Spring and an amused David looked on.
After a quick washup to get the dirt off hands and Jeremy’s face, Spring tucked a wicker basket and blanket on the rear seat of the vehicle. Then she, Jeremy and David were on the way to the bazaar and picnic. And Jeremy had a date to meet up with Lovie later at the church.
“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Spring said.
David chuckled. “After that planning commission meeting, I think I’ll have to agree. It’s the power of the cute kid.”
When David made the wrong turn, Spring pointed out that First Memorial Church of Cedar Springs was in the opposite direction of where they were headed.
“But Cedar Springs General is this way,” he said.
“Are we there yet?” Jeremy called from the backseat.
“Almost, buddy.”
Spring raised her eyebrows, but David just smiled.
The Camden men led the way as if they, instead of Spring, worked at the hospital. She went with them, pausing briefly at the patient visitor desk.
“What’s in the bag?” she asked David as they rode the elevator to the third floor of the hospital.
“Something Jeremy bought.”
Her mouth curved up. “Jeremy bought?”
“Well, Jeremy picked out and Dad’s plastic paid for.”
“It’s a surprise,” Jeremy said, practically hopping on his toes in anticipation.
“I think I know where we’re going,” she said in a low voice to David.
He laced her fingers with his as the doors swooshed open and Jeremy dashed out. “I think you’d be right,” he said. “To the right, Jeremy.”
The boy paused and looked both ways, then turned and looked up at his father.
“Face forward, the way we are,” David said. Jeremy turned so his back was to them. “Now remember what we learned about the heart.”
“Yes!” Jeremy placed his hand on his chest as if about to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the National Anthem at a ball game. “My heart is on my left, so we go that way,” he exclaimed pointing down the correct hallway.
“Good job, buddy. We’re looking for room number three-zero-six. You think you can find that?”
Jeremy nodded and walked slowly down the corridor, peering up at the room numbers and calling them out as individual digits as he went.
“Very creative,” Spring complimented David.
He grinned. “I know the heart is really—”
She held up her free hand, stopping him. “That lesson is a perfect way to te
ach a young child about right and left. And look,” she said. “He’s found the room.”
Jeremy stood outside Room 306, waving for them to hurry up. “I need my bag,” he said in a loudish whisper.
David handed the medium-size shopping bag to the boy. “Remember what we talked about now.”
Jeremy nodded and bit his lip as if suddenly unsure about his plan.
“It’s all right, buddy,” David said, releasing Spring’s hand and taking his son’s. He knocked on the partially open door.
Spring knew that Jeremy had been worried about the little girl. That David had followed through and actually brought him to the hospital to see her said a lot about both of them.
A dark-haired woman appeared at the door and looked up at David. He said something in rapid Spanish, and her face blossomed into a welcoming smile. She ushered them in, talking the entire time. David quietly and efficiently translated for Spring and Jeremy.
“Thank you so much for allowing us to visit,” he told Mrs. de Silva. “As I mentioned on the phone, Jeremy was a patient here a few weeks ago. And after seeing Maria at the Common Ground clinic, he’s been very worried about her.”
“She is doing much better, all praise be to God,” Mrs. de Silva said. “We have not stopped praying.”
“Neither have we,” David told her.
“Daddy.”
He smiled down at Jeremy.
“We won’t disturb you long,” he told the woman.
Mrs. de Silva smiled at Jeremy. Then, taking his free hand, she led him to the bed where little Maria was bandaged and looking miserable. She turned from the muted television and looked at them.
David made the introductions. Mrs. de Silva’s eyes widened when she realized who Spring was.
“Thank you for helping my Maria,” she said, giving Spring a hug.
At the girl’s bedside, Jeremy reached into the bag and pulled out a white plush teddy bear. It wore a pink-and-green-polka-dot scarf around its neck. The girl’s face lit up when she saw it.
“You need a bear,” he told Maria, thrusting the toy at her. “It will make you feel better. I was sick and got Beau. You have to give her a name.”
She wasn’t able to move the lower part of her body, but she held tight to the teddy bear.
“Amelie,” she said. “Su nombre es Amelie. Gracias.”
Mrs. de Silva gasped, and David asked what was wrong.
“She has named the bear Amelie. Amelie was her best friend. She moved away a year ago.” Tears filled the woman’s eyes, and she wiped them away with a handkerchief she pulled from a pocket. “The two, my Maria and her friend Amelie, had matching pink-and-green dresses. She has missed her friend very much. Your little boy has made her very happy. Thank you.”
Watching from a few steps away, Spring covered her mouth, overcome by Jeremy’s sensitivity and concern and the Lord putting them all in the right places at the right times.
Despite the language barrier, Jeremy and Maria seemed to be enjoying each other’s company. David eventually had to remind him that Maria needed rest just like he had after his tummy surgery.
“Would you let us pray with you before we leave?” David asked.
“Sí,” Mrs. de Silva said. “And please pray for my brother. He is very upset about what has happened. It was an accident, but he blames himself. My husband and I have tried to tell him it was not his fault, but...” She shook her head sadly.
“Of course we will,” David said. He held a hand out to Spring. The three adults formed a semicircle around the bed. Jeremy put his hand on Maria’s arm, and David led them in prayer.
Back in the SUV, Spring twisted in her seat and told Jeremy, “What you did for Maria was very nice.”
He nodded. “She needed a bear. But she should call it Beau.”
Spring smiled.
David started the sport utility vehicle and announced, “Next stop, the bazaar and picnic.”
* * *
Spring had initially thought that it would be all right for David and Jeremy to meet her at the picnic. But as David followed the direction of an usher managing traffic in the church’s parking lot, she was glad that he’d insisted they would pick her up at her house.
Not only had her mother seen David in a light other than as adversary, she’d met and seemed as smitten with Jeremy as Spring was. And then the stop at the hospital. David had clearly followed through and had even talked with Maria de Silva’s mother in advance of their visit.
She couldn’t think of a more perfect day, and it had barely gotten started for them.
Jeremy’s enthusiasm was contagious. He practically vibrated in his booster seat in the backseat of David’s SUV.
David parked at First Memorial Church of Cedar Springs.
In the backseat, Jeremy bounced in his seat and pointed out the window.
“Look, look, it’s a clown! He’s throwing balls!”
The colorful clown juggler, much like a pied piper, was walking around, pausing to hold court as people arrived in the parking lot and then leading them toward the festivities.
“Hurry, Daddy! We’re going to miss him!”
David and Spring shared a smile.
“He’ll be here all day, buddy.”
Jeremy’s feet kicked the seat as he squirmed.
“Many kids Jeremy’s age are afraid of clowns,” Spring quietly observed.
David grinned. “Not my boy. So far, about the only thing I’ve discovered that he’s afraid of is going to bed.”
Spring laughed as David cut the engine. “My mom used to say that my youngest sister, Autumn, was like that. Too afraid she would miss something.”
“That’s Jeremy.”
“Daddy, can we get out now?”
“On my way, buddy.” David got out of the SUV, came around and opened Spring’s door for her, then opened the back door to release Jeremy.
“Hurry, Daddy.”
“I’m hurrying,” David said with a smiling glance over his shoulder at Spring.
He undid the restraints, and Jeremy bounded from the booster seat and into his arms.
David glanced at Spring. “This was really a great idea,” he told her. “I’m glad you invited us.”
As he put Jeremy down, Spring reached across the backseat to the small picnic basket filled with cookies to share. “I’m glad you decided to come. This picnic is a First Memorial tradition. It’s a lot of fun. It was incorporated into the full Common Ground community picnic weekend and has just gotten better every year. And,” she added with a nod toward Jeremy, “it seems to have gotten his mind off Maria.”
Jeremy grabbed his father’s hand and Spring’s free one to tug them forward.
Spring was struck by the image the three of them made.
They looked like a family.
And it felt right, so very right.
While Jeremy chattered between them about the fun they would have at the church picnic, Spring stole a glance at David...and caught him staring at her.
She wondered if he was thinking the same thing.
“This feels right,” David said.
She didn’t cast her gaze away, and she didn’t feign either indifference or misunderstanding.
It did feel right. The way things were supposed to feel between a man and a woman.
“Yes,” she told him. “It does.”
The next two hours were spent going from booth to booth at the picnic. Each of the church’s auxiliary groups had tents set up along the perimeter of the church’s lawn. Each booth featured a game or activity, and there was something for people of all ages. Picnic tables laden with food and big barbecue grills were in the middle.
While the children watched a puppet show, a preview of what was to come the next day at The Fellow
ship, David and Spring signed up to play a round of Bible trivia.
The picnic and bazaar, while hosted by First Memorial, was open to all of the Common Ground community so there were plenty of faces from the three congregations who were meeting for the first time.
“Remember,” the host dressed in a tweed jacket said using the hyper voice of a television game show host. “You must answer each trivia item in the form of a question. And remember, if you don’t, the points automatically go to your opposing team.”
Two teams of four stood facing each other, the men versus the women. They were on opposite teams, and Spring wondered if David had any idea how competitive she could be. She waved at him and grinned. He was about to find out.
“You’re going down,” a tall man on the other side taunted.
“That may be the case,” the brunette woman next to Spring responded. Spring couldn’t remember if she’d introduced herself as Marcy Marian or Marian Marcy. Marcy or Marian then pulled out a tangle of keys and shook them. “Just remember who got you here and who has the keys to the car and house.”
That rejoinder earned laughter from all the competitors.
Twenty questions later, the men looked stunned to have been defeated by the team of women, who’d broken out into an impromptu cheer led by Marian.
“I was head cheerleader in high school down in Fayetteville,” she said as each of the four women collected an envelope from the moderator.
“Congratulations, ladies. Each of you wins a gift card for a free book from the Common Ground Bible bookstore and two free pastries at Sweetings. Whether or not you decide to share with those losers over there is your business.”
“Hey,” Marian’s husband said, approaching with the men. “They had a ringer on their team. She teaches Sunday school.”
“And if you came sometime,” the teacher replied, “maybe you would have known some of the answers.”
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Marian said as she linked her arm with her husband’s. “If memory serves correctly—and it does—you were the main one advocating men versus women.”
“That’s right,” David said as he joined Spring. He slipped his hand into hers. “The rest of us wanted to go mixed doubles.”
Love Inspired May 2015 #1 Page 35