by Robin Shope
A fog rolled in around him. In it, he saw Hudson staggering up the stairs. Bring me to you, Lord. The door at the top of the building opened. Hudson shivers from the cold wind. Free me of this guilt and shame. Hudson looks around, not knowing where he is. Lead me, Lord, in the path of your righteousness. Hudson steps off the side of the building. Show me how I can make things right. He sees Lucy’s face looking at him with trust. Change me .
A blinding light flashed in front of Joe. He tried to open his eyes, but the rays were so penetrating he felt it would blind him. When the light ceased, Joe slowly opened his eyes. He found himself face down on the carpeted altar. Alone in the dark church, he looked at his watch and was surprised to see hours had passed.
It was time to get back to the paper. By now, everyone would be wondering where he was. Joe staggered to his feet glad no one was around to see him in this condition. Whatever condition it was, it felt good. Real good . Like a toddler learning to walk for the first time and proud of his accomplishment. By the time he reached the door, he felt able to navigate himself to the street.
Joe walked to the car and drove back to the newspaper patting his chest softly as though he were a kid filled with excitement to see what gift waited for him under the Christmas tree. Inside his spirit the feeling of hopelessness was gone. He was certain Hudson was gone right along with it, all of the guilt and angst was replaced by feelings of peace and splendor. It was overflowing, bubbling up from within as an Artesian well.
Even though he spent an enormous amount of time shedding tears on the floor of the church as God’s love filled him, he still kept tearing. Filling like a leaky garden hose, the only person in the world he wanted to see at this moment was sweet Lucy. Maybe she could explain what had just happened to him back at the church. Suddenly, he wanted to learn about God.
Joe looked around at the fields and the hills and the wide-open sky. He loved it here. He was home for the first time in his life. It seemed like the right time to tell Lucy everything. He now had faith she would receive it. Then he would tell her he loved her.
As he turned the corner, his heart dropped. Angela Steel’s car was parked directly in front of the newspaper. The Illinois license plates on her Mustang were unmistakable. She was the last person he wanted to see right now.
Joe pulled up beside the sports car, hoping to see Angela still behind the wheel. No good. She wasn’t there. That meant she was inside. In looking at the parking lot, he knew Lucy was inside along with Ulilla, Carol, Abe and others. What was Angela saying to them all? The old Joe would have backed out and not dealt with it at all, but today’s Joe bowed his head and offered up the first prayer of his life. Help . He liked it. It was short and to the point. Joe considered it a good start.
The familiar jingle of the overhead bell rang as Joe walked in. Maybe it was time he got it all out in the open. The truth would be cleansing. Or the truth would destroy them all .
“Here he is now!” Monica blurted out at the top of her lungs. She gave him a slip of a smile. “Joe McNamara, welcome to your life.”
Joe looked around. Angela was nowhere in sight. Neither was Lucy for that matter. In fact, the room was empty except for Monica at the front desk. Not only did that mean they were all together in one spot but it also translated into bad news for him.
“Where is everybody?” Joe asked, needing to hear the answer.
“In the break room.” Monica snapped her gum and then followed right behind him. “Ya know, Joe…that Angela Steel looks like she’d be a very good letter writer. Would pink happen to be her favorite color?”
Joe had no idea what Monica was jabbering about. Nervous energy quickly replaced the calm he was feeling just moments earlier. Angela showing up here unexpectedly like this was rotten timing. By now, he just wanted to shuffle Angela out of here. The truth could wait.
All heads turned as he walked into the room. Today, Angela wore her auburn hair down, pulled back by the diamond clip he had given her for her birthday. Her green eyes flashed. “Joe, there you are.” She looked stunning.
“Here I am,” he answered nonchalantly as though there was no reason for panic.
Lucy looked at Joe with fire in her eyes. He could only imagine what she was thinking. Just having found God, he felt right in the middle of his first trouble. Big trouble of the worst kind. Maybe he didn’t have to work through his problems alone anymore. There was God now. “So you found our little town and newspaper,” he said to Angela apprehensively.
“Yes, and it wasn’t easy either,” Angela complained. “Do you realize all the country roads look exactly the same?”
“Yea, I think that has been mentioned before.” Joe combed his fingers through his thick brown hair as he looked again at Lucy. She was trying hard to smile. It wasn’t working. When she spread her lips to grin, they quivered. Don’t cry, my love. Joe decided not to look at Lucy anymore. It was too hard. Fully aware of how she felt about him, he could only imagine what she felt like at this moment and it pained him that he couldn’t do anything about it at this instant. He had to ride this storm out. “Angela, what brings you to Turtle Creek?”
“I think that is rather obvious. You do, my darling.” Angela got up from her seat and walked across the linoleum floor to him. Her high-heeled shoes made click-clack sounds as she went. She gave him a hug. He responded out of politeness and quite by accident caught a glimpse of Lucy’s expression. Her pain hurt him such that he had to shut his eyes.
“We better leave them alone. Come on, everyone, back to work,” Lucy’s voice shook. She brushed past Joe and Angela.
It was hard for Joe to let Lucy walk by. They had just started building a promising relationship and now this would set that progress back. Joe wanted to reach out and pull her back. He wanted to take her to the Cotton Candy House, sit on the porch and tell her how much she meant to him. He wanted her to know the full story of why he had originally come to Turtle Creek. Instead he had to stay in the break room with Angela and cover the same ground they had been going over for the past few years.
“Angela, I hope everything all right.” Joe shut the door.
“I miss you and wanted to personally deliver the invitation to my birthday party next weekend.” She held out an envelope.
Joe read it. “I can’t come.” He tried handing it back to her.
“But you must, since you are my only guest. You don’t want me to spend my birthday all by myself, do you?” Angela tried to kiss him.
Joe pulled back. “I’m sure there are a half dozen men ready to step into my shoes. You will hardly be alone.”
“I don’t care about them. I care about you. About us.”
“I’m really sorry, Angela.” Joe hung his head.
Angela burst into tears.
“Please don’t do this, Angela.” Joe held her. He considered her a wonderful person and didn’t feel she deserved the nightmare he had put her through. Years ago, he had planned on proposing to Angela. Those were the pre-Hudson days. Since then Hudson had reshaped his entire existence. Lucy had redefined his love. Now, there was God. He wasn’t altogether sure how that would all work out but he knew his life was forever changed. He wasn’t the same man Angela had once known.
“I believe you will come back to me,” Angela spoke with passion. “I had to see you and tell you I will wait forever if I have to.” Angela looked into his eyes. “There was a time you couldn’t go a day without seeing me and calling me a half dozen times. Now it takes nearly a supernatural act to get hold of you and when I do, you seem so distant. Joe, are you still taking your meds?”
“Don’t. Don’t blame how I am on that.” Joe pulled back and walked away from her. “Just know I did love you, once. Those feelings were not an act.”
“But when there was that accident…”
“You need to go on with your life away from me.” Joe tried to keep distance between them, not wanting her to come closer. She looked so pitiful. It was easy to remember what they used to mean to one ano
ther. Angela had stayed with him during a difficult time. Not many women would have done that. He wished he could reward her by returning her love but that was impossible. He wasn’t the same person. He had changed years ago. He still remembered how they used to be; those feelings didn’t evaporate, but the people they once were had.
“If it’s something else you want…another career, I can wait. I have done it before, just as long as I know I am the one you come home to. That is my one stipulation.” Angela searched for Kleenex in her purse and blew her nose, wiping tears from her face.
“Angela, please, don’t wait for me. We have no future together.”
She took out her compact, finished wiping her face and applied powder to her splotchy face. “I would ask you to please not share the purpose of my visit with your new friends; I do not care for anyone to know our private affairs.”
“Of course not.”
“I don’t know how to find my way back to the interstate.”
“I’ll follow you out and show you.”
The Christmas Edition
The Christmas Edition
Chapter Sixteen
Ulilla, Monica and Lucy stood at the window and watched as Joe walked Angela to her car. There was no denying that the woman was gorgeous. She even looked beautiful trudging through the icy snow in heels with the wind whipping her hair about her head.
Joe and Angela huddled together as they talked. Lucy would have given anything to hear what they were discussing. It had to be important to keep standing out in this kind of weather. No matter how much she wanted to, Lucy couldn’t look away. She searched for some sign from Joe that displayed his displeasure but it was hard to read his expression from where she stood.
Occasionally Angela pulled at the lapels on Joe’s coat. Joe would shake his head and then touch her face. They sure did seem like lovers.
“Just look at the way that woman is stroking Joe’s face!” Monica seethed.
“My gag reflex is kicking in.” Ulilla rubbed her stomach as if to illustrate her point.
When Angela finally got into her car to leave, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief until Joe got into his car and followed her out of the parking lot. It made her nauseous.
Now it was Lucy’s turn to grab her coat and get into her car. She wasn’t following them, as everyone supposed. Lucy drove to the place she always went whenever she felt upset. She dreamed of fat pillows and fresh sheets hanging on a summer clothesline. Maybe a dog in the yard. She’d bake cookies in her kitchen and bring them to work for everyone. Most of all, it would be her place. Her first house, a forever home.
She drove down County O and soon found herself turning onto Sugar Plum Road. She drove a few more miles until the road ended. The sunlight never seemed to reach the turn onto the driveway so she always had to be careful of the ice. Today, however, the ice was melted. The entrance to the property seemed odd. Dozens of the trees had been cut. Perhaps the constant barrage of wind had damaged some and a tree crew had come along to take the trees down safely.
Come spring, she’d replant more trees, but right now, all Lucy wanted to do was see her house. Just a few more weeks and she’d be living right here. Maybe Joe would remember his promise to buy her rocking chairs for the front porch. Joe . Lucy rubbed tears from her cheeks.
Lucy maneuvered her car along the winding driveway and then jammed on the brakes. The house wasn’t there. It was an empty field. In her ‘Angela’ upset, Lucy figured she had taken the wrong turn somewhere. Of course. That had to be it. She should have sensed that by the absence of trees in the drive’s entrance. Lucy backed around and drove out to get a good look at the road sign. Sure enough the road sign read Sugar Plum Road but now she saw another sign. A much larger metal sign with professionally printed words on it in large letters— Welcome to the Future Home of The Regional Newspaper, Oliver and Duckworth, owners .
This had to be a mistake. The bank had agreed to wait until the first of the year when she had enough of a down payment to buy the place. Lucy drove right back down the road. This time she drove too quickly for the road conditions and slid several times. Finally, she made it back to where the house used to stand.
She leaned over the steering wheel blinking her eyes. It was unmistakable. She was at the right place but the house was gone. In the last few days, someone had swept in with their greed and arrogance and knocked down a lovely, century-old house and now had begun hacking out the trees. Although it meant nothing to them, it meant everything to her.
Tears burned on Lucy’s cheeks as she got out of the car into the cold air and walked the property line searching for something from the house that the clean-up crew might have missed. There was nothing left behind. Nothing. Forever gone were the fireflies and the Christmas lights. Forever gone was the dancing in the moonlight. Forever gone were her flowers and vegetable garden and every dream she ever prayed.
Lucy scrambled back to the car. She headed straight to the bank. Once inside, she raised a ruckus and demanded to speak to the loan officer. Trying to quiet her, Lucy was instantly led to the loan officer’s desk.
“I was just at the property on Sugar Plum Road,” she stated with her hands on her hips. “You promised me I would get a loan as soon as I put down my deposit. I told you I would have it by the first of the year.”
“Someone else got their money in before you,” he batted his eyelids behind thick glasses.
“You told me the property wasn’t going anywhere!”
“At the time of our conversation, that was the case,” he told her. “But the following month, the situation changed when Oliver and Duckworth offered the full asking price in cash.”
“You could have called me to tell me. After all, I was pre-approved!” Lucy hit his desk with her open hand.
“We are not able to hold out for someone who may or may not have the money by a certain date. I am sorry for your disappointment but there are other properties just as nice that you can buy.”
Lucy wanted to pull off his glasses and step on them. Instead, she composed herself, did an about face and slammed out of the bank. Tears were streaming down her cheeks the whole time but she kept her composure as much as possible.
Right now, all she thought about was seeing Joe. He would be as upset about it as she was. In her rearview mirror, she saw a police officer flash his lights at her and she pulled over to the side of the road.
“Lucy, you were going forty in a thirty mile zone. Did you know that?”
“No.” Lucy looked straight ahead.
“I can tell by the expression on your face that you are upset about something, but you’d be more upset if you hurt someone. Right now I am going to let you off with just a warning but I suggest you find a safe place to cool off.” The officer handed her the paper and was on his way.
Lucy sat at the side of the road for several more minutes. She asked the Lord to calm her spirit so she could see past this situation. There was a reason for everything that had happened today. She just had to start believing it was so.
Lucy drove to the office within the speed limit. When she parked her car, she didn’t see Joe’s in the parking lot. Maybe he parked it on the street. Lucy blazed through the front door of the office and stood front and center trying to see if Joe had come back. He wasn’t at his desk.
“What’s wrong?” Monica asked in surprise and then followed her friend into the break room.
“Where’s Joe? I’ve got to see him.” She circled the room. “Please don’t tell me he is still with Angela!”
“I don’t know where he is. He never says where he is going when he leaves. He just goes. When he went this last time, he was following Angela out.”
“From now on, he has to let us know where he can be reached. Do you hear me? That is my new rule!” Lucy walked around the office rubbing her head. “They tore it down, Monica. The other newspaper is coming to town and they tore down my house so they can build there.”
“But the bank had the house on hold for you, d
idn’t they?” Monica asked with surprise.
“Evidentially not! They don’t seem to have a lay-away plan!” Lucy threw her arms up in the air. “A better offer…in cash…was made and so the deal and the papers were processed.”
“When did this happen?”
“I am not sure when it happened but they have already closed on the property and went right to work tearing down that old house. Did I mention they took a lot of the trees, too?”
Monica shook her head no.
“They are taking out trees. Those gorgeous old trees.”
Lucy went into her dad’s office and with rapid-fire googled the names Oliver and Duckworth. To her dismay, up came pages of information. She clicked her mouse on the first link.
‘Oliver and Duckworth are leading businesses who are on the march of reinventing the way business is being done this century. That’s the world of entrepreneurs these days. This partnership is turning the business world on its head.