Chapter 7

Luther walked up on the back porch and into the kitchen, "I was beginning to worry about you," Megan said.

"Well, as late as I left, plus the hour's drive to the store before I could even start the stocking shift..."

"You must be tired. Sit, I'll have your breakfast in a jiffy. Then you can get some rest. Other than preaching tomorrow, you don't have to be back until Monday night, do you?"

"No, that's it," he answered before kissing his wife. "Have you talked to Oliver about our little waif's car?" he asked when they parted.

Megan turned to the stove to check his biscuits. "Yeah, he called about twenty minutes ago. The pan came off without damaging the gasket. He said that he sent it over to the welding shop."

"I thought he was going to weld it himself. He's got a rig."

"He didn't say why; just said that he did, and says the car will be ready in a couple of hours. Probably long before our guest will be ready. She's weak."

"Probably worried that he'll make the hole worse instead of better," Luther laughed. After washing his hands at the sink, he sat at the table watching his wife scramble three eggs in a bowl before pouring them into a skillet.

"She still asleep?"

"She got up and went to the bathroom. We talked for awhile until she started getting sleepy again. I promised that I would wake her when her car was ready, but like I said, she's weak."

"You think she needs to stay with us for a couple days to get stronger, then?"

"Yeah, I do, but she's adamant to go," Megan answered as she stirred the eggs as they cooked, while keeping watch on the sausage.

Taking a plate from the cupboard, she transferred the eggs from the skillet, then added the sausage. Putting the laden plate on the table, she got another plate and filled it with biscuits straight from the oven, placing it within easy reach of her husband. Sliding the French butter keeper nearer, she upended the keeper to expose the room temperature butter from its water bath. Then getting a jar of marmalade from the refrigerator, she put that on the table, poured herself a cup of coffee and sat with her husband. He bowed his head for a few seconds to give private thanks for the meal.

"I assume, since it's as late as it is, that you've already eaten," he said, buttering a biscuit, knowing that she would have because of her diabetes.

"Yeah, I did." There was a pause, then, "I just worry about your having to drive so far to work."

"Lord's been good to us. At least I still have a job. There aren't many around, especially in this little town, and with the economy..." He left the obvious unsaid.

"The hose was forty-seven dollars and change on that new, expensive car of hers. Oliver is going to charge us twenty to put it on, plus the cost of the antifreeze and oil. He said he told the guy at the welding shop the circumstances and he's going to weld the oil pan for free, but Oliver had to clean the pan first. When I asked what he was charging us to take the pan off, clean it and reinstall it, he just said that we would discuss it later."

There was quiet in the little kitchen for a time as both people sat and thought, Luther absently eating, then, Megan spoke, "As soon as I've cleaned up here, I'm going down to the church and get her a couple of changes of clothes from our storm closet." (The church gathered clothes and other items to send to hurricane and tornado victims.) "I talked her into giving me her sizes. I'll stop by the clothing store and pick up a bra for her, plus a couple pairs of panties. I'm sure that we have some used jeans and tops at the church that will fit her so she won't have to wear that skin-tight outfit."

"Well, she does have..." he started, but didn't know how to finish without getting into trouble with his wife.

"Yeah, 'she does, ' doesn't she?" his wife said, a tinkle in her voice. "I honestly started to call you to help me change her clothes when she was out, using it as an excuse so you would have a chance to see her exquisite body..."

"Megan," he scolded.

"Oh, I wouldn't have done it. But with her even lying on her back, that woman has the most gorgeous set of breasts I could ever imagine, and they just go with that beautiful face of hers. She's ... I don't know. Beautiful doesn't even start to do her justice."

"That beauty got her into trouble," Luther said. "And I'm glad you didn't call me to come look. You're plenty pretty enough for me — for any man," he amended.

"Oh, I was decent before I gained weight," Megan said reaching over to briefly squeeze his hand. "But if you had seen her, you would have had something to think about every time you made love to me."

"Megan, I don't need..."

"Hush, I'm just teasing you; well sorta," she amended. "The woman is gorgeous, but she's been through a lot. We had a long talk while I was waiting for you to get home."

"Do you mean there was more that ... uh, person did to her?"

"Yeah, and she told me about her husband and daughter — well, ex-husband. That ... doctor made her divorce him. She says that the last year or so is like a dream faintly remembered. She says that the doctor bragged about drugging her and hypnotizing her on her first visit to his office. He even made her talk dirty to him on the phone, knowing that her child was listening. Oh, Honey, he's truly evil. How could someone do that to her — to anyone for that matter?"

"Well," Luther said as he paused in his eating to think, "you've probably hit the nail on the head. There are some people in this world that are truly evil. We read about them on the net all the time, see them on the news — the Bible had many, as well. There is more evil in this world all the time. Nothing we can do about it out here in our little part of the world. But we can pray for her, get her some clothes, fix her car and get her on her way."

"She's going to have to have money. I guess I don't have to ask how much money is in the church treasury?"

The preacher let out a quiet laugh. "Almost enough to pay the bills this month," he said. "No jobs; no money; no tithe. People have to feed themselves first, no matter what the Bible says. They give all they can."

"We're lucky. Our house, such as it is, is paid off. Used cars get us back and forth — well with you and Oliver rebuilding the motor in the car."

"Honey, no use..."

"I'm not being depressed. Just facing reality. That vacation we've planned is just wistful thinking. You should never have stopped in this town all those years ago, and swept this little gal off her feet. That 'little gal' has gained about fifty pounds over the years, but she still loves you. And we're never going to be able to save up for a vacation. Last time it was the storm damage to those houses over on Smith Hill; this time, it's that little girl lying in our bed in there."

"She won't need much, Honey. She's headed for Denver," the preacher said.

"She's actually going to Winter Park — a couple of hours from Denver. To some type of conference center owned by Wainwright, Inc. This doctor bragged that he was going to get her daughter and do the same thing to her that he did to Jill. He claims that her child is living there. Her husband flies for the owner of the company."

"Well, wouldn't it be easier for her to simply call her husband at the company he works for?"

"She repeatedly tried her husband's cell and her daughter's as well. But she's given up on trying her husband's phone. She's scared that with the nasty divorce and all he won't talk to her — thinks he must have gotten another phone. She lost custody of her child; gave her daughter up with this Ingles controlling her. She's also afraid that the doctor will be waiting for her, or will find out where she's calling from and come get her. Oh, Baby, she's afraid of this guy — I mean really, really afraid. She thinks she's dying and wants to see her baby and her husband at a place where this Ingles can't get to her, so she can tell them what happened. She sees herself as soiled goods. She isn't expecting her husband to take her back; she just wants to tell her family what happened. She doesn't have any plans after that."

"So, how much money does she need to get there?"

"And..." Megan continued, "What's she going to do if they don't take her in. Remember, it was a nasty divorce. Ingles used her as a whore. We're going to have to give her more than enough to just get her there."

Seeing his grin, she continued, "You're teasing me. You well know that we would never give her just enough. I've got Tess going over to Wal-Mart to pick up one of those cell phones where you just pay for the minutes. But we need to decide how much money to give Jill? How much do you think?"

"Baby, you decide that. You know with the economy and everything, we'll never be able to replace it. This will kill any hopes of a vacation to anywhere — anytime. We've been trying to save up for years, and we're losing ground. We had almost two thousand saved before the storm hit Smith Hill."

"Five hundred?"

"Yeah. And that will leave us how much in the kitty?"

"About three fifty or a little more." Looking at her husband with love, she added, "When you stopped here to eat, you had big plans. Those plans changed to marrying me, and living here to be a big rancher. Over the years, all that turned into a preacher for a little church that can barely support itself, and whose preacher has to stock a grocery store at night to make ends meet."

"But you wanted kids — kids that the Good Lord didn't see fit to send us."

"Kids that we don't have to feed right now," she said standing to clean up the kitchen. "Go grab a nap in the guest room. Maybe it wasn't the best idea I've ever had putting her in our bed, but it was the nearest room."

"No matter," he said getting up. "As tired as I am right now, I'll never know the difference two minutes after my head hits the pillow."

"Close the door. I'm not going to tell her that I'm leaving her alone with a man in the house. As they say, she's a mite gun-shy about men right now. Can't blame her, but she's asleep and won't know about your being here, anyway. It should only take about an hour to pick up the things she'll need."

"I won't bother her if she won't bother me," Luther said stumbling toward the bed, his belly full.

Wainwright mock staggered into the kitchen, grabbed his chest and fell into a chair. "Feed me. Feed me," he cried. "It's almost high noon and I'm famished." Leaning toward a grinning Jeff, Frank quietly continued, "Not to mention that I've been fucked within an inch of my life."

"You," Jeff snorted, having heard this before. "I don't doubt that Margaret..."

After quickly looking over his shoulder to make sure the women were far enough away, Frank leaned over toward Jeff, "I'm telling you that you have no idea how horny weddings make her. I haven't the foggiest notion how many times we fucked last night, but I can tell you the one thing we didn't do much of, and that was sleep."

Jeff looked hard at his friend, and in a normal voice. "You do look a little peaked this morning. But is eight-fifteen high noon?" he laughed.

"Well, around here it is. Crap, Diana calls six o'clock sleeping in."

"Oh, you aren't impressing anyone. You're at work by seven in the morning. But did that lady of yours really get that excited over the marriages?"

"Well, I..."

"Are you guys through with your secrets this morning?" Laura said as she put a large platter of scrambled eggs on the table in front of the two men. "And where are Bill and Dave?" she asked.

"Oh, they're crawling along behind me, clinging to the walls for support..."

The kitchen door burst open and both men came through laughing at something one of them had said, both obviously exuberant.

"Clinging to the walls, huh?" Laura said winking at Ann who had just put a platter of bacon on the table. Laughing, they went back for more food as the men dug in.

Later in the morning, Dave found Jeff momentarily sitting alone in the living room. From the look on Dave's face, Jeff knew. "Evie told you?"

"Yeah," Dave said collapsing into a seat near his buddy. "My first inclination was to have a fit that you didn't tell me, but hell, when I got through ranting, and Evie got done chewing my ass, well ... Thanks, Jeff. But my God, she has a tumor in her brain. We've got to get the healer back with her right away."