Snow Angels (14 page)

It was still dark outside, barely past five when the telephone rang, but Andy was already awake.

He always rose early to spend a quiet half hour in prayer, craving that small oasis of peace at the beginning of every hectic day. But today he’d risen long before the alarm sounded. After Kendra had told him that Thea wanted to live with Sharon, Andy couldn’t sleep. Finally, around three, he’d given up on it, gone into the kitchen to drink coffee, think, and pray about what he should do. Two hours later he was just as confused and hurt as ever.

So it was almost a relief when the ring of the telephone split the predawn silence. Such an early call could only mean that some member of his flock needed him. Tired of turning in helpless circles as he walked around and around his own burdens, he was ready to return to more familiar ground and help someone else shoulder theirs.

“Hello. This is Reverend Loomis.”

“Andy? It’s Sharon.”

“Sharon? It’s early. Are you all right? Is something wrong?”

“No. Nothing like that. It’s good news. Well, actually it’s good and bad news. But it’s good news for me. I got a call last night, very late or I’d have called before. I didn’t want to wake you.”

“What is it?”

“I got a call from Scotland—from the university. Two of their lecturers were driving back from an academic conference and were in a terrible accident. One of them, a poetry professor, was badly injured. They say he’ll survive, but is facing months of rehabilitation.”

“That’s terrible.”

“I know. That’s the bad news but…well, I know this sounds terrible but it’s good news for me. The head of the department called to ask if I would be willing to come back and take over the poetry classes.”

“When?”

“Now. Classes start on January third. I’ve only got a few days to get to Scotland, find a place to live, and get up to speed on the course syllabus. I called the airline right away, but with all the holiday traffic, the only flight they could get me leaves this morning…”

A flush of anger coursed through him. He couldn’t believe she was going to do this to Thea, not again.

“Sharon, you can’t leave, not today. The pageant is today. You promised Thea you’d be there. You promised. She’s counting on you.”

“I know, I know. And I feel terrible about it, but I’ve called every airline and this is the only flight available. If there was any other way…This is an amazing opportunity, Andy. I just can’t pass it up. Explain it to Thea. She’ll understand, coming from you.”

“Coming from me?” Andy shouted. “From me? Are you serious? You’re not even going to come over and tell her good-bye?”

“I can’t, Andy. I’m already at the airport in Burlington right now, waiting for a flight to New York. My New York to Aberdeen flight leaves in five hours. If there had been any other way…”

Sharon’s voice cracked and Andy knew she was crying. “I’m sorry…”

Andy was livid. She had done it again. Part of him couldn’t believe it, but he knew it was true and that nothing he could do or say would change her mind.

“Andy…I…are you still there?”

“Yes. I’m still here.”

“Tell Thea I’ll write to her from Scotland. Maybe she can come and visit me. Maybe this summer. Tell her that, will you? Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her I love her. Andy?”

“I’ll tell her.”

Sharon sniffed. “Okay. Thanks. I have to go.”

She hung up the phone. Andy stood with the receiver to his ear, listening to the dial tone, wondering how much longer it would take for the sun to rise and rouse his daughter from sleep, and what he would say to her when it did.

Andy heard a soft
whoosh whoosh
, a shuffling sound of fluffy slippers on carpet, and looked up to see Kendra standing in the doorway, his bathrobe cinched over the rounded expanse of her belly, yawning.

“Honey, who was that? Is something wrong?”

It was past ten when Kendra, who was just putting a batch of apple cinnamon muffins in the oven, heard the sound of water running through pipes. Andy was emptying the dishwasher, sorting the silverware into piles and putting them away.

“The shower’s running. Thea’s awake.”

Andy sighed. “She thinks Sharon is coming to pick her up. They were going to do some last minute Christmas shopping and have lunch before Thea had to be at the church. I guess we’d better go in and talk to her.”

“Wait until the muffins are done. I’m going to make some peppermint hot chocolate, too.”

“Comfort food?”

“It couldn’t hurt. Hot chocolate always makes me think things are going to get better. They sure couldn’t get worse.”

But Kendra was wrong.

As they approached the door to Thea’s room, Kendra carrying a plate of warm muffins slathered with butter, Andy following behind carrying a tray with three cups of steaming hot chocolate, they heard Thea crying.

Kendra turned to look at Andy.

“She can’t have heard anything,” he said. “Sharon’s on a plane to Scotland right now. And even if the flight was delayed, the phone hasn’t rung and Sharon doesn’t have a laptop so she couldn’t have sent an e-mail. Could she?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she found a computer at the airport?”

Kendra knocked on the door. “Thea? Are you all right? We brought your breakfast. Can we come in?”

Thea choked out a sob. “No! Go away!”

Andy stepped in front of Kendra. “Thea, it’s Dad. I’m coming in.” He opened the door.

Thea lay sprawled across the bed, crying into her pillow. Sensing something was amiss, Wendell had pushed aside the company of stuffed animals that Thea kept piled on the bed and curled himself into a ball near her head, trying to comfort her with the warmth of his presence. Thea’s laptop computer sat open at the end of the bed. The power indicator light blinked green to black and back to green.

“Thea?”

Thea’s long hair hung in wet ropes down her back, still damp from the shower. She pushed herself up from her prone position and looked up; her eyes were red and her cheeks were flushed.

“Daddy!”

She held out her arms. Andy put the tray on the dresser and came to her side, holding his little girl.

“What is it, baby? What’s wrong?” Thea didn’t say anything, just collapsed onto his shoulders and sobbed.

Kendra put the plate of muffins down on Thea’s dresser next to the silver frame that held the family picture they’d had taken the Christmas before. A few minutes before, Thea had been calmly taking a shower, like she did every morning, now, she was sobbing. Something had triggered Thea’s distress but what? The computer?

Kendra picked up Thea’s laptop and read the words on the screen, a transcript of an online conversation between two cyber buddies named HownDawg and LatinPopStar. Somebody had seen it, copied it, and forwarded it to Thea.

Kendra’s lip curled in disgust and she slammed the laptop closed. “That scuzzball. How could he?”

“How could who? What did it say, Kendra?”

Andy reached toward the computer, but Thea grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“No! I don’t want you to read it. I’m so embarrassed. Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry! You were right all along. I should have listened to you. I was so stupid!” she cried and buried her head in her father’s shoulder again.

After they talked to Thea, calmed her down, and then told her about Sharon, and then calmed her down all over again, Andy did what any father would do. He got in his car and went out looking for Josh Randall.

Though Thea wouldn’t let him read the actual text that some anonymous friend of Josh’s had posted on his blog, she had, her cheeks flaming from shame, told him the gist of the teenage Casanova’s plan. Armed with this information, it didn’t take Andy long to locate the boy.

Downtown Maple Grove was busy, the stores crowded with last minute shoppers, but Andy spotted Josh’s white pickup truck right where he figured it would be, in the parking lot near Ming’s Chinese restaurant. He was standing on the sidewalk outside the restaurant entrance, scanning the faces of the people who were scurrying past with shopping bags, looking for Thea. He looked surprised to see Andy striding toward him, but tried to act casual.

“Hello, Reverend Loomis. Nice to see you. How’s everything at the…”

Andy didn’t give him a chance to finish.

He grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket, lifting him until there was a bare inch of space between Josh’s toes and the snowy sidewalk. The boy’s frightened face was even with his own and Josh had a clear view of exactly the level of fury he’d raised in the soul of this usually mild-mannered man. Josh gulped and started to say something. Andy took an even tighter hold on his jacket and then shoved him backward as hard as he could, sending the boy sprawling into a nearby snowbank.

“Dude! What’s wrong with you? Are you crazy? You can’t hit me; you’re a minister!”

“Oh yeah?” Andy sneered. “I’m also a father. And when somebody deliberately sets out to hurt my little girl, it makes me crazy. Insane, even. So get on your feet, boy. Because I’m going to knock you into next week.”

Andy bent his knees, taking a boxer’s stance, and drew back his big fist. Wide-eyed and visibly shaken, Josh stayed put.

“No? You’re not going to get up? That may be the first smart thing you’ve done in your life. Good move. You stay down there. And stay away from my daughter. Like you say, I’m a minister. I’m not supposed to go around pounding the stuffing out of the local youth, even if they are vermin. So you stay put, because if you get up, if you ever bother my daughter again, or spread around one more filthy lie about her, minister or no, I won’t be responsible for what happens to you next. You got that? Dawg?”

Josh didn’t say anything, just nodded his head.

Breathing hard, Andy slowly lowered his fist and then spit onto the snow, aiming and hitting a spot just a few inches from where Josh lay. “Glad we understand each other.”

A clutch of shoppers had gathered nearby, including a few teenagers from the high school, to watch the spectacle.

“Excuse me,” Andy said as he turned and headed down the sidewalk toward the parking lot, leaving the boy cowering in the snowbank and drawing the openmouthed stares of the kids.

As he approached the dry cleaners, the door opened. Riley Roth stepped out, almost bumping into him.

“Andy! Nice to see you,” Riley said cheerfully before seeing the scowl on the minister’s face and then looking down the sidewalk where Josh was struggling to get up from the snow.

“Do you need a hand there, son?”

Riley made a move toward Josh. Andy put up an arm to stop him, then spun around, and pointed at Josh. “Do not get up from that spot,” he said in a low and menacing voice. “Do you hear me? Do—Not—Move!”

“Yes, sir.” Josh let his feet slide out from under him and flopped backward into the snow again. One of the girls standing nearby giggled and the rest of the teenagers joined in before stepping over Josh’s legs and going into Ming’s. Josh closed his eyes, but didn’t move.

Riley looked confused. “What’s going on, Andy? You okay?”

“Fine,” Andy said coldly. “Never better. Why do you ask?”

“Well…I…” he glanced uneasily at Josh. “Never mind.

“Listen, I’m glad I bumped into you. I’d like to call another meeting. We really should continue our discussions about the new building program. And there are a few other things I’d like to talk about as well. Some new business.”

“No.”

Riley raised his eyebrows, surprised by the definitive nature of this refusal. “I know it’s close to Christmas, but I was thinking that we could get together this afternoon. Before the pageant…”

“No,” Andy repeated firmly. “I am not going to call another meeting about the building program. I’ve sat through all the meetings I intend to on that subject. There are a lot of things the church can and should spend its time and money on—spreading the gospel, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, battling injustice, and,” he said, tilting his head toward the inert Josh, “reaching out to the morally bankrupt youth of our town. But we do not need a heated baptistery, a latte bar in the lobby, or a sound system to rival Carnegie Hall’s, or a new building. No more meetings, Riley. Not about that.”

The tips of Riley’s ears turned red and he sputtered “Now, wait a minute, Andy…”

“No,” Andy said evenly. “You wait a minute, Riley. For three months, I’ve stood back and let you steer the agenda of the board, wasting everyone’s time talking about trivialities that have nothing to do with the mission of this church. I shouldn’t have. I’ve also turned a blind eye and a deaf ear, ignoring your underhanded attempts to oust me from the pulpit and bring in somebody who’d go along with your plan to tear down the historic church that has ably served the needs of this community for more than 140 years. That was a mistake too, a lack of leadership on my part. But I’ve learned my lesson. So no, Riley. I’m not going to call a meeting about the building program because there isn’t going to be any building program. Not on my watch, not until we need one.

“Now if that makes you question my leadership or my vision,” Andy said with a single nod of his head, “that’s your right and I respect it. What I do not respect is that you’ve been going around behind my back, spreading gossip and dissent among the church body. That is not how we do things, Riley. Not in Maple Grove.”

Riley shifted from one foot to another, stung by the rebuke, but not disputing it.

Andy went on. “If you want to bring forth a motion to have me replaced, I’ll put it on the agenda for the next scheduled meeting, not before. But unless and until the congregation should ask me to step aside, I am the leader of the Maple Grove Community Church. And I’m done letting you or anyone else to distract me from my job to serve the people of this community.”

He was quiet for a moment, giving Riley space to voice any disagreement. When none came, Andy looked at his watch. “I’m glad I bumped into you too, Riley. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to go over to the church. I told Kendra I’d help set up extra chairs for the pageant. You’re coming, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Riley said uncomfortably.

“Good,” Andy said evenly. “I’d hate for you to miss it. See you at church, Riley.”