Violet Miracle, A Little Bit of Coffee, Flowers, and Romance

by Christina Li

  “Jesse! You probably scared the poor thing half to death,” said their mother coming back with eye drops. Handing them to him, she added, “These drops should soothe your eyes. Try not to rub them.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “I, for one, hope we never see that girl again, even from a distance.”

  “You’ll probably be safe tomorrow at church,” said Ivy. “I certainly hope so,” Jesse replied.

  “Did you notice there were lights on over in the house next door?” asked Sam.

  “I thought the owner had died.”

  “He did,” their mother replied. “Should we report it? I’d hate for that house to get robbed.”

  “I’ll call Will,” said Sam pulling out his cell phone.

  “Don’t have to, he just walked in,” said Ivy beckoning him over.

  “What’s up?” he asked when he got to their table. “Possible robbery over at the house next door,” Ivy replied.

  “Don’t worry about it. I noticed it when I came. There’s a car in the driveway registered to a Violet Carsten from Butterfield, Illinois. I Googled the town, it’s about two hours southeast of St. Louis and tiny, barely big enough to make the Map. Violet has no police record. I’m guessing she must be some kind of relative. Usually burglars don’t park their cars in the drive-way. We’ll probably find out all about it in the next day or so.”

  Ivy was amazed at how observant and thorough Will was. She tried to resist looking at him all starry-eyed. She wondered if he would ever realize that she had grown up and wasn’t just Sam’s little sister anymore.

  The next few minutes were spent in general chit-chat. Will was told about the pepper spray incident. He showed remarkable restraint in not teasing the brothers. Finally, they all had to get home and get some sleep before church the next day.

  As Sam and Jesse got ready for bed in their own respective apartments, each had quite different thoughts about the events of the evening. Jesse hoped he never saw that crazy girl ever again. Sam hoped he would. In fact, he really wanted to see her in church the next day. As crazy as that wish was, he prayed it anyway. The Lord seemed to have a way of bringing about the best surprises.

  Chapter 7

  The next morning, Violet fell out of bed when the alarm rang, literally. Her uncle must have set the radio at the loudest possible volume. She wondered if the poor man hadn’t been going slightly deaf. After she crawled back in, she adjusted the sound level to a reasonable level. No need to for a repeat.

  Excited about finding the church she really wanted to get an early start, in case she got turned around on one of the expressways. She missed simply walking to church. At least there existed only a short walk next door to get a cup of coffee. The night before, she laid out her favorite long, black skirt and dark blue sweater, no worries about what to wear. For the time being, she elected to leave her hair down, she would do it after some coffee. Quickly, she grabbed her Bible and walked over, only to be disappointed. The hours read closed on Sundays. Who ever heard of that? Even the diner back in Butterfield opened on Sundays. The boss there never set foot in a church though. Perhaps the Coffee House owners went to church.

  Back at her uncle’s house, Violet prayed he had some coffee somewhere in the kitchen. She sang some serious hallelujahs when she opened up a cupboard and found several varieties. Apparently, he had really liked his coffee. Violet even found some jars of fresh-roasted beans, labeled with the coffee type and date of roast. She found a very strange looking popcorn popper that her uncle converted for some purpose. It had a lingering smell of coffee about it. She wondered if he’d used this for homemade roast. Curious, she decided to read up on it and try it sometime. She certainly liked her coffee too.

  After an amazing cup and a great time reading her Bible and praying, Violet determined herself ready to face the day, traffic and crazy highways included. Even her knee-length hair didn’t give her any problems that morning. As she got into her car, she thought that no matter how lost she got the Lord would help her. After all, He had already provided a GPS on her phone.

  Amazingly, she got to the church with no problems. Although the amount of cars numbered much higher than she experienced at home, it flowed very well. MapQuest didn’t steer her wrong, and the church stood where it was supposed to be. As Violet walked toward the entrance, a girl slightly younger than she threw open the door and with a sweet smile greeted her and shook her hand.

  “Hello, I’m Ivy. What’s your name?”

  Violet liked this girl and her sweet smile. “I’m Violet.”

  “Welcome. How did you find out about our church?” Ivy asked as she ushered her inside.

  “I found you on the Internet. I’m new to the area, got in last night.”

  “Oh, really? Where are you from?”

  “I’m from Butterfield. It’s about six hours south of here, population five hundred, including the cats and dogs.”

  Ivy laughed. “Well, welcome to Chicagoland.”

  “Thanks.” Violet would’ve liked to have stood and talked longer, but other people came in and Ivy had to excuse herself.

  “Talk to you later, okay?” she asked. Violet nodded as she went further in.

  She stopped and looked around nervously for a moment or two before locating the bathrooms. It wasn’t a large church, but it was certainly bigger than the one back home. It was beautiful, but not ostentatious. Violet thought of it as ‘understated elegance,’ lovely, but not showing off. The atmosphere of the place was warm and welcoming. The presence of God permitted the air and she relaxed.

  A few minutes later, as she came out of the bathroom and headed toward the sanctuary, she froze. There, standing a few feet away, were the two men whom she had pepper sprayed the night before. What were the odds of that?

  At that moment, they saw her too. The one who spoke last night didn’t recognize her. Violet cringed observing the moment he did. She had to make things right. She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and unflinchingly strode toward them, hoping and praying they would accept her apology.

  “Hi,” she said. Did her voice tremble?

  “Hello,” said the one who had been silent the night before. Violet decided she really liked his voice. It was warm and deep. He even managed to smile at her.

  “I wanted to say, I am really sorry for pepper spraying you last night. I sort of acted without thinking. Can you ever forgive me?”

  “Of course,” said Mr. Silent. He had the most gorgeous brown eyes! “No harm done. By the way, I’m Sam,” and he stuck out his hand to shake.

  Violet smiled, relieved, and shook his hand. “I’m Violet. Do you work for the Coffee House? I figured later that you must’ve thought I was trying to throw out my trash in your dumpster, but really I wasn’t. I only wanted to see it for research purposes.” Oh dear, now she was babbling.

  Sam looked confused but answered her question anyway. “No, we don’t work there. Our mother owns it. Sometimes, we help out. Mostly, we drink her amazing coffee and eat her muffins.”

  “I’ll have to try them sometime.” Violet decided she wouldn’t mind getting the opportunity to see Sam some more either.

  She remembered the one who spoke the night before, but stood silent and intimidating today. Bravely, she turned to him, noticed the resemblance to Sam, and stuck out her hand. “Would you forgive me too? I’m afraid I sprayed you the worst.”

  ***

  Jesse thawed a little at Violet’s earnestness, but he determined to remain wary. Call it paranoia, but he still didn’t want to get pepper sprayed again. Grudgingly, he replied, “Yes, I forgive you,” as he shook her hand.

  Violet positively beamed at that. When Jesse turned to Sam, he grimaced seeing his brother melt as he looked at a pair of big, blue eyes and bright smile. This needed to be stopped. He nudged Sam with his elbow. “Aren’t you on bass today?”

  Sam looked at his watch and frowned. “So sorry, Violet. I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you after servi
ce, okay?”

  ***

  “Sure,” she said. She would love to listen to his wonderful voice some more. It was unusually deep, difficult to describe, but perfect for a hero to rescue her heroine in her latest book. She would also have to include the dark, black hair and dimples. His smile was terrific too.

  “I have to do the sound board,” said Jesse.

  Violet jumped, then guilt overran her. She forgot Jesse still stood there! “Oh, well, it was nice to meet you. And thank-you so much for accepting my apology.”

  “Don’t mention it,” he said as he went into the sanctuary and turned left towards the sound booth.

  Violet followed but stopped at the entryway and looked around wondering where to sit. She didn’t really want to sit up front, but she didn’t like sitting in the back either. It seemed inevitable that she would end up behind some tall person and wouldn’t be able to see.

  “Hey there, Violet, right?” asked Ivy coming up behind her. At Violet’s look of obvious relief, she added, “Would you like to sit with me?”

  “That sounds great.” Although crowds didn’t frighten her anymore, her stomach still did funny things in a new place. That someone chose to reach out to her helped a great deal.

  The service was amazing. The music was exciting and worshipful. Obviously the musicians were all very talented, but none of them seemed to be trying to show off. They were all simply worshipping their great, awesome God.

  The pastor spoke that morning on facing your fears. A lot of his scriptures were ones that Violet was already very familiar with. However, he took it all one step further. “God often calls us to step out into something new and unfamiliar, yet we hold onto the familiar,” he said. “God can’t bless us with the new if our hands are already full of the old. We have to be willing to let go and step out and trust.”

  Violet squirmed a little at his words. She liked the familiar. Although this new ‘adventure’ was exciting, she still really didn’t want to be here. She’d much rather be at home with Aunt Mabel, sitting on the front porch, sipping sweet tea and typing away on her latest book. Guilty, she tuned back into what the pastor was saying.

  “Abraham obeyed God initially and left his home and all that was familiar to him, but he didn’t really let go. He took his nephew Lot with him. It wasn’t until Abraham allowed himself to separate from Lot that God gave him the great promises of land and a family heritage that would last forever. At that point, Abraham still didn’t have any children, but by letting go of the last ties to his extended family, he was able to begin the process of seeing God’s promises fulfilled in his life, of property and the promised son that would lead to an entire nation that still exists to this day.”

  Violet thought of all she had let go of in merely coming to this new place. She knew she had obeyed God in making this trip. Yet, she knew she hadn’t really had the best attitude about it all. Worse, she had this niggling sense that there was more that she still needed to let go of. She shuddered slightly, wondering what sort of testing the Lord had in store for her next. Simply coming here and being on her own for the first time in her life signified adventure enough!

  After the service, Violet stood in her pew and reflected on the message as she gathered her things. She didn’t want to reject what God had for her, but at the same time, she found it difficult to imagine handling much more. Uncomfortable with her thoughts, she welcomed the distraction when Sam joined her and Ivy.

  “Have you already met my brother?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Violet replied. Then she added rather sheepishly, “I’m afraid I’m the one who pepper sprayed him last night.”

  Ivy’s eyes widened. Then, she burst out laughing. “You mean to tell me, little ‘ole five foot nothing you bested my two big brothers? This is awesome!”

  Sam groaned. “I’ll be hearing about this forever now,” but the smile he sent Violet told her he didn’t really mind.

  “You have to come over for dinner,” Ivy said, grabbing her arm. “I was going to ask you anyway, but now, you have to come.”

  “Oh, I’m not sure…” Violet’s face must be the color of strawberries by now.

  Then, Ivy’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. Givens, came over and after introductions were made, echoed their daughter’s invitation.

  “You should come,” said Sam. “Mom makes a terrific tomato pasta sauce, better than Olive Garden.”

  Violet gladly acquiesced to the kind pressure. She also admitted to herself a pair of brown eyes and a deep voice cinched the deal.

  Several minutes later, Violet sat next to Ivy, her plate piled high with pasta. To her right sat Mrs. Givens on one end and her husband on the other. Sam sat directly across from her with Jesse next to him. As she looked at the brothers, she noticed their similarities and differences. Sam had dark, dark hair and deep, brown eyes while Jesse had lighter colored hair, more brown than black. His eyes were a little lighter as well. Yet, when he was not happy, those eyes went from honey to a dark molasses color. She noticed that when Ivy teased him about the pepper spray.

  Violet decided that Sam took after his father in looks while his brother took after his mother more. She wasn’t sure yet who they took after in temperament. Ivy seemed a delightful combination of both. Her eyes were lighter like Jesse’s, but her hair was a beautiful, glossy black like Sam’s.

  “Violet,” said Sam, interrupting her thoughts, “I wanted to ask what you were researching last night?”

  “Oh,” she blushed bright red. “I’m a writer. I mean, I write mystery/adventure novels. I had this great idea of my heroine finding a dead body in a dumpster and wanted to get a sense of all the details, you know, sights, smells, etc.”

  Jesse, turning an interesting shade of green, put down his fork and wiped his mouth with his napkin.

  Ivy looked positively exuberant. “How fun!” she squealed. “I’ve never met a novelist before. How many books have you written?”

  “So far, I’ve written only five. They’re called the Colonel Brighton Adventures and are period books, a kind of combination of the Scarlet Pimpernel and Sherlock Holmes. For this latest one, though, I wanted to write a contemporary mystery/adventure. There’s only so much the police or a detective could do back in the 1800s. I wanted to play with some of today’s technology.”

  “That sounds very interesting,” said Mrs. Givens. “I’m sure it’s a lot safer than actually working for the police department.”

  “Mom, you don’t have to worry about me. I work only with the victims. I just draw the bad guys. I hardly ever actually see them,” said Ivy to her mother. “I’m a sketch artist,” she explained for Violet’s sake.

  “I’m aware that drawing pictures isn’t really where the action is,” her mother replied. “It’s that I worry about you and Will. It’s a mom thing.”

  Ivy leaned over and hugged her mom. “The Lord will always keep me safe.”

  “You don’t have to worry about Jesse and me at all. Jesse just works with computers.” Sam turned to Violet and said, “He’s a cyber-detective.” Turning back to his mom, he continued, “and the folks I work with can’t hurt me even if they wanted to.”

  Jesse turned even greener as the rest of them chuckled at Sam’s joke.

  Violet was confused. Looking at Sam, she asked, “What do you do?”

  “I’m a medical examiner,” he answered.

  “His job is disgusting, but he’s right, they can’t hurt him,” added Jesse.

  “I don’t think of my job as disgusting. It’s just a bit sad sometimes,” replied Sam.

  Violet was positively thrilled about this news. “Sam, would you be willing to answer questions for me about facts in my book as I work on my research? It would really help a lot. I like to get my facts right for my readers’ sakes.”

  “Of course! Any time. We can exchange e-mail addresses and cell numbers after lunch.”

  Violet realized she had found a piece of heaven. The Lord had led her to
a whole family of detectives! The sister was a sketch artist, one brother was a cyber detective, and Sam was a medical examiner. Jackpot for this writer!

  ***

  Jesse noted the dreamy look on Sam’s face. While he thought Violet was nice and all, she still seemed a bit strange. “How long are you going to be here, Violet?” he asked. A little dose of reality would do Sam some good right about now.

  “Well, according to the conditions of the will, I had to come up here in person and meet with the lawyer in order to claim my inheritance. My Aunt Mabel thought, since I’m already here, I should use the time to go through the house and decide what I would like to keep, and if there was anything I might sell privately for more than I’d get through doing an auction. After that I’m free to sell it. So, I’m giving myself about two weeks to actually go through it. My uncle left the place really immaculate, so it shouldn’t take long. My real estate agent said the best way to sell the house is to have it empty or ‘move in ready.’ She said houses now take an average of about three months to sell, unfortunately, but she said we could go ahead and start showing it as soon as this coming week. So, we’ll see. My biggest problem is we’re starting to get into the slow season for home buying and winter is nearly impossible. However, with the money from this house, I’ll be able to finally go full time as a writer. I know the Lord will work it all out.”

  Like a leaking balloon, Sam deflated slightly. He wanted to get to know Violet better, but two weeks wasn’t nearly enough time. He had better spend some more hard time in prayer. He had lost the woman of his dreams before; he wasn’t going to make the mistake of wasting time again. Yet, why did the Lord give him the go ahead on this? There wasn’t enough time. It didn’t make sense at all. He decided he would pray and make the most of the time given and see what happened.

  “Well, we’ll have to work hard to make you welcome during your short stay here,” said Doctor Givens graciously.

  “Oh, you all already have.” Violet’s eyes were bright with tears of gratitude. “I was so nervous about coming up to such a huge place all by myself and I found a whole family of friends my first day.”

  Ivy leaned over and hugged her. “I’m glad you came.”