The Sullivans continued to attend Morningside Church, and Amy joined them every Sunday morning. Each week a few more drops of clean, spiritual water replaced the muddy water in the figurative glasses of their hearts and minds, spiritual water dropped there by the youth group meetings, the adult Sunday school classes, and Michael Andrews’ sermons. At the end of June, Richard and Janet began attending six weeks of Wednesday evening classes to become members of the church.
Tom Spence finally went home after two more weeks in the hospital, and Doug Higgins followed a week later, though still in a wheelchair. The doctors hoped that, with physical therapy, he would walk again. But both men and their families were simply glad for them to be alive and improving. Blessings were counted daily in the two homes.
Billy and Amy met with Kathy Thomas, briefly joined by Richard, back in early June. All of the adoption approval papers were signed, and Kathy began putting together a list of possible adoptive parents for Amy to consider. At Richard's suggestion, Kathy called the Tomlinsons, and they enthusiastically responded to her request for information on themselves. Kathy agreed with Richard that they appeared to be a fine and potentially well matched couple for Amy's child; she placed them on the list of seven couples for Amy and her parents to consider, and they then made it through to the short list of three couples to interview. Patrick and Kate would fly into town later that week for their meeting with all three Bryants.
Monday morning Richard received a call from Bruce McKinney and David Smith, calling together on a speaker phone from their office.
“Richard,” Bruce began, “our company's cash position is critical. Without the Tomlinson investment or a short-term loan like we proposed to you, we've basically run out of cash, trying to finance our expansion from within. Please don't repeat this, obviously, but we may not be able to make our payroll in two weeks. Patrick Tomlinson seems like our best hope because he's already conceptually onboard, and he knows us well. Do you think if we offered him a better deal—say to buy more of the company for less money—he could move faster?”
“I don't know, Bruce. He wants to invest now, but he also wants to wait to be sure that his father's estate has no surprises. Perhaps if the offer were strong enough, he would go ahead and borrow the money to invest with you, pending the estate settlement. By coincidence I happen to know that he and his wife will be in town on Thursday about another matter. Why don't you just give him a call and ask for a meeting? If he says OK, I'll call Marty and clear it with him; or he can come too.”
“All right, Richard, we'll do that,” David replied. “And listen, just to add to the problem, Fairchild stock is down four points today on news of a huge Japanese investment in their major competitor. We really need to move Tomlinson along, for all these reasons.”
“OK. Call me after you talk to Patrick. I think he and his wife are flying in early Thursday,” Richard concluded.
Richard had asked two of their firm's summer interns, Bill Evans and Linda McPhail, to research recent decisions on local obscenity cases. That morning they reported their findings, sitting together in the firm's legal library.
“Since the definition of obscenity is not black or white,” Linda began, “the case law is not totally clear either.”
“But it does appear—and here are the relevant decisions—” Bill continued, “that the courts do allow local communities to set and to enforce standards for obscene behavior.”
“So we have to find out what standards our community has set—I presume that means our city and county governments—and then be able to show that ‘911 Live’ could be expected to violate those standards on a regular basis?” Richard asked.
“I think so,” Linda nodded. “We've already requested copies of the relevant ordinances from our metropolitan governments, and we should be able to review them this week. This whole area is, again, very gray. A final ruling could hang on whether the show is portrayed as ‘entertainment’ or as ‘news.’ But from what we've read so far, we really should be able to mount a strong case, at least to put in front of a judge for a temporary injunction.”
“And what if we can find fifty other attorneys across the nation who will file similar suits on the same day in their communities?” Richard asked. “Keep on digging, and let me know what you find out about the local ordinances.”
* * *
At their family dinner that night, Tom Bryant asked Amy, “Are you sure you want your mother and me to be at these three interviews you've got coming up this week? We know the decision is ultimately yours, and we don't want you to feel that we're interfering.’’
“Oh no, Dad,” Amy replied. She had really appreciated the quiet but solid support from her parents over the past month, while she, Bobbie, and Susan read and discussed as much as they could find out about pregnancy, and Amy began regular checkups with an obstetrician, Tommy Glenn. “I don't feel you're interfering. This decision is so important. I want you both to help me.”
“Fine! Then we'll be delighted to meet with you and these couples,” Nancy said. “And we'll try to help you ask the right questions so that you can make the best decision.”
“Thanks. I really need your help. Now I've got two questions.”
“What are they, dear?” Nancy asked.
“I know we decided to wait to tell other people until I really start to show and until I'm safely through the first three months. But could I call my cousin Catherine and tell her? She must be due any day now, and I really want to share this time with her. I even thought that maybe I could visit her, right after her baby is born to understand what she's going through.”
“That's a good idea, Amy,” Tom answered. “Give her a call tonight. And, if she and her husband are amenable, it's certainly OK with us for you to visit her. She could probably use your help, in fact, with their two-year-old. What was your other question?”
“Would you two come with me one Sunday to Morningside Church? Their youth group leader, Glenn Jamison, has helped me so much, and their services are so good. I think you'll really like Michael Andrews. I'm feeling so much closer to God, thanks to Bobbie and Susan and Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan. Couldn't you just try it once or twice?”
Tom, who had not been to church in years, given that Sunday mornings usually meant golf or tennis, was nevertheless moved by his daughter's request. He had noticed changes in Amy that went beyond her pregnancy, and she had told both of them about what had apparently been a complete transformation in Richard. Unknown to him, their family had been the object of daily prayers from both the Sullivans and the Merediths, and the voices that earlier might have deterred him were playing at a much lower volume than before.
To Nancy's surprise, Tom smiled and said, “Sure, Amy. I think we'd be glad to join you. What about this Sunday?”.
Amy returned his smile. “Great! Thanks, Dad. I do think it will mean a lot to you. It certainly has to me. And as soon as supper's over, I'm going to call Catherine!”
TUESDAY, JULY 18 – The next evening Richard and Janet drove over to Tom and Sandy Spence's home for dessert and coffee with the group of believers from the television station. Their purpose in gathering was twofold: to thank God for the healing of Tom and Officer Higgins, who was already walking with a cane, and to discuss possible action on “911 Live.”
After thirty minutes of pleasant conversation around a buffet filled with delicious desserts, one brought by each of the seven families represented, the group moved to Tom's living room, where they joined hands in a large circle and prayed together, thanking God for His blessings, and asking Him for His continued guidance. They ended by singing several praise songs, with Phil Tenneyson's wife playing the piano on which Sandy Spence occasionally practiced.
After the songs, they went for more coffee, and then the group sat in chairs and on the floor, as Tom began the second part of their meeting.
“Sandy and I thank all of you again for your prayers and your support through all of this. I feel almost 100 percent again, and I'm looking f
orward to starting back at the station on Monday. I've obviously been a bit out of the loop, here at home, although all of you have kept me up to date. Janet, do you have anything new to add about the show?”
“Not much. Bill tells me that it's scheduled to start early in September. Except for the thirty-second delay and the cut-out policy on ‘set-ups,’ there have been no changes from what we saw here. I'm still sure that really awful stuff will be broadcast, almost live, into our homes, early every Friday night. Bill keeps saying the show is designed to show people what's ‘really happening’ and to honor our nation's emergency personnel. But I hear from friends in New York that the talk in the network halls is still about ‘immediate realism’ and ‘ratings’; I think that translates into ‘let's hope there's at least a few good shoot-outs, fires, and wrecks every week.’”
“Well, I guess we're going to have to meet with Bill when I get back and tell him that we still oppose the show—even more so after the test run; and tell him that we ultimately will quit if the show is aired here in this format. If you still all agree?”
There were nods and affirmations around the living room.
Richard, who had been silent to that point, asked, “Tom, I assume that if the network can do a thirty-second delay, they could just as well do a longer delay, right?”
Connie Wright, who had more technical experience than Tom, answered for him. “That should be no problem. Why?”
“Well, I'm obviously an outsider, and I don't want to interfere in what you're doing unless you think it's appropriate. But I worry that your threat of quitting, as serious as it is to each one of you and your families, will not be taken seriously or as much of a real threat by the station, and certainly not by the network. I deeply admire and understand your firm principle, but I don't know how effective it will be. What if we could bring pressure to bear to really change the show? Would you be interested in pursuing that, even if we ultimately fail?”
“Of course, Richard,” Tom answered for all of them. “Our goal has always been to change the show or to stop it, not to lose our jobs. We just feel like we have no other way to threaten them.”
“Well, maybe there is another way,” Richard said, and he spent ten minutes describing a strategy that had formed slowly in his mind over the previous few weeks as he prayed with Janet every night about this situation. “I don't have any idea whether it will work,” he concluded, “but I'm willing to give it a try if you are.”
There was immediate consensus for him to proceed as he had described.
“Janet,” Richard said, turning to his wife, “you may quickly have a real conflict with the station. After I do a little more investigation, you unfortunately may have to resign, or at least offer to, before we really do anything concrete. I don't think Bill would appreciate the husband of his programming director filing lawsuits against his network. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I think you have to be fully prepared to do it. Can you handle that if you have to?”
Janet hesitated for a moment, then spoke slowly. “I would hate to lose my job, because I love what I do. But I've seen enough to know that this show just can't go on. So, yes, if I have to, I'll quit.” Tom and Connie, who had initiated the early meetings with Janet on this subject, were amazed but not surprised by her transformation, and by the strength with which she now spoke.
Back at home later that night, Richard asked Janet to join him in their den after Susan and Tommy had gone to bed.
“I don't know where this ‘911 Live’ situation is headed, but as I mentioned earlier, it could become kind of difficult, maybe for both of us, to take a stand against the network and the station. I think everyone tonight, including me, was impressed with your pain and sincerity in offering to resign if you have to. But since this could become one of the toughest things we've ever done together, I want our relationship to be completely right, and strong, before we try to tackle it so that we're not open to attack, either by men or by spiritual forces. And for me to feel that way, there's something I have to say to you.”
Janet became quite worried. “Please tell me, dear. What is it?”
“I think you know the differences in me—in both of us—since the prayer breakfast two months ago. I believe I'm a new man, and I pray for God's strength to continue building a relationship with Him. But there were some things, some serious things, which I did before God changed me, but still while we were married, that I am frankly very ashamed of. I've given them to Him at the foot of the cross, and I've asked for His forgiveness. I feel that He has forgiven me. I believe—and with His help I'll be successful—that these things will never have an effect on me again. I'm ashamed to think of them now. I've put them behind me and moved on. But here's the thing…” Richard shifted forward in his chair and looked directly at his wife.
“If you want me to tell you about them, I will, because I want you to know me completely, and I don't want to keep any secrets from you. Then I will ask for your forgiveness. But if you will let them die with the old man whom I buried that day, then I think that would be best. It's up…”
While Richard spoke, Janet could see and hear his pain. She had no real idea what he was talking about, but she knew it had to be something pretty serious, and the thought crossed her mind that it probably involved another woman—or women. Or could he have done something improper or illegal at work? Or what could it be?
As he continued to speak, she placed her fingers on his lips, stopping him in midsentence. “Whatever these things are, are they really behind you? Are they gone forever?”
“With God's help, absolutely yes.”
She paused, looking at him. “Then I think that's good enough for me. I do know you're a different person from two months ago, certainly a completely different person from the man I married. It sounds like whoever did these things is no longer you. So I'll love the Richard who has been changed, like me, by God. Let's just hang together for the next few decades,” she smiled, “because I don't think it's going to get any easier, and I know I'm going to need you.”
“And I'm going to need you, too, Janet. I know that now. I love you so very much. What a miracle that God put us together almost twenty years ago and that we're still together. And only in the past few months have I thought to thank Him for you.”
Standing up, Janet smiled again, once more amazed by the power of the Holy Spirit to change people, starting with Richard. He had just said, in essence, that he trusted the strength and the permanence of their relationship enough to bare his worst faults to her. Yet he had done it in a way which let her know what he thought was best. Janet felt both loved and protected. “Come on to bed, dear,” she said, pulling him up close to her, smiling, and unbuttoning his shirt. “Isn't it wonderful that God has designed it so that we can do anything, and it's not a sin! Got any ideas?”
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19 – Wednesday morning Richard called information in Minnesota and obtained the Foundation for the Family telephone number. He knew that it would probably take time to get through to Dr. Samuel Morris himself, so he wound up leaving a lengthy message with Dr. Morris’ executive assistant, hoping that the founder of this well-known force for family values might return his call within a few days.
He was therefore pleasantly surprised when Dr. Morris called him back after lunch. Richard took a few minutes to explain the general purpose of his call, which interested Dr. Morris, as Richard had prayed that it would. Checking their schedules, they agreed that Richard could fly in for a meeting on the following Monday.
* * *
That evening Susan was hurrying to put the dinner dishes in the dishwasher before her date with Drew, and Janet was putting the leftovers in containers, when the phone rang. Janet answered. After a pause, she said towards the den, “Richard, it's for you. It's someone named Kristen Hollo way.”
Sitting in his usual armchair, just taking out a file from his briefcase, Richard's heart skipped a beat, and he instantly felt lightheaded. Moving over to the telephone on the side table,
he answered, as Janet hung up in the kitchen. “Hello.”
“Hi, Richard. This is Kristen. Remember me?” she said, with just a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
“Yes, of course. How are you?”
“Not as good as when we were together, but I'm making it. Notice that I'm not calling Janet, but you. I hope you've also noticed that I haven't called Janet—though I've picked up the phone to do so quite a few times.”
“Yes, I have,” Richard said, closing his eyes, as his stomach twisted into a knot. He wondered where this conversation was leading, with Janet standing in the next room.
“Well, you can relax. I'm calling for a perfectly legitimate reason. I have a buyer—a couple with three teenagers—who are interested in purchasing Betty McEver's house just down from you. They started asking me about the neighborhood and the schools and the kids, and I told them I knew you and that your family could probably give them all the information they need. So my question is, could we set an appointment, maybe even for tomorrow evening, for us to meet with you and Janet and to let them ask you some questions?”
Richard could feel the knot unwind one notch, though he was still wary and unsure of himself. “Just a minute,” he responded. “Let me ask Janet.”
Covering the mouthpiece, he said to Janet, who had walked into the den, “Kristen Holloway is a real estate agent who handled a big sale for a client of ours several months ago. She thinks she may have a family who is interested in Betty McEver's house, but they want to find out more about the neighborhood. She wants to know if we can meet with them, perhaps tomorrow evening.”
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