“No problem. So he’s here with you?” Eli looked past Patrick.
Patrick shook his head. “No,” he said in a subdued voice. “I’m here with Charlie.”
Jamie’s hand stiffened in Eli’s.
“I want to thank you and the Community Church prayer chain for that, too. I think your prayers gave me the strength I needed to convince Charlie to get help. We’re giving things a second try.” Patrick looked over his shoulder. “She’d like to apologize to you for all of the trouble she caused, if you’ll let her.”
Eli nodded. He had no problem hearing Charlie’s apology. Eli could forgive her, even if he might not ever be able to forget all she’d done. He wasn’t so sure about Jamie. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed his back.
“She’s over by the coat room.” Patrick led them to his wife.
“Jamie, Eli. I didn’t know if you’d come, and I couldn’t blame you if you’d refused.” Charlie raised her hand, palm out. “Let me say what I need to say before I lose my nerve. I did some awful things to a lot of people, not the least of which was spreading lies about the two of you. I’m sorry. I’m particularly sorry for hurting Rose. I hurt Katy, too.” Charlie’s voice caught.
Patrick slipped his arm around his wife’s waist. “Without getting into details, there’s a medical cause for some of it.”
“But not all of it.” Charlie stopped her husband’s excuses. “I have to take responsibility for my actions.” She touched Eli’s arm. “I hope that someday you might be able to forgive me for holding my unfounded grudge against you all of these years and refusing to believe what I knew was true about Brett. I hurt him, too, and Patrick more.”
Patrick rubbed Charlotte’s back.
Eli reached deep inside himself. “I forgive you.”
“Thank you.” Tears ran down Charlie’s face. She turned to Jamie. “I know I have no right to ask anything of you, but I hope you can find it in your heart to not hold the sins of the mother against the child and let Katy and Rose remain friends.”
Jamie clutched Eli’s hand, and her throat muscles worked to swallow. To Eli, the silence surrounding the four of them seemed interminable.
“I forgive you, for Eli’s and the kids’ sakes as well as yours.” Jamie looked into his eyes, and his heart swelled. “But you’ll have to forgive me, too. For the time being, Katy can come to our house, but I can’t let Rose come to yours.”
“Fair enough. Thanks again to both of you.”
“Charlie and I are seeing Pastor Joel for counseling, too,” Patrick added.
“He’s very good,” Jamie said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Sounds of the band tuning up punctuated her statement.
“We’d better get back to our seats,” Patrick said. “We’ll see you Sunday, Eli.”
Jamie was quiet on the walk back to their seats. Eli wanted to tell her he was proud of her for accepting Charlie’s apology and acknowledging Pastor Joel’s power as a counselor. His mother had told him Jamie wouldn’t accept Joel’s help after her husband had been killed. But Eli couldn’t put the right words together and didn’t want to chance his admiration coming out wrong.
“I thought you’d gotten lost.” Neal hailed them as they approached their seats.
“Lost? Never. We took a short detour.” Eli would let his friend weigh that one.
The band ran through its second set. “Now we have something special for you,” the lead singer said.
“I was right,” Anne said. “They are going to play their new song.”
“Who would have thought my engineering professor wife would become a country-band groupie,” Neal said.
“I am not.” Anne slapped his arm. “I simply like them.”
“It’s okay. Tonight has made me as big a fan as you are. I’m glad I came,” Jamie said.
“I’m glad you did, too,” Eli said for her ears only.
The band’s lead singer moved front and center. “The next song is from our new album that’s releasing next week. It’s a tribute to all of our men and women in uniform and all that they and their families give up for us.”
The crowd responded with thundering applause.
As the song moved from the first verse to the refrain, “Don’t worry about me when I’m gone. My memories of you will bring me home,” Jamie’s shoulders tensed under Eli’s arm. This wasn’t the follow-up she needed to Charlie’s apology. After a moment, she relaxed and continued to tap her foot to the music as she had all evening, except with less enthusiasm. Or did he only imagine less enthusiasm?
The start of the final verse brought a quiet gasp from her.
“Do you want to leave?”
She shook her head.
As the band rolled into the final refrain, tears fell freely down her face. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be thinking of you when I go home to Jesus… I’ll be praying for your hurt to go away when I’m on my way to Jesus… Don’t worry about me. I’ll be rooting for you to go on with your life when I’m at home with Jesus.”
Eli stared at her helplessly. What had he done? Tonight was supposed to have been a fun night out for Jamie. And it was turning out to be anything but.
At the end of the song, Jamie stood with the others in clapping an ovation, tears streaking her cheeks. Eli mechanically brought his hands together while his mind rolled over ways to try to make things up to Jamie.
Eli was surprised at the way Jamie held herself together saying goodbye to Anne and Neal and other people they saw walking out of the hall. Her determination to be strong made his heart ache. He so wanted to take some of the pain for her but didn’t know how to.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he unlocked the passenger side door of his truck.
Her head jerked up, almost as if she had just noticed him there with her. “John would have liked you. A lot.”
Somehow, her random statement seemed totally appropriate. “I’m sure I would have liked him, too.” He pulled the door open for her. How could he not like someone Jamie had loved?
Jamie lapsed back into her contemplative silence for the short drive to her house.
“I’m happy you asked me to come tonight,” she said as he pulled into her driveway.
“Despite Charlie and the last song?”
“No, more because of Charlie and the last song. They made me see some things more clearly that I didn’t want to see before.”
“And that’s good?”
“That’s good.”
At the front door, she tilted her face to him and he reached for her. A light went on in her neighbor’s house and he stopped.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t care who sees us.”
He drew her into his arms and kissed her with a tenderness fueled by the uncertainty that had plagued him all evening, and she returned the kiss with a fierceness that reignited his desire to protect her from all the harms and hurts of the world.
Chapter Sixteen
Jamie kept an ear tuned to the radio for a weather update as she cleaned up after lunch. The weather report she’d seen on the morning news had forecast a possible nor’easter that could drop as much as three feet of snow this evening and overnight or, if the storm stalled, late tonight and tomorrow morning. The meteorologist on the radio wasn’t any more specific.
“Mom, do you know where my green long-sleeved T-shirt is?”
“I would guess in your dirty clothes hamper or clean clothes basket, depending on whether or not you did your laundry.”
“You’re not any help.” Myles rushed back out of the room.
Jamie wouldn’t have let him get away with that, except she suspected her baby boy was in puppy love. The church youth group was going to a Bible trivia competition in Glens Falls this afternoon. Normally, Myles wouldn’t give a thought to what he was wearing. That is, before the new girl at school joined the youth group. She smiled, letting the cute factor block out her concern about the weather.
“I found it,” Myles shouted from the other roo
m.
“Good,” she shouted back, glancing out the window at Rose and Opal building a snow fort in the back yard. A snowball arced from the corner of the house and fell in the center of the square the girls were walling in. They both threw snowballs back at the tall figure that came around the corner. Jamie’s heart thrummed.
“Mr. Payton is here,” Opal said as she burst inside.
“So, I see.”
Eli grinned at her.
She wiped her hands and walked to the door. “But how did he get all covered in snow?”
“We threw snowballs at him.”
“He started it,” Rose said, laughing.
“Guilty as charged.” He leaned forward as if to kiss her hello, then straightened when Opal reminded him to wipe his feet.
“We’re going to go back out and finish our fort,” Rose said, and she and Opal trooped out.
The door firmly closed, Eli gave her a quick peck. “Hi.”
“Hi. Myles is almost ready.”
Eli looked at the kitchen clock. “Yes, I’m early.”
“I’ve been keeping track of the weather.”
Eli pulled off his gloves. “Yeah, so have Pastor Joel and I, and he’s talked with some of the parents. They all seemed to think it was just weather as usual. Besides, the report I saw on the Weather Channel right before I left said the storm is slowing and may not even reach this far north.”
“That would be fine with me.”
“Me, too.” He placed his gloves on the counter and took her hands. “I’ll take care of him. I might not have grown up in the Buffalo Snowbelt, but I’ve done my share of winter driving here in the mountains.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “But I worry anyway.”
“You’re a mother. Pastor and I talked it over. We don’t expect any problems.” Or at least he’d convinced Pastor the weather wasn’t problematic. The kids were really up for the competition, and the weather reporters were yet to be right about a single big storm they’d forecast this winter. “You know we wouldn’t put the kids in danger.”
Myles bounded into the kitchen. “I’m ready.”
“Let’s go. We’ll see you around eight,” Eli said.
From the window in the door, she watched them tromp through the snow and around the house to the driveway. John’s last words to her echoed in her head. “I’ll see you June 28.” She shook them away. Eli and Myles weren’t marching off to war. They were going to Prince of Peace Church in Glens Falls, an hour away. The sun broke through the clouds and shone brilliantly on the snow-covered yard. They’d be fine.
* * *
Eli leaned forward, keeping an iron grip on the church van steering wheel, trying to see better out of the small window of vision in the windshield. The wipers and defroster were fighting a tough battle with the blinding wet snow. Behind him, the kids chatted and joked, seemingly oblivious to the storm. They trusted him, as Jamie trusted him to bring Myles home. Eli glimpsed a familiar landmark. Only seven miles to go. As he inched around the curve, he felt the fifteen-seat van lose traction with the snow-covered pavement. He fought the skid, but no matter what he tried, the van continued heading toward the guardrail. The helplessness of not having any control made him sick to his stomach.
“Please, Lord, let the guardrail stop us.” He didn’t know if he spoke out loud or to himself. It didn’t matter. He didn’t want to think of what could happen if they went through the guardrail and down the mountainside.
One of the girls screamed, and they all seemed to join her in a deafening roar as the van hit the guardrail, flipped over and rolled down into the ravine, the sound of crunching metal vying with the noise from the kids.
“Lord, please,” he roared over the din. In answer, the van stopped upright against some pine trees. From what Eli could see out of his side window, they weren’t too far down the mountain.
He shut the engine off, released his seat belt and rubbed his shoulder where the belt had restrained him. He rose and the van rocked. How long would the trees hold? Between the trunks, Eli saw the wide expanse of white sloping down to the bottom of the ravine far below. The wind howled and swayed the trees, but the van didn’t move any more. They were big old trees with deep roots. They should hold if no one made any sudden moves.
“Is everyone okay?”
He received a few weak responses of “Yeah” and “I think so.” A powerful, guilt-laced relief shot through him when he heard Myles’s voice among them.
“My leg hurts really bad.” Tanner’s voice held a quiver that he was obviously trying to hide.
“And my head is bleeding,” Sara shrieked.
Eli removed the first aid kit from the van glove compartment. He went to Sara first. Fortunately, her cut wasn’t deep. He bandaged it. “You’re okay. Head wounds always seem worse because they bleed more. Hold your hand against the bandage. The pressure will help stop the bleeding.”
He moved down the aisle to check Tanner’s leg. “It looks like it’s broken.” He wasn’t a medic, but he’d seen enough broken bones in his time. “Keep it as still as you can.”
Tanner nodded.
“Mr. Payton,” a teary voice called from the far back before he could say more. “It’s Seth.” Ava, Seth’s girlfriend, who’d joined the group after the sledding party, sobbed. “He’s not moving.”
Eli moved to the back as fast as he could without causing any undue motion. He broke open smelling salts and waved the capsule under Seth’s nose in hopes that he might have fainted, but he got no reaction from the teen.
“Is he…?” Ava’s voice rose to a high-pitched screech.
“He probably has a concussion.” Eli had trouble not being short with the girl’s near hysterics. He was as on edge as they were but couldn’t risk showing it. “Everyone stay calm.” He turned to Myles in the opposite seat. “I’m going to hand you some blankets.” Eli pulled a pile of blankets from a compartment behind the last seat and gave them to Myles. “Walk up to the front very carefully and pass them out to the other kids. Depending on how long it takes help to get here, we might need them later to keep warm.”
“Okay.” Jamie’s coffee-brown eyes stared back at him from the youth’s serious face. He had to get them all out of here safely. He had no other recourse.
Eli placed a blanket over Seth and handed the rest to Myles.
“Why can’t you turn the van back on and run the heat to keep us warm?” one of the girls asked.
“Duh,” one of the guys said. “Like, if the gas tank is damaged, we could be toast.”
“Quiet!” Just what he didn’t need: someone getting the kids more panicked. Eli walked up to the front of the van where Myles stood, handing out the last of the blankets. The teen’s expression reflected a confidence in Eli that he was hard-pressed to match.
“I’m going to call for help.” He took his phone from his pocket. No reception. He punched in Pastor’s number anyway, but it didn’t ring. “I didn’t get through.” He had to be up-front with the kids. “Everyone stay still while I try to open the door.”
If he got up to the road, maybe he could get a connection. He pulled the handle and pushed the door. It squeaked open a half inch and stopped. The van must have hit a boulder or something on the way down that dented the side and jammed the door. Squinting into the blinding snow pummeling the window, he pressed his shoulder and all of his weight against the door. The van swayed and a couple of the kids yelped.
Panic choked him. His insistence that the weather wouldn’t be a problem had put the kids in danger. How would he face Jamie and ever forgive himself if Myles was hurt? She’d become his heart. The van rocked again. What if he never saw her again? He glimpsed the desolation Jamie must have experienced when she lost her husband and had an inkling of how that had tested her faith. Then, his years of readiness training kicked back in.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. Pastor Joel was behind us. I’m sure he stopped.”
Eli wasn’t sure at all. If Joel hadn’t been rig
ht behind them and seen them go over, in this snow, he’d have no clue they were here.
“I’m going to open the window, and on the count of three, you’re going to all shout ‘help’ three times, then stop and listen for a response.” He turned the van on accessory and hit the window button. It rolled halfway down. Good enough. “Okay. Ready? One, two…” Eli felt Myles and the other kids behind them almost vibrating, waiting for him to say three.
“Three.”
“Help, help, help.” Their united voices reverberated in the van and echoed up the ravine.
Lord, please have someone hear us. It was out of his hands now.
They heard nothing in return but the wind in the trees and the silence of the winter night.
* * *
Jamie had tucked the girls in bed at nine, despite their protests that tomorrow wasn’t a school day. Now that they were settled down, she flicked through the channels on the TV while the storm winds howled outside. Eli had said they’d be home by eight.
The ring of the house phone made her jump. “Hello.”
“Jamie, it’s Anne.”
Something in Anne’s voice set her heart racing.
“We think the church van may have gone off the road on the way back from Glens Falls.”
“What do you mean, you think?” Jamie shouted.
Anne ignored her friend’s panic. “Pastor Joel was following the van. Visibility is really poor. He thought the van was right ahead of him. Joel got to the church a few minutes ago, expecting to see Eli and the other kids there. They weren’t.”
Anne’s words pressed all of the air out of Jamie’s lungs. “Myles?”
“Is in the van.”
“No!”
“Pastor Joel called 911, and he and Neal just left to retrace the route back to the last spot Pastor saw the van. The other parents are here at the church. They were waiting to pick their kids up. Jennifer has organized a prayer vigil while she waits for word from her husband and Neal. If you’d like to join them, I’ll come over and stay with Rose and Opal. My kids are with Neal’s parents.”
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