Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Hospitality (02/07/05)
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TITLE: Suffer the Little Children | Previous Challenge Entry
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02/14/05 -
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"Karl, you know we are hosting cell group on Tuesday and your
ortho appointment after soccer on Monday. Today is the only day we have to clean the house."
Not to mention Cameron got on my nerves.
Thank you, God, I thought, that I have a good excuse for not bringing him home.
We didn't even have time to get groceries the day before, what should I serve him for lunch? Grilled cheese and a lobotamy?
I need a lobotomy.
"Cameron can help us clean..."
"No! Go tell your dad we need to go, I'll be in the van. C'mon girls."
While my son ran off notify his father of our imminent departure,
two pairs of patent leather shoes clip-clopped behind me, struggling to match my pace.
"Nancy! Nancy!"
"Umph, ow!" I stopped too quickly and my younger daughter left
a black patent dent in my achilles tendon. I turned to see who was calling me.
"Hi Nancy, mother wasn't feeling well today so she stayed home. She still wants you to come over for tea today, though."
My stomache sank. I had forgotten that I had promised to visit Miss Katherine.
"Uh, Lois, I..uh..." Too late, she was already out the door..
A few minutes later I was home. I was barely through the door when the phone rang. As I lept for it, an avalanche of
unopened mail cascaded to the floor.
"Hello? Yes, Miss Katherine. See you in half an hour."
The sight of Publishers Clearing House
and fourteen credit card offers on my kitchen floor made me wish I had taken up Karl's offer to
import menial laborers from the Sunday School department. Especially since I wasn't going to be home.
Twenty minutes later I was watching Miss Katherine gingerly preparing the table. First, a cup and saucer for each of us.
Midway through, she paused to rub her twisted and aching fingers.
"Would you like some cookies?" she asked, her clouded eyes brighening for a moment.
"Of course, Miss Katherine, your cookies are wonderful."
As she shuffled across the kitchen, I thought about the day 30 years ago when she introduced me to her
habit of Sunday Afternoon Tea. So much had changed. However, as I sat with my dear
first Sunday School teacher, I saw how much had stayed the same.
"Here you go, peanut butter and raisin. I made these just for you. Lois was here t'other day and
helped me. They get after me if I start baking by myself, I forget and leave things in the oven
too long sometimes."
"Before I forget, Nance, I have something for you."
I followed her into the living room, watching as she rummaged through a tattered box.
"Here it it, I found it." Sister Katherine stood up, clutching a yellowed envelope.
"I was thinking about you the other day and felt like I should give this to you."
Stepping back, she lowered herself onto the tweedy brown couch. Shoving a pile of newspapers on the floor she patted the cushion next to her.
Glancing at the couch, my eye caught the hole that my brother had made in it when he was 8. My mind drifted back to that day.
"Nancy?"
I jumped at the sound of my dear friend’s voice.
"Oh dear, I didn't mean to startle you. It's the hole isn't it? John was sure a lively little boy."
"You two were such a sight, a couple of kids that didn't know a bible from a hymnal. You know, when you first started coming to Sunday School he thought the ark of the covenant was a boat. I hope that's not what he's preaching over there in Tuson."
Giggling, I opened the envelope to find a picture of Cameron the rotten and a little girl kneeling in front of Miss Katherine's newspaper laden couch.
"Miss Katherine, I didn't know you had still had kids come and visit you. That Cameron's quite a handful, how'd you get him to pray? Who is the girl?"
"Nancy, look at the back."
Tears of shame streamed down my face as I read, "John and Nancy, giving their hearts to Jesus, 1975."
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