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On Sunday morning, it was as if the break-in had never happened. Chris took the pulpit with aplomb and preached with polish, delivering a sermon on the contrast between Solomon’s wisdom and wealth.
“I hate him,” Maggie muttered to her husband halfway through the sermon.
Galen looked at her. “Paper?” he whispered.
Maggie looked surprised, then nodded and rummaged through her purse until she came up with a small notebook. She handed it to him.
He took it and then held his open hand out again.
She handed him a pen too.
And he wrote his wife a note in church: “We both need to stop feeling ill will toward the man. He is just a man. He is not the real enemy. God asks us to love him and pray for him. We need to trust God to deal with him. It’s not our job.” She watched him closely, reading as he wrote, so when he finished, he didn’t even need to hand her the note. She sighed and gave him a look that was simultaneously annoyed and acquiescent. Then she gave her attention back to the man behind the pulpit, as Galen gently took his wife’s hand in his own.
Toward the end of the sermon, Chris announced, “I will be away next Sunday, and a guest speaker will be filling in for me here. I hate to miss another Sunday at my home church, but I’ve been invited to speak at First Baptist in Haleyville, Connecticut. They want to hear more about our exciting ministry here, and I will be happy to tell them all about you fine people.”
Galen leaned to Maggie’s ear and whispered, “Who’s the guest speaker?”
Maggie shook her head. “No idea.”
As Chris began his benediction, Daniel stood up suddenly. “Excuse me please!”
Harmony said, “Oh no!” and yanked Daniel back into his seat.
Daniel popped right back up again. “Excuse me please, but I know that someone is sick here.” He turned and looked at the congregation, his little blue eyes resting on a young woman he didn’t know.
“Please, don’t,” Harmony said, “we can do this later. Not in church!”
Daniel peeled his mother’s hand from his arm and walked toward the young woman. “Are you sick?”
She nodded, looking bewildered.
Daniel smiled. “Don’t be scared. I’m just going to pray for you. I don’t know if it will work, but I think it will.” Daniel reached her and knelt in front of her. Then he folded his little hands and bowed his head. The room remained silent for the duration of Daniel’s prayer. All eyes, and the cameras, were on him. After a few minutes, Daniel looked up, smiled at the woman and said, “God’s will be done.” Then he stood up and walked to his seat as Pastor Chris gave the benediction.
As everyone filed out of the sanctuary, Harmony grabbed Daniel’s chin and pointed it toward her. “I told you not to do that!” she scolded.
Daniel’s eyes maintained his innocence. “Why?”
She let go of his chin. “Because I said so! Because I’m your mother! Because I don’t need to explain everything to you!”
Daniel nodded. “I’m sorry, Mama. I had to. God told me to.” Then he turned and walked toward the door, his head hanging.
Harmony looked up to see Maggie staring at her. “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped.
“Sorry, Harm. But why are you being so hard on him? He’s doing a good thing here.”
“Can you just stay out of it?” she said, without looking at her friend. She picked up her things and took off after her son.
Maggie, appearing to have no intentions of staying out of anything, followed Harmony. Galen, who had been chatting with someone else, saw his wife leaving. He gathered up his boys, one of whom was about to bust out a drum solo, and took off after her. They caught up with her on her way downstairs. “Are we eating here?” Galen asked.
“Not sure yet, but something’s wrong with Harmony. She’s been acting off for days.”
“OK then, so we’re not leaving. Go ahead boys, get some lunch.” The boys ran ahead.
Maggie didn’t go to the food line. She just sat down at Harmony’s usual table, which was empty at that moment. Harmony and Daniel went through the food line, but then Harmony sat down at a different table.
Maggie was undeterred. She got up, walked to Harmony’s new table, and plopped down in front of her. “Talk to me.”
Harmony looked up. Her eyes were wet. “I can’t.”
“Why on earth not? Look, I know this must be hard. I have no idea how one is supposed to act when their kid is performing miracles, but let’s at least talk about it. We’ve always talked about everything before.”
“It’s not that,” Harmony said. She put her fork down and looked around. Then she leaned forward a little. “I told him to stop it. I told him he wasn’t allowed to heal people in church anymore. And he just did it anyway!”
“But why would you tell him such a thing? What do you think is going to happen? Are you afraid he’s going to be exploited or something?”
Harmony rolled her eyes. “I really hate it when you use big words. Can’t you just talk like a normal person? I told him that because that’s what Phil told me.”
“Phil Miller?”
“Yep. Elder Phil.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” Harmony picked up her fork again.
“But why would he want Daniel to stop healing people?” Maggie leaned back, looking perplexed. Harmony, apparently done talking, took a big bite of meatloaf. Maggie beckoned to her husband, who was sitting at Harmony’s usual table, seeming to enjoy his own slice of meatloaf. Grudgingly, he got up and came to sit beside his wife.
“Yeah?” he asked as he slid into the metal folding chair beside her.
“Tell him what you told me,” Maggie said to Harmony.
“Can’t you just let it go, Maggie?”
“No.”
“So,” Harmony said to Galen, “Phil made me promise that Daniel would stop healing people. It was a condition of us moving back here.”
“What?” Maggie exclaimed. “You didn’t tell me that! Why? I don’t understand.”
Galen groaned. “I understand. It’s that woman. The one who called Daniel a fraud. The elders are paranoid about our church getting any negative attention.”
“We’ve always got negative attention here,” Maggie said. “This place is a pitstop for misfits.”
Galen guffawed. “Right. We should put that on the sign. Well, anyway, Harmony, let your boy do what God tells him to do. If you get kicked out again, you can sleep on our couch. But I have a feeling God has got more going on here than we understand. I’ve got a feeling this is much bigger than any of us.”
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The guest preacher was none other than Elder Albert Pelotte, whom the people living at the church hadn’t laid eyes on in more than a month, except for that one time that Tiny claimed he saw Albert stealing several pounds of bacon out of the shelter’s fridge, but that was never corroborated.
His message was nothing short of painful, and several of the men actually stretched out on the pews in the back and went to sleep. Normally, Galen would have put a stop to such behavior, but he let it slide this time.
Albert’s sermon—if one could even call it that—was all about how rough Albert’s life had been, all the hardships he’d been through, but how he had overcome them all—“pulled myself up by my bootstraps,” he said. If his point was that he was able to do so by the power of God, he failed to make that clear.
About halfway through the message, Maggie gave Galen a pleading look.
“I think he’s trying to inspire them,” Galen said quietly.
Maggie snorted, not quietly.
At one point Duke fell so deep into dreamland that he began to snore. At first, this was amusing and far more entertaining than the preaching, so the people around him didn’t interfere with his nap. But the longer Albert talked, the louder Duke sawed, and finally, Kevin, who was sitting two rows behind him, stood up and bonked Duke on the head with his cane. This startled Duke awake, and he swore, and everyone laughed, but Albert never missed a beat. He was in his own little world behind the pulpit.
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Galen and his family were on their way out the door when Tiny pulled on Maggie’s elbow. “What’s up, Tiny?”
Tiny turned and walked to the corner of the lobby, looking around furtively as he went.
Maggie followed. “What is it, Tiny?”
Tiny swallowed hard. “Dwight has a gun. I saw it.”
“But Dwight’s not even here. Didn’t he go with Pastor to speak at that other church?”
Tiny nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“So you saw the gun this morning?”
Tiny shook his head.
“Well, then when did you see it?” Maggie appeared to be losing her boundless patience with Tiny.
“Wednesday.”
“Wednesday? And you’re just telling me now?”
Tiny looked at the floor, his shoulders dropping along with his gaze. “I’m sorry, Maggie. I didn’t wanna be no rat. I’ve been askin’ God what I should do, and I think he wants me to tell you.”
“It’s OK, Tiny. You did the right thing. Good job. I’ll go call the police. We can’t have people having guns in here.”
“OK. Thanks, Maggie. Can I go eat my lunch now?”
“Of course.” Maggie turned to find Galen, who was still standing where she’d left him. He and his boys were cornered by Gertrude, who apparently had a fairly gripping story to share.
“If you’ll excuse me, Gert, I need to speak to my husband.”
Galen said goodbye to Gertrude and followed Maggie outside. He held Elijah in his arms and Isaiah trailed behind. “Brrr,” Galen said. “It’s getting cold out already. Shelter will be filling up soon.”
Maggie stopped walking and turned to face him. “Yeah, so apparently Dwight has a gun.”
“Oh, you really did need to talk to me. I thought you were just rescuing me from Gertrude.”
“Well, that too. Can I use your phone? Mine’s dead.”
“Why?”
“Why is my phone dead?”
“No.” Galen set Elijah down on the ground despite his protests. “Who are you going to call?”
“Who do you think? The police, of course.”
Galen’s brow furrowed.
“What?” Maggie asked.
“I’m not sure we should call the police just yet. I mean, Dwight’s not here, right? And I don’t even know if it’s against the law for him to have a gun.”
“It’s against our rules!” Maggie said indignantly.
“I’m not sure. Is it?”
Maggie heaved a frustrated sigh. “Fine, Mr. Nice Guy. I’m calling the cops.”
“Just calm down—”
Maggie shot him a look that stopped him mid-sentence.
“Sorry, honey. I understand why you’re upset. Just give me a few minutes, OK? Don’t call the cops yet.” He waited for her to agree, which she finally did with a terse nod. He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. Then he trotted back into the church.
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Most of the men bunked in one large room. Several years before, a large church in Texas had funded an addition that had more than doubled the size of the church. This large room was part of that addition. Rows and rows of bunk beds made it look like some sort of military barracks. Except the room was very, very messy. For men with no homes, these men managed to consume a lot of junk food, and the evidence was everywhere, competing only with dirty laundry for complete dominance of the room.
“Shoot,” Galen muttered as soon as he walked in. He looked around as if overwhelmed with the daunting search before him.
Pete came up behind him. “What are you doing here?”
“Ah, good. I could use your help. You wanna tell me which of these bunks is Dwight’s?”
Pete laughed. “Oh, his highness doesn’t sleep down here with us paupers.”
“Paupers?” Galen asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Never mind, come on.” Pete turned to head back the way he’d come, beckoning to Galen with one hand. Galen followed Pete down a hallway, up a flight of stairs and down another hallway into the section of the church reserved for families. “This is it,” Pete said, pointing to a closed door.
“He lives in here alone?” Galen asked.
Pete nodded.
Galen tried the doorknob. It was locked.
“What did you expect?” Pete asked.
“I didn’t expect to have to use my master key,” he said, fishing his keyring out of his pocket.
“Do they know you have that?” Pete asked.
Galen unlocked the door and then pushed it open. “That’s the second time I’ve been asked that question this week.” He and Pete stayed standing at the threshold, taking it all in.
Pete blew out an impressed puff of air. “I didn’t know it was possible for one man to make this big of a mess.”
“Me neither,” Galen said, taking a tentative step inside.
“Wanna tell me what we’re doing here, G? Someone’s gonna see us, and if Dwight finds out we were in here, well, I just don’t want to deal with that.”
“We’re looking for a gun. Well, I’m looking for a gun. You’re welcome to help.”
“A gun? Dwight has a gun in here?” He looked around as if that was utterly impossible.
“I don’t know. But I’m going to look around,” Galen said.
“Look around? It would take you all day to go through this garbage. And he’s totally going to know you were in here.”
Galen sighed and put his hands on his hips. “I don’t know what else to do. I mean, we should have a no-firearms rule, and I’m sure we would have, if Pastor Dan had ever needed one. But I don’t think he did.”
“What are you planning to do if you find a gun?”
“I’m going to leave it right where it is and call the police,” Galen said.
“Why not just call the cops now then?”
“Because I don’t want to stir up even more drama!” Galen snapped. “Because I’m going on Tiny’s word here, and he could have seen a squirt gun for all we know. Because I ... because I ... because I’m trying to do what Dan would have done.”
Pete waited to make sure Galen was done talking. Then he said, “You know what I would’ve done if you were Pastor Dan and we were in this same exact situation?”
“No, what?”
“I would’ve called the police. And that’s what I’m going to do right now. I’ll leave Tiny’s name out of it, and yours. You get out of this room. We were never here.” And without waiting for a reply, Pete vanished down the hall.
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One policeman showed up.
“I can’t search the room without permission from Pastor ...” He hesitated.
“Pastor Chris?” Galen offered.
“I guess. Is that who’s in charge now?”
“Sort of,” Galen said, and the cop scowled.
“Yes,” Pete said. “Pastor Chris is in charge now, but he’s away this weekend.”
The three men were standing together in the otherwise empty church lobby. The policeman appeared to want to be anywhere else. “OK, well, who is second in command?”
“I am,” Pete lied.
Galen’s eyes grew wide, and Pete avoided making eye contact with him.
“I am in charge right now, and we have some people concerned that there is a gun in an unlocked room. It is important that our guests feel safe here.”
“OK then. Show me the way.”
Pete led the officer down the hallway, and Galen followed along.
Galen had left the door unlocked, so after a quick perfunctory knock, the policeman opened the door. “You two stay out here,” the cop said abruptly, and went in.
“You bet,” Galen said gratefully and then looked at Pete. “How many lies did you just tell?” he muttered.
Pete shrugged, still not looking at him.
“That’s not OK, Pete!”
“I expect to have a lot worse things to answer for when my time comes.”
Eventually, Pete and Galen got bored watching the officer poke around, and they went back to the office.
“Maggie is going to wonder what on earth is taking me so long,” Galen said, sitting down in her chair.
“Did you send her home?” Pete asked, looking around as if he expected her to pop up from behind a filing cabinet.
“Yeah, as soon as you said you were calling the cops. I figured we’d be here awhile.”
“Well, as long as we’re waiting, you wanna play some cards?”
“No, thanks,” Galen said, slouching and swiveling in Maggie’s chair.
“Well, wanna Netflix? I’m halfway through the third season of Friday Night Lights.”
“How are we going to Netflix?”
Pete nodded at the laptop on Maggie’s desk.
“Seriously?” Galen asked.
Pete nodded again.
“Does Maggie know? This is her personal computer, you know. Since the church computer was stolen.”
Pete shrugged. “You’re her husband. Surely you’re allowed to touch her computer.”
“All right then,” Galen said, wiggling the mouse to bring the computer to life. “Let’s see what Coach Taylor’s been up to.”
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One and a half episodes later, the policeman appeared in the office doorway.
Galen and Pete looked up guiltily.
“Find it?” Pete asked.
The officer frowned. “No. Searched the room, didn’t find anything but garbage. I just wasted an hour of my time.”
Pete’s face got red.
Galen jumped up. “We thank you for looking. I’m sure our guests will sleep easier tonight.”
The officer grunted and headed for the door.
Pete swore at him as he went.
“Stop it, Pete. For crying out loud, do you know how much the police do for this church? Do you know how much we might need them in the future?”
