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Esther
Esther was so exhausted she was cranky. Maybe she was too old for this. She wanted to be part of it all, but it was a lot. Maybe she should spearhead a prayer team that stayed behind and supported the teams in prayer.
Again, Walter, Levi, Zoe, and she had approached three houses. Again, no one had wanted their help. This time, two of the people had recognized Walter as the town lawyer and had made their dislike quite obvious. But it was unclear, to Esther at least, whether they disliked him for something he’d done while lawyering or simply because he was a lawyer.
Pastor Adam had a list of prayer requests that he’d collected around town, and as they prayed, Esther nearly dozed off. Maybe it wouldn’t be prudent for her to spearhead the prayer team.
She was thankful when he said amen. She was trying to care about these people, some she knew, some she didn’t, but she didn’t have the energy. It was too hot in the sanctuary. Grateful for an excuse to move, she went to turn down the thermostat.
When she returned, Vicky glared at her. “Don’t be a penny pincher. It’s cold in here.”
Esther sat down with a harrumph. “You just don’t have any insulation.” In the winter months, Esther was often grateful to wear an extra large.
“How did your team do?” Pastor asked Walter.
He reported their three strikes.
Then Tonya gave her summary. Someone needed new tires. Did anyone have any tires? No, but someone had a coupon for Tire Queen and was happy to give it away. Better than nothing. A retired man needed a ride to a doctor’s appointment in Bangor. To no one’s surprise, Dawn volunteered. Someone needed to buy their son a bus ticket home. Pastor declared that a worthy cause and sent Cathy to fetch the funds.
It was Nora’s turn. Esther felt a pang of guilt for stealing Nora’s son for her own team, but she’d made it clear Nora could join them, and she hadn’t. So maybe she was trying to give her son some space to do his romancing. Nora reported some more prayer requests and then shared that one woman had offered the church her surplus of zucchini from the fall harvest.
“That’s some old zucchini,” Hype said.
“It was probably canned,” Esther said.
Nora looked at her. “It was not.”
Esther’s stomach turned.
“All right,” Pastor said, looking queasy. “Who’s next?”
There was a steady stream of prayer requests. Sickness. Addiction. Pain. Estranged children. Cheating spouses. The longer they prayed, the more discouraged Esther got. This town was in worse shape than she’d thought. Were they even going to make a dent?
Then it was Lauren’s turn. “You know that woman I told you about last week? I thought she was in need, but I wasn’t sure about specifics.” She took a long breath and looked right at Esther. “Well, I sort of invited her to a tea party. Here. Tomorrow. At one.”
Vicky snickered.
“Are we hosting a tea party?” Pastor asked.
“We are now,” Cathy said, sounding less than enthusiastic.
Lauren’s face fell.
“I love tea!” Esther exclaimed and then winced. In trying to make up for Cathy’s lack of verve, she had ended up sounding insane. She tried to tone it down. “No problem, Lauren. We can whip together a tea party, easy-peasy. Any ladies who can come, please bring any fun teas you have and any tea pots or teacups.”
Nora looked bewildered. “I don’t have any fun teas.” She looked around. “Do people really drink fun tea?”
Levi chuckled. “It’s okay, Mom. Some of us aren’t the tea type.”
“I don’t think any of us are the tea type,” Esther said before she knew what she was saying. “There’s no such thing. It’s just tea. It’s just a beverage. It’s something to drink. Something to do. An excuse to invite a woman within these walls.” She smiled at Lauren. “And I think it’s brilliant.”
Walter gave her a precious smile. He looked proud of her.
She smiled back and then leaned over and whispered, “Want to take me shopping?”
Unsurprised, he nodded.
She leaned back. She didn’t own any fancy tea equipment. And the only tea she had at home was Sleepytime. Not something she needed to be consuming in her present state.
After the meeting, she was in a hurry to leave, but Cathy beckoned her over to a huddle with Dawn and Vicky.
“What is it?” Esther tried to smash down her impatience.
“Remember that woman I told you about? The mother who’d been drinking?”
Esther didn’t. All the town’s sad stories had tangled themselves into one depressing mud patch in her head.
“Go on,” Dawn said.
“Well, they didn’t answer their door this time, even though it was clear people were home.”
“How do you know people were home?” Dawn asked.
Cathy rolled her eyes. “I didn’t have to be Columbo to figure it out. Smoke coming out of the chimney. Car in the yard. Kids shouting inside. All the lights were on.”
“Maybe they didn’t hear you knock,” Vicky tried.
“They heard me.”
“So what do you want to do?” Esther was in a hurry to get tea shopping.
“I want one or more of you to go back there with me. Right now.”
“And do what?”
“I don’t know. Try again.”
“Why are you so worried about this woman again?” Dawn asked. “People drink, Cathy.”
“I know that.” Cathy’s face grew red. “She ... she didn’t look healthy. And it was eleven o’clock in the morning. And she had children. And her daughter was obviously covering for her. As if she’d done it a million times before. As if she were used to having a drunken mother.”
“I still don’t know what we can do.” Dawn pursed her lips.
“I could talk to Katelynn,” a young voice said from behind her.
Esther turned to see Chevon and stepped aside to let her into the huddle.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to eavesdrop. But I could talk to Katelynn at school on Monday.”
No one answered her.
Chevon grew visibly agitated. “Look, if you don’t want my help, just say so, but I’m pretty sure I can talk to another teenager without screwing this up.”
“No, no,” Cathy said quickly. “You won’t screw it up. I know that. You’ll do just fine. Thank you.” She smiled, and Esther noticed that she too looked exhausted. “Will you let me know how it goes? I don’t want to lose more sleep than I have to.”
Chevon’s face grew serious. “Sure. I can text you.”
