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Esther
“Hi, Molly. It’s Esther, from church.”
“Hi, Esther. I know who you are. You don’t have to say from church. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. I don’t want to associate you with them.”
Oh boy. “What’s wrong?”
She laughed. “What’s wrong? Oh, nothing. Only that I’ve finally reunited with my sister only to find that she’s half-dead. I’m trying to help my nieces and nephews, but they’re practically feral. Erica can’t stop drinking. One day she’s crying, saying she’s going to do it. The next day she’s hammered.” She sighed. “And I have to work, so I can’t get her to meetings in Bucksport as often as she needs them. Which is why I thought it would be brilliant to have meetings in Carver Harbor. Pretty sure she’s not the only alcoholic in this town. But no, New Beginnings doesn’t want drunks in their holy halls.”
Esther gave her a second in case she had more to unload, but she stayed quiet. “I would be happy to drive her to Bucksport.”
Molly sighed. “I’m sure you would. You’re such a sweetheart. But I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered.” Although now that she’d offered, she was starting to have doubts. “I don’t love driving in bad weather ... or at night. Are there daytime meetings?”
“Uh ... I don’t think so. There are some that are early in the evening ... Don’t worry about it, Esther. We’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe you could just borrow my car then.” And her gas? How was she going to afford this? The church would help. Wait, that was a little silly. “Or you know what makes more sense? If I just got you some gas money for your own car.”
“Get money from where?”
“From church.”
She guffawed. “From the same church that won’t let my sister through the doors? They won’t give you money. They don’t agree with AA.”
What? Esther obviously didn’t have the whole story. “I’m fairly certain no one said your sister couldn’t come through the doors—”
“No? Well, they said she couldn’t have meetings there, so it amounted to the same thing to her. She wanted to get better, and they made her feel ashamed of her problem. That really didn’t help matters.”
Esther had the urge to ask what kind of pie Erica liked. “What do you mean, they don’t agree with AA?” She hadn’t heard that. How could they disagree with AA?
“Oh I don’t know. I guess it’s not a Christian organization or something. It was probably just another excuse. I know you ladies are super kind, and I still believe you’re the real deal, but your church isn’t. Sorry.”
Father, help me. “Molly, Christians are only human, and we mess up too. Please don’t blame Jesus for the mistakes his children make.”
“I don’t blame Jesus. I blame your church.”
Esther didn’t know how to respond.
“It’s okay, Esther, I don’t need church to believe in Jesus. And I can help my sister on my own. I’ve got another call, sorry. I have to let you go, but thanks for calling.”
“Sure. Bye.” But Molly was already gone.
Esther looked down at her phone. Now what? She couldn’t let things stand as they were. Should she call Pastor? She sighed. Probably not. His plate was full, and if the elders had already decided they couldn’t host AA meetings for some reason, then Pastor probably wouldn’t change that. What about Lauren? Yes, definitely. She should call Lauren. She started to dial the number but then was overcome with a desire to see her young friend, so she decided to drive over there instead. It was a little rude to drop in unannounced, but she was going to do it anyway. She’d been spending too much time with Rachel.
Roderick greeted her with a genuine smile and a giant hug.
She returned both. “I was hoping to see Lauren. Is she inside?”
He waved toward the house. “I believe so. Go on in. If she’s not there, Mary Sue will be able to find her.”
Esther navigated their granite steps carefully, and then knocked on the door.
Victor opened it immediately. “Miss Esther!” He wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“Goodness, Victor. You have a tan to be envied.” She stepped up into the very warm kitchen and looked for Lauren. Victor shut the door behind her.
“Esther!” Lauren cried and came to embrace her. “What a great surprise!”
Esther returned the hug. Her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light. “Wow, what a beautiful home,” she said, admiring the exposed beams.
Lauren chuckled. “Thank you. It’s ancient.”
Esther looked down at the worn wood floors. “No really, it’s lovely. Do you know when it was built?”
“Not really sure. About 1850 we think. It was a stagecoach station.”
“What? That’s so neat!”
“Come on in. I was just brewing my third pot of coffee. Would you like some?”
Esther followed her to a large bar and sat on a stool. “That sounds good, though it worries me that you drink three pots of coffee in a day.”
Lauren laughed and leveled a gaze at her. “I homeschool five kids.” She set a steaming cup in front of her. “But don’t worry. Roderick has drunk at least half of it. Milk and sugar?”
“That would be lovely.” Esther wrapped a hand around the hot mug.
Lauren opened her fridge and stuck her head inside. Then she looked back. “All I have is goat milk. Is that okay?”
“Sounds perfect.” Esther didn’t know if goat milk in her coffee would be perfect, but she would be sure to act as if it were.
It turned out to be delicious. Creamy and sweet.
“So, let me guess.” Lauren sat on a stool on the other side of the bar. “The girls sent you to check on us?”
“Actually, no.” Though that would have likely been the case if they didn’t have so many other pressing concerns.
Lauren frowned. “Oh?”
“I just talked to Molly, and things aren’t good.”
Lauren’s eyes widened. “What, did Trevor do something?”
“No, no,” Esther said quickly. “I meant Erica. Neither Erica nor Molly will come to church because of the AA business.”
“Oh, that. Yes, I know. Don’t worry. I’ve kept in touch with her and will continue to.”
“Oh good. Thank you.”
She smiled. “You bet. So how are you? How is church?”
“I’m fine.” Esther’s spirit sank. How was she supposed to answer that second question? “I don’t know.”
Lauren nodded. “You probably figured it out, but we decided to take a little break. We don’t want to cause any conflict or drama, and we’re not mad at anyone, so we haven’t said anything, but we’ve just been doing church here in our living room the last few weeks. It’s been nice, actually. Don’t have as much fighting over toothbrushing.”
Esther laughed. “Well, we miss you terribly.” She took a sip of her coffee and then carefully set it down on the wooden bar. “Feel free to not answer this. I don’t want to cause you to say things you aren’t comfortable saying, but may I ask why the break?”
Lauren nodded. “Oh sure. It’s not a secret. So, a few weeks ago, one of the Weir girls said some pretty inappropriate things to Mary Sue. She’s only thirteen, and she’s a bit sheltered, so she had no idea how to handle it, and she was very uncomfortable. Thankfully, she came to me right away, and I talked to Roderick ...” She took a deep breath. “And of course, he immediately went to talk to Joe.”
“Oh boy.”
“Yeah.”
“I would’ve liked to have been a fly on the wall for that one.”
“Well, according to Roderick, and I have no reason not to believe him, the conversation stayed short and calm. But Joe adamantly denied that his daughter would say such a thing.”
Esther waited for more information that didn’t come. “So he called Roderick a liar?”
“Roderick, I could’ve handled. But he called my daughter a liar. And I didn’t take that well. So Roderick went to talk to Adam, and as you can imagine, Adam did nothing. So Roderick wants to wash his hands of the whole business.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Don’t be sad, Esther. We had a good run.”
What did that mean?
Lauren saw her confusion. “Did you really think a church like ours could last in this world? Surely we weren’t the first to try. If it were easy to keep such a thing going, there would be thousands of churches doing it. But it’s not easy. I’m not even sure it’s possible.” She didn’t sound upset or disappointed or discouraged—only matter-of-fact.
Esther didn’t know what to say.
Lauren chuckled. “Please! Don’t be sad! I’m not! Like I said, it was a good run, and I’m so grateful for the relationships I’ve made, and those relationships won’t be going anywhere.”
That wasn’t true, though. That wasn’t the way life worked. Two people could be thick as thieves, but if they never saw each other, they drifted. It didn’t mean they stopped loving each other, but they did stop benefiting from the relationship. “Iron can’t sharpen iron if it never gets near it,” Esther said softly.
“I’m sorry?”
“I think I need to call a meeting.”
Lauren’s face fell. “That’s really not necessary.”
“It is, though. I don’t know what to do. But we founders haven’t sat down together alone in a long time. Pastor or Walter or Joe has always been there. Maybe we’ll do better if we meet without them. Would you come?”
Lauren reached across the bar and patted Esther’s hand. “Don’t do this for me. But if you do it, I think it should just be you founding moms. You owe one another that much.”
