After less than a week’s separation, Emily was not expecting the intense rush of love and relief that overwhelmed her when Luke appeared at her front door. He had been with her through several periods of great stress in the past six months, and she had come to rely on him more than she knew. His solid presence – six foot three of muscle backed up by a natural air of steadiness and authority – had become her rock. She couldn’t imagine how she’d gotten along without him during all the years they were apart. And now she was feeling especially vulnerable – but any discussion of that would have to wait until the business of the day had been accomplished.
Appropriately effusive greetings finished, he asked her, ‘So what’s the plan?’
‘Lunch first – Baumgartner’s up the road has great sandwiches – then the Apple Store downtown.’
‘You already figured out you want a Mac?’
‘I think so. Marguerite has a MacBook, and it’s so sleek and compact, it seems like it would blend in at Windy Corner more than most of the other laptops I’ve seen. Plus, according to her, the what-do-you-call-it – interface? – is more intuitive than that of a PC. I’ve heard so many people whine about Windows over the years, I’d prefer to avoid it if possible.’
‘Sounds good to me. We have PCs at the office, but my personal machine is a Mac. Only thing I can see in a PC’s favor is the cost, and I’m guessing you don’t care about saving a few hundred bucks.’
‘Not if I have to pay for it in frustration. Learning the basics of computer use is going to be hard enough without having an inanimate object working against me.’
Over lunch they caught up on events in Stony Beach and at Bede. Stony Beach was usually quiet in the winter, the only drama for the tiny local population arising from the occasional fierce storms that rocked the coast. One of those had hit over Christmas, but now the weather was calm. Luke had nothing to report beyond the fact that his grandmother, who lived in a rest home in Seaside, had contracted a nasty cold.
Emily had already told Luke on the phone most of what was going on in her circle, but she filled him in on the most recent developments. ‘I see what you mean about an explosive situation,’ he said when she had finished. ‘That Curzon woman seems like the kind that would make trouble wherever she went.’
‘And so far, without much in the way of consequences to herself. She’s like the eye of a hurricane. But hopefully not for much longer. The hammer of fate is about to fall.’
‘I just hope it doesn’t fall too literally. Think any of these people would go so far as to take the law into their own hands?’
Emily shuddered. ‘I hope not. And really I doubt it, unless every possible avenue of legal retribution turned into a dead end. These are civilized academics we’re talking about, after all.’
‘Yeah, but you know as well as I do what can happen to that civilized veneer when the stakes get high enough.’
‘True. But enough of this morbid speculation. Let’s go buy me a computer.’
They took a bus to the Apple Store, since parking downtown was always a problem. The storefront itself intimidated Emily, composed as it was entirely of glass with huge pictures of various Apple devices lining the center of the broad back wall. An employee met them at the door and entered Emily’s name on an iPad. The young woman (none of the employees looked over twenty-five) asked what they had come for, and when Emily said she was there to buy her first computer, the girl made a visible effort not to gape at her in astonishment. Her impulse must have been to point at Emily and call out to the whole store, ‘Look! A dinosaur!’
Even without that, Emily could have melted into the floor, she felt so self-conscious. Thank God she’d brought Luke along instead of Marguerite. He could provide the moral support she needed to survive the experience as well as the technical know-how to help her make the best decision. Marguerite would have been either oblivious to or dismissive of her anguish, feeling it served her right for being such a Luddite for so long.
So when Luke put a hand on the small of her back and said, ‘She’s interested in a MacBook,’ she was grateful that he was speaking for her rather than resentful, as she might have been in other circumstances.
‘Great. Looks like about a ten-minute wait, then an associate will be with you. Why don’t you look around in the meantime? The MacBooks are right over there.’ The employee pointed toward one of the long counter-height tables that ran the length of the store, each holding a row of sample products for customers to examine at their leisure.
They found an empty spot, and Luke showed her some of the basics of computer use while they waited to be served. Just as Emily felt her brain might explode from all the new information, a perky blonde came up to them. ‘Emily?’ she said. ‘I’m Caiden. I understand you’re looking for a new laptop.’
With Luke as tech-to-English interpreter, Emily managed to communicate what she needed out of a computer and determine that a MacBook was in fact the best machine for her. She chose the gold color, grateful for at least one decision she could make on familiar aesthetic ground. Caiden walked her through the setup and use of a few basic apps, and Emily signed up for some classes that would help her get fully up to speed.
An hour after the ordeal began, Emily collapsed on to a bus bench next to Luke with a minimalist white Apple box on her lap. ‘I’m not sure this is going to be as much help with my book as I thought. It’ll take me all the time I have at Bede just to learn how to use it and get all my notes typed in.’
‘Fair point. Any chance you could hire a student to help you out? With the data entry, if nothing else? Then you could keep researching while they get you caught up.’
‘That’s a thought. Maybe Svetlana could do it. She doesn’t seem to have a lot of work of her own; she’s mainly just keeping Daniel company.’ She thought back to her conversation with Marguerite about the whole computer issue. ‘Margot told me about this program she uses called Scrivener. Apparently it’s great for keeping all your notes and stuff in one place. Do you suppose that’s on here?’ She stared at the box as if she could see through to the inner workings of the computer and locate the program there.
‘Doesn’t sound familiar, so I’d guess it isn’t a native Apple app. When we get back to your place we can look for it on the Web. All programs are downloadable these days.’
‘You’re forgetting one thing. I don’t have internet access at home.’
He shook his head at her with a fond smile. ‘Oh, Emily. My favorite throwback. OK, how about a nearby coffee shop? Those usually have Wi-Fi customers can use.’
‘Sure, let’s try Grounds for Debate. I see people in there with laptops all the time, so I suppose they must have Wi-Fi.’
The bus let them off across the street from the coffee shop, and within half an hour Emily was refreshed with a latte and muffin and her laptop was equipped with Scrivener. One more thing to learn, and probably not included in the Apple Store classes. She’d have to get Marguerite to show her the ropes.
Her feet were dragging as they walked the block back to her house. She had intended to use this time with Luke to unburden herself of her newly recovered traumatic memories, but she felt at peace in this moment, comforted just by his presence. And she was too exhausted at this point to put herself through another emotional ordeal. Surely the recital could wait. She’d already been through it with Marguerite, and it wasn’t anything that could affect her relationship with Luke – it had all happened so very long ago.
‘I’m done in,’ she said as she unlocked her front door. ‘How about we order a pizza and veg out tonight?’
‘Sounds good to me. I love being a vegetable with you.’ He put an arm around her and kissed her cheek.
‘Thanks for coming with me today. I couldn’t have survived it without you.’
‘Oh, sure you could. You’re a strong and intelligent woman, Emily. You don’t give yourself enough credit.’
‘Well, I’m glad I had you, anyway. And I wish I could keep you around longer than tomorrow.’
‘Me too, but I’ve got to get back tomorrow night. Pete and Heather are both overdue for some time off, since I made them work through Christmas.’
‘True.’ She paused, wondering how to phrase her next request. Might as well just come out with it. With Luke especially, direct was always best.
‘Would you be willing to come to church with me tomorrow? I really need to go, and I’d like you to meet some of my friends there.’
‘Sure, no problem. I’d like to see what this Orthodox thing is all about. It’s part of you, and I need to know all of you if we’re going to be one flesh.’
Emily offered Svetlana a ride to St Sergius, but she regretfully declined, saying her father had other plans for the morning. So Emily and Luke went alone.
Walking into the nave felt far more like coming home than had Emily’s return to her little Tudor house. The church had not been taken over by strangers in her absence but had continued its own vital life. The people – both the parishioners and the saints in the icons that lined the nave – welcomed her back as if she had never been away.
Luke, of course, inspired a number of whispers and sly glances during the liturgy, and afterward in the coffee hour the curiosity about him became more overt. Her closer friends in the congregation, including Father Paul, knew about Luke, but none of them had met him or heard the very recent news of their engagement. Emily twisted the pearl-and-emerald ring on her left ring finger. She’d noticed several sly glances taking that in as well.
Father Paul came to sit with them in the fellowship hall and shook Luke’s hand before offering his to Emily to kiss in the traditional priestly greeting as he blessed her with his other hand. With a pointed glance at her finger, he said, ‘Do you have some news for me?’
Emily blushed, suddenly acutely conscious that she had entered into this engagement to a man who did not share her faith without her priest’s blessing. ‘Yes, Father. We got engaged at New Year’s.’
Father Paul gave her an inscrutable look and said to Luke, ‘I’ve heard a fair bit about you over the last six months – enough to feel confident you’ll take good care of Emily. But one thing I don’t know is where you stand in regard to faith.’ He held Luke’s eyes with an intensity that belied the casual friendliness of his tone.
Luke looked flustered for perhaps the first time in Emily’s experience. ‘I believe in God, if that’s what you mean. But I’ve never been inside an Orthodox church before today.’
‘Do you attend any church?’
‘Not regularly, no. I go to St Bede’s Episcopal with Emily once in a while.’ He shot her a rueful glance. ‘Mostly for funerals, seems like.’
‘Have you been baptized?’
‘Yeah, I was dunked as a kid. Local Baptist church.’
Father Paul gave a brisk nod. ‘They do at least baptize in the name of the Holy Trinity. What did you think of our service?’
‘Different from anything I’ve experienced before, that’s for sure. Little bit like the Episcopal service, I guess. But way heavier on the smells and bells.’ He grimaced. ‘Sorry. No offense meant.’
‘None taken. That’s a fairly accurate if succinct description of the sensory aspect of the Orthodox liturgy.’ Father Paul’s eyes twinkled. ‘The real question is, were you attracted or repelled by the “smells and bells”? If Emily were out of the equation, would you ever come back?’
Luke pouched his lips in thought. Emily held her breath waiting to hear what he would say. Whatever it was, it would be the unvarnished truth, and it would have a huge impact on their life together from this point forward.
‘I think I would. In the past I’ve always felt like God was closer on the beach or in the woods than he was in church. But here I felt like he was in the air all around me. Like if I prayed he would actually hear me.’ He turned to smile at Emily. ‘Yeah, I’d come back.’
Father Paul beamed. ‘Splendid. Then I can marry you here. Have you thought about a date?’
‘We were hoping for June first,’ Emily said. ‘It’s kind of a special day for us.’
Father Paul dug his phone out of his pants pocket through a gap in the seam of his cassock and looked at his calendar. ‘June first … That’s a Saturday this year. The last Saturday of Pascha, in fact. We can work with that.’ He smiled at Luke. ‘We prefer to do weddings on Sundays when we can. It’s an extra blessing. But having a wedding during the Pascha season is an even greater blessing. Not to mention you save on flowers because the church is already decorated.’ He turned his smile toward Emily. ‘Not that you care about saving money these days, eh?’
‘Not so much. But the Pascha flowers are so lovely. I always thought that would be the perfect time for a wedding.’
The perfect date for a wedding – and the perfect groom. Looking forward to that would get Emily through the next couple of weeks, stressful though they promised to be.