INVITATIONS
“Hello?”
“R.J.? This is Samantha.”
“Sam! How are you?”
“I’m especially fine, that’s why I’m calling. I want to get together with you and Gwen and share a little surprise, a little good news.”
“Sam. You’re getting married.”
“Now, R.J., don’t you start making all sorts of outrageous guesses, or you’re going to make my little surprise seem shabby by comparison. I want you two to come to Worcester. I’ve already talked to Gwen, welcoming her back to Massachusetts. She said she knows you have a free day next Saturday, and she’ll come if you will. Say you’ll do it too.”
R.J. checked her book and saw that Saturday still was clear, except that she had dozens of chores. “Okay.”
“Wonderful. The three of us together again. I can’t wait.”
“It’s a promotion then, isn’t it? Full professor? Associate chair of pathology?”
“R.J., you’re still an eminent pain in the ass. Good-bye. I love you.”
“I love you too,” R.J. said, and hung up, laughing.
Two afternoons later, as she drove home from her office, she came upon David, walking in the road. He had come out to intercept her, down Laurel Hill Road and up Franklin Road, knowing it was the route she took.
He was two miles from home when she spotted him, and she grinned when she saw him sticking out his thumb like a hitchhiker, and opened the car door.
He climbed in, beaming. “I couldn’t wait to tell you. I’ve been on the phone with Joe Fallon all afternoon. The Peaceful Godhead has been given a grant by the Thomas Blankenship Foundation. Big money, enough to establish and support the center in Colorado.”
“David, how wonderful for Joe. Blankenship. That English publisher?”
“New Zealander. All those newspapers and magazines. How wonderful for all of us who want peace. Joe asked us to come out there with him in a couple of months.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I said. A small group of people will live and work at the center, and participate in its interfaith peace conferences as a permanent staff. Joe’s inviting you and me to be among them.”
“Why would he invite me? I’m not a theologian.”
“Joe feels you’d be valuable. You could contribute a medical viewpoint, scientific and legal analysis. He’s interested in having a doctor there to take care of the rest of the members. You would have your work.”
As she turned the car onto Laurel Hill Road, she shook her head. She didn’t have to put it into words for him.
“I know. You already have your work, and this is where you want to be.” He reached over and touched her face. “It’s an interesting offer. I’d think about accepting it if it weren’t for you. If this is where you want to be, this is where I want to be.”
But in the morning when she awoke, he was gone. There was a scrawled sheet of paper on the kitchen table.
Dear R.J.,
I have to go away. There are some things I must do.
I should be back in a couple of days.
Love,
David
At least this time he left a note, she told herself.