52

What just happened?

Finn rested his forehead against the steering wheel. Did he really just end a relationship with Darcy before it ever truly had a chance to start on the off chance the leadership committee would question him tonight at their emergency meeting? Why did he care?

When he stopped on his way to church to visit with Lulu, hoping for some of her unique and valuable wisdom, he hadn’t contemplated any next step without Darcy. Within moments of sitting down beside Lulu, she shared the exciting news of Darcy’s job offer.

“Finn, I can’t think of a better answer to prayer. Darcy has tried to hide how upsetting the loss of her research has been, but let’s face it, my niece is a giant ball of feelings for all the world to see.”

Finn nodded, but Darcy’s news pinged through his mind with the force of a pinball being shot from the coiled launcher.

Darcy was returning to Columbus.

His heart knew her return to another life was a strong likelihood, but since they worked the festival together, he had allowed himself to daydream about the future. Their future. But now, the future seemed to be a misty mystery.

Lulu prattled on about Darcy’s new job. “God has been so quick to answer this prayer. This whole moment will just be a blip in her life. Isn’t that wonderful?”

A blip in her life.

It wasn’t a bad description of how Finn felt. Maybe her new job was the answer to the questions he had swirling in his head and heart since Sissy Jenkins cornered him on Saturday.

He’d been praying for direction since the confrontation, amplifying his efforts when he received a call from Uncle Tom to attend the emergency leaders meeting this evening. God had been silent. Not that God was often chatty. Finn knew God was always with him, guiding him and inspiring him. But Finn wasn’t arrogant enough to think each of his moments warranted a verbal comment from God. He believed God used others to speak wisdom into the soul, reserving one on one chats for burning bush moments. When Finn didn’t receive a direct verbal answer from his Heavenly Adviser, he turned to his most cherished earthly one, Lulu. And Lulu provided clear, nearly indisputable wisdom even though he had not asked a direct question.

The past week plus was a blip in Darcy’s life. He was a blip. And as much as he felt as if every molecule of his shifted the moment he first met her. Finn needed to let Darcy go.

She was his big bang.

He was her blip.

Better to cut the ties and move on with his life in Gibson’s Run, remembering what was rather than wishing for what could have been.

He continued to listen to Lulu and nodded at appropriate intervals as she finished telling about her physical therapy session with Isabel. She began telling how Isabel layered on the bags of ice and warm heat.”

At the first break in her story, Finn stood and said goodbye. He rejected her offer of dinner with a curtness he would later need to apologize for, and set about turning his back on the clear path to his future happiness.

Letting go of Darcy was the right thing. He needed to fulfill his obligations to God, to the church, and to his uncle. He couldn’t allow his longing for what might be to derail what clearly was. And he wouldn’t be the detour from which Darcy’s career never recovered.

No. It won’t be me.

Sitting tall in the driver’s seat, he turned the ignition of his decades old truck and allowed the hum of the newly rebuilt engine to vibrate through his soul. He made the right choice.

He loved Darcy. He knew that as purely as he knew his salvation was secure and his first love was Christ.

He loved Darcy, but Finn’s big bang would need to remain a small blip for God’s order to be restored.

Shifting the car into gear, he rubbed his wet cheek against the rough fabric of his coat. Doing right was nearly always harder than doing wrong.