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Tonya
Roy sat hunched over his laptop screen. Tonya had asked him twice what he wanted for dinner, and both times he hadn’t responded. She didn’t know if he was ignoring her or if he was so engrossed in whatever was on that screen that he didn’t hear her.
The elders had given him two months to seek the Lord and find his way back, but Tonya had not seen him open a Bible in the week since.
It occurred to her that she hadn’t opened her Bible either, but she shook the thought out of her head. She wasn’t the adulterer in the scenario.
“Pretty fierce thunderstorms out there. You might want to unplug the computer. “
The mouse kept clicking.
She carried her bowl of cereal into the living room to watch television, even though she’d seen every show ten times. She missed Emma so much that her chest hurt. She texted her, “You’re not out in this, are you?”
Emma answered quickly. “I don’t go anywhere, Mom. I’m tucked in safely with Mrs. Patterson. You should come over.”
Part of Tonya desperately wanted to do just that. But another part of her knew she was supposed to stay by her husband’s side. It was her job as a wife, and it was the only way she could see to fix this mess.
The landline rang. Tonya ignored it. It never rang for her. If someone wanted her, and no one did lately, they used her cell phone. The landline meant someone in the church was in need.
On the fourth ring, Roy loudly said, “Will you please get that?” His words were civil; his tone was not.
She hurried to answer the phone before the answering machine picked up. When she heard Elder Frazier’s voice on the other end of the line, her stomach fell. Something was wrong. “Everything okay?”
“I don’t mean to be short, Tonya,” he said gently, “but I really need to speak to Roy.”
She carried the cordless over to the desk and held it out toward her husband. Her arm was trembling.
“What’s wrong?”
She didn’t know. She didn’t even know how she knew something was wrong. But something was. The air around her felt thick and heavy.
“Hello?”
She strained to hear Elder Frazier but she couldn’t hear anything. She watched the blood drain out of her husband’s face, and she knew. They were firing him. How? They’d told him that he could keep his job. How could they change their minds like this? How could they yank the rug out from underneath her? And just like that, she knew that someone had complained. Someone was unhappy with the elders’ decision.
Roy murmured some polite words and then hung up the phone. He dropped it on the desk and fell back against his chair. It wheeled away from the desk, and he sat, a droopy shell of himself.
She didn’t dare to ask. She had to know. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“What did he say?” She hated him for making her ask.
He turned his head toward her, and his eyes looked like snake eyes. “Get out.”
What? What had he said? She stood there stupidly.
“Get out!” he said more clearly and with more volume.
Because she didn’t know what else to do, she laughed. “Get out where?”
“I don’t care. Just get out. I can’t stand the sight of you.”
She thought she was going to throw up. Her shaky feet took her to her guest bedroom. She shut and locked the door behind her and then sat on the edge of the bed. Why had he told her to get out? How was that the logical next step from whatever the elder had said?
He pounded on the door so hard that it shook. “Get out! I said get out!” He was coming unhinged. He was out of control, and she was directly in the path of his madness.
She stared at the closed door. “And where exactly am I supposed to go?”
“I don’t care where you go.” He talked to her as if she were a stupid, filthy dog. A nuisance. “I only care that you do go. We’ve been thrown out of the parsonage.” He said this as though it were her fault. “So pack your bags and go.”
“Please, Roy, calm down.”
She’d said it with love, but it only enraged him further. He pounded on the door so hard that she feared his fist would come through it. “I am your husband and I am telling you to get out of this house!”
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“I don’t care. As long as you’re not here.”
