The Barefoot Summer(31)

“I thought that’s where you and Gracie met Victor and Hattie,” Kate said.

“No,” Gracie piped up from the backseat beside Amanda. “We met them down at the lake. They were walking and we were fishing and they stopped and talked to us. And then we saw them at the festival.”

“That’s the first time she remembers them. She and I actually met them first when she was in a stroller and we went to the festival while Conrad did some business from the cabin,” Jamie explained. “And you? Did you go to church with him?”

Kate lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “I was only here for the honeymoon week. By the time the second summer rolled around after that, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere with him. So I guess this is a first time for all of us.”

“Except me!” Gracie piped up. “But don’t y’all worry. I will show you around and tell everyone who you are. Lisa is going to be so surprised that you came with me.”



According to her grandmother Mama Rita, Jamie was ninety percent bluff and ten percent mean, but the mean was so bad that no one had better call her bluff. That particular Sunday morning, mean was taking a backseat to bluff. It wasn’t that she was afraid to go inside the church, but it would be insanely awkward.

She was lucky to find a parking space not far from the front, where people were still going inside. “Best I can do,” she muttered.

Amanda pushed the button to open the wide back door. “Good enough. I’ll take this to the fellowship hall. Save plenty of room on whatever pew you find.”

“I’m going to find the restroom before I come in, so save me a seat, too,” Kate said.

Gracie put her hand in Kate’s as soon as they were out of the van. “I’ll show Kate where it is. I gotta go, too.”

Jamie intended to slip in the door and sit on the back pew, but evidently every mama, daddy, grandpa, and granny in the whole county had come out to see the Bible school program that morning. She searched both sides of the church for empty seats as she made her way from the back to the front and found absolutely no space except for the front pew. She sure wasn’t going to turn around and take a second look, so she slid into the corner of the long oak pew and picked up the songbook right beside her. Her hands trembled as she turned the pages without seeing the words at all. She could feel the people behind her staring and hear the buzz of whispers. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what they were saying.

She’d never thought of quietness having a color, but it felt stone-cold gray that morning when everything went silent. She glanced over her shoulder to see Amanda, head high and belly forward, eyes straight ahead and then flashing a smile when she finally located Jamie on the front row.

At the funeral, she’d wanted to slap the shit out of that whining redhead, but right then Jamie was so glad to have someone beside her that she could have hugged Amanda.

“Looks like we should have left twenty minutes earlier,” Amanda whispered as she settled down, leaving enough room for Gracie between them. “No way we’ll sneak on over to the fellowship hall and hide in the shadows like we could have if we’d gotten a backseat.”

The buzz of conversation started as soft as the flutter of butterfly wings, but then it got louder and louder until it sounded more like a swarm of bees. Jamie chanced another glance, and there was tall, beautiful, blonde-haired Kate coming up the aisle holding Gracie’s hand. Now everyone in church would be speculating about which one of them that the little girl belonged to. She looked like the dark-haired woman, but the tall blonde brought her into the church.

“God, Jamie! Is this the best you could do?” Kate sat down beside Amanda.

“Short of sitting in someone’s lap. You are welcome to see if you can find someone willing for that if you want to,” Jamie smarted off.

Amanda giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Kate asked.

“God, Jamie.”

“I’d rather be Queen Jamie,” Jamie whispered.

“Shh.” Gracie put her finger over her lips. “It’s about to start and I need to think about my verse that I memorized.”

“And what is that?” Jamie asked.

“‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,’” she said. “What does mourn mean, Mama?”

“It means being sad, like you were at your daddy’s funeral, and getting happy again,” Jamie said.

“Kind of like when we were sad at our house and now we are happy in Bootleg? I’m glad God blessed us,” Gracie whispered.

The preacher rose and went to the old oak lectern. Other than a few sounds of folks shifting around to get comfortable, the noise stopped again.

“Today we are having our annual Bible school program instead of a sermon. If all the children and their teachers will come forward and take their seats in the choir chairs behind me, we will begin.”

Gracie stood and went straight to the chair without any supervision or even looking back at her mother. Jamie was amazed. In their huge church in Dallas, Gracie wouldn’t let go of Jamie’s hand from the time they walked inside until they were back in the van on the way home.

Beginning with each child reciting one of the beatitude verses, the service was adorable. The whole group sang two different hymns and did a skit in which Gracie played a little girl from the days when Jesus was on the earth. She said her two lines loud and clear. After Hattie asked the congregation to bow their heads for the benediction, everyone stood and kids scattered every which way to find their parents in the sea of faces.