Riverbend Reunion(11)

“Granny Martha says if you ain’t baptized in natural water, like a creek or a river, it don’t count,” Daisy said. “Seems like you know your way around this place. You took the cooler into that other room?”

“My mama liked Elijah’s preaching and was disappointed when he closed down the church and started drinking again,” Wade answered. “That room is the fellowship hall. We had some after-services potlucks in there, back when I was a teenager. I would have sat through preachin’ every Sunday without even wiggling if they’d had a dinner afterwards every week.”

Risa breezed past him and squealed when she saw the kitchen. “A person could really live in this building with a full-sized kitchen like this.”

“Yep, and there’s a pretty nice bedroom suite back there by the Sunday school rooms,” Wade said. “Elijah had visions of evangelists coming to preach revivals, and since there’s no hotels or places to stay in Riverbend, he fixed a little place for them to stay right here at the church.”

“Are you serious?” Mary Nell asked. “Is there a private bathroom?”

“I wouldn’t know about that. Danny and I . . .” He swallowed the lump in his throat at even the mention of his brother’s name. “We just peeked in there one time. It was all fixed up nice in those days with a bed and everything like a hotel would have. Don’t know what it looks like now.”

“Maybe you should be our tour guide,” Jessica suggested.

“No, ma’am.” Wade shook his head. “I’ve done told you everything I remember, so you’re on your own.”



While everyone else went snooping around the church, Jessica took a moment to stand in the center aisle between two rows of oak pews. She turned around slowly, taking in the whole room once again. With good lighting, it didn’t look quite as bad as it had the night before. The windows were still dirty, and she was surprised that her uncle hadn’t paid someone to put in elaborate stained-glass windows. She looked up at a vaulted ceiling with four big fans that had started turning slowly when she flipped on the lights. From there, her eyes went to the hardwood floor with footprints now in the layer of dust, and she imagined the noise of folks doing a line dance to jukebox music. The place would make a great bar, but of all the ideas that had gone through Jessica’s mind concerning her life after retirement from the military, owning a bar wasn’t even on the list.

The lyrics to “My Church” popped into her head again, and she visualized a jukebox where the choir had been set up behind the pulpit. She could almost feel the vibrations of boots on the hardwood floor as folks did a fancy line dance to the song. The sanctuary would make a nice-size room for dancing and throwing back a few drinks. The bar itself could be over on the side where the door was into the fellowship hall. And the raised stage where the choir and the preacher had stood really would make a good place to set a jukebox and, maybe later, even have a karaoke night.

Stop it! You can’t make a bar out of a church. The folks in town would crucify you. Her father’s voice was plain in her head. Elijah built that place to be a church, and that’s what you need to sell it as.

Even hearing her dad fuss at her didn’t stop her from imagining a food-prep table in the fellowship hall, and maybe one of the round tables for her and her friends to sit around for meals or to visit before and after hours.

“Come look at all these rooms,” Lily squealed. “There’s five of them, and they’ve each one got a big closet. And one of them still has a king-sized bed in it. It’s not made up for company, but I didn’t see a single mouse living in the mattress. I could so live in this church, and I wouldn’t even have to share a room with Daisy. We’ve had to share with each other since we were born, Mama. Talk Jessica into renting this place to us for a house.”

“Honey, we couldn’t afford the electric bill on this big old building,” Risa told her. “I bet Jessica is going to have an enormous bill just for cooling it down for us to have a tour this evening. But we will hunt a place of our own when I find a job, and maybe it will have enough bedrooms that you girls can have your own space.”

Jessica felt a strange sense—almost eerily—that the building was talking to her as she listened to Risa and the girls. The walls seemed to be saying that she should look around and think of her friends, and what it would mean to them to have jobs.

What would it mean to you to work with your best friends every day? Uncle Elijah’s voice popped into her head. I should’ve made this place into a bar in the beginning rather than a church, so don’t just dismiss Wade’s idea.

“What if . . .”—Jessica hesitated, almost afraid to even say the words out loud—“we did make a bar here? Risa, what if you did the cooking for us? You’d have to leave your mama’s house if we did this, so what if we made a small living room in one corner of the fellowship hall so the twins could have a place to hang out? We could turn one of the Sunday school rooms into an office for Mary Nell to run the business out of. What if I did waitress work and tended bar? Maybe Haley could help out in the summers. I’m already pretty good at mixing drinks, and I can learn how to make the fancy ones.” She paused to catch a breath, and wondered if she’d really just said all that.

“What if . . .”—Wade took up where she left off—“I put half of the money up for renovations and did the work for free? I would have half ownership in it, and I can already see tearing all these pews up to use to build the bar and the shelves behind it, and make some barstools. That would save a lot of money on lumber.”