Wings of Glass Read Free Page B

church.”
    I looked past her and the overgrown grass to the tractor tire leaning against a gutted Yugo Trent had brought home two years before, but hadn’t touched since. “No, it don’t, neither.”
    She laughed. “Know your Scripture, do you?”
    “My daddy made sure of it.” What I didn’t tell her was how he shoved it down my throat every time I didn’t do things his way. I hated the deity my father presented as a giant principal in the sky, throwing down bolts of lightning and striking women dead for not obeying their husbands, or children their fathers. My mother’s version was far kinder. He was the sort that wiped away tears and picked you up when you fell. That’s the God I clung to, though I knew precious little about him then.
    The lady brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “Hebrews 10:25 says, ‘Let us not neglect our meeting together, as somepeople do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.’”
    A mosquito must have bitten my chin because it started itching like mad. I scratched at the small bump and pondered that verse. After a few seconds I said, “It also says, when two or more are gathered in Jesus’ name, he’s there with them.” I was proud of myself for not only speaking up, but also sounding halfway intelligent for a change.
    The strap of her purse slipped down her arm and she pushed it up over her shoulder. I don’t know if her blouse was silk or satin, but the shimmery fabric looked so beautiful and cool. I couldn’t help but wonder what something like that would cost. Probably more than our house payment.
    “Very good. Penny, wasn’t it?”
    “That’s right.” How much nicer my name sounded when it wasn’t being sputtered like a cussword. I figured I should quit while I was ahead. Besides, my back was getting sore from stooping there at the window to look at her. “Well, thanks for coming.”
    She turned to go, but then paused and turned around. “I just have one question. Whom are you gathering with?”
    The question caught me off guard, so I just gaped at her, feeling like the moron I thought I was. After a moment, I finally found my voice. “I am married, Miss—” I remembered too late I didn’t recall her name.
    There was something about her smile that took away my embarrassment. “Mrs. Callie Mae Johnson. You can call me Callie. Your husband—he’s a Christian man?”
    My face flushed. If Trent knew I was speaking to her, he would have me looking like a raccoon for sure. “I really have to go.”
    Her smile faded. “Well, I don’t want to keep you, but we sure would love you to come sit with us again. This time bring your husband.”
    I cleared my throat and studied my dingy socks. “He isn’t much on church.”
    She let out a breath of air like she’d been holding it all her life. “Oh, I see. Well, you tell your husband he may be head over you, but God’s head over him. You tell him that.”
    Although I said nothing, I thought maybe I would tell him. Maybe it would get him to think about a few things; though, of course, I knew better.
    “You take care, Penny. Sorry to have bothered you.” She turned around and started down the back stairs.
    “No bother,” I mumbled, wishing my house had been clean. A female to talk to might have been nice. Trent wouldn’t have to know.
    She slid into a blue sedan that looked like it had just been run through a car wash and drove away. I looked around the kitchen, trying to see how my house might have looked through her eyes if I had let her in. The morning dishes sat on the table and counter, but that was understandable. I’d just fed my husband, after all. Besides the lining of dust along the baseboards, it wasn’t so bad if she didn’t look too closely. As long as I kept her in the kitchen it would have been fine, but if she had to use the bathroom, and a guestalways seemed to have to, she would see what a pigsty I let my husband live in.
    Shame warmed my