Joy Cometh With The Mourning, page 23
part #1 of Reverend Norton Series
“Oh. I went to a sci-fi conference in Hobart. A tiny thing. A bit too literary for me, and not many young fans… but still. It was cool being with other fen. And there was this guy in an Imperial Storm Trooper outfit. I had my Kitsune mask and outfit on, and he barely knew me, anyway, from Felixtown. And his room was next to the one I was sharing with Tom’s daughter Katie. It isn’t her scene really, but she came along to check it out with me… and um, this guy and I talked books a bit at the masquerade. He had to drink through a straw, and then I’d just gone to bed after the filk-singing — He’d been there too, and it was about two in the morning. He knocked on my door. I, um, told him to get lost. And he said he was so sorry to disturb me, but please could I help him, he couldn’t get the helmet off, the catch at the back had broken. So, I went out, and I got his head out of it eventually. It was pretty funny, trying. It took me quite a long time and we were laughing a lot. And then… the helmet came off and there he was.”
“I bet you were just a little surprised,” said Joy with a snort of laughter.
“Yeah. And how! I mean he was supposed to be a real creep, according to my mother. I’d never actually spoken to him, because they don’t ever come into the shop. Anyhow, I was swearing at him and Katie wakes up and comes out, and asks me why I’m chewing out Arthur. See, she knew him a little, he’d been finishing up at Uni when she got there, and had been kind, and had given her a lift home a couple of times, and hadn’t had my mother’s version of him. Anyway… we ended up talking all night. He reads the same books as I do, and yeah, he was just nice. I mean, I don’t think I’d ever had a guy not trying to come on to me.” She blushed slightly.
Joy smiled inwardly. She’d bet it had been a challenge of sorts.
There was a knock at the door, and Maddie dropped her knife, and took a step behind Joy. Joy turned a little, and put an arm around her shoulder.
“Repair crew,” said Tom, cheerfully from outside.
“Come in,” said Joy, and they did.
CHAPTER 18
The one thing Madeleine need not have worried about thought Joy, with some amusement, was what to say. She hadn’t managed to get a word out so far. Arthur’s “Mad, I love you!” on seeing her, was not exactly a Shakespearean soliloquy, or a beautifully crafted sonnet, but was exactly the right thing to have said.
The two of them would doubtless get around to talking later, when they’d finished kissing. Possibly when Tom Truman stopped laughing. It wasn’t going to be simple for these two, but it was worth doing, Joy decided.
But she underestimated Arthur. He still kept hold of his love, but at least he turned to talk to Joy. “I killed him. Not Maddy.”
Joy shook her head. “She didn’t, and unless you used mind bullets, or some imaginary science fictional device from a mile away, you didn’t either,” said Joy. “And we’ll have to deal with that later. And we will. The point right now, is that Madeleine needs you, and has been desperately trying to protect you, just as you have just lied to protect her. It’s very caring, but the truth is better. You can lie to me, but not to my boss.”
“She said she’d like to marry us, Arthur,” said Madeleine, “And… um.”
“The rest of it, Madeleine,” said Joy with mock sternness.
“Well, um, I was going to say I’d like that too, but I have to tell you, uh, I’m pregnant. So you don’t have to.”
Tom no longer able to support himself, clutching his sides fell onto the sofa. “That’s,” he gasped, “The wrong script.”
“No,” said Joy. “It’s the right one. She’s being serious, Tom. Stop laughing. And yes, I would love to perform a marriage ceremony for the two of you.”
“You know, Mad,” said Arthur still holding on to her, cementing Joy’s opinion that he’d make a good partner for her. “It doesn’t matter at all to me. And, er, it might be a good thing, for my father.”
“Yes, I can see the Major telling you that you have to do the honorable thing now,” said Tom, with a twinkle in his eye, and a smile still on his lips.
“It’s not a joke to us, Commander Tom,” said Maddy. “I thought… you might be on our side.”
“And so I am,” said Tom. “I’m a pragmatic old seaman, Maddy and Arthur. You’re old enough, ugly enough, both of you, to be able to make decisions for yourselves… and of course the future generations. The funny part is, firstly, the fact that I didn’t see it, though it was right under my nose, and secondly, that it is going to give Felixtown the excitement it craves. Now, you two need to stop all the dramatics, ideally crack a bottle of champagne if Reverend Duck’s got one, and start to work out the practical details. And we should eat the sandwiches I see there, because I haven’t had lunch yet.”
Joy nodded. “Your two families are complications, but I think Tom is right, subtly and silently really isn’t going to work, unless you both leave the area. And I would be sad to see that happen. But if that is what it needs, that is what it needs. There are a few formalities which stand in the way of a celebrant doing the ceremony right here and now, but no matter what your families say or do, as I have said, I’d be delighted to do so for you.”
Arthur bit his lip. “Whatever happens I am going to marry Madeleine. But, Reverend Joy, um, leaving here would be hard on the Major.”
“I don’t think his health is that bad,” said Tom. “Your mother just uses it to lean on you, boy.”
Arthur looked uncomfortable. “Look, it’s not just his heart, and she really believes it is dicky, but, well, I run the finances. They were in terrible shape when I got back from Uni. Things are better now, but honestly, I could leave them to sink, but I don’t do that kind of thing.”
“And my mother will just throw me out of the house, and the shop, the minute I tell her. I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t attack me. And er, I don’t really have much money. I could sell my bike I suppose. But I still owe quite a lot on it,” said Maddy, showing no sign of letting go of Arthur.
“Tch,” said Tom. “I think the two of you need to remember Admiral Farragut’s advice: ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.’ Maddy, if you need a place to sleep, come out to the farm. My daughter Katie has just announced that she wants to chuck in the course she’s been doing at Uni, and this will give me a wonderful opportunity to ask her to come home, to help her poor enfeebled father with her best friend from school. Arthur, you need to man up with the Major. And as soon as possible, move out. The town could use an accountant, and your parents don’t need you out there running errands, let alone their business. You can do the finances just as well from a bit further off.”
Joy had gone and looked in the fridge, where, as she recalled, someone had failed to throw out an elderly bottle of champagne. She brought it to the table, along with the sandwiches. “Sit down and let’s talk about it. You’ll have to make do with wine glasses.”
The cork had just popped, when there was a knock at the door. They all looked up like guilty school-children, as the door, which was not locked, opened.
Donald van den Vaestermark, took in the scene with his quick, sharp eyes, and turned to Izzy and Cam, next to him, and said in a voice of decidedly unholy amusement for a rectory, “See. I told you so. That’s organized religion for you. Debauched. Drinking in the middle of the day.”
“Come in and shut up,” said Tom. “And have a glass of champagne to celebrate our happy couple’s engagement.”
“You know, I think I will,” said Donald. “I was just dropping the kids here in a public show of approval. But the pharmacy can stay closed for a few extra minutes. My son and Izzy have been given detention today,” he said cheerfully, “and you can drink to that too.”
“So, like, can I be a bridesmaid?” asked Izzy.
“You two don’t seem in the least surprised,” said Joy. “And where is the third member of your crew?”
“Oh she’s coming along the back way. Didn’t want her ma to know. Like, this is Felixtown, Reverend Joy. Meggles and I saw them kissing out in the dunny lane. Megs even drew them in her last picture.”
“Well, it does seem as if the town had enough people trying and failing to keep secrets,” said Joy, laughing.
“Except for who killed Peter Hallam,” said Tom.
“Oh I think that answer was in front of us all the time. No-one killed him. It was just a tragic accident which no-one could have anticipated, as I will explain to whoever comes to investigate. They don’t think it was murder either, or they’d have been here. And if you think about it, all this has done is to expose us to the fire, to burn away our worse natures, the nasty things we thought, the faith we failed at, so we could see the true metal,” said Joy.
Tom looked quizzically at her. “I suppose we’ll all know in good time, is what you’re saying.”
She nodded. “Yes. I need to talk to my superiors, and to the police. But I think, oddly, that Peter Hallam managed to achieve more for Felixtown, and its church, in dying than he could have done in any other way. And in the end, death is such a small thing to a Christian. We know what happens to us then. It’s the living we leave behind that find it hard.”
That afternoon, after they’d all left, two of them to face their families in what was bound to be explosive meetings, Joy called Dean Mellors. He listened, and then said he thought that Bishop Michael should hear it all too. It took a long time to tell and explain. But the end result was that the bishop said that he, personally, would talk to someone in the police service, as there seemed no reason why this should drag on any longer.
And then, of course, there was nothing but to wait, a wait that was eventually broken by a call from Tom. “I’ve got your little prodigal lambs here, for tonight. They’re mildly mauled, but surprisingly happy about it. Apparently the Major did have himself a towering, bellowing rage, but, according to his admiring fiancée, the young man stayed calm and stood firm, I suspect for the first time in his life, myself. The Major didn’t die. And I wish I could have been a fly on the wall because he even lived through hearing his son’s future wife telling her mother-in-law to stop bullying Arthur.”
Joy couldn’t help chuckling. “I suspect that will be the first of many such instances, if those two ever speak to each other again.”
“Oh, we’ll work on it,” said Tom, cheerfully. He didn’t specify what they’d work on, or how, and Joy knew better than to ask.
The next morning Joy found that the town was abuzz with the story, and all of them naturally wanted to tell her about it. She had a string of both visitors and calls. The story that seemed to delight people most was that Zenobia had thrown a spectacular temper tantrum with a customer that morning, who had innocently inquired after Madeleine. She was no daughter of hers, and would never set foot in the place again. “And a lot more that’s not fit to tell to a priest,” said the elderly woman, primly. “That poor girl!” Joy wondered if Zenobia would ever reconcile, or accept her daughter’s partner, let alone their marriage. She seemed the sort who would nurture a grudge just as well as the Major could, if not better.
However, about the latter, she was wrong. Donald called a little later in the morning. “Is that the infamous Reverend Duck, the destroyer of families, scourge of the peaceful countryside?” he asked.
“I do my humble best,” said Joy.
“Well, you’ll be happy to know I’ve just had the pleasure of continuing your excellent work in our community. Penelope called out Dr. Hammond last night. And apparently he was very rude. But the fellow did make the Major come in for an ECG this morning, which was, to her disappointment, very normal.”
“I think Arthur will be relieved to hear that,” said Joy.
“Ah yes, but my work did not finish there,” said Donald, his voice positively scintillating with delight at his mischief. “I congratulated him heartily when he came into the pharmacy, after his visit to the surgery, on the magnificent coup he had finally achieved in his war with Zenobia. Telling him he must be so proud of his son to completely outwit the woman, and how a church wedding was going to gall Zenobia until she died.”
“And his reaction was?” asked Joy.
“Hilarious. He didn’t know what to say. It nearly made his moustache wilt. And there were a good four customers, who just happened to be in the pharmacy at the time. Pure chance of course. They would never have come in just because they saw the Land Cruiser draw up at the pharmacy. And all of them congratulated him, and told him they hoped it would it would be a big flashy wedding, to really rub Zenobia’s nose in it. Oh, and the woman who told Penelope she must be so delighted to be going to be a grandmother was priceless. News gets around.”
“Oh my word,” exclaimed Joy.
“Oh, it didn’t end there. They wanted to collect some bit of machinery for the farm from old Mac. I don’t quite know what he said to them, but the Major came out of there looking like a stunned mullet. He could barely walk straight. And people were stopping their cars to congratulate them.”
Curiosity got the better of Joy. She went down to ‘Junk and Mechanical Repairs’ and asked.
“Well now,” said old Mac. “I just told him his son and the girl were driving up to visit old man Denton this morning, to tell him they’re getting married. My suggestion to them, as it happens, but I didn’t tell him that. He’s in the care facility up at Hardacre. Old Denton doesn’t see eye to eye with his son about Zenobia. He hadn’t had any real contact with the girl as a result. But he actually owns the property the shop is on, as well as the farm, that’s leased out to Masterson’s. And he has told me a good many times that he doesn’t want to see his son p… uh waste away what the old guy put together, and he and Zenobia hate each other’s guts. I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t leave it to his new great grandchild, what with the girl getting properly married in church to a respectable young bloke. Family means a lot when you are getting on a bit.”
So Joy was not that surprised when, at about three that afternoon, the Major Ambleside-Smith rather huffily called her, to ask her to arrange a reconciliatory meeting, and to talk about a Church wedding… “After all, the boy is doing the right thing, eh.”
“Oh I think he is,” Joy was able to answer in truth and with a clear conscience.
Later, Joy said to Mary, who had come in to copy some new hymn sheets: “I agreed. I gave him a long lecture about the wisdom of being nice to Madeleine. And the kiddies are both willing enough to mend fences. But really, Maddy’s a better Christian and she’s never been to a church service.”
“Well, don’t you always say God moves in mysterious ways?” said Mary.
The service the next day was fuller than usual, even if Tom was amused at the postmistress’s absence. Maddy, Tom’s daughter, and Arthur were there. They didn’t share a pew with the Major and his wife, but they did sit in the one in front of them.
During the first hymn, Joy noticed that two people had slipped into the back of the church. One was a somewhat cleaned up fisherman. The other was Donald van den Vaestermark. Joy looked at her sermon, at the cross on the altar, and crumpled up her prepared sermon. Sometimes you had to go with faith and faith alone.
She looked directly at the back of the church. “Christians across the world gather on Sunday to worship God together. We are commanded to so. But our God does not need to be wound up on Sunday. Our God is omnipotent, limitlessly wise, and limitlessly powerful, so far beyond our mortal understanding that we must fail to grasp even the tiniest fragment of his wonder. If we believe, we accept that. He never ever needs winding up. With us or without us, he is. His name is I AM, as was told to Moses in Exodus 3:14. I AM the alpha and the omega. I AM every thing that ever was, or will be. Not a sparrow falls, let alone a man or woman dies that I AM does not know of their passing, and the whys, wherefores and how it happened. We… we are not powerful, or wise. We are fallible, we see the worst in each other. God sees not just the best, but everything.” She paused, looking at all of them, her little flock, black sheep, and whiter ones, old rams with curling mustachios.
“We are not winding God up on Sunday. We are showing we are willing to let him wind us up again instead, because we are weak and mortal. We cannot see what he can see. We fail often, both ourselves and those we love. He forgives us for that, and asks us to forgive each other. He gives us the strength and courage to try anew. To let the power of his love flow into us again. Our little spring of faith runs down very quickly, and we fail at the new and great commandment, as set out in John 13:34 that we should love one another as God loves us.”
She opened her arms and heart to them. “God is Love. And we can celebrate today, that his love has triumphed. I am overjoyed to tell all of you that Madeleine and Arthur have become affianced and are to be married here in our church on Saturday in three weeks from now.”
That, considering the time the congratulations took, was quite long enough for a sermon. Besides, what more could she say? A sermon didn’t need to be eternal to be immortal.
After the service Donald said, at the doorway. “You needn’t think I came for the challenge of your sermon, although I’ll grant that you did it better than I thought you would. I came because this reprobate,” he jerked his thumb at Madeleine’s father, “came out to my farm yesterday afternoon to ask me where he could find his daughter. I said I had no idea but she’d probably be here with the sky fairy glee club in the morning. He said he couldn’t come here. I said if I could, he’d survive. I told him to be up, sober and dressed at his boat this morning, and we’d come together.”
“Thank you,” said Joy. She understood, a little, what the man was trying to do, and what it meant for him to do this.
“Call it a little pay forward.”
Joe Denton greeted her perfunctorily, and hung about to speak to his daughter. In this he had some difficulty as she was being rather effectively surrounded. Eventually he came to Joy, who was drinking tea, standing next to Tom, and said, slightly belligerently. “She’s seen me but won’t come and talk to me! I need to tell her she’s my daughter, and it’s also my home, as much as Zenobia’s. She’s welcome to come home and stay there.”
