Page 159 of Share with Me

“Since I was a little girl. I was ill and then I couldn’t see anymore.”

Brinley blinked. “Was that before or after you met Jesus, may I ask?”

“Before.” Olivia paused. “It’s better to be physically blind than to be spiritually blind, you know?”

Brinley nodded, but she knew Olivia couldn’t see that. “I know.”

“Spiritual blindness is harder to cure. Sometimes it’s forever.”

“That would be bad.” Brinley glanced past Olivia to the wall behind her. Was it her imagination or was something crawling down the wall? It was smooth and shiny in the light. Like sheer sheets of—

Water.

“Uh, Olivia?” Brinley walked around the table toward the wall and lifted her eyes. There were several wet spots on the ceiling where it met the sheetrock wall.

“Yes, Brinley?”

“Is your roof leaking?”

“Oh, it leaks from time to time. Why?”

“Water is coming down the wall here.”

“Is it? Like a waterfall?”

“Like a waterfall.”Unbelievable.

“I suppose that’s bad.”

“Very. I think we better get out of the dining room. The ceiling could collapse.” Brinley picked up Olivia’s plate, leaving her own, and helped her out of the dining room. “I know a good roofing company. Would you like me to call them?”

“Well…”

“I work with these people all the time.”

“Give me the number, then. I know my husband has been talking to some volunteers at church, but I don’t know where the discussion is at, so let me talk with him first so we’ll be on the same page.” Olivia called for her daughters.

“Fair enough.”

Be on the same page.

The thought wasn’t lost on Brinley that when she married—someday, maybe—she would like to be on the same page as her husband. She could name nobody in her family who was on the same page as their spouses. Dad and Mom were usually on Mom’s page. Dillon and Isobel—oh well. They’d been divorced two years. Definitely not on the same page. She hoped and prayed that Zoe and her new husband, Quincy, were on the same page for the baby’s sake.

Somehow Quincy reminded her of Ivan.

Though their relationship had been short, having begun in December and ended in February, it had been a mixed bag, Brinley thought. Some days she and Ivan had been on the same page on things. Some other days, not.

Lord, help me let Ivan go.

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