Page 21 of Through the Dark Night
How nice. It was so friendly and welcoming that she didn’t even need someone to answer the door for her. She could just walk in.
She had pushed the door open and stepped inside when Vera came hurrying out from the other room.
“I’m so glad you’re here! I had just said to the group that I was hoping that you would come.”
“I’m sorry I’m a little late,” she said, lifting up the plate of cookies. “But I brought cookies.”
“They look amazing,” Vera said, taking the plate from her. “You know everyone here, but follow me and I’ll introduce you. I know it’s kind of hard to remember everyone’s name when you first get to a new place.”
Shannon appreciated the consideration. She had worked on names before she’d come, which had been part of her nervousness. She was just one person and easy to remember, but it was hard for her to remember who she’d been introduced to and who she hadn’t.
She followed Vera into the living room where five or six ladies sat around the coffee table, which was filled with snacks from desserts to crackers to chips, and it seemed like everyone had a drink in front of them on a coaster. The living room itself wasn’t fancy, but it was nice, with big windows and a cathedral ceiling, which made it feel spacious and welcoming.
“Please ignore all of the kid toys that are scattered around,” Vera said over her shoulder.
Shannon hadn’t even noticed them, but it was obvious that children lived in the home now that she glanced around.
“Be careful not to trip on anything, like I did,” one of the ladies said. She was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, holdinga drink in her hand, and smiling. She looked friendly and young, and Vera introduced her as Grace.
One of Yolanda’s friends. Shannon swallowed. She could handle this.
“It’s great to see you again. You definitely look a lot different than the last time I saw you.” She was a gangly teen at that age and at the time had been heartbroken over the loss of her friend.
“And smiling again,” Grace said easily. “And a lot bigger.” She laughed.
Vera introduced Mertie, whom Shannon remembered from church along with Skyler, and Olive. She also introduced Birdie, who was not a permanent resident of Raspberry Ridge but had a vacation home there.
“My work takes me away more than I like, but my husband and I come back as much as we can. This is our safe space,” Birdie said with a friendly smile.
She had movie-star good looks, and Shannon bit her tongue rather than ask if she had ever starred in a movie. Surely the movie star that she was thinking about wasn’t Birdie. But come to think of it, wasn’t there a singer…?
It didn’t matter. Birdie didn’t mention it, and neither did anyone else, and maybe it was one of those things that, like Shannon, Birdie had things she’d rather not talk about. Shannon could respect that for sure.
“I understand you’re back after a long time. That pretty much describes all of us.” Olive, who hadn’t said much, spoke from where she sat with her feet curled up underneath her on the recliner, a plate of snacks on her lap and a glass of what looked like milk in her hands.
“Yeah. I’m back after almost twenty years. I hope to stay.”
“I hope you do too, especially since you’re fixing up the inn. I’m looking forward to more business and tourists,” Grace said.
Shannon nodded. “I think opening the inn will be good for everyone. The only thing is, I love the small-town atmosphere and the close-knit community. I hope that the inevitable expansion the inn will cause doesn’t destroy the sense of community you guys have here. I felt welcome almost the second I set foot in town.”
“That means we’re doing our job,” Mertie said. And everyone nodded.
Shannon had settled into one of the comfortable chairs after grabbing a few snacks from the table. She noticed that everyone took one of Marina’s cookies, and she hoped they were as good as they smelled and looked.
After a little bit more chatter, Vera motioned to Mertie, and she began the meeting with a prayer.
She prayed like someone who knew God personally, which was the way Shannon always wanted to pray but didn’t typically feel like she attained. It was no wonder that Mertie used to be a popular speaker. And she taught from the Bible like someone with a solid faith and lots of confidence that God was good and that she knew Him personally.
“When we look at the woman at the well, she was ashamed of what she had done and what she was in the middle of doing. But that didn’t keep her from talking to Jesus.”
“Sometimes it seems like we have to have a catastrophe first before we even start to talk to Jesus. At least that’s the way it seems sometimes,” Birdie said. She lifted a shoulder. “That’s the way it was with me. Every time in my life I’ve had a major catastrophe, it’s brought me closer to the Lord.”
“And I think that’s what those hard times in our lives are designed to do. To deepen our relationship with the Lord, to smooth off our rough edges and make us more like Jesus. But that’s only if we let them,” Mertie said while the other ladies nodded.
“When I hid my pregnancy and then tried to be a speaker, it just didn’t feel right. I was successful, but it didn’t make me a better person. It didn’t make me better until I faced it, until I did what I knew I was supposed to do. That’s when I grew.”
“It was the same for me. My divorce was the absolute worst thing that ever happened to me, or so I thought. But it turned out to be the best,” Grace said, and it hurt Shannon’s heart to know that someone who had been so close to Yolanda had gone through a divorce as well. And at such a younger age. At least Shannon had thirty years of good memories with her family, and her kids were grown. It would have been terrible if her husband had decided to do everything that he had done when the kids were still at home and she would have had to deal with all of that as well.
