Saints Among Us (11 page)

Louise refolded the afghan and turned to a delicate tablecloth of ecru thread shot with silver. “This is heirloom quality, Jane. If someone gave me something like this as a wedding gift, I would be thrilled. I am astounded that people have donated such costly items.”

“Aunt Ethel’s friends from the Seniors Social Circle are eager to do anything they can to make this a success. I think they were taken aback by the whole idea of putting a craft show together, but they have been going great guns making lovely things. And the best part is that all of these are strictly donations so any profit will go to the church, not to a vendor.”

Jane and Louise admired the rest of the items, which included delicate tatted snowflake ornaments, a ruffled confection of a little girl’s dress in soft pink that would be an instant hit with every grandmother who saw it, a quaint welcome plaque with a painstakingly detailed folk-art Santa, and plush, sweet-faced homemade teddy bears, among other things.

As they started down the steps, Jane said, “How is your Santa Lucia thingy coming along?”

“Very well, thank you. Yesterday I went over to the big library in Potterston to see what information I could gather on it, and you will never believe what I found.”

“What?”

“A book in which several different ideas for these celebrations are included. But the best part is, there were several songs in the back for a wide variety of ages.”

“What a stroke of luck!”

“Yes. I have to confess that after I let Kenneth talk me into this, I began to have some second thoughts about how I was going to put it all together in such a short time.”

Jane grinned. “Seems as if everyone around here is worrying about getting things done on time.”

“Perhaps not all of us,” Louise remarked pointedly.

“Aunt Ethel excluded. Have you two talked yet?”

Louise shook her head, absently running her fingers over her pearls.

“You’ll see her tomorrow. She’s coming over to talk with me about the crafts fair.”

Louise made a face. “Don’t I have something to do tomorrow?”

“That’s not nice,” Jane informed her sister. “I’m about ready to make you two sit down in a very small room together until you make up.”

Louise sighed. “I know I need to let go of it. I don’t enjoy harboring anger or resentment toward anyone. But Jane, the things she said were really unkind.”

“I know. But she’s our only aunt, and who knows how long we’ll have her with us? You would be sorry forever if you two weren’t speaking and something happened to her.”

Louise nodded. “But Jane,” she pointed out, “it is rather difficult for me to speak to someone who is determined to pretend I do not exist.”

Temperatures still soared on Alice’s fifth day with the animal-rescue group. As they had the day before, Alice, Mark and June held an informal Bible study beneath the shade of a canopy during the early afternoon break Joe had mandated. To Alice’s delight, Ellen and the twins joined them, as did Gina and her friend Edmund, the third member of Mark’s team.

The verse Alice chose to discuss came from 2 Corinthians: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal” (4:18).

Alice posed a question for the group. She asked if the fact that life on earth is just a “temporary assignment” should change the way one is living and how. They just finished a lively discussion and a closing prayer when a group of people who had gone to town came walking past them.

“Did you pick up some ice?” Alice asked.

“Ice and water,” Corinne replied. “I heard this heat is supposed to break on Sunday.”

“Figures.” Ellen slumped in her camp chair. “We’re leaving Sunday.”

“Hey, we’re leaving Sunday too,” another woman said, gesturing toward her companion. “We’re taking dogs home, so we figure the return trip to Nevada is going to take close to three days if we stop at night. We want to be home for Thanksgiving.”

“I have to be home for Thanksgiving too,” Ellen murmured, as she raised her arms in a gesture of surrender. “I have fifteen people coming to my house for dinner!” Expressions of sympathy followed her announcement.

“We were planning to leave Monday,” June said.

Several other camp volunteers made similar comments.

Finally, Mark chuckled. “Looks like I may be one of the few sticking around. Guess we’ll be a little busier than usual.”

“Sticking around for what?” Joe had come up behind Alice.

“Thanksgiving,” Mark said.

“Oh. Yeah.” Joe’s voice was glum. “A lot of our volunteers are leaving to go home in time for Thanksgiving. It’s going to be tough here. And frankly, I’m worried about how many volunteers we can count on after Thanksgiving and throughout the holiday season. It’s all too easy for the world to forget disasters. Folks might assume our work is done.”

“Why don’t you ask every person leaving to try to send down a replacement?” Alice suggested. She knew that if she had not made the trip and seen firsthand the scope of the disaster’s impact on pets, she might indeed assume help was no longer needed.

“That’s a good idea!” Joe scribbled on his clipboard. “And I can ask them to post requests for help on some of the online bulletin boards too. If people understand that our need for assistance is going to last for many more weeks…”

“But that still doesn’t solve your Thanksgiving problem,” June pointed out.

“No, it doesn’t.” Joe’s customary cheery facade slipped for a moment, and Alice saw the fatigue he hid so well much of the time. He straightened his shoulders. “Hanna, Corinne, Riley and I will be staying, as well as Mark, Gina, Edmund and a few of the volunteers. I guess we’ll just have to manage somehow. No more intake, that’s for sure.”

“No more intake?” Alice was aghast. “But who will take the animals the teams find?”

“We won’t send any teams in. Other shelters might, depending on how their volunteer rosters look.”

Alice tried to hide her dismay as Joe went on his way. She suspected those shelters would be facing the same manpower crisis, which meant animals in need would not be rescued for days. She feared rescue might arrive too late for many of them. She had seen how thin and starving the latest arrivals had been. Further delay would cost the lives of who knew how many suffering pets. She could hardly bear to think of it. From their silence as others put their Bibles away and went back to work, she was pretty sure they felt the same way.

The heat broke on Sunday, just as Corinne predicted.

When Alice awoke just before dawn and stepped out of her tent, the air was noticeably cooler and fresher. She should have been happy, but all she could think of was that she would be leaving in just one more day.

Ellen crawled out of her tent next door. “It’s about time. Doesn’t this cool air feel heavenly?”

“It does. Is there anything I can do to help you pack?” Alice recalled that Ellen and the twins were leaving today. “What time are you planning to leave?”

Ellen hesitated. Finally, she grinned and shrugged. “I don’t think we’re leaving. I drove into town last night and called my husband. There’s so much need here that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy a holiday meal. All I would be thinking about is how many dogs still need to be walked, how many animals need their meds, how many more still are out there waiting to be rescued. So I asked him to call my mother and sisters and see if they were all right with having dinner elsewhere—without us.”

“And what did they say?”

“I don’t know yet. We agreed that I’d drive into town again this morning after early chores and the morning meeting. I’ll call him back to see if that plan would fly.”

Alice was silent for a moment. “Would you mind if I rode along with you?”

Ellen’s eyes lit with interest. “Any special reason?”

“I’d like to stay also,” Alice confessed. “But it depends on how June feels, so I’ll have to talk to her first.”

“Talk to June about what?” Her friend stood yawning in the morning air. “Wow! It feels great out here. It’ll be nice not to be a walking sponge all day.”

Alice and Ellen both laughed.

Then Alice said, “Ellen has decided to stay longer if her family at home agrees.” She hesitated. “How would you feel about staying longer?”

“You mean through the Thanksgiving holiday?”

Alice nodded hesitantly. “If possible.”

“Oh, Alice, I’d love to!” June threw her arms around Alice in an exuberant hug. “It’s all I’ve thought about since Joe talked to us yesterday. The folks at the Coffee Shop are okay with my staying longer. I was going to my son’s in Philadelphia for the meal, but I know he and my daughter will understand when I explain.” Her enthusiastic manner faded. “But what about your family?”

“My sisters will understand,” she said. “My biggest question is going to be whether the hospital can manage without me a little longer.”

“Well!” Ellen raised her coffee mug in a mock toast. “Let’s hop on our chores, girls. Sounds like we have some telephone calls to make this morning!”

Jane was tossing herbs together for the cranberry stuffing she intended to make later in the week when the telephone rang. Louise had gone to Karin Lindars’ home to discuss plans for the Santa Lucia service, so Jane hurried to answer the call.

Grabbing a dishtowel to wipe her hands, she reached for the portable telephone on its cradle in the kitchen. “Grace Chapel Inn. This is Jane speaking. May I help you?”

“Jane?”

“Alice! Hello. How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

But something in her sister’s voice made Jane’s mental antennae quiver. “No, you’re not. What’s wrong?” Her imagination began to run wild. “Were you hurt by an animal? Are you in a dangerous area? Is there’”

“Whoa!” Alice was laughing and Jane felt her tense muscles begin to relax. “I’m fine. Truly. Just a little nervous.”

“Why are you nervous?”

“Is Louise home?”

The abrupt change of topic confused Jane. “Louise? Ah, no, she’s meeting with Karin again. Why?”

“I have something to ask you both. But this may be my only chance to get to a telephone for several more days, so I suppose I’ll have to run it by you and let you explain to Louise.”

“All right. Shoot.” Jane could not imagine what Alice could—“Oh no. No, no, no. You can’t bring animals home, Alice. Absolutely not. You know what Louise will say. Not to mention poor Wendell. He is king of the castle around here, and I cannot imagine he would be happy to have to share with another animal.”

“That’s not it.” Alice chuckled again. “At least, not right now. Goodness, you have a vivid imagination.” Her voice sobered. “It’s about Thanksgiving. Jane, would you be terribly upset if June and I stayed down here an extra week?”

“An extra week? That’s…that’s a long time. Can you take that much time away from work?”

“I already checked and they said they can manage. I guess I’m lucky that my supervisor is an animal lover. She told me it was no trouble. June has no problem with staying, but if you’re swamped at the inn, I’ll come home.”

There was a short silence. “You’re needed there so much?”

“Very much. A great many of the volunteers are leaving to get home in time for Thanksgiving, and they are going to be understaffed here through next weekend.”