Always There: Christian Inspirational Romance Page 11

  She looked at the list of condo names and numbers, but nowhere did she see Ben’s name. Of course, he had only recently moved in and maybe they hadn’t updated the information. No one was around, and the place seemed extremely quiet. She certainly wasn’t going to go from door to door, knocking and asking for the hairy man that had just moved in. Mike had told her that Ben was trying to keep a low profile, she wasn’t going to do anything to wreck that.

  “Can I help you ma'am?” The voice behind Elise startled her, especially given the fact that the front hallway was kind of dark. She had no idea what kind of people lived here. Were they all former homeless people like Ben? And if they were, what difference did that make? She was really starting to get aggravated at her own judgment and stereotypes.

  “Um, yes. Actually, I was looking for a guy named Ben. I was told he lives here.” The man furrowed his eyebrows, much like Mike did. He was older than Mike, probably at least in his sixties, and he was stick thin with a pair of slacks and a flannel shirt on. Strange for beach weather, but his frailty made her think that maybe his circulation wasn’t so good.

  “Who's asking?” The question hit her again just like it did with Mike behind the bowling alley. Why was everybody so protective of Ben?

  “I’m an old friend of his from back home. We grew up together.”

  The man cocked his head at her as if in disbelief. “You got a name?”

  “My name is Elise.”

  He nodded, as if he knew her by name and then said, “Well, Ben ain't here right now. He's doing a little side work for a customer of mine.”

  “Side work?”

  “I’m a contractor. I hired Ben to do a little work for me. You'll have to come back later.” The man started to walk off without another word, but Elise called out to him.

  “Excuse me, Mr.…”

  “I ain't no mister, lady. My name’s Rocky.” Huh. She never would’ve figured him to be named Rocky.

  “Sorry. Mr. Rocky…”

  “I already told you I ain't no mister!” What was it with all these guys around here? They had severe attitude problems. She’d been brought up to say ma’am and sir and mister and missus…. It was the Southern way.

  “Okay… It's just that I've been looking for Ben for a long time. We were like… brother and sister. I'd really love to see him. Can you at least tell me what number he lives in or when he might be back?”

  “Tell ya what. How about you tell me where you’re staying and I'll pass the info on to Ben.”

  Elise thought long and hard for a moment. This man was a stranger, and not a very friendly one at that. Did she really want to tell him where she was staying? Thoughts of Jilly immediately popped into her head.

  “You know what, never mind. I'll just check back later. Maybe we will cross paths.” With that, Elise turned and made her way to her car as quickly as possible. Her hopes were dashed, and she felt completely crushed by the whole event.

  It seemed like God was blocking her from seeing Ben. Maybe he didn't want her to reconnect. Maybe some things were better left in the past. In that moment, she vowed to herself that she would see – or not see – Ben whenever God decided for it to happen. Until then, she was going to move on with her life as best she could.

  And then an idea popped into her head. If she couldn't help Ben, her formerly homeless friend, then she would do her best to help all of the other homeless people in town by using her new post at the church. Maybe she could give back to the world in that way. Maybe God never meant for her to help Ben, but brought her to Seaview to help others.

  ***

  The next few days were a blur of activity as Sandy left town and Elise started focusing her energy on working at the church. The extra money that Ted had left for her at least allowed her a bit of breathing room. She paid her campground fees ahead for a few weeks and bought enough groceries to last her and Jilly for awhile too.

  Thankfully, living the motorhome lifestyle wasn’t all that expensive, especially given that she was staying in one place for awhile. Remarkably, Seaview was starting to feel like “home”, even more so than Atlanta did.

  She had also made the decision to sign Jilly up at a local dance camp. The camp, which was going to last for two weeks, would allow Elise more time to focus on the homeless dinner while Jilly enjoyed dance lessons and time with new friends.

  Jilly seemed to also be settling into the life of a small town beach bum. She loved being with Dave and Barb as well as her friends at church. She was adjusting way better in Seaview than she had in Atlanta.

  Of course, there had been a few bumps in the road along the way. One day after dance camp, Jilly had made a remark that took Elise completely off guard.

  “I talked to Daddy today,” she had said matter of factly from the back seat of the car.

  “What?” Elise choked out in between sips of her frozen coffee drink.

  “I talked to Daddy.”

  “Jilly, honey, Daddy is in heaven. Remember?”

  “Yes, of course, Mommy. But he’s still with me. You said so yourself.”

  Elise remembered back to their conversation before they left Atlanta. Apparently, her daughter was just talking to her Daddy like she talked to God in prayer. Elise’s heart rate started to return to normal for a few moments.

  “He said to tell you he was really sorry. What is he talking about, Mommy?” Elise almost wrecked the car at that moment. Everything she believed as a Christian was up in the air as she imagined her tiny daughter channeling spirits or something else that bordered on the evil side.

  “Sweetie, you sure have an active imagination!” Elise said, trying to divert her daughter’s attention. Didn’t work. It never did with Jilly. That girl was like a bulldog.

  “It wasn’t my imagination! I could hear Daddy’s voice. He talks to me all the time. He’s happy that we live in Seaview now.”

  “He is?”

  “Yes, and he wants us both to be happy.” With that, Jilly changed topics to some Disney movie she saw at camp, and Elise was left with a sense of peace that she hadn’t felt since Ted died.

  ***

  “Elise? Hello?” Pastor Ted waved his hand in front of her face as she sat at the table in the fellowship hall working on new flyers.

  “Oh, sorry. I was…”

  “Lost in thought? Yeah, I could see that. You okay?” She really had grown fond of Pastor Tex. He was a man’s man with a soft heart, and she valued that in Southern guys. He slid into the chair across from her and regarded her for a moment. “You know, you can talk to me. About anything.”

  “I know, and thank you.”

  “It’s hard for you to open up to people, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “You know, we all have some baggage we carry around in life, Elise. Good thing is, there are people who will gladly help us carry it if we only ask.” He winked at her and started to stand.

  “Pastor Tex?” she said quickly.

  “Yes?”

  “Mind if I ask you to help me carry a few bags?” She smiled up at him.

  “Don’t mind at all. Why don’t we go to my office?”

  With that, Elise took her first steps to opening up and letting someone in to help her.

  ***

  His office wasn’t at all what she imagined. It looked like a tornado had ripped through and tossed every paper in town on his desk. His bookcase wasn’t filled with books, except for a few Bibles, of course. It was filled with stuffed animals and figurines of every shape and size.

  There was a good chance that Pastor Tex was a child trapped in an adult’s body. Like Tom Hanks in the movie “Big”. The thought made her smile.

  “Now, I know my office might look a little….”

  “Messy?” she said.

  “Unconventional was what I was going to say, but messy can describe it too,” he said with a chuckle as he sat down behind the large wooden desk. “But I believe God gives us certain gifts, and let’s just say organization isn’t
one of mine.”

  “I think I would tend to agree, Pastor Tex,” she said laughing as she wiped her finger across a spot of dust on his desk.

  “But, God did give me the spiritual gift of humor,” he said with a smile.

  “I can agree on that one too. What’s with all the stuffed animals?”

  “Well, those are actually for the kids. You see, I’m the chaplain at the local fire station too, and I often end up in hospitals where something bad has happened. In those times that I need to comfort a family, I find that those little stuffed animals can mean the world to a child.”

  Elise thought back to when her father died. The EMT workers came to his funeral and one of them brought her a stuffed penguin. She’d held onto that for all those years, and only now did it dawn on her how much it had meant. It was a lifeline, a small piece of happiness that held her up on the day of the funeral and many days afterward.

  “That’s just wonderful. I know firsthand how much something like that can mean to a child. I lost my father when I was a girl.” It was the first time she’d said it out loud in many years. She had tried to wall that part of herself off for so long that it felt good to acknowledge her father.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “Well, it was a long time ago.”

  “It don’t matter if it was yesterday or thirty years ago, Elise. A Daddy is important to a young girl, and the hole never gets filled.”

  “True. But that’s not why I came to talk to you today,” she said with a weary smile.

  “Oh?”

  “I have a very unique problem, and I hope you can help me get some clarification on what I need to do.”

  “Alrighty. What can I help you with?”

  “Well, it’s a long story so I won’t bore you, but I need to know how to discern what God wants me to do. I have an old friend who lost touch with me over a decade ago. He was my best friend all through childhood, and now I’ve learned that he is homeless. Well, he was homeless…”

  “But he’s not now?”

  “He was until recently. It was all coincidence really. I found a newspaper article about him when I got to town. He found a wallet…”

  “Oh, you mean Ben?” he said with a big grin. How did everyone know Ben?

  “Well, yes. Ben. How do you know him?”

  “Elise, we run a homeless ministry, remember? Ben used to come to our lunches until he got up on his feet a bit. Now he lives in a small condo and seems to be making it pretty well.”

  “Pastor Tex, what kind of man is he?”

  “Ben is a fine man. Lots of integrity. Just got off track, like so many do. But he has a lot of love in his heart, Elise. I’m sure he’s the same person you used to know, just has more baggage than the average Joe.”

  Elise studied him for a moment. “I’m worried about Jilly.”

  “Ah, as you should be. You’re a Mommy. Your job is to protect your baby. I can understand that.”

  “But I can’t just leave Ben behind.”

  “You love him?” How did he cut straight to the point?

  “Um… Of course not. I just…”

  “Elise, you’re stuttering, sweetie,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s no crime to love people.”

  “I had a crush on him in school, but we were always just friends.”

  “I didn’t ask you that. I asked if you love him.”

  “I don’t know him anymore!” she said a little louder and more frustrated than she should have.

  “If you truly love someone, that love never dies no matter where the person is. You still love your late husband?”

  “Of course.”

  “Don’t matter that he’s in heaven?” The question rocked her at her core. Was he in heaven after what he’d done?

  “No, it doesn’t matter.”

  “Then maybe you never stopped loving Ben, Elise.”

  “Look, none of that matters, with all due respect. He never loved me that way. We were just friends.”

  “How do you know he never loved you?” It seemed like a leading question.

  “Because we never dated or went past being friends and then he just disappeared.”

  “Sometimes friends love each other more than people who say they are in love. That connection can last forever.”

  “You sound like a hopeless romantic, pastor,” Elise said with a smile.

  “I ‘spose I am. My wife tends to enjoy it, though,” he said, turning a picture around on his desk of his wife, Lucy. She was a beautiful woman with long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes.

  “So how do I protect my daughter from the ‘baggage’ that Ben may have?”

  “Elise, if God wants you to make a connection with Ben, he’ll make it happen.”

  “Ugh.”

  “Not what you wanted to hear?” the pastor laughed.

  “No. I’ve been asking God to show me since I found that newspaper clipping. I just don’t know what his answer is.”

  “And you want an answer right now?”

  “Of course,” Elise said laughing at the realization that she was acting a bit childish. “I had even hoped that Ben might show up at the Saturday lunch, but he never did. I guess he doesn’t need to anymore.”

  “Oh, he’ll show up eventually, but probably to help more than eat.”

  “Maybe. Thanks for talking to me, pastor.”

  “Elise?” he said as she stood and walked to the doorway.

  “Yes?”

  “Have you met Mamie Sue?”

  “Yes,” Elise said. “She’s a sweet lady.”

  “Nah, she’s a little crazy to most folks.”

  “Pastor Tex!” Elise said with a laugh.

  “It’s true. She’s weird. But you know what? Weird is good. Anyway, I think you need to have a meeting with her.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “”Cause she’s got more wisdom in her little finger than I’ve got in my whole body.” With that, his phone rang and he answered a call from his wife. Elise waved and smiled before walking to her car, more confused than ever.

  Chapter 12

  It had been a strange few days at the beach with almost constant thunderstorms. Elise grown accustomed to the evening thunderstorms that seem to roll in every night around dinnertime, but she wasn’t used to being cooped up in the trailer during the day.

  Thankfully, Jilly was enjoying her dance camp, but that was about to end in another few days. Elise was trying her best to get as much stuff purchased and sold online as possible while she had those few hours free every day. But today was different. Jilly wouldn’t be home for a few hours and there was finally a break in the storms.

  Elise walked outside and noticed something strange at Dave and Barb’s campsite. In fact, she hadn’t seen Dave all morning, which was unusual since he always took Sadie for a walk. As she walked down to the end of her own trailer, she noticed the door to Dave’s trailer was cocked open a bit.

  Worried that something may have happened, Elise walked around the side and up to the cracked door.

  “Dave? Barb?” she called. No one was answering. Although Dave was older, he had hearing like a bat. She knew that if he was inside, he would’ve answered. Maybe he had gone for a walk after all. But still, she was afraid something was wrong because the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end and her gut was telling her that she needed to go inside the trailer. But wasn’t that breaking and entering or trespassing or something? What if she startled them and they had a gun? Maybe she had been watching too many TV movies or Dateline NBC episodes.

  She quietly walked up the stairs and turned her head to look into the large motorhome. It was a top-of-the-line rig with beautiful granite countertops and recessed lighting, but what took her by surprise was the medical equipment that lined the walls of the RV. She put her hand to her chest and took a deep breath realizing something was definitely different about Dave and Barb.

  “Dave?” she called once again, although this time more quietly
so as not to scare anyone that might be inside. Again, no one answered. She walked into the living room, looking at the medical equipment on her way. She certainly wasn’t a nurse, but she knew she saw IV bags and even a portable EKG machine. She pulled open the refrigerator to reveal more IV bags filled with some kind of solution. She didn’t really recognize the name of the medication, but she did see the word that she had never wanted to see. Cancer.