Always There: Christian Inspirational Romance Read online

  She had no idea what to do or where to turn. And that’s when she did something she hadn’t done in a awhile. She prayed.

  Dear God, I have no idea what to do in this situation. You know my heart, and you know Ben’s situation. But I can’t bring my daughter into a dangerous situation either. Oh please, God, give me a sign. Let me know what to do. Protect Ben, wherever he is. And if he’s lost, please push your way into his heart, Lord. He’s always needed you, and maybe now more than ever. Protect us all. Thank you for your many blessings and your grace. Amen.

  Elise had never considered herself to be a “good pray-er”. She wasn’t one who could stand up at Thanksgiving and say an eloquent prayer. She just said what she was thinking like God was standing there next to her, but her mother had always told her that was okay. She sure hoped it was because she needed God to direct her steps now more than ever. She didn’t want to make a mistake.

  Chapter 8

  Days had passed, and Elise tried to put Ben out of her mind. It was impossible, really, but she tried. Waiting for God to show her the right thing to do seemed like a slow, frustrating process.

  She occupied her time with more online research about selling and the occasional thrift store trip. She was actually getting better at choosing items to sell, and she had listed her very first thing on eBay and sold it in twenty hours, which gave her confidence to keep going. Sure, it was a profit of about twenty-five bucks, but every little bit helped her and Jilly start over.

  Jilly was getting bored, and boredom mixed with being an eight year old was not a good thing. After being prodded by Dave and Barb, and visiting their church, she finally relented and allowed Jilly to attend vacation Bible school for a week.

  “Mommy, do you think I’ll have fun?” Jilly asked as Elise pulled her hair into a ponytail.

  “Of course, honey. But you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Elise said. She didn’t want to shelter her daughter too much, but she also wanted her to know that she would protect her for the rest of her life.

  “I wanna go, Mommy,” Jilly said with a giggle as she rolled her eyes in the mirror. “Mr. Dave said they have cupcakes there.”

  Ah, the simplicity of an eight year old’s mind.

  Elise drove her daughter to Seagrove Baptist Church and walked her inside the old, brick building. Built in the late 1800s, the church was front and center for a lot of the town’s activities. They had a pretty large congregation and seemed very well thought of in the community.

  She had briefly met the pastor, lovingly referred to as Pastor Tex - because he was born in Texas, of course - at Sunday service a few days ago when Dave had taken her and Jilly while Barb was sick with a summer cold. He was a big barrel of a man, proving that everything must really be bigger in Texas.

  With jet black hair and cowboy boots, he certainly didn’t fit the mold of a pastor in a small beach town, but Elise liked him a lot. He seemed open and easy to talk to, so it made her feel good that she might have a pastor she could talk to if she ever needed to.

  It was strange to her that she was already starting to feel at home even though she’d been there less than two weeks. In fact, it felt more like home than her large, empty house had felt back in Atlanta during those last few months.

  She kissed Jilly goodbye and watched her walk down the hall with one of the VBS teachers before she started walking back toward the parking lot.

  “Elise, right?” a man called behind her. She didn’t even have to turn around to know his voice. It was thick and Southern, and she knew it was Pastor Tex.

  “Hello, Pastor,” she said with a smile, turning to see that he was wearing a pair of long, Hawaiian swim trunks and an aqua blue t-shirt.

  “I sure don’t look like preaching a Sunday service right now, do I?” he said with a deep laugh.

  “Well, maybe a beach service,” she responded as she looked at his flip flops and then back at his face.

  “These kiddos love our annual water gun fight. I made the mistake once of wearing my going-to-church clothes and lost a very nice pair of pants in a particularly bad battle. Let’s just say that I didn’t see that mud puddle.”

  Elise loved the personality of this pastor. He didn’t “put on airs” as her mother would have said. He was down to Earth and in love with God and his church. Still, Elise had spent her whole life trying to act her best around clergy members. She felt like they might secretly be judging her and reporting her to God in their private prayer time.

  “I don’t blame you,” she said. “Jilly is so excited to be here. Thanks for making her feel welcome.”

  “Oh, well, we love little Jilly She’s a child of God, and we’re all family.”

  “Yes, I suppose that’s true,” Elise said, but she didn’t fully believe that. Her faith and closeness to God had taken a hit since losing Ted, and maybe even before that. She didn’t know how to get that feeling back, that “knowing” that God was close and on her side.

  “I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you, Elise?”

  “Oh. Me? Sure…” she said, a little taken aback by the question. She hardly knew him or the church, but he needed a favor from her? What did she possibly have to offer?

  “Well, we have a need here at the church, and I thought it might help you to get to know our community and our church.”

  “What kind of need?”

  “We have a weekly lunch that we provide to the homeless and less fortunate in our community,” he started to say, but all Elise heard was the word “homeless”.

  “I wasn’t aware there was a big homeless population in this area…” she said softly.

  “Not a huge one, but we’re near Wilmington, of course, so there are more homeless individuals there who come to our lunch as well. We use it as a time to minister to those folks’ needs and to give them a good hearty meal. We also pack bags with extra food that helps them during the week, as well as some toiletries. Of course, this largely depends on what local folks decide to donate. Our church members are very good about stocking our food pantry and such, but getting the word out in the community is very important too. Our marketing gal, Cecilia, has now moved to Philadephia after her husband got transferred. She donated her time so willingly, and we sure hated to lose her.”

  “But, Pastor Tex, I don’t have any marketing experience…”

  “That’s okay. It just takes a willin’ heart really. ‘Course we always need help serving the food and stuffing the bags, but what I really need is someone to get the word out to those who need us. We also need more donations too, so getting the message out to local businesses is important.”

  “Well….” Elise could hear herself hemming and hawing. She wasn’t at all comfortable with his request. After all, she knew nothing about the area or the people or the church… And then she felt convicted. Her mother used to say all the time that a person had to listen to their gut, to that little feeling of conviction in their hearts, when they were trying to get out of doing something. “Elise,” she would say, “sometimes, we don’t want to do what God wants us to do. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, but the Lord will convict you in your heart and you just can’t say no.”

  This was one of those times, darn it.

  “I would be happy to help, Pastor. But I’ll need lots of guidance because I don’t really know this area at all.”

  “You know Dave and Barb, right?”

  “Yes. They are my current neighbors, I guess you’d say.”

  “I’ll talk to Dave and see if he can take you out this afternoon. He might be busy with…” He suddenly stopped himself and cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’ll ask him his schedule and he can show you some of the places where our needy folks tend to be. We’re having a lunch next Saturday, so we want to get the word out.”

  “Great. I’ll touch base with Dave later today then,” she said, smiling as she reached out and shook his hand. As she turned back toward her car, the pastor called out to her.

  “Hey, Elise?”
r />   “Yes?”

  “It’s on my heart to tell you this, so please don’t take any offense, okay?”

  “Okay…”

  “God wants you to know that sometimes healing comes through pain,” he said before nodding at her and walking toward the field beside the church.

  Elise watched him walk away, her heart full of a hope that hadn’t been there a few moments before.

  ***

  Elise pulled back into the campground parking lot after hitting one of the local thrift stores. She was ecstatic after finding some vintage Hawaiian shirts that looked like they would sell for close to $100 each, and she’d found three of them!

  Dave was sitting outside his motorhome, but Barb wasn’t around. Elise had noticed she didn’t come outside a lot during the day, but she was fair skinned and would probably burn in the hot North Carolina sun.

  “Hey, Dave,” Elise said with a smile as she pulled her bag from the car.

  “Hi there, Elise,” Dave said. He appeared to be forcing a smile, and Elise hadn’t seen him do that before. He looked tired and a little sad, but she didn’t want to pry too much. After all, they barely knew each other. “Find some treasures today?”

  “Yes, I did, actually. Jilly’s at VBS, so I took advantage of a little free time.”

  “Well, you seem to be adjusting well. Pastor Tex called me a bit ago about you volunteering. I think that’s just great.”

  “I’m a little nervous about it, to be honest. I don’t know a lot about the area.”

  “I’m glad to take you for a drive and show you around, if you’d like. We can pick up Jilly on the way home,” he said.

  “You mean right now? What about Barb?”

  “Oh, she’s probably taking a nap or catching up on her TV shows in there. She’s not much of a daytime person. Too hot this time of year,” he said. Just as Elise had suspected. Being a pale woman too, she totally understood the need to stay inside during the hot times of the day.

  “It is rather hot today. Let me throw my bag inside the trailer, and I’ll meet you back out here in ten minutes.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll go grab my sunglasses and tell Barb where we’re going,” he replied as he walked toward the motorhome. It occurred to Elise that she’d never even seen the inside of the RV, but it sure looked nice from the outside.

  ***

  “Right here is fine,” Dave said, pointing to a parking space just outside of town. The area was more rundown than Elise had seen in Seaview. There was an abandoned warehouse that looked like it had been some kind of mill at some point, as well as a bowling alley and liquor store.

  “Wow, this is a far cry from Seaview or even Wilmington,” Elise said, trying her best not to sound snooty. This place was making her more nervous than she’d like to admit. She scoured the area with her eyes before turning off the car. “Are you sure this is safe, Dave?”

  Dave laughed. “I’m a retired Marine who saw combat, Elise, so this ain’t nothing,” he said before grabbing the door handle and stepping out onto the pavement. Dave was a man’s man, for sure. He had a tattoo on his right arm that she’d never noticed before. It was an American flag and an eagle mixed together and was actually quite lovely. She wasn’t normally a tattoo person, but his told a story of who he was and the past he’d lived.

  Elise stepped out of the car, being sure to lock it up behind her with the remote. Dave walked a few steps ahead, going toward the bowling alley.

  “This is the Ocean Breeze Bowling Alley. Been here since the ’70s, believe it or not.”

  “And why are we here?” she asked, being careful not to trip over one of the many empty beer cans strewn across the vast parking lot.

  “Well, a good many of our homeless people live here.”

  “At the bowling alley?” she asked, confused.

  “Not inside of the bowling alley. Behind it,” he said, pointing behind the large building. All she could see from her vantage point was a dumpster, but anyone could figure out that living behind a building was not going to provide decent accommodations. And then Ben entered her mind.

  If he was homeless and still in the area, it was likely he’d have spent at least some amount of time in this area. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of telling Dave about Ben and asking him to help her find him. But then her own selfish ego got in the way.

  What would people think of her if she brought a homeless person around?

  What would her daughter think?

  What if Ben brought his own problems with him and messed up her already tenuous circumstances?

  There were too many questions and not enough answers.

  And, on top of it all, he had abandoned her, once upon a time. Was she still responsible to bail him out of his situation all these years later? I mean, weren’t they considered strangers now? Did those years of youthful experiences mean a hill of beans today?

  “Elise?” Dave said, breaking her out of a daze. How long had she been standing there, staring at a dumpster from across the parking lot? He must have thought she was crazy.

  “Oh, yes. Sorry. I was just thinking…”

  “About?”

  “Nothing. It’s not important. How many homeless people live behind here?”

  “It varies depending on the time of year. During the spring and summer, they have a tent village set up here. During winter, I think some of them find shelters in the bigger cities. Last I checked, there were at least ten people living back there.”

  “I just don’t understand how someone ends up this way.”

  “Really?” Dave said with a shocked tone.

  “Yes, really. I know that sounds terrible, Dave, but I just don’t get it. They can get a job just about anywhere. Flip burgers or something.” She was suddenly aware of just how unsympathetic she sounded. Unsympathetic and snobby.

  Dave motioned for her to come with him behind the building. Elise followed, albeit slowly. Behind the building sat an older woman who looked to be in her seventies at least. She was frail and wrinkled and unwashed. Her eyes were hollow like she was without a soul or a purpose. She was talking to herself, or maybe that was singing? Elise couldn’t tell.

  The woman had a small tent made out of a tarp and some wooden crates she had apparently accumulated. She sat just outside of the ramshackle tent, staring off into space.

  “Mamie Sue?” Dave called to her. “I brought ya something.” The woman’s face lit up when she saw Dave, and that touched Elise deep inside.

  “My Davey!” Mamie Sue yelled as she hobbled up onto her feet and held out her arms. Dave walked to her and embraced her immediately, even with all of her dirt and grime between them. Elise found it both endearing and frightening at the same time.

  “Mamie Sue, this is my friend, Elise. She’s new to our neck of the woods,” he said as he pointed toward Elise, who was still standing a good ten feet away.

  “My dear, come closer. My eyesight ain’t so good these days, I’m ‘fraid,” she said, reaching her wrinkled hand out in front of her. Dave nodded, and Elise felt she had no choice but the move her feet forward.

  “Hi, Mamie Sue. Nice to meet you,” Elise stammered as she walked a few feet closer, still being careful not to get too close so as to force a hug. She felt terrible about her standoffishness, but she didn’t know this woman. Or any diseases she had. Or what that pungent smell was surrounding her.

  “Welcome, dear. Welcome to my home,” she said pointing all around her. Was she crazy? This wasn’t a home.

  “Your home?” Elise couldn’t stop herself from saying. Dave eyed her carefully.

  “Of course! This huge place is my home. Isn’t it lovely?” Mamie Sue said with the biggest grin on her face as she swiped her hands in the direction of the big bowling alley.

  “You like it out here, don’t you, Mamie?” Dave said as he reached out and held her fragile hand.

  “Oh my, yes. I wouldn’t choose any other place to live!”

  Elise was shocked and intrigued. “Can I as
k why?”

  “Well, there are so many reasons. I’ve lived out in the fresh air for nearly twenty years. The ocean breezes kiss my face every morning when I wake up, and the seagulls have breakfast with me everyday. At night, I get to see the most amazing sunsets, and I meet the most unique folks who are on their own journeys. I reckon life can’t get much better,” she said with a smile as she stared off in space for a moment.

  How could someone be so happy under such difficult circumstances? This woman was living in pure and utter filth, yet she regarded it as if it was a palace. How did someone learn to accept this lifestyle as something good? Her thoughts were interrupted by Dave.