Authors: Monique Miller
Redemption Lake (19 page)
“I mean literally starting over,” Beryl said.
“Yeah, that's what I said,” Travis said.
Beryl rolled her eyes. “You just don't get it.”
“Get what?” Travis said.
“Nothing. Forget it, really,” Beryl said.
Travis put his hands out, palms open and again said, “What?”
“Phillip, can you please continue? I'm listening,” Beryl told him. Crossing her arms, she ignored Travis.
“As uncomfortable as it might be, you've got to change. Change, be it positive or negative, is always uncomfortable, and many times, hard. But once you adapt, it isn't as bad as you think. So this is yet another step in building this refurbished home. You've got to adapt, stretch, and grow. Cut off the fat, if need be, in this metamorphosing process. This change may mean cutting off people and things that will bog you down or hinder you from nearing a final inspection date of your newly renovated marital home. It will be a sacrifice, but the sacrifice on both fronts can be well worth it.”
Blank faces stared at Phillip, none seeming eager to run out and try these steps.
“Nothing in life is ever easy. I've rattled off the first six steps to you all, and I won't lie, it's going to be hard. But you've both got to take part in these steps and incorporate the last step, which is to believe.
“Let me be totally frank with you all. Shelby and I heard these same steps you just heard. Our marriage had been in turmoil. When I talk about letting a foreign enemy fester in your marriage, I am not talking about anything I don't know about.
“We decided to face the enemy together. We didn't let it continue to destroy our marriage. We started over. My wife forgave me, and most importantly, I forgave myself. Shelby treats my deception as if it never happened. We counted the cost, and in some ways, we are still paying for it today.
“We used knowledge to our benefit, enhancing our marriage and making time for ourselves as a husband and wife. We cut the fat, and most of all, we believed that with guidance from God and His prophets, we would make it. We've prayed and applied the scriptures, believing God would stand behind His Word and He has.
“I implore you to all do the same. If the Lord could do it for Shelby and me, then He can do it for you too. But you both have to work at it and believe.” Phillip ended, placing the dry erase pen down flat on the table.
“Let's take a break right here, and afterward, find a spot where you can talk with your spouse about these seven steps. Seriously look at each step and talk about what kinds of bricks, if you will, you'll use to rebuild your marital house,” Phillip said.
With a visible lack of enthusiasm about talking with their spouses, Charlotte and Beryl excused themselves from the table. Shelby placed her hand on Phillip's arm, squeezing it. George pushed his chair out to leave the table and saw that Nina wasn't moving. Again, she was staring off in a dazed daydream. George nudged her. Realizing everyone was leaving, Nina pushed back from the table and stumbled toward their room.
Minute by minute, George was becoming more and more concerned with his wife's behavior. With long strides, he tried to catch up with her. As he reached the bedroom, he saw Nina pulling out her bottle of vitamins. She took one out and popped it into her mouth, then walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
He heard the water faucet being turned on for a couple of seconds and then being turned back off. He walked over to the dresser and picked up the bottle of vitamins. He could have sworn Nina said she'd taken one just a few hours earlier, which would explain why she'd been so perky. But then she had gone into another one of her lows. Now she was in the bathroom taking another one of the vitamins. He slipped the bottle into his pants pocket. George didn't know what was going on with his wife, but so help him God, he was going to get to the bottom of it.
Chapter 21
George Jones
Wednesday: 1:13
P.M
.
Wednesday: 1:13
P.M
.
“How are you feeling, baby?” George asked Nina. They were sitting next to each other in the rocking chairs on the wrap around porch.
It was their free session. The couples had been encouraged to further discuss specific steps in which they could strengthen their marriages.
“Fine, why are you asking?” Nina replied.
Nina's roller coaster behavior was really weighing on him. But the way she answered, and the look on her face, reminded him of the Nina he'd first met almost nine years prior. The woman who had stolen his breath at a church conference he'd attended in Raleigh, North Carolina.
That night, he'd preached just as he had the three nights prior in two other cities. George had been exhausted after the sermon and just wanted to get back to his home in Greenville. As a normal custom, the host church fed the ministers after service. Even though his stomach growled for food, the rest of his body longed for his bed even more.
The smell of roast beef and potatoes tickled his nose as his heaping plate of food was served to him. George knew after he ate he'd immediately have to be ushered to his limousine, where he'd be sure to get some much needed Z's.
Once he finished cleaning his plate, George sat back in his chair with an unexpected sweet tooth. Sleepy eyes weighed on him. When a hunk of chocolate was placed before him, his sleepy eyes were jolted open, not by the smell of chocolate, but by the sweet aroma of a fragrance he'd never had the pleasure of smelling before.
He turned abruptly to see who had served him, and was greeted by the radiant smile of a striking and voluptuous, chestnut brown woman. Noticing his abrupt turn, the woman asked if he needed anything else. He shook his head, speechless for the first time in a long time.
She turned and returned to the abyss of the kitchen. Unlike other women who normally fawned over him, this woman turned away, treating him as if he were an everyday Joe Blow.
He cut a piece of the chocolate cake with the edge of his fork. He forked in a piece, and his mouth was filled with what he was sure had to be chocolate from the heavens above. It wasn't the normal Duncan Hines or one of the store bought slices he often received. This hunk of cake was homemade. Somebody had actually cracked some eggs and sifted some flour to make it. And who ever had made the cake had also had the presence of mind to make the frosting from scratch.
He'd devoured the cake and was staring at crumbs before he knew it. And just as he wiped his mouth with the napkin, the same woman from before was floating back toward him. This time he couldn't let her leave again without saying a word. He decided to ask who made the cake. It was the only small talk he could think of.
She'd asked him if he liked it, and when he told her he did, she told him she'd made it. She then joked, saying that if he hadn't liked it, she would have blamed it on someone else. She laughed an infectious laugh. He'd laughed also, thinking of more small talk. He asked her who taught her how to cook such a mean chocolate cake and wanted to know what other kinds of foods she could burn so well.
They talked and talked, and before George realized it, the rest of the church staff had finished cleaning up. Not wanting the conversation to end there, he asked the woman for her name and number.
George was used to women vying for his attention. He was what most would call a good guy. At thirty-seven years old, he had never been married and was a virgin, although he was sure most people wouldn't believe it. Thus he didn't have any children. He was a gem of a find; financially independent and a highly respected, up and coming pastor. George had to be very careful about who he let into his inner circle. And many times he was lonely in that circle, especially without the companionship of a good woman.
Something in his spirit told him this particular woman did have an interest in him, but she also had a classiness about her. She wasn't the type to paw at him and make herself look like a fool. She was okay with giving him her phone number, but also acted like she'd be fine if he never spoke to her again.
He was so used to what he called
skinny women
, trying to talk to him. Since grade school, he'd never had an affinity toward thin girls. As a child he was a little on the heavier side, and at that time, only the heavier girls ever approached him. Now, as an adult, he still appreciated a woman with a little meat on her bones. Not too much meat, but a good, solid, healthy sized woman. And this woman carried herself in a way he could appreciate. She looked like his dream woman.
skinny women
, trying to talk to him. Since grade school, he'd never had an affinity toward thin girls. As a child he was a little on the heavier side, and at that time, only the heavier girls ever approached him. Now, as an adult, he still appreciated a woman with a little meat on her bones. Not too much meat, but a good, solid, healthy sized woman. And this woman carried herself in a way he could appreciate. She looked like his dream woman.
That night he'd left the church with a number and a name. The woman he'd had the pleasure of meeting was named Nina, and ever since that night, she'd been the only woman he thought about and dreamed of. Once he got to know her better, George knew she was the one for him. Their courtship had been brief, only six months. It was so brief that rumors started flying in the church by jealous women. Rumors that Nina was probably pregnant and they needed to marry quickly in order to escape a possible scandal. But as the months went by without producing a baby, the rumors finally ceased.
Even to date, there were still many jealous women who didn't respect Nina's status as the first lady. George saw firsthand how so many men of the cloth had been tempted, fallen to the desires of the flesh. It was a sad thing in his eyes. George was just glad he'd continued to stand firm in his vows to not forsake his wife.
Nina handled things like a trooper. She knew about the jealously, but didn't entertain any of the women's childish ways. Many people took her actions as being snobbish, like she was better than everyone else. But George knew better. There were many times Nina thought just the opposite about herself. Nina was a good woman; people just took her the wrong way.
“Earth to George,” Nina said, pulling George out of his reminiscing.
“Oh, yeah, what were you saying?” George asked.
“Have you seen my bottle of vitamins?”
Without realizing it, George's hands glided toward the bottle in his pants pocket. He hated to lie about it, but said, “No, I haven't seen it.”
Nina rummaged through her purse. “I know I had it earlier, and I thought I put it on the dresser.”
George felt bad about hiding the bottle from her, but something nagging on the inside wouldn't allow him to give it back. His gut told him something just wasn't right about the whole situation.
“Maybe it just rolled behind the dresser or something,” George said.
“You might be right,” Nina replied.
And before he knew it, she'd jumped up from her rocker and headed for the doors of the cabin.
George stood to follow. When he reached their bedroom, Nina was peering alongside the dresser, pulling it out from against the wall. Not seeing anything, she then she got down on all fours and crawled toward the twin beds. Flipping the covers up on both beds, she looked under them. She was looking and feeling so closely to the carpet, one would have thought she was looking for a contact lens instead of a bottle of multivitamins.
George sat on his twin bed as he watched. Nina got up off the floor and unzipped her garment bag. After searching the main compartment, she began unzipping the smaller compartments of the bag. From there she pulled out a plastic rectangular pill container with seven compartments, each labeled with the first letter of each day of the week.
Flipping each compartment open, Nina grinned like a Cheshire cat when she opened the last three. Relief swept over her face like the woman in the Calgon commercials George remembered as a child.
“What's that?” George asked.
“I found three vitamins I must have put in this pill case the last time I traveled,” Nina said. She headed toward the bathroom and popped one in her mouth. Then she drank a full cup of water.
“Baby, didn't you just take a vitamin this morning?” George asked.
“Yeah, but to get the full affect, I need to take these particular pills, I mean vitamins, three times a day. They've got special herbs in them.”
“If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were on drugs or something. You look like you need a fix.
Nina shook her ponytail. “Don't be so silly. It's nothing of the sort. I just don't want to break my routine, that's all.” Nina looked back around down toward the floor. “I just hope that bottle turns up soon.”
With the nagging feeling still nudging him, George asked, “Nina, do you want to talk about anything?”
“Yes,” Nina said.
George was surprised. He didn't think it would be so easy to get Nina to talk about her strange behavior. He sat up, all ears.
Nina picked up her folder and notepad for the retreat. “Why don't we go over these seven steps to improve our home? I don't know about you, but I think we're well on our way to having all these steps taken care of.”
George slumped slightly where he sat. Nina wasn't going to shed any light on her strange behavior. He was going to have to figure it out on his own.
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