Summer of Joy by Ann H. Gabhart Read Free Book Online Page B

Wesley’s eyes nevertheless.
    As she went out the door, she was glad she’d gone to see David baptize Wesley even if it did mean she’d have to buy new shoes months before she might have had to do normally. Wesley was a Christian now. She’d seen proof of it. And Christians had to forgive one another.
    Not that she had done anything that needed all that much forgiveness. She’d just done what needed to be done. What Wesley should have done himself years ago. And she’d tell him so just as soon as she figured out how.

7
    B ut why does everything always have to be the same every year?” Jocie asked Wes on Monday afternoon as they blocked out the ads for that week’s Banner issue. “Even these ads. Same every week. Why even bother with ads if everything’s going to be the same? Everybody already knows a loaf of bread costs twenty-nine cents.”
    Wes looked up from the composing table. “But it’s not twenty-nine cents this week. It’s four loaves for a dollar.”
    “Four cents. Whoopee!”
    “A penny saved is a penny earned,” Wes said.
    “You sound like Aunt Love.”
    “That’s not in the Bible, is it?” Wes looked up at her with a little frown. “I thought old Abe or maybe Ben Franklin said that.”
    “I didn’t say it was in the Bible. Aunt Love quotes stuff besides Bible verses sometimes. She’s been doing that ‘penny saved, penny earned’ a bunch lately since the refrigerator died on us and Banner sales have been down. Do you really believe it’s because of Stephen Lee, like Zella says? Not the refrigerator but people canceling their subscriptions.”
    Wes made a clicking noise out of the side of his mouth before he said, “Hard to believe for sure, but then old Zell usually has a finger on the pulse of what’s happening in Hollyhill.”
    “But that’s just so silly.” Jocie stepped back from the composing table and threw out her hands. “Daddy didn’t have anything to do with Tabitha falling in love with that guy out in California or at least thinking she was in love with him. She says now that she must not have known what real love was and now she probably never will.”
    “Why’s that?” Wes turned to look at her. He leaned back against the table and waited for her to answer.
    “Because of Stephen Lee, she says.”
    “Poor little tyke. He seems to be getting blamed for a lot not to be no bigger than he is. How old is he now?”
    “Three months this weekend. He’s trying to turn over. We can’t lay him on the couch anymore. He might just plop right off on the floor if somebody isn’t holding on to him.” Jocie almost smiled thinking about Stephen Lee.
    “How about that? Next thing you know he’ll be crawling.” Wes did smile with a little shake of his head. “He seems a happy little fellow every time I see him. Chewing on his fingers and drooling all over himself. I guess he doesn’t know he’s causing problems all around.”
    “He’s just a baby. It’s everybody else that has the problem.” Jocie frowned and sat down on a pile of newsprint paper. “I mean, even as much as they act like they love him out at church, I thought some of them were going to faint when I suggested he could be baby Jesus in the Christmas manger scene. Just because they’d never used a real baby before didn’t mean they couldn’t this year. The doll they have doesn’t even look real.”
    “Could be they thought a baby might be too real. Afraid he might exercise his lungs at the wrong time.”
    “Yeah, well, I still thought it was a good idea even if Aunt Love says nobody, not even an innocent little baby, can play Jesus. It looks like we could do something different. Anything different.”
    “You aren’t paying attention if you don’t think anything’s different out there, Jo. Your daddy preaching every Sunday. Me sitting in one of the pews. Myra Hearndon leading the singing. That church out there has been floating on the sea of change for months now.”
    “I guess.” Jocie put