The Color of Ordinary Time by Virginia Voelker Read Free Book Online Page A

by my father’s will. Again, I desperately hoped Susan wasn’t planning to marry Porter. I hadn’t had a chance to ask, and didn’t want to in front of him. I wasn’t sure how well I would take the news if the answer was that they were engaged. I was hopeful, though. They certainly didn’t act as if they were in love.
    I suppose I could have been wrong about Porter, too. He hadn’t said anything to me since the police station. Susan had been unusually quiet, too, but not unfriendly. It made me wonder if they had been instructed not to speak with me, lest I lead them astray.
    After breakfast I made the call I needed to make to the bank so they could transfer funds to my checking account. Then I called Mrs. Clack, the church secretary at St. Paul’s, and told her I wouldn’t be able to make it in that day to look over the paraments. We agreed that I would try and come in the next day. Although, in truth, I suppose I could have gone in anytime. By the time we got to the station it was ten o’clock. Officer Cortland was on duty again, working the desk. He seemed happy to see us.
    “No trouble with the old man last night. He was downright peaceable, even,” he reported to me cheerfully, sparing no more than a glance for Porter and Susan.
    Cortland directed us to the clerk’s office to pay the fine. Mercifully, I was able to hand over the money gracefully. No tears, no whining. Although I desperately wanted to cry and whine. I was almost thankful then for Porter’s damp presence. I wouldn’t let myself be brought low in front of him. In front of only Susan, I probably would have kicked up a fuss. All my hard work, and I was just going to have to start over.
    When we came back to the front of the station to wait for my father, Officer Cortland sent a deputy back to the jail to get him for us. Behind us, the Station door swung open and what sounded like two people stepped in to the lobby. I didn’t turn and glance at them. All I wanted to do was get out of there. Officer Cortland smiled and made the one minute sign to whomever had just entered the lobby.
    A moment later the door that led to the jail began to open and...
    I often pause to ponder my innocence in that moment. I had no idea what was about to happen and what it would mean. Right at that moment I thought I was going to get out of Dresden, Kentucky, and then out my father’s line of fire, having only wasted two days, and five thousand three hundred fifty-one dollars, as well as whatever I’d spent on gas and food and whatnot. Little did I know that this trip was about to cost me so much more.
    *
    Walton Taylor always was a handsome man. While age had grayed his hair and deepened the lines around his eyes and mouth, it had enhanced, rather than detracted from his looks. Tall and rangy, with brown eyes, his gray hair flowed to his shoulders, as he rarely remembered to get it cut. He had long-since perfected his hundred yard stare. A stare he turned on me as he entered the station lobby. I returned the stare in kind.
    The day before, Father Felix had said he wasn’t well. Father looked well enough to me. Thinner, grayer, but with good color, his shoulders held straight as he stepped firmly toward our little group.
    “Keziah,” he said.
    “Father.”
    “You must change. You should not have presented yourself to me dressed this way. A woman dressing in man’s clothing is a sin. As you well know. Go with Susan now, and change your clothes. You should have accepted her generous offer in the first place,” he said.
    Ah, he had been well-informed. I wondered if it was Susan, or if it was Porter, or perhaps both kept him updated.
    “I won’t change. This is my clothing. It fits me. Susan’s would not have.”
    “You cannot see the congregation dressed this way. It is impossible to do the Lord’s work when men are busy lusting after your body, instead of concentrating on the Word of God.”
    “I have no intention of seeing the congregation. I have agreed