Home Fires by Patty Slack

Author:Patty Slack [Slack, Patty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B01N91J57B
Publisher: Clay Inkpot Press
Published: 2016-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

At home that night, Cyndi and Mike stood doing dishes together like they had almost every night for twenty-seven years.

“Did you find a suit for Joe?” she asked.

“Yeah. A little short in the sleeves, but he’ll look fine. What about you? How was the tent city?”

The thought of it balled her stomach up. “It was okay. Kind of disorganized.”

“Is Clark going to move there?”

She sighed. “Get this. She thinks we should open one on the empty lot by the mall.” The idea had been swimming in her head all day. It was crazy. It was impossible.

“That could work,” Mike said.

“Are you kidding?”

“We’ve got the land. Why not?”

“Are you serious?” Cyndi said. “Have you lost your mind?”

“It’s complicated, sure,” Mike said. “I can just see it. A whole village of needy people right at our doorstep. The food is great, but if we could build a community, think of the services we could offer. I wonder . . .” He reached over Cyndi’s head to place a bowl in the cupboard.

“We’re already in the middle of a lawsuit. We don’t need another one.”

“Mm-mm,” he mumbled. He dried his hands and left the room.

She followed him. “What are you doing?”

He pulled out his laptop and booted it up. It took an impossibly long fifteen seconds for it to come out of hibernation and another five seconds to connect to the Internet. She stood behind him to see what he was looking for. He tapped in “tent city” and came up with a bunch of possible sources, then clicked on the words “Are Tent Cities Legal?”

She leaned over his shoulder.

“Look at this,” he said. “It says here that while not exactly legal, tent cities are also not illegal. Looks like some local governments are willing to bend the rules. Riverton is trying to help solve the homeless crisis. What better way than to give them places to live?”

“Mike, I just don’t—”

“Look here,” Mike said. “Here’s the tent city you went to today. Looks like it’s got a permanent location. But this one here . . .” He put his finger on the screen and scanned the paragraph for the information he needed. “Yup, here it is.” Mike kept his finger on the sentence while Cyndi read it.

“This one says they move every six weeks or so. That time will be up in about two weeks. And they’re looking for a new place to go. Let’s do it! It’s just for six weeks. We could use the vacant land behind the mall. It’s away from the main road and it’s plenty big.”

“Mike, I don’t know.” Cyndi tucked some loose hairs behind her ear. “I don’t think we ought to push so hard. Besides, that lot is zoned commercial.”

“And where would you ever find land zoned for the homeless? It could be perfect. Maybe God gave us that land just for this. If this is about helping people and obeying God, why would we stop at just a couple of meals a week? We’re already in this up to our eyeballs; I don’t see where a little deeper could hurt us more.

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