Mercy Like Sunlight by Liz Curtis Higgs

Author:Liz Curtis Higgs [Higgs, Liz Curtis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60142-684-0
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2014-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

If Mary Margaret never saw the inside of another box, she would die a happy woman. That seemed unlikely with only two rooms done and too many to go.

She wiped her damp forehead with the back of one hand and smiled wearily at her collaborators. Suzy, Marijane, Sallie Mae, and JoAnn were dragging boxes toward the hall while Mary Stauros, covered with dust from shoulder to shin, stuffed plastic lawn ornaments in a carton destined for Goodwill. “Really, Mary Margaret, what were you thinking?” the woman said, her tone lighthearted. “Buying lawn ornaments when you have no lawn?”

“I wasn’t thinking at all,” Mary confessed, chagrined they’d discovered yet another odd purchase, price tags still attached.

They’d worked nonstop for nearly a day and a half, going through carton after carton, salvaging a few valuables, packing the rest for trash or giveaway. Sallie Mae—like Mary, a newcomer to Calvary—poured her heart into her work, undaunted by long-legged spiders or layers of dirt. “Girl, you should have seen my aunt Louisa’s house,” she sang out in a voice as sweet as peaches from Georgia. “After she died, my sister June and I spent months getting to the bottom of it all.” She surveyed the living room, her pixie features decorated with grime. “Shucks, this is nothing. Another weekend and we’ll be done. Don’t you think, Mrs. Mary?”

Jake’s mother merely raised her eyebrows, saying nothing, while Suzy shook her head, her vibrant hair visible even in the gloomy hallway. “Don’t get your hopes up, honey. We have two more floors like this one.”

Mary Margaret dropped onto a couch, sending a flurry of dust motes into the air. “I’m so sorry,” she moaned. “Can’t we leave stuff where it is and let Goodwill send their customers here?”

“Wait … that’s it!” Sallie Mae squealed. “We’ll have a yard sale right here in the house!”

“Brilliant.” Suzy clasped her hands together, a look of wonder crossing her features. “It’s the perfect solution. We’ll close one room on each floor to store the things Mary wants to keep and let them stroll through the rest of it and buy, buy, buy.”

“Hang on.” Marijane dug through her purse, pulling out a tablet and pen. “Let’s make it easy. All the stuff in each room will be the same price. This will be the twenty-dollar room—”

“Ten dollars,” Mary interrupted, surprised to find herself laughing when she said it. “Not a thing worth twenty dollars in any of these boxes.”

“Right,” Suzy agreed. “Priced to sell. Even so, you should get a nice little nest egg for all your … um, treasures, Mary Margaret.”

“A nest egg?” Mary shook her head, brushing the dirt off her jeans as she stood. “Whatever money we make won’t be for me. We’ll give it to the church.”

“Really?” Jake’s mother nearly dropped the box she was holding. “That would be wonderful, but can you afford to do that? I mean …” A rosy tint covered her cheeks. “Forgive me. That’s none of my business.”

Mary Margaret stepped toward her, determined to put her at ease.

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