Show Me Good Land by Shonna Milliken Humphrey

Author:Shonna Milliken Humphrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Maine, Rural Life, Murder Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Publisher: Down East Books
Published: 2011-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

10

Lyddy Compton finds religion.

There were many reasons Lyddy Compton enjoyed the Sunday services at Fort Angus Imperial Baptist Sanctuary. The church itself was pretty, a tall brick building with brightly colored stained-glass renderings of Bible scenes.

Her favorite panel was the interpretation of Adam and Eve before the tree of life. Eve’s blonde hair hung long and sensuous, and Adam’s white body was hidden behind intricately wrought pieces of green glass representing shrubbery and fig leaves.

There was a debate about whether or not to transfer the old windows to the new church upon its completion, and Lyddy had been torn. On the one hand, she understood the new reverend’s point. The windows would be expensive to move, and God required no artistic ornamentation, especially ornamentation that featured naked women.

But on the other hand, and, well, now that Lyddy thought about it, there really was no other hand. She remembered being torn at the initial community meeting, wanting the windows installed, but when the reverend put it out there so clearly, she could not remember her argument for keeping the windows. He was right, they were a distraction.

She still had two more years to enjoy them. That was when the building of the new Fort Angus IBS was set for completion. The land had been bought, the renderings of the squat cinderblock building made public, and the funds were being raised. Lyddy Compton herself had responded to the reverend’s call for support. “Why deed your assets to people you claim as family, but who are not part of the Lord’s family?”

When the reverend put it that way, it made perfect sense, just like with the windows. It made sense to others, too, as Lyddy watched a hundred heads nodding in unison.

Fort Angus Imperial Baptist Sanctuary was not the largest Imperial Baptist church in the coalition, but it was among the most active. In fact, within the past ten years the IBS had chartered a school, elected four of the eight town officials, and was the second-biggest investor at the Fort Angus Savings Bank.

Bob Jones University, a bastion of moral education in these end times, said the reverend, had underwritten the start-up costs for the new school, and Lyddy thought wistfully about the programming. She wished it had been an option for Phil and Miles, but for her daughter-in-law, Rosemary, especially. Rosemary would have benefited from a decent, moral education.

The pews of the old church were polished maple, scratched, but clean. Each pew held at least four bodies, and Lyddy checked them off from her position as organist. She knew every single individual in the church, knew their families, and knew their history. She was feeling very pleased at the late-summer turnout until she watched Christine and Paul Delfino walk in through the heavy door.

Lyddy continued to play the welcoming hymns, but she dropped a note when Christine and Paul took the third pew from the front. The entire congregation knew that was the Angus family pew, and Lyddy felt disgusted that the Delfino family would do such a blatant thing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.