The Pastor and the Priestess by Adam Webber

Author:Adam Webber [Webber, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

A Storm Strikes

It was Saturday afternoon, and Mark was doing some writing at home, waiting for a storm that seemed to have been approaching all day. The air was hot, humid, and heavy. Occasional, remote thunder vibrated in the ground. Fitful breezes puffed and then fell flat.

Mark was working on his sermon—a sign that perhaps things were returning to normal. Earlier in the week, everything had been in an uproar. On Wednesday, he and Sandra had both given statements to the police. A police officer, a Lieutenant Stedman, had taken charge of the investigation, and he hadn’t looked particularly surprised when Sandra had told him about her Wiccan Circle. Mark had gone with Sandra to offer his support, and he had watched the lieutenant as Sandra told him her story. He got the feeling that the guy was mentally adding the Rose Feather Circle to an already-substantial list of strange things he knew about the town of Corwin. He had no leads yet about the shooter, however.

On Thursday, Cube-Steak had visited the church, for the first time ever, to find out how “the little girl” was doing. Mark had eventually driven him down to the hospital to visit her. Sarah Wheatley had been down to visit Terri, and they’d had a long talk together. Mark had met Terri’s parents, who were embarrassingly grateful to him for whatever it was they thought he’d done. He and Sandra had recovered Terri’s car, and Terri’s laundry, from the laundromat.

But now, Mark was working on a sermon—or rather, trying to work on a sermon, with zero success. He usually had at least a first draft of his sermon written by Thursday morning. Now here it was Saturday afternoon, and he had made absolutely no progress. He almost always chose scripture readings from the lectionary, and then built his sermon around those readings. That’s what the congregation expected. But this week, the lectionary just wasn’t speaking to him.

He was almost relieved when the phone rang. It was Chris, the electrician from Sandra’s Circle.

“Hey, Chris. What’s up?”

“If you’re free, I could take a look at that wiring project of yours now. Finished my worklist early today, is all. But, no problem if you’re busy.”

“No,” said Mark, “I’m not busy at all. That is, I’m at home, and I’m trying to write. I’m chopping, but no chips are flying. I’d love to have an excuse to stop. Come on over—please!”

“Okay,” laughed Chris. “Just getting off the highway now. Be there in five.”

Chris pulled up in an “Eco Electric” work van, and Mark went out on the front porch to greet him—to greet “them,” Mark reminded himself sternly. Chris was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt, bib overalls, and work boots. Chris’ dreadlocks were tied up in an American-flag bandana. Mark came out onto the front porch as Chris parked under the carport and climbed out of the van.

“Hey, Chris!” he called. “Thanks for coming.”

“No problem. What do you think?” Chris made a turn to show off the look.

“Um … that’s a more macho look for you than last time we met.

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