The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society by Beth Pattillo

Author:Beth Pattillo [Pattillo, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-49906-6
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2012-10-24T16:00:00+00:00

The December meeting of the Sweetgum Knit Lit Society evidenced less Christmas spirit than Ebenezer Scrooge. At least that was Ruthie’s assessment as she looked around the table at the glum faces of the women there. So much for Pollyanna and her glad game.

“Is Pollyanna’s approach unrealistic?” Eugenie asked, looking at each of them.

No one appeared eager to respond to her question, but Ruthie thought their silence was an answer in itself. She had been pondering that very question for several weeks, and she had yet to come up with a satisfactory answer. Because the thing she’d always believed would make her glad above everything else had happened. Esther had told Frank she wanted a divorce. And still Ruthie couldn’t bring herself to play Pollyanna’s game.

“It’s childlike,” Merry said, trying hard to sound upbeat, but the strain showed around her eyes. “Kids are so innocent that they still have hope. Mine do. At least”—she chuckled—“when they’re not being rotten.”

“Childlike? Don’t you mean childish?” Esther looked tenser than ever, but only Ruthie was in a position to know the cause of her sister’s strained expression. “I’m sure this is wonderful fiction for girls, but it hardly provides a way to conduct your life as an adult.”

Hannah watched them as if it were a tennis match, their words volleyed back and forth like the ball. Ruthie wondered what the teenager made of all of them. Camille’s eyes were red—clearly she’d been crying before coming to the meeting—and Eugenie wasn’t on her usual even keel. The librarian’s eyes kept darting to the door of the classroom, as if expecting a ghost to appear.

“I mean childlike,” Merry insisted. “Maybe we could all use a little dose of looking at our lives through a child’s eyes.”

Esther snorted, a surefire indication of how overwrought she was beneath that polished veneer. “Isn’t there a Scripture about that? ‘When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me’?”

Eugenie stiffened. Despite the fact that they met at a church, she never liked it when one of them brought the Bible into the conversation. Eugenie believed in human reason and human reason alone.

“What do you think, Hannah?” Eugenie asked the girl, diverting the conversation from anything biblical. Ruthie watched the teenager closely, trying to guess her response to the disagreement.

“Perhaps we should try the glad game right now and see if it works,” Merry said before Hannah could answer Eugenie’s question. “Why don’t we go around the table and each say one thing we’re glad about?”

Ruthie stifled a groan. Trust Merry to trot out the sunshine and roses. Couldn’t she feel the tension in the room? Clearly the younger woman had some sort of death wish. Figuratively speaking.

“For example,” Merry continued, “I’m glad that Christmas is just around the corner. We’ve already put up the tree, and the house smells like evergreen.” She paused and looked at Esther. “I bet there’s something you’re glad about. Won’t you see your grandchildren during the holidays?”

Esther’s hands stopped moving. She clutched her knitting needles in a death grip.

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