Chapter Eleven
“Jerry, it just isn't working.” Jaclyn was frustrated beyond belief. “We need something big and dramatic that will make this place look like it's not really a gym.”
Jerry scratched his head and said, “We'll have to think of some other way to do it, then. They used those room dividers last year. By the way, it's Mr. Ernst when we're at school.”
Jaclyn pulled a face. “Are you serious? Those things are rejects from the '60s – they're like avocado and peach...Mister Ernst.”
“You could cover them.”
“They're too short. If I can see over them when I'm wearing flats then they're too short.”
“Yes, but you're too tall.” Jerry checked his watch and smiled. “Let's take a break for lunch. I need to go home for a bit.”
Jaclyn looked archly at her cousin. “Is Miriam making lunch for you?”
“I don't know. It might be Aunt Rose.”
“It's got to be better than a baloney sandwich.” Jaclyn looked envious.
“I'll see if there's some spare dessert.”
“Aunt Rose said that the baklava Miriam made for church last week was to die for.”
“She's a good cook.” Jerry got distant look as he thought about his beloved waiting for him at the house. He sighed and headed for the door. “I'll see you in an hour.”
“Bye, Jerry...” Jaclyn paused long enough to make Jerry stop and turn around. “...I mean Mister Ernst.”
Daniel, Jessie and Troy all looked at Jaclyn from where they were sitting on the edge of the stage. Daniel spoke first. “Wow. Did you see the look on Mr. Ernst's face when he was talking about Miriam?” He looked over at Jessie. “It's worse than the way Troy looks at you.”
Troy pushed Daniel off the stage. “Just wait 'til Jessie gets a picture of you and Jaclyn looking at each other.”
Jaclyn asked Jessie, “Have you ever seen Jerry smile like that?”
“Oh my God, no. Not ever.” Jessie gushed. “He’s almost handsome when he smiles. I thought he was the worst grouch in the world until last week. I wonder what she’s like?”
“Well, Mom says that Gert at the corner store in Hubbards says she’s very pretty.” Jaclyn pulled her sandwich out of her lunch bag and looked at it in disgust. “Mom says that Gert even thinks she’s okay. Considering that Gert’s been waiting for Jerry to ask her out for years, Miriam must be pretty decent.”
Jessie shrugged. “Must be, if Gert has a good word to say about her. I wonder if Miriam’s going to be Mr. Ernst’s date for the grad dance.”
“Probably. That’s going to be really interesting. Maybe he won't be such a hardass.” Daniel slipped his arm around Jaclyn's waist. “Maybe he'll look the other way when I try this...” Daniel drew Jaclyn closer and nuzzled her neck.
“Daniel James Brennan! Behave yourself.” Jaclyn protested with a smile. The group continued their conversation while eating their lunch.
“Thanks, Rose. It would be much harder to concentrate on Jaclyn's nattering if Michelle was underfoot.” Jerry gave his aunt a hug. “Miriam, we have to get to the school.” He watched as Miriam gave Michelle a motherly kiss and hug before skipping down the porch steps to the driveway.
“Au revoir, ma petite.” Miriam waved to Michelle as Jerry pulled away.
“What did she say Auntie Rose?” Michelle looked puzzled.
“She was speaking French, sweetie. It means 'until I see you again, my little one.'” Rose gathered Michelle in her arms and went back into the house with an armful of giggly girl.
The friends were still teasing each other when Jerry and Miriam walked in, hand in hand. Miriam wore her best casual outfit – a pair of black Capri pants with an emerald green short sleeved top and a pair of sandals. Her long hair was in a ponytail that hung almost to her waist.
Jessie spotted them first. “Oh. My. God. How did Mr. Grumpy find her?”
Eric thought better of the wolf whistle he was forming. “Well, I hope he can find me one, too.”
“They went to university together.” Noticing the look on Eric's face, Jaclyn said. “Well, Mum did say she was pretty.”
“Yeah, but oh my God, not walk out of the fashion magazines pretty. And she's so tiny.” Jessie pouted. “I'll bet she doesn't even diet.”
Jerry heard the tail end of Jessie's pout. As used as he was to teen hormone levels, he turned to Miriam and said softly, “Just act like this happens every day.”
Miriam whispered back, “Like what happens?”
“That you have young men falling all over themselves to get you to notice them.” Jerry drew her closer.
Miriam looked up at Jerry in fond amusement. “Me?”
“You.” Jerry whispered in her ear. “Be nice to the girls, too. They'll feel intimidated by you. Do you have any idea how pretty you are?” Jerry squeezed her hand.
Miriam thought Jerry was exaggerating, but she was determined to be a good Christian friend to all of the young people they were here to help.
Jaclyn recovered first. “Hi, Jerry. Um, I mean Mr. Ernst.” She turned to Miriam. “You must be Miriam. I'm Jaclyn Mader.” She stuck out her hand.
Miriam shook hands and smiled up at Jaclyn. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Jaclyn. I'm Miriam Nadif. Would you please introduce me to your friends?”
Jaclyn introduced her to the rest of her crew. The young women were somewhat cool and the young men pathetically eager to please. Jerry tried not to take any of their reactions personally but did give a stern look when Eric held Miriam's hand longer than was polite during the handshake. Jaclyn clapped her hands and said, in a commanding voice, “All right folks, we need some ideas.”
Miriam looked around at the utilitarian box-like gym. One end had a wide but not very deep stage with a set of stepped risers filled with chairs. Stairs at either end led to the apron in front of the proscenium arch. It was apparent that the graduates would not be able to assemble backstage for the ceremony. She listened with one ear as Jaclyn went over the requirements again.
“We need a gathering area for one hundred twenty grads that is out of sight. The dividers that the school board offered would be fine if we were all Miriam's height, but we're not. Mr. Zavitz found the stairs that we can use at the front of the stage for the exit march, but Marie is graduating this year, so we may need to build a ramp for her wheelchair, in case she isn’t up to using her canes.”
“I spoke with Marie yesterday,” said Troy. “She’ll be using her new wider tire chair that her family bought her for graduation. She said it would be awkward to receive her diploma with her canes. But she’s determined to use her canes at the dance.” Troy paused. “I wish half the guys on the football team had her courage and determination.”
Jessie said, “Jim Fitzgerald finally got up the courage to ask her out. They’re going to the dance together.” This got a round of pleased surprise from the crew.
Jerry took a quiet moment to pray for all of his charges and said a special prayer for Marie and Jim. Miriam had left his side to pace around the gym with her usual combination of grace and barely contained energy.
Miriam looked up at the exposed metal struts that supported the roof, her toes tapping as she was thinking. Offhandedly she asked, “Why can't you hang murals from the rafters with braided steel wire? You might need sandbags or some other weights to anchor them to the floor. If they won't take the weight directly, maybe you could rest one edge on the floor and only use the wires to keep them upright.”
Jerry looked appreciatively in Miriam's direction. Miriam turned to Jaclyn and continued, “It's how we hung many of the signs in the grocery stores I managed in Lebanon. You might want to check with an engineer to see how much weight you can hang free from the ceiling.”
Jaclyn looked up at the ceiling and then began to visualize the possibilities. Jessie started to bounce and said, “We don't have to have them right against the wall, do we Jackie?”
Eric jumped in. “No, we don't. And we can make a gathering area
for the grads on one side that's eight feet high then move them for the dance to create a cloak room.”
Jessie said, “We could put them diagonally on both sides to make the room symmetrical. It would look more like a theatre if we did that.”
Jerry came over to the conversation He drew Miriam back to his side and gave her a hug. “Great idea, my sweet.” Glancing around the room at the curious looks he decided against a kiss and released her.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent brainstorming ideas for the murals. Making canvas flats was considered and dropped in favour of plaster coated half-inch plywood. In all eighteen sheets of 4'x8' plywood would need to be purchased along with a large quantity of braided steel wire, drywall compound and paint. Miriam used her training in store displays and her experience with traffic patterns to point out some ways to improve the placement of the panels.
When the afternoon bell rang the project was well underway and the crew was excited about the plan. A work party would come in on Saturday to buy and prime the plywood with the detail painting beginning as soon as the paint on the first panel was dry. Eric sat with a sketchpad to begin the rough design of the murals. Jerry noticed that he drew a small portrait of Miriam in the corner of one of the drafts along with pictures of most of the crew.
Jerry got Mr. Zavitz to agree to supervise on Saturday. Then he took Miriam on a tour of the school to introduce her to those of his colleagues who weren’t supervising an exam.
Supper was a barbeque at Jack and Rose’s place with about sixty guests. Jack’s political cronies were over to talk about making some improvements to the way the area was portrayed in the Nova Scotia tourism brochures. Miriam and Jerry hung out with the other non-political folks and supervised the children as they ran themselves ragged in the back yard. Jack tried to get Jerry to commit to helping him during the summer, but Rose put her foot down and asked him if he would have wanted to collect signatures on a petition back when he had a pretty girl to court. Jack withdrew his request with a somewhat abashed apology.
Jerry left at nine to put a very tired Michelle to bed. He left Miriam with a kiss and a promise to spend Saturday with her doing something fun.
By ten thirty all but one guest had left. He and Jack were still sitting on the front porch planning a new petition campaign to ask the provincial government for money to replace the antiquated water truck that the volunteer firefighters were using.
Miriam helped Rose in the kitchen. “Rose, am I really that pretty?”
Rose turned around in surprise. “Why do you ask?”
Miriam blushed a bit. “The boys at the school were flirting with me and the girls looked a little jealous. And many of the men tonight were looking at me. If Jerry wasn’t with me I would have been very uncomfortable.”
Rose laughed gently. “You are truly beautiful, Miriam. But it’s more than just being pretty. When you are with Jerry you are confident and joyful. People want to be near you because they think that your happiness will rub off on them.”
Miriam leaned against the kitchen counter. “But I’m not sure I want to be noticed that way.” She looked at her toes. “Except by Jerry. I certainly don’t want to be vain.”
Rose came over and gave Miriam a hug then poured herself some tea. “It will be fine, dearie. What does Proverbs say? Oh yes, ‘Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.’ As long as you have your priorities right, there’s nothing wrong with admiring the beauty God put on this earth. Besides, even if he is my nephew I can tell that Jerry is a fine looking man, especially since you put the smiles back on his face. You two really look good together.”
Miriam walked over and poured a cup of tea. “He is a very fine looking man,” said Miriam wistfully looking in the direction of Jerry’s house. And he’s mine, she thought fiercely, remembering the admiring looks that a couple of the single women were giving him tonight. Reminding herself to pray for help with these unworthy feelings, Miriam sipped her tea and listened abstractedly as Rose nattered about her latest news from Maddy.
Jerry was reading through Ephesians as part of his devotions and questioning himself. Had he ever truly thought of Annabelle as flesh of his flesh and worthy of his honour?
After several minutes of quiet prayer while reviewing their nine months of marriage he decided that he had done his best to live up to his wedding vows. The anger he had felt at Annabelle’s abandonment was finally transmuting to a lingering sadness and regret for things that might have been.
When she’d been relaxed around him, Annabelle had been very good company. She was witty and charming but too eager for his approval or that of any man in close proximity, apparently, and really didn't know how to obtain that approval in a non-sexual way. Ultimately, though, she had never really trusted him, except with Michelle. He prayed that she would acknowledge that Jesus loved her and that that knowledge would be used as a foundation for her to find a good man who could truly love her.
He’d given Lorne the contact information that Trudi gave him when he phoned at morning break. He’d be making a quick trip to Lunenburg on Monday afternoon to sign everything. The weekend was already planned out, except he didn’t know where Miriam wanted to go tomorrow. For that matter, the rest of his week was planned until the graduation dance cleanup on Saturday afternoon then he was on vacation until mid-August.
Drawing his attention back to his devotions, he went through his cycle of prayers ending with a prayer for the strength and patience to deal with all of the delays in starting a new life with Miriam.