shovel, threatening to mow him down and swallow him up.
The door to his office opened, “Are you OK, Mr. Callahan?”
“Yeah, I’ll be OK. Just give me a minute, will you, Alice?
“I tried to stop her,” she said, closing the door gently behind her.
He sat there absently looking around the office, I had my…our… future so well planned; how did it end up this way?
Suddenly he reached for the phone to call the outer office, “Alice, would you come in please?”
His secretary opened the door, “Yes Mr. Callahan?”
“Alice, what do you think of my attending your church with Sue? I want you to be bluntly honest with me.”
“Mr. Callahan, the important thing is not what I think, but what you think. God doesn’t look on the outward appearances; he looks on the heart. Now that woman and that little sweet girl need something, I’ve been praying for the three of you, and if you want to attend my church, I would love it if you kept attending.”
“Do you know what she does for a living?”
“Yes, I know, Mr. Callahan. Mr. Callahan, would you like me to pray with you?”
“Would you?”
“Yes, I would.” She walked over and laid her hand on her boss’s shoulder and prayed for about five minutes. As she prayed, warmth and peace flowed into his inner being, and he felt a sense of amazement as something happened that he didn’t quite understand. When she finished she exited the office and shut the door quietly. He sat there for some time as his lonely heart mended.
After some time he picked up the phone and rang Sue’s number. “Sue, could you bring Janie and come to my apartment for dinner tonight?”
“I guess so, what time?”
“Would seven be OK?”
“Sure, do you want me to bring anything?”
“Not if you can settle for Chinese.”
“Sounds delicious; see you at seven.”
“See you.”
Joel worked until 5:30, then called in an order for Chinese food to be delivered to the apartment at 6:30, then locked up the office. His secretary had gone home.
He arrived at his apartment, opened the window and flushed out the summer heat. Before long, the air conditioner was doing its job.
The dinner arrived promptly at 6:30 as promised. He spent the next 10 minutes straightening up the apartment.
The door opened and Janie rushed in to hug him. Sue stood in the door, watching her daughter hug this man tightly.
“You look beautiful,” he said, looking at her. Gone was the short dress and the access cleavage; she wore a nice summer dress that gave a sharp contrast to her shoulder length hair.
“Thank you, you look nice too.” She walked in and gently kissed him on the cheek.
He had the plates and the glasses on the table, with the typical Chinese boxes of food in the center. They ate quietly while Janie babbled on about her day, her words running together.
When dinner was finished, Janie settled in his easy chair to watch her favorite cartoon channel.
“She’s at home here; she really loves you, Joel.”
“I’m glad, because I love her.”
“Sue, I wanted to ask you about something…”
“I have a job, honey.”
“You do?”
“Yes, I’ve had it since I came home from the funeral. I’m working at JC Penny’s down on Wrightsboro Road.”
“Huh! Nothing gets past you, does it?”
“A lot has got past me, honey. I realized the shortness of this life when I saw my sister die. She died in peace, a peace which I haven’t had. When I kissed her goodbye in her coffin, I promised her that I would make a better life for me and Janie, and that’s what I intend to do.”
“Well… what I wanted to ask you was not about your job. What I wanted to ask you was would you be willing to make your life with me?”
She sat and stared at him a full minute, her eyes darting here and there as her steal trap of a mind closed in on the question, grabbed it, and turned it at all angles.
“You know what I’ve been, Joel. Can you live with that?”
“I think I can.”
“You can’t just think, Joel; you’ve got to know whether you can or not.”
“Sue, something happened to me today.” He told her the story about the incident in his office.
“I do know what I can live with and what I can’t. I didn’t know before today, but now I do. I know how important you and Janie are to me. After what happened to me today, the past doesn’t count, either my past or yours.”
“Are you asking me to marry you, Joel Callahan?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Let me think about it for a while. We’d better go; it’s getting late for Janie to be up.”
“When will you let me know?”
“Soon.”
She got up to leave. “Are you ready to go home, Janie?”
“Uhhuh.”
He walked around the table to where she stood and hugged her tightly, “Don’t make me wait too long, Sue.” And for the first time, he kissed her on the mouth. She responded.
Sue laid her head against his chest. “I don’t want to ruin your life, Joel,” she said weakly.
“My life has been ruined a long time now.”
“So has mine. Are we going to church again Sunday?”
“I would like it if we did.”
“See you Sunday then. Come Janie.”
Janie came over and hugged him, “Bye Joel.”
“Bye Janie”
As the apartment door closed, it left him lonelier than ever.
The rest of the week was busy. He had to fly to Atlanta for a meeting on Friday and Saturday, and he arrived back in his Augusta apartment just before sunset. For once the evening was cool and balmy, and he slept the sleep of the very tired that night.
The next morning he awakened to a gentle rain falling. He called Sue to tell her he would meet her in the church yard at ten.
He arrived at the church just as Sue and Janie were pulling into the church parking lot. Janie jumped out and ran to his car, “Hi, Joel!”
“Hi, Janie.”
Sue walked over to where he was parked. She had on a new gray dress; her shoulder length hair shown even under cloudy skies.
“You look great.”
“So do you, Mr. Callahan.”
“Do I look good too, Joel?”
“You sure do, kid; the best.”
Janie beamed as she led them into the church. She had made quick friends with the other kids, and church was becoming an expected thing for Janie. They sat in the last pew as the Sunday morning services got off to a start.
As the song service proceeded, Sue leaned over and whispered to Joel, “I’ll marry you.”
He looked at her in amazement. “You sure can pick an odd time to say yes to a guy,” he whispered back. She smiled at him and took his hand in hers.
The End
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