Choir

     Pastor Sam was excited about this business meeting. He was going to pose to the community to hire Evie to be the choir director. He hadn’t been this excited in a long time. 

     Once the regular business was over, he asked the body in front of him. Everyone was excited about the prospects of having regular music back at Sunday worship. 

     Widow Blake ooed and awed over Evie’s  skills. “Maybe you can git the sheriff to play from time to time.” She gushed. 

     Light murmurs filled the room. 

     Rebecca voiced, “pastor, I take issue with this.” The room became deadly silent and all eyes were on Rebecca. Her hands began to shake. 

     “Continue.” Pastor Sam frowned.

     “I can’t count the number of days and nights since she’s moved in that a vehicle has been parked at her house. As a single; I presume, Christian woman, shouldn’t be entertaining guests after dark. Guests that spend the night. I mean,” she forced a giggle. “What message would we be sending to the rest of the church? We don’t know what she does for a living? If she’s paying her tithes? Or,” she looked dead at Evie. “Are you even a member of this church?”

     Simon was appalled at this. If he could have, he would have crawled under a pew.

     Pastor Sam felt like he’d been punched in the gut. 

     Evie worked hard to hold back her tears. Her dad laid a gentle hand on top of hers. 

     Bradley wanted to get up and snack Rebecca. She had no idea. He only had an inkling of that idea. What Dillon had shared with him. The nerve.

     Evie reached over and kissed her dad on the cheek before walking out. 

Show off

     Rebecca and Simon were sitting in a corner booth enjoying a quiet lunch when Evie and her dad walked in. They were seated. A strange lady joined them. Then Della. Followed by the sheriff. 

     Stella walked over to their table. “Stella,” Rebecca asked who is the lady sitting with Della?”

     “Miss Evelyn?”

     “No, the other one.”

     “Well shoot. If you hadn’t asked me. I codda told you.” Stella curled her lip, “ she’s not from ‘round here. It’ll come to me.” When Stella came back with their food, she explained who Povol was. 

     “Thank you.”

     Della giggled as she got up from their table. Almost dancing over to a huge wall calendar. Rebecca could hear her hum. She wrote Evelyn’s name on Thanksgiving, October, and / Christmas. 

     Rebecca took an angry bite from her sandwich eyeing Simon, whispering, “show off.”

     “Honey, that’s all that’s left.”

     She just rolled her eyes. 

     “Della,” Evelyn called after her. “I’d like to do something in the spring. To thank the community for helping with the house.”

     Della flipped through the pages, “how about Easter?”

     “I figured Easter would get gobbled up first thing.”

     “Not really.”

     She, Dillon, and her dad talked for a few minutes. “We’ll take it.” She wiggled in her chair as she patted Dillon on the shoulder, “you could be the Easter Bunny?” 

     Jack laughed. 

     “Find a suit big enough and you’ll have your bunny.” He answered playfully. 

     Rebecca smirked quietly at Simon, “I’ll be your bunny.”

     “Maybe we should volunteer to do something. Easter is fantastic.”

     She waved her fork at him, “don’t you dare.”

Della

     Dillon noticed on Evie’s calendar that she had scheduled a lunch meeting with Della. Beside of it she had put a badge with a question mark. He smiled all over himself as he played with the idea of how he was gonna answer her. Then it hit him; a bell. He’d be there with bells on. His calendar was simple, work. With a shaky finger he put on his; the emoji of a bell, lunch – Della’s. A yellow box appeared under his schedule containing 💕. He didn’t know how to take that. Perhaps someday he’d ask. But at the moment, he was going to enjoy her two hearts. 

     Della wasn’t very busy, yet. 11 o’clock was a little early for most folks. Evie was already sitting at a table with Della, her dad, and another woman. Dillon sat down in the empty chair beside her, removing his hat. He recognized the other woman but couldn’t have told anyone anything about her. 

     Evie smiled at him and as soon as his butt hit the chair, she and Della launched into planning mode. With the summer almost over, the 3 big dates that no one had taken were Thanksgiving and Christmas at Coal Town and one random date in October.

     Della spoke, “I know the sheriff’s department always covers Christmas. I’m just puttin’ it out there.”

     “That one is important to me. We would appreciate any help we can get. But I’d like my department to keep that one.” Dillon answered.

    “Then help I will give.” Evie smiled. “What’s this date in October?” 

     “That one is us.” This lady had a thick accent. She spoke slowly and enunciated carefully. 

     Della introduced Irana Povol; director of the domestic violence shelter. 

     Suddenly Dillon knew why she looked familiar. 

     “So why does no one want October and November?”

     “No one wants October because domestic violence is not popular.” Povol answered. “It is not pretty. You cannot put it in a box or wrap it with a bow.”

     “Okay,” Evie smiled. “I’ll take October and November and co-sponsor December.”

     Dillon was worried about Evie and domestic violence. He shot her dad a glance; who seemed to understand his silent concern. 

     Della giggled as she got up from the table. Almost dancing over to a huge wall calendar. 

Great place to collapse continued

     The ride up the mountain was a quiet one. Evie was enjoying the scenery and reminiscing. Dillon was enjoying watching her. 

     The house was just as Evie remembered it. It was small, just like hers, but with a high porch. The structure was covered with tar paper. There was no grass in front of the house. Chickens, ducks and turkeys roamed freely. 

     Dillon looked around without seeing anyone. He walked over to what looked like a clearing. Even with heat radiating off the trees, this scene was breathtaking. He could see for miles. Toward the middle of the landscape, God had thrown a hand full of blue paint; Elkhorn Lake. Beautiful. He wondered if Smith would allow him to propose to Evie here. It would be perfect. He inhaled a deep breath before his world turned to black. 

     Evie jumped from the suv, screaming his name. Fowl scattered in every direction. His skin was hot to the touch. “Dillon.” She called his name in a panic. 

     Time had not been kind to Smith’s voice. She sounded like she had smoked a carton of cigarettes a day, “get him out of the sun.”

     On the side of the house where he fell was a tree. Together, they drug him into the shade. “Dillon Jackson Pace when I get you off this mountain, you’re going to the hospital.” She ran to the suv retrieving the bag she had brought. A few bottles of water and the nasty stuff. 

     Smith came round the house packing a 5 gallon bucket and some towels. “Thank you.” Evie took off his uniform shirt before laying a wet towel on his chest. Then she tried cooling his face. 

     Smith sat up against the house, “you’re Jack’s daughter?” She growled.

     “Yes. Evelyn.”

     “Your mom was a bitch.”

     She continued dipping the cloth when it got warm and dabbing Dillon’s face. “You’ll get no argument from me.”

     “You move back home?”

   “You know this.” Evie rose to her knees with her hands on Dillon’s chest as she looked directly at the old woman. “I have heard rumors that you have been talkin’ about my return. And not in a pleasant manner.”

     She spat on the ground, “no shame I guess in tryin’.”

     “Not that it’s any of your business,”

     Dillon touched her arm, “Evie.” He moaned. 

     She worked quickly to get the nasty stuff in his mouth. Followed by a small amount of water. 

     He woke as dusk was approaching. The grill of the suv shimmered in the setting sun. A wolf sat, panting at his feet. Panic ran through his already stressed body. He tried to move his legs. Evie could feel his breathing increase. “Dillon?”

    It took him several tries to sputter out, “w w wa, wolf.” 

     She saw that his eyes were fixed on his shoes. There was no wolf. But in his head, it walked up the length of his legs, sniffed of his hand, before sittin’ beside Smith.

     “Seein’ things.” Smith hissed and spat again. Evie wiped again at Dillon’s face before rewetting the towel she had covering his chest. 

     Dillon woke shivering. The sound of crickets filled his ears. Evie had her head lying on his shoulder curled up at his side. He liked this. He placed a gentle kiss on top of her head, before pulling her in closer. “I love you” poured from his lips.