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Chapter 4

As Martin and Louisa neared the small crowd, James Henry began to fuss a bit in the buggy. He liked moving about now and was curious about everything around him, particularly when he heard music. Anne often played music in her home and James Henry always began to wave his arms and babble when he heard it. Also, Louisa had a lovely voice and often sang to him in the evenings as they were preparing for bed.

The sounds of the crowd were too much for him and Louisa, smiling into his sweet face, lifted him carefully from the buggy. He struggled to see and babbled a bit. Louisa lightly put a finger to his mouth to try to shush him and, miraculously, he quieted. He turned himself around to Martin and stared. Louisa tapped Martin and he turned and saw James with his wide eyes looking straight into his own. Martin felt a leap of intense happiness and stared back at his son. There are certainly many different types of music, he thought.

After a moment he took James from Louisa and held him up higher, knowing that he would want to see the source of the melody he was hearing. They could hear Luk's guitar and his mellow voice, singing along with a few of the youth. When they came closer they could see Luk's daughter Emily bobbing up and down on the lap of one of the young girls, the one with ginger hair, whom Martin had sometimes seen giggling outside of the surgery. He frowned in thought. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen her much lately and when he did see her there, she just smiled. No more cries of "tosser" from her. Unfortunately he couldn't say the same for all of her friends.

Roger Fenn stood near to Luk with a table by his side. Framed pictures of the lifeboat crew were scattered on the table, along with a large glass jar almost full of bills and coins. Natalie stood in the doorway smiling and singing quietly along with her husband and the young people. Martin caught sight of Maureen and wondered where her twins might be.

Martin watched Luk's face as he played and sang. Somehow, he led but stayed in the background. His voice with its rounded Belgian accent was the steady note under the others but he did not drown them out. Martin preferred classical music, but he knew that Louisa loved all kinds of music and was not surprised when she smiled and began to mouth the words of the song along with the youth. It was a song he had heard her play on her computer sometimes as she exercised indoors when the weather was bad during the winter months.

Martin's thoughts returned to Louisa's earlier question. Were Luk and Roger his friends? He guessed he would say that Roger was a friend in a way. But Luk, was Luk a friend? They had had lunch at the pub about every six weeks since the wedding and of course there were the meetings with Luk to go through the marriage book. Martin had balked at what he thought would surely be evenings filled with what he thought of as "psycho-babble," but Louisa had insisted that they go after all of their promises to Luk before the wedding.

Aunt Ruth had chimed in as well, telling Martin that many of her colleagues strongly recommended these sessions to clients before they married. Martin went to the meetings, reluctantly at first, but when he realized that Luk had no intention of any of the "babbling," but only wanted to go through a book which was mostly about communicating, he dreaded the evenings less than before. Toward the end of the book there was a section about growing in faith together during a marriage and that part had nearly done him in. Mostly Martin had sat silently throughout those last two sessions, but Luk had not pushed him, and Martin HAD read the entire book.

Now, as the music continued in the background, he thought about the lunches he had been having with Luk. Their lunches had always been at Luk's invitation of course, but Martin found he had actually begun to look forward to his conversations with the vicar. For one thing, there was not a constant stream of conversation, but there were quiet spaces as well.

For another, Martin was sure that he detected within Luk a need for this "whatever" - was it friendship? He supposed it was. He didn't have much experience with anyone needing him as a friend, unless it was for help to pass a class or to stand in front of them so that the teacher couldn't see what they were doing behind his tall back. Why would he need me, Martin questioned himself.

They often discussed the books that they were reading and Luk always seemed genuinely interested in the medical topics that Martin invariably talked about. Luk, for his part, would tell Martin about some new theological question he was considering when he would read some new scholarly book or article. Luk also enjoyed fiction and was, as to be expected, quite an accomplished storyteller. He had even coaxed a few mild chuckles from the taciturn Martin.

At their last lunch, Luk had informed Martin that he was beginning preparations to take some of the youth to Tanzania the next summer for a mission trip. He asked Martin if he would be at all interested in coming along to offer free medical assistance. Martin politely refused but offered to have Chris Parsons contact Luk to discuss finding a doctor for the trip. Martin found the vicar a most intriguing person. Always quick to pray, quick to laugh, quick to love, but never pushy or rude in his convictions.

Natalie, too, had become very important in the Ellingham household. She and Louisa had become great friends, having children the same age with the same caregiver. Both women also enjoyed their careers very much and Martin had surprised himself by complimenting Natalie to Louisa on more than one occasion. Louisa had even gone through some of her oldest boxes and found an old Bible that Bert had given her years ago and started reading from some of the Psalms at night, on recommendation from Natalie.

Yes, he supposed they had made friends with both Luk and Natalie and, if he was honest with himself, he knew he probably hadn't contributed as much as he should have. And the contact did make a positive difference in his life. He would have to try and figure out some way to change that. Perhaps he could begin by being the one to extend the next lunch invitation. Yes, he thought, that is the best idea.