Mannnnnn… That last chapter was so horribly edited, I was like, "Well bish, DID YOU EDIT it?" Lmao. Idk. I thought I did, but when I was scanning to see if I had mentioned something, I saw so many errors. Like, WTF? Man. Hopefully, I did better on this one. It was longer, but I had to end it somewhere! Dinner has to be in the next one. Jeesh.
The Revival
Stacie needed a revival. She hated to admit it, but whenever Stevie was home, life was more stressful. It wasn't his fault. He didn't stress her out, just the situations. He always seemed to be at war with somebody, whether his own brother or his own wife and even though he and she were still 'good,' she knew that he didn't feel the same way about her that he used to.
They hadn't been as close every since she married Joe, which she felt was unfair, because he married someone that she loved and accepted and she couldn't understand why Stevie didn't repay that. Stevie always denied having something against Joe, but his attitude was more against the church and the faith than it was any one person, whether that be Sam, Joe… or her. He made comments about how judgemental they were, how most churches don't really help anybody, and how multiple Christian organizations turned down sinners in need frequently if they aren't willing to convert. "But we don't do that!" She'd insisted.
"Maybe you don't personally, but you align yourself with a very powerful movement that does."
Later on, Dwight had said, "Stevie's just bein' a bastard." That was hardly helpful. Stacie just wished that she had a way to make her family great. Was it as dysfunctional as Mary had made it? No, but she wanted it to feel like it did before she realized how toxic their mother was or before they realized that their father needed to grow as a person. Mary was gone, Dwight was a changed man, yet the family still was broken, and it wasn't Stevie's fault, but things were less tense when he wasn't there.
She was concerned about Easter dinner. Their birthday dinner hadn't even been a month ago and that was an absolute mess. Stevie had mentioned at that time that Cheri was probably going to be with her Mom's family for Easter, but texted her that they probably weren't going to come at all, a few days ago. Stacie had meetings and practices to attend. She had care baskets to make, "Feed the Multitude" donations to pick up and other errands that she knew people would be calling her with. Mercedes wanted to come along, so she drove by there to pick her up and immediately knew that something was wrong. She was close enough to Sam and Mercy to know just when something wasn't right. She used to be that close with Cheri and Stevie, but things shifted after the TV stuff.
When they got into her truck, she wondered, "What happened with you two?"
Mercedes shook her head, "Bad argument. Heaven heard Sam yelling. Then, I accidentally fell out with Cheri. Now, I'm just waiting on a word from the Lord, I guess. Trying to figure out how to proceed next."
Stacie grimaced, "What in the world got Sammy yelling at you? That's not like him…"
"It's a long story. Basically, I want to do something that I feel is more meaningful with my life and he thinks that it's dangerous."
"More meaningful? Such ambition! All of the lives that you change and you still feel like you fall short of something?" Stacie asked. "Meanwhile, my only goals are to make an A on my lab and not to stumble when I do the Sunrise Service welcome."
"Right, but while that's what's affecting you personally, you still get to feed at least five thousand people with your fundraiser."
"That's for the church, though. It doesn't count as something that I did."
"You created it. The results are the fruits of your labor, and you run around, networking and speaking to contributors and donors about it. I can't do as much as a lot of people can. I'm aware that I don't have the same access to do a lot of these things, but I have the access to do this thing and Sam doesn't even want to address it, because he thinks it's too unsafe."
"What is it that you're trying to do? Maybe I can tag along and help you out, be your eyes?" Stacie offered.
"I want to make an intersectional social justice show, similar to my current show, but specifically for marginalized communities with heavy emphasis on black society." She took a deep breath. She had been practicing that pitch, just not for Stacie.
"That sounds like an excellent idea! Do you know how many people just want to have a conversation about these things and not have to actually get down in the dirt for it? You could be the person that they have these conversations with."
"I could also be targeted."
"You also have a heavenly hedge of protection around you and if anything does happen as a result, your work would at least have been for good. That's what we all claim that we want our lives on Earth to be, don't we? I'm going to talk to him about this, because that's unfair and faithless for him to act that way. And yelling at you? What is wrong with him?"
"He doesn't trust me to take care of myself anymore, I guess. Or, I don't know - maybe he doesn't trust this world. Maybe he's still afraid that someone from his past may reemerge. Honestly, why would they, at this point? Be straight with me.. Am I wrong to be upset about this whole thing?"
"You're never wrong to be upset about something. Like I said, I am going to talk to him. He's at least reasonable."
Mercedes waited for the rest of the thought and when Stacie didn't say anything else, she asked, "What aren't you saying at the end of that sentence?"
"You heard it, huh? I was just gonna say unlike Stevie. What in the world is WRONG with him, these days?"
"He just lost a friend, and… I think that he and Cheri have been having problems. Heaven seems to think that they yell at each other a lot and don't spend time together."
"I'm almost certain that Stevie and Cheri haven't been living together. Some hints were dropped, but he never actually said anything. She looks awful, too. I mean not awful, but not like herself. She looks haggard and tired or sick or something. She covers it up with makeup, but she just always seems sluggish and just out of it and I feel like she has a pill problem. That whole situation is just terrifying."
"I can't imagine her having a pill problem with five children, especially if Stevie and her aren't living together."
"She once threw away everybody's meds. She has her moments of nonsense. She's definitely taking way more pills than her meds, and she's hiding them, so… That's why I presumed pill habit. I mean, she's a celebrity now. Who knows what kind of stuff she can get her hands on out there. Every time I try to talk to Stevie about things, he avoids it. Always just says, 'She's fine," or 'We're fine,' which as you know means everything BUT! I want my nieces and nephews in a healthy household and honestly, of the three of us being screwed up from our childhood, I think Stevie's the one who… didn't quite escape Mama's vitriol, you know. I think it's because of her death and the… what she got him to do right before… They're just really wonderful kids, but they seem kinda sad, sometimes. At least, they don't seem as happy as yours."
"I think that they are pretty happy kids! Maybe, you're projecting, because you're concerned for them? I know I haven't been around them as much as you, but at least Cowboy is very talkative, to me. I did notice that he's very mature and seems to take a lot of care of the others when their parents aren't around. I be like, just go have fun, I promise, we'll watch them. Told me, "You can't see, how can you watch them?" They both laughed now. "He's smart and a big boy. He'd tell somebody if something really bad was happening to them."
"When I was little, Mama and Daddy used to always say 'What happens in this house stays in this house,' and quite frankly, I can easily see Stevie adopting that mindset. On his Instagram, he'll share a photo of her with this very lengthy paragraph about how much good she brings into his world and all these accolades about her mothering and I don't know… He reminds me so much of when Mama would gas up Daddy in front of the church folk but whenever we were at home, she was obviously very clearly disgruntled with him and a lot of times with us. I think she looked at us and saw him and was just… disgusted, more often than not. But, she also didn't want us branching out, either. She wanted us all miserable with her…"
"That doesn't sound like Cheri or Stevie, though."
"Maybe not, but Stevie grew up like that and Cheri grew up with, I mean… Her mother worked her like a machine and never complimented her, always made her feel like she had to perform and succeed to even warrant her time and attention… And now those two people with those backgrounds have kids and no… body else there. I'm not there, Jake's not there."
"They don't need y'all to help them raise their family. My quote unquote parents were overseers at a mental institution. That doesn't make me an unfit parent."
"That's not what I…"
"And if you recall, I have very similar issues as both Stevie and Cheri, even though they have completely different issues. I get both of them…"
"I know. I didn't mean."
"This is honestly ableist and very disappointing, Stacie."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insinuate. I just… lived with them both - one of them for many years and the other for a couple of years and I know them in a way that even those reality cameras couldn't pick up. My concerns are specifically about them as individuals and not solely their mental health or solely their childhoods. I'm using personal experience, my most current observations, and very minimal general psychology. It's not ableist when you're using specific knowledge of these people. I wasn't saying that this is how all bipolar and paranoid schizophrenic people operate when given something important. But, I know both my brother and my sis. I've watched them do their dance in a place that I called home for a long time. " Mercedes sighed. Stacie did too. "We're here!" she cheered, after a while.
The rest of the journey was strained. It was hard to speak with Mercedes about this sometimes, as she internalized the things that Stacie said, when really - Stacie had never seen Mercedes exhibit her condition in even the slightest ways that Cheri and Stevie did openly. A few times, Mercedes accused her of considering her a token in mental illness, because she knew her at her most functional. It made her distrust her sister-in=law a little bit, because, "What if you do have to see me when maintaining my condition is at a low? Will you talk about me like this, too? Will you look at me differently? Always take it into consideration, every time you see me exhibit feelings, furthermore?" Stacie didn't have an answer. She liked to think that she would be fair and honest, but she could never tell. To think, she used to be able to tell Stevie where he was falling short of being progressive. Now, the terminology was booming and honestly, Stacie couldn't keep up with it all.
Stacie dropped Mercedes off at home and when she got to the church, she smiled at Sam and Joe, but kept doing her work, as they were both occupied. She wanted to interrupt just to "say hi" and cheerfully and casually tell her big bro to speak with her as soon as he got a chance, but the guest pastors from the community revival committee were there. Her father-in-law did it for her, "Is that my girl?" he asked and she smiled brightly and rushed in like a small child to hug Joe's dad and his grandfather, then went around the table as he bragged, "I know everybody knows my daughter-in-law, Stacie and all of the work that she's done over the years for my church and this one. This is her favorite time of year, too. Meanwhile, I'm just waiting on grandkids."
She laughed, blushed, gave Joe a glance as he smiled towards the table, not announcing that it wasn't for not trying - it just wasn't happening yet. "All in good time,
.
The first year that Life Church had their spring revival at the same time as "Easter weekend," many people, church ones included thought that it wasn't the best idea. People were going to be preparing meals for their families, and other things, going to Easter egg hunts, etc.
But, as Joe expressed at the time, "No church is for people who always have some place to go. Would we love for the members of the church to be able to make it? Of course! Will we deny everyone else the opportunity of the vision that I have for this is something else." He initially had the idea for his father's church when he was younger, but they weren't able to actually make it a thing for their congregation until he was an adult and did virtually most of the work himself to arrange it. Now, it was a tradition for their church and Joe wanted it in his current church and any church that he would ever be affiliated with in the future. Sam supported him from even the mention of it. Sam generally trusted that if Joe had an idea that it was God-inspired and going to be Spirit-filled. This was the reason that Sam asked Joe to come with him whenever he wanted to open a church.
Joe, Sam and ten other preachers got together to make the effort happen.
Thursday: Communion Commencement, in observation of The Last Supper.
They organized and sponsored a city wide dinner, meaning that at certain sites (including their churches), a first come/first served feast was given, marketed at homeless, those in shelters, people from certain neighborhoods, and crisis centers. Everyone was welcome to come, but the fliers and advertisements were spread in certain places and caterers were brought in, to the locations listed in the advertisements. Church members were asked to bring a dish if coming along. For unison purposes, each of the hosts at every location started out in a prayer and while they ate, recordings of the Gospel played in the background.
The Life Church Communion Commencement easily became one of Stacie's favorite days of the year, as Resurrection Weekend was her favorite time of the year, now. When Joe's family's church had done a similar styled Easter, it was already her favorite time, because of that. But now, on the scale that he was able to bring it to, it was her portion of heaven on earth. Now, she would be able to do this citywide and surrounding areas for however many years she was allowed to live, if this church continued its success.
After the supper, they usually had a closing prayer, for everyone still there and invite them back for tomorrow's event (with the disclaimer that it wouldn't be food for the body, but for the soul).
Good Friday: The Road to Calvary Program & Fellowship
This was a play/parade that depicted the journey of Jesus to his crucifixion. There was usually a team dressed up like the characters, a big following of people, serving as the crowd, and prayer team members, engaging with onlookers and bystanders, to minister, if necessary, or to just answer questions, as to not bother the crowd worshiping or those performing in the reenactment. Stacie was always one of those. She had the chance to speak with many people, often bragging that her husband had the vision for the church to do this weekend and passing out her discipleship business cards, in case they ever wanted to have someone to speak to about these and other things. When they got to the church, they met at the display of three crosses outside of the building and had a prayer and fellowship - just talking and being friendly. Guests were invited back for the next day's events.
Saturday: Prayer Walk and Seven Sayings on the Cross Service
Starting at 7:00 in the morning, prayer teams would g0 around the community to offer prayer to others and invite them to the church service later or tomorrow. They passed out copies of the harmony of the gospels, spoke with anyone who was interested in salvation, and assisted with works, if someone happen to need something when they came across them.
At 7:00 pm, seven associate preachers from all over the area each did a sermonette on one of Jesus' last quotes, according to the Gospel recorded in the Bible and speak about why it was significant, as they believed everything that Christ said was significant.
Resurrection Sunday Sunrise Service:
Every group in the church usually ministered. There was a play by the children, recitations, the dance teams performed, the church choir collective sang, and Sam preached the Easter sermon about the resurrection and what it means for us today.
Missionary Monday:
Because Jesus' resurrection was only the beginning of what Christian faith stands for, they had one final night of the revival, the twelve preachers who organized the revival each preached about a disciple - what he was known for, what you could learn from him, and if known, what became of him.
The whole purpose of these sermonettes was because many people only come around for Easter Sunday and then go back to their regular lives, but in the Bible, the disciples' career as Christians began afterwards, and the Christian job was to follow in Christ's footsteps, not just to think about him one or two days a year…
This year, since Sunday was April 1st, they were going to use Missionary Monday as a kickoff for Acts in April Bible Study - a month long focus on the book of Acts, for each of the different Bible study classes held at the church.
.
Well, Thursday went off without a hitch! It was bigger and better than the year, as per usual. Joe and Stacie spent more time at the church than at home, but they did most of this together (and unlike some couples, they had always worked extremely well together), and locked up after everything was all cleaned up and straightened out. "I am tempted to just get everyone to bring something for Easter supper, you know? It seems wrong to spend money on a caterer when we've been doing all of this fundraising and stuff for people who can't afford to eat and stuff. I just don't want to feel like I'm wallowing in my blessings," she said as they locked up.
"Well, I mean… It would be appreciating the things that you have and sharing them with your family. It's good. I am a little bit nervous about bringing House Hart and House Evans together, if I'm being honest. It's just two such different moods."
"I know! But this is the first Easter since you and I have been married that my entire family will be here, so I want it to be special…"
"Jake won't be here…" He reminded her. She frowned.
"Yeah, I'm sad about that, but he told me to move forward with it. 'I don't even celebrate that. I do Passover and I've found a really dope synagogue, so you don't have to worry about me spending my holidays alone in NYC.' He's knows good and well that he's not going to any synagogue and that he and Bree will end up posting some kind of photos from some bar or something with the hashtag BreakinFromBWay." Joe opened the truck door and helped her in, then went around to the other side. She was just going to leave hers at the church for the weekend.
"Well, he tells those stories because he doesn't want his big sis to worry about him in the big city. Jake's a good kid. He's always been a good kid and he's fine on his own, but someone usually wants him around. He'll probably be better cared for than us," Joe assured her.
.
Friday was a bit more tricky… tense, even. Stacie planned on doing her normal thing, but Mercedes wasn't around, so she wasn't sure if she was lost in the crowd or if she had found another escort. She spent a portion of time searching the crowd and calling her cell phone to try to figure out where she was. When she finally answered, Mercedes sounded sleepy. "Um, so… I take it that you aren't lost in the Road to Calvary crowd?"
Mercedes gasped and said frantically, "Oh my God, Stacie, I am so sorry! I had to take something to help me get to sleep last night. I suppose I thought Sam would have told you that I didn't leave with him this morning, but we're rarely taking the same ride, so he might not have thought about it. I should have messaged you of the possibility before I went to sleep."
"It's no biggie. Just glad you're okay. Well, let me get to it, then. I've spent enough time not doing what I came to do," she laughed awkwardly and Mercedes apologized again. "See you tomorrow, Sis." Stacie hung up, frustrated, but recited a little prayer to herself and went back to what she was used to. After that, it was smooth sailing. It went smoother than when Mercedes was there, but it felt different without her there and stuff still felt wrong, off with Mercedes. She wondered if the stuff with Sam was continuing into this weekend?
Mercedes climbed out of bed and called Sam. "Yes, Love?"
"Ummmm… You didn't get me out of bed or tell Stacie that I wouldn't be there?"
"Wait… You're not here? Where are you?" He asked.
"Getting out of bed!" she hissed.
"I didn't realize. Babydoll, I've been here since 5. You wouldn't have been up anyway. Usually, you walk here with the dogs, don't you?" he asked, putting his finger in his ear to try to hear her. "I guess I just presumed that you'd set an alarm and would just be doing your own thing." There was a hint of something in his voice that she couldn't identify, but she felt like it was lowkey shade.
"Well, I've missed it now. I guess I can meet everyone at the church for the fellowship service on the lawn. Can I get a ride home, or should I just do my own thing?"
"It's up to you," he said. Honestly, pissing her off, now.
"Okay, then," she said. "Love you."
"Love you too." She hung up and squealed in frustration. She had tried to talk to him again last night, and he had ended it with, "I really can't make time for that right now. It's a very important weekend, and you know this." SO, naturally, she was awake for many hours, stewing over this until she decided to down a little sleep aid. And now, this mini attitude that he had - she guessed because he thought she was going to bother him about this important thing that he didn't want to be bothered with… Wait. Where the hell were the kids? She called out to Heaven and went around the house, listening for them. Okay… so what, he was gone at 5, and took the kids with him? She called him back and he didn't answer the first few times, but called her back after a while. "Hey!"
"Hey? What are you doing?" She asked.
"You… know this… I am walking the Road to Calvary and ministering…"
"Are the kids with you?" She asked.
"Of course," he said.
"Okay, so how are the kids with you but you said that you left at 5 am when you were being all snippy with me a little while ago?"
"I wasn't being snippy, Babe. Sorry. I came back for the kids after you didn't show up."
"And you left me asleep! Like I'd said earlier, then you played it off like you didn't leave me asleep!"
"You sound angry about me trying to let you get a little sleep and presuming that you were going to get up in enough time to meet up here…"
"Well, I don't have a voicemail that says that you have the kids or…"
"Hey, Love… Can we do this later? There are some people here that I don't want to miss an opportunity to minister to."
"Yeah," she said and hung up. She called Stevie, "Hey, bruh-in-law… You busy?"
He looked at Cheri asleep and wondered, "What's up?"
"Can you pick me up from the house? I gotta get out for a bit."
"I thought y'all had that whole neighborhood execution parade thing?"
"I'm missing it this year," she said.
"Well, it may take me a moment. Cheri's asleep and I'll have to grab the kids and Mattie."
"Excellent."
.
Stacie called Mercedes earlier on Saturday, to see if she was up and everything. "Hello?"
"Hey! We are doing the prayer walk, yes?"
Mercedes sighed, "Sorry, Stacie. I'm not," she said.
"Ok. Are you sick?" she asked.
"Uh, no. I don't want t0 do it. So, I'm not. But, thanks for checking on me, Sis."
Stacie turned red in the face and bit her lip, but kept her voice calm, "Okay, well… I wish that I had known that I wouldn't have my by 2 for the 2 by 2 ministry…"
"You're right, I'll come, feeling jaded and defeated and show the people that we're trying to win over for Christ that you can be Christian and miserable, but they should still sign up anyway?"
Stacie sighed, "Sorry. I didn't mean to push. Have you and Sammy talked? He's acting all weird, too. What… You know what? None of my biz. I gotta find a partner."
"Take Joe and make Sam go by himself."
"Yeah, sounds like what I'll have to do. I'll pray for you, okay?"
"Okay."
Stacie heard Cowboy talking in the background and she said, "Tell them I said hi and send my love."
"Will do."
Stacie hung up and marched over to Sam and Joe, "I don't have a partner this morning," she said. Sam held out his arms. "Mercedes said that she's not coming. She sounds awful and she seems to be at Stevie's. What is going on? She has never missed an event for the church, before. One time, she came in with walking pneumonia! What is happening with you two?"
Sam placed his hands on her shoulders and said, "We're fine. Everything's going to be okay. She's just been having some depression for a few days, so she's been hanging out with Stevie. Makes her laugh or whatever. Why don't you two go together and I will hang back and set out with one of the stragglers or something?" Stacie glared at him, suspiciously. He wasn't being straight with her. He was protecting her from something and she did not like this!
.
Sam pulled up to Stevie's after the Seven Sayings program. Stevie was outside with Matt and Mercedes. "Sam's here," he heard Stevie say. Mercedes didn't seem enthused about that.
"Mercy… The kids inside?" he asked.
"Yeah. It's kind cold out here, so…" she said.
Stevie uncomfortably glanced at his folded arms, then got up. "I'll get them," he offered.
Sam took the seat that he had been occupying. "Matt, do you think that you could give us a moment?" he asked.
"Can it wait?" Mercedes asked.
Matt said, "She's taking the charge for keeping an eye on me, I guess."
"What's that mean?" Sam wondered.
Mercedes said, "It's kind of personal, for Matt. But, I'm just keeping him company while Stevie's inside…"
Sam furrowed his eyebrows and Matt leaned towards him, "Stevie's doing me a solid, letting me stay in the RV for a few days while Aphasia and I work some things out. She's just worried about leaving me alone."
"Matt, you don't have to talk about your issues for Sam. He and I are going to the same place. He'll have plenty of time to talk to me."
Stevie came out holding a twin's hand in each of his and Heaven rushed out and hugged Sam. He collected the twins and put everyone into their seats, then asked Mercedes, "Are you coming home, or is this trend of messing things up and trying to work things out in an RV something else you're going for?"
"Whoa," Matt said.
"Wow," Stevie said.
Mercedes scoffed and got up to walk towards the truck. She stopped at Sam and said, "I can't believe that you would say something so cruel to me to try to embarass me." She started crying almost as soon as she said it and got into the truck, refusing his help. He put his head against the window and got in, seeing her try not to let Heaven see her crying. Heaven was preoccupied with some kind of electronic game.
"Babydoll…"
"Please, don't bother," she said, softly.
"Mommy, you okay?" Heaven asked, obviously hearing something in her voice.
"Mommy's not feeling too good, Baby. I might have to take some medicine when we get home and lie down."
"Okay, Mommy. I can rub your belly, okay?"
"Mommy will love that, Sweetie! Thank you! You're the best boy!"
They got home and Sam got the kids ready for bed, then tried to come and talk to her. "First of all, what you said was extremely inconsiderate to both Matt and Stevie. You have no idea what Matt is going through and Stevie told you what he was going through in confidence and you're little jab at me wasn't worth attacking either of them. And I certainly didn't appreciate it. The kids are coming with me in the morning."
"We can go together. I'll be sure to wake you up if you…"
"I'm going to my former church," she said and went into the bathroom, without another word. Sam sat on the foot of the bed and tried not to pull his hair out. He knew that when she had her moments, even though it had been quite while, that it could get ugly and hard, but he shouldn't have said what he said at Stevie's. She was right. It was cheap and tacky and now, she was upset and… he got up and knocked on the door, "Hey… you're not going to do anything to yourself, are you? Can I see your forearms?"
"Are you fucking serious?" she asked. "Why don't you just focus on your really important weekend and let me do my own thing. I got the idea from you, after all. While you're at it, Pastor, you ought to apologize to your brother before you have to see him tomorrow night at the Evans-Hart Easter Dinner!"
"Are you coming to that?"
"I'm not going to miss out on family time just because you're treating me like a pariah."
"I'm not! Granted, I said something rude and stupid tonight…"
She came out, with a bonnet on her head and her face facing past him, "Tonight? Rude and stupid tonight? Not… every time I bring up something that you said you would pray about and talk to me?"
"I didn't want to talk until after this weekend, but since we're apparently having problems right now, I might as well tell you that I still feel the exact same way about it. I can't make you do anything, but I don't support it, and your behavior this weekend isn't helping anything."
"My behavior this weekend? You're the one who has been a dick every since I asked you if God had spoken to you about my concerns yet. You have been difficult. You have been mean. You have been dismissive! If you thought that it was going to make me bow before you asking for your good graces, you thought dead wrong."
"Okay. I'm sorry. You're right. Just… Please, don't miss church. That'll kill Stacie. She's already worried about us and I have been trying to ease her mind…"
"I'm not going to come to church feeling the way that I feel. I want to be able to lay my burdens down on the altar… And right now, I don't trust an altar with you at the pulpit." She avoided touching him as she grabbed the blanket and left the bedroom. Sam was crestfallen. She had never responded so strongly to something before. Hanging out with Stevie and Matt this weekend couldn't have helped, either.
.
As stated, she didn't come to church the next day and the children went with her. Stacie was near tears until she felt little fingers tap her and looked up to see Cowboy. She smiled brightly and collected him into a hug as Cheri sat next to her, sporting one of her hats and two braids going down the sides of her face. "I sent Stevie to take the little ones to the nursery. He really didn't want to be here, but I insisted. I knew that it would be good for you." Stacie cried and hugged Cheri hard. "Hey… you okay?" She shook her head and wiped her face. Cheri took her hand and held on to it.
After a while, Cheri wondered, "Where the heck is Mercy?" Stacie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Where is Stevie?" she wondered.
At the end of the church service, Stevie finally came to them, "The crowd was way too big to try to push through it to get by y'all. I just watched on the monitors in the nursery. The girl told me that they had room because some of the workers were seated with family today."
"That's against the rules," Stacie said, shaking her head. "What if you were a pedophile? Or a church shooter?"
"I don't run the place, Ma'am."
"Yeah. You just flirt your way into the nursery," Cheri said and he squinted at her, unsure if that was serious, or not. She changed the subject, "Did Mercedes sit in another room too?"
"She went to her COGIC," Stevie said.
"What?" Stacie and Cheri both asked.
"Yeah, she said that she was going to have the church van drop her off at ours, and we're gonna make sure that she gets to Stacie's for dinner…" he said, wondering why neither of them knew this. "I told her that my Evans can get into the Pink Chariot and hers could come in my truck… Was that wrong?"
"Yes!" Cheri and Stacie both fussed, "You needed to tell her to ride with her husband." "You didn't tell me that I was gonna have to drive today! I don't feel like driving! I've thrown up four times."
"Jesus, are you pregnant again?" Stacie asked, suddenly.
"No," just sick.
"Hungover?" Stacie asked.
"No! Damn…" They both gasped and Cheri covered her mouth. Then, she turned to Stevie, "Get Sam to pick her up or pick up the kids and she can ride with us, but I am not driving anywhere today and you owe me one after this weekend."
"What happened this weekend?" Stacie wondered. Hers had been a bust, for the most part, but maybe their was an evil attacking their family and they needed prayer warriors on it."
"Actually, a lot. I don't know what to mention right now. I don't want to ruin your favorite weekend. We'll talk about it, though. You're next in line," she said and rubbed her back as Stevie called Mercedes. "Um, Sir… What you doing? COGIC on an Easter Sunday? She's not gone from that building yet!" She laughed.
.
Stacie knocked on Sam's office door and then just walked in. He was at his desk, red eyes, forcing a smile. "You've let this go too far and go on for too long," she said. "Before Mama died, I was devastated by the thought of her and Daddy getting a divorce and they were terrible for each other, so imagine how I feel with the two people that I love seeing together more than anybody - two people that I try to emulate more than anybody have this going on all because you just won't tell her that it's okay for her to say whatever she wants and do whatever she wants to do about racism! It's a stupid fight, Sammy. It's a no brainer! She's not going to do something to get herself hurt."
"She'll put herself on their radar."
"Then trust God to protect her! Fix this! I didn't slave over dinner to have the two people that my inlaws know I aspire to acting like two bitter brawlers! When it was you and Stevie, I backed you up. Stevie can be overzealous and abrasive. But, Mercy is the sweetest person and the best kind of woman. You should trust her and you definitely shouldn't be doing whatever you did last night at Stevie's to make her angry enough to not be here today. Don't think that the congregation hasn't noticed her absence this weekend. Her presence is enormous and well felt. Fix it!"
"I'll try."
"Don't be late for dinner, either."
"Are you going to have a similar talk with her. This isn't one-sided you know?"
"Of course it is. She's the oppressed, the marginalized, the minority. Every area of your personality, you're in a place of power and privilege over her. You should be trying to accommodate her comfort. You can bang on your chest and grab her and control her when it's baby making time again." She left the office, shaking her head. Sam laughed and saw thet Mercedes was calling him.
"Hello?" he answered eagerly.
"Hey… Can you come pick me up from the church and say hi to my old pastor, or is that insulting after what I did today?"
"No… I can. Are you ready, now?"
"Yeah…"
"I'm on my way… I love you… So much. I'm so sorry, about everything. My heart is hurting, Babydoll. Can you please forgive me?" She paused and he held his breath, terrified by what a pause meant. That should have been a pretty straightforward 'yes.'
"I love you so much, too," she said. That wasn't a yes...
