LITMIR.BIZ

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no one could discriminate among the people of the Unsettlement and those who were citizens of, or tourists, in Safety Harbor.

      Chapter 16

      When Stewart told Katye that Sally had asked him to preside at Keith’s funeral, she was surprised and not a little miffed.

      “Sally didn’t say a word to me about it!”

      “Well, she wasn’t asking you to do it!” Stewart said. “She was asking me!”

      “Still, she knows the Bishop has benched you, that you aren’t to do a thing that has to do with the church. I think he’s right!”

      “Why is it when you have made bad judgments that everybody thinks they have to help and everybody seems to think they know the answers and everybody claims to know better than you do! I feel totally patronized, I’m telling you! I’m tired of people deciding what’s best for me, that I can’t trust my feelings or my judgment, and by the way, I am condemned forever!”

      As soon as he had said it, he knew that he had hurt her. “That last statement was not necessary, Katye. I’m sorry.”

      She became very quiet. Then, slowly, and almost in a whisper, she began.

      “I don’t want you to minimize what you’ve done, Stewart. You’ve betrayed me. You’ve betrayed your faith. Yes, you’ve betrayed our vows to one another. I hold you responsible. I get busy and sometimes even frenetic with activity. I know that. I enjoy people and I love the world around me and want to make it a better place.”

      Her voice was moving back now to a normal volume.

      “You should have come to me. You should have told me how needy you were!”

      “I tried, Katye. I couldn’t get you to listen. I became so lonely, honey, so very lonely. Sometimes I could feel it pressing in on me like another layer of skin that was sore all over.”

      “This is a loneliness, dear Stewart, for which I can’t take responsibility. You’ve had this deep within you since you were raised on the dreary Nebraska prairie in a crazy family in an isolated town and in a sick and incestuous church. I can’t make that all better for you. I wish I could, but I can’t.

      “You can go to some other woman’s arms and she will take that loneliness away for a short time. You can replace it with the euphoria of passion, but one day the spell will break and within your heart, that same loneliness that sears the soul will invade like a hotbed of lava. But, this time it’s worse because you have to live with your betrayal. You have to live with the fact that you have walked all over those who love you for the sake of a short-lived passion that passes away, and much of the time, by virtue of its own nature, ends badly

      “The only reason I stay with you, Stewart, is because I know you are a good man. You feel terrible for what you have done. You have deep remorse. I know you love me. I know you need me. What I don’t know is whether or not you will do it again. What I don’t know is if you go back to the same kind of work, will you slip back into your old ways.”

      The room was filled with a seemingly eternal silence. Finally, she could stand it no longer. Katye got up from her chair and went to the kitchen.

      “Would you like some tea, Stewart?” she called out.

      He didn’t reply, oblivious to her question, lost in thought. She was right, of course. He had always been lonely. He’d always felt himself to be the outsider. Others had told him that he was respected, a solid member of the Diocese, a trusted pastor and priest. But he didn’t feel like it. He couldn’t see it and he couldn’t experience it. He would not feel right until every last clergy member in the Diocese accepted him and considered him their friend.

      Truth was, that even if everyone considered him to be a friend or a confidante, it would not be enough. He would begin to discriminate between those who liked him most, those who liked him, and those who nodded their heads in passing. You couldn’t fill up the bottomless pit within his soul.

      Thoughts can get dark. Despair sets in. Judgment is clouded. You become vulnerable. Your need for closeness and comfort is magnified. You resent your spouse as she moves further away from you and seems quite okay with it.

      His brooding thoughts were interrupted by Katye’s voice.

      “I took it by your lack of response that you didn’t want tea.”

      He shook himself as if to cast off a spell.

      “I’m sorry, Katye. I was thinking about what you said.”

      “What were you thinking?”

      “Among other things how right you are!”

      “Of course I’m right!” she smiled mischievously. “I’m always right.”

      “Except when you don’t brake soon enough and scare the wits out of me the way you come up on the cars in front of you at a stoplight!”

      Their friendly banter could always be counted on to lighten things up in a tense moment. It was one of the strengths of their relationship.

      Chapter 17

      Before the parade began, Mrs. Glover, the high school music teacher, had been recruited to lead some music down at the Square.

      Father Frank had covered himself with the Archdiocese by getting the word out via the church email grapevine that there would be a Mass at seven o’clock that evening in lieu of the usual morning schedule. Whether that worked out or not, Father reasoned, was something for the angels to decide.

      After the songfest, the microphone gave the ubiquitous peremptory feedback squeal as Mayor Lou approached it to address the people.

      He turned to someone, anyone. “Can somebody turn this thing down?”

      Hope approached him and whispered in his ear.

      “Oh yes,” he said in the newly adjusted microphone. “Can we get Rocky and Magdalena up here? They are the leaders of what people are calling the Unsettlement these days.”

      He smiled sheepishly, awkwardly. “Sort of the mayors, you might say!”

      They joined him reluctantly.

      “Now, on this magnificent occasion, which we don’t seem to be planning, but is taking on a life of its own . . .”

      “The Spirit is leading!” whispered Father Frank to Luther.

      “Even Meriwether could assent to that with us!” said Luther.

      “And I do!” said a voice behind them.

      They looked around, surprised. “I don’t agree with the Christian Good Old Boys’ club too often, but I can go with you on this one!”

      They were embarrassed and gave their apologies.

      “This is a day for peace and unity,” she said, not letting them off the hook. “We’ll talk later.”

      Lou droned on at the microphone until Hope came up and tugged at his suit coat.

      “Now I’d like to turn this over to Rocky and Magdalena,” he said. “You may not know them,” he said, “but I know them well.”

      Hope rolled her eyes at Magdalena.

      “You will know them well in a short time, too! They are easy to know, easy to love, easy to respect.”

      There was a sustained applause as the crowd began more and more to sense the importance of this gathering.

      Magdalena spoke first. “Rock and I would like to thank you for your invitation to the Safety Harbor parade! We are very excited about this day and what it may mean for the present and for the future.”

      She handed the microphone to Rocky. “There isn’t a lot left to say except for this. Magdalena and I would like to invite all of you to the Unsettlement for a visit one of these days very

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