Authors: Jennifer LeJeune
Viola comes down the hall in her Sunday’s best pink dress, pink purse, pink diamond-shaped earrings and her cross bracelet ready to go. She has the best fashion sense for an almost-90-year-old woman he has ever seen.
“Wow, Mammy, you look great!”
“Where in the good Lord’s name are your clothes, son? I sure hope you don’t plan on showing up in your undies.”
“I didn’t even realize the time, Mammy. You go on without me, I am going to throw my clothes in the dryer to get the wrinkles out and be right behind you.” He gives her a kiss on the cheek as she walks out the door.
“Hurry along now, Bo, I don’t want you being tardy for church.” Bo throws his suit into the dryer and hits the wrinkle release button but sits down on the bed contemplating if he is actually going to go or not.
“I could tell her that the pork sausage in her gravy was bad and I got sick, but, no, I am sure she ate it too and would know I was lying. See, there is my problem, lying and cowering out of the things that I know I should do, but I am just too scared, or intimidated. Whatever it is, I need to man up and face it.”
Bo does something he has not done in a long time - he gets off the bed, gets on to his knees, and folds his hands and prays.
“Dear heavenly Father, I know I haven’t always been the man that I am supposed to be, and I have put greed and money in front of my family and most importantly in front of You. I know I am a sinner and I need You in my life, guiding me to make the right choices and take the right paths. Please, Lord, forgive me for my sins and take me back into Your arms, shielding me from the evil of this world, and all of the worldly temptation. Amen.”
Viola meets Katy halfway up the path and Katy notices that Bo is nowhere in sight. With a grim look on her face that is unusual for her especially on a Sunday morning, Viola asks her what is wrong.
“It’s just that… well, Bo asked me if I would be his girlfriend last night and that made me the happiest I have ever been, but I told him that I will only date a man who is led by God, so he can righteously guide our family if in fact he happens to be the one.”
“Oh, honey, Bo just got a little too carried away with my biscuits and gravy. He was throwing his suit in the dryer to get the wrinkles out as I was walking out the door. He said he would be right behind me. Don’t you worry your pretty little head, my Katy bug,” Viola says as she slaps Katy in the knee, “he will be here soon, sugar.”
They take their seats in their regular spot on the sixth pew back in the center by the aisle. The choir starts to sing and Katy keeps looking behind her with the hopefulness that he will walk through that door. It is time to sit and pray, everyone bows their heads and the preacher says a prayer. Suddenly, she feels a person pass in front of her down the aisle and sit down beside her. She can tell it is him by the scent of his cologne. After the last Amen is said, Viola gives him a slap on the leg and says “I told you not to be tardy for church, boy.”
“Were you having second thoughts?” asks Katy.
“No, like I told you, there were just a few things I had to take care of first. She puts her hand in his lap and he claps it with his as they listen to the service. Katy thinks to herself that this is the kind of life she wants so desperately. Throw a few kids in, a nice but modest cottage in down town Little Hill, and this is her dream come true.
When the service is over, Viola stays behind to talk to a few of her girlfriends and they plan their next week of manicures and Bible studies, bread-making and shopping dates. Bo and Katy walk hand in hand, once again, down the sidewalk. People stare and whisper to one another as they pass by.
“So, really,” Katy asks Bo, “what were you… ‘taking care of’?” with her hands up in the air doing the quotation sign in her best masculine voice.
“There were just some things that I had to get straight with God before I stepped into His house this morning. There are a lot of things I think that He thinks I might blame him for, but I don’t. I didn’t want to spontaneously combust when I walked through the doors, ya know.”
Katy finds that to be the funniest thing that she has heard in a long time and they laugh.
“Do you think I will ever get married, Bo?” she asks very randomly as they pass Agnes Jones obviously whispering to her grandson about them on the ice cream parlor patio.
“I do,” he says. “Hmm… I do, I really like the sound of that. Do you think I will ever get married, Katy?”
“I hope so!” She answers just a little bit too enthusiastically Bo can hardly contain his laughter.
Katy and Bo step into the ice cream parlor to have a Sunday afternoon date at the second most favorite place to hang out in Little Hill, besides Bates Bakery. As they walk in, for once, no one whispers, but they look and smile. Katy, all of a sudden, feels like this is right where she is supposed to be in her life, and she knows that the feeling is a sign from God that this is His will for her. Katy has brought Bo back to the Lord and made her feel complete, she only wonders if she might make him feel the same way. They sit eating their ice-cream, both feeling peacefulness and security.
Bo hears a sound he has not heard in what feels like forever coming from his pocket - a loud, obnoxious ring from his cell phone. He didn’t even remember putting his phone in his pocket this morning. He must do it out of habit from so many years of being tied to a phone or desk. He hears Monica’s voice on the other end of the line.
“Mr. Brogan, hello, Mr. Brogan, are you there?”
“Monica, hi, this is Bo.”
“Mr. Brogan, where are you?” she says frantically.
“Little Hill,” replies Bo, and all of a sudden his entire schedule for the month comes flooding into his brain, and he remembers that he has a meeting with a very important potential client in the morning and he is still hours away from Dallas.
“Monica, I will be there as soon as I can. I am going to call the airline now and try to get a flight out as soon as I can. I must have completely lost track of time this week, I don’t know what I was thinking.”
He throws a twenty-dollar bill down on the table and asks Katy to come back to his mammy’s to help him get his things together. They quickly walk three blocks back to his grandmother’s house without a single word. Katy can tell that there are thousands of thoughts running across his mind right now. The problem is that she cannot tell if she is one of them.
Viola is already back at the house making toasted turkey sandwiches for lunch when Bo and Katy come barging in. Bo goes straight back to the spare bedroom where his clothes are scattered all over the bed and he tosses them back into his bag.
“Don’t you need to call the airline first?” Katy says as she pulls his clothes back out of his bag and starts to fold the pieces neatly.
“Oh, yes, I sure do. Thank you, Katy.”
“Did I just hear someone say ‘airline’?” Viola says as she walks quickly from the kitchen to the bedroom. “Are you two jetting off into the sunset together?”
“No, Mammy,” Bo replies. “I can’t believe I have already been here one week. Monica just called to let me know that I have a meeting to be at six o’ clock in the morning with a major potential client that could bring tons of attention to our firm.”
“Time flies when you are having fun,” she says as she walks back into the kitchen to give them a little space.
Bo calls the airline and, to his surprise, there is not a plane going back to Dallas tonight or early enough in the morning.
“I just got off of the phone with the airline, ladies,” says Bo. “It looks as if I will be driving back tonight. There are no more flights going to Dallas tonight or in the wee hours of the morning, so my only choice is to drive.
“Or,” Katy chimes in, “you could just reschedule your meeting.”
“No way,” replies Bo, “I have waited way too long and tried way too hard to get this man in my office to reschedule on him and have him go somewhere else for representation. Not happening.”
As Katy sits folding the rest of his clothes and nicely stacking them in his bag and packing his toothbrush and hair gel and hanging his suits, she is talking to God, asking Him if she had been mistaken in thinking that He had given her a sign that Bo is The One.
Viola spreads the mayo on the six slices of toast and very carefully lays the lettuce and turkey and bacon strips down, just like Bo likes, in silence, as she is also praying to God about the will He has for her grandson’s life. She knows there has to be another reason that he sent Bo here and it has nothing to do with her health.
“What time do you have to leave here if you drive?” Katy asks Bo as he is sending numerous emails on his Blackberry.
“As soon as possible,” he says in a tone that says “I don’t have time for questions.”
Katy knows that as soon as she is done packing the last of his things and he gobbles down that turkey sandwich, he will be gone. She can only hope that he does not get sucked back into the life where nothing matters except winning and gaining. She hopes that he remembers the peacefulness that being here brought to him and that he comes back soon. Katy doesn’t dare stand in the way of Bo and his work, she knows he has a job to do and will not try and hold him back. She knows that all she can do is pray for him which is, without a doubt, the most powerful thing that she has to use. She hopes that his heart has been changed and that he comes back to this place for his grandmother and for her one day.
Bo tosses his bag in the back seat of his little pink Volkswagen beetle and takes a glass of his mammy’s sweet tea and a piece of cornbread for the road. He has a grueling nine-hour drive ahead of him. Being alone in a car is something he absolutely despises.
“Bye, Mammy.” He gives her a hug and thanks her for everything she has done for him while he has been here. “I will be back as soon as I can, I promise,” he says.
Katy stands there beside his car, clasping both of her hands in front of her. Bo steps over to her and takes her hands and tilts her chin up to where she is looking directly at him.
“I will be back to see you as soon as I am done with work and can take off for a few more days. I am sorry, I wasn’t expecting this week to go by so fast, it kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t even think that this was my last day in town because this day was my first real date with you.” She smiles and nods and tells him to have a safe trip, and gives him a kiss on the cheek and tells him goodbye.
Katy and Viola stand together at the end of the driveway and watch Bo drive away in his silly pink car. Both of their feelings for him are very different from they were when he first showed up. They had seen something in him change in the short seven days that he has been here, unplugged from the outside world. He was more fun and lighthearted, not so uptight like he had been, and less on edge than before. They are going to miss this new Bo Brogan, super mega ice cream pile-eating, pebble-skipping, fun-loving, church-going Bo. They hope that he is the same when he returns which they are sure he will. They are just unsure of the condition his heart will be in, but that is where their praying will come in. They grab each other by the hand and walk back up to the house to go in and eat their lunch, just the way they had before he had shown up, together.
Bo drives down the highway with the cruise control set to 70. He remembers he has a big chunk of cornbread wrapped up in a paper towel in the back seat. As he reaches back to feel for it, his hand grabs ahold of something else - his camera. He quickly grabs his camera and pulls it up to the front seat with him and becomes overwhelmed with emotion as he remembers what exactly is on that camera. He presses the power button and finds the photo gallery and starts flipping through the pictures of the burnt kitchen and the bakery. There are exactly 100 pictures of the damage. Bo knows that the insurance money to fix the bakery won’t come in for at least three more weeks and that every day the bakery doors are closed is a day that won’t bring in any revenue, and that means Becky and Sally are also out of a job for the time being.
“They can’t sit around for three weeks and wait on their job to get back. They will find new jobs, and then Katy won’t have any employees. She won’t be able to do the things she truly enjoys anymore, like work for home health or read to patients in the nursing home,” he thinks to himself.
Katy’s words hit him in the face like a ton of bricks, “volunteer, take yoga, give back, and feed your soul.” He hears her sweet voice in his ears and knows he has to turn around. It’s time for change.
Bo turns the car around and heads back for Little Hill, this time going 90 miles per hour instead of 70. He realizes once and for all just what filled the void and he speeds back to them as fast as he can. His grandmother, God, and Katy - love, love and more love are the things that Bo was missing in his life, and no high-paying client or new building could ever bring him as much love or joy as those three could. Bo decided to put money, power and fame out of his head and follow his heart.
Katy walks up the block to her house and stand on the sidewalk staring at her house once again. She wonders yet again if she will ever move out of this small house and get married and have a family. Sure, Bo says he will be back and she will pray like mad to make that happen, but when there is a fight between good and evil going on in the heart and mind of a man, there is no telling what the outcome will be. She slumps her shoulders and gloomily walks up her front steps. Katy walks over to the teapot and makes herself a cup of chamomile tea, slips into her night gown, and grabs her Bible.