On Sunday morning I
drove an hour to attend mass at Our Lady of Lourdes, one of only three Catholic
churches within a hundred mile radius of Laurel Hill. It was not an easy thing to get away from my
parents that morning. It may have been
my father who could not understand my career choices, but it was my mother who
could never accept my new religion. In her mind Catholicism was synonymous with
idolatry. The statues, the stained glass
windows, the scripted prayers, and the Eucharist were all odious to her
evangelical mind. It didn’t matter how
many times I told her I was still a Christian, that I still believed in Jesus,
she remained absolutely convinced that I had set myself on a path that would
lead me straight to hell. But I was not
going to give it up. It was the one
thing from my life in California that I could still hold onto, and I would not
let it go. And besides that, I loved
it. There was something about the
formality, the ceremony, the sense of reverence when I walked into the
sanctuary, that spoke to me on a very deep level. Despite my mother’s conviction that the
Catholic faith was a dead faith, when I went to mass I felt a closeness to God
that I had never experienced as a child in the Baptist church.
So this morning I
found myself in a small church, more of a chapel really, just off of Highway
119, looking forward to feeling for just one hour like I was actually
home. But of course it wasn’t home,
really. It was not my community. The men and women who knelt beside me were
people I had never seen before in my life.
They did not know my parents.
They had not been my school teachers and babysitters when I was a
child. I would never stop for a quick chat
with them as I poured their coffee at Rick
and Rhonda’s. Many of them did not even know each other. Many were just like me, driving for miles to
partake of the Body and the Blood and then returning to their little towns
dotted with Baptist and Pentecostal churches, but nothing for the handful of
devout Catholics who lived there. They
were strangers to me, and also strangers to each other. But they were my
people. Or at least the closest thing I
had to that.
After mass I quietly
got into my car and began the long drive home.
By one thirty I was starving and still ten minutes outside of Laurel
Hill, so I pulled into the next fast food restaurant I passed. Given the choice of eating alone in a
restaurant or eating in my car, I opted to go inside where at least I would
have the luxury of a table. I ordered a
burger, fries, and a medium iced tea and found a quiet place by the window
where I could sit and eat. Just before I
took my first bite of burger the door opened and I glanced over to look at the
person who had just come in. I couldn’t
believe my eyes. It was him.
He saw me as well,
and waved before going to the counter to order.
I waved back and tried hard not to come across as a giggly
schoolgirl. But playing it cool proved
much more difficult when he turned and started walking in my direction with his
tray.
“Hello again.”
“Hello.” I hoped my voice did not sound as shaky as my
knees felt.
“Are you waiting for
someone?”
“No, it’s just
me. Have a seat if you’d like.”
“Thank you.” He
smiled at me and once again I had that sensation that he understood me
completely and that he was the only person in the world who did.
I shook off the
feeling, reminding myself that I didn’t even know him. Had never even had a real conversation with
him.
“So, you come to my
restaurant two days in a row, and then I see you here today. I’m beginning to think you’re stalking me.”
He laughed and again
I caught a glimpse of the shy boy that lurked just under the surface, covered
up by the image he presented to the world.
“I promise I’m not stalking you.
This place is a few minutes from my hotel, that’s all.”
“Hotel? There’s a hotel around here?”
“Yeah, the Economy
Motor Inn. It’s just outside of town.”
“Oh…God…I thought
that place closed down years ago.”
“Well, it doesn’t
look like any repairs have been done in about twenty years, but it’s still
open.”
I grimaced, trying
to imagine actually having to sleep in such a place. “Is it clean at least?”
“My room smells like
cigarettes and there’s a huge stain on the carpet, but I’ve seen them changing
out the sheets and the towels, so that’s something, I guess.”
“Wow, jeez, are you
gonna have to stay there long?”
“I haven’t planned
when I’m going back home, so yeah…probably.”
A sudden idea
occurred to me. “If you’re gonna be in
town for a while you should talk to Big Mack.”
I caught him off
guard and he almost choked on his Diet Coke as he tried to hold back his
laughter. When he finally composed
himself he said, “Big Mack? Really? You actually know someone who’s named after a
hamburger?”
Now I laughed. “Well I think it has more to do with the fact
that his name is MacPherson and he’s six foot four and about three hundred
pounds. The hamburger thing is probably completely unrelated. But seriously, you should try to get in touch
with him. He lives in town, but he has a
place on the river that I think he rents out from time to time. You know, on the rare occasion that someone
actually wants to come and stay in Laurel Hill.
I’ve been out there a few times.
It’s nothing fancy, but it sure beats that dump they call a hotel.”
“Okay, great. Do you have his number or something?”
“No, but his name is
Benjamin MacPherson. Everybody in town
knows him, and I’m pretty sure he’s in the phone book.”
“I’ll definitely
check it out. Thanks.”
He was quiet for a
moment as he started on his meal. I
watched him, gradually working up the nerve to ask the questions that were
burning inside me. Finally I cleared my
throat and took the plunge.
“So…uh…where are you
from?”
“Atlanta.”
“Oh, do you like it
there?”
“It’s like any
place, it has its pros and cons. I’m
enjoying the peace and quiet out here.
And the lack of traffic.”
“I guess that’s one
of the pros that we have. So what do you
do in Atlanta? I mean for a living?”
“I’m just like
you. I work in the family business.”
My goodness, you’re not one to give too much
information, are you? Out loud I said, “And what business is your
family into?”
“Real estate.”
“I knew it!” I
exclaimed, getting excited despite my best efforts to play it cool. “That’s why you’re here right? You’re building a subdivision? Developing the
riverfront? My dad said you asked a lot
of questions about the river.”
“No, my dad’s not
into anything quite that large scale. He
just buys old houses to fix up and then either sells or rents them. And this trip is personal, not business.”
He was quiet again,
and I could tell he was trying very hard not to say too much. There was something he did not want me to
know. I pressed on.
“So you have some
family around here?”
David looked up at
me, smiled briefly, and then looked back down at his food. “Not that I know of.”
This was going to
prove very difficult.
“Okay, so no
family. Maybe an old friend? Old girlfriend?”
He shook his
head. “Nothing like that.” Pause. Then finally, “Let me ask you a
question. You’re a spiritual person,
right?”
I was silent for a
moment, unsure what to say. Where on earth is this going? “Sure I am.
But how do you know that?”
“You wear a crucifix
around your neck,” he said, glancing toward my chest. “And you’re all dressed up on a Sunday
afternoon, so you must have been to church.
I just made a guess based on that.”
“Okay. So what does that have to do with
things? Don’t tell me you came all the
way out here to find a church.”
“Not a church, no.”
“Okay, then what?”
He was quiet for
another moment. Then he said, “So you’re a Christian, probably a Catholic,
right?”
Who was this man,
Sherlock Holmes? “How do you know I’m Catholic?”
“Because after
church you’re stopping at a fast food place on the highway instead of eating at
home with the family. And the only
reason you’d be out on the highway is if you went to a church out of town. So if you were Baptist or Pentecostal, or
even Methodist you wouldn’t need to be out here. There’s plenty of that right outside your
front door. How did I know you were
Catholic specifically? That was a lucky
guess.”
I smiled. “You’re a little creepy, you know that
right?”
“I’ve been called
that before. But I’m harmless, I
promise.” He paused again, as if trying
to decide whether he wanted to continue.
“So tell me something. As a
Catholic, do you believe everything your church teaches?”
Why was he so
interested in my religious beliefs? This
was getting strange, but I had to know what was going on, so I answered. “I keep my mind open to all of that. But I’m also open to the fact that I might be
wrong.”
“So you believe in
God?”
“Yes.”
“And what about
beyond just God? What about other
aspects of the spiritual world, or the supernatural world? Do you believe in any of that?”
“Like what,
specifically?”
“Anything…ghosts,
psychic powers…anything.”
“Well there’s a lot
that I believe is possible, but there’s also a lot that I think is not very
likely.”
“Like what
specifically?” he asked, turning my question back around to me.
“Well, the two
things you just mentioned. Both
possible. Ghosts very likely…I mean
physical death can’t just be the end right?
Surely something of who we are goes on after our bodies are gone.”
“So psychic powers
you place in the category of not very likely?”
“I think that if it
were happening we’d know about it.
There’d be scientific experiments proving that it’s real, and we’d all
see it on the news and read about it in magazines. It seems like that would be a fairly easy
thing to test for.”
“So ghosts yes,
telepathy no?”
“I suppose. I don’t understand. Does this have something to do with why you’re
here?”
“Something.”
“So what, you’re
like a realtor by day, paranormal investigator by night?”
“Not exactly. I told you, it’s more personal than that.”
“Personal how?”
“Look, I don’t know
if I’m ready to get into all of that. I
just have some things I need to do here.
Speaking of which,” he said, rising from his chair and going to empty
his tray, “I actually have an appointment in town in a few minutes. I’ll be seeing you around, I suppose?”
“Yeah, I’m in the
restaurant almost every day.”
“Great. Well, see you later, Sarah.”
“See you later,
David.”
I just sat at the
table as I watched him walk out, feeling more confused than ever.
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