Jennifer’s Citation may have been a little slower than Skyhook, but if so, Nanci didn’t notice it much. If she and Sarah had set out to drive the trip from Hickory Run, they wouldn’t have been out of Kentucky by the time Will landed the jet at Sky Harbor in Phoenix and taxied it up to the Skyhook Aviation hangar.

“Well, we’re here,” Jennifer said over the cabin speakers as Will ran the shutdown checklist. “I just got off the phone with Jon. He and Tanisha are at the shop and will be for a while, so they asked if we could drop you off at their place. The kids are with Ben and Joy, so you won’t have to worry about them.”

“Sure, thanks for the ride,” Nanci replied, “and we’ll appreciate the extra lift, too.”

“No big deal,” Jennifer replied. “That’s what friends are for.”

Nanci and Sarah stood by watching while Will used a powered dolly to get the Citation put away in the hangar, which it shared with a twin-engine Cessna 310 and a single-engine Cessna 150 that gleamed about as immaculately as the jet. The four of them went out the back door of the hangar, and now it was Nanci’s turn to have her jaw drop. “Jennifer!” she exclaimed. “What’s this? That can’t be your old clunker, can it?”

“It is,” Jennifer sighed as they walked toward the gleaming ’79 Chevrolet Monza, looking like it was ready for a car show. “I had to be in Japan for a month last fall, and my loving husband decided I needed an anniversary present, so he had it run through a restoration shop. When I got back I hardly recognized it. He had to have spent ten times what the car was worth new.”

“’Twern’t that much,” Will shrugged, now back to his normal cowboy manner of speech. “Close, but not that much. Miz Hoffman didn’t want no new car, an’ that thing was gettin’ dangerous. You could hardly see it for the oil smoke when it was runnin’, so I hadta do somethin’.”

“It’s the only car I’ve ever owned,” Jennifer smiled. “Now maybe I can drive it for another twenty years.”

“Least now you got one plane that’s newer than your car, Miz Hoffman,” Will grinned.

“And my husband drives a dirty old beat-up pickup truck that smells of manure,” Jennifer shook her head. “I mean, go figure.”

Nicely restored though the Monza was, it was still a small car. There was hardly room for Nanci’s and Sarah’s luggage in the trunk, and they were crammed rather snugly into the back seat. It wasn’t a short ride over to Jon and Tanisha’s house on the south side of Phoenix, but Sarah commented that it had to be more comfortable than the airliner seats her parents were presumably still jammed into.

After a while Jennifer pulled the Monza into a nice-looking but somewhat nondescript suburban house. “Nanci,” she asked, “are you going to be able to get in all right?”

“Oh, yes, I still have my key ring,” she said. “I mean, unless they’ve changed the locks or something.”

“I don’t think they have, but we’ll wait until you’re sure.”

The key worked, and soon the two were waving goodbye to Will and Jennifer. The house was pretty normal inside, although there was evidence that a couple small children occupied the household. “This is almost my second home,” Nanci explained. “When I was going to Black Mesa, I lived here and commuted, but I haven’t lived here since last spring. I suppose we’d better wait until Jon and Tanisha get home with the kids to find out what the arrangements are.”

“Are we going to go to Flagstaff, then?”

“I’m sure we will, but I don’t know what the plans are yet, so I guess we’ve got some time to kill. Let’s raid the refrigerator, and then maybe we can go out and use the pool.”

“The pool? They have a pool, too?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s out in back. It isn’t a big one, but it’s nice to just lie around in. That’ll help remind us that we’re not in Kentucky anymore.”

Sarah looked dubious. “Nanci, I don’t know about that,” she protested. “I, uh, don’t know how to swim.”

“Oh, that’s not a big deal. It’s not deep or anything. It won’t be over your head anywhere.”

“But Nanci,” Sarah replied shyly, “I didn’t bring a swimsuit or anything.”

“Not a problem. Tanisha and Jon have some loaners they keep for anyone who shows up without one.”

Sarah was silent for a moment. “Nanci, I don’t know,” she replied in obvious discomfort. “I, I mean, I’ve never worn a swimsuit. Ever.”

“Never?”

“Never. I mean, my folks . . .”

“Are pretty straight,” Nanci finished for her.

“Yeah,” Sarah replied with a downcast and embarrassed attitude. “I mean, I . . .”

“Sarah, have you ever flown on an executive jet before today?”

“Well, no. I never dreamed of such a thing.”

“Then there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there? You don’t have to be shy, it’ll be just the two of us. What’s more, your folks won’t be anywhere near to disapprove. They won’t even know unless you tell them, because I promise you I won’t.”

“Yeah, I guess then,” Sarah replied very reluctantly. “You know, you scare me sometimes, Nanci. More than sometimes. You do all this stuff I’d never dreamed of doing, and it seems so easy for you.”

“You have to get used to things,” Nanci told her. “You can do a lot more than you’ve allowed yourself to do. You just have to do it. You have to take the first step if you’re going to go anywhere.”

“You can say that but it’s not easy for me.”

“Once you take the first step, the next one is easier,” Nanci told her. “Let’s go find some swimsuits.”

Nanci knew, of course, where the swimsuits were located, and was soon sorting through them. The women’s outfits were mostly bikinis, and a lot less modest than she normally wore, even in private. She often wore swimsuits on the river in the summer, but they were fairly demure tankinis, and the pickings were a little on the slim side in the loaner swimsuit drawer. She wound up with a tie-on bikini that would be fine so long as it would only be the two of them. After some digging, she gave the most modest one she could find to Sarah, a two-piece outfit that still could be described as a bikini. She went downstairs to her old room to change, leaving Sarah in the bathroom upstairs.

When she came back up the stairs, she found Sarah still in the bathroom. “Are you about ready?” she asked through the door.

“Uh, yeah. Maybe,” came the reply. “Nanci, this is pretty embarrassing. I mean, I’ve got underwear that covers more than this thing does.”

“No big deal, it’s just us girls.”

“Well, OK, I guess,” Sarah replied, obviously with extreme reluctance. She opened the door and peeked out before saying. “Are you sure it’s all right?”

“Of course I’m sure.” It was clear that this was one of those things where Sarah had to be urged to come out of her shell, but Nanci thought it would be good for her.

Sarah opened the door a little wider, looked around again, and rather sheepishly stepped out of the bathroom, her face as red as red could be. Although she obviously couldn’t be more embarrassed, Nanci’s initial impression was that the dowdy dresses her friend normally wore covered up a better-looking body than she had realized. If she actually dressed attractively she could be a good-looking woman, she thought. “Hey, not bad,” she said supportively. “That actually looks pretty good on you.”

“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” Sarah said in a small voice. “I mean, I never, ever thought I’d be doing this.”

“It’s only a big deal if you make a big deal out of it. Come on, let’s go hit the pool.” She grabbed a couple of towels, some sunscreen, and her cell phone before heading out the back door.

Sarah followed along behind reluctantly and paused to stick her head outside to look around before she actually walked through the door. “You’re sure?” she asked again.

“It’s no problem,” Nanci said. “We’re going to have to watch out for the sun, though. Even in the winter it’s stronger than it looks, but there’s no point in putting on sunscreen if we’re going straight to the pool. When we get tired of that, we can sit in the shade if you don’t want to mess with it.”

“I don’t know,” Sarah said as she scuttled quickly across the open area toward the pool; it was obvious to Nanci that she had the intention of hiding herself a little in it. Since there were small children in the household, there was a fence around it with a locked gate, but Nanci had brought the key with her. She had no more than unlocked the gate before Sarah was in the water.

Well, at least I got her in the pool, Nanci thought as she set down the towels and cell phone on a table, then joined her friend in the water.

The pool was cool in the warm Phoenix air, although it was comfortable enough to stay in for a while. Sarah mostly hunched down enough to keep her body mostly below the water, but she seemed to be getting used to the idea, Nanci thought.

The pool really wasn’t big enough to do much swimming, but Nanci swam a few lazy laps, anyway. After a few minutes she gave Sarah a little instruction in how to swim – not enough to make a swimmer out of her, but at least to get her a little more comfortable in the water. “You know,” Sarah said finally, “this is kinda nice now that I’ve gotten a little used to it.”

“Yeah, it is,” Nanci agreed. “When I was living here, I used to come out here now and then just to relax and get away from the books a little bit. I sort of miss that at Hickory Run.”

“I don’t think it would go over very well there,” Sarah commented.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Nanci conceded. “But I guess I can put up with it.”

“Are you a real good swimmer?”

“Not really. I mean, I know how to swim, and I had a pool class in high school, but I’m nowhere as good at it as my sister, Crystal. She can swim like a fish. I just did enough to get by in class. I was sort of lazy about those things back then.”

“Weren’t you embarrassed to have to be in that class in a swimsuit?”

“No, no way.” Nanci shrugged. “Actually, I probably wouldn’t be in one of those swimsuits if I had to do it again today. The swimsuits we wore were pretty modest, and a lot of the girls weren’t happy about that. I have to admit, if they’d let us wear string bikinis in class I probably would have had one on back then.”

“It seems so . . . well, shameful,” Sarah sighed. “I mean, I was brought up that it was wrong to expose more of your body than you had to. I mean, I think even the dresses I wear are a little on the short side, and I can’t believe that I’m dressed like this, even if it’s just here with you.”

“People have different opinions about that,” Nanci replied philosophically. “Just because you were brought up one way doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right or wrong. I prefer to dress fairly modestly because people expect it of me, and I don’t like to show myself off, but there are times that being a little immodest is practical.”

“Like in a pool?”

“Like in a pool. I don’t wear dresses or skirts on the river, for example. They’re not practical. I will admit that I’m usually pretty covered up, but that’s for protection against the sun, so it’s a little different.”

“But doesn’t the Bible say that women are to dress modestly?”

“Yes, it does, but define ‘modestly.’ Although you may feel awkward and immodest in that swimsuit, isn’t it a whole lot more modest than Jennifer would have dressed when she was active in what she thought of as her hobby?”

“Not knowing how she must have dressed, I would have to imagine so.”

“Things are a lot different than they were then. Some of those verses also say that women should stay silent in church, and there are people who say I shouldn’t be a pastor because of them. A lot depends on how people view things, and they can be different or conflicting. People can find scriptural justification for a lot of things, and it can set off endless arguments. You know that, Sarah.”

“Yes, but it still doesn’t seem right.”

“Sarah, a while back I happened on an interesting website about Christian nudists.”

“You’re kidding!”

“No, I’m not. I didn’t dig into it very deeply, but they seem to have the feeling that the body is God’s work and people shouldn’t cover up His glory. They can dig out scriptural references to back up their point, too.”

“Don’t tell me you agree with them!”

“I’m not saying I agree with them, but I’m not necessarily disagreeing with them, either. They may have a point. But I’ll be honest, Sarah, I don’t think it would be something I’d ever do.”

“Well, me either!”

“True, but what if you had been brought up in a family of Christian nudists and it was normal for you, the accepted order of things?”

“Well, uh . . . that might be a little different, but I can’t imagine it.”

“People are different and believe different things. That’s why there are so many different churches. Unfortunately, many of them seem to think their way is the only way. Like Paul said in Romans 14, ‘As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls.’”

“Well, yeah, I suppose,” Sarah shrugged. “I guess it is pretty easy to be intolerant of others.”

“All too easy,” Nanci replied as her cell phone gave off its annoying ring. She scrambled from the pool, grabbed it off the table, flipped it open, punched it on, and said, “Hi, it’s me. May the Lord be with you.”

“Nanci, is that you? It’s Reverend Lackamp.”

“Yes, it’s me,” Nanci replied.

“Is Sarah there? She’s not answering her phone.”

“Yes, she’s right here,” Nanci said. “Sarah, it’s your dad. I’m going to put the phone on speaker so you don’t have to get it wet.”

Sarah worked her way over to the edge of the pool. “Daddy, I’m surprised to hear from you.”

“I thought we’d better call while we’re still at Schiphol,” he replied. “I don’t know what the phone service is going to be like when we get where we’re going. Is everything all right with you?”

“Oh, just fine, Daddy,” Sarah smiled.

“Look, I feel really sorry about having to leave you at Hickory Run, but it couldn’t be helped. We needed to do this while we could.”

“It’s all right. Nanci and I will make do.”

“Look, I just talked to Abe Bowman,” his father went on. “I thought he might be able to drop by there so you could get to know him a little better.”

Sarah got what could only be called a big old grin on her face. “He might have a tough time finding me,” she replied smugly. “Especially since I’m in Phoenix with Nanci.”

“Phoenix? I thought you were going to stay at Hickory Run. How did you get to Phoenix?”

“On a plane. It belongs to a friend of Nanci’s. Nanci invited me to spend Christmas with her family since I couldn’t have Christmas at home.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Abe is going to be disappointed,” he replied. “I think he was going to offer to take you out for Christmas dinner.”

“I’m sorry he’ll be disappointed, but I’m going to have a much more enjoyable Christmas dinner since he won’t be around. Daddy, I’ve tried to be nice about this, but I am not interested in Abe Bowman, not now, not ever, so please don’t push him at me any more.”

“He could be a good match for you, Sarah. I don’t think you should just brush him off like that. He is a long-time friend, after all.”

“He may be a long-time friend of yours, but he’s no friend of mine, I certainly think differently about him than you do, and I don’t even want to hear his name again. Have a good time in Africa, Dad. Be careful with the food and water. Dysentery doesn’t strike me as being any more fun than Chinese food. Oh, and when the shooting starts, be sure to keep your head down. I’ll see you when you get back, if you get back.”

“Sarah, you could at least . . .” Reverend Lackamp managed get out before Sarah reached out and ended the call.

“Wow!” Nanci said with no little admiration. “Sarah, I didn’t know you had that in you.”

“Nanci, could you turn your phone off entirely? I’m sure he’s going to try to call back, and I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Sure,” she replied, taking the phone and turning it off. “and I don’t think I blame you.”

“He sure has a lot of nerve to keep pushing Abe at me after I told him I don’t want anything to do with that jerk, especially after they abandoned me at Christmas to go off to their wonderful mission in Africa,” she said icily. “They wanted to push me out of the nest, so I suppose they ought to expect that I might have a few opinions of my own once in a while.”

“It’s good to see that you’re developing a little bit of spine. I’m sorry that it has to be in anger, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.”

“Yeah, I think I see what you’re saying. I think I’m going to have to work on being my own person a little bit more, but Nanci, I think I’m going to need your help.”

“I’ll help where I can, but you’re going to have to learn to make your own decisions about things, rather than just depend on what you’ve been taught all your life.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she replied, standing up in the pool, not showing any sign of shyness about the bikini she was wearing. “I’m getting a little cool. Do you think it would be all right for me to lie out in the sun to warm up?”

“Sure, just don’t overdo it. No more than fifteen minutes a side. You’re so white that it could be dangerous.”

“Most of my body has never been out in the sun,” Sarah replied as she climbed out of the pool. “But I might as well find out what it’s like.”

In a minute or so she had dried herself off, and was lying on a chaise lounge by the pool. Since Nanci knew she was just as susceptible to sunburn, she stayed in the shade a few feet away. “Nanci,” Sarah said after a time, “what do you think of my clothes?”

“Do you want me to be nice, or do you want me to be honest?”

“Honest.”

“Yuck.”

“That bad?”

“Yes. They’re terrible. Did you pick them out yourself?”

“No, my mother did it.”

“Figures.” Nanci snorted. “Look, it’s perfectly feasible to dress fairly attractively and still maintain most of your modesty. I mean, nobody gives me any static about how I dress at Hickory Run, and I think I dress fairly nicely.”

“Maybe while we’re out here you could help me buy a few things.”

“I’m sure I could, but you’re going to have to be the one to wear them, Sarah. It’s going to have to involve getting a whole new attitude toward yourself. Just because you dress modestly doesn’t mean you have to be unattractive. It just needs to be appropriate for the occasion. And who knows? It might help lead you toward a man you’d like to be your husband.”

“Not Abe Bowman, that’s for sure.”

“Your choice, but it has to be your choice, not your parents’.”

“Thank goodness for that.”

There was the sound of a car driving into the driveway and shutting off, followed by the slamming of doors. “Sounds like Jon and Tanisha must be home,” Nanci commented, half expecting to see Sarah streak for the bathroom and her clothes like a shot.

But no. “Good,” she said, scarcely moving a muscle. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting them. You’ve told me so much about them.”

Now that’s a surprise, Nanci thought, but maybe it’s a good surprise. “They’re pretty cool. I guess maybe I’d better go let them know we’re here.”

“They’re not going to mind my being out here dressed like this, are they?”

“No, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tanisha is out here wearing less than that in a few minutes. She was a minister’s daughter, too, but she lost a lot of her uptightness after she had to leave home. Just don’t cook yourself on one side too much or you’re going to find out that sunburns aren’t a lot of fun.”

“I’ll try to remember,” Sarah snickered. “Boy, I don’t know what my parents would think to see me lying out in the sun like this, but right now I don’t think I care very much, either. Do you think we’ll be able to do this again?”

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