Around eight the next morning Nanci walked into the Prairie Dawn Café, which she now knew to be the only restaurant in town; it was located in one of the commercial buildings downtown. This morning she wasn’t dressed like she had been the morning before; figuring that she wanted to fit in with the community, she wore a pair of jeans, a “Canyon Tours” T-shirt and a denim jacket.

The place was about half full at this hour of the morning. She glanced around and recognized a few people from the day before, most of whom were involved with their breakfasts or with conversations around the tables in the room, which was functional, rather than elegant. She was about to sit at a table by herself when she heard Bernice’s voice. “Reverend Chladek! I see you’ve found this place.”

“Oh, hi Bernice,” she said, walking over to the table where her friend was sitting with another woman, about Bernice’s age at a guess. “How are you today?”

“Not bad, considering,” the older woman replied. “Won’t you come join us?”

“Sure, it’s always good to see a friendly face,” she replied, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

“Edith,” Bernice said by way of introduction, “This is Reverend Chladek. I was just telling you about her. Reverend, this is Edith Hawley; she’s been a good friend of mine for years and years. We usually manage to meet here for breakfast or coffee a few times a week.”

“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” Nanci said respectfully.

“So how are you liking our little town?” Edith asked.

“I’m still learning my way around, but I like it so far. There seems to be a real sense of community here.”

“There is, and I think that’s why I like it.”

The waitress came over, a heavy-set fiftyish woman who looked rather tired and worn, carrying menus. “Coffee for you?” she asked.

“Yes, I think so,” Nanci replied, “and I’ll take a look at the menu please.”

“Coffee coming right up,” the waitress said.

“So, Reverend,” Bernice said, “what are you up to today?”

“Just getting settled in,” Nanci replied. “I’ve got to see about getting some groceries in the house for one thing. It’s part of the reason I came down here this morning.”

“You know, I found it interesting that you were able to move here so quickly,” Bernice said. “I know Larry was sure surprised that you made it back here as quickly as you did.”

“It wasn’t any big deal,” Nanci shrugged. “It’s a day’s drive each way to Flagstaff, but I just had to load up a few things from my stepfather’s place, say hello to the family, and start back this way. I said I would be here for the services yesterday and I don’t like to break my word on something like that.”

“So are you pretty well moved in, too? I know Larry was surprised that you didn’t call him for help with unloading, or something.”

“I didn’t really have that much to unload. I’m used to traveling light,” she replied as the waitress set a cup of coffee down next to her. Nanci hadn’t even had time to look at the menu yet, but ordered two eggs scrambled, bacon, and toast – any breakfast/lunch café in the country ought to be able to handle that, she thought.

“All right,” the waitress said. “It’ll be a few minutes, Sharon is a little backed up this morning.”

“No rush,” Nanci told her. “I have things to do today, but nothing where time is pressing.”

As the waitress left, Bernice took up where the conversation had left off. “I would have thought you would need help with furniture and things.”

“Well, I probably will sooner or later, but I can get along without for now. Bernice, I don’t have anything in the way of furniture or housewares. I’ve been living in a boardinghouse, and before that with my brother, my mother, or on the river, so I haven’t needed any.”

“You mean you’re in the empty parsonage without any furniture or anything?” Bernice looked a bit shocked.

“Well, I brought a sleeping bag and a foam pad; that’s all the bed I’ll need for a while. I spent six whole summers living out of a sleeping bag and a gear bag, so I know I can do it a few weeks more. I figured that sooner or later I would see a garage sale or a secondhand store where I could pick up a few things. I really don’t need much and don’t like to be held down by a lot of possessions. After all, when Jesus was preaching around Galilee, he didn’t have a pack train of gear with him. He might have had a bedroll with a change of clothes, but I’ll bet it wasn’t any more than he could carry Himself.”

“Reverend, every time I hear something new about you, I’m even more amazed. You’re telling me that you don’t have any furniture or kitchenware or things like that?”

“Well, I did scrounge a couple of old pots and a few dishes from my sister,” Nanci smiled. “I’ll get along with them until I can work out what else is needed. It’s one of the things I learned to do on the river.”

Bernice gave a sigh. “You know, you are certainly not what I’ve come to expect in a Methodist minister.”

“Well,” Edith smiled. “Maybe it’s a lot easier to live with few possessions when you’re by yourself.”

“I think you’re right,” Nanci agreed. “My sister went for years living out of the trunk of her car, and for a long time she preferred it that way. In fact, a lot of that time she had so little that a friend of hers was able to get all her stuff in the same trunk as well, though it was pretty big for a car trunk. Now my sister and her husband have two kids and a house and it’s starting to fill up. She occasionally looks back at the days she was living out of the trunk and wonders what happened to her and the simple life she used to lead.”

“Having a husband and kids will do that to you,” Bernice grinned. “I don’t suppose you’re getting any closer to that, are you?”

“Well, I’m a day closer now than I was yesterday,” Nanci laughed. “But that’s about all I can say.”

“Are you interested in getting married sometime?” Edith asked “Having children?”

“Oh, probably,” Nanci replied. “But I’m in no rush about it. The past several years I’ve been very busy with school and the other things I had to deal with, and starting a family has not been something I’ve put any priority on. As far as having children, I spent three winters living with my brother and my sister-in-law in Phoenix while I was going to Black Mesa. She had two kids in that time, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to learn to change diapers and all of the other hassles that go along with having small children around. Then my sister started having kids – she just had her second in February – so if I was still living in Flagstaff I’d be pulled into it again. Kentucky and now Colorado seem like a good, safe distance.”

“I can see how that would temper the enthusiasm,” Edith grinned. “I take it you’re not anxious to start yourself?”

“I’m not saying it’s not going to happen, it’s just that it’s not going to happen soon,” Nanci smiled. “However, I’m starting to get hints from my mother, if you know what I mean. But right at the moment I have no prospects for a husband, either, and I’m not really looking. Besides, any man I marry is going to face some complications most men don’t have.”

“Because you’re a minister, right?” Bernice nodded.

“Pretty much, and more importantly, because I’m a Methodist minister. Sooner or later the conference will want to move me somewhere else, and since I’m sort of on loan to the Rocky Mountain Conference it could easily be a long way away from here. It probably won’t be next year but it’s unlikely that I’ll be here as long as five years. That means if I’m married my husband would have to pick up and move with me, and that could cause all kinds of problems.”

“Yes, that would be a complication,” Edith replied. “I hadn’t thought about that. Just saying, if your husband was a rancher here and had a lot of land, it wouldn’t be easy for him to pick up and move.”

“Close to impossible,” Nanci agreed. “So yes, that’s something we’d have to take into consideration when the time comes. It’s not a problem that can’t be solved, but it could require a great deal of solving. Look, I have some friends who are dealing with the issue on a slightly different level. She’s worth several million dollars, has a high-paid research job in Phoenix, and owns pieces of several businesses of which one is an air charter business. He’s a sergeant in the Air Force. She is not in a position to pick up and move with him when he gets transferred to some new base, but they’re willing to work together to solve the problem.”

“Yes,” Edith nodded. “I can see how that could be a problem. How are they doing it?”

“Well, right at the moment it’s not a huge problem for them,” Nanci shrugged. “He’s at Luke Air Force Base, that’s right outside Phoenix, but when they first got married he was stationed in Mississippi. Remember, my friend owns an air charter business, and she was pretty good at finding excuses to fly to Mississippi. They still couldn’t spend much time together, though I’m under the impression that they made good use of their time when they did make it work. I think it will ultimately mean that he’ll have to leave the Air Force, but he only has something like five or six years before he can draw retirement, and last I heard they’re trying to rig it around so he can stay in that long. He wants some separate income of his own so he doesn’t have to depend on her all the time.”

“I can see how that would be important to some men,” Bernice agreed.

“Yes, it’s one of those things I have to take into consideration,” Nanci sighed. “It may mean that I don’t get married at all, or in other circumstances it might mean that I’d have to leave the ministry if I were to get married. On the other hand, if I find a man and we can work things out, I see no real problem with being a minister and a mother at the same time. I know women who have done it.”

“Yes, I can see how you face problems other women don’t have,” Edith agreed as the waitress showed up with Nanci’s breakfast. She topped off everyone’s coffee while she was there.

“I’m sure the Lord will be willing to help me deal with it when the time comes,” Nanci said after she bowed her head for a moment of silent prayer. “He’s the one who will decide when the time comes, not me.”

“You certainly seem to have a lot of faith.”

“Well, it’s part of the job,” Nanci smiled. “If it was something I didn’t want to do, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

“So do you have anything else planned for today besides groceries and getting the parsonage in order?”

“Not a great deal,” she shook her head. “I need to spend some time just getting to know the area and the people. In fact, over the next month or so it’ll be what I’ll primarily be doing. I think it ought to be an interesting experience.”

Edith frowned a little, then sighed. “Reverend Chladek,” she said. “Can I give you a word of advice?”

“Sure, I’m always open for advice, and especially when I’m new in town like this.”

“This is a very small town, Reverend,” she told her. “We don’t have much in the way of businesses here. At least speaking for myself, I try to buy everything I can here, because we are down to the point where we would be in a lot worse shape if any other of our stores close. The grocery store’s prices are more than you’d pay if you were to drive down to Carondelet, for example, but I think it’s better to do what I can to try to help keep it in business. If the store were to close, life here would be an awful lot harder. Mike and Sally don’t have anything like the selection down in Carondelet, but if you really need something and aren’t in a hurry they usually can get it for you.”

Nanci stopped buttering her toast for a moment. “I sort of figured that,” she replied thoughtfully. “I take it things are pretty close to the edge.”

“They are,” Edith nodded soberly. “I wish that wasn’t the way things are, but they are, and it’s gotten even worse the last few years. We’re to the point where we don’t have much more we dare lose, and every little bit helps to keep things alive.”

Just about that time it was the break between first and second hours at Tyler High School. Keith Westbrook was on his way from his history class to his geometry class when Amber stopped him in the hall. “Thanks, Keith,” his scrawny brunette classmate smiled. “What you did for me yesterday was really good. There ought to be enough left over for tonight and maybe tomorrow night, too.”

“Glad I could help,” he said. “I saw the chance and I took it. I’ve got to get to get to class, but I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Yeah, see you,” she smiled.

It was good that she had made a friend out of Keith, and more than just for the lunches. He really seemed to care about her, and he was just about the only person who did. Most people wouldn’t have anything to do with her, and that wasn’t surprising. Even her mother didn’t seem to want much to do with her, and that wasn’t surprising to her, either. She’d never made it home the day before, so presumably she was warm somewhere and had something to eat, courtesy of one of the guys who hung around the Stationhouse.

Amber didn’t worry much about her mother; she’d been gone for a day or two at a time before this, and actually not having her around made things go a little easier – what little food there was in the house would stretch further that way. If her mother had been home when Keith brought his gift the day before, it would probably all be eaten by now. As it was, with the help of the school lunch and the tray from the church dinner, she would be reasonably well fed for a couple more days, and that was a victory of sorts.

One day at a time was what it would take to get her out of this town.

Nanci had a good breakfast with Bernice and Edith and suspected it wouldn’t be the last breakfast she had in the Prairie Dawn with the two, or with others from the church. It was a good place to meet people and get to know them.

Although she hadn’t said anything about it publicly and didn’t intend to, Nanci had already perceived that she had a real problem to deal with in the two churches: the previous pastor had left a bad taste in many people’s mouths. She’d had more than one person comment to her about it.

She’d never met Darius Anders, the previous pastor, and never expected to do so, but from what she had heard he wasn’t the most active pastor to ever come down the pike. He and his wife apparently hadn’t liked living in Tyler and Walke County and didn’t care who knew about it. She had heard from the bishop that he’d resigned from the church entirely, for the sake of taking an assistant pastor position at a non-denominational megachurch in northern California. Apparently he felt he could live there in what he thought of as civilization and not have to deal with much responsibility.

But that meant he’d left a mess behind, and it was clear her first job was to restore some respect to both the church and the leadership. As far as she could see, the thing to do was to be an activist, trying to maintain a high profile in the community without being obnoxious or intrusive about it. It also meant she was going to have to go out of her way to make friends with as many of the members of the church as she could manage.

While she realized she had to be serious about what she was doing, she was also aware that following up after a bad job and repairing things might be easier than taking over from a popular and well-liked pastor, which admittedly Anders had had to do. Although she thought she was off to a good start, she realized there was going to be a lot to do in the next few months, and she was looking forward to it.

The last few days had been heady and busy ones for her; if the opportunity to pastor the two churches hadn’t come along she knew she would have been at Lee’s Ferry right now getting set to make yet another raft trip down the Grand Canyon.

Even two weeks before she’d had no idea that she was going to be coming to the Tyler and Conestoga churches; she’d been packing up what little she had at Mrs. Keller’s Place where she lived while attending Hickory Run Seminary. Over the last few months she’d had some conversations with the bishop of the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church about the fact that she would be available for assignment to a church. She’d been told flat out that there weren’t going to be any openings available in the near future. She had more or less resigned herself to receiving her ordination at the conference meeting later in the summer, but probably would continue as the unpaid associate pastor of the Hillside Methodist Church in Flagstaff. She had been informally serving there for several years while she had been in seminary, and previously at Black Mesa, while she spent her summers on the river.

In her last days at Hickory Run she was packing up her things to get ready to return to Flagstaff and forge into another summer in the Grand Canyon in the seat of a Canyon Tours raft. Her stepfather Al, the owner of the company, was always looking for boatmen this time of year, and for the last few months he’d had her penciled into the seat of a raft, like she’d done the past six seasons. She’d been looking forward to it; she’d of course, also been looking forward to having a church, but she knew that these things sometimes took time. Running a raft down the Canyon was at least familiar, and she knew how to do it.

She expected to be on the White Team again, with her best friends outside the family, Kevin and Sarah Haynes. Kevin had taught her how to row a raft and read the river, and she’d always been on a crew with him; Sarah had been her suitemate at Hickory Run for three terms and had first been on a Canyon Tours crew as a helper the summer before. She and Kevin had gotten pretty close over the course of the summer, and on their winter break a few months before the two had gotten married. Nanci looked forward to seeing how that had worked out; she’d been hearing positive things for the last few months, but hearing about them and actually seeing them were two different things. Sarah had been very shy and sheltered when Nanci first met her, and she’d really come out of her shell, so she’d looked forward to being on the crew with them again. It was the next best thing to having a church that she could imagine.

Then, at Mrs. Keller’s Place a week ago the previous Friday, while Nanci had been packing her things preparatory to getting on the road for Flagstaff, she received a phone call from the bishop of the Desert Southwest Conference. “Are you still interested in having a church?” the Bishop asked.

“Yes, I am,” she replied. “Has something opened up?”

“Well, yes, but this is a little unusual,” the bishop told her. “I just received a call from Bishop Ennis of the Rocky Mountain Conference. They just had a pastor resign. They’re hurting for a replacement and she doesn’t have anyone she can send there on short notice. The thing is that this involves two tiny little churches that are pretty close to being in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’m used to being around small churches,” she said. “Hillside Methodist is medium sized, but I’ve spent time supplying some really small churches, both in Flagstaff and Kentucky. The ones in Kentucky were very rural.”

“I know about that,” he replied. “I’ve been keeping an eye on your record at Hickory Run and they sound quite impressed with you. On top of that, your time in the Grand Canyon tells me that you’re good at handling unusual circumstances. But I have to tell you that there are some other problems, mostly because I understand that the resigning pastor hasn’t done a very good job, so apparently no one is sorry to see him go. That’s why Bishop Ennis feels it’s important to get someone there in a hurry.”

“Well, though it’s kind of a last-minute thing, I’m pretty well packed up here, so going to one place is about like going to another one. Running a raft this summer is really a rather distant second choice to having a church for me.”

“So you’re interested?”

“Very much so. My only question involves my ordination. I know it’s scheduled for the annual conference this summer, but this would be in a different conference.”

“If you want to take the position, I’ll get with Bishop Ennis and we’ll work something out so it should go through without a hitch. I’m sure she understands the situation or she wouldn’t have asked me in the first place. Anyway, she will want to meet with you, and the Pastor-Parish Committee of the combined churches will want to pass on you, too.”

Thus it was that when Nanci loaded her car she wound up driving to Denver rather than Flagstaff. Bishop Ennis was apparently impressed when Nanci met with her just a week ago now, and the committee from the churches seemed to like her when she met with them six days ago. The deal was done that quickly; Nanci left some of the things from her car in the empty parsonage, then drove to Flagstaff to apologize to her stepfather for backing out of the seat of a raft on such short notice. He didn’t seem to mind; in fact, he was delighted, knowing that having a church was what Nanci really wanted to do. She spent the next couple days pulling things together to take back to Colorado with her.

So, rather than having all summer to be with her family and friends, Nanci only had time for a brief dinner with them before getting on the road back to Tyler. Though this had been very unexpected, it was what she had been working toward for years. Now all she had to do was to make a success of it.

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