2200 hours
As she walked into the living room of her grandmother's house, a towel wrapped loosely around her hair from her shower, she smiled. "Have I missed the news yet?" she asked causally as she sat down in the first open chair and relaxed.
"It's just coming on now." Her grandma replied, as she shook her head. "Did you want to watch it?"
"Unless there's something you wanted to watch." She replied, as the news started and her grandmother shook her head no. "Then the news it is." She said, as the words BREAKING NEWS flashed across the screen. "Ah yes, what a way to start the evening..."she said as she picked up the remote to turn the volume up.
"This just in...a local Catholic Priest is in jail this evening..." The local news anchor said, as she sighed. "Hmm. Wonder if its anybody I know..." she said as they continued with the story. As a photo splashed up on the screen, she gasped. "OH MY GOD!" Jumping out of her chair, she picked up the phone and dialed the funeral home as fast as her fingers would allow her. As it was answered, she began talking, not even waiting for her boss's brother to finish he greeting. "Where is he?" she demanded.
"He ran out."
"Does he know about father?" she questioned, as she heard the man on the other line sigh.
"Yeah. The girls already called him earlier when they saw it on the news." He replied, as she sank into the couch. "How did you hear about it?"
"It was breaking news on 8." She replied. "Have him call me later." she added seconds later, before hanging up the phone, her body surely going into shock. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be.
~
Saturday, 12 October 2013
0900 hours
Coming into work, her hair down covering her face from the exhaustion and the fact that she had spent a good part of the night before crying, she stepped into the office and saw him already pounding away on the keyboard in front of him. Punching in, she sighed.
"Morning."
But it was greeted with a nod of his head.
"Did you happen to hear about father?" She questioned, already knowing the answer, but again, he merely nodded his head at her, as she sat down at her desk. "It isn't true is it?" she asked, her voice now just above a whisper. Trying hard not to look at her, afraid perhaps to see the hurt, surprised and confusion in her eyes, he looked over at her, his eyes never meeting hers. She deserved an answer.
"I'm afraid it is." He said gently as she shook her head, the tears pooling in them.
"It can't be. It just can't be. He would never...it's a mistake..." She started, but he shook his head, her questions echoing his own. "Why?"
"That's the question we all want to know." He said, as he sighed. "But regardless of that, we have a lot going on today, so as hard as it is for you, I need you to focus the best you can on the here and now." He added softly, as he looked up at her, her face covered in hundreds of expressions at once. "Can you do that for me?"
"Yes." She answered, as she took the pad he had picked up, a list of stuff he needed done, wrote on it. Looking down at the list, she sighed. How could he, of all people, be so calm about what had just happened to someone that he loved and cared about, almost as much as she did?
~
Saturday, 12 October 2013
1100 hours
"I have a parishioner on the phone. She heard about father and wants to know what we know about masses this weekend. What should I tell her?" she asked him about two hours later, as she pulled him off to the side and away from the visitation going on.
"Call sister and find out. Use her cell phone. I'm sure she won't be answering the church phone." He answered softly as she nodded her head.
"Why are they calling here? Why would we know what's going on?" she asked quickly.
"Because they figure if I don't know what's going on, nobody else will either." He replied as he headed back to the visitation as she headed for the office. In a strange way, she supposed that his reply made sense.
~
Sunday, 13 October 2013
2100 hours
Sitting at her desk the next night, working late and tears dried up for the moment, she found herself worrying about him. He hadn't said much in the past forty-eight hours about what was happening since Saturday morning, and she worried that perhaps he simply was going to ignore the entire thing. She was confused, and felt worse then she had ever remembered in her life, but still, other than the man she called her pastor, her concerns were only for her boss. How was he handling this? What was he thinking? Was he going to pull through all this, especially since he was so close to father? She knew that only time would tell.
Coming into the office, he sighed. It had been a horrible and long weekend, and as he sat down at his desk, he knew there was only one thing he could do. Flipping open the Rolodex, he found the card for the church and silently picked up the phone and dialed the number he wanted. After a moment, he sighed, as he began to leave his message of support for the man he called his pastor. Spinning around in her chair, she felt a small smile crawl onto her face as her concerns were laid to rest. She now had a good idea of how he was going to handle the plight of preteritus.
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