Here are Chapters one and two.  Enjoy!

ONE

 It was one of those moments when I think I should quit the priesthood.

Thursday, May 14. 10:43 a.m.

Yes, I looked at the clock. It’s a habit I picked up watching 70s cop show reruns with my dad. Got a crisis? Check a clock. You never know when you’ll be required to account for your whereabouts.

And though this crisis wasn’t a murder-at least, not at 10:43-it did involve a crazy woman. And crazy women scare me to death.

The morning had gone well. I knew I had Friday off to travel to a soccer reunion and I had a lingering lunch planned with Jamie at Navy Pier, so even the chaos in the Little Lambs Pre-Kindergarten room hadn’t strung me out. As vice-principal of the Hyde Park Episcopal Primary School, I’d had to step in to run a class during an emergency absence of a teacher before. And I’d seen worse than Melissa Booer vomiting Cheerios all over Chelsea Schimoff’s stuffed pink poodle, Bunny. I’d remained steady in the path of Chelsea’s cataclysmic meltdown as I put Bunny in the washer. But Jacqueline Booer’s response to my phone call requesting that she come pick up her puking kid snapped my pulse to a whirring high.

“I asked you,” she said, “to explain to me exactly how abandoning a three-year old in her hour of need is Christian. Or educational? You’re supposed to be both and you’re doing a pretty lousy job.”

Warning, Will Robinson! (I’d watched a lot of 60s sci-fi in reruns with my dad too).  Insane woman. Illogical. Normal human reasoning may cause disaster. Red alert!

I wanted to tell her that she was the one doing a lousy job. I wanted to fling some Bible verse back at her about how mothers should pick up their sick kids so everyone else in the school didn’t get sick, but I couldn’t think of one. I can never think of a Bible verse when I need one.

“Do I need to chat with the bishop,” she continued, “about how you’re running things? He and I belong to the same sailing club, you know.”

I wanted to tell her to get off her righteous horse and drive her shiny new Hummer from Chicago’s Magnificent Mile straight down Lake Shore and across 57^th Street to pick up her kid, damn it. Or to help her understand how much her little girl loved her and that only a mother’s touch would soothe the tummy ache. But instead I hid behind the reinforced wall of policy.

“Pre-kindergarten policy requires that potentially contagious children must be picked up immediately by a parent or else admission to the class can be revoked.” I paused. “The bishop will remind you of that when you speak to him, I’m sure.”

Okay, that was a dig. I shouldn’t have done it. It probably didn’t help matters later. But I wanted to kick something and my ball was in the car.

“Your ability to cite policy does not impress me,” Mrs. Booer snapped, but said she’d be there as soon as she could.

One Veggie Tales tape later, Melissa still lay white-faced on her little cot and Christine, the pre-kindergarten intern from the high school, had dispersed juice packs to soothe the other eight who glanced nervously between Melissa and Chelsea who had not yet stopped sniffling over the absence of Bunny. At 11:17 the dryer beeped and I flew across the room to reunite poodle and puffy kid. I reminded myself that in forty-five minutes I’d have Jamie’s soft brown eyes all to myself. Anything to divert my growing fury at Melissa’s absent mom.

“And heeeeeeeere’s Bunny!” I shouted, sweeping the still warm Bunny across the room like Underdog into Chelsea’s waiting arms.

“Hooray!” Christine shouted.

“Hooray!” the other kids shouted in response.

Wanting to seal the celebration, sloppy-nosed Kiera Macon, who had clutched her blanket to her chest throughout Chelsea’s distress, leaned in and planted a kiss on Bunny’s head.

“Mine!” Chelsea cried, pulling Bunny closer.

“It’s okay, Chelsea,” I said, the embodiment of peace and goodwill. I couldn’t mentor Jacqueline Booer into compassionate behavior, but I could this three-year old. I flicked the stray strands that had escaped my ponytail. “Kiera just wants to love you and Bunny.”

Encouraged, Kiera leaned in to grant another kiss to Bunny. That’s when tiny Chelsea, she of tear-filled lashes, hauled back and slugged Kiera with a prize-fighter’s wallop. I swooped the wailing Kiera out of range as Chelsea wound up for a second punch, but failed to secure the cherry juice box the now sobbing Kiera held too loosely in a sticky hand.

Of course, an enormous and irrevocable stain is exactly what I deserved for wearing my new cashmere sweater to work. God whacks the prideful square on the backside of the head, Aunt Kate used to say. I’d wanted to look fabulous for lunch with Jamie. The pale yellow sweater had deepened the chestnut highlights in my otherwise black hair and I’d thought it’s just a few hours. I can feel attractive all morning.

Was it too much to ask to wear nice clothes to work once in a while?

Whack!

As I handed Kiera off to Christine and grabbed a wad of rough brown paper towels to blot my sweater, I felt my skin crawl, my legs twitch to run, to escape the Little Lambs.

“Hey, Lonnie?” Christine said. “Check it out. That stain looks like the Virgin Mary in profile? Or something.”

I just stared at her.

“Or maybe it looks like Satan, wearing a hoodie, or something?” She stood, hip cocked to hold the still sniffling Kiera against the red sweatshirt of the high school cross country team. In three months, when she started college, she’d be free of all this.

I looked at the mirror hung over the toddler room sink. It was tilted down, so toddlers could see themselves so we adults had to duck to see our hair. But from my six foot even height, all I could see was the straight edge of my hair hanging over my collarbone and one big red blot. I couldn’t see a resemblance to either Virgin or Devil.

“Or maybe it’s a sign? That something really, really–.” She paused. “Really bad is going to happen to you? Or something?”

“Something bad already has.” I blotted with renewed ferocity. “How about  a bright side?” I needed a bright side, something to show this wasn’t a waste of my double major in psychology and religion, my Master’s of Divinity degree, my ordination. I spent my days in rooms filled with dancing Elmos and Veggie Tales DVDs under fluorescent lights that brought out my crow’s feet and sparkling new gray hairs. I was almost thirty-five for God’s sake. There had to be a bright side.

“You could, maybe, sell it on ebay or something?” Christine suggested, shifting Kiera.

Maybe, if it looked like Jesus and wept.

“Oh, hey, that reminds me?” Christine set Kiera down and dug into the pockets of her low tight jeans. “When you were in the laundry or something I took this message?” She handed me a folded piece of construction paper.

I stared at the message written in large loop letters with a fat purple marker. j says no lunch. meeting. late tonite. so sorry.

 ”So does that mean you aren’t going out for lunch? Because if not, then can I–?”

“I’m leaving now,” I said. “Have Sheila come in from the office to give you a hand.” I wadded the towels with a two-fisted clutch.

Christine blinked. “But you said twelve to two. It’s only eleven-forty. I can’t-”

“Handle them, Christine, okay?” Toddler babble washed over me. “Just do your job and handle them.”

I bulls-eyed the wad into the trashcan with a behind the back toss, but didn’t pause to celebrate. With a glance down at the red stain on my chest, I grabbed my tote and got the hell out of there.

TWO

 Outside the narrow brownstone building, I charged south on Everett street hating the uneven sidewalk, loathing the trash in the street and my environmentally-stunted neighbors who’d thrown it there. Sun-heated air swept out of my old Honda Civic as I reached in to drop the tote and grab my sneakers. I yanked my straight hair back into a ponytail loop, switched shoes, scooped up my soccer ball and jogged back to the school, a converted apartment building which horseshoed around a small lawn in front and had alley on either side and in the back. I unlocked the black iron security fence, then dropped the ball and slammed it into the side wall near the second floor fire escape.  It bounced away and I tore down the alley after it. I trapped the ball with my foot, then picked up an unbroken Schnapps bottle. So much for keeping people out of the alley.

I aimed for a spot just below the stairway’s first platform and kicked hard. The ball went high and slammed into it, returning at a sharp angle. As I chased it, a black Hummer pulled past the alley and double parked. Jacqueline Booer jumped out in front of a passing car which laid on one long angry honk. My foot jiggled on the ball as she stormed into the building.

I should go in and deal with her face to face. Be a man, so to speak.

I studied the empty bottle in my hand, then dribbled toward the dumpster beyond the stairs. I was doing the right thing, the wise thing, staying out here. I’d snapped at poor Christine. No telling what I’d say to Mrs. Booer and then live to regret. Plus she’s crazy. Sheila can handle it.

I stood near the fence where I could see her car, tapping the ball with my foot. Only a few minutes passed before the woman appeared, dragging Melissa by the hand, followed by Sheila.

“-completely unacceptable for the money I’m paying,” Mrs. Booer said. “Supposed to support  family values!” She yanked open the back door of the car. “Families value two parents working.” She slung her toddler into its depths. “We value reliable daycare.”

“I understand your frustration, Mrs. Booer,” Sheila said evenly, her face the picture of calm, her blouse unstained. “But this is not a day care center, it’s a school.”

So much better than me. I’d be screaming at her to be gentle to her poor sick kid.

Mrs. Booer mumbled something from inside the car, then stood up straight. “Call yourselves Christian. I’ll tell that to the bishop too!”

Righteous hag, I thought, then immediately glanced skyward. Sorry.

“That would take a lot of time,” Sheila said, closing the door on Melissa. “Perhaps I could take care of that for you, by contacting the bishop and asking him to review the policy for children who become ill during the day.” She held the front door while Mrs. Booer strapped in.

I didn’t hear any more, just watched the Hummer sail away while Sheila waved. When it had turned onto 57th, Sheila glanced at my Civic, then at the alley. I didn’t move from my hiding spot, but she knew. She waved a big thumb’s up in my direction. “Disaster averted,” she hollered, then practically skipped back into the center.

God love her. She ought to be vice-principle instead of me. She would be too, if only I could get that rector’s job in Oak Brook.

I picked up a squashed Starbucks cup between my thumb and forefinger.  I’d submitted my resume months ago for the rector’s opening at St. Gregory’s Episcopal in Oak Brook. It was perfect, the only rector’s job I’d found that I could commute to. Moving was out of the question, with Jamie’s laser surgery clinic just getting rolling. We’d found the perfect condo in Streeterville and once things got settled, she’d have normal hours, not the torture routine that the hospital had put her through. The school administrative gig supported us through the clinic’s start-up and had got me working in the local diocese, a sure first step into a rectorship, I’d figured.

It had been thirty months, twenty-nine past my discovery that school administration, while worthy, was not what God put me on earth to do. And the only local pastoral job open in all that time was the one at St. Greg’s, so I’d put a lot of hope into it. All these weeks, and I still hadn’t heard anything.

I stared at the lipstick stain on the cup’s edge, felt the sweat trickle down my back and into my new sweater. I had on worn sneakers beneath dry-clean only camel pants and a scuffed black and white soccer ball tucked under my arm. I was hiding in an alley that smelled like the bad parts of an old locker room from a crazy mom with a sooped up gas guzzler because I didn’t want her to say anything even sort of bad about me to my bishop and hurt my chances for a new job. I’d snapped at Christine and worse, left her alone in charge of the Little Lambs.

Maybe it was the red blot on my heart, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to quit. Just call my bishop and explain, then talk to Carol, the principal and quit. Sheila could run the place better than me and they could survive short-handed a little while.

I tossed the cup into the dumpster, heard it hit plastic bags below. I could call and quit right now and head off to my soccer reunion tomorrow and never ever have to come back.

I’d be free.

The bubbling that thought sent through my veins lasted only a second until my stomach tightened and I slumped against the building’s wall. Imagine explaining that to Jamie. I could see her disappointment, feel my failure to support her as she built her dream. I had agreed to do it this way and I was no quitter. No way.

But how many more days, months, years with the kids and their moms?

Help, help, help, I prayed.

I expected no voice from above and got none, so I tried to think of someone to ask for help who might actually answer me.  I knew Jamie’d say the same thing she said last time I mentioned quitting. But babe, you do such a great job with the kids. Plus it pays the rent and the Audi lease, helps with the lobby magazines, keeps food in the refrigerator-the clinic isn’t making much yet. But it will soon, babe. Then you can quit. Mom would tell me to follow my heart and ignore the bills. Dad would offer to buy me a Coke and sip his own with me in companionable silence while looking for M*A*S*H reruns. My older sister Cassie would roll her eyes and assure me my life held nothing like the traumas of trying to find the right brand of vanilla almond milk in the new Krogers or getting four kids to various practices and rehearsals. My younger sister Annie wouldn’t pick up and wouldn’t call back.

You’re a wimp, is your problem. That’s what my Aunt Kate would say, if I asked her, which I never would, not only because she’d been dead for thirteen years but because she was crazy and mean.  Most people don’t like their jobs so why do you think you deserve to love yours? Answer me!

I shook my head to clear her voice and tapped the ball gently against the wall. I had to get Jamie to understand how miserable this made me, then she’d want me to quit. I unclipped my cell phone and speed dialed the clinic. Mary, the receptionist I’d never met, told me that Dr. Wollsey had already left for a lunch meeting.

She was having lunch with someone-just not me.

I wondered who? Which other doctor? Or attorney? Or insurance agent? Or drug salesperson? The list always went on and on when Jamie cancelled.

No, I didn’t want to leave a message. I hung up and nailed the ball into the back of the alley so hard I thought the brick might shake. Everything sucked.

I ran down the alley to touch the ball and kicked it hard again. These walls don’t suck, I thought as I chased and kicked again. They’re reliable, they send the ball back. I kicked again. And again and again and again. Soon my sweater hung on me like a used bath towel and my ears rang from the echo of leather smacking brick. I leaned over, my hands on my knees, feeling all of thirty-four and out of shape.

I needed to find a soccer team again.

Then I had a sudden vision of my old team, The Well’s Belles, the ladies I’d see tomorrow in Michigan.  I imagined them standing in a huddle at the alley gate looking at me all red-faced and puffing in my dress clothes, kicking balls inside this cell instead of at a park or on a pitch. Having my own toddler-esque cataclysmic fit. I could just see Marion’s face puckered up in that motherly way of hers, tsk-tsking me.  

I’m a complete nutcase.

I picked up the ball and headed out of the alley. I would dry off as best I could, pick up two orders of fried catfish from the stand on 56^th, then get my butt back in there and give one to Christine. Then I’d be a good vice-principle until five o’clock. Tomorrow I’d get up bright and early and escape east around Lake Michigan to see my soccer gals.  The Woman at the Well Episcopal Church team I’d played with during all those summers I’d spent with Aunt Kate. The only thing that kept me sane then-maybe they’d help restore my sanity now. It was the fifteenth reunion of our crazy come-from-behind church conference victory that made us all small town celebrities. These ladies had been my family when my real family was falling apart; they’d help me figure out how to survive. Marion would help me figure out how to convince Jamie that I wasn’t renigging on a commitment by quitting this job.

And we’d play soccer. Thank God. There was just something about soccer. It reminded you who you were, made solving problems easier. Tomorrow, I’d see the girls, run up and down the pitch, drink a few beers and figure life out. No problem.

Except, of course, when it came, “tomorrow” didn’t go quite as planned.