Chapter One, Episode 103 - Allowances - Situationally Theirs

Review, Revision, Edit and Update:
This review has reminded me that I have to pay close attention to Martha. A fairly excitable character, her dialogue tends to jump from one person to the another without much warning. Sometimes, no warning at all. Her dialogue with Joey, regarding her wedding, was the subject of the majority of my revisions today.

Allowances

Mr. Tucker, Reverend Tucker to some in his community, had been asked to perform a wedding ceremony at the Beaufort Estate. The Covid19 virus had infected even the spiritual side of life. Reverend Tucker was asked to close his church to the general public and limit the number of services, but only temporarily. Some Sundays, there was little in the collection plate. He had to revise his spiritual teachings to fit the time. His pulpit had become the telephone and other forms of technology, even small group services over social media programs. Weddings, baptisms and funerals had to be cancelled or postponed. He didn't like to think of the morgues in the city filled with those that had passed on, awaiting their final resting place. 

His son, sixteen year old Joey Tucker, while working out at the Beaufort Estate, came upon a small piece of work for his father. It would get him out of the house and face to face with the couple wanting to marry. In a wicker rocker on his front porch, Reverend Tucker took his pipe from its pouch and tipped a little tobacco in the it’s bowl. He set it aside on the small side table, picked up his newspaper and flipped it open. After a few moments, he folded it and put it beside his pipe. “I think I’ll accept their offer. One ceremony doesn’t pay much, but Joey seems to think I should take it on. And it will do me good to get my robes on and be out in the country.” Putting his pipe in his mouth, he picked up his newspaper, flipped it open and finished reading the article on Covid19 and the religious community.

~~~~~

Joey thundered down the stairs, the upstairs all dusted, vacuumed and polished. He slowed as he heard voices in the kitchen. “Elizabeth, the pastor we had booked for our wedding, had to bow out. Too busy at the hospitals. I do understand and wish him well, but James and I may have to postpone our wedding....”.  Hearing the thumps down the stairs, Martha hesitated. Glad to see Joey, her greeting was warm and welcoming to this young man she had liked from the moment she met him. “Hello, Joey. How are you and how is everything in the upstairs? Did Sarah bother you at all today?” 

Sarah, the twelve year old resident ghost at Beaufort, had previously had a crush on Joey and had become quite an annoyance. She kept the upstairs in constant disarray in a vain attempt to keep him there longer. Joey, on the advice of his employer, enlisted Sarah’s help. After only a short time, Sarah tired of this activity. She drifted away, fading away through one of the upstairs windows. Joey had stopped telling his father about Sarah's ghostly escapades, concerned that his mother would overhear. If his mother ever got wind of Sarah’s presence, she’d stop Joey from ever going out to work for that ‘uppity woman’. His father, the Reverend Tucker, on the other hand was quite pleased. Joey came home still full of energy, after a long day at work cleaning, then gardening and a five mile ride home. He always had a smile on his face, something that had been in short supply in the last many weeks of restrictions.

“I'm just fine, Miss Martha. There's nothing I need right now upstairs. I've got everything I need. I've made up a list of things I use so if I run out of anything I can let you know. If you're not here, I'll just put a note under your door. Will that be ok?” Martha nodded towards her office door. “See that little basket on my door. I have a file in there marked 'Supplies Needed'. You can just put it in there. I check it, first thing in the morning, everyday I'm in. Now, what about Sarah?” Martha had been a bit upset about the turmoil Sarah had caused. She didn't want to lose this young man because of it. Joey grinned. “No more problems there. She didn't like having to move things around all the time unless it was her idea. Just like a girl.” Joey hesitated to go further, because he didn't want Martha and Cook to think he was an eavesdropper. But his father really needed to get some work that wasn't computer work so he pushed on.

“There is something else, though, Miss Martha.” Still pretty new at Beaufort, he was a bit nervous, but jumped right in. “My father is a pastor. I heard what you were saying when I came down the stairs.” Joey saw Martha's face light up. “I could ask him if he could do the ceremony. That’s if you would want me to.” 

“Would you? Really, Joey? It would be such short notice. Our wedding day is coming up very, very soon. We’d like to do a rehearsal on July 1st............” Excited and relieved, Martha abruptly turned to Elizabeth. “Let's set up everything up over at the cottage and plan the rehearsal supper. James has already called Giles. Did you talk to Samuel? Of course you did, Elizabeth.” Suddenly, Martha remembered that Joey was still there. “Please, ask your father if he can marry us. Should I email him or phone him?” Joey always carried a few of his father's business cards. Mostly because he was proud of him. But today, he was glad he had them. A little wrinkled and bent from the pockets of a teenage boy, but still legible. Martha was so pleased she had the young man on staff. “Thank you, thank you, Joey. You've saved a very special day!” 

~~~~~

So it was, that on the evening of July 1st, Emmie and Dez would see five people at the cottage. The person they did not recognize was none other than the Reverend Tucker, Joey's father. Two others arrived a bit later ~ Giles, the estate chauffeur and Joanie, Martha's daughter, also to be in attendance, were on their way. 

“Sometime, reaching out and taking someone’s 

hand is the beginning of a journey. 

At other times, it is allowing another to take yours”

~ Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration