Ties That Bind Read Online Free PDF Page A

don’t know about that. My brother’s wife was Eye-talian. Nice girl, but too fertile. They had nine kids. Drove my brother to the poorhouse.”
    Squinting his birdlike eyes, Waldo addressed the group. “We just spent good money repainting the parsonage. If some family with a buncha kids moves in there, we’ll have to redo the whole job. Is this fella married? How many children they got?”
    â€œFour,” Ted admitted. “With another due to arrive in April.”
    There was a murmuring among the group.
    â€œMoving on,” Ted said wearily. “Philip A. Clarkson also graduated from seminary in the spring. He is forty and un married.”
    Abigail kicked me under the table. “Unmarried,” she mouthed.
    â€œStop it,” I mouthed back, just as clearly.
    â€œIn addition to a Divinity degree,” Ted continued, “Reverend Clarkson has a Master of Social Work. He spent sixteen years working in the field, first in a home for senior citizens, then a rural hospital, and finally in a large metropolitan high school.”
    â€œPhilip A. Clarkson,” Deirdre mused. “He wouldn’t happen to be related to Philip R. Clarkson, would he? My sister is a member of his congregation in Boston, one of the largest churches in the denomination. He’s a wonderful speaker!”
    Ted beamed. “Yes, I believe this is his son. My phone connection to Reverend Oswald was poor, but before we were cut off he said this is Reverend Clarkson’s only child. If he’s half the orator his father is, we’d be very fortunate to hire him.”
    There were murmurs of approval as the board took in this information.
    â€œIt’s too bad we don’t have time to bring him in for an interview,” Miranda said. “But imagine! Having the son of such a famous pastor here in New Bern! I think Ted did an amazing job, finding such a well-qualified candidate in less than a day.”
    Adam Kingsbury, who is in his fourth year of what was to be a two-year term as church treasurer, no one else being willing to take on the job, was chewing nervously on his thumbnail.
    â€œTed, we haven’t discussed finances. How are we going to get money to pay an additional salary? What about insurance?”
    Ted held up his hands. “It’s all going to work out. We’ll be able to put our new pastor on the Conference’s insurance plan. As far as his salary,” Ted drew his bushy gray eyebrows together, “I think we’re going to have to put off plans for a new furnace.”
    â€œOh, no!”
    â€œNot again! We barely got through last winter.”
    â€œI know, but I don’t see another alternative. Do you?” Ted let his gaze rest on Abigail, who ignored him.
    â€œThat’s it, then. We’ll just have to make do with the old furnace and pray that God makes it last another year. Now,” he said, clasping his hands together, “it sounds like we’ve settled on our candidate. We just need someone to make a motion. Margot?”
    I looked around at the others, surprised that Ted would call on me to make the motion and more than a little annoyed to see the wide smile on Abigail’s face. I knew what she was thinking, and I was having none of it. Single I am and single I will remain. I have accepted this, so why can’t everybody else?
    I felt a kick under the table and jumped. Abigail, still smiling that irritating smile, tipped her head to one side, urging me to get on with it.
    â€œI move that we call the Reverend Philip A. Clarkson as interim pastor of the New Bern Community Church.”
    â€œSecond!” Abigail chirped so loudly that she startled the again-dozing Waldo, who jerked his head up and shouted, “Aye!”

4
Margot
    A bigail flipped down the visor and peered intently into the narrow mirror while she applied her lipstick. “Watch out for potholes, Margot. You’re making me smear it.”
    I kept