At three-thirty, Carla headed towards her car. Her mother and sister had left a half hour earlier with Mike and Nancy, and they had all made plans to meet at a restaurant for a light supper.
“Carla!”
Carla turned around to see Rita running towards her.
“I’m glad I caught you before you left. Thanks for all your help.”
“Oh, you’re welcome; thank you!” Carla responded as they hugged each other, both emotionally spent. “That was such a meaningful service, Rita—from start to finish. And I’m so tired. I can’t imagine how you must feel.”
“I feel so…thankful, Carla. Just think…” Tears filled her eyes. “…Patrice got to heaven before any of us. She’s got the low-down—I mean the high-up on the Grand Finale—but it’s not Finale!” They both smiled through their tears and hugged again.
“Grand Forever?” Carla suggested.
“Yeah, Grand Forever,” Rita said in a whisper. She smiled. “I’m going to remember that one,” she said, crossing her arms and rubbing her left shoulder with her right hand to stay warm in the brisk May air. “I talked with Midge Ferguson at the reception. What an interesting little gal. She’s going to put together a vignette of poems for the Wall.”
“She is?” Carla smiled happily. “I’m so glad. My mother says she’s really talented.”
“And, Jim said that Marc and his two friends—Gene and Joe are their first names, I think—anyway, they want to start a foundation to help raise funds for the Wall. Can you believe it? And… they also want to start a support group for parents to help them learn how to embrace the children they’ve lost to abortion and give them their rightful place on the family tree. Isn’t that great?”
Carla smiled, shaking her head in disbelief. “That’s amazing. God is amazing. I’m overwhelmed just thinking of what he’s done in Marc’s life.” She added, “In my life!” She opened her car door, stifling a yawn and smiling over her shoulder. “And now I’m going home to take a nap—I’m absolutely wiped.”
Rita caught Carla’s arm. “Don’t go just yet, OK?”
Carla turned and looked at her in surprise.
“Marc needs you. You must know that.”
Carla looked down at the ground and back up at Rita. “Yes, I do know that, but he’s so swamped talking with people, and I don’t want to put added pressure on him.”
“Well, he asked me to catch you if I could. Just wait here. I’ll go back inside.”
“All right.” Carla climbed into her car as Rita hurried back to the church. She reclined her seat as far as she could and closed her eyes in exhaustion.
About twenty minutes later, she sat up, wide awake, startled by a soft knock on the hood of her car and looking right at Marc standing in front of it.
He immediately came around to the side. “I didn’t want to scare you,” he said as he opened the car door and helped Carla climb out. “Thanks for waiting. How are you—besides very tired?”
“I’m all right. How are you?”
Marc took a deep breath. “OK.”
“The service was wonderful, Marc—so meaningful.”
“Yeah.”
Carla smiled gently in support but said nothing, aware of her friend’s total exhaustion.
“I’m glad you’re wearing a jacket. Can we walk a little while? I’d like to show you the design for the memorial stone.” Marc pulled out a paper from his inside suit pocket as they began walking. “These are calla lilies, Patrice’s flower, you know.” Marc’s hand covered up the message.
“Ah, yes. They were beautiful today, by the way.” Carla interrupted.
“Thank you.” Marc gave the paper to Carla, who studied it for a moment. “The dates aren’t in there yet, but do you like it?”
“Yes, very much. Let me read it again.” She stopped, reading what Marc had chosen for an inscription, tears welling in her eyes.
P a t r i c e H a m l i n
Child of God, Mother of Trent, Safe in Jesus
Greater Love Hath No Man than This,
That A Man Lay Down His Life for His Friend.
“Jim and Rita helped me.”
“It’s perfect.” Carla stopped walking for a moment, studying the paper. “Yes,” she reiterated, “it’s perfect!” She gave the paper to him and he slipped it back into his coat pocket.
They walked without talking for a long while in the tree-shaded neighborhood of Waverly Church. It was Marc who broke the silence.
“Everyone’s been very supportive the past few days—Jim and Rita, Joe, Gene, and of course you and Nancy and Michael. But you know what’s meant most to me?” He looked at Carla walking beside him, and she looked up at him, shaking her head.
“God helped me. God, Carla! I felt as though He wanted me to ask Jim and Rita to be in charge of the service. So I did, and every detail just seemed to work out.” Marc smiled, shaking his head as if in amazement. Then he added, thoughtfully, “In a way, it was a memorial service for Trent, too.”
“Yes. Yes, it was.” Carla spoke the words in quiet agreement.
Marc took her hand and inhaled deeply. “I’m relieved it’s over.”
“I’m sure.”
“I don’t mean the funeral. I was actually thinking about Trent. His death was so painful to me…”
“I know.”
“…but I didn’t realize until the last few days the extent to which I was affected by Patrice’s seemingly glib attitude towards his death. It bothered me—I knew that. But I didn’t know how much it had bothered me until I learned she’d had a change of heart, and that heaviness I’d carried was gone.
“The fact that Patrice came to appreciate the worth of our child means…means… You can’t imagine how much that means to me.” Marc stopped and turned to Carla. “My son deserved a mother’s love. I think he had it in the end, don’t you?”
“I believe that with all my heart.” Carla’s smile was gentle, as she nodded. “In the end she loved him enough to give up her life for Austin—without thinking twice about it.”
“Yeah.” Tears were in Marc’s eyes. “It was a big change.”
“Amazing change,” Carla clarified. “It’s…hard to believe.”
“Do you know what Rita told me, Carla?”
Carla looked up at Marc, tears still in her own eyes. “What?”
“She said she believes the change in Patrice’s attitude was initiated by the friendship she found through the supper club.”
“Mmm…” Carla nodded, her eyebrows raised as she thought about that possibility, even as she wiped tears from her cheeks.
“You know how I asked you to be my private detective when I was concerned about her after we separated?”
“Mmhmm.” They were walking again and had reached the park.
“Well, what really pulled her through that depression was the friendship of you and Nancy and Rita.”
“Well, I’m not sure…”
“That’s what did it,” Marc said, overriding Carla’s objection. “And that’s what eventually brought about a change that reached to her very core. I’m convinced that’s what brought her to value Trent’s life.” He added quietly, “So strange to think that they’re both gone.”
This time it was Carla who stopped, and Marc turned to face her. She opened the left side of his suit coat and reached into the pocket, asking, “May I?” as she pulled out the folded piece of paper with the memorial stone inscription. “Read it again, Marc,” she said.
He glanced at the paper for a moment, nodding. “It’s reassuring, isn’t it?”
Carla took Marc’s hand, explaining apologetically, “I need to get home. I’m meeting my family for an early dinner.” She looked up at him. “Of course you know we’d love to have you join us.”
Marc smiled with pursed lips. “Thanks, but I think I’ll go home and crash and just lie low this weekend.” He sighed wearily. “I won’t be in the office next week. I need some time to myself, so you won’t be hearing from me at all.”
“Good.”
“Good?” Marc’s playful tease was surfacing. “You won’t miss me?”
Carla smiled and felt her face flush. “We’ll all miss you.” She looked up again, only to see Marc patiently waiting for her to answer his unspoken question.
“And I will miss you,” she added, blushing all the more.
“Well, good.” He put his arm around her, steering them both back in the direction of the church. “But you’ll probably be too busy to actually miss me.” He looked affectionately at her as she walked beside him, his arm still around her. “Are you free next Saturday afternoon for that hike we never took?”
“What hike?”
“Speed Rock Trail—the one you said you’d rather see in the daytime.”
“Oh! I’d like that. Is it hard?”
“Naah. Just wear tennis shoes.”
“OK. What time?”
“11:00?”
“Sounds good.” She smiled up at him, as he squeezed her to his side, planting a light little kiss on her forehead.
All the way home, Carla was overwhelmed with thankfulness for the transformation in Patrice, and for the fact that Marc was so grateful for it. She also relived again and again in her mind the pleasure she had felt when he planted that kiss.