Good girls make bad mistakes,Jorja thought, but she said, “We made jewelry boxes out of macaroni and cigar boxes, and we sprayed them with gold paint.”
“Yes, we did, but kids today have to have more than that,” Ora Mae said with a long sigh. “All those ridiculous videos we play now.”
“I think getting out of the house and giving Ruby some breathing room would be good for her,” Nettie Jones said.
All the women around them nodded.
“But I’m here.” Jorja managed a smile. “Put me to work. I’m willing for anything, except the nursery.”
“We don’t have a nursery,” Nettie explained. “Bible school starts with four-year-olds.”
“I can use some help,” Ora Mae piped up. “I’ve got a six- and seven-year-old class, and this year’s theme is the Castle of Courage. Don’t you teach kindergarten kids?”
Jorja stepped over closer to Ora Mae. “Yes, ma’am, I teach kindergarten in a small town north of Houston. We did that theme in my church last year.”
“Then you should be able to help me corral these young’uns. Things aren’t like they were when you was a little girl. Kids today don’t mind like they did then,” Ora Mae said.
Going to church. Worshipping. Helping with the smaller kids. This was definitely Jorja’s place in the world, and she loved it so much more than she did teaching—even in the Christian school where she taught nine months out of the year. The other ladies all disappeared, leaving only Jorja and Ora Mae.
“Follow me.” Ora Mae motioned with a flick of her blue-veined hand. “We’ve got a few last-minute preparations to get done before the kids all get here.”
Jorja fell in behind the older woman and inhaled deeply, taking in the lemony smell of the stuff the ladies used to clean the church. She liked the aroma of fresh flowers because it reminded her of her childhood, but she just loved the scent of a sanctuary when she first walked in.
“It reminds me of Jesus,” she whispered.
“What does?” Ora Mae asked.
She certainly does not need hearing aids,Jorja thought.
“The sanctuary, when it’s all fresh and a bunch of bodies with shaving lotion and cologne hasn’t messed it all up,” Jorja answered.
Ora Mae opened the door to the classroom at the end of the hallway. “You got that right. This is our room right here. I’d complain about having to walk so far on these old knees, but it is right across from the ladies’ room, so that’s a good thing.”
Positive attitude,Jorja thought.This is what I need after a day of arguing with Anna Rose.
“Oh. My. Goodness. This is awesome,” Jorja gasped when she entered the classroom behind Ora Mae. “You’ve done a much better job than the class I helped with last year. The kids are going to love this.”
The first banner hanging on the wall had a knight standing tall on one end and “Stand in Your Love” on the other.
“The lesson we’ll teach is standing up for Jesus when someone asks if you go to church. We have to keep it simple so this age understands.” Ora Mae pointed to another banner that had a castle printed on it, along with the words “Be Ye Kind” across it. The third had knights on horses on either side, with “Name the First Five Books of the Bible” written above them.
“We’ve got a coloring sheet to match each of the banners. One for each day. I’ve found that teaching a lesson while they color gets the message across to them better than anything. Then, for our craft projectthat they get to take home on the last day, I bought little castles for them to paint.” Ora Mae beamed, but then her expression changed.
“Are you okay?” Jorja asked.
“I’m fine, just a little sad. This will be my last year to teach Bible school,” Ora Mae answered. “I wanted it to be real special, and you helping me out is just the icing on the cake—but I’m an old dinosaur, and kids today need someone who’s up on all the technology and has a lot more energy than I do. Why don’t you move back to Shamrock and take my job? Most of the projects now come in digital form, but I’m too outdated to know all that PowerPoint stuff.”
Jorja stashed her purse under a desk that had been turned into a piece of the castle and sidestepped the question. “Why are you quitting?”
“I’ve been planning on moving to an assisted-living center in Amarillo with my older sister. ’Course, I have to wait for a spot, but I want to be ready to move when I can,” Ora Mae answered. “I’m so glad you like the room. I’ve been working on it since last Monday. We just need to get the craft table set up so they can paint their castles after they’ve had their snacks in the fellowship hall. That way the lesson is first, and we break it up with snacks; then they come back and work on their little projects ...” She continued to talk as she set a dozen small plaster castles around a worktable. “You can put a watercolor set beside each one.”
“And a little cup of water to clean their brushes, right?” Jorja began to hum as she picked up the box with the paint supplies.
“Even though I miss Irene, I’m glad you came to help out,” Ora Mae said. “I should have asked before now, but how are Irene and Ruby doing? We all thought it would be Irene who’d be down with knee surgery. Didn’t dawn on us that Ruby might break a hip and need help before Irene would.”
“They seem to be coping pretty well,” Jorja answered. “We would gladly go over every evening after we close the shop to help them, but Nana Irene has a bur in her saddle. She says we can only call and go see her on Saturday afternoon.”
Ora Mae glanced up at the clock hanging on the far wall. “That could be because she wants the bunch of you to learn to get along and lean on each other. She’s told me several times about how she prays that someday y’all will be a proper family instead of a bickering one. Now, it’s time for us to go gather up our students.”
