Roy nailed new shingles that he had fashioned from wood to match the size, shape, and material of the previous section of the roof. As he worked, his thoughts wandered to his childhood and the times that he would watch his father do this exact job.
His father was more academically inclined than Roy, a well-read and studious man of the Word, while Roy’s style of intelligence was more technical. He was better at working with his hands, finding solutions on how to fix things and analyzing the mechanics of everyday tools. This was probably why Roy’s attempts at studying Scripture by reading treatises of Biblical scholars fell flat and only devolved into arguments and disappointment from his father. Roy’s understanding of God was on a more simplistic level—he was more inclined to feel God’s presence working outdoors, serving Him with his hands, than by deep studies of the Scriptures.
Perhaps, Roy thought, that meant that he should have been up here on the roof years ago instead of watching his father put in the work. Maybe his father would not have been as frustrated with him if he had made more of an effort to explain his perspective and how his relationship with God worked. He could have then demonstrated a servant’s heart by relieving his father of the hard labor, allowing him to focus on preparing for the Sunday sermon while Roy climbed up here to repair patches on the roof.
But Roy didn’t do those things. Instead, he left the burden of running a church—the physicalandspiritual aspects of the job—entirely to his father while he distanced himself from him. He took a deep, pained breath as he reflected on this epiphany, pausing his work and squeezing his eyes shut as the guilt overwhelmed him. He had been far from an innocent party in his and his father’s falling out. There had been misunderstanding bred from a lack of communication on both sides.
After Roy hammered in the last nail of that patch, he sat on his haunches, looking up toward the sky. The sun was directly above the church now, indicating that it was high noon. He imagined his father looking down on him now from the Heaven that he believed in so deeply. He liked to believe that his father was proud of him as he watched his hands turn more calloused with each pound of the nail, with each new patch on the roof that was repaired. His father had poured his life into this place, and now Roy was pouring all of his physical efforts into restoring this place to be just as it was when his father was alive.
“Roy!”
He stopped hammering, surprised to hear his name being called. He looked down at the ground, and his heart did a somersault when he saw Cora standing there. The light wind was blowing her honey-blonde hair in front of her face, but she didn’t fix it because her hands were full. She was holding a lunch pail in one hand and a flask in the other.
Roy waved at her and made his way down the ladder. She smiled sweetly at him when he joined her on the ground, holding out the pail and the flask.
“I thought you could use some lunch after working so hard all day,” Cora said. “I also made you some coffee for energy. I know that you enjoyed it yesterday.”
Roy’s eyes softened, and he had to pause to swallow and rein in his emotions. It has been a long time, if ever, when someone thought this much about him and considered his needs. Cora Williams was like an angel sent by the God he had long ago rejected, and he didn’t know what he had done to deserve her attention.
“Thank you, Cora,” Roy said sincerely. “Would you like to join me?” He gestured toward a fallen tree trunk several yards away that they could use as a makeshift bench. Cora smiled sweetly and nodded, smoothing the backside of her dress before sitting.
Roy opened the lunch pail to find a pile of rolls, neatly wrapped in linen, filled with sliced ham and cheese. Tucked inside another linen were two hard-boiled eggs, and an apple in a third. As he held in his hand each item that Cora had packaged with such care, the inside of his chest inflated like a balloon as he was overcome with gratitude.
“This is quite honestly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me,” Roy said after he saw everything she had packed. Cora just shrugged and smiled.
He held out one of the sandwich rolls and offered it to her. Cora shook her head. “Oh no, that’s for you. You’re the one who’s been working so hard out in the sun all day.”
“Please take one. I’m not going to eat that much, and I’d hate to sit here and eat in front of you.”
Cora hesitated as her face flushed, but she graciously took the roll. They ate in silence for a few minutes, Roy savoring every bite of the warm rolls combined with the sharp flavor of the meat and cheese. As he glanced over at Cora, he noticed that her shoulders were tense, and he wondered if his presence made her nervous. He could only imagine the stories she had been told about Wheats Ridge and what she might assume about his character as a result of his association. He wanted her to get back to where she was yesterday, bouncing next to him and chatting enthusiastically as they walked to the church. He realized how desperately he wanted her to see the good in him.
“Is everything okay?” Roy asked cautiously. Cora didn’t answer at first, but the way she picked at pieces of her roll and tossed them one at a time on the ground answered his question. “You can talk to me about it, if you want.”
Cora looked up at Roy, her blue eyes filled with worry. “My father still wants me to marry Alfred,” she said finally.
Roy nodded slowly. He couldn’t explain why he had a sinking feeling in his chest upon hearing those words, but he pushed it aside so he could be a support for Cora.
“And that’s not what you want?”
Cora shook her head. “I want to marry for love. I know it’s silly, and I know that plenty of people marry for all sorts of reasons other than love and live perfectly happy lives, but that’s not what I’ve always dreamed about.”
“I don’t think it’s silly,” Roy said. “I mean, if that’s what you want, you should be able to wait for that to happen. You shouldn’t be forced to do something you aren’t comfortable with.”
Roy knew all too well what that was like, remembering that his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a pastor, but that was never something that interested Roy even when he did have a close relationship with God. He wanted to serve God in other ways.
“I’ve become a burden to my father,” Cora continued. “That’s why he’s trying to marry me off so quickly. It’s not typical that a woman of twenty would still be living in her father’s house, unmarried. As long as I remain unmarried, he’s responsible for me and my protection. He’s ready to pass me off to someone else.”
She ripped another large chunk of bread off her roll and threw it as far as she could. They both watched a mountain bluebird inspect the piece of bread before taking it in its beak and flying to the top of a nearby tree.
“And I guess traveling alone to Wheats Ridge didn’t help too much, huh?” Roy said it as a joke, to lighten the mood, but Cora’s face darkened.
“He was exceptionally mad about that, but I don’t care. It was what I had to do to keep my promise to your father. He wanted me to bring you home, and I did just that.”
Roy had never met a woman with quite as much fierce determination as Cora, but it didn’t threaten him. On the contrary, he was inspired by her courage.
“I may not understand being forced into an unwanted marriage, but I do understand fathers who try too hard to protect what they value.” Roy knew he was treading on potentially dangerous territory, speaking critically of the man who was so beloved by Cora, but he wanted to share with her that he could relate. Cora didn’t interrupt or protest, listening intently instead.
“My mother left when I was really young. I don’t even have that many memories of her. One day my father just woke up in the morning, and she was gone. They hadn’t fought, but I remember overhearing him say to one of the other church men that she had seemed unhappy for a while. Chances are she hitched a ride to the West. Women who left their families often went that direction back then.
