Free Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore Page A

mean.”
    I didn't want a new mother. I already had one, and I hated Roberta Huckstep and the other blue-haired ladies at Cedar Grove Baptist Church who had apparently forgotten about Lena Mae Cline. Gloria Jean kept telling me not to worry. She said my daddy would never be able to bring himself to propose to another woman.
    “Everybody needs a little adult companionship, girls, a little human contact, just look at me and Meeler. I love spending time with him, but I ain't going to marry him. It's the same with your daddy,” Gloria Jean explained. “But if you ask me, I think he needs to let that poor girl get on with her life. He's still in love with your mama. He always will be. It's one of those haunting loves. No cure for that.”
    Maybe. But sometimes I just wanted to be certain. I just wanted Miss Raines to eat lunch at somebody else's house.
    Then one Sunday morning, Miss Raines asked everybody in class if they had a favorite Bible verse. Ruthie Morgan raised her hand before anybody else had a chance and said, “Oh yes, Miss Raines, that would be John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.’”
    “Oh Ruthie, that's an excellent choice, isn't it class?” Miss Raines responded, cooing like a dove sent from the heavens above. I just looked at Martha Ann and rolled my eyes. “Doesn't that make you all feel extra special knowing that God gave His only Son just for you, and you, and you,” she continued, pointing to each and every one of us for added emphasis.
    John 3:16 would be the obvious choice, especially for someone with a really brown nose and a perfectly pleated cotton skirt and matching blouse. But I had a better verse, one that I had been waiting for some time to share with Miss Raines, and now the ideal moment had finally arrived. I raised my hand, looking almost as eager and innocent as Ruthie Morgan, and said, “Miss Raines, I know one. I have a special verse.”
    “Yes, Catherine Grace Cline,” she said, clearly annunciating the Cline as if to remind everyone I was the preacher's daughter and surely I knew some extra-special scripture. “Go right ahead.”
    “Yes, ma'am. It's from First Corinthians, chapter seven, verse number eight,” I declared, standing in front of my chair so everyone could hear me. “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried.”
    As soon as I heard myself say it, I regretted it, feeling oddly embarrassed and relieved all at the same time. I sat down in my chair. Feeling my cheeks turn red, I stared at the floor. I didn't mean to hurt Miss Raines, well, not that much. But I had to stand up for my mama because it sure seemed like nobody else was going to, not even my own daddy.
    I knew I had hurt her. I could see it in her pretty blue eyes, which all of the sudden looked teary and sad. She glanced at me and forced a small, pitiful smile, probably wondering why she had wasted so much money buying me those candy bars.
    “Thank you, Catherine, thank you for sharing.”
    After that, Miss Raines told us to quietly read from our Bibles until it was time to go hear the preacher. She sat at her desk, never once looking up to see if we were doing what we'd been told.
    After the service, and after Daddy had said a few words to every member of the congregation, we began our long walk home. It wasn't really a long walk, just about the length, Daddy would say, of three football fields. But today, I felt like I was climbing a dang mountain—and pulling a bag of rocks behind me.
    “Catherine Grace, I'm very impressed with your knowledge of the scripture,” Daddy said before we had even left the parking lot. “I understand you were quoting from First Corinthians in Sunday school this morning. Sure does seem like an odd verse for you to have committed to memory, I mean at your age and all.”
    “I just remember it from a Sword Drill, I guess,