Free The Sisterhood of the Queen Mamas by Annie Jones Page A

of both their lives. I didn’t know why she would be up there, but I do know that just imagining her in that spot sent chills over my entire body.
    “That cannot be good.”
    Bernadette looked down at me. I couldn’t really see her face all that well, but I could see by the way she gripped the side of the basket and the way she no longer seemed intent on standing as close to Jake as possible that the sight had rattled her.
    People looked right through Bernadette, and in return Bernadette looked right into people’s very hearts. Something about what she saw in Jan just then must have made her put aside her competition with Chloe for Jake’s attention and call out a command. “Chloe, get this basket back on the ground. We need to get going.”
    “On the tour?” Jake asked as the balloon descended.
    “I’m afraid this concludes our tour for the day.” Bernadette moved into position to get out of the basket first. She and Jan certainly had their differences. Jan wanted to close down the only place on earth where Bernadette found respite and relevance. But what she had seen had moved her to action. “I think Jan really needs our help right now.”
    “ Our help?” Jake asked, holding the curved wicker door open for Bernadette to step out onto the ground.
    “I’m going,” she said, without any special effort to make herself look graceful as she climbed out and started walking away. “I’d welcome anyone else who wants to come along.”
    “Anyone?” Chloe called out after her.
    Bernadette slowed, stopped, turned around and tipped her head to one side. “Looks to me like Jan needs all the friends she can get. If you think you can be a friend to her now, then you should come. Any of you.”
    She turned around, took a step, sank espadrille-deep in mud and almost took a nosedive into a puddle.
    I gasped.
    Maxine clucked her tongue.
    Chloe said something to Sammy that I couldn’t quite make out.
    Jake took a couple long strides and caught Bernadette by the arm. He steadied her there while she slipped out of her shoes.
    Chloe caught up with them.
    “He’s going to offer to carry Bernadette, I just know it,” I whispered to Maxine.
    “If he does, Odessa, I will carry you. ” Maxine slapped her hand on my back to get me moving toward the others. “Piggyback, no less.”
    “Maxine, someday you are going to make a promise like that and have to keep it,” I warned.
    “But not today, Odessa.”
    Because Jake did not sweep Bernadette off her feet. Nor did it seem that he had even offered to do as much. He did, however, carry her shoes. When they got to her van, he helped her put them back on, and I may be wrong aboutthis, but I think, when he looked up at her then, it was with a new sense of admiration.
    “My plan is working,” I whispered.
    “You don’t have a plan, Odessa!”
    “You don’t know that, Maxine. I might have a plan. And even if I don’t have a plan, God does, and by putting myself in a position for Him to use me in His plans, maybe I will come up with something. Wait and see, is all I’ve got to say.”
     
    Wait and see? In a tout-shout-and-get-out world? It doesn’t happen often. People just don’t think like that. But Christians should. Bernadette seems to, and the Reverend, too. They say you never get a second chance at a first impression. But for some people, second chances are their only hope. That’s part and parcel of the message of salvation. Second chances happen. Because of that, the people who get those second chances are changed people. He who is forgiven much, loveth much.
    Bernadette loves a lot. And it shows in her concerns for others. I don’t know if the Reverend sees that, or if it matters to Bernadette whether he recognizes the trait in her. She certainly doesn’t offer her love as a means to an end. She doesn’t do it for what she will get out of it. And for that reason, I pray that the people she encounters will wait and see and not make up their minds about her in