Daisys decision, p.10
Daisy's Decision, page 10
Once she hit send on the email, she printed the letter, signed it, and set it aside for Beverly to mail out to all the parties.
She imagined she would start getting replies to her email by tomorrow morning, no later than nine. She rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of going through this over something that common sense should have taken care of the first time the family contacted the hospital. The helplessness of people without resources facing bureaucratic red-tape made her so angry.
“It shouldn’t take this. It just shouldn’t,” she muttered.
She thought she might need to get up and go walk off some steam, but the phone rang. With Bev still running to the bank, she went ahead and answered it. “Gálatas Seis. How may I help you?”
“My name is Sasha. My cousin told me you helped him one time. My kids and I are about to get evicted from our apartment. Can you help me?”
Her anger toward the hospital accounting department dissipated immediately, and she pulled open the appropriate file on her computer. “Hi, Sasha, my name is Daisy. Let me get some information from you.”
An hour later, she got off the phone with the apartment manager. She checked her bank account and decided to get Sasha and her children some groceries. On a whim, she called Ken. “Are you free? I have some extra money, and I was going to go pick up some groceries for a family in need. Do you want to go shopping with me?”
When she pulled into the grocery store parking lot, she found Ken waiting for her. Out of the norm, he wore a pair of gray slacks and a white shirt and red tie. She smiled at him as she got out of the car. She hadn’t seen him since their fishing excursion on Sunday. “Wow, you’re sure dressing up for construction work these days. Where were you?”
He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. “‘Bout a mile that way. New project breaking ground. Had a big hoopla with the press and City councilmen. It’s Brad’s job to smile pretty, but he had a conflict. Jon said he would cover it, but he had to go to New York for some reason, so he asked me to fill in.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Fill in as in pretend to be Jon pretending to be Brad?”
He frowned. “No. We don’t do that anymore.”
“I never could figure out how you got away with it anyway. You’re very different from Brad or Jon.” Ken gave her a one-sided grin but otherwise remained still. She gestured at the grocery store. “Ready?”
“Definitely. Thanks for the invite. I like stuff like this.”
She paused inside the grocery store and looked at the produce section. “I’m shopping for a single mom with three kids. I have no idea what their storage space is like, or even if they have electricity. Since Gálatas Seis just paid three months’ rent to keep them from being evicted, I almost want to say there’s likely no electricity. I think we need to be careful with what we buy.”
“What’s the address?” Ken pulled his phone out of his pocket. Daisy handed him the note pad that she had written the address on. She listened to him call the power company while she loaded the cart with apples, oranges, and bananas. He handed the pad back to her as he hung up his phone.
“What did they say?” Daisy asked.
He nodded. “You were right. No power. I paid the arrears and padded a few months and got it turned back on.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t have to do that. I would’ve gone through the proper process once I evaluated the entire situation.”
“No doubt. Just saving time is all.” He put a watermelon into the bottom of the cart. “Since the power was cut, we should probably assume they have no perishables at all.”
She nodded. “Good assumption.”
They bought canned meats, canned veggies, various kinds of boxed pasta, fresh meats, cheese, eggs, and milk. She saw yogurt with fun cartoons on the packages and bought a couple of packs of that. By the time they got up to the cash register, she had a full cart.
Ken followed her to the address. She recognized the neighborhood and the rundown apartment building. Only people with an income below a certain low threshold could live here. Ken grabbed two bags of groceries while she led the way to the apartment door. A little boy with a runny nose wearing a torn T-shirt answered her knock.
“Hi. Is your mom here?”
“Who is it?” The voice came from somewhere beyond the door.
She recognized Sasha’s voice and said, “Sasha, it’s Daisy Ruiz from Gálatas Seis.”
Immediately the door opened, and a young woman in a fast-food uniform answered. “Daisy, thank you. You saved us. And the electricity, I didn’t even ask for that.”
Daisy gestured toward Ken. “We have some groceries, too. Do you mind if we bring them in?”
Tears filled Sasha’s eyes and streamed down her face. “I don’t know how to repay you.”
She took the offered bags of groceries from Ken. He left to get more, and she stepped inside. “Sasha, I don’t do this to be repaid. Help someone one day when you can.”
The children danced around the groceries, exclaiming every time one of them pulled something exciting out of a bag. She wondered how many children in middle-class America got excited over groceries. Every child had bitten into a piece of fruit before Ken even finished bringing all the groceries in.
“Sasha, it’s not a requirement to receive help from us. But, if you would like to attend, I do a monthly budgeting class. We can look at your total income and what you need for output and help you determine how you can keep up with everything.” She put her card on the worn kitchen table. “Like I said, no pressure.”
“Ain’t no one ever wanted to help us before. Seems like I have to scratch and beg for everything.” As she and Ken started to make their way out of the apartment, Sasha said, “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” Daisy watched the power and beauty of the storm of emotions raging behind Ken’s eyes. She knew he wanted to whisk Sasha and her kids away and put them in a bigger, nicer home. She didn’t need to tell him that Atlanta had thousands of Sashas, and they could only help as much as they could.
On the way down the stairs to the parking lot, he stopped her. “Thanks for calling me,” he said gruffly.
She didn’t understand why God had allowed someone as incredible as him into her fractured life. She stepped into his kiss and hugged him tightly to her. His body felt hot and strong, like warm metal. But his lips, oh, his lips, and his kiss made her entire body hum and vibrate. She thought if she could just keep kissing him, she might not even need to sleep, or eat, or breathe. All she needed was his kiss.
Ken lifted the box springs and carried it from the building and out onto the trailer, setting it up against the side. The heat inside the trailer closed over him. As he walked back out, he took a deep breath of the fresh air and spied Jon as he got out of his truck. “Thought you were in New York.”
Jon clicked the lock on his truck key fob and followed Ken into the apartment. Brad stood on a step ladder, unplugging the cords for the television.
“Got back about thirty minutes ago.”
Ken nodded. “Good trip?”
Jon opened his mouth and then closed it again. “Surprisingly so.” He turned his attention to Brad. “Need a hand?”
Ken left them attending to the television and went into the bedroom and grabbed his mattress. His buddy at the bank had come through with a brand-new home project that had closed down when the contractor failed funding. He didn’t know anything about it, but that didn’t bother him. He bought it as soon as he saw pictures of the foundation and standing framed out structure. Whatever the status, he could finish construction.
He carried the mattress out to the trailer and set it up against the box springs, then secured them both with nylon rope. Sweat poured down his face, and he used his shoulder to swipe at it. On his way out of the trailer, he grabbed the hand truck. Back in the room he’d used as a bedroom, he secured his dresser to the hand truck using bungee cords.
Soon, they had everything out of the building. They filled holes in the walls, painted the wall where the television had hung, and pulled up the old carpet.
“When’s the floor guy coming?” Brad asked.
Ken picked up one end of the carpet, and Brad picked up the other. “Tomorrow. Eight.”
They tossed the roll of carpet into the dumpster and went back into the building. Jon had removed the sink countertop that held the stovetop and worked at pulling out the cabinet. Brad grabbed a chisel and started pulling up the linoleum.
Ken looked all around. Any evidence that he’d used this area as a living space for the last two years had completely disappeared. He’d refurbished the bathroom yesterday, removing the shower and upgrading the sinks and toilets. Now, the big empty room stood ready for desks and partitions for an apartment building office.
“I think that’s it.”
“We did good work here,” Brad said. “Now it’s time to get us moved.”
Ken crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame, thinking of moving Brad and Valerie out of the guest house on their parents’ property and into their new home. “Tuesday, right?”
“Yeah, but we hired movers. I won’t need help with the move. I need help with painting and landscaping.”
“You’re not hiring painters?” Jon asked.
“No. You see, my wife is an interior designer. There’s something with colors and fabric and whatever that makes her happy.”
Ken chuckled because Brad sounded very long-suffering. However, Ken knew Brad would lasso the moon if Valerie ever asked. “Yeah, you got it rough.” He straightened. “I’m hungry.”
Ken rode with Brad so he wouldn’t have to haul the trailer to the restaurant. They all agreed on Chinese. Soon, they sat around the table sipping hot tea and munching deep-fried noodles while waiting on their entrees.
“So, the weekend in New York?” Brad asked Jon. “Did you see Alex?”
Fiddling with the rolled-up silverware, Jon said, “Not sure if I’m really ready to talk about that yet. However, I need to go back there again Thursday morning. I’ll fly back that same night.”
“Day trip?” Brad asked.
“Yeah,” Jon confirmed.
That surprised Ken. Jon had spent so much time away from home the last few years and for the last month had talked only of coming home and staying home. The thought that a woman could interfere with that plan really piqued his curiosity. “You’ve lost it for this girl.”
Jon made eye contact and nodded. “There’s more, but I’m not ready to share.”
Ken respected that. He had to process things for a long time before he ever wanted to discuss anything. He rarely wanted to talk at all, even with family.
Brad moved his teacup as the waitress placed an appetizer platter in the center of the table. “We’re here when you’re ready, bro.” He looked at Ken. “Where is the house?”
Ken pulled a crumpled receipt out of his pocket. He had scribbled the address in pencil on the back. “Ivey Lane? Ivey with an e, which is weird.”
Jon frowned. “Don’t know it. Where is it at?”
Brad’s eyes widened. “That’s on the way into my neighborhood. I wonder how close your house is to mine.”
Ken thought about the maps he’d looked at. “It’s too new of an address. Doesn’t show up anywhere. I have basic directions.”
Jon chuckled. “I can’t believe you bought it without even inspecting the site.”
“I saw pictures.” Ken slipped the paper back into his pocket. “Besides, what does it matter? It’s the shell of a house. There’s nothing they’ve started I can’t fix. And I have nothing but time.”
They bowed their heads and asked God to bless their food and fellowship, then they filled their little appetizer plates with miniature spring rolls and barbecued chicken wings.
“I’ve been home for two weeks, and I’m already missing the barbecue brisket in Nashville.”
Ken’s mouth watered at the thought of the restaurant Jon had discovered. Well, he overstated the place by calling it a restaurant. In reality, it was a shack with a smokehouse attached that only took takeout orders. However, he’d never tasted better barbecue in his life. “Be worth taking a job in Nashville for two years to eat that every night.”
Jon shook his head. “You can have it, brother. I’m home.”
Ken looked at Brad. “How is Valerie feeling?”
Immediately, his brother’s face softened then transformed into a grin. Ken felt a tug in his heart, a desire to have a wife who brought that same look to his own face. “She’s very tired. I’m trying to get her to go part-time at work so she can get more rest, but a lot of her projects are at critical stages. I think she wants to get everything into a good stopping place before she has the baby.”
“I think that’s marvelous,” Jon said.
Brad had loved Valerie from the moment his hormones started flowing. When he and Valerie got married, Ken watched contentment come over his brother he had never seen before, much less experienced for himself.
“February seems so far away. I mean, it’s July.”
Brad shrugged. “It’s kinda rushing at me, bro.
Ken laughed. “I bet.”
Brad’s eyes turned serious, contemplative. “And you and Daisy Ruiz?”
Immediately, Ken’s pulse skittered. He thought of the sunlight shining on her hair and the way her brown eyes glowed when she smiled. “We went shopping yesterday. Groceries for a family she saved from eviction.”
Brad sat back in his chair. “Honestly, if I was going to find the perfect woman for you, Ken, she would do things like shop for groceries for a family she had saved from eviction.”
With a chuckle, Ken said, “Exactly.”
Jon slathered hot mustard onto a spring roll. “Do they need anything else?”
Ken shook his head. “There’s always someone else to help. Daisy says we got her back on her feet. The rest is up to her now. Tomorrow thirty more people will need help.”
Jon chewed and swallowed. “I can’t imagine the day-to-day drain on emotions that job takes. That is certainly a calling from God.”
Ken agreed. He wanted to take that family today and put them in one of his luxury apartments with marble countertops, sunken carpet, and a swimming pool in the back of the complex. He wanted to spoil those kids and buy each one a bicycle and set up a college fund for them all. However, that wasn’t Gálatas Seis’s mission, and it wasn’t up to him to do that. God had clearly equipped Daisy for what she did, and he couldn’t imagine doing it himself.
Like Daisy told him, several thousand more people in Atlanta needed the minimal help they had given Sasha today. No matter how fast she helped people, she said, more people took their places.
They sat silent for a few moments. Brad asked, “Can you see a future with Daisy?”
Ken didn’t know how to word all the thoughts and emotions flowing through his mind. Did he see a future with Daisy? Absolutely. Did she see one with him? How could he expect her to know after just a couple weeks?
“That’s my prayer.”
Their entrées arrived just as Ken finished off the last of a chicken wing. As the waitress set the plate of General Tso’s chicken in front of him and the steam wafted up and teased his nose. His stomach growled audibly, and his mouth watered. He thought about Daisy and wished she sat next to him and enjoyed this meal with him. He needed to find a way to quit having every thought that occurred to him get taken over by thoughts of Daisy Ruiz.
As Brad picked up his chopsticks, Ken asked, “So, what are we hoping for? Boy? Girl? One of each? Three of each?”
Brad smiled a sheepish smile. “Wouldn’t that be fun? To have her have triplets? Mom and dad could have three to spoil at once. It would make up for us taking so long to give them grandchildren.”
Jon shook his head. “Nothing will make up for that. Mom will make us suffer for that until our dying days.”
All three of them knew that he spoke the truth.
Jon rubbed his chopsticks together. “Guys, I need to talk about something with you.”
The seriousness of his tone gave Ken pause. He noticed Brad give his full attention, too. “What’s up?”
“I can’t do a mission trip this year.” He expertly speared a bamboo shoot. “I know we were planning Guatemala in a few weeks, but I have something personal going on, and I need to stick to U.S. soil.” He chewed and swallowed. “Besides, Brad has Val right now, and Ken is just getting things going with Daisy. Maybe we need to take this summer off.”
Ken actually agreed. He didn’t want to go out of the country for two weeks this summer—not without Daisy, anyway.
Brad said. “I think that’s fair.”
Ken nodded.
Jon relaxed. “I appreciate it.”
“Anything we can help with?” Ken asked.
Jon shrugged. “Nah. I’m still processing. But, when I’m done, I’ll be ready to spill it.”
“Whatever you need, bro,” Brad repeated, dishing rice onto his plate.
After opening her Bible to the place where she left off, Daisy pulled out a pink notebook and a purple pen and prepared to do some in-depth digging for her Bible study class next week. They’d completed their book this morning, and Daisy had offered to take the rest of the summer off, but the ladies in the class all agreed that they wanted to keep meeting. Consequently, now she needed to build a curriculum for the next six weeks.
After looking at all of her possible options, she had settled on redemption. But she didn’t want to gloss anything over and just touch on the surface of redemption. She wanted to dig in to what it meant and what led up to Christ’s role on the cross.
“God, I can’t write something like this without You, but I feel like You and I need to have a talk.” She stood and walked over to the stove, turning the heat on under the kettle. “I just don’t know how to bridge this gap I feel. Obviously, I’m the one in the way.” She grabbed a mug covered in three dimensional white and yellow daisies and tossed a tea bag into it. “I guess what I’m asking is that You place someone in my path who will help me reconcile whatever it is going on in my heart and mind that’s keeping me away from You. Because I know that You have not set me aside. Your word tells me that that wouldn’t happen. So, I know it’s all this guilt and angst that I feel over my current situation. But that’s hardly Your fault, is it?”
