family argues all the time. Nothing’s kept hidden, that’s for sure. But they adore each other.”
“You had a good time?”
“Wonderful. And I met my father. Charles Wentworth, known as Charlie.”
“Georgia!” Analiese knew how important this was to her friend. Until recently Georgia hadn’t known anything about her biological parents. As an infant she had been abandoned in a hospital, and only recently had a maternal aunt from South Carolina discovered her existence and tracked her to Asheville. The aunt had promised to introduce Georgia to her father, who had also been in the dark, once she felt ready.
Georgia was smiling. “I’ll tell you more when we both have time. But he and his wife came to the Ramseys’ house to meet me on Friday. He’s wonderful, and she was friendly and welcoming. I look like him, Ana, and like their other children. Three sons, all educators like me, and Charlie publishes textbooks. Lucas and I are going to spend part of Christmas vacation in Columbia so I can meet the whole gang.”
“Well, that makes my day.” Analiese knew a happy ending when she heard one, although lately she was more acquainted with the other kind.
“A long time ago I gave up hope I’d find anybody. And suddenly I have an aunt, a father and brothers.”
Analiese reached over to squeeze her friend’s hand. “I’m so glad for all of you. Will they be at the wedding?”
“That will be up to them. And the wedding’s why I’m here.” Georgia reached inside a voluminous purse and pulled out a folder. “I’ve got to get back to school, but Lucas and I chose a few readings from the ones you gave us. I circled the ones we like. Now we’re working on our vows.”
“There’s no hurry. As long as you figure them out by your wedding day.”
Georgia got to her feet. “As far as I’m concerned we’ve already cinched this thing. We’re building a house together, sharing my condo while we wait. Edna already calls Lucas Grandpa because he gets such a kick out of it.”
“Weddings are celebrations of love.” Analiese paused, and her own came to mind. “Except when they’re not.”
“My first one had a justice of the peace, a discount store bouquet and a night in a cheap motel before Samuel was shipped off to Jordan on a peacekeeping mission.”
“This will be different.”
“I wouldn’t trade that one, though. He was a wonderful man, and before he died he gave me a wonderful daughter.”
Samantha, the wonderful daughter and a goddess, too, worked in a health clinic, and abruptly Analiese wondered why she hadn’t thought about Samantha before. She might have resources Analiese hadn’t considered.
She put a hand on Georgia’s arm to hold her in place before she started toward the door. “I have a story, a quick one. Do you have a moment to listen?”
Georgia glanced at her watch before she nodded. Analiese filled her in on the Fowlers and everything that had happened that weekend. Then she told her how little help she’d found.
“I think I need to call on the goddesses this time, starting with you. Shiloh, who’s fourteen, is exceptionally bright. She says she was in gifted classes in Ohio, but her education has been virtually nonexistent since they took to the road. Now she doesn’t want to go to school at all. Is there any chance you could take her at Because?”
B.C.A.S., the Buncombe County Alternative School, was always called “Because,” and the school’s motto, emblazoned everywhere, was Because You Can. Because You Will.
“We have homeless kids, that’s not a problem. But Shiloh has to be referred by a teacher or a counselor from another school where she’s not thriving. I can’t take her without that.”
Analiese toyed with asking the headmaster at Covenant Academy next door to make the referral, but Georgia read her mind.
“A public school referral,” she added. “The minute I get one, I’ll make finding a place for her a priority.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to get her to school in the first place.”
Georgia glanced at her watch again and this time started toward the door. “How did this become your problem? Seems to me you already have enough on your plate. It’s a big church with lots of resources. Don’t you need a committee to look into this?”
Analiese walked with her. “I’ll get help, but sometimes it takes more time to bring people up to speed than to take the first steps myself.”
“What’s the closest school?”
Analiese made an educated guess, and Georgia nodded.
“I can call the principal and ask him to find somebody on staff to reach out to Shiloh. And I can tell him we’ll take her with a referral, if need be.”
“That would be great.
Georgia gazed at Analiese for a moment before she spoke. “You know, you’re the goddess who’s always there for everybody else. Just don’t forget we can be here for you, too, and I’m not talking about helping with referrals. If you need to talk, any of us will listen.”
Analiese smiled as if she agreed. Georgia would understand about loneliness, of course. After her husband’s death she had raised her daughter alone, and nothing had ever been easy for her. But now that she’d found Lucas, who loved her the way she deserved to be loved, she glowed. Analiese had no desire to take the shine off Georgia’s happiness with her own problems.
“I’m fine,” she said as she squeezed Georgia’s hand in goodbye. “It’s just been a long few days.”
“Can you take an afternoon and go up to the Goddess House? Spend a quiet night in the country? Do some time on your favorite rock?”
The Goddess House was the perfect place to recharge. Analiese had briefly toyed with asking the others if the Fowlers could move in, but the area was so isolated that Man would never find a job. He needed to work, and Belle needed to be close to medical care, so she’d had to discard the idea.
Her rock, just down the road from the house and up a mountainside, was the gateway to a sublime view. Analiese had discovered the trail at the end of summer, and it was now her favorite place to sit, think and pray.
“I’ll drive up as soon as I can get away,” she promised. Of course she didn’t see a time like that in the foreseeable future.
“Time doesn’t free up on its own, Ana,” Georgia said. “Make yourself a priority for a change, okay?”
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