Lethal Trajectories - Michael Conley [135]
Veronica turned it off as she neared the hospice. She had grown fond of her dignified eighty-five-year-old parishioner, whose slow decline she had watched for some time, and she said a prayer before entering the room. She left the hospice about twenty-five minutes later, fortified by the strength of this remarkable woman. How wonderful it would be if everyone had her faith.
About ten minutes into her drive, she once again tuned into the Wellington Crane show.
“… and I can assure you, Wellington, that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will want to know very soon what President McCarty intends to do about the growing Saudi and Israeli crisis that’s so greatly impacting the American people.”
“Tell me, Senator Collingsworth, have the McCarty people been in touch with you as to how to get this crisis resolved?” Crane asked, obviously tweaking the senator’s pride. “Surely they could benefit from your broad experience in foreign policy.”
“Let’s put it this way, Wellington, I think they are flying blind. They’ve missed the boat on the Chunxiao Incident; they’ve missed the boat on supporting Israel; and now they seem to be caving to the Saudis. We want to help the president, but he won’t let us be part of the process. Like you, I want to give the administration the benefit of my broad experience, but they’ve got to ask. My patience is not unlimited.”
Veronica was amazed as always at the amount of negative synergy the two men generated, one feeding off the other. Clayton McCarty has been our new president for all of one day, and these two go on with a litany of everything he has done wrong? For heaven’s sake, she thought, give him a chance.
The church parking lot was filling up as Veronica pulled up to the church a half hour before Life Challenges was scheduled to begin. She walked into her office, returned a couple of phone calls, and mentally prepared for the meeting. When she walked to the front of the room to greet everyone, she was amazed to see well over a hundred and fifty people seated and waiting for the meeting to start.
“Good evening, and welcome to Life Challenges, my friends. I see a number of new faces here that I want to welcome, and I hope you’ll all keep coming back. We are living in troubled times, and more than ever we need God’s guidance and the fellowship and support we offer each other here. We always start our meetings with a short prayer and then pause to reflect. Tonight will be no exception.” After the prayer, she started the meeting.
“I’ve talked with many of you this past week and can see the fears we’ve discussed over the past two weeks are intensifying. With so many new people here tonight, it might be worthwhile to identify what some of these fears are. I’d like to start by asking someone to share one of their fears with us. Please give us your first name before you start. Okay, who wants to begin?” About a dozen hands went up, and she knew she wouldn’t have to work the crowd tonight. She pointed to one of her regulars.
“I’m Ernestine, I’m sixty-two, and I’m a self-supporting widow. My insurance agent told me that my retirement account has lost more than twenty-five percent of its value since this Pacific thing first started. It’s all I have, Pastor Veronica, and I don’t know how I’ll ever manage to get by with these losses and gas now close to ten bucks a gallon. I’m just scared to death.”
Veronica nodded sympathetically and pointed to the curmudgeonly Jake Hawkins, whom she loved dearly, for what she knew would be a colorful response.