The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 82

I’m Fixin’ To present part 82 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

After Reverend Ricky Lee Jones had made sure Leon Walker wouldn’t be knocking on Marthalene’s Beauty Shop wall anymore, he returned to his church late on that Monday afternoon and found his new love still snuggled inside the rumpled covers of his bed. “Lord forgive me!” he moaned as he climbed back in with her.

On Tuesday, Ricky Lee was overjoyed that she had decided not to go to work again, and they spent most of the day getting her settled in. They had to make two trips to Shady Grove Trailer Park to get all of her stuff. On the second trip, as they were departing Apt-To-Miss, Ricky Lee glanced toward the front of her beauty shop and said, “I don’t see any disappointed customers on your doorstep.”

Marthalene snuggled over close to him and said, “I don’t think I ever want to go back there, Ricky Lee.”

“Then don’t go back,” he replied.

“But you already paid Leon all that rent money!”

“That’s no problem. I’ll call the bank and tell them to cancel payment on the check.”

“Are you sure, honey?” Marthalene asked as she snuggled even closer.

The reverend gave her a little squeeze of confirmation, knowing he had tried and yet once again, he had failed. Just like it had been with his two wives and the choir director, some women had a powerful effect on him.

Marthalene was the latest and the youngest. The Lord knew he had tried. Hadn’t he proved that over the last several months while he had built a place of worship and preached his heart out? The Lord also knew he was an imperfect soul and powerless when it came to certain women, who were themselves, also the Lord’s own creations.

By the time Sunday morning rolled around Marthalene had her own set of keys and had practically redecorated the apartment over the sanctuary. Anything she did was fine by Ricky Lee. She even knew the secret hiding place behind the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, and how much cash it contained.

Meanwhile, the reverend had been inspired to make the theme of his Sunday sermon a message about love and commitment.

The congregation gathered that Sunday morning and there was a packed house with standing room only. “Amen’s” and “hallelujah’s” echoed off he walls of the old building all during the service, and all seemed to be wonderful and bright until the middle of the closing hymn.

Right in the middle of Love Lifted Me, Ocmulgee County Deputy Sheriff James Earl Murphy walked through the front door of the church and slammed it behind him with a loud crash. Then he just stood there in the center aisle with his arms folded on his chest, looking straight toward the pulpit and the reverend.

The hymn lagged for a few moments before fading to a complete silence as all heads turned while their curious eyes stared at the deputy.

Ricky Lee’s heart caught in his throat at the site of the threatening looking lawman in his church. The singing had stopped, but his mind was racing. He figured that somehow they had tracked him down from all the way from over in Arkansas. He also figured he could make it to the door next to the pulpit and be through it before the deputy could reach him.

But the money was all the way upstairs in the hiding place, and he would need cash if was going to be on the run again. No, he decided, he would submit to the will of the Lord and depend upon Him for his deliverance.

By then it had gotten so quiet in the church that you could hear the hot drops of melted wax dropping from the single candle on the alter.

The deputy unfolded his arms and took a step forward, but froze in his tracks when the reverend called out loudly, “Let us pray!”

He prayed long and hard, but the deputy would not go away. He was also thinking while he prayed, and he ended the prayer with an “amen.” Then he lifted his arms toward heaven and shouted out, “The Lord go with you and be with you always!” And in that way he dismissed his flock.

In a flash, he stepped down next to Marthalene and whispered to her, “It’s all right. Take some of the cash and the first thing tomorrow morning be fixin’ to get me a lawyer!”