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“Think he’s gonna ask us why he doesn’t see us here on Sundays?” Aubrey asked. As I glanced at her, she paled. “Oh god, Arch. I’m pregnant out of wedlock. What will he say?”
“It’s not eighteen hundred, Aubrey,” Archie said.
Wiley leaned close and I heard him whisper something that sounded like, “If he looks at you the wrong way, I’ll pound him.”
“He’s a man of god!” Aubrey sounded terrified.
“Fine, I’ll just suggest it’s not his business. Politely,” Wiley amended.
They clasped hands as we headed through the heavy wooden door and into the surprisingly office-like lobby. There were two other sets of big doors with small windows in them, and we could see the sanctuary through them—it was much more ornate than this area.
“Hi there,” a man said, stepping from a side door as if he’d heard us come in. His grey beard covered the bottom of a ruddy, but friendly face. Bright twinkling eyes passed across each of us, and he reached a hand out to shake with Archie. “I’m Pastor Fred. You must be the Kaspers?”
“Yes, sir. Archie and Aubrey, and this is Emily and Wiley.”
“Welcome to you all. Would you like to chat in my office?” He waved an arm toward the door standing open behind him.
“Would it be all right if we checked out the church?” Wiley asked, pointing to the doors beside us.
“Oh, certainly,” Pastor Fred said, giving us all a warm smile.
He took us on a brief tour of the building, walking us reverently through the church. I walked silently at Archie’s side, fighting off a feeling that all this was some kind of surreal dream. The combination of the silence of the space and the dampening effect of the weather outside had me in an unfamiliar mental space. At one point Archie’s hand found my lower back, guidingme through a narrow door at the back of the space and the warmth of it was reassuring. Aubrey and Wiley whispered to one another as we walked through the space, and Pastor Fred was gracious, finally returning us to his office and moved chairs around for us to sit.
“So, how can I help?” he asked Archie. “Something about history?”
“Yes, sir.” Archie looked at his sister, who pulled an envelope from her purse and handed it to him. He opened it, sliding out the photo of Marvin and Lola in front of the Worship sign. “Do you have any idea where this was taken?”
The pastor looked intently at the photo and a faint smile graced his lips, gradually widening. “I do, actually.” He glanced up at us, and then returned his attention to the photo. “Might I ask, who are these people?” A thrill shot through me. Could it really be this easy?
“That’s our great uncle Marvin,” Aubrey said. “And his wife, Lola.”
“Handsome couple,” Pastor Fred said. “I suspected it was our town’s namesake. What a nice photo.”
The pastor stared into the long-gone faces for a long, quiet moment as we waited, the growing tension in the air palpable.
“You said you know where the sign was?” Archie cued him.
“Oh yes,” he handed the photo back and smiled up at us. “It’s still there, actually. It’s our summer camp now, about two miles down the highway and off a dirt road in the woods. We take groups of kids there in the warm months for a week at a time. Back then it was probably just a few tents and the summer revival we hold. But it’s pretty built out now.”
Archie and I exchanged an excited look as anticipation built within me.
“Would it be okay with you if we went there?” Archie asked. “Just to look around?”
Pastor Fred’s smile faltered a bit. “Well, sure, but there’s no one there now. And it looks a bit like bad weather coming in. It is that time of year, you know.”
“True,” Wiley agreed.
“But sure, you’re welcome to go look around,” Pastor Fred said. Then he reached into a desk drawer and extracted a brochure, which he slid across the desk to us. It showed kids grinning in front of the same sign in Archie’s photo, and the title along the bottom read, “Kasper Ridge Summer Bible Camp.” “There’s a map in here from the highway.”
“Thanks,” Archie said.
Pastor Fred moved to stand, when Aubrey piped up. “One more thing,” she said, her voice a little shakier than I’d heard it. “Do you ever marry, um...pregnant people?”
The pastor retook his seat, and his friendly gaze passed from Aubrey to Wiley and back. “Of course,” he said. “Are you planning a wedding?”
“We are, sir,” Wiley told him.
“I’d be honored to marry you.”
