Consequences, Sandy Ch. 03

For a few minutes the noise at the table was mostly eating noise. Then John asked, "Mr. Wilkerson, if it's not prying into things that are private, why are you here?"

"Actually, I'm glad someone asked. I came here to find the truth. There are conflicting stories about why Martha and James are not together. I met with him and I met with members of his congregation. I got a haircut in town. Then I came here and asked Nick for the truth." He picked up his fork and took a bite. As he chewed John asked, "Well?"

Martha said, "If he believed I was an adulteress he would not sit here at the table with us. He would not share a meal with us. He would not pray with us." She faced him directly and said, "Thank you, Daddy."

He kissed her forehead and said, "I am proud of you. You are as strong as your Mother was. I'm sure she's proud of you up in Heaven, too."

Bill asked, "What did Nick tell you?"

"Nothing." Mr. Wilkerson looked directly at Bill and answered without much body language at all. "He showed me a DVD of the dinner you all had with James and his posse. It answered every question I had, except one. The answer to that question I have no right to ask, but they will ask in the hearing."

Martha nodded, "Have you had sex with any man other than your husband?"

He nodded.

Martha said, "No. In my life I have allowed one man inside my body for sex: James."

"I knew that was the answer. You know Matthew and Ruth miss you a lot and wonder why they are on our ranch instead of here. Can you come and explain it to them? Spend some time with them?"

John spoke up, "Mr. Wilkerson, we just bought a second house. This one. Nick, Bill, Carl and I are turning the basement into bedrooms for Martha's kids. We'll be ready for them to move in, in two weeks, maybe less. Because of the hearings we'll need to wait until a few days after the hearings to move them in."

"I don't understand. I thought you were giving her a place to stay until she sorted out her life and made some decisions." He took a breath. "You want her to stay?"

Janice answered him, "She was not born into my family, my birth family, but she is my sister. I guess you might call us sisters of the heart and soul. My life is better with Martha by my side. I want her close to me. I volunteer to help her nurture her children, teach them to be strong, loving people. Best place I know of for that is right here with us."

"Four mommas and three dads. It was on the video. What a wonderful gift to Martha's children. But, the church won't like it."

"The hearing is about the charge of adultery," Martha said. "Not about our living arrangements." There was determination in her voice.

"How do you prove a negative? Can you prove you haven't had sex with anyone except James?" Mr. Wilkerson asked.

Sandy asked, "Can you prove you haven't had sex with anyone except your wife in the past ten years?"

He looked at Sandy, then at Martha and said, "Nope. I haven't, but there have been times when either she was gone or I was away and someone might think it was possible."

I spoke up. "The hearing isn't about evidence. The hearing won't be about sex. James filed the complaint because he wants two things. He wants to tell the church, his community, that he no longer trusts Martha and he wants to be right. If he trusted Martha to live inside the vows they made when they married, he'd know she wouldn't break them. He's simply, publically, saying he doesn't trust her."

"We can't prove she is trustworthy. We will lose at the hearing." Mr. Wilkerson said.

I nodded my head. "They didn't even define adultery in the letter. Is it adultery if a man kisses a woman who isn't his wife? There are, I'm sure, men who consider it adultery if a wife dances in the arms of a man she isn't married to. Jimmy Carter said he committed adultery in his heart because he looked on a woman with lust. Is that the definition of adultery the church leaders will use?"

Martha asked, "Then, why go? James will get to be right. I will be branded an adulteress and publically humiliated if we go or not."

"Because if we don't go, if we don't protest, everyone can draw the conclusion that we agree or admit that the charges are true. Because standing up for what's right is what all of us were taught to do." Mr. Wilkerson said.

Sandy spoke up and said, "I think a letter to the church asking them to define the word adultery for the purpose of the hearing is appropriate. The same letter could be used to charge James with abandonment. Putting James to the task of justifying his actions not just attacking you."

"I walked out of dinner, not James. How can that be called abandonment?" Martha asked.

"It's not the walking away from dinner that is abandonment, it's what he did after. He made calls to the people in his congregation telling them doing business with us was funding Satan. When it came out, during dinner, you said he was not acting like a Christian, that if he didn't call everyone again and tell them he was wrong, you and the kids were leaving him. He didn't make the calls. You gave him the opportunity to be a leader and he declined. He abandoned his belief that the church and his life are about love. He abandoned his vows to you and to the church and now is attempting to put all of that on you. A synonym for abandon is renounce." Sandy stopped talking and took a drink of water.

Martha asked, "Sandy, would you help me write the letter?"

Sandy nodded, moved to where Martha was sitting and they hugged. Mr. Wilkerson watched and asked, "After the letter is written, can I offer you a ride to the ranch so you can talk to your kids?"

"Yes! I miss them so much it hurts!" She turned and faced Sandy and I, "I know I haven't worked at the BC very long, but can I have a few days off to visit my kids?"

I answered, "The BC will still be here when you get back. The family will still be here when you get back. When you're ready to come back, call and one of us will come get you."

Mr. Wilkerson spent the evening working with us on the changes we were making to the house. Martha gave him a tour and he made a couple suggestions for things the basement needed. At ten Jenn announced we all needed to head towards bed. Martha went with her Dad and gave him directions to Pete's house.

Early the next morning Jenn woke us and announced that breakfast would be on the table in fifteen minutes. Showers were mostly shared and people dressed for a day at the BC, except for Martha and her Dad. They dressed for the drive back to his ranch. At a little after seven everyone except Jenn loaded up in various trucks and headed out for their day.

Jenn cleaned up after breakfast and continued her work day. She changed the sheets on all the beds and started the first of six loads of wash for the day. As queen of the kitchens she used a laptop to keep track of what food we had available and if it was in Pete's House or the Gingerbread House. Since we hadn't actually moved into the Gingerbread House all that was there were beverages and fruit.

Sandy used email to send Martha a draft of the letter they would send to the church. By the time we closed the BC for the day Martha was at the ranch, four emails had been exchanged and the letter was ready to be printed and sent. It had been reviewed by Martha's Dad, Mom, Jennifer and me. I liked it. So did all the others.

The letter offered the video of the dinner for both Martha's hearing and Jennifer's. It let the church know that we were treating both accusations as the same and were providing the same witnesses and evidence for both cases. The letter asked for the definition of "adultery" and "abandonment" to be used during the hearing. It also specified that both women pleaded "Not Guilty" to the accusations.

The letter was printed at the BC and at the Wilkerson ranch and sent separately from both places. After dinner everyone in the family looked at the letter and agreed it was proper and well written.

Bill asked, "Jennifer, what will you do if they decide to label you an adulteress?"

She hesitated, then answered, "Bill, I have already decided I don't care what decision they make. I'm going to the hearing to let them know that I do not accept the accusations as true or their authority to do anything to me. At the end of the hearing I plan to quit the church. I will quit because the church is treating both Martha and I in an unchristian manner."

Bill got up and made his way around the table to Jennifer. He helped her stand and he hugged her, saying, "I love you. I'm proud to love such a strong and powerful woman."

The rest of us voiced our support for her intention. John and Janice helped with cleaning up after dinner and the rest of us went to the Gingerbread House to do more work. Bill painted the walls of a bedroom with help from Sandy. I kept working on window sills that needed help. Donna worked cleaning the basement. Karen prepped another bedroom for paint. Each of us working toward a common goal and thinking our own thoughts about our family, the hearings, the two children we were about to have living with us and about love.

On the thirteenth I got a call at the BC from Mr. Wilkerson. "How about if I bring Martha with me and we meet you all in Lincoln? That way she can be with the kids a little longer."

"That will be fine, but she doesn't have to get my permission. I love her and she's already a part of the family, but I'm not in charge anywhere, except at work."

"I'm asking, not her. I want the extra time with her as much as I want her to be with her kids. I don't know what she needs to do inside the family, so I'm selfishly asking for you to make it Ok that I take her to Lincoln."

"I think that's a great idea. Let me call you right back, Ok? I need to check with Sandy about something."

"Ok."

I called Sandy on the intercom and she came to my office. "Have you made reservations for a place for us to stay in Lincoln?"

She shook her head and asked, "How many rooms?"

"One for you and me, one for Mr. Wilkerson, one shared between Martha and Jennifer. Three rooms with queen beds or bigger. Get back to me with the address so I can give it to Mr. Wilkerson. Ok, Honey?"

"I'll be right back." She hurried back to her office.

Five minutes passed and she came into my office, kissed me and gave me a slip of paper with the name and address of the hotel in Lincoln. The note said that James was registered in a different hotel and it told me which one.

I called Mr. Wilkerson and told him which hotel he and Martha were registered in. He said he had made reservations at the Hampton Inn. I said, "James is registered there. We reserved rooms at the New Victorian for that reason."

He said he'd cancel their reservations and join us at the New Victorian. He then asked me to stop calling him Mr. Wilkerson. He said, "We're family. Martha and I have talked a lot about your family and how you all live. I'm Jeremiah or I'm Dad to all the adults in the family. To Matthew and Ruth I'm grandpa. Ok?"

"Great, Dad. We'll see you in Lincoln."

John serviced our stake side truck and fueled it. The next morning Jenn, Sandy and I would be on the road. At dinner John asked, "Who's in charge at the BC til you get back?"

I said, "No one needs to be in charge. I trust each of you to do the right thing at any moment. If there is an emergency, I have a cell phone."

Bill asked, "What qualifies as an emergency?"

Sandy smiled and said, "If someone cuts a hand off with a saw. A finger isn't an emergency."

Bill blushed and I said, "Bill, stay away from power tools while we're gone. See if we can go a few days with joy and laughter as the default rather than the pressure of "hearings", Ok?"

"Got it! We'll party while you're gone and send you the happy energy." Karen said.

Janice smiled and said, "Tomorrow night I want Bill in my room, after we go out for dinner."

Karen said, "You're right! Jenn won't be here to cook. The food won't be as good as hers, but we can eat in a greasy spoon restaurant while they're gone!"

Bill said, "I know just the greasy spoon to visit, too."

John waited a few minutes and asked, "Jenn, can I sleep with you tonight?"

"No. Not that I don't want to, I do, but I want to honestly testify in the hearing that I haven't slept with or had sex with any man except Albert."

John smiled and asked, "The night you get back?"

"The night we het back I would love to spend the night with you. Are you sure?"

"And spend some time in the hot tub with me?" He asked.

"Only if you promise to do wonderful things with me while we're there." She was smiling.

Bill stood up and left the room. I watched and saw him find the cordless phone and dial a number. A few minutes later he came back smiling and asked Jenn and John, "You mind sharing the hot tub that night with Martha and me?"

I said, "I think that night the rest of us will sleep in the Gingerbread House, otherwise we may not get much sleep." Some laughter and some blushing seemed to just happen at our table. Jenn slept alone that night. Karen slept with me. Janice slept with John, Sandy slept with Bill. Donna was on the night shift.

Jenn was up and making breakfast before dawn. When my eyes opened Jenn was standing in the doorway to Karen's room looking at the two of us, naked in bed together. She said, "I want some of that." Then she turned and left us. Karen shared herself with me and we dressed together before breakfast.

John brought the stake side truck to the house and put our two suitcases in the back and lashed them to one side. We were dressed, fed and on the road before sunup. I drove with Jenn in the middle and Sandy at the passenger window.

We drove half an hour on country roads and then the rest of the trip on I-80. Seven hours driving later we were approaching Lincoln. We had talked about the changes to the houses and specifically about the changes to the kitchens. We had talked about the BC and ideas for changes there as well. Honestly, we had talked about almost anything to avoid talking about the hearings. I felt like any conversation about the hearings needed to include Martha. Jennifer started twice to talk about the hearings, but stopped herself and said, "It isn't right unless Martha is with us. All talking about it will do is get me riled up, not solve anything."

We found the New Victorian Hotel and parked the stake side quite a ways from the building. Since all we brought with us was some tie-downs and our two suitcases I wasn't too worried about theft. After we parked I removed the distributer cap and brain. The truck could still be stolen, but not easily.

After we were settled in our rooms Sandy asked Jenn, "Have you given any thought to the invitation John gave you?"

"You mean the one that implies he wants to have sex with me and wake up the next morning in bed with me?" Sandy and I nodded. "I've thought a lot about it. My mind has been set on fidelity ever since I was in high school. My church and the culture told me that you stay a virgin until you get married and then you only have sex with your husband for the rest of your life. Then I find out that people can and do love more than one person. It's not fiction in a book. I found I could love you. I could even live with all of you." She paused, thinking.

She said, "Then John asked the question. I had to face the reality of saying I love you includes actually loving each of you. Focusing on having your lives work for you, for us and for the family. It's not an everything except. It's everything. Yeah, I've been thinking about it."

I asked, "And?"

"I'm a little worried that John will be disappointed. I'm not a cute, thin nineteen-year-old with perfect boobs. I don't think I ever was."

Sandy smiled and said, "I worried about that, too. When Nick came back to town I was already past twenty-five. He convinced me he loved me, not my boobs, my hair-do, my boots or my tight jeans. John wants you to know he loves you... all the way. As a woman, as a sister, a wife, a girl-friend, even as a mother."