Thank you to those readers who have responded, particularly by pm and email which have been more than I expected. Your opinions are welcomed. This is now the 5th part in what will be a twenty part series.
*
Harry strolled through the doors of the Church hall almost exactly on time. There were a dozen or so people milling around. His Aunt Diane spotted him, "Ah Harry, now the minister is around somewhere, he can show you what needs to be done, where has he disappeared to?" Failing to locate the Reverend William Llewellyn-Jones, she recruited his wife instead, "Trixie, do you know what it is that your husband wants Harry to sort out?"
"I think so," the response came from the small, slightly pneumatic blonde standing next to her, "Shall I show Harry."
"If you would, thank you."
"Hi Harry," Trixie greeted him, we haven't seen you here for a while," she led him up onto the stage. "Here it is; it's a bit of a muddle."
"What happened?" asked Harry, grinning.
"It was the Misses Perkins, you know, the two elderly ladies who volunteered to clean the hall. Apparently their dad told them, years ago when they were children, that all plugs should be pulled out for safety, so they did and they pulled out every one, and now we don't know where they all go."
Harry was looking not just at the power cables but all the cables belonging to at least a dozen computers plus the youth groups disco and sound system. "This won't take long, he told Trixie, "But when will the computers be used next."
"Not for another two weeks. They're used by Mr Benson's adult education classes, so it won't be until the next session starts. He won't be happy if he comes back to this muddle."
"Ok, what I'll do this evening then, is match each machine to its cables, tie them together, then come back after your event this weekend and put everything out ready for Mr Benson, and you had better suggest to the Misses Perkins that they needn't pull out all the cables in future."
"Oh I'll get William to do that, he has a way with the older ladies," she smiled, and left Harry to get on with it.
In less than half an hour Harry had everything sorted out into separate bundles. Only a few people were left, including his aunt and the minister with his wife. "Oh hello Harry he said, I didn't see you come in."
"That's because you weren't here," Harry grinned.
"Yes I suppose you're right, are you playing cricket this summer?" the minister continued, changing the subject completely.
"No I'm not; too many small jobs at weekends mean I wouldn't be available. You'll have to carry the batting again."
One of the things which had endeared the young minister, to the male part of his congregation at least, was the fact that the absent minded Reverend William was easily the best batsman to play for the Hawksworth club in years. They might not be bothered about his sermons, but his surprising ability with a bat had turned the club from also-rans to contenders in the last two seasons.
"Hmm," responded William, "well if I don't see you at cricket, perhaps we'll see you at church a little more often."
"Yes," interjected his aunt, agreeing mischievously, "if Harry gets all his jobs done on Saturdays, he will have more time for church on Sundays."
"We'll see," grinned her nephew, adding with exaggerated concern, "if aunt Diane is feeling particularly frail on a Sunday, I'll make sure she gets here safely; but," he continued, "for my own part I have rather lost interest, to be honest there are a lot of things the church teaches that I just don't think make an awful lot of sense any more."
"Humph," responded his aunt, "some of you young people just think a bit too much sometimes. Now, we should be going, Harry I need you to take me home, I've left my car in Town for a service tomorrow."
She rose and the rest of the group took that as their lead that the evening was over. On the drive home Diane commented, "You know Harry, William will take that to heart what you said about not believing all the teachings. Poor William, he doesn't understand that the main reason people attend church is for the comfort, the companionship, and community of people like themselves, rather than what they might read in a book. So far as he's concerned you're half way to being a heathen. If I know William he'll be trying to convert you...serves you right," she concluded with satisfaction.
"It was a bit thoughtless of me I suppose," he conceded, "William can be a bit earnest sometimes. What's his wife like? I have never really had much to do with her"
"Trixie," his aunt replied, "could have been a disaster but she isn't. She met William when he was a chaplain doing social work in Sydney. An odd couple, he has more degrees and qualifications than he will ever need, whereas she finished school at sixteen; but she has more common sense in her little finger than he has in his whole body. He came from quite a well known and fairly wealthy family, but she appears to have no family at all. Some people," she added ominously, "some people... people, who should know better, said some very nasty things about Trixie when she and William first arrived."
"What sort of things?"
"Oh things like, 'she's no better than she should be; what did she do for a job?' Where is her family, is she ashamed of them? Marjorie Lukis came straight out and said Trixie was a tart; I soon sorted them out. I told Marjorie in front of plenty of other women that Trixie could hardly help it if she was a sight more attractive than the people criticising her."
"Sounds as though you enjoyed yourself," laughed Harry.
"I did," his aunt confessed, "but it's what Trixie has done here that really counts, I'm not interested in her past, whether she has one or not. She has worked hard to help her husband and she has been smart enough not to put any ones nose out of joint by being too pushy. Most of all she clearly adores her husband, which always goes down well in a minister's wife."
Aunt Diane was more prescient than she knew. Some two hours later Trixie and William had said their prayers and were preparing for bed, "You know darling," William said, "we must do something about Harry. Smart young men like him should be the leaders in our church not doubters." He lapsed into silence, then after a few seconds reflection blurted out; "We must do what we can, everything we can," he emphasised passionately, "with love, with body and mind and soul to bring young men like him back to us, back into the arms of our community."
