"Hmm. Let me check my calendar," Cooper joked. "I've got dinner with the governor on Tuesday, a spa treatment with Jessica Simpson on Wednesday, and Oprah and I are reviewing her latest book picks on Thursday, but Sunday's wide open. I'd love to join you guys, thank you." And just like that, Cooper officially became a member of the Sunrise Bible Study.
It was with regret that Cooper told Angela she would pass on their weekly takeout order from the Curry House. She never grew tired of chicken curry served over basmati rice with a side of warm
naan
. Instead, she ordered a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and extra pickles, large fries, and a diet Coke at the McDonald's drive-thru. She then drove to the LifeWay Christian store and parked so that she could eat and complete her bookstore errand within her lunch hour.
After she'd wolfed down her food, Cooper wiped away a smear of ketchup from her chin, tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear, and entered the store. Inside, her senses were instantly assaulted by shelves of glitzy giftware. Dazzling displays showcased crosses on stands, plaques, candles, angels, throws woven with lines of Scripture, and spinner racks of bookmarks. Cooper cast her eyes around in search of signage. Noting that the books seemed to be in the center section of the store, she navigated through aisles of inspirational reading, self-help books, and journals until she ended up in the children's section, where she flipped through a coloring book on Moses just to appear as though she weren't completely lost.
"Can I help you find anything?" asked a young, pretty salesgirl as Cooper replaced the coloring book.
"Yes, please." She unfolded a piece of paper from her coat pocket and handed it to the girl. "I'm looking for this workbook."
"Okay. Our study guides are in the back of the store. Would you like to follow me?"
"Only if you promise to leave a trail of bread crumbs," Cooper joked. "This place isn't big, but I'm feeling over-stimulated. It's like a scene from
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
, only instead of candy everywhere, there's books and crosses."
The salesgirl laughed. "We've got candy too. Up at the register. I recommend the chocolate peanut-butter balls." She led Cooper to the back of the store. "Here's the Ecclesiastes workbook. Do you need the leader's guide or the student guide?"
"Oh, I'm definitely
not
the leader!" Cooper laughed at the idea. "To tell the truth, this is my first Bible study and I'm a little nervous about the whole thing. I haven't cracked a Bible since the
other
Bush was in office."
The girl smiled. "I just started my first one in the fall. We're doing a Beth Moore study called Breaking Free and I totally love it. Don't worry, it'll be awesome. Let me know if you need anything else."
Cooper thanked the enthusiastic young woman and surveyed the different workbook titles. She then meandered over to a wall filled with shelf after shelf of assorted Bibles. Though she had an illustrated children's Bible at home as well as a King James Version given to her as a confirmation gift almost twenty years ago, she was hoping to find a Bible that presented Scripture in plainer language.
She flipped through a hardcover adult study Bible, but decided that it was too cumbersome to carry to class. A New Living Translation with a smooth brown leather cover appealed to her, but the print was way too small. Another New International Version seemed like the perfect size, but the pages were so thin Cooper feared she'd tear them each time she searched for a passage. Having no idea what an amplified version was or the difference between a 21
st
Century King James or an American Standard Bible, Cooper sank back on her heels, a pile of Bibles strewn out around her on the floor.
"You look like you're building yourself a Bible enclosure," a man standing behind her said. "It can be overwhelming to choose one, I know." He squatted down next to her and chuckled. "My wife said it was harder for her to shop for a new Bible than it was to find a husband. Lucky for me, she's stuck with both her Bible
and
me for over twenty-two years."
Cooper looked for a name tag on the man's polo shirt, but didn't see one. He carried a white LifeWay plastic bag weighted down with purchases in one hand and his car keys in the other. She held out her workbook so that he could read the cover. "Any idea what would be the best Bible to go with this book?"
The man flipped the workbook open. "Looks like the author refers to passages in the NIV." He gestured at the wall and grinned. "Well, that at least narrows your search to a few hundred. I'm the manager here and I'm late pickin' up my daughter from dance class, but I know the right Bible will find its way to you. And if you're still here in the morning, I won't be a bit surprised." Smiling, he saluted her playfully and walked away, leaving Cooper alone with six rows of the New International Version before her.
Passing on the illustrated, large print, daily, and study Bibles, or those geared toward a specif c gender or age group, Cooper's fingers brushed against the caramel spine of a novel-sized Bible with a soft leather cover. As she opened the pages, she was pleased by the font size and the summaries presented in the front of each book. She liked the chocolate-colored ribbon that would help her mark her place and the manner in which the Bible was fastened with a slide-tab closure in the same dark walnut hue. Everything about the Bible felt right. Just holding on to it seemed to instill Cooper with a sense of strength and hope.
Gathering her two books, Cooper made her way to the register feeling excited about her new adventure. She added three peanut-butter meltaways to her pile and handed the cashier her Visa card.
"I hope there's enough room on there for this stuff," she told the young male cashier ruefully.
"Almost maxed out, huh?" he inquired kindly.
"Yeah. I used to split the payments with my boyfriend, but now I've just got memories of happier times and a whopper of a Visa bill."
"Well, from where I'm standing, that guy's crazy." The cashier grinned and handed Cooper her purchases. "Pretty lady like you. With those super-cool eyes?" He stopped as Cooper blushed. "Sorry. But if you want someone to compliment you some more, you know where to find me."
Cooper gave him a grateful smile and left the store.
Inside the cab of Cherry-O, she sank back against the charcoal gray seat, popped one of the candies in her mouth, pulled her new Bible out of the plastic bag and began to finger its gilt edges.
"Okay, Lord. Let's see what you have to tell me." Cooper closed her eyes, opened the Bible, and placed her index fnger onto a random line of text. Opening her eyes, she read aloud, "
The LORD watches over you--the LORD is your shade at your right hand
."
Cooper glanced at her empty passenger seat and immediately, an image of Brooke's face appeared in her mind. She was surprised, because she always expected to see Drew waiting in the recesses of her cerebellum. Cooper looked back at the verses of Psalm 121. "I hear what you're trying to tell me, Lord, and I'm going to go right home and work on that paper from Brooke's office. You've got a job for me to do and I'm on it."
The moment Cooper got home she retrieved the rag containing the remnants of Brooke's document from her toolbox. After taking a refreshing sip of cold sweet tea, she steeled herself and unfolded the rag. Just as she feared, there were dozens of paper scraps lying inside.
"Good thing I love puzzles," Cooper said to the rag and then cleared a space on her kitchen table. She set out two sheets of black construction paper side by side and dumped the bits of paper onto the sheet on the right. Her plan was to reconstruct the document and use tape on the connecting pieces in order to secure them to the sheet on the left.
Cooper began by sifting through the litter and pulling out the biggest scraps. She examined each one through a magnifying glass and then laid them out on the black paper. Unfortunately, she had been right to assume that many of the pieces would be covered by smeared ink, but she could also see legible, typewritten letters here and there.
"This is going to take a miracle," she said as she stared forlornly at the seemingly impossible task her, but she was determined to succeed in re-creating the document. Somehow, she felt that Brooke was looking over her shoulder, willing her to solve the riddle of her death.
"Yoo-hoo!" Ashley's voice interrupted Cooper's work. Her sister swept in the room with a stuffed Nordstrom bag in each hand. "Here you are, hiding up in your tower like Rapunzel!" she exclaimed and deposited the bags on the empty chair across from Cooper.
The action caused several tiny fragments of paper to flutter off the table and onto the floor. "Ashley!" Cooper held out a hand to prevent her sister from moving again. "Watch out."
Ashley pouted. "Well, that's a fine way to greet me, especially when I've got goodies for you."
Cooper eyed the bags warily. "Are you going to try and gussy me up again? I'm busy right now."
"Doing what?" Ashley put her hands on her hips. "You're going to that new church and you've joined a Bible study. Next on your list is to meet some nice man with a big heart and the type of career that would make him an excellent provider." She gave Cooper an appraising look. "But first you really need to get a haircut. Your hair has hung long and straight to your shoulders since you were ten. And how about just a
little
makeup? I know you've got that natural look going on and you can pull it off better than most, but you could
enhance
that pretty skin of yours and those nice, symmetrical lips with a bit of color. I'm not talking anything rash--"
"Speaking of rashes," Cooper interrupted, trying not to think about how Drew had liked her to wear her hair long and straight or how he had always insisted that she was attractive without the aid of makeup. "Why is your face so splotchy?"
Ashley gave a little squeak as she touched her cheek and then rushed to examine her reflection in the toaster oven. "Oh yeah! I had a glycolic peel at the Red Door Spa this afternoon. They told me I might be a little discolored for a few hours, but that my skin would be smooth as a baby's butt afterward. Lord, is it! Wanna feel?" Ashley rushed back over to Cooper's side and held her face out to be touched.
Curious, Cooper reached out and stroked her sister's face with her index finger. "You're right. Your cheek feels like velvet."
"I hope Lincoln notices," Ashley said with a slight frown. "I do all this stuff to make myself pretty for him and half the time he can't even tell the difference."
"I'm sure he's good and aware of it every month when the mailman drops off your credit card bills," Cooper replied caustically.
Ignoring the jibe, Ashley removed the shopping bags and sat down at the table. "Mama told me
all
about the murder." Her sapphire eyes sparkled. "That must have been
some
first day at church for you! Go on now, give me the dirt."
"It's not dirt, Ashley, it's someone's life," Cooper retorted and then softened her tone. "Fine. If you promise to return what ever's inside those bags." She pointed at the silver Nordstrom bags. "I can't afford their clothes no matter how fab they might be."
"But it was all on sale," Ashley persisted.
Cooper silently got up from the table, removed a bill from a basket on her kitchen counter and handed it to Ashley. "I can't afford it, Ashley. Here's my Visa bill to prove it."
Her blue eyes springing open, Ashley glanced from the bill to her sister and back again. "This is a lot of money, Coop! How did this happen?"
"When Drew moved out, I was left with that green contact he liked me to wear and about five grand in debt," Cooper confessed. "Together we'd picked out our coffee-table-sized plasma TV, that silly karaoke machine, a cappuccino maker that required NASA scientists to operate, and a superhip living room set from Ikea. See, Drew really wanted to start his own home inspection business and he was saving money for that and I really wanted to support him, so a lot of the day-to-day expenses
and
all those big ticket things ended up on my Visa card."
"I always thought you guys split all your bills down the middle," Ashley said. "And Drew ... he was always such a gentleman. Have you asked him for money?"
Cooper shook her head. "Drew
was
a gentleman, Ashley, until the very end. He treated me like a queen, told me I was beautiful every single day, and ..." She folded the bill and returned it to the basket, fighting tears. "We laughed together, Ashley. We had fun together. I thought we were happy."
"We all did too," Ashley responded. "We were all waiting for you guys to announce your engagement any second. I never imagined I'd be marching up the aisle before my big sister."
"I didn't realize until those last few months we were together, when he started drinking three or four beers a night that he wasn't happy anymore. I thought it was work stuff and that he'd sort out what was eating him and we'd move on. Well, he didn't sort it out. He blew up and Anna Lynne was there to help him pick up the pieces." Cooper sighed. "I still love him, Ashley. I've loved him for over five years. It's so hard to just ... stop. And there's no way I'm asking him for money."
"I'll give it to you," Ashley whispered and took her sister's hand.
Deeply moved by the offer, Cooper squeezed Ashley's hand and tried not to cry. "That is so sweet, thank you, but this is my mess. I'll take care of it. And I know you're going to offer to pay for those Nordstrom clothes too, but I don't want you to, okay?"
Ashley pretended to sulk. "Suits me, but you're missing out. I had a really pretty outfit for you to wear to church this week so you could dazzle all the eligible men."
