War Room (21 page)

She was in her closet until it was almost light, talking with God and praying. Crying. It was one thing to pray and have God answer that prayer by making her husband sick to his stomach. That was miraculous. It was one thing to pray God would break her husband’s pride and bring him back to his family. That, too, was a miracle. But it was a huge leap to believe God had the power to restore and rekindle her own heart. It was an even bigger leap over the canyon of her despair to believe God could take away her pain about being rejected.

Elizabeth couldn’t figure out
how Miss Clara’s son had convinced her to move before there was even an offer on the house. But she jumped at the chance to help, once the decision was made, and enlisted Danielle and Tony for the project. It was the first time Clara had met Tony and she smiled and gave him a big hug when he arrived, patting him on the shoulder.

“That man has enough muscles to move this whole house,” she said to Elizabeth when he went inside. “I wish my son could be here to help, but he’s out of town.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting Clyde. I’ve heard so much about him.”

“How are you and Tony doing?”

Elizabeth smiled. “We’re moving toward each other. But there are still a lot of boxes to unpack.”

“And that pastor at the church, he’s helping you?”

“It was the best idea Tony ever had. We’ve only seen him once, but he’s good. He’s gotten to the core of some of our issues.”

“And it was Tony’s idea
 
—that’s the important thing,” the woman said. “You don’t know how rare that is.”

Elizabeth followed Clara around the house, writing labels for each of the boxes. Her items were divided into three sections. The first was the smallest, furniture and boxes that would go in the new apartment at her son’s house. The other slightly larger section was for storage. And the final, bigger lot that filled the living room was made up of things Clara wanted to give away. Elizabeth had suggested having a garage sale, but Clara wouldn’t hear of it.

“God has not blessed me with all these things in order to sell them for pennies on the dollar. I’ve prayed for my things to get into the right hands and I believe He’s going to make that happen.”

The giveaway stuff was handed out to neighbors and people from church. Some items had sticky notes with names on them, set aside for specific people in Clara’s life. Wall art, a coffee table, and bookshelves to a young couple just starting out. Many of her books were donated to the church library. By the time the moving truck arrived,
Elizabeth couldn’t believe how organized and pared down things had become.

She loved seeing Tony and Danielle involved in the project. They took it on with equal gusto, though Tony did have everyone stop for a few minutes to show Danielle’s moves with the jump rope.

“That girl has real talent,” Clara said.

Elizabeth walked over to her as she wrote a few more box labels. “I’m going to miss coming over here to see you.”

“Well, you can come see me at my son’s house. He’s just four blocks away.”

Tony had opened a window to get some furniture through and Clara watched him.

“And Tony’s going to be all right. You just keep praying for him.”

“Every day,” Elizabeth said.

“Now, when is my house going to sell? I don’t want just anybody to buy it. It’s got to be the right people.”

“I’m praying for the right people, Miss Clara. Every day.”

Tony walked out of the moving truck and headed back into the house. He pulled out his cell phone like he’d gotten a call or a text. He stared at it a moment, then punched the screen. Elizabeth wondered which call he’d rejected.

They drove to Clara’s new home and helped unload things into the apartment prepared for her. Tony and Michael, his paramedic friend, moved the couch three times until they got it just right.

“Now don’t go putting anything in the closet in my room,” Clara said.

Clara’s daughter-in-law took her aside. “Mama, Clyde made you a nice sitting area over by the window where you can look out at the neighborhood and pray.”

“I love that,” Clara said. “And I’ll watch the sun come up and read my Bible there, but I need my closet for the heavy praying I do every day.”

Her daughter-in-law smiled. “I told Clyde it’s enough that we finally got you here.”

A teenage girl walked out of the house, her head down as if she didn’t want to meet any of the company helping her grandmother.

Clara saw her and called her over. “Hallie, I want you to meet a friend of mine. She’s helping me sell my house.”

Elizabeth greeted the girl and shook her hand. She looked a little too thin and her face was pale.

“Nice to meet you,” Hallie said, not looking up.

“It’s going to be nice having your grandmother even closer than before, isn’t it?” Elizabeth said.

“I guess so.”

With that, the girl left, and Clara put a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder and lowered her voice. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like you to add Hallie’s name to your prayer list. The Lord has some work to do in that young lady’s life. And I want to be here when He does it.”

Elizabeth promised she would pray for her and entered a note on her cell phone. She made a mental note to ask
Tony who had called his phone, then decided she would let it go. That was part of building trust, she thought.

Tony’s mind was always whirring with ideas about a small business he could start or companies where he might work. Networking was the key to any job search, and he had asked some of the men from church about employment possibilities. No one knew of anything currently, but they all said they would keep Tony in mind.

Michael suggested he become a professional brooder. “You know, that statue of the guy who sits and thinks all the time? You look a lot like him.”

“I haven’t found anybody who would pay me to do that,” Tony said.

Tony knew Michael cared and he wanted to open up about what had happened, but it was painful. If he could keep it inside and get a new job, everything would be all right. He could put the past where it belonged and move ahead.

With the workout he got moving Clara’s things, he figured he could start an exercise club in a truck. People would pay him to tone their abs by moving furniture. The families who were moving would pay him for the service and everybody would win. He’d call it “Ab-Haul” or something like that. The thought made him smile, but he had to come up with more than a good idea.

There was someplace he would fit, where he could use
his sales abilities, his people skills, and his love for athletics and training. When he got to the gym, when he played ball or ran, he felt alive. If he could wed his passion on the court and in the weight room with life, he could make a difference. He’d always seen his best skill as managing people
 
—getting people on the same team and moving in the right direction.

Too bad you didn’t try that with your own family.

That was the voice in his head, the accusing, deriding voice that chopped him down at every turn. As he was moving Clara’s things, he’d received a call from Veronica. It stopped him in his tracks, but he quickly rejected the call. He’d made that decision
 
—if she called, he wouldn’t answer. Then he took the next step and deleted her contact information. He wanted to show Elizabeth what he had done, then decided against it. He didn’t want to be the puppy that needed a pat on the head every time he didn’t pee on the rug. This was part of the new Tony, the strong, decisive man God was rebuilding, but he had to admit the accusing voice sometimes got to him.

Jennifer and Danielle were jumping rope in the driveway and he watched them, wanting to enter into the fray. But the accusing voice said,
You were never there for her when she started jumping rope. Why would you want to start now? You’ve ignored her. She’s not going to forgive you and let you back in. Stop trying.

Tony sat on the step, amazed at how well the girls
jumped. Danielle looked over. “Dad, why don’t you try? We’ll get both ropes going.”

His first reaction was to reject the idea. Jumping rope was for girls. But for some reason he stood and said, “Sure.”

When he reached for the rope to turn it for one of them, Danielle said, “No, I mean, you go in the middle. See if you can do it.”

“See if I can do it?” Tony said. “There’s no
seeing
about it. When I jump in there, your arms will fall off before I miss.”

“Let’s see you, Mr. Jordan,” Jennifer said with a smile.

“Yeah!” Danielle yelled, and they started turning the ropes.

He tried jumping in three times before he actually made it without stopping the ropes, and that time he only jumped twice. Danielle laughed and said her arms weren’t falling off yet. Tony was determined. In his life, whatever he decided to do, he did it. And he was successful at what he put his mind to. Pretty soon, he was running in place, the ropes swirling around him, whistling in the wind. He made a turn and the girls giggled. As he got into rhythm, Danielle’s eyes widened and her mouth got stuck in a grin she couldn’t stop. She shook her head at Jennifer as if this were the proudest moment of her life.

Tony was fully there in the middle of those two ropes. Instead of feeling on the outside of his daughter’s life, he was smack inside it, and with each jump he thanked God for the chance to change, the chance to be part of his family, the chance to love and be loved and make mistakes.

“Daddy, why don’t you jump with us?” Danielle said when he missed again. He realized she meant for him to be on the team, in competition.

“Yeah, that would be awesome!” Jennifer said.

“No, no, no. They don’t let parents do that.”

“Yeah, they do,” Jennifer said. “But no parents do ’cause they can’t keep up.”

“Dad, it’s an open league. You can jump in the freestyle competition. They’ll let you!”

Tony stared at her, a sweat breaking out. “Tell you what. Let me think about it.”

Jennifer and Danielle both jumped for joy and he tried to calm them. “Now if I’m going to do it, I want to do it right. So let’s try it again. Get it going!”

The pattern began again, the ropes cutting through the wind and whipping around Tony, his feet moving quickly, his muscles engaged, and the sweat rolling.

You’ll make a fool of yourself,
the voice said.
Don’t even think about joining that team.

Tony smiled and jumped and kept on jumping until Danielle complained that her arms felt like they were going to fall off.

Elizabeth awakened to find Tony gone from their bed. She put on her robe and walked through the living room, searching for any trace of him, calling out in the empty house. Danielle was still asleep up in her room.

He wasn’t in the kitchen and the front door was still locked, so he hadn’t gone for a run. She finally checked the garage and found him there. It was weird not seeing his Tahoe in the garage. He sat in a lawn chair in front of a folding table, staring at a storage box on top like it held some hidden treasure
 
—or maybe a nuclear device that would destroy the planet, she couldn’t tell which.

“Tony, what are you doing?” she said.

“I’m struggling.”

She came down the steps and closed the door behind her. “With what?”

Tony lifted the cover of the box, revealing drug samples with the Brightwell logo on them. He kept staring straight ahead, unable to look up at her.

“What is this?” she said.

“It was my bonus plan.”

She studied one of the bottles, the questions forming. “Where did you get these?”

“I’ve been keeping some for myself each time I take samples to a client.”

“I thought they had to sign for what you gave them.”