Uptown Sun

Chapter 29: On the Table

Boots stomped across the field that had been muddied from the rain that had fallen the night before. Natalie left her old beater in the furthest section of the gravel parking lot away from the church lest Evander actually saw the car she got around in. She'd forgotten her brolly but luckily the rain had let up, although the fog had not subsided. 

Perhaps she could have dressed a little more formally. Her khaki corduroys tucked into her brown boots, her untucked linen button up, and her fiery hair piled on the top of her head made her look like a rejected character design of Jane from Tarzan. In a way, she supposed, it was a bit of an expedition. She brushed the large palm fronds aside to reach the hidden path to Robert's cottage. 

The screen door was falling off its hinges. The porch was slightly soft and smelled of the petrichor from the damp forest enveloping the whimsical dwelling. The peeling mosquito mesh was not doing much in the way of keeping the bugs out. Natalie gave the crackling paint on the door a firm rap. Met with silence, she waited a small while then gave another. A small gecko scampered above her. 

She raised her voice. 

"Hello?" 

"Mppphhh!" Silence. Spitting. Gargling. "Sorry, one sec." 

Finally. The door opened. It was slightly higher than the porch, so the figure absolutely loomed over Natalie. Keeping the door open with one foot as his hands shakily did up the last of the buttons on his shirt. The two stared at each other, not really knowing what to say. 

Evander figured as the local minister, it was probably up to him. "Hello. It's good to see you... I mean, I've seen you. On Sundays... Not that I'm looking for you... Not in a creepy way or anything... I mean. I just. I see you. It's good. That you're here, I guess to see me. I just thought I wouldn't see you... Not at church." 

Natalie thought she best save him from himself, "I checked my spam folder."

Evander's eyes darted as he racked his brain to put the words in the sentence into the context. His mouth dropped a little as the realisation washed over him. He tried to keep his face neutral to no avail. 

Air sucked through Natalie's teeth, "Yeah. My bad. Too late to follow up on that invite to come visit? Although... I guess it's not such a drive now." 

"I'd love to, but..." 

Natalie's heart dropped. She anticipated what would come next: "There's someone else", "It's not you, it's me", "After these last weeks, the first phonecall I get from Robert and I'm out of here faster than a cassowary in mating season"...  

"It might be a little inappropriate to invite you in here. I'm not... I don't want to be presumptuous but young guy, young girl, I wouldn't want it to get..." 

"Awkward?" 

"... Yeah." 

Natalie was quick on her feet, "You've got keys to the church kitchen, right? You bring the coffee and the cups, I'll put the kettle on. Surely part of your duties as a priest involve talking to your constituents." 

"Parishioners." 

"Eh. Potat-uents, Potat...shoners." 

"Wow." 

"Yeah, that was bad." 

"Yeah... So... Uh... The keys. I'll get the keys." 

Evander gladly went back inside to escape... Whatever that was. He grabbed the keyring, filled with a jumble of old aesthetically pleasing keys intermingled with newer, sturdier keys. Of course, finished off with a peeling plastic keychain that said "The key to heaven was hung on a nail" scrawled in a tacky font and detailed with a butterfly that, at some stage Evander assumed, was blue before the sun managed to get to it. 

"Will we need sugar?" He hurriedly put the keys in Natalie's hands. 

"Only if you use it. I'm boring with my coffee... Just some instant if you've got it. Mugs too, would be useful. Thanks... See ya." She about-faced and walked back across the field towards the kitchen door. The truth was that the church kitchen, like any good small-town hall with an in-built kitchen, was stocked with cups, large tins of instant coffee, tea, and Tupperware tubs of sugar that seem to magically get refilled when no one is looking. Well, the mothers and grandmothers keeping the kitchens stocked were looking. 

However, if Natalie knew a single thing about men it was that they wanted to feel useful. "It's not about wearing high heels or having perfect hair," Her mother would always say, "If you want a happy husband, just give him any old task... And when he's finished, say 'you did a good job'. If you don't, he may 'forget' to do the task next time."

She left her muddy boots by the back door and rolled up the cuffs of her pants to ensure she wasn't the one getting a scolding for leaving boot prints on the floor by Gail or Rita come next Sunday. She found the kettle and plugged it in. She clicked open the lid to check for any cockroaches or spiders trying to find a new home and then began to fill it with water. The satisfying "click" began the slow boil. 

What do you even talk to guys about? Are there rules about dating pastors? Is it like doctors on TV where they have to "fire" the patient before they can date? She just came back. Would she have to leave? The internet is intermittent at best. Even with satellite boosting, uploading the stuff for her clients took ages. She couldn't imagine having to join an online congregation. What if this is just work for him? What if he found a girlfriend in the meantime? One from the big city... Or what if he hasn't? What if they do get together? How do Christian's date? What if they hold hands, and then a month later they're engaged, and then five months after that they get married, and then she has to be a pastor's wife, and then she has to have babies, and then she has to move to the city and give up her job and- 

Mugs clinked in the plastic shopping bag Evander brought the supplies in. "I didn't know what coffee you wanted." He pulled out three jars and one tin of instant coffee. 

"Coffee's coffee, isn't it?" 

Evander breathed in calmly, "You lot are a breath of fresh air." 

"What do you mean?" 

"People in Brissy are awfully fussy about coffee. Everyone has their opinions. We're spoiled for choice. Not as bad as Melbourne, but it certainly is a 'culture'." He emphasised with air quotes. 

Natalie heaped teaspoons of coffee into the old, coffee-stained mugs. The boiled water filled hers almost to the top, "Sugar? Milk?" Evander shook his head. She walked to the freezer and pulled out the ice-cube tray, dropping some in each. 

"Iced coffee?" 

"Impatient coffee. Stick some ice-cubes in and it's the perfect temperature to drink right away." 

"You country people are full of surprises." 

They made their way out and across the hall into the church, sitting in one of the front pews. Without the lights switched on, sunlight illuminated the church in a way Natalie hadn't noticed before. The stained glass windows were quite beautiful at this time of day. There was an almost haunting, liminal ambience when the space was without the expected hustle and bustle of the local parishioners.