Sadie-in-Waiting

Sometime in her childhood Sadie's daddy made a point of telling her, " If you pray for patience, you will be sent adversity for a teacher." So she never prayed for patience. Notonce. And yet for some reason she still seemed to get dished out more than her share of adversity. It seemed to follow her around, in fact, like a lovesick pup. A pup with the sleepy-eyed gaze of her husband, Ed, the persistent whine of her children's teenage angst and the maddening bite of her sisters" habitual bickering. To top it off, that puppy traveled with a pack, constantly nipping at her heels. President of the contentious Council of Christian Women--contentiousnot being part of the official title, though she often thought it should be.Nip. Unpaid, unnoticed, as-needed, fill-in employee at her husband's pharmacy.Nip. First person everyone in town called to report about the often exasperating actions of her father, Solomon Shelnutt.Nip. And ever-present gnawing that made it all the more difficult for her to shake it all off--the seemingly silly, self-indulgent empty ache of being a mommy to teens and no longer having any little babies to mother. Adversity, in her case, loved company. For Sadie, more often than not, the biggest helping of it--adversity, not company--came in the form of her seventy-one-year-old father's never-ending pursuit of what he called "authentic individualism." That was Daddyspeak for "Nobody tells Moonie Shelnutt what to do." he'd said those very words to her this morning, so she should have had an inkling that this was the day trouble would go out of its way to find her. Find her? It had already phoned her three times! Well, three people had already phoned her trying to pry her out of the house to come down and "deal with your daddy." Not today, she had decided. Today she would hide out from the relentless responsibilities of her life. She had planned to let the phone ring. She had planned to ignore the petty problems people piled at her feet daily with the expectation "Sadie can fix it." She had planned to let somebody else learn from adversity today, even if it meant she never, ever,evermastered the noble virtue of patience. Adversity, she discovered this fine May Monday morning when she flung open her front door--dressed in high-water overalls, shower shoes and a freebie wind-breaker a pharmaceutical rep had given her husband, no less--had other plans. It had come in the form of a brand-new, never-expected variety right there on her doorstep. And it had a proposition for her. She heard him out impassively before saying, " Earl Lee Furst, I know you've been elected mayor of this little slice of Kentucky paradise an unprecedented thirteen times." Sadie quoted directly from the ruddy-faced man's mayoral-campaign ads, knowing he'd never allow himself to acknowledge the sarcasm in her doing so. In fact, because he'd got her up out of her safe, comfy easy chair when she was definitely not in a mood to do so, she laid it on extra thick. "And that the Furst family has roots so deep in Wileyville that they not only helped found the town, they grew themselves into the very character of the place, but--" "It's true, Mrs. Pickett." He beamed, his hand on his low, round belly. "Me and mine have long been pillars of the church, the chamber of commerce and the community at large." "And don't forget primary sponsors of the Tri-county Bass-travaganza Fishing Tournament," she droned. "Ah, yes, the Bass-travaganza." His eyes shone with a distant light usually reserved for talk of Mother, God and country. "That sucker really hauls in the cold hard cash." Sadie cleared her throat. "That is to say, it's a real boon to you business owners, Mrs. Pickett. And like most things that keep this town's head above water--allmyJones, Annie is the author of 'Sadie-in-Waiting ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373786046 and ISBN 0373786042.