Greenberry - A Prayer and an Opportunity

Greenberry pulled his rickety surrey in front of the Bank of Lewisburg. As he stepped down his foot mostly missed the foot iron intended to help him down but caught himself from full embarrassment. He then redonned his minister’s hat and instantly he had a new persona, that of Minister Parker.

Into the relatively busy bank he walked making his way directly to the office of the bank manager. It was easy for him to spot the manager for he was the best dressed man in the bank.

 “Good morning, sir, how can I help you?” asked the manager without even looking up at Greenberry.

“Hello. I am Minister Parker from Lynchburg. May I assume you are the manager of this fine establishment?” asked Greenberry knowing full well the truth.

 “My name is Mr. Summit – Jesse Summit,” and stands to shake the hand of Minister Parker. “What can I do for you?”

Minister Parker begins, “I presume you know that Mrs. Nalling is on her deathbed and our congregation is concerned that she has enough money for her burial. “

 “But Mr. Parker, she attends church here in Lewisburg,” said Mr. Summit somewhat suspiciously.

 “Ah, yes, but she often attended our church while her sister Vina was still alive,” responded Greenberry.

 Mr. Summit obviously relaxed because he knew it to be true that Mrs. Nalling did go to Lynchburg to visit her sister during the summer weekends.

“Is it possible for you to check her account? I would like to ascertain her ability to fund her funeral. The church will offer her help should she need it.”

 Mr. Summit, now seated again, pushed his chair back and said, “Now Mr. Parker I cannot tell you how much money she has, that would be her business. But I can tell you she made a significant cash withdrawal yesterday and still has plenty of money to pay for her funeral.”

 “Ah, very reassuring Mr. Summit. May God bless you.”

 “Is that all, Minister Parker?”

 “Yes, good day!”

Mr. Summit refocuses his attention on the papers on his desk as Greenberry returns to the rickety black surrey this time confidently landing his foot on the foot iron of the carriage.

He headed for the small farm of Mrs. A. Winston Nalling, where the Nalling household is anticipating Minister Parker’s arrival.

 “Louisa, will you get the blue and white quilt from the armoire and lay it over me. I am quite cold, but I also want the bedclothes to look nice when Minister Parker arrives. It’s not every day when a famous Lynchburg minister pays us a visit,” said Mrs. Nalling. Feeble in body and failing rapidly, Mrs. Nalling was under no illusions about her permanence on this bountiful earth. Dr. Smith had as much said so.

 Louisa shouted, “Yes Granny.” Louisa barely heard her grandmother’s request but no matter, she knew her granny’s nature and was fully expecting that and then next to be asked to make tea.

 “Louisa, would you also make some tea for our visitor?”

 “Yes Granny.”

 Louisa was dressed in a loose shift dress made of third-rate calico pieces and a feed sack.  Sixteen years old and she had no nice clothing, and she had no money to purchase anything at all. She had tried to find granny’s money, but Ava Winston Nalling was too clever and experienced to leave her money lying about the house.

 A knock on the door.

 “Louisa, that must be Minister Parker.”

 “I will get it.”

 With the tea almost ready, she diverted her attention to the old door that was nearly ready to fall off its hinges and then admitted the Minister to their modest home.

 “Good morning, Miss Louisa. I trust you are having a nice day,” greeted the Minister.

 “Well, it is certainly better now that you are here!” said Louisa with a longing look in her eye. She has not seen very many 25-year-old men in her young life and this preacher, albeit a bit homely looking, was walking and breathing and he was clutching her hand as he greeted her.

“How is Mrs. Nalling this afternoon?” said Greenberry.

“About the same as the day I met you in town I’m afraid. She has a spell thrice a day and it is quite painful for her.” As she finished her reply to Minister Parker, she reached to touch his coat sleeve, in part to feel the fine fabric of the coat and in part to beguile him.

 “Well – let’s see your grandmother child.”

 Together they slowly walked to the bedroom at the back of the house where Mrs. Nalling lay under the blue & white quilt, riddled with stains and frays.

 Mrs. Nalling, feigning sleep, pretend awakened to say, “Hello Minister Parker. You look very fine today. Louisa, fetch the tea.”

 “A good day to you Mrs. Nalling. May I call you Ava?”

 “Why certainly Minister!” she coughed. And she coughed some more, then briefly suffered a short coughing fit, subsiding after she had a sip of water from her blue bedside cup.

 “You know God has not forgotten you, Ava. Let me say a prayer for you.”

 And as they bowed their heads and Louisa was pouring the tea in the kitchen, Greenberry started saying a lengthy prayer he had learned especially for this occasion. As he spoke, his eyes were wide open, surveying the room. Across from the bed was a dresser with comb, a hand mirror, and an open box with a small key in it, along with a few cents and a purplish gem, probably amethyst he thought to himself.

At the side of the bed on the wall was a crude picture of Christ and a chair with Ava’s bed robe thrown hastily over it. On the other side of the bed was another chair and a small table with a candlestick holder and a medicine vial and a rag and a jar of lineament.

 On a hunch he quietly walked to the dresser and grabbed the little key and stuffed it into his pocket and then concluded with “Amen.”

 “Amen,” whispered Ava Nalling.

 Then Louisa arrived with the tea. As she poured the tea, she glanced longingly at the skinny form of this 25-year-old minister and dreamily thought about what it would be like to be married to a minister. She poured a cup for him being careful not to slosh any onto the saucer and handed it to him.

 “Louisa. My tea!” snapped Ava. Ava could see that Louisa was daydreaming again and needed the prompt.

 “God loves you, Ava. God blesses you.” Greenberry was really stretching to make his Minister Parker character believable. He then adds, “It appears the fighting is about over. Are you ready, Ava?”

 “I am ready. But don’t you think this a fine day? No, it shall not be today.”

 Relieved by the question, Greenberry extolls the virtues of good weather and the hard work expected by his Lord and Savior. And they exchange small talk for some thirty minutes. All the while minister Parker plays his role to the hilt.

 “Ladies, it is drawing near the end of my time this afternoon. Please join me in song.”

 Then Greenberry led the three in singing “Rock of Ages”.

When finished, Ava said, “The wage of sin is death, Romans 6:23. I am not without sin.”

 “God will forgive your sins Ava, be at peace.”

 “Thank you, Minister Parker. Louisa, will you show the Minister out? Then come back as I have a spell coming on.”

 On his way out, Greenberry carefully observed the sitting room and the kitchen, then stopped and turned to Louisa saying, “Don’t you worry Louisa, God will chaperone your granny the rest of the way. He gives Louisa a warm hug brushing his hand under her bosom.

 With a smile on Louisa’s face, she closes the door and heads to granny’s room to rub her with “that old, stinky lineament.”

 Greenberry had situated his wagon around the side of the barn so that when he left, he could not be seen from the Nalling’s house.

 The barn door was open and so Greenberry strolled in as if it was his own. He looked around at the barn tools and implements. There, on a shelf were several rags that caught his interest. To Greenberry, there was something unnatural about the rags. He lifted the corner of a rag and down fell two more, revealing a small box with a lock that matched the key he took from Mrs. Nalling’s dresser.

 “How fortuitous,” thought Greenberry.

 He opened the box with the key and there it was – 100 $1 bills in US currency and one $80 bill in continental currency that must have been nearly fifty years old. Into his pockets went the money. “How fortuitous indeed!”

 He had only been there for two minutes and felt Louisa would still be occupied with Mrs. Nalling, so he rummaged longer.

 He then found a donkey in one stall, another stall that was unoccupied and then in the third stall he found a fine mare. His mental assessment: no sway back, not skittish, placid, lean – yes, she will do nicely – should fetch about $50. And so, Greenberry walks the horse out of the barn and ties her up to his wagon. He climbs aboard his wagon, stows his hat under the seat and makes his way toward the town of Lewisburg, while muttering, “God’s work is never done.”