Risa breezed past him and squealed when she saw the kitchen. 揂 person could really live in this building with a full-sized kitchen like this.?
揧ep, and there抯 a pretty nice bedroom suite back there by the Sunday school rooms,?Wade said. 揈lijah had visions of evangelists coming to preach revivals, and since there抯 no hotels or places to stay in Riverbend, he fixed a little place for them to stay right here at the church.?
揂re you serious??Mary Nell asked. 揑s there a private bathroom??
揑 wouldn抰 know about that. Danny and I . . .?He swallowed the lump in his throat at even the mention of his brother抯 name. 揥e just peeked in there one time. It was all fixed up nice in those days with a bed and everything like a hotel would have. Don抰 know what it looks like now.?
揗aybe you should be our tour guide,?Jessica suggested.
揘o, ma抋m.?Wade shook his head. 揑抳e done told you everything I remember, so you抮e on your own.?
While everyone else went snooping around the church, Jessica took a moment to stand in the center aisle between two rows of oak pews. She turned around slowly, taking in the whole room once again. With good lighting, it didn抰 look quite as bad as it had the night before. The windows were still dirty, and she was surprised that her uncle hadn抰 paid someone to put in elaborate stained-glass windows. She looked up at a vaulted ceiling with four big fans that had started turning slowly when she flipped on the lights. From there, her eyes went to the hardwood floor with footprints now in the layer of dust, and she imagined the noise of folks doing a line dance to jukebox music. The place would make a great bar, but of all the ideas that had gone through Jessica抯 mind concerning her life after retirement from the military, owning a bar wasn抰 even on the list.
The lyrics to 揗y Church?popped into her head again, and she visualized a jukebox where the choir had been set up behind the pulpit. She could almost feel the vibrations of boots on the hardwood floor as folks did a fancy line dance to the song. The sanctuary would make a nice-size room for dancing and throwing back a few drinks. The bar itself could be over on the side where the door was into the fellowship hall. And the raised stage where the choir and the preacher had stood really would make a good place to set a jukebox and, maybe later, even have a karaoke night.
Stop it! You can抰 make a bar out of a church. The folks in town would crucify you. Her father抯 voice was plain in her head. Elijah built that place to be a church, and that抯 what you need to sell it as.
Even hearing her dad fuss at her didn抰 stop her from imagining a food-prep table in the fellowship hall, and maybe one of the round tables for her and her friends to sit around for meals or to visit before and after hours.
揅ome look at all these rooms,?Lily squealed. 揟here抯 five of them, and they抳e each one got a big closet. And one of them still has a king-sized bed in it. It抯 not made up for company, but I didn抰 see a single mouse living in the mattress. I could so live in this church, and I wouldn抰 even have to share a room with Daisy. We抳e had to share with each other since we were born, Mama. Talk Jessica into renting this place to us for a house.?
揌oney, we couldn抰 afford the electric bill on this big old building,?Risa told her. 揑 bet Jessica is going to have an enormous bill just for cooling it down for us to have a tour this evening. But we will hunt a place of our own when I find a job, and maybe it will have enough bedrooms that you girls can have your own space.?
Jessica felt a strange sense梐lmost eerily梩hat the building was talking to her as she listened to Risa and the girls. The walls seemed to be saying that she should look around and think of her friends, and what it would mean to them to have jobs.
What would it mean to you to work with your best friends every day? Uncle Elijah抯 voice popped into her head. I should抳e made this place into a bar in the beginning rather than a church, so don抰 just dismiss Wade抯 idea.
揥hat if . . .敆Jessica hesitated, almost afraid to even say the words out loud棑we did make a bar here? Risa, what if you did the cooking for us? You抎 have to leave your mama抯 house if we did this, so what if we made a small living room in one corner of the fellowship hall so the twins could have a place to hang out? We could turn one of the Sunday school rooms into an office for Mary Nell to run the business out of. What if I did waitress work and tended bar? Maybe Haley could help out in the summers. I抦 already pretty good at mixing drinks, and I can learn how to make the fancy ones.?She paused to catch a breath, and wondered if she抎 really just said all that.
揥hat if . . .敆Wade took up where she left off棑I put half of the money up for renovations and did the work for free? I would have half ownership in it, and I can already see tearing all these pews up to use to build the bar and the shelves behind it, and make some barstools. That would save a lot of money on lumber.?