Page 57 of Never Fall Again

Sixteen

At 6:00 that evening, Landry pulled into the parking lot of the Gossamer Falls Church. The parking lot wasn’t full yet, but it was close. She fought every compulsion to turn around and go home. Her mind told her that these people were wolves in sheep’s clothing. That they would stab her in the back the moment the opportunity struck, and then they would blame her for being a “poor testimony” to the unbelievers in the world.

Landry believed Jesus died for her and that trusting him and his sacrifice was the only way to restore the relationship between her and a holy God. She could expound on doctrine for hours. She knew all the terminology, all the Christianese.

And she hadn’t stepped foot through the doors of a church since she’d walked out after her husband’s funeral three years ago.

Her faith in God wasn’t an issue.

Her faith in the people who claimed to know God?Thatwas the issue.

On an intellectual level, she knew she couldn’t lump all church-going followers of Christ into one cesspool of hypocrisy and deceit. But her heart didn’t care. With every frantic beat, it warned her of the risk she took if she got out of the car.

“I see Abby!” Eliza’s excited cry broke through Landry’s nearmeltdown and pulled her firmly back on solid ground. She wasn’t joining the church. She wasn’t even attending a worship service. She was here because, a decade ago, the people of Gossamer Falls decided that trick-or-treating on dark mountain roads was a bad idea. So every year the three main churches worked together—something Landry still found difficult to believe—to put on a harvest festival on the Friday night closest to Halloween.

It was such a success that, to her knowledge, the children of Gossamer Falls assumed everyone dressed up in costumes and walked along their Main Street. Stores and restaurants had booths set up on the sidewalks where they handed out what, if the rumors were true, was an alarming amount of candy. At the beginning, middle, and end of the street, the crowds detoured into the parking lots and well-tended lawns of the three churches where they were treated to hot dogs, pulled-pork sandwiches, fried chicken, tea, and lemonade on one end, and homemade ice-cream sundaes with all the fixings on the other end. In the middle was a small grandstand with live music—bluegrass, heavy on the banjos and fiddles—and booths serving popcorn, cotton candy, and hot chocolate.

Every bit of it was free. A gift from the churches of Gossamer Falls to the town.

Landry didn’t buy it. There was a catch. She was sure of it. But now that Eliza was in kindergarten, all she had talked about for the past month was the harvest festival. Landry hadn’t been able to bring herself to squash Eliza’s anticipatory delight, so she’d gone along with the idea.

And when Eliza came to her, begging to get a costume that matched Abby’s? Well...that hadn’t been a hard sell.

Landry opened her door, climbed out, and helped Eliza from the back seat.

Eliza adjusted the small tool belt at her waist and grinned up at Landry from under a pink hardhat. “How do I look?”

“Like you’re ready to be put to work on a construction crew. If you aren’t careful, Cal will hire you tonight and put you to work on Monday.”

Eliza threw her arms around Landry’s waist. “Thank you, Mommy.”

And that was why she was in a church parking lot on a cool Friday evening with her daughter dressed not as a princess or a ballerina but as a construction worker.

They joined Chad, Naomi, and Abby at the back of their car, and Chad gave the girls his seal of approval on their costumes. “You two look fabulous.” He smiled at Landry. “Thanks for coming tonight. You’ll love it.” Apparently, Abby’s older brothers had been given freedom to begin their jaunt down the street, but there was no way Landry would allow Eliza to go running off into the throng of pirates, ghosts, and what looked like an entire bag of M&M’s.

Chad bent down and looked both girls in the eyes. “Someday you’ll be allowed to go on your own. But that’s still several years off. For now, you need to be able to see one of us.” He pointed to himself, then Naomi, then Landry. “And more importantly, we must be able to see you. If you want to stop at a booth, make eye contact so we know where you are. Is that clear?”

Both girls nodded in unison.

“We walk down this side of the street until we get to the Main Street Church. Then we’ll eat dinner. On our way back down the other side, you can stop for hot chocolate or candy, and we’ll wind up back here for ice cream.”

The girls were nearly levitating with excitement. Landry could picture them spinning their legs like cartoon characters before they took off.

Chad clapped his hands. “Okay. Let’s go get so much candy that we single-handedly keep Aunt Meredith in business.”

Landry hadn’t thought of that. Dentists weren’t typically big on candy-infused holidays. “Where is Meredith?”

“She has her own booth.” Naomi fell into step beside Landry while Chad herded the girls toward the chaos. “She gives out toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, and lots of business cards.”

“Do the kids stop at her booth?”

“Everyone does. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. When you see it, you’ll understand.” Landry had a feeling Meredith Quinn could make anything fun. But that didn’t mean she had a clue what Meredith did to ensure everyone stopped at her booth.

Despite her misgivings, Landry had to admit that the atmosphere was festive and friendly. Everywhere she looked people were smiling and laughing. The street had been closed to everything except pedestrian traffic, and older kids ran from booth to booth with minimal supervision. But they weren’t running wild. Landry saw several teenage boys stop short when an older gentleman called them down for running through the crowd. They apologized and slowed to a trot. The man shook his head with an indulgent smile. So maybe they weren’t entirely without supervision. Maybe the entire town was watching out for all the kids, regardless of who they belonged to.

Gossamer Falls wasn’t perfect, but tonight was shaping up to be a magical night. The kind of night kids remembered when they grew up.

As they walked down the street, Chad and Naomi spoke to almost everyone they saw and introduced Landry and Eliza. “I’ll never remember all these people,” Landry told Naomi.

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