Alison Strobel - The Heart of Memory

Savannah copied the address and phone number into her calendar, and they rang off with a promise to spend many hours catching up. Savannah couldn’t stop smiling as she looked up the number of her primary airline to book her flight.

THE SOUND OF SHAUN COMING in took her by surprise. It was only eight-thirty. She briefly wondered if something was wrong, then decided she honestly didn’t care.

It was another twenty minutes before he came up to the bedroom and froze in the doorway. “You’re leaving?”

She set the sweater she was holding into her suitcase. “Not the way you might think. I’m going to Georgia tomorrow.”

“Georgia? Tomorrow? What on earth for?”

She set another sweater on the pile. “Believe it or not, I’m going to see Tabitha.”

“Tabitha Vaughn?”

“We know any other Tabithas?”

“Well – I’m just surprised.”

“I know, me too. Surprised but very excited.” She dumped a handful of balled up socks into the suitcase’s corner. “And I didn’t mean for it to be such a shock; I hadn’t planned on going until Wednesday, but I was able to turn in some of my miles for a flight tomorrow, so I figured I might as well. I’m going to leave straight from my clinic visit.”

Shaun sat hard on the corner of the bed. “Okay, just-wait a minute. Why are you doing this? What’s going on?”

She shrugged. “Let’s call it a sabbatical.”

“Um… okay.”

She raised her eyebrows as she met his baffled gaze. “You know why I’m going to see her, right? You get the connection?”

“Well, yes – I just didn’t think, after twenty years…”

“I know, me neither.”

“Where are you staying?”

“With her.”

He watched her for another minute as she finished packing away her clothes. “Huh. Well, alright then. Have fun, I guess.”

“Thanks.”

He stood and wandered into the closet, then came out in his running gear and disappeared into the hall. She heard the door open and shut a few minutes later and frowned. He hadn’t seemed particularly broken up about her leaving. She was briefly irritated at his nonchalance. Despite how ugly things had been with them lately, she still would have expected at least a little more interest.

Not that I’ve been a real joy to live with lately. She forced herself to acknowledge the truth as she folded her sweats. And the more she thought about it, the clearer it became that she wasn’t very sad about leaving Shaun, either. Maybe this trip would solve a couple problems at once: help her get her head on straight, and if she was really lucky, the absence would make both Shaun’s heart and hers grow fonder.

SHAUN WATCHED SAVANNAH WALK INTO the terminal before pulling away from the curb. He’d never felt so unmoved by her leaving. Actually, unmoved wasn’t quite accurate. In truth, he felt relieved.

Back home, he relished the silence of the house, knowing he had the place to himself, even if it was just for a few days. He could think so much better with no interruptions, no need for careful plotting to avoid running into his wife in the hallway. And heaven knew he had a lot of thinking to do.

He’d checked the credit card statements online the night before, looking for the expenses Savannah was raking up on this little jaunt. She had rented a car, at a total of almost three hundred dollars for the four days she’d be gone, and that was before gas. She’d get something to eat at the airport, most likely-possibly at both of them. Another twenty dollars? Luckily she wasn’t big on doing touristy things; she preferred to talk to people. Or at least, that’s how she used to be. Maybe the new Savannah was a shutterbug who couldn’t wait to see the local claim to fame. He wouldn’t know.

Either way, these were more expenses he hadn’t been expecting. The card Savannah typically used was nearing its limit; he probably should have warned her about that before she left. He’d been avoiding that conversation for a while now, knowing it would inevitably turn into her berating him for answers as to why he had only been paying the minimum balance for so long. But he wasn’t ready to have that discussion.

Shaun tried to look on the bright side. With Savannah gone, the part of his brain that focused so much these days on avoiding confrontation would be freed up to figure out how he was going to get out of this financial mess. And I might as well start right now. He headed for his office and stood before the white board he used for brainstorming. What resources can we produce without Savannah having to actually do anything? He wrote the thought at the top of the board, then stared at it, waiting for inspiration.

Compilation CD? Perhaps a collection of some of her talks. Women of the Word owned the rights to the presentations she’d done on tour, but A &A had some recordings of independent events, some of them dating back quite a ways. That was definitely a possibility.

The idea sparked another. Compilation book? His marker squeaked over the board as he ruminated. Perhaps – a Complete Savannah Trover Library or something similar. Maybe he could add the transcripts of a couple of her more popular presentations, to give readers more incentive to buy it if they already had some of the other books.

Worship CD? He shook his head as soon as he was done writing it, knowing it was too soon after the release of the last worship CD they’d compiled. Those were expensive to produce, too, and he wanted to put out as little capital as possible on whatever project they did.

He continued to brainstorm throughout the morning, then stopped for lunch and a run. On his way back to the house he picked up the mail, and seeing the bank statement in the pile squelched his runner’s high. Would this be the statement that showed bounced checks? He didn’t let himself tear into it on the street like he wanted to, but waited until he was back in his office before ripping open the envelope and facing the unavoidable. Two of them, and no money in savings for overdraft protection. He breathed deeply to keep himself from vomiting.

He took a three-minute shower and came back to his office to brainstorm. An email from her sat in his inbox. He clicked it, numb to whatever it had to say. The message was simple. You’re a day late. “And a dollar short,” he muttered. “Ten thousand of them, in fact. Deal with it, Carlie. You’re not getting any blood from this stone. I’m all dried up.” He was proud of himself for not letting her email get to him. Obviously she was all bark and no bite.

The phone rang, jarring him from his thoughts. He was surprised to see Marisa’s number on the caller ID. “Hey, Marisa. Listen, I’m not going to be going in today-”

“That’s fine. I’m not either. Savannah emailed me about her trip and told me to take a vacation.”

Shaun chuckled without humor. “How benevolent of her. So what are you going to do with your free time?”

“Well, that’s why I’m calling. I think we need to talk.”

SAVANNAH PULLED OVER TO THE SIDE OF THE COUNTRY ROAD TO double check the address. This was the place. The sprawling antebellum mansion was set back a good two hundred feet from the road, and some kind of orchard stretched for a quarter mile away from either side of it. But it was the sign at the mouth of the gravel driveway that had stunned her: The Refuge ~ A Christian Recovery Ministry.

She’d have understood perfectly if it weren’t for “ministry” tacked on at the end. That made it sound like… well, like a Christian ministry. But Tabitha had left the faith twenty years ago. Why would she be working here?

Now Savannah was torn. If Tabitha had changed her mind about Christianity, then talking to her probably wouldn’t help like she’d thought it would. But what was she going to do now, just turn around and go home? That was the last place she wanted to be.