I Would Go With You To the Ends of the
Earth
Author's note: Clay owns himself and his own name. I only wrote the words
to the story.
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Day Three - Sunday, June 18
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That morning at the hotel
Clay studied his and Kate's twin reflections in the mirror, smiling at the identical-but-for-size mission trip T-shirts that Pastor Macy had handed out to every member on the team yesterday. All team members received two shirts, one for the flight there and one for the flight back, to set them apart from everyone during their journey to Haiti. A lot of airports, he had explained, were willing to work to smooth out the difficulties for a large group and the T-shirts showed everyone that they were part of that group. Placing the matching fisherman's hat on his head, Clay nodded proudly as Kate giggled at him. "I'm ready if you are," he told his wife.
"Then let's call the boys and Sarah," Kate told him, "so that we can get to church on time."
Within ten minutes Jerome and Will arrived at the door, having taken Sarah and their luggage out to the rental vehicle. The three of them walked through the building to the vehicle and climbed in.
Once they arrived at the parking lot, Will parked the vehicle. Quickly they joined up with the rest of the team members in the church entryway (minus the hats).
Chris handed Clay and Kate service bulletins. "Commissioning is just after the offering," he told them. "We'll go up front as a group to be commissioned and receive our prayer cloths."
"Prayer cloths?" Clay asked, giving both Chris and Kate alternating puzzled looks. "Like a sending cloth or something?"
"Exactly," Wayne told him. He pointed up front where a six-inch wide and two-foot long cloth was draped over part of the sanctuary furniture. "They put that up there yesterday afternoon, and it doesn't come down until we're back safe and sound from Haiti. But they get enough material to give each team member pieces of it to do their own personal devotions with."
"Ah," Clay smiled and nodded in understanding. He smiled at his wife. "I remember you mentioning something about the prayer cloth from your 2002 trip."
Kate smiled wistfully. "Yeah. After the mission trip, I wore it all the time. I attached it to a clip that went through my belt loop right here," she said, patting the front part of her hip. "I wore it that way for many years after the trip."
Clay nodded again. "Did you have it last summer? I never saw it."
"No, you didn't. It bit the dust shortly before we met," Kate pouted.
"Aw..." Clay gathered her into his arms in sympathy.
Kate sighed. "Not a big deal, hon, after all it was just a piece of cloth. I have a couple more swatches of the same cloth at home."
"But it's not the same, honey. That one piece of cloth meant something to you - that was the one that traveled the journey with you. It was the memories you had attached to it that made it mean more."
Smiling up at him, Kate was relieved that he understood. "Which is why I will put this year's swatch in a much better place than just at my hip."
Clay cocked his head. "Where?"
"In my bible. That's where Mom put hers that year, and that's where she'll put it this year." When Clay blinked with confusion, Kate giggled. "I made sure that Pastor Macy had pre-addressed and stamped envelopes so that he could mail one piece of cloth to each of our mothers long before we left."
Slowly Clay's jaw dropped with stunned amazement. "You're saying that my mom already has a piece of the prayer cloth?"
Kate gave him a gentle smile. "Our mothers are women of deep faith and prayer, Love. I am one-hundred-percent convinced that they are going to be praying for us and for our trip every day that we are on it. And that's why I sent them the prayer cloth."
Speaking of women of faith and prayer... Little by little Clay released a deep breath. Dozens of times he had heard the people around him describe him as a man of faith and prayer, but most days he felt like he was doing little more than clinging onto his faith with both hands to keep it from getting away. He had been glad for the recommendation from a mutual friend that he and Kate pray together twice daily - it had strengthened their marriage and individual faiths in ways that neither of them would have imagined. Somehow having a relationship hemmed in prayer and faith made the conflicts that they did have more manageable. But truth be told, he still envied and admired the faith of the people around him - his mother, his parents-in-law, other family members, some of his closer friends, his own wife - and secretly hoped that some day his faith would grow into something that strong. That unshakeable. Yet there were plenty of times he saw the chinks in the armor of these prayer warriors, signs that they too were only everyday people like him. "So when are we getting our own prayer cloths?"
"During the commissioning," Kate told him. "The pastors will lay the strips of cloth over our shoulders while we're up front." She smiled. "And we get to wear them that way the rest of the service."
"Wow," Clay breathed, impressed. It was a small thing, but it was still a visible, tangible reminder that they were being sent out into the world.
Slowly members of the team filed into the church, sitting in various places throughout the sanctuary. Clay, Kate, and the others sat with Sally's family, taking up a couple of pews just by themselves. Nine people did tend to take up a lot of room...
"Is this seat taken?"
Kate whirled around at her mother's voice. "Mom!" she hissed with surprise, moving over enough to give both Patricia and Arthur room to sit beside her in the pew. "What are you guys doing here?"
Patricia shrugged, a thoughtful twinkle in her eye. "We just wanted to see you off. It seemed important," she said quietly.
Seemed important? Kate wondered. That sounds loaded. She made a mental note to ask her mother more about that later. Kate knew that Patricia wouldn't have dragged herself and Arthur two hours one way down the Interstate for the short side of a weekend just because it "seemed" important.
The organ prelude ended, and Pastor Macy and one of the other pastors came up front. After reverencing the altar, Pastor Macy went to the seat where the preaching minister usually sat while the second pastor remained in front of the congregation for the announcements. "Good morning," the second pastor, Pastor Maier, told the congregation. "A couple of announcements - a lot of good things happening this week, some are listed in your bulletin, but some I wish to bring to your attention. After months of construction and weeks of waiting, our elevator is finally in working order. Roger and Pastor Macy and I all gave it a test run earlier this week. So our older members can start using it to get to the fellowship hall. Let's give a hand to Max and the rest of the building committee for all their hard work." He led the congregation in a round of applause before continuing with the announcements. "Vacation bible school finished up on Friday, and the children are going to be singing for us before the rest of the service starts. We had over three hundred children this week and the week prior." Pastor Maier pointed towards Pastor Macy, indicating him and the rest of the team. "Today is the start of the Haiti mission trip led by your hero and mine, Pastor Tom Macy. We are commissioning the Haiti team during the service, and they are leaving this afternoon sometime after lunch."
Kate leaned toward Sally. "Sounds like your congregation has grown since I was here last."
"Membership is exploding," Sally whispered back. "Pastor Maier and Pastor Macy had the foresight to see this growth coming, and we've been planning this expansion for years. New school and day care, new offices, expanded parking - it's going to be huge."
"Wouldn't it have been easier just to move and start all over?"
Sally nodded once. "Easier, maybe... but that's not where we feel called to be. We feel like our ministry belongs in this neighborhood, not in the suburbs."
Wow, Kate breathed to herself, impressed. She wondered if she and Clay would be able to find a living, growing church of faith like this one. From the way Sally always talked about it, it struck her as the sort of place that both of them would readily call "home".
The service went quickly, with most of the liturgy and hymns printed in the bulletin for everyone's use. As usual Clay and Kate shared a bulletin, earning an amused glance from Sally.
Before they knew it the sermon and the offering collection were over, and it was time for the team to be commissioned. The two pastors stood behind the railing up front, carrying the strips of prayer cloth for the mission team. "I'd like to take this time to call up the members of the 2006 Haiti mission team." Pastor Maier waited as the fifteen other members of the team came up front and formed a line at the railing. "Sixteen have heard the Call to serve the next week in Haiti, building an orphanage in Jérémie and teaching bible school down there. Their names are listed in today's bulletin. Sally Kleinbach has once more invited her cousin Kate to go with her... and it seems that Kate has recruited a few more to go along. Good for Kate." He smiled at Kate, who heaved a bashful shrug as Clay winked at her. "It is our duty as a congregation to pray for them and for the Haitian people and for the political situation that always seems to be inches away from chaos."
An uneasy feeling gathered in the pit of Patricia's stomach, and she grabbed Arthur's hand for strength. Arthur gently squeezed her hand, having mistaken the emotions behind Patricia's gesture for something else entirely.
Pastor Maier led the congregation in the commissioning prayer before taking the first cloth and laying it upon Pastor Macy. Each pastor started at one end of the group and began laying strips of the prayer cloth on each member's shoulder. Clay grinned with excitement as Pastor Macy placed the prayer cloth on his shoulder. This is the day - this is the day we begin our trip. He stole a glance at Kate as Pastor Macy placed a prayer cloth on her shoulder. Catching her eye, he smiled warmly at her.
Once all of the members had a prayer cloth on their shoulder, Pastor Maier invited them to turn around for the congregation to see them. "There you are - your 2006 Haiti mission team." The congregation broke into enthusiastic applause for the team, but Kate could sense that Clay's presence had already been noticed. In spite of the fact that he had left his hair in a more natural arrangement, Clay's face was easily recognized in the crowd. She reached over and squeezed his hand warmly as everyone returned to their seats throughout the sanctuary.
After communion and the last few prayers and hymns, the service ended. The congregation began to exit the sanctuary for bible study and the next service to begin, and the team members hung around in the entryway for members and visitors to chat with them before their trip. As Kate had anticipated, a small handful of people quickly gathered around the two of them. One young woman shyly asked Clay for an autograph.
Respectfully Clay shook his head. "I'm sorry, Miss, but not today. Today is the beginning of the mission trip, and I'm here to serve God as just another team member. The only way you'll get my autograph right now is if you get the autographs of all the other team members too."
Arthur and Patricia exchanged a proud grin at overhearing their son-in-law's answer, noting the equally pleased and admiring glances from other team members. He had deliberately chosen to refuse his fan's request in the interest of team relationship building and focusing on the higher goal of doing God's work in Haiti. "That," Arthur told his wife quietly, "just earned him all the more respect in my eyes."
"Kate found a good man," Patricia agreed. "Not perfect, but very good."
The team and their families moved down the hall as the last service began, planning to have one more group meal together with their loved ones before the packing and the send-off. While Sally had chosen the menu for yesterday's meal for the group, Pastor Macy had picked this one, ordering several extra-long party submarine sandwiches, bags of chips, and two-liter bottles of pop from one of the local deli chains. Knowing that there were a variety of preferences and food sensitivities, he had ordered the subs with the basic meats, cheeses and vegetables already put together... and several containers of the condiments like mustard, mayonnaise and the like for everyone to doctor their own sandwiches to taste.
Their plates put together with enough food to fill them, the blended Aiken-Kirche-Kleinbach family sat down at one of the tables in the old sanctuary. Sally smiled up at Clay. "Tell me, Clay, what one thing are you most looking forward to about this trip?"
Oh boy - now that's the question of the day. Clay searched through the list of "hopes" he had for the trip for the one that stood out among them all. "Wow. I don't know if I can answer that, Sally. I mean, there's so many things I'm looking forward to, so many things that I'm hoping to experience and learn. I want this experience to bring me closer to God, and closer to my wife. I want a chance to get to know you better, and the rest of the team better. I'm really looking forward to spending time with the kids in Haiti, teaching them about the love of God." Casting an amused glance at Kate, he smiled. "I want to be part of a bucket brigade, since Kate insists they're so much fun. I want to see and do and learn everything that God would have me learn while we're in Haiti... so I don't know if there's any one thing that tops them all. I'm sorry that I haven't answered your question."
Sally's smile slowly grew. "Actually, Clay, I think you have."
The team finished with lunch, and while the team members went to bring their luggage for the trip to the room, their family members remained to clean up the rest of lunch. Wanting to make sure that she didn't overexert herself, Clay gave Kate both of the backpacks while he grabbed the suitcases. Ignoring her patient sigh, Clay carried both of the suitcases into the church. He glanced up at the pastor, finished with the service and lunch and wearing his own mission team apparel. "It looks like all we need to do is load up and we're ready."
"Here - these two are yours," Sally told him, handing a laminated neon-orange tag to Clay before handing a second tag to Kate.
Clay glanced at the tag he had been given with his own name and the church's address on it. "Hon, do they usually make these for the team?"
"Yeah," Kate answered, showing him the tag from her 2002 mission trip still on her beat-up old suitcase. Quickly she used her trusty utility tool to cut off the old tag before putting on the new tag with her married name on it. "They made them so that we can tell our luggage on sight. If you see an orange tag, it's one of ours."
Clay nodded thoughtfully before placing the tag on his old suitcase. "That makes good sense to me."
"What am I doing?" Kate muttered aloud, studying the tool in her hand. "I can't carry this onto the plane. It needs to go in my luggage." Quickly she unzipped a small portion of her suitcase long enough to slip the tool inside. Zipping it back shut, she gave Clay a satisfied nod. "There."
Giggling lightly, Clay shook his head at her. "You did it on purpose, honey. You knew you'd need it to cut off the old tag. Now that you've done that, you're able to put it in your suitcase."
"Yeah - I planned it all along." Kate smacked her lips. "Right... Truth is, I've just been kind of scatterbrained lately. I don't know what's going on."
"Nervous about the trip?" Clay speculated.
Kate pondered that for a moment. "Maybe."
"Maybe?" Clay asked. "If not nerves, then what?"
"Hormones," Sarah told Kate matter-of-factly as she placed her own neon tag on her suitcase.
"Thanks," Kate drawled as Clay laughed aloud.
Several of the men from the team began loading the bags into the two church vans and a truck that had been volunteered by one of the members. Kate watched Jerome hurry by with two large duffels. Maybe I can help out, she thought and turned towards the room where the bags were.
"Oh, no you don't," Clay replied, snatching at Kate's hand. Gently pulling her back, he shook his head. "Those bags are fifty pounds, hon. I am not letting you carry anything that heavy if I have my say. And as your husband, I do."
Kate raised an eyebrow at him, debating how serious he was about keeping her from working. "Clay, it's not that big of a deal."
Clay crossed his arms. "I disagree. Mom," he called, beckoning for Patricia to join them. "Mom, would you do me the favor of keeping your daughter occupied so that she doesn't try sneaking off and lifting anything heavy? Doctor's and husband's orders."
"I'd be happy to," Patricia said with a conspiratorial smile.
"Gee, thanks," Kate muttered with a scowl at her mother.
"Try to behave yourself for once," Clay suggested as he kissed her cheek.
"I have to," Kate insisted as Clay walked off to help the rest of the team load the vehicles. "Your choice of babysitters holds some of my biggest blackmail secrets."
Patricia snickered as she wrapped her arms around her daughter. "He's only doing it because he loves you and the child you carry."
Instantly a warm grin covered Kate's face. "You're pretty sure too, hunh?"
"Yep." Patricia smiled up at her daughter.
"This an official hunch?"
"Nope," Patricia shook her head firmly. "Just common sense. You have too many of the symptoms to not be."
Kate understood exactly what her mother was referring to. "I've only been going through them a week and a half, maybe two or three at the most. I didn't always notice them right away either - in fact, Clay usually noticed them before I did." Kate watched Clay carry a couple of suitcases through the room towards the vehicles outside.
Patricia considered her daughter thoughtfully. "You always were the last to catch on to some things about yourself."
"Yeah," Kate admitted. "Plus Clay is unusually observant for a man. He notices a lot more than some women I know..."
"He's a gem," Patricia agreed.
Kate blushed lightly. "In fact, shortly after we... took the big chance... I suggested that he should research the symptoms online but not tell me what they were." Noticing Patricia's puzzled expression, she explained. "That way in case we did get ourselves pregnant he'd know what to look for, and I wouldn't be developing the symptoms simply because we were looking for them."
"Smart move." Patricia glanced up at her daughter. "So the two of you noticed the swelling, the headaches, the tiredness..."
"The moods that swing more than a hammock in summer," Kate grumbled. "And the fact that I needed to go to the bathroom every other hour. I didn't start getting sick until this last week, and that was the clincher. That's when we knew that I needed to see a doctor."
"Well, I had originally scheduled that appointment with Doctor Kelley for myself, but when you told me that you needed to see him and were ready to take any time he had available, I figured you could take my appointment and I would reschedule."
Smiling slightly, Kate heaved a sigh of relief. No hunch had come into play this time - it really had been her mother's own appointment. "Thanks, Mom. I owe you one. In fact, I think I know how to thank you for this. How would you like to be the first to know?"
Patricia raised a wary eyebrow at the question. "He's not calling until the two of you are in Haiti next week, is he?"
Kate scowled, heaving an annoyed sigh. "Blood tests take twenty-four to forty-eight hours, Mom. Twenty-four would have placed our 'first notice' on Saturday, forty-eight would have placed it today... and you know that there are few labs who will do a simple pregnancy test the same day it's taken just because the potential mom is going to be out of the country in a few days."
"You mean you didn't try a home test first?" Patricia asked with a chiding tone to her voice.
"Took two of them," Kate informed her mother, "and failed them both. But we read that it's a lot easier to screw them up as a negative than screw them up as a positive, so that's why we wanted a second opinion." She cast an amused glance at Patricia. "Sarah called them the pee-on-a-stick tests."
Patricia snickered. "That's Sarah." She heaved a sigh of her own. "I guess I can handle being the first to receive the news. Do you want me to call down to the hotel there in Jérémie when I find out?"
"Please," Kate begged. "You can catch us early morning while we're at breakfast, or early to late evening. Those are the times we'll be back at the hotel."
"You realize that this means I'll be the one telling his mother that she and I are going to be grandmas..." Patricia teased.
Kate snorted. "That's fine, since you won't be hearing 'congratulations, you're going to be a grandma' from the two of us any more than she will."
A dreamy smile crossed Patricia's face. "I like the sound of that... 'Grandma'..."
"You're already a grandma!" Kate giggled, thinking of Alyssa and Alexander.
"I still like the sound of it."
Giggling again, Kate shook her head. "So, Momma, you said that it seemed important to be here. What did you mean by that?"
Patricia shrugged lightly, her eyes guarded. "This is a major event for the two of you... your second mission trip, and his first. The first time you're going on something like this together." She smiled. "I wanted to watch for myself the memories in the making and the growing of your relationship with God and each other. That good enough?"
Kate stared at her mother, unsure how to respond. There was little doubt in her mind that Patricia was dodging the question, but Kate had no idea what else to ask that would pry her motives loose.
Clay followed several of the men back into the room where Kate was conversing with Patricia. "Well, that's it - we're loaded up." He grinned at his wife and mother-in-law. "Has Kate been behaving herself?"
"For once," Patricia said innocently.
"Mom!" Kate protested.
Patricia winked up at Clay. "Girl talk."
Clay winced. "That's a frightening thought."
"Fine, honey, just make fun of the lady who just offered out of the goodness of her heart to call your mother with Doctor Kelley's news..." Kate trailed off.
Instantly Clay clapped an embarrassed hand over his mouth. "Mom - forget I ever said that."
"It's all right, Clay. I know that you were just teasing." Slowly Patricia stood up. "As much as I would like to keep you two here... I really can't do that. If the two of you feel called to go to Haiti, then you need to go." She opened her arms wide to embrace her daughter warmly. "You two take care of each other, okay?"
"We will. Love you, Mom," Kate smiled, hugging her diminutive mother back.
"I'll be praying for you guys," Patricia whispered as she turned to Clay.
"I know," Clay breathed back from within her embrace.
Clay and Kate hugged her father Arthur good-bye next, sharing their love with him before grabbing their backpacks and walking out to the vans to join the rest of the team. Pastor Macy urged the team members to make a circle and join hands in a prayer of sending. The team obeyed, and their remaining family members stood just outside of the circle to place their hands on the shoulders of their loved ones. Pastor Maier, who had also remained to see the team off, led the prayer requesting safe travel and that the Word of God go forth and bear much fruit. With the sending prayer finished, the team split themselves among the three vehicles driving to Omaha. Clay and Kate chose one of the church vans, climbing into the very back seat together.
Taking his wife into his arms, Clay smiled impishly at Kate. "Girl talk, hunh? Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to recruit your mom to keep an eye on you after all, at least not without leaving a spy there first." Ignoring Kate's raised eyebrow, he continued. "So what did you two talk about?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kate teased. When Clay frowned, Kate giggled. "She's planning to call us at the hotel with Doctor Kelley's news, and she'll probably call your mom shortly after."
"Oh," Clay answered. "Well, then that's a good thing."
"I'm glad you approve," Kate snickered, giving Clay a poke in his side.
"Hey, now," Clay warned, grabbing her offending finger and pulling her close. Kate leaned happily into Clay and laid her head on his shoulder. Clay heaved a satisfied sigh as he placed a protective hand on Kate's stomach. The more he thought about the possibility that she might be expecting, the more excited he became. For years he had looked forward to being a parent - and knowing that he was going to share that experience with Kate filled him with pure joy. Then again, that was exactly what her name meant: pure joy. She certainly knew how to fill his life with joy.
Sarah raised an eyebrow as she watched Clay place a gentle kiss on Kate's forehead. She turned to Will, sitting right beside her. "Are you ill yet?"
"Actually, no," Will confessed as he studied the couple. "Envious... because they seem to have the kind of marriage that my parents didn't."
"I know what you mean," Sarah sighed softly.
Approximately an hour later the caravan arrived at Omaha's Eppley Airport. In hopes of being more likely to blend in with the rest of the team, Clay and Kate put on their fisherman's hats. Grabbing their luggage from the vehicles, the team made their way to the check-in counter.
Sarah glanced down at the extra bag she had been assigned to claim for check-in, an army duffel that now had an extra orange tag with her name on it. "I wondered how they were going to handle this."
"That's why we each only have one check-on," Kate explained. "The airline allows two, but our second check-on is one of the bags that we packed yesterday."
"That works," Will nodded, resting a foot on his own impromptu luggage.
Pastor Macy showed his ticket and passport to the counter attendant. The counter attendant searched through the computer for the record. Suddenly he blinked with surprise. "Oh."
"What's the matter?" Pastor Macy asked, concerned at the attendant's reaction.
"There's a note attached to the file for your ticket, and unless I'm mistaken, the files for the others in your group." He opened up a drawer in the counter to pull out a stack of red luggage tags. "Your travel agent arranged for you to fly as red taggers."
"Red taggers?" Sally exclaimed. "Bereavement class?"
"That's the one." Attaching a red tag along with the appropriate airport tag to each piece of Pastor Macy's luggage, he finished checking in the pastor and placed his check-in bags on the belt.
"What's bereavement class?" Lisa asked Sally.
"They put you on the plane first, they take you off the plane first," Sally began. "They put your luggage on last so it's right by the door. And at connection points you get a private waiting room so no one has to see you cry, and you aren't herded like cattle through the regular gate. They ferry you down to the plane so that you can board without hassle."
Clay blinked with surprise at hearing the kind treatment the airline was going to be bestowing upon them. "How did we manage that kind of special consideration?" he asked. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the rest of the team turned their attention to him. Feeling their knowing eyes, Clay blushed. "Oh." He grimaced. "I guess that was kind of a dumb question."
"Wishing you were invisible, hon?"
Recognizing the impish twinkle in Kate's eyes, he shot her a mild glare. "Don't start."
The team continued to check in at the counter, receiving red tags on every piece of luggage checked and red passes with every boarding pass issued. Finished with that, they went through the security gates. Wayne paused before the gate, fishing in his wallet. "I already know I'm going to set it off."
"Why's that?" Tracy asked.
Wayne placed the entire contents of his pockets in the tray with the exception of a small plastic card before passing through the gate. As soon as the siren whined, he handed the card to the guard with a smile. "Because I set it off every time."
The guard eyed the card before scanning Wayne with his wand. The wand remained silent until it reached his right knee, where it beeped. Quickly the guard scanned the rest of him in silence before giving the knee a more thorough scan. The wand beeped again, and the guard nodded. "One bionic man, check."
Wayne took his card and his possessions back with a grin. "I could be stripped naked and still set it off," he joked to the rest of the team.
Jerome chuckled. "Knee replacement, eh?"
"Yep."
The reassembled group continued with their carryon bags down the hall towards the designated room where they would be waiting. Without warning a familiar sign caught Clay's eye. "Krispy Kreme!" he cheered with excitement. "Honey, the airport has Krispy Kremes!"
Kate groaned, placing her hands on Clay's back to propel him onward. "Not now..."
"But - "
"You're not stopping."
Clay made a sour face but kept moving towards their private waiting room, ignoring his wife's hushed whisperings in German to Sarah. Once inside the room he plopped down in one of the nearby chairs. "You realize that it's going to be at least a week until we get Krispy Kremes again."
Kate crossed her arms, completely unrelenting. "You realize what would happen in a matter of minutes if people saw Clay Aiken buying Krispy Kremes in the middle of a public airport."
Defeated, Clay slumped in the chair. "Fine... No Krispy Kremes." He sighed with resignation as Kate sat in the chair beside him. "So now we kill time until we board the plane."
"Basically." Kate glanced at her watch. "We have at least forty-five minutes before departure time. Who knows when they are going to come get us to board."
He took Kate's hand in his, lacing his fingers in between hers. "Did you bring that book?"
Kate nodded. "I figured we'd get it out on the plane."
"Ah," Clay smiled. "Something to do on the flight."
"You've got it."
It was about five minutes later that the door opened again to admit Will and Sarah, each carrying a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Clay blinked with surprise - he hadn't even realized that they weren't in the room. "Wha... You guys went and got doughnuts?"
"Katydid asked me to get enough for the whole team." Sarah graced him with a sly grin. "She didn't want to deny you your favorite doughnuts because she's a slave driver - she was concerned about your safety, so she asked the two of us to go get them for her."
"Wow. Thank you, Sarah, Will." Clay took a regular glazed from the box that Sarah extended to him before turning to thank his wife. "Thank you, honey."
Kate grinned at him as she grabbed her own doughnut, one with whipped filling. "Like you said, it will be a week until you have them again. Far be it from me to deny you your favorite..."
That's my wife... a thoughtful woman indeed. Clay heaved a sigh of contentment as he brought the doughnut up to savor the first bite. Mm... needed this.
"I'm surprised with as many of these things as you eat that your rear end is still as skinny as it is."
Pausing with his glazed doughnut hanging from his mouth, Clay felt his eyes widen at Sarah's bluntness. I can't believe she said that. A shutter clicked, and Clay turned to glare at one of the two official media people for the mission trip, Lisa. He shook a finger at her but said nothing, his mouth still full of glazed doughnut.
"Let's see how much of a mess I can make this time," Kate murmured to herself.
Knowing Kate's taste for filled doughnuts and the mess to which she was
referring, Clay turned to watch. This ought to be good. Gingerly Kate
took a bite of her own doughnut. The whipped filling oozed out of the new
opening, framing the sides of her mouth. Immediately Kate blushed brilliantly,
and Clay knew that she remembered what had happened one of the last times they
had enjoyed Krispy Kremes in the privacy of their own home. Kate had taken her
first bite of the filled doughnut, and it had gone all over her mouth even worse
than it had this time. Being the red-blooded man that he was, Clay had offered
to help her get the filling off her face... only he had not told her how he
planned to do it. Things had heated up quickly after that. "Want me to
help you clean it up?" he teased, gently sticking his tongue out at her.
Seeing Clay's mischievous expression and the visible reminder of their last
doughnut adventure, Kate quickly shook her head. "Not in public, you
don't."
Clay noticed the twinkle in her eye that told him that she wished they could. He allowed a grin to turn the corner of his mouth as he reached up with a finger to brush away some of the filling. "I wasn't going to do it that way."
"Another time, maybe," she drawled as she wiped the rest off of the other corner herself.
"I can't wait," Clay told her, waggling his eyebrows at her.
Sarah snorted derisively. "And you two are wondering why you might be pregnant."
The door to the room opened, and a couple of airport personnel told the team that they were ready to board them onto the plane. Everyone collected their belongings and followed the airport personnel through the necessary hallways until they were all out on the tarmac. The plane was parked a little ways from the actual gate, and a long staircase extended down onto the tarmac. Clay's heart raced with anticipation as he ascended the stairway with the others. While he had been on planes before, this time was different somehow. He was headed off for an experience like he had never had before, with his wife, two of his bodyguards, a cousin, and several other new friends. The excitement put a spring in his step as he walked along to his seat on the plane, Kate close behind him.
"You're looking forward to this, aren't you?"
Clay looked up into Pastor Macy's amused eyes. "Oh, yes."
Kate glanced at their row of two. "Would you rather have a window seat to hide you from view better, or would you rather have an aisle seat for your long legs?"
Hmmm... Clay considered this leg of the trip, Omaha to St. Louis, thoughtfully as Kate dug through her backpack for a book before sliding it under the seat in front of her. "Aisle will be fine. I don't see anything happening."
Jerome nodded from his row in front of the couple. "Just in case it does, Will and Sarah are right behind you, and I'm right here."
"Thanks, Jerome."
Once the team was settled, the plane rolled the rest of the way to the gate. Within moments other passengers for the flight entered the plane, searching for their seats for the journey.
Kate called Clay's attention over to her and the book, knowing that if Clay's face was on them that people would be less likely to see it and recognize him. "Are we ready for this?" she asked, opening up a book of baby names.
Clay took Kate into his arms, snuggling closer to her. "I am so ready for this."
He is so cute. Giggling warmly at him, Kate leaned to place a gentle kiss on his lips. "We should probably pick both a boy name and a girl name, since we don't know which it's going to be."
"Right," Clay agreed. He placed a light kiss next to her ear.
"Most girls I know usually had a couple of names for children picked out
while they were still in high school." Placing another kiss on her cheek,
he gave her a light squeeze. "What were the ones you picked out?"
Kate glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. "What makes you think I picked
any out?" When Clay raised a patient eyebrow in return, Kate sighed.
"All right, I had some picked out... but that was before I met you. The
names I picked out don't sound good with Aiken."
"Uh-oh," Clay responded. "What were they?"
"I've always leaned towards the names of biblical people, because I like the stories of their faith lives. And my pastor told me once that the names of the people in the bible always meant something... they described the person they were attached to, they commemorated some event, or they gave glory to God by what the names meant." Clay nodded, and Kate continued. "I had picked out Abigail Elizabeth for a girl, planning to call her Abby for short," she confessed, "but we've already agreed that we're not torturing our daughter by naming her Abby."
"Um, no. Why Abigail?"
Heaving a shrug, Kate grinned. "She's my favorite wife of King David."
Clay searched his memory for the story. "Why don't we make that what we read in our devotions tomorrow morning? I want to hear what you have to say about it."
"Sure."
"So the girl's name is out... What did you pick for a boy's name?" Clay asked.
"I've always liked the name Andrew, and I like the story of the first mention of Andrew in the bible, but that's my brother's name. I don't want to give Drew a big head by giving our son the same first name." Kate chewed her lip as Clay laughed. "After David, my favorite biblical king is Josiah. I mean, he was just a 'kid' when most of the stuff that's written about him happens, but he was still a standout because of his faith and how he acted in his faith."
Hm... Josiah Aiken. Clay mulled that one over in his mind before turning back to Kate. "Any others?" he asked.
"Oh yeah. Fortunately there's no shortage of good boy names in the Bible."
Clay tapped the book in Kate's hands. "We don't have to stick to one of those when we have a book full of... how many names?" Kate showed him the cover and his jaw dropped. "35,000 baby names??"
"Sarah told me it was the best name book out there," Kate protested, "so I bought it."
"One word, honey: overkill." Clay let out a yipe as Kate poked him in the side, hard. "Hey..."
"You be nice, or I'm switching places with Jerome."
Jerome heard his name called and turned to look at the couple. "Another lovers' quarrel?"
Clay made a circular motion with his finger. "Turn around, mister. There's nothing to see here." Ignoring Jerome's chuckle, Clay opened up the name book in Kate's hands. "Well, we might as well start looking. At the very least, we can decide what we don't want to name our child."
"What, you don't want to name him Waldo?" Kate teased. When Clay glared at her, a smile turned the corner of Kate's mouth. "Say, we could name him Frederick. That way he could be 'FAiken'," she giggled.
"No."
"Or we could name him Broderick Randall, so he could be 'B.R. Aiken' - you know, 'BRAiken'..."
Clay pulled Kate into an affectionate headlock, eliciting a high-pitched squeak from her as he gave her a minor roughhousing. "I don't think so," he growled, tickling her sides.
"Clay, don't," Kate warned as she squirmed in his grasp. "I hate airplane bathrooms..."
"You should have thought of that sooner."
"Guys," Sarah chided from behind as Clay continued his loving torture of his wife. "This is a public airline. If you debacle her in front of everyone, I guarantee the two of you will be recognized."
"Spoil sport," Clay grumbled as he ceased tickling Kate. Grinning at her sigh of relief, he moved his arm out of the headlock to back down around her waist. "Which do you want to look at first, girl names or boy names?"
"They have the girl names first in this book," Kate told him. "We could always just start at the front of the book and work our way towards the back."
"Sounds like a good plan to me."
At the end of a short hour, their plane landed in St. Louis. At the captain's request, the team was given first opportunity to get off, and they went down the stairway to the tarmac where several airport representatives directed them through some of the lesser-known hallways of the St. Louis airport. Within a short while they were once again housed in a private sitting room to wait out their layover time before the flight to Miami.
"Honey, are you all right?" Clay asked, seeing a pale cast to her face. Even before she said anything, he knew the answer was going to be negative - that was the same shade her face always turned right before she got sick.
As Clay had predicted, she shook her head. "No - I need to find a bathroom. Now."
Immediately Sarah took Kate in stride. "I'll find you one, Katydid. We'll be back in a few minutes."
Clay bit his lip with concern as the two women left in a hurry. Fortunately he had seen a pair of bathrooms close by, and he hoped that they had been able to make it there in time.
Five minutes later the two returned, Sarah holding tightly on to a very weak-looking Kate. "Maybe you shouldn't have eaten that doughnut," Sarah suggested as Clay rose to greet them. Kate's only response was a whimper and a slight pout.
Taking charge of Kate from Sarah, he smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you, Sarah."
"Sure, Clay," Sarah nodded, glancing after her best friend as Kate and Clay found a quiet place off to the side to sit together.
"I'll be fine, Sarah, really I will. Don't worry about me. I'll just have to watch what I eat in Haiti." Smiling as Sarah moved off to join Will, Kate glanced over at Clay. "Same goes for you, sweetie. I will be fine, in time."
"I know you'll be fine in time," Clay told her, picking up her hand and kissing it, "but that doesn't stop me from being concerned about you now."
"I know, and if it's what we think it is, there's not a lot we can do but wait it out. But right now what I could really use is a nap," Kate groaned, leaning her head on Clay's shoulder and closing her eyes. He said nothing in response, but Kate could feel his hand gently massaging the back of her neck as his lips brushed her forehead in a kiss. "You keep that up," she sighed contentedly, "and I just might fall asleep."
"We've got an hour," Clay reminded her. "Why don't you?" Guiding her with both hands, he brought her down to rest her head on his lap. Kate brought her feet up on the chair next to her and curled up, falling asleep within minutes. Watching her sleep peacefully, Clay ran his fingers over her face and hair using feather-light strokes.
Sheila sat across from Clay with a smile. "She seems to tire easily," she noted, remembering how many times Kate became weary during yesterday's packing.
Clay nodded, also remembering his wife's lack of energy. But he also remembered her determination to keep up with the rest of the group... and no matter how much he had urged her to sit it out for a few minutes, she had continued to help out with the packing. "She's not usually this tired," he offered in Kate's defense, "just lately."
"She and Sarah sure left the room in a hurry, and she didn't look like she felt well." Sheila glanced down at Kate and back up to Clay. "Is she going to be all right on this trip?"
Good question. Clay shrugged, heaving a deep sigh. "Only if she actually listens to me when I tell her to take it easy... I certainly hope she'll be all right."
"Is this going to be your first?"
Clay blinked slowly, unsure of what Sheila was referring to. "My first what?"
"Child." A slight smile crossed Sheila's face as Clay stared in amazement, and Sheila knew that he was probably wondering how she knew. But it was no mystery - the title on the spine of the baby name book in Kate's open backpack was plainly visible from where Sheila sat. Plus Sheila had three of her own... the facts of life were hardly a secret to her. She decided to tell Clay the truth. "I saw the book."
"Oh." Slowly releasing a deep breath, Clay relaxed. He didn't know if he could handle one more seemingly psychic person in his life. Three was more than enough... especially since he was married to one of them. "Yeah, it'll be our first." He smiled at Sheila. "We won't know officially until tomorrow or Tuesday sometime. Kate only had her doctor appointment on Friday, and labs don't do blood work on weekends. I wish they did, the suspense is driving us crazy."
"How are you going to find out since we're going to be traveling from Port-au-Prince to Jérémie tomorrow?" Sheila asked him.
Clay continued to absentmindedly stroke his wife's hair, his other hand taking up residence on Kate's shoulder. "Her mom is going to call us at the hotel."
Sheila nodded thoughtfully. "But you seem sure."
"Oh yeah." Clay winked. "We're pretty sure."
Smiling warmly, Sheila studied Kate's peacefully sleeping face. "You two are going to make wonderful parents. That much is clear."
"I hope so."
Clay and Sheila continued to converse openly, and before long their St. Louis layover was finished as the airport personnel once more returned to take them to their next flight. "Kate," Clay whispered as he nudged her. "Kate honey, wake up. It's time to go."
Kate moaned and opened an eye. "Go?" she asked weakly.
"To our plane," Clay explained gently, watching the rest of the team pick up their bags. "Come with me, honey, and I promise once we board the plane I'll let you go back to sleep."
"Okay."
Helping Kate to stand, Clay draped her arm over his shoulder as Sheila and Jack grabbed their backpacks. Slowly Kate started to wake a little more, and she walked alongside of him as the team made their way out to the plane. Once Clay got her seated and their backpacks stored away, he sat down beside her and took her into his arms. He smiled ever so slightly as she once more laid her head on his shoulder and placed an arm across his waist. "How are you doing, honey?"
Kate heaved a sigh of contentment, reaching up to place a kiss on his jaw. "Much better, with you looking out for me. Thank you."
"You're welcome," Clay grinned, pleased to receive Kate's tender affection.
"Have I told you today yet what a wonderful man you are and how much of a blessing you are to me?"
Clay blushed. "Not in those exact words, but you have in other ways. I know I haven't told you yet today how much I love you."
Kate snickered gently. "Not in those exact words... but you have in other ways." Once more she kissed him, this time on his cheek. "I love you too, Clayton."
"I love you, Kathryn." Cupping her face in his hand, Clay placed a sweet kiss on her lips.
Only about a minute long, the kiss ended much sooner than Kate wanted it to end. She nestled close to her husband, enjoying the warmth and the security of Clay's arms. "I will be looking very much forward to our hotel room in Miami. I don't know if I'm going to feel well enough to get too frisky with you, but I know I still want to have some time with you."
Clay gave her a light squeeze. "We'll take it as it comes, darlin'. It doesn't matter so much how we spend our time together as long as we spend time together."
Their other row occupant, Sally, smiled as she glanced at them from the side
of her eye. She had been seemingly ignoring the couple as she pretended to read
her book, but in truth she had been slyly watching the two of them interact
from the very first moment of packing day through now. And she was pleased by
what she saw. Taking what she had seen lately combined with what she saw during
American Idol and since that time, Sally felt very confident about her
cousin being well cared for at Clay's side. Knowing her cousin the way she did,
she also felt very sure about the kind of love and care Clay was going to
receive as well. I suppose I should actually try to get some real reading in
here - one of these days someone is going to catch on that I'm still on page
twenty.
Meanwhile Sarah and Will cuddled together in each other's arms as the rest of
the passengers started to board the plane. "We've been spoiled the last
couple of nights," Will whispered in Sarah's ear. "I just got used to
sharing a bed with you, and now I'm going to have to share a room with
Jerome."
"You can handle it," Sarah snickered. "I get to share with Sally."
"You'll be fine."
Sarah pretended to pout. "I'd rather be with you."
"Join the club." Will scowled lightly. "I suppose since this is a church trip we'd better behave ourselves this week," he muttered under his breath at the thought.
"We'd better," Sarah agreed. "But I have no regrets."
Will blinked with surprise. "Seriously? No regrets?"
"Nope." Sarah smiled at him. "It's a rule of mine: have no regrets about anything. A person lives longer and happier if they have no regrets."
"True," Will mumbled thoughtfully. He wished he could just let things go like Sarah did, but unfortunately he didn't seem to be wired that way. After all these years, he still regretted his schoolboy tryst with Keshia. He had stupidly thought back then that once he had a little 'experience' under his belt, he would be a little more popular and a lot more fulfilled. Why he had believed that, who knows... but it didn't take long for him to find out that the truth was actually quite the opposite. He regretted that decision to this day... and he was starting to have similar regrets about his relationship with Sarah. No, he didn't regret dating Sarah for a minute - but she deserved something special similar to the loving marriage that Clay and Kate enjoyed, and now he felt that over the last two nights he had somehow cheapened what they had together. Will was going to have to think this one over some more.
"Will, why did you come on the mission trip?" Sarah asked, interrupting his thoughts.
Will frowned slightly. "Because Clay's on the mission trip," he answered, "and I was one of the better fits of his usual guys to go with him because I like kids so much."
"I see," Sarah mumbled, clicking her tongue thoughtfully. "But what do you hope to get out of it?"
"What do I hope to get out of it?" Will asked, unsure where this line of questioning had come from. "What do you mean, Princess? 'What do you hope to get out of it?' I don't get it."
"Will, if you don't plan on getting anything out of this trip, then you won't get anything out of it." Sarah paused to let that thought take hold before going on. "If you have no expectations, then it's very easy for those expectations to be met."
It didn't take any thought for Will to realize that she was right. He really didn't know what to expect at all, to be completely truthful. "What do you hope to get out of it?" Will asked.
Sarah took in a deep, slow breath before responding with her one-word answer. "Clarity."
Clarity? What in the world does she mean by that?? "Clarity? About what?" When Sarah didn't answer, Will glanced down at her. "Somethin' you want to tell me?"
"Only that you need to be open to learn any and all lessons that you can from this trip," Sarah suggested, "and I don't necessarily mean religious ones. I've heard Kate and Sally's stories from their trips, and there is so much to see, so much to learn on an experience like this. Keep your eyes and ears and your mind open, Will. That's all I'm going to say."
Maybe that was all Sarah was going to say on the matter, but Will reflected that it covered quite a lot. It was probably a good thing that Will was going to be rooming with someone else - Sarah had just given him something else entirely to think about.
Eventually the plane landed in
"You excited yet, Sarah?" Sally asked as she opened their shared room.
"Oh yeah."
Sally let Sarah take her bags in first before she followed with her own. "What are you most looking forward to about the trip?"
"What am I looking most forward to..." Sarah began. "Spending time with Will, Kate, Clay, and the others. Oh, and you, of course."
"Of course," Sally chuckled, knowing that it was only in teasing Sarah had mentioned her last. "Do you have any expectations?"
This time Sarah took longer with her reply. "I asked Will a very similar question earlier. I asked him what he hoped to get out of this trip, and he didn't have an answer for me. He's here because he's Clay's bodyguard and he's good with kids... but beyond that, he didn't give it any thought."
Sally sensed that this was an issue of some concern for Sarah. "What about you, Sarah. What do you hope to get out of it?"
"Clarity. I hope to get a clearer understanding of what I want and expect out of my career, out of my relationship with Will, and out of my life." Sarah paced the tiny room.
"I take it you're hoping that this trip will give you some answers," Sally told her.
Sarah continued to pace, crossing her arms tightly in front of her as she pondered what she wanted to say next. "The relationship Will and I have is at a point where something needs to change. I don't know what, but something needs to change. Our careers, our locations, our faith lives or lack thereof - or else the relationship itself needs to change. And that means grow closer together or break up entirely." Sarah stared off into the empty space in front of her. "Among my dreams as of late I've found myself walking down a Haitian jungle road. The road was familiar, the road was safe, I knew where I was going... until I reached a fork in the road."
"Tell me more about the fork in the road, and what you see farther down the path," Sally said quietly, suspecting that the fork in the road was a very significant thing.
Heaving a deep sigh Sarah shook her head. "That's just it - I don't know anything more, but I have a feeling that it's very important. It's something that will change the rest of my life." Tears started to well up in Sarah's eyes. "I don't know what it is that makes the fork in the road appear, but I know that the road changes drastically whichever path I take... and I don't know anything more about either path."
Sally frowned, deep in thought. "I don't know what to tell you, sweetie... except to pray. Maybe you can talk to Pastor Macy, if you think it would help. Or else talk to Kate, talk to Clay. I'd even suggest talking to Will as you get the chance. I know he isn't a man of faith... but you just might be what's going to make a difference in his life."
Sarah blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. "I hope so."
Letting Kate take both backpacks and the room keys ahead of him, Clay
followed behind her with the suitcases. As soon as she opened the door she held
it open, and Clay stepped inside with the luggage. He set the suitcases along
the wall and returned to the door to take the backpacks from Kate, placing them
too beside their luggage as Kate shut the door behind them. Heaving an
exhausted groan, Clay flopped backwards onto the bed. Ooooohhhhh... Kate
came over to join him, crawling onto the bed quietly so as not to make it
bounce as he had. As Clay pulled her close, Kate curled up into his arms with a
light sigh. He ran his fingers over her back, stroking it gently. "How are
you doing?"
"Better now that I'm out of that cramped plane."
Clay snickered. "I know what you mean. But otherwise are you doing all right? You're feeling okay, not sick or anything?"
Kate smiled into his shirt, finding amusement with his anxious tone of voice. She knew that he was only concerned about her well-being, but for some reason she couldn't help it. If this is the way he doted over her now, Kate wondered how bad it was going to get once they found out for sure if she was pregnant... and whether she'd strangle him before the nine months were up. She knew exactly what her mother meant when she often said, "I've never wanted to divorce your father. Kill him, yes... divorce him, no." They loved each other more than any other person on earth, but some days they drove each other crazy. "I'm better, honey. Really I am."
"That's good to hear," Clay said, the smile clearly audible in his voice.
Kate chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Except I have this sudden craving for breaded shrimp dipped in ranch dressing."
Clay frowned at her tastes. "Sure, pick something I'm allergic to."
"I'll brush my teeth before we make out."
"You're too much," Clay chuckled. He gave her a hopeful nudge. "We have plenty of time before we have to meet the others for dinner - there's nothing stopping us from making out now."
Softly Kate started giggling. "Now who's too much?"
"Fine," Clay grumbled, lying back on the bed.
A minute passed in silence before Kate spoke again. "How much time?"
Barely holding back a grin, Clay fought to keep his voice even and steady. "A little over an hour."
"In other words," Kate whispered as she left a trail of deliberate, lingering kisses along the underside of his jaw, "I have enough time to torture and tease you a while before we get to the good stuff."
Clay moaned slightly as she slowly moved her amorous affections up his jaw until she reached his ear. "With you it's all good stuff. Especially if you keep doing that."
After several minutes of covering Clay's face with tender kisses, Kate raised a wicked eyebrow. "I thought you left your cell phone at home."
"Just for that snarky remark," Clay growled as he wrapped his arms around her more firmly, "it's your turn to be on the bottom." With a lightning-fast maneuver, he rolled both of them over to bodily pin Kate underneath him.
Reacting to this sudden reversal with a surprised squawk, Kate gazed up into her husband's dazzling emerald eyes. "Are you sure we have time for this?" she purred suggestively.
"Don't I wish we had time for it now," Clay said with a deep sigh. "Maybe after we have dinner with the others. But until then I'm going to have your neck for an appetizer." Relishing the range of emotions that ran over her face in that moment, Clay went in for the kill.
Making sure to show her every consideration that she had showered on him just moments ago, Clay painstakingly kissed every inch of each eye in turn before moving his affections elsewhere. He continued to sprinkle sweet kisses in random areas all over her face, taking great care to keep each kiss light and gentle. It wasn't until he reached her neck that any trace of urgency was apparent at all. He felt her breath shallow as he concentrated his attention there for several solid minutes. By the time he returned to her face, Kate's eyes clearly stated that she was in the mood for more.
Reaching up, Clay cupped her face in his hand with a feather-soft touch as he leaned down to kiss her on the lips. Kate held her breath as his lips trailed over hers, barely touching, only teasing. A slight moan came from the Kate as he applied more pressure to her lips, kneading them with his own. Kate's hand traveled up to Clay's back, alternating between rubbing it and grabbing a fistful of shirt. His thumb slowly stroked her jaw, adding to the sensations that were making her head swim. She threaded the fingers of her other hand into his hair and held him closer in order to deepen the already passionate kiss.
Kate ran the tip of her tongue along his lips, feeling them part to permit it entry. Clay took in an involuntary breath as her tongue joined his, that breath turning into a deep growl at the back of his throat. He shifted his hand from Kate's jaw to her collarbone, making gentle circular motions with his fingers. Kate recognized this move as a precursor to touching parts more intimate, and she was ready to welcome it. Their wedding vows gave them every license to share kisses, caressing, fondling, or more as their hearts desired. And some days they had a lot of desire...
After an indeterminate amount of time kissing, caressing, and touching, their romantic rendezvous was interrupted with a jolt by a loud knock at the door. "Guys," Sarah's voice came through the door, "you have ten minutes to wrap up what you're doing and put yourselves back together before Jerome and Will come for you. See you at dinner."
"Put ourselves back together, indeed," Clay muttered to his wife, his voice a low rumble. "We didn't even take our shoes off."
Kate looked up at Clay with amusement and snickered. Considering how much they had done in the hour of privacy that they had, they really did need to put themselves back together. If she looked anything as rumpled as he did, the two of them should take at least five minutes just to fix their hair. "No, but I'm still glad she gave us some warning. We really do need to get ready just a little."
"Why?" Clay rolled off of Kate to let her sit up. Getting a better look at the two of them sitting side by side in the mirror, he blinked with surprise at their appearance of mutual disarray. "Oh." Clay grimaced as he reached up to finger his disheveled hair. "Maybe we should put a little bit of effort into cleaning up before dinner..."
"A little," Kate agreed as the two opened up their bags to find something to fix their respective hairstyles. It only took a couple of minutes, but shortly both were looking a little more presentable. Their shirts were no longer quite so rumpled, and Kate's hair had been pulled back into a neat ponytail. Clay's hair, on the other hand, still stuck up in a couple of places. Kate snickered again. "Well, you tried."
"The story of my hair." He ran his hand over it, smoothing it for all of a minute. "If I already didn't know how awful I'd look, I'd shave it all off."
"Blech!" Kate stuck out a distasteful tongue. "Don't you dare."
"But my hair wouldn't get messy that way," Clay told her with an impish smile.
"That," Kate drawled, "would definitely be an easy maintenance style, that's for sure. But your ears would stick out for sure, guaranteed. Plus," she continued, "I'm not sure you have the right head shape for the cue-ball look."
"Cue-ball look?" Clay grumbled indignantly.
"Yeah. You know, like the cue ball on a pool table. The look that Chris has going," she explained, reddening slightly under the dirty look that Clay was giving her. "Just never mind, honey."
Clay glanced at his watch. "We still have most of that ten minutes left. What do you want to do to kill the rest of that time?" Finishing his question, he looked up at his wife. From the look in her eyes, he knew the answer to that question as soon as the words left his mouth. "Come here," he whispered, pulling her close for another kiss.
A short ten minutes later another healthy knock was heard at the door. Clay deposited one last kiss on Kate's forehead, muttering under his breath as he released her to get the door for Jerome and Will.
Jerome took in the expressions on their faces in an instant. "Didn't Sarah give you ten minutes warning that we'd be coming?"
"She did," Clay acknowledged, "and we used that time to get ready. But we still had some time, so..." He shrugged thoughtfully.
Will snorted. "Newlyweds."
"After seeing you with Sarah, I'm betting your appetite will be worse than ours."
Will chose not to respond to that. He scowled at Clay. "Grab your room keys and come on. The others will be there by now."
Kate closed the door behind them. "I'm looking forward to being in
Clay blinked at her. "You think we're going to have more freedom at the hotel there? Why?"
"Because very few, if any, of the Haitians will recognize you," Kate told him matter-of-factly. "If anyone, it will be American tourists... and I don't see us dealing with too many of those in Jérémie."
Will nodded with a smirk. "Point for Kate's team..." he chuckled, earning a raised eyebrow from Clay with his answer.
The four of them arrived at the dining room where the others were already gathered at two tables for eight people next to each other. Clay and Kate were quickly sandwiched between the two bodyguards, with Sarah, Sally, Lisa, and Tracy rounding out their table. Immediately Kate opened up a menu and scanned it quickly as Clay giggled at her eyes frantically searching the pages. "Kate honey... you're silly."
"I told you what I'm in the mood for," Kate replied.
Clay shook his head with a sigh. "She wants shrimp," he told Sarah.
"Past wanting shrimp," Kate whispered. "Gonna go crazy if I don't..."
"Oh-ho!" Will guffawed. "Another food craving! Dude, you and Kate are very pregnant."
Kate closed her menu long enough to bop Will on the top of the head with it. "Men don't get pregnant, goofball."
"What if I said that you two had a bun in the oven? That work?"
Clay giggled with amusement as Kate snorted. "Will... don't mention other food. The only thing that sounds good to me right now is shrimp. With ranch dressing..."
Sarah winked at Clay. "Hope you two had a good time earlier, because this will kill the rest of the evening for you."
"Sarah!" Kate exclaimed, putting down her menu long enough to glare at her friend. "I'm not even going to dignify that one with a response."
"Aw, you're no fun." Raising an impish eyebrow, Sarah switched to German. "Too bad Clay's allergic to chocolate, since you're such a chocoholic. Imagine the fun you two could have with a bottle of Hershey's syrup," she purred.
Clay groaned. "Not again..."
Kate turned a bright brilliant red. "Clay, be very thankful that she said that in German... because you would not want the rest of the table to hear the translation." Catching Clay's puzzled expression, she nodded at him. "I'll tell you later," she whispered, squeezing his leg just high enough to give him a subtle message of her own.
Fortunately Clay understood. Blushing lightly, he cleared his throat. "Later is good."
"I still can't believe," Kate muttered, still embarrassed, "that came out of your mouth."
"I surprise a lot of people," Sarah replied as the waiter came over to take their order.
The eight of them quickly placed their requests (with Kate asking for the breaded shrimp) and started talking more about the mission trip. "Well," Sally began, "with the exception of a few at the other table, all of the bible school teachers happen to be at one table."
Kate glanced over at the others, noticing how many were actually going to be on the building site. "How did we end up with so few working out on the construction site?"
"Dunno. But there are several which are going to be out there all week, and several who are going to be going back and forth."
Jerome indicated Will and himself. "As long as things are going well inside, we can take turns helping them out with building the orphanage."
"I'll pass the word on," Sally grinned. "They'll appreciate that. Have either of you had any experience building things before?"
Will shrugged nonchalantly. "A couple of years ago I helped with a home for Habitat for Humanity."
"So you've done construction before?" Sally asked. Seeing Will's nod, Sally smiled wryly. "Well, there's a lot of building technique and skills you learned which can go out the window."
"Hunh?"
Kate understood what Sally meant by her cryptic words. "She means that
you can forget everything you learned about building code, because Haitians
don't use it." She shrugged lightly. "Anything you learned about
building will be different in
"No lime??" Will asked. "Isn't that what holds the cement together?"
"Yep."
Clay glanced at Kate questioningly. "If the lime is what holds it together and there's no lime, then what holds their buildings together?"
"Gravity and spit," Kate drawled before taking a drink of her water. Everyone at the table except for Sally gave Kate a skeptical glance, and she frowned. "You think I'm joking! When we went in 2002, we had enough people for two weeks worth of teams. The second week a guy happened to put his hand on a wall that had been built fully the week prior. Should have been dry and stable, right?" Kate shook her head. "It fell over when he leaned on it. They had to rebuild the dumb thing."
"Poor Rich," Sally sighed. "We teased him the rest of the week about being a one-man wrecking crew. Of course he teased us right back..."
"This sounds like it could be a fun trip," Clay noted.
"Count on it," Sally informed him.
Their food started to arrive, and Pastor Macy quickly caught their attention for a prayer. Frank led the mealtime prayer for the group, and those that had their order started eating. "Anyone going to the pool later?" Lisa asked, glancing around the table.
Most of the group shook their heads, with the exception of Sally. "I love to swim. You'll see me in that pool most every night we're down there."
"I'll join you later." Lisa looked around at the others. "Anyone else?"
Clay shook his head. "No thank you."
"Hate is an understatement," Sarah drawled. "Won't go near it is closer to the truth."
Clay acknowledged Sarah's assessment. "I'm kind of afraid of standing water. Bathtubs, pools, rivers..." He shuddered. "I'm okay drinking water or washing my hands or showering, but you won't catch me anywhere near that pool."
"Not even to see your wife in a swimsuit?" Sarah raised her eyebrow teasingly.
Pausing a moment in thoughtful silence, Clay pondered that one as his wife blushed with the knowledge of the secret she and Sarah shared. "I want to see her in a swimsuit, but you're still not getting me near the pool."
"Too bad you have those water issues." Kate sighed with sympathy. "There will be times that pool will feel really good after a long, hot day of teaching and bucket brigade. I may not swim much, but there are going to be some days this week that you won't be able to keep me away from it."
"And I will be there to watch you when you do," Clay admitted, "but at a nice, safe distance."
Conversation continued through the course of dinner, and afterwards Pastor Macy led the group in the devotion for the night. He passed out the schedule of devotions for the rest of the week, and the team split to go their respective ways to swim, play games, or do whatever. Looking over the devotional schedule with Kate as they walked back to their room, Clay noted that there were enough time slots for most people to lead devotions twice - he and Lisa were teaming up for Monday night's devotion, Kate and Jerome would give the Wednesday morning devotion, he would be teaming up with Sheila to give the group Saturday evening's devotion, and Kate and Adam were giving the devotion for next Monday morning.
Wanting to relax before crashing for the night, Clay and Kate decided to watch a movie. Kate quickly set a wakeup call for the two of them, knowing their tendency to occasionally fall asleep in each other's arms while relaxing before bed. Glasses in place of contacts, the newlyweds sprawled out on the bed in a warm embrace, cuddling as a movie of their choice played on the TV. Kate laid her head on Clay's shoulder, paying more attention to the beat of his heart than to the movie.
During the end credits, Clay posed his wife a question that had been on his
mind since dinner. "What did Sarah say earlier that embarrassed you so
much?"
Kate's answer was immediate. "Sarah. I know we've come up with some pretty original things, and we've learned a lot from other couples... but it's nothing compared to some of the things that goes through her perverted little mind."
"Really." Clay's remark was a statement, not a question. "Have you ever gleaned ideas from her?"
"A few," Kate admitted, "but a lot of what she comes up with is kind of racy. Some of it has potential, but we're not quite there yet."
"Like what?" Clay asked. Noting Kate's wince, he nudged her. "It's all right, honey, we're married."
"Errrr... yeah. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Clay listened as Kate shared one of Sarah's gems, his eyes widening as the story progressed. By the end, Clay's mouth was hanging open in shock. At last he shook his head sharply. "I - see," his voice cracked. "We definitely wouldn't have been ready for that in our first few months of marriage."
Kate agreed. "Absolutely not. And that's one of the... erm, less adventurous ones."
Interesting... Tantalized by the image imbedded in his mind, Clay shook his head again. No such luck - it remained in his head no matter what he did. At least it was of him and Kate... "That was much more than I ever wanted to know about the way Sarah thinks," Clay told his wife.
"I know what you mean," Kate murmured. "And out of the goodness of her heart, she hasn't shared the really racy ones. She's told me outright that those would be too much for me to handle."
Clay stared at Kate with an expression of complete disbelief. "What kind of life did Sarah have before this, that she has these kinds of thoughts?"
Kate heaved a long, drawn-out sigh. "A really hard one." Breaking it down succinctly, Kate gave Clay the background on Sarah's life, from her distant workaholic parents to her attention-craving relationships with her peers.
"Wow," Clay breathed at last. "I'm surprised that she has everything as together as she does. Most young women in her situation would be a single mom of three kids, each one with a different father."
"I know," Kate said in a hushed whisper. "It says a lot about Sarah's strength and her faith."
"I'm looking forward to hearing more about her own faith story this week in Haiti." Clay chewed on his lip sheepishly, still unable to get rid of the mental image Sarah's story projected. "I don't know about you, but that story of Sarah's is going to haunt me the rest of the night."
Kate looked up at him. "Which one - her own story, or the..."
"Yeah," Clay nodded, referring to the first one.
"Why is it going to haunt you?" Kate questioned. Catching a glimpse of Clay's hungry eyes, she blushed. "Oh. Sorry to do that to you, Love..."
Clay shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I know you haven't been feeling well today, so I'll just deal with it, I suppose..."
Kate placed a fingertip to his lips. "I haven't been feeling bad all day, just earlier. And if I really am pregnant like we think I am, we might be dealing with this for months to come." Gently she traced the outline of his lips, causing him to smile ever so slightly. "Here's my thought: tomorrow we will arrive in Haiti, and we will spend a good part of the day traveling the Haitian roads. Tomorrow night we will probably be very tired and possibly even sore from the bad road conditions and the packed vehicles. I doubt we will be in the mood to do much more than sleep once we get to our motel tomorrow night... so why don't we enjoy tonight while our energy level and the conditions are still good?"
"Are you sure?" Clay asked, surprised at Kate's willingness to share some intimate time yet tonight. When she nodded, he stroked her cheek. "Thanks for humoring me."
"Clayton, Clayton..." Kate sighed, shaking her head at him. "I love you more than anyone else in the world. Only God comes before you in my life." Smiling at the warm twinkle in his eye, she continued. "Because I love you so much, I want to give you all the good and wonderful things that I can. That includes a healthy, supportive and godly marriage relationship like the one we're trying to build." Kate ran her fingers through a section of his hair that stuck out the wrong way, attempting to smooth it back down. "Sharing myself that way with you isn't a chore... it's a joy. You and I may not always be in the mood at the same time, but we know how important it is to our marriage."
Clay nodded. "Every bit as important as those daily prayers we have together." Kate nodded back, and he grinned. "Why don't we have our evening prayer, and then we can start talking a while and see where it goes from there?"
Kate leaned up on the bed, shifting into a sitting position beside Clay. "That sounds like a plan to me." She waited until Clay sat up next to her before clasping his waiting hands. The couple prayed together, giving thanks for their safe travel and shared experiences thus far, as well as requesting further blessings and safety in the week to come. Kate prayed for their words and actions to bless those around them, and Clay prayed for health for Kate and their possible unborn child.
Once they finished with their prayers, the two of them sat gazing contentedly into each other's eyes, holding onto and stroking each other's hands. Somehow Clay felt closer to Kate after they prayed together, their marital bond strengthened even further by becoming one in purpose of heart and mind. One of the many beautiful miracles about their relationship... Kate may have said that she felt better now, but Clay was still not going to take her for granted... not for a minute. After a long day of traveling, he thought he knew just what she might need. Or at the very least, what might feel good.
Clay lifted her hands to his mouth, brushing the backs of her fingers with his lips before once more starting to stroke her hands. Taking each arm one at a time, he kneaded the tension from her arms from the hands to the shoulders. Kate sighed lightly, and Clay could feel her relax bit by bit as he continued his massage, moving from his seat beside her to directly behind her to apply his magic touch to her shoulders and back. Hearing her delighted moan, Clay cracked a smile at her usual response to his massages. Nobody could "appreciate" a massage like Kate... and he couldn't help but find it amusing.
Finished with her back and shoulders, Clay reached his hands up into her hair in order to knead her scalp and the back of her neck. Having experienced a full-body massage at Kate's hands before, he understood the value of being completely thorough. Clay rarely felt as totally relaxed as he did after one of her full-body massages. Of course with the two of them being married, sometimes the massage remained completely innocent... other times it turned into something else entirely, and often before the massage was finished. Tonight, after Kate's rough day traveling, Clay was going to make no assumptions.
It was after Clay had shifted again, back around to a seat facing Kate, that he noticed her mood had changed. She had gone from an expression of blissful contentment to one of white-hot intensity. Clay's breath caught in his chest as she turned her steady, unblinking concentration onto him. "I brushed my teeth," she purred in way of explanation.
That was all Clay needed to hear. A slight smile turned the corner of his mouth as he cupped her face in his hand. "Good," he growled as he leaned forward to kiss her.
Go to the next day, Day 4 (June 19)
Go to yesterday, Day 2 (June 17)