Discreetly, she turned to look. At the side entrance,
an elderly usher was struggling to keep a disheveled
bundle of unsteadiness upright. It was a woman, Judith
thought, and wondered if she was drunk or ill. At last
the man steadied the unfortunate soul, propping her up
against a confessional door.
“. . . word of the Lord,” intoned the lector from the
pulpit.
“Oh, my Lord!” Judith gasped from the pew.
The disheveled woman was Renie. She was panting
and limping, her clothes in disarray and her hair going
every which way, including over her eyes. Judith hurried into the aisle and approached her cousin.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered in a frantic voice.
“Are you sick?”
Renie shook her head, brushing unruly chestnut
strands of hair out of her eyes.
“Have you been attacked?” Judith asked.
Renie shook her head again. “Not exactly.”
Judith gestured toward the pew where she’d been
sitting. “Can you sit down?”
Renie nodded. The usher, whose wrinkled face was
etched with concern, made a move to help both
women.
“It’s okay,” Judith said softly. “She’s not heavy,
she’s my cousin.”
TEN
RENIE ALL BUT fell into the pew. By now, several of
the nearby worshipers were staring. But as she regained her breath and straightened her clothes, the
curious returned their attention to the altar. Judith,
however, still stared at her cousin with anxious eyes.
“Later,” Renie mouthed.
It seemed like the longest Mass that Judith had
ever attended. She had great difficulty concentrating
on the liturgy, though she found no problem in praying for Renie and for herself. It seemed that they
both were in a great deal of trouble. At last the priest
gave the final blessing. Judith offered to help Renie
out of the pew, but was shaken off.
“I’m okay now,” she declared. “I won.”
“You won what?” Judith asked as they started
down the aisle.
“The fight,” Renie said as they reached the
vestibule. “I got into a fight at the XYZ Market up
the street.”
“Oh, good grief!” Judith exclaimed, drawing
more stares from the exiting churchgoers. “How did
that happen?”
“Some middle-aged Amazon thought she was
