Read Online Prayers of Agnes Sparrow by Joyce Magnin - Free Book Online

company and she often made me smile when it was the last thing I wanted to do.
    “What's the occasion?” Hezekiah asked.
    “Groundhog Day,” Ruth said. “We always come out to watch Phil.”
    “Phil?” Hezekiah twisted on the stool.
    “Happy Groundhog Day, Hez,” Zeb said as he wiped the counter in front of him. “Coffee?”
    “Sure thing. But what's the big deal? Why's everybody here?”
    “You might say it's a tradition in town.” Zeb grabbed the pot and poured. “Spring is mighty important to these folks.”
    I watched Hezekiah contain what I interpreted as a smirk.
    Zeb had taken a liking to Hezekiah from the first day he met him. It was about three or four days after he started working for Agnes and me. He had just finished replacing a pipe under the kitchen sink, and Agnes said he looked like a man who could use a piece of pie.
    “Why don’t you take him on down to the café,” she said, “and introduce him around?”
    I did. I took Hezekiah on down to the Full Moon, and at first Zeb thought he recognized him—thought maybe they went to summer camp together, but that wasn’t the case. Hezekiah had one of those faces that reminded many people of a loved one far or near. The two men took a shine to one another.
    “Oh, I remember about Phil now. I never knew folks took it so serious. It's just an old wives’ tale.” He looked around at the disgruntled faces of those who overheard. “But it's nice to get together now, ain’t it.”
    “That reminds me,” said Ruth. She pulled my elbow and led me away from the counter and an offending waft of cigarettesmoke. “The church potluck is next Friday night,” she whispered. You might have thought she was telling a government secret.
    “Oh, that's right. Well, I’ll make some scalloped potatoes and maybe a ham.”
    Vidalia took my other elbow. “I’ll mix up a mess of something special.”
    “No, that's not it,” Ruth said. “There's always plenty of food. I was wondering if anyone bothered to tell Hezekiah. He hasn’t come to church since he got here and—”
    “Do you want me to invite him?” I asked.
    “Well, you or Agnes. Don’t you think Agnes should do it? I say that because Hezekiah doesn’t seem the church-going type and all, and we’d hate to have him think we were twisting his arm, you know?”
    Vidalia shot me a crooked smile. “I’ll leave you two to chat, but I’ll come by the library later.”
    I winked at her. “I’ll be there around ten or so this morning.”
    “Oh, that's fine. I got to get to the market and the post office. My grandbaby, Jackson, has a birthday coming up and I got a package to send. So I’ll see y’all later.”
    “Aren’t you going to stay and wait for Phil?”
    “No, I just came in for a cup of coffee this morning. Believe it or not, I ran out. That Hezekiah drinks coffee like it's water.”
    Vidalia pulled a knit hat over her ears and went out into the overcast day. The weatherman called for more snow, and from the looks of the clouds I figured it would be arriving soon. Snow had a funny way of creeping over the mountains. It would start out with a slow moving rack of gray clouds, and just when you thought the clouds had passed over, the flakes would start.
    “So how about if you ask Agnes to ask him,” Ruth said.
    “Sure. I’ll tell her this morning. Hezekiah will be by, I’m sure, to do some work.”
    “Oh, that will be just fine.” She turned around and looked in Hezekiah's direction. “I’d ask him myself, but, well, that wouldn’t be proper since we only just met.”
    “I’ll take care of it, Ruth.”
    “Fine. I’ll see you at the potluck then. Oh, and scalloped potatoes will do fine, just fine.”
    The potlucks at Bright's Pond Chapel had a reputation for getting a bit … well, a bit rowdy—rowdy for a small Pocono Mountains town, and I guessed that was why Ruth thought it might make Hezekiah nervous. Pastor Speedwell would often stand up to say “just a few words” and