Read Online Stepping Down by Michelle Stimpson - Free Book Online

what it is.”
    He
waited. The swish of the windshield wipers punched through the silence
intermittently.
    “You
can’t fix me, Mark,” she finally snapped, pounding her thighs with her fists.
“I’m a human being. I have emotions and feelings and needs. I’m not some kind
of corporate branding experiment.”
    Bewildered,
Mark sat with his mouth open. “What are you talking about?”
    “This!”
she threw her hands in the air. “We’re so far apart, you have no earthly idea
what I’m going through.”
    “No.
I don’t,” he admitted. “You said you wanted me to spend more time with
‘Mani, so I did.”
    “It’s
not just Amani,” she revealed.
    “What
do you expect me to do? Read your mind?” Mark gasped in exasperation.
    “Read
my heart ,” she demanded.
    “That’s
impossible,” he stated.
    “It
didn’t used to be. When we were dating, and before the church, you used to know
when something was bothering me. You’d stop to see what it was. We’d take a
weekend off, go somewhere and reconnect, make a plan to overcome. And I felt
safe. But now…” her voice cracked with emotion.
    A
flood of anxiety rushed through Mark’s veins as he realized his wife was about
to start crying. Her lips quivered, her eyes watered, and her button nose
flushed red. He’d been expecting a barrage of smart comments from his wife, but
not that . Not crying .
    “Baby,”
he tried to sooth her with words as well as a hug across the console.
    “No.”
She gave him the hand.
    “Sharla,
honey, I’m only trying to help.”
    “Don’t
touch me right now,” she wiped her nose, her dainty fingers shaking.
    Mark
sat in amazement, watching his wife try to compose herself while her body
betrayed her attempts. The tears kept flowing, her hands kept trembling.
    Suddenly,
his mind flashed back to his Aunt Jackie, his mother’s youngest sister. Aunt
Jackie had been perfectly fine until Mark’s cousin, Kendrick, drowned in the
lake. Mark was too young to know what a “nervous breakdown” was, but he
remembered the day before the mysterious occasion. Aunt Jackie had been sitting
in their living room crying uncontrollably. Rocking herself back and forth. And
he distinctly remembered her fingers shaking the way Sharla’s shook now.
    This
is not the time for Sharla to be having a nervous breakdown, Mark thought, not with the church on
the verge of a huge paradigm shift, not when I’ve finally gotten back into the
groove of hearing from God and walking in His direct guidance.
    Sharla’s
condition had to be the work of the enemy, Mark surmised. “Baby, let’s pray.”
    “No!
I don’t want to pray!” she practically screamed. “I’m tired of you and all this
pastor stuff. I want my husband—Mark Wayne Carter, III—back!”
    Now
he knew she had flown the coop. But Sharla’s tears kept Mark from flying
off with her. “Okay. We can go to counseling like you wanted.”
    She
sniffed. Gave her eyes a sloppy wipe. “Thank you. I already have an appointment
set for Amani Tuesday evening.”
    No!
Not Tuesday night! Mark
was scheduled for a live guest appearance with Joey Z, the metroplex’s gospel
radio station’s praise-and-pray DJ. Rev. Marshall had schmoozed for months to
get Mark on that show. The hope was that Mark would become a regular
commentator and bring in new members.
    “What
time did you set the appointment for?”
    His
voice must have hinted at his conflict.
    “Why?”
Sharla baited him.
    “What
time?” Mark repeated.
    “Six-thirty.”
    The
interview was from 5:30 – 6:30. “I’ll do my best to make it.”
    “So…you
might be there, you might not.”
    “Isn’t
it Amani’s counseling session?”
    “Yes,
but it would be nice if we could both go to show support,” she explained.
    Mark
didn’t quite understand how sitting on a couch while someone was in another
room being questioned was actually a show of support. “I’ll be late,” he said,
“but I’ll be there by the time he comes out of the