know there are a couple of other churches in the area, but
wouldn't it be wonderful if Michael's church turned out to
be the sort of place where other denominations could gather
jtoo-just occasionally, you know, like for special music or
something along those lines. I never did understand all these
denominational divisions and differences. I mean, don't they
all believe in basically the same thing?"
Maggie smiled. "I guess we'd all hope so."
Barbara rose. "Well, I don't want to take any more of
your time. But I was just so excited. I felt like I was a young
girl again, and I just had to talk to somebody!"
.4.
Looking for You All My Life249
Maggie grasped her hand. "I'm glad you came to me.
And I won't mention this to anyone until you give me the go-
ahead, okay?"
"Thank you, dear. Oh, and one more thing. I wonder if
Jed would have time to help oversee some of the renovations
to the building."
"I couldn't really say. But I know if he has the time, I can
guarantee that he would do a fantastic job. I can personally
vouch for the quality of his work."
Barbara winked at her. "I thought you could, dear." Then
she left.
Maggie couldn't for the life of her figure out what she'd
meant by that last comment and wink. Certainly, Barbara
didn't suspect that there'd ever been anything beyond a con-
genial friendship between her and Jed. And yet, just the
same, it was comforting somehow to think that Barbara
might have imagined more.
n Tuesday morning the temperature dropped con-
siderably and large snowflakes began to fall in town.
Maggie called up the nearby resort for the ski report
to hear that with only a few more inches of snow the lifts
would be fully operational. And the cheerful person on the
other end all but promised that today's snow would provide
more than enough. She hung up with a shout of joy, then
shared the good news with Scott and Abigail.
"Hopefully, this will lift the spirits of the local business-
people now," said Maggie. "At the very least, it might pre-
vent them from lynching me after they read this week's
paper."
"You mean the latest news about the wetlands issue?"
asked Abigail.
"Well, how could I not report on what those EPA guys
told me yesterday?"
"Do you think Greg and Rick have heard about this yet?"
asked Scott.
"I would think so," said Maggie as she sorted through
the mail, discovering a couple of personal Christmas cards
from some of her old friends down in L.A. "The EPA guys