On Sunday afternoon Amber went back to the shack to collect at least some of her clothes and things so she’d have fresh clothing to wear on Monday. Nanci was not impressed; while her clothes couldn’t honestly be called rags, they weren’t very good, either. So, when Nanci got Amber up on Monday morning, she gave her some more of her old clothes. These included a pair of jeans that were now on the snug side, a Canyon Tours T-shirt, and a light jacket that was a little too small for Nanci but big for Amber. From what Nanci had seen, kids in Tyler dressed about as sloppy for school as they did elsewhere, which is to say about how sloppy she herself had dressed when she had been in high school a dozen years and more before.

Amber agreed that Nanci’s castoffs were better clothes than she had been wearing to school, so she really appreciated them.

Once Nanci got Amber off to school she poured herself the last of the morning pot of coffee, then sat down at the kitchen table to think. She liked Amber, she really did – it had been a great deal of fun having her around the past couple of days. She seemed to be a good kid, and though she had apparently been totally unexposed to the idea of Christianity, she seemed to be very interested in it.

At the same time, she didn’t see how the current situation could be carried on for very long. There were a number of reasons for it, the first being her mother. While Nanci had never met the woman, from the descriptions she had heard, it sounded as if she wasn’t a very good mother, and her being missing for over a week now just underlined it. While Amber was happy, well-fed, and comfortable at the moment, if her mother showed up again, it seemed unlikely her new situation would continue.

More important, Amber was already proving to be a point of friction between Nanci and one of the more important families at the Conestoga Church. Trent and Cathy Westbrook were certainly not very happy about their son hanging around with her, and it couldn’t be denied that they had some valid reasons for their belief. After all, if she had been in their shoes, she probably would have been negative about the girl, at least without a better understanding of her.

Nanci knew that she was still very new in town – she hadn’t been in Tyler for ten days yet – and knew she couldn’t afford any serious dissention this early in her tenure here. If she had been here for a while, if people knew her better, she might be able to be a little more forceful, but that wasn’t the case yet.

At the same time, she knew that what she had told the Westbrooks the day before was absolutely true: Amber was too young to be allowed to live on her own, especially in the situation she had been in. Nanci knew all too well the trouble that could result, because she had seen it with her own eyes. She had promised the Westbrooks that she would look into making some kind of vague “arrangements” about the girl, and she knew it had to be done.

The answer seemed to be to get the girl into some kind of foster care arrangement, but she wasn’t sure that was the best thing to do. Nanci had heard bad stories about some foster care parents, and she knew that in at least some cases those stories had more than a grain of truth. Besides, she liked the kid, and there was a distinct part of her that didn’t want to lose contact with the teen.

If Nanci had been around Tyler and Conestoga longer, it seemed likely that she would know of some decent Christian family who would be willing to take the girl in – but once again, she was just too new in town to have that kind of knowledge. The only other option seemed to be to get some kind of children’s service agency involved, but if there was one in Tyler there was no sign of it in the phone book.

The only thing she could think of was to ask at the combined city/county office in what passed for downtown; presumably someone there would be able to point her in the right direction. She drained her coffee cup, rinsed it in the sink, and with a degree of reluctance started walking, since it really seemed like too short a distance to drive and she could always use the exercise.

On her way to the city/county office she came upon the sheriff’s office, and on a whim she decided to stop in there. After all, Amber’s mother seemed to be one of the keys to the problem, and they might know something she didn’t. There was an SUV marked as a patrol car sitting outside, so presumably someone was present. Inside, she found a middle-aged man sitting at one of the desks in the small room. “Hi, miss,” he said. “Can I help you?”

“Possibly,” she replied. “I’m Nanci Chladek, the new pastor at the Methodist Church.”

“I’d heard there was a new minister,” the sheriff said. “I’ve been meaning to catch a service. I probably don’t do it as often as I ought to. I’m Sheriff Bert Shoemaker. Are you having some kind of problem I can help you with?”

“I don’t know,” Nanci shrugged. “A few days ago I ran across a girl by the name of Amber Wallace. Her mother’s name is Linda, I think. Do you know who I’m talking about?”

“Would that be the Linda Wallace who’s been squatting in an old shack out of the edge of town? I guess I knew she had her daughter living with her, but to be honest I haven’t paid that much attention. They’re not supposed to be there, but nobody has complained about it, so I haven’t done anything.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s who we’re talking about. Anyway, Amber tells me that her mother disappeared over a week ago. There’s been no sign of her, and well, she’s worried. Apparently, this isn’t the first time she’s dropped out of sight for a day or two at a time, but it’s never been this long before.”

“Hadn’t heard that,” the sheriff replied. “Of course, there’s a lot of things I don’t hear unless someone tells me. But to leave a kid that long, well, that’s not a good idea.”

“I agree. Amber is fifteen, almost sixteen, or so she tells me. I have to say that she’s a pretty level-headed, resilient girl, a real survivor type. She’s been getting along on school lunches that she gets from a friend, and cattle feed she scrapes up from spillage at the mill. When I found that out, well, I took her home and fed her. I’ll be honest, I like the girl, and I’m impressed at how well she’d done in a tough situation. Apparently, she doesn’t get any real support from her mother. To hear her tell it, it’s more the other way around.”

“So what do you think we ought to do?”

“I don’t know,” Nanci shook her head. “I don’t mind her staying with me at least for a while, but I don’t know what happens when or if her mother shows up again. I’d pretty well made up my mind to contact the children’s services agency, whatever it’s called around here, and see if they could come up with a more permanent solution.”

“Let me ask you this. Is there any sign of the child being abused?”

“Abused as in having been beaten on, no. Abused as in terms of being neglected and deprived, yes. But I don’t know what could be done about it.”

“Just between you and me, Reverend, things would be a lot better if her mother wasn’t trying to drink everything she can get her hands on.”

“I don’t disagree in the slightest, and I’m sure that’s part of the problem. Amber is better off being out of that environment, even if it’s staying with me for a few days.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” the sheriff shook his head. “And I agree that a children’s services agency is probably the right step to make. The problem is that we don’t have one.”

“Don’t have one?”

“Not on the county level. We’re a very small county, Reverend, and that means there are a lot of things you’d find in a bigger place that we can’t afford or have enough use to justify. That’s one of them. What we do have is a small agency down in Carondelet that serves a five-county area. There are only two people on the staff, and naturally they don’t have enough money to go around. So I usually don’t call them unless there’s a case of serious abuse that means we have to not only get the kid out of the house, but out of town. They have a small group home down in Carondelet, and my understanding is that they’re full to overcrowded, and it’s not exactly the nicest place, either.”

“I had no idea of that. So what do you do?”

“Most cases, if something like this comes up, I usually can find someone locally to look after the kid on an informal basis. I mean, there are no funds for taking care of a foster child involved, people just do it out of the goodness of their hearts, sort of like you seem to be doing for this Amber.”

“I’d thought of looking for something like that through the church, but I’m still pretty new here and I don’t know anyone well enough yet.”

“It’s how we often have to do things. Sometimes it’s not the best we can do, but often it’s a better solution than putting the kid in the group home down in Carondelet.”

“You’re saying that we shouldn’t think about that?”

“I’m saying that maybe we shouldn’t be in any rush to do it. If we knew her mother was gone for good, that’s one thing, but we don’t know that, and her mother coming back could complicate things in a number of different ways. Another situation that would complicate things is that school is almost out for the summer. If we were to move her down to the group home this afternoon, she’d have to be taken out of school here and put into school down there, and this close to the end of the year, it’s bound to be upsetting.”

“Yeah, that’s true, and it’s something I hadn’t thought about.”

“It might not matter as much if we weren’t so close to the end of the school year,” the sheriff said. “But no matter how we do it, it’s bound to upset the kid, especially since the group home would be worse than the atmosphere you’re currently providing for her. Would it be a huge problem for you to take her in at least up through the end of the school year?”

“I could do that,” Nanci agreed reluctantly. “Don’t get me wrong. I like the kid, and I’m impressed with her for how she’s handled a tough situation. I think there’s a good kid in there and I hope to see more of that good kid brought out. The problem is that I’m already getting some static from a few church members over my associating with her.”

“Reverend, I shouldn’t have to say this to you, of all people, but didn’t Jesus spend a lot of his ministry hanging around with sinners and lowlifes?”

“Believe me, I’ve thought about that, and you’re right. The problem is selling that thought to some of the people in the church.”

“Again, that part of it really isn’t my business, but isn’t it up to you to set an example and lead your church?”

“Yeah,” Nanci replied contritely. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“You’re just going to have to work on selling your point,” the sheriff advised with a smile. “Look, in circumstances like this, sometimes all you can do is to let the situation develop and see what happens. I’d suggest that you at least put up with it until school is out, and then we can see what we can do then. If you stick to your guns, the people making noise in your church may begin to see your point. And in two weeks we may have a better idea of what’s going on with Linda Wallace.”

“To tell you the truth, I’m not sure I want Amber to go back to her mother.”

“Knowing what I know about Linda, and from what you’ve telling me about the way Amber has been living, I think you’re probably right on that. But that’s one of those things we’re going to have to let develop so we can see what happens. Look, I know Linda hangs around the Stationhouse, or at least she does when she’s in town. That’s the only bar in town. I’m pretty sure she hangs out with some of the real lowlifes who are also regulars around there. I’ll slide over and see if anyone knows anything. I’m not saying it’ll solve anything, but it’s the best place to start. If she doesn’t show up pretty soon, or if there’s no word, well, that might tell us something. If there aren’t any other problems, maybe after school lets out we can explore some other arrangements.”

“Well, if that’s the best that can be done for now, then I don’t see any other way.”

“I wish there was some other way to do it, but sometimes things like this solve themselves. Look, if the girl gives you any real trouble, let me know. If push comes to shove we could send her down to the group home, but I think you can see why I’d really rather not do that.”

“Yes, and from what you’ve told me, I’m not crazy about the idea, either.”

Nanci and Sheriff Shoemaker sat and talked for a few more minutes, not so much about Amber but more in generalities about Walke County, which did not seem to be a busy place for law enforcement – especially as low-key as he apparently pursued it. Oh, there were problems, mostly involving alcohol, but for the most part things were pretty quiet, which was how he liked it. Eventually she realized she was taking more of his time than she really should, so got up to leave, but with an invitation to drop back and chat sometime – and to let him know if any problems involving Amber came up.

When Nanci got out of the sheriff’s office she turned almost automatically for the Prairie Dawn, but before she got more than a few steps she changed her mind. It was clear that the restaurant was a hotbed of the Tyler rumor mill, and right at the moment she didn’t want to add any fresh fuel to the fire. She realized she needed to think about what the sheriff had said before she spent more time there.

She turned toward the parsonage with her mind churning. Yes, it would be better if Amber were placed with a good foster family, and that might end up the final solution to the problem. The option of having her sent to the group home was at best disappointing, and she could see how it could lead to more problems than it solved.

The real problem was that in the couple of days that she had known Amber, she’d come to like the girl. She had spunk, she had spirit, and she was not easily defeated by life – qualities that Nanci had had to learn the hard way. What was more, she’d enjoyed having her around. Although Nanci had only been living on her own in Tyler for a little more than a week, she’d already come to miss having other people living around her the way they had most of her life. She hadn’t really realized how much she’d missed it until the last couple of days when Amber had been with her.

Yet, it was clear that if she had Amber living with her, even for a short period, it could cause problems that she really didn’t want to deal with in her first days in her first churches. Was that a good way to start a career as a minister?

It might not be – but then again, it might well be. After all, her ministry was more than to just mouth the words, it was to set an example for others to follow. Off the top of her head, she could come up with any number of scriptures urging Christians to take care of the less fortunate.

This, Nanci knew, wasn’t a problem she could solve on her own. She needed God’s help, so the time had more than come to pray about it.

After Sheriff Shoemaker watched Nanci walk out the door, he took a moment to think some himself. He’d known that Linda Wallace had been squatting out in that old shack, and now that he thought about it he remembered she had a daughter who had to have been living with her. Somehow, he’d missed understanding just how bad the situation really was – and now that he’d been reminded, he realized that not only should he have known, he should have done something about it before this.

At least the girl had landed on her feet. The new minister seemed like a nice woman, and from what little he’d heard about her already she was supposed to be real serious about what she was doing, which was more than could be said about the man who had preceded her.

The heck of it was that he knew the girl would be better off if Linda didn’t return, even if the kid wound up living in the group home down in Carondelet. What was more, he was sure the minister was aware of it too, even though she couldn’t come out and say it.

He had no idea of what had happened to Linda, and in fact hadn’t known she was gone until the minister walked in the door. Realistically, anything could have happened to her, and it seemed likely that none of the possibilities were good.

Obviously he had to look for her, if for no more reason than to find out what had happened to her, not even taking into account the issue with the daughter. It was not beyond possibility that her body was lying in a ditch somewhere. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder that if he did find her alive if he ought not encourage her to just stay gone for the sake of the girl. There were other options.

But then, it was like he’d told the young minister: sometimes these problems solve themselves. There was a good chance that it had already happened, especially considering the way Linda drank anything she could get her hands on. Once again, he’d have to wait and see what happened, but he knew he’d still have to look anyway.

It was noon on Monday before Amber and Keith had a chance to talk. Keith was already sitting down in the lunchroom when she came to join him across the table. As soon as she was seated he shoved his lunch over to her.

“You might as well eat it yourself today, Keith,” she smiled. “Nanci, er, Reverend Chladek made us both a good breakfast before I came to school.”

“I was really surprised to see you show up at church yesterday,” he said as he took the tray back. He stared down at the lunch, which was like most school lunches: not very appetizing. “You really looked good, but the folks never let me get close enough to you to talk.”

“I saw that,” she nodded. “I thought that their seeing me at church might make them think a little better of me. I borrowed the clothes from Nanci … er, Reverend Chladek. She’s real nice, you know? I’ve stayed with her the last couple nights and probably will again tonight.”

“Your mother hasn’t come back, huh?”

“Not as of this morning. I stopped in on my way to school, but there wasn’t any sign of her. She’s never been gone this long before and I don’t know what to think.”

Keith wanted to say something that sounded hopeful, but couldn’t think of anything. “So what’s Reverend Chladek like?” he asked, at least able to change the subject. “I don’t know her very well.”

“Like I said, she’s real nice. Saturday night we popped some corn and watched a movie on TV. Then, after we went to your church yesterday, we went to the one here in Tyler, and some people here invited us to dinner, a Mr. and Mrs. Reed. They seemed to know about Mom and me, but they didn’t say anything, so that was pretty nice, too. Then we went back to the parsonage and spent the rest of the afternoon talking and watching another movie on TV. I like her, and she’s really turning into a friend, Keith.”

“Well, that’s good,” Keith said. “I always knew you were a good kid even if other people didn’t think so. So what did you think of church? Pretty boring?”

“It was interesting,” she told him. “There’s a lot there I didn’t know about before. We talked about it quite a bit. I sat through the same service again here in Tyler, and I think I got more out of it the second time than I did the first time. Nanci … er, Reverend Chladek says that different people get different things out of services.”

“Yeah, I guess, but I’ve never really gotten anything out of going to church. It seems like a waste of time to me.”

“Reverend Chladek said that people aren’t going to listen until they’re ready to. I think she’s right. I mean, do you pay attention to a boring class you aren’t interested in?”

“Well, no.”

“Maybe you’re not ready to listen, then,” she smiled. “Look, Keith, like I said Saturday, I’m sorry I got you into trouble.”

“It wasn’t you who got me into trouble, it was me insisting that you come with me. But maybe it worked out for the best since it let you get to know Reverend Chladek. Maybe she will be able to help you out in ways I never could. If that’s what happens, it will be worth getting into trouble with my parents, especially since I may not be able to be much of a friend for a while.”

“Keith, don’t ever think that you’re still not my friend. You know, Reverend Chladek and I were talking about something else yesterday and she told me that in the Bible there’s a line that goes, ‘Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend,’ or something like that. Keith, you’re the best kind of friend, and you didn’t have to lay down your life, but just get your parents mad at you. That’ll go away after a while.”

“The two of you must have talked about the Bible a lot.”

“We did it some,” Amber smiled. “Not as much as you might think. We talked about other stuff, but like I said we sat around and watched some goofy movies, too. It was lots more fun than sitting at home in our shack and just worrying about Mom.”

“Well, I’m glad it worked out for you.”

“I am, too. Look, Keith, your folks may ask you if you saw me today.”

“I’m pretty sure they will.”

“If you get the chance, please tell them for me that I’m glad they let me stay after all, and that the food was real good. Thank them for me, please.”

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