RAV4, she began praying. “Father God, I ain’t looking for no turning-water-into-wine
miracles. I need you to help me squeeze twenty-five cents out of a nickel. Patience laid-off
yesterday and now me, Lord. Neither me nor Patience got husbands—our choice of course,
but now the Devil done barged into our lives uninvited.”
Joy drove home slowly, going out of her way to allow her time to think. “Lord, I guess
me and Patience gonna do what we always do. We just gonna praise You. At least we ain’t
gotta pay to do that.”
Just as Joy pulled into her driveway, she noticed a flyer stuck to her mailbox with a large
headline that read: A Prophetic Return to Wealth. God’s Grace is Sufficient and Salvation
is Free…
She stuffed the flyer into her pocketbook. Free is a good thing, she thought. Most of the
time free costs too much. It would have to wait until she delivered the bad news to Patience.
Joy Karry
Chapter 1
“How long have you been out of work, Mrs. Karry?”
Joy squirmed in her seat as she answered the unemployment benefits interviewer. “It’s
been about three weeks now.”
She’d prayed a lot in the three weeks since her lay-off. Despite the warm weather that
day, she’d worn a heavy blue cotton dress and a long-sleeve jacket. With her Christian
upbringing, she’d never appear in public with her flesh exposed, no matter how hot it got.
Hell was hotter, she’d always say.
She didn’t quite feel comfortable with her interviewer. He was as slow as a turtle with
arthritis; he even spoke slowly. He was also pasty-colored and wore a ridiculous cheap
blond toupee, slicked down to appear more costly. What was worse was that human turtle
had made a ludicrous assumption about her. After all, she’d spent time and effort to fill out
the mountain of forms using flawless penmanship, and he had yet to take a peep at it.
“It’s Miss Karry,” Joy said slowly, fighting to keep from chewing on her bottom lip that
poked out. “It says it right there on the first page that I’m a single woman.”
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