on their way to the Wednesday evening prayer service at Elmview Bible Church,
where Jeromy was the associate pastor. It was his duty to lead the Wednesday
evening prayer service, and he had prepared a humdinger of a sermon in which he
was to explain the "Five Keys to a Happy Family Life." They were certainly one
happy family that night, cruising along Rt. 4 with the windows wide open,
enjoying the autumn evening air, singing and laughing together. Mary and Jeromy
sat in front, and Joshua was in the back, strapped into his Space Commander car
seat and joyfully rattling a Mickey Mouse toy which had a see-through head full of
multi-colored balls that jingled like a sleigh-bell when you shook them.
Mary, in her usual cheery tone, was doing some rattling on herself about
how she hoped the pie she had made for the after-service social came out all right,
and how Mrs. McCurdy was still sick and she reallly should go see her sometime
soon, and . . .