The Problem with Dreams

Chapter 88 - Pastor Wilbury

"Hello?" Susan said looking tentatively at a sandy haired man dressed in kakis and a blue collared shirt standing in the lobby.

"Susan? I'm Wilbury ... Pastor Wilbury, or Will to most people here," he said extending his hand.

"Hi. This is my husband, Greg," Susan introduced them.

"Hello Greg. I would have recognized you of course, but I feel like I know you already," Pastor Wilbury told them. "You and I have a mutual friend in John Wilson, and we spoke on the phone a week or so ago," he explained in response to Greg's questioning look as he shook the other man's hand.

"Oh, yes of course," Greg said with a smile. "I was hoping you weren't basing what you know of me from the tabloids."

"I never read those rags," Pastor Wilbury assured him. "But John and I ... we go way back. We were friends in high school, ran with the same crowd, when to seminary together after he met Karen and she converted us. We were such heathens back then."

"So you know Karen too?" Susan asked.

"Indeed I do. John and I were at the same concert where we met her and her sister. We were pretty much inseparable back then. Even as adults we've remained close. We were even supposed to be assigned to the mission in St. Augustine's together, but then this opportunity came up here around the time my wife and I were to leave, so I came to Northridge instead."

"When was that?" Susan asked.

"Oh let's see, almost six years ago, if I remember correctly," Pastor Wilbury said. "I was scheduled to leave right after Easter in 1997, but my travel plans got delayed by the airline. There was some sort of problem with one of their jet liners. It never got to Sydney, so they had to rearrange my flight due to equipment shortages I think."

Susan stared at him, then at Greg, then back at Pastor Wilbury again.

"There was an airliner that crashed on its way to Australia on April first of that year," she said tentatively.

"Yes, that was the one," Pastor Wilbury agreed. "A shame what happened to all those people. I came a week later than I'd originally planned because of that, which was better because they say the weather over the south Pacific at the time was horrid."

"It was," Greg agreed mildly. "Pastor Wilbury, perhaps we would be more comfortable getting to know one another over dinner? I believe you suggested to my wife a meal?"

"I did. There's a little seafood restaurant that over hangs the beach not far from here. It's reasonably good, if you like that sort of thing. I hear they have chicken and passible steaks as well as seafood if you'd prefer," Pastor Wilbury suggested.

"I know the place," Greg told him. "Shall we meet you there?"

"That's what I had in mind," Pastor Wilbury said.

c

Greg walked with Susan out to her car.

"What are the odds that he knew both John and Karen Wilson and lives here?" Greg asked as they both got in.

"You want to know what else? He also knows Rabbi Goldman," Susan told him.

"He does?" Greg asked in surprise.

"Yes. He said he and Spencer, his brother, grew up near him in Sydney. The Pierces attended Henry's church, which is how they met John, but they and the Goldmans were neighbors when they were growing up."

Greg stared at his wife. "Susan, I can't believe this. Of all the people there are in this world for us to discover a connection like this ..."

"It's the hand of God again, Greg. It always is when things like this happen," Susan reminded him.