The Poker Chip Flipping Prison Chaplain

Buck Falls in Love with Petula

On December 19, 1995, Buck's determination to pursue Petula grows on a snowy night in Toledo, Ohio.

Buck is hosting for the other single pastors in town when his mother is visiting.  As his friends arrive, news is breaking about an approaching blizzard.  As they listen to news reports of the storm on the television,  Buck's best friend Karl Holmes, the pastor at Hope Baptist Church, says, "Looks like this might be a slumber party, Buck!"

Buck's mother says, "This reminds me of the blizzard of 1978.  It was the worst snowstorm of the century for Ohio.  We were hit with 13 inches of snow, and President Carter declared a state of emergency for the state." Karl says to Barbara Simpson, the pastor at Epworth United Methodist Church and the oldest member of the singles group, "Barb, tell us about the Christmas Day blizzard of 1870!"  Barb throws popcorn at Karl.   Buck, his mother and his friends begin a game of Monopoly.  They love yelling, "Rent" as loudly as they can when someone lands on their property. Buck is very competitive when it comes to Monopoly.  After they have been playing for two hours, a phone call interrupts the game.  Because Buck is competitive and a prankster, everybody smiles when Buck has to leave the table to answer the telephone because they think it will be funny to steal Buck's money and properties.

When Buck returns to the table from the kitchen, everybody is giggling as they wait for Buck to notice that his money and properties are missing. They can not wait to see how he will react. When Buck returns to the table, he is not smiling. It is not that Buck can not take a joke. The truth is the Monopoly game does not matter to Buck anymore. He does not sit down at the table. Buck remains standing as he looks at his friends and his mother sitting at the table, and Buck says, "One of my church members is missing. Her husband just called. He said his wife had called an hour earlier to say she was leaving the church to come home. She has not arrived home yet."

Against the advice of his mother and his friends, Buck and Karl drive to Buck's church in the blizzard. They enter the church and walk to the telephone the missing woman would have used. They search the large church building. They check every women's restroom. They walk the path she would have taken from the telephone to the parking lot. They drive the route she would have driven to her home. They see nothing. When they return to Buck's home, his mother tells him that nobody has called with an update about the missing woman.

Buck lights a candle and puts it in his window as a vigil for the missing woman. Buck and his friends continue the Monopoly game as they wait for word about the missing woman. They go to sleep without knowing what happened to the woman.

At the church staff meeting the next morning, everyone is talking about the missing woman. By God's grace, she was found alive and well later that morning in a store's parking lot not far from her home. Because the blizzard had made visibility so bad, the missing woman had spent the night in her car not knowing she was so close to home.

Now, the fun night of Monopoly is a happy memory. Buck remembers Barbara is losing very badly at Monopoly. She keeps landing on people's property, and it comes to the point that she can not afford to pay what she owes. Against Buck's advice, Buck's mother Helen lends Barbara $5,000 to keep her in the game. Later that week, Karl is walking the track at the Downtown Toledo YMCA when he sees a retired pastor who attends Barbara's church. The older minister is walking the track at a much slower pace than Karl. Karl briskly walks by the retired pastor and whispers, "Did you know that Barbara Simpson owes Buck Buhler's mother $5,000?" Karl keeps walking at a quick pace as he tries not to laugh. The flustered retired pastor is running out of breath as he tries to catch up to Karl. He yells, "Why didn't she come to us? We could have helped her!" Karl keeps walking. The retired pastor has to walk two laps before he catches up with Karl to get the real story.