Tales Of Corwin

Sunday, the day of New Year’s Eve, attendance at church was way down. There was always a bit of a fall-off after Christmas, but now it seemed to be more noticeable. Mark put it down to the strep throat that was going around. People were probably passing the contagion around in church. Mark tried to encourage people to stay home if they felt ill, but there were always some who were determined to come no matter how sick they felt. Charity came again, this time without her parents, and sat with Sandra during the service. She told Mark confidentially that she was really a “Cubs fan,” but that she liked his service better than the one at First Baptist, and this way her parents would maybe not worry about her so much. Mark thought that was probably only part of the explanation; the kid obviously wanted to spend time with Sandra. And, after all: who could blame her? That week, it seemed like half the town was down with the strep throat. Mark started calling it the super-strep—he’d been thinking of it as “Joni’s di