“Let us pray!” Clara said.

Mabel Jean was right in the middle of a down stroke on one of Clara’s fingernails and froze.

Vera’s client immediately jerked and lowered her head, causing Vera to lose hold of the paper and the curl she was rolling up. The little white perm rod went flying one way, and the paper the other.

Vera sighed. She had no option but to follow along.

Ruby sat down in the chair at her station and bowed her head, too. She’d been to luncheons when the preacher’s wife said the blessing and knew this was going to take some time. Clara had a tendency toward sermon-length prayers.

Fortunately for everyone, Clara hadn’t been praying more than a couple of minutes when the bell jingled over the front door. Ruby’s customer had arrived, and as fate would have it, Clara was right in the middle of taking a breath when Ruby jumped out of her chair and said.

“Amen, and thank you for that, Clara. Ladies, proceed.”

Vera rolled her eyes at Ruby and reached for another perm paper and a fresh perm rod, and Vesta returned to dabbing color on her client’s roots.

Rachel Goodhope, who ran the Blessings Bed and Breakfast, was standing by the front counter, looking a bit confused.

“Did I interrupt something?” she whispered, as Ruby came up to greet her.

“Clara felt called to pray to the Lord not to let the power go off here,” Ruby said.

Rachel grinned.

Ruby didn’t have the luxury of agreeing, so she changed the subject.

“Come on back and let’s get started. We should be good to go now, since both Vesta and Clara have prayed to the Lord for the electricity to stay on here.”

* * *

Melissa Raines, Sully’s wife, owned the only dry cleaners in town, and losing power there would shut everything down. She’d gone there this morning to hand out paychecks, and just happened to still be there when the power flickered.

When it did, the employees paused, waiting to see if it stayed on. Melissa was in the back checking inventory to see what supplies needed reordering when it flickered, and like everyone else in the shop, she paused, holding her breath. But when the lights stayed on, she hurried to finish.

“Okay everybody, I’m going back to my office to get this order in. If you have troubles, you know how to get in touch with me,” then she stepped outside beneath the awning to open her umbrella and made a run for her car.

* * *

It wasn’t power flickering that woke Cathy. It was the loud crack of lightning, followed by a distinct grumble of thunder that made her jump. The sudden movement not only hurt her ankle, but the cold gel pack she had on it slid onto the floor, taking part of her blanket with it.

“Oh crap, that hurt!” she moaned, and slowly lowered the footrest on her recliner.

It felt like she’d been asleep for hours, but it was only 10:30. She managed to stand up, picked up the gel pack, and then put it on the seat of her walker before making her way to the kitchen to put it back in the freezer.