Chapter Nine – Sunday
Suddenly my iPhone wakes me from a deep sleep and interrupts the most awesome dream I have ever had. The display says it’s my dad calling. “Hello, dad!” I say into the phone.
“Hi Bill, I hope you are still up to going to church this morning,” he says. “Carol and I got back late last night and we stayed at Carol’s. I can pick you up in an hour and we can all have breakfast together.”
“That would be great,” I say, “but I wasn’t sure you were going to be back, so I kind of made arrangements with a friend to take me to church.”
“That’s okay, why don’t we all meet somewhere for breakfast,” he suggest. “How about the place we had breakfast last Sunday?”
“Okay, I’ll meet you there at around eight,” I say.
I’m not really sure where I am or whether the dream I was having is real or just a dream. After I get up and turn the lights on I realize it was only just a dream, but what an amazing, vivid dream it was, I think, trying to remember every detail. After I shave and shower and while I’m getting dressed I’m smiling the entire time just thinking about the dream. Sometimes I wonder if dreams can foretell the future or if they are just random thoughts being processed by the unconscious mind while I sleep. In any case, I really don’t care what it may mean; I just liked the whole experience of dreaming about Cathy.
My iPhone rings again and it’s Cathy calling to tell me she’s waiting downstairs. I tell her I just have to get my shoes on and I’ll be there in a jiffy, thinking I can’t wait to tell her all about the dream. Before I go I grab my gym bag with a change of clothes, and hurry down the stairs. She's waiting in her car with the engine running when I step outside the building’s main door. I can hear the country western music playing on her radio since she has the window down.
As I open the car door and step inside, I smile and tell her, “I had the most amazing dream about you last night.”
“That’s funny,” she says, “I had the most amazing dream about you.”
“Do you want to tell me about your dream, or do you want to hear my dream first,” I say.
“I’ll tell you my dream first,” she says.
“I have to tell you first,” I interrupt, “We are meeting my dad for breakfast at the Shari’s on Franklin.”
“Okay, that’s where I was going to go anyway,” she says, “It will be nice to finally meet your dad.”
“Go ahead and tell me about your dream,” I say.
“Well, it was kind of weird, to tell you the truth. In this dream I joined the Coast Guard and you and I were on the same ship together and some how we both get on a desert island in the middle of nowhere, just you and me, all alone,” she says. “It was kind of like Gilligan’s Island, but just you and me.”
“That's weird,” I agree. “So did anything happen?”
“No. About the time it was getting good I woke up,” she says.
“Don’t you hate it when that happens?” I ask.
“Yeah, it always happens that way. Okay, it’s your turn. Tell me about your dream,” she says.
“Well, I dreamt you called me and woke me up and wanted to stay with me last night,” I tell her. “I let you in and we go to bed, you in my bedroom, and me in my dad’s bedroom. Then I wake up and I’m in the bathroom shaving and you open the bathroom door and you’re wearing only your underwear. Then you ask if we have time to take a shower, and you take off your bra and get in the shower. Then you ask me if I’m going to join you and I get naked and get in the shower with you and we kiss, and hug, and that’s when I woke up.”
“Wow, that was a pretty X-rated dream,” she says. “You have quite the imagination.”
“The weird thing about it was how real it seemed,” I say.
“Well, I’ve heard dreams are one way our unconscious minds deal with what our conscious minds don’t want to deal with,” she says. “Maybe your repressed sexual desires are being exhibited through your dreams?”
“Yeah, you're probably right about that. After last night I’ve been thinking about sex a lot,” I admit.
“That’s normal for teenage boys,” she says, “I’ve heard somewhere that teenage boys think about sex just about every ten seconds.”
“Well, at least I’m normal in one way,” I joke, “I was starting to worry there was something wrong with me.”
Cathy pulls into the parking lot of Shari’s and I see my dad’s truck is already there. We walk into the restaurant and I see my dad sitting at a booth with Carol and Karl. “Hi dad, I’d like you to meet my friend Cathy,” I say. Cathy smiles at my dad and my dad stands and extends his hand, “Nice to meet you Cathy,” he says. “This is my wife Carol and her son Karl,” he says. Cathy smiles at Carol and Karl, and says, “I know Karl from Chick-fil-A.”
Karl says, “I thought I recognized you, but I just couldn’t remember where I knew you from.”
Carol says, “It’s nice to meet you, Cathy.”
We all sit down and silently look at the menus. The waitress comes over and takes our order, and then returns with coffee and glasses of water.
“Dad,” I say, “I’m really surprised you and Carol got married.”
“Yeah, so am I, to tell you the truth,” he says. “There was just something that happened Wednesday night that got me to thinking about life being short and how we can’t just sit on the sidelines, but we have to jump in and get in on the game.”
“I bet it was the car accident,” I offer.
“That was part of it,” he says, “But it was also meeting Carol and getting to know her. Then Thursday when I called her and suggested we go out, I just got this strange idea to take a couple of days off from work and do something crazy.”
“I suggested we go for a drive,” Carol says, “and before we knew it we were in Twin Falls and heading toward Jackpot.”
“Carol told me she had never been to Jackpot before and I told her I hadn’t either, so we ended up in Jackpot and one thing led to another,” my dad explains.
“On the drive down we had some pretty intense conversations about life and everything else and I got a good feeling about John and just knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him,” Carol adds.
“I had the same feeling after spending just a few hours with Carol,” my dad says.
“We talked about getting married again and we both agreed we wanted to once we met the right person. It just seemed to be fate we passed a wedding chapel with a sign out front that said ‘get married without delay’,” Carol explains. "It was kind of like a sign from God."
“After we got married we stayed the night in Jackpot, then we drove on to Salt Lake City and spent a couple of days there just seeing all the sights and getting to know one another better,” my dad says.
The waitress brings the food and for a few minutes while everyone is eating no one says anything. The food is good and by the looks of everyone sitting around the table everyone looks hungry. My dad stops eating for just a few seconds, and looks around the table at everyone and says, “Tell us how you happened to meet Cathy, Bill.”
“Cathy and I met yesterday when we were working at Chick-fil-A together. Then after our shifts were over we talked a little and Cathy invited me to see a movie with her,” I explain. “Then I invited her to church and we were planning to have breakfast together since we didn’t know whether you and Carol would be back in time.”
“Well, I’m glad to see you are finally getting out and meeting some new people, Bill,” my dad says.
“I thought Bill seemed a little lonely and shy, and I needed someone to go to the movie with last night,” Cathy adds. “I’m glad I asked Bill to the movie.”
“So am I,” I say, “I would have just gone home and worked on my English paper all night.”
“Well, you should have time later today to finish your English paper,” Carol says. “You too Karl.”
“I finished my paper
before work yesterday,” Karl says, “I even got it printed at the Office Depot just to be sure.”
We all finish eating and have just enough time to get to the church before the early service starts. I give Cathy directions to the church and we all get there with a little bit of time to spare. The five of us walk to the church doors like a big happy family. As we get close to the door several men are standing around greeting people. “Good morning,” everyone says to each other, and my dad and I shake hands with the men at the door. “Welcome to the Pursuit. Is this your first time visiting?” one of the men asks. My dad responds, “It’s my first time, but my son is getting baptized today.” The man smiles and says, “Praise the Lord.”
We enter the auditorium and find our seats just before some guys with guitars come on the stage, and one guy starts talking. “Welcome to the Pursuit,” he says. “Let’s all stand and sing praise to the Lord,” as the band begins to play. The words to the song are projected behind the band and people are singing and clapping their hands. Some people raise a hand or two in the air, and others are swinging to the beat of the music. The first song ends and the guy talks some more. I’m too overwhelmed by the whole experience to pay any attention to what he says, before the band starts playing the second song. After the second song the guy talks some more and everyone bows their head as he prays, and then he says we can all sit down. Another guy comes on stage and talks about a Bible verse and tells us about how much Jesus loves us all. He talks about how we are protected by Jesus from the evil one, and how he died and was resurrected on the third day to save us all from our sins. Then he tells us about the baptism of Jesus, and how we have the opportunity today to be baptized by accepting Jesus and dying to our old life, and being born anew as a new creature in Christ. He tells everyone who wishes to be baptized today to step forward. Several people begin to go forward.
I’m sitting on the aisle, and I stand and start walking to the front of the auditorium. When I get to the front I turn around and see my dad following behind me, and behind him is Carol, with Karl and Cathy following behind him. We all stand in the front of the auditorium until another person directs us to another room. Once we get to the other room the guy tells us, “You can leave all your stuff here in this room. You should take off your shoes and remove anything from your pockets you don’t want to get wet. If you brought an extra set of clothes you can change afterwards in the rest room.” Everyone starts to take off their shoes and their watches, and wallets and cell phones, and they leave them all on the floor next to their shoes. “We’ll give you a towel to dry off afterwards,” the guy says. Once everyone is ready the guy asks, “Who wants to go first?” I tell the guy, “I’ll go first.” The guy tells everyone to fall in line behind me and he leads us back to the auditorium.
The auditorium is dark with everyone singing and the band playing. A spot light is shining on the baptismal font, which looks like a large fiberglass hot tub. The preacher is standing off to the side of the baptismal font and he directs me to step into the water. I climb in and the water feels nice and warm. He tells me to kneel on my knees, and then he asks me if I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I answer, “I do”, and he says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” and then he pushes me forward and my face goes under the water for just a second and he lifts me back up. The crowd erupts in cheers and clapping, and I’m handed a towel as I climb out of the tub and the next person steps in. I stand off to the side drying myself off and watch as my dad, and then Carol, Karl and Cathy each get baptized. After each person is baptized the crowd erupts in cheers and clapping while the band continues to play song after song. We all stand off to the side drying off and watching as the next person is baptized. After the last person, a little kid, is baptized we return to the other room and gather our belongings. We then all go out to the car and get our change of clothes and go into the rest room to change. “I didn’t know you were going to be baptized too,” I say to Karl and my dad.
“I didn’t know either until I saw you stand up and walk forward,” my dad says. “It was something I had been thinking about for a while. Even though I was baptized in the Catholic Church as a kid, I felt I needed to recommit myself.”
Karl says, “I never felt the urgency to get baptized until Wednesday night after the accident. Even though I’ve always believed and trusted in the Lord I had never taken the step to be baptized.”
After we get changed we all stand around in the lobby waiting for Cathy and Carol to come out of the rest room. Karl sees Jeff come in for the next service and we go over to talk with him. “Hey Jeff, how are things going?” Karl asks.
“It’s been tough the past few days without any wheels,” he says. “But I’m thankful no one was injured in the accident.”
“Have you found out anything about your car?” I ask.
“The insurance company is still deciding whether to total it”, he says.
An older man and woman approach us and ask Jeff, “Who are your friends?”
“This is Karl and Boston Boy.” Jeff answers, pointing to me, “I can’t remember his name. They were both in the car when I had my accident.” Jeff answers.
“I’m Bill,” I say extending my hand to shake. The man grabs my hand and says, “I’m Jeff’s father. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m so thankful none of you were hurt in the accident,” Jeff’s father says. “We better get in before the service starts,” he says to Jeff as they walk off toward the auditorium.
Cathy and Carol finally come out changed in dry clothes chatting like old friends. We all gather around them and the five of us leave like we came in, only with our hair wet and wearing different clothes. My dad, Carol and Karl get into the truck, and Cathy and I get in her car. I ask Cathy, “What took you so long getting changed?”
“Carol and I were having a nice conversation,” she says.
“What about?” I ask.
“Oh, the usual stuff girls talk about,” she says. “Nothing you need to know.”
“What do you want to do the rest of the day?” I ask.
“We are all going to Carol’s place and help her get moved to your place,” she says.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” I say. “Thanks for coming along today.”
“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”