“Hey, Sierra!” a male voice called out, and the double doors swung open.
Sierra looked up expectantly.
It was Randy. “Are you coming out here? I could use some help at my homework table.”
“I was just, um, cleaning up here a bit. I’ll be right there.” She wondered if her face still looked as red as it felt.
“Cool,” Randy said, exiting with a single wave of his hand. Sierra quickly scooped up the final pieces of trash and stuffed the puppets into her backpack. When she picked up the prodigal, Sierra spun the pencil slowly between her fingers the way Paul had. What had he meant about her specialty being prodigals? Did he see himself as a prodigal who had come back?
When they had met, he had told her about his girlfriend, and Sierra lectured him on the folly of dating someone who wasn’t a believer. Paul’s reaction had been to pull back from Sierra, and that was that. Or was it? Had her months of prayers for him had an effect?
Her heart was still pounding fast when Sierra emerged from the meeting room and found her way into the former dining room of the old mansion. Several tables were set up around the room where the children could do their homework. Randy seemed to be the only person available to help the fifteen or so kids. Paul wasn’t there. Maybe it had only been a dream. The lack of sleep last night, the stress of the rowdy kids…maybe she had only imagined that Paul had stood beside her, that he had looked at her and smiled, that he had reached over and touched her arm with his fingers. She touched the spot where Paul had tapped her arm, as if it might help her sort her dreams from reality.
“Over there,” Randy said, pointing to a round table where five kids sat with the same work sheet in front of them. “They’re doing fractions. Can you help them?”
Still lost in her cloud, Sierra made her way to the table and sat down in a small chair. The little boy next to her smelled awful. The odor hit her like smelling salts, reviving her from the dream. She could hardly stand to be near him. The odor was so strong Sierra casually covered her nose with her hand. She remembered reading a book about a young schoolteacher in the Appalachians who had to carry a hanky laced with perfume because her students smelled so bad. Throughout the day, the teacher would hold it to her face, filtering out their terrible odor.
“Okay. You’re done,” Sierra said as soon as the boy finished. “You can go outside and play now.”
He pushed back his chair, looking eager to leave. But instead of walking away from the table, he came over to Sierra and looked into her face. “Are you going to come back tomorrow?” he asked, his brown eyes pleading.
“Ah, no,” Sierra said, trying to hold her breath and speak at the same time.
He looked disappointed, but he wasn’t moving.
“I will be back on Friday,” she added quickly.
His expression lit up. “I’m Monte,” he said. “You remember me, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll remember you.” Believe me, Monte, I’ll remember you all right.
“Will you do art with us on Friday?” one of the girls asked. “We don’t have to do homework on Fridays, but we can do art if someone helps us.”
“Sure,” Sierra agreed. “I’ll do art with you on Friday.”
“Every Friday?” another girl asked.
“Well, at least this Friday,” Sierra said. She now understood why the director had been so thrilled when their foursome showed up that afternoon. He said they were short-staffed. Sierra could see how desperately the kids wanted someone to pay attention to them.
The other children at her table finished, and they all wanted to go outside to play soccer with Sierra.
She let them lead her by the hands. When they went out front into the big yard, Sierra immediately spotted Paul. He wasn’t playing jump rope. Tre had taken that position. The two little girls were turning the rope, and Tre was the one jumping. It was the first time Sierra had seen him smile or heard him laugh. Those little girls had accomplished what none of the teens at Sierras school had been able to do. The girls made friends with Tre.
Paul stood in the center of the yard with a whistle around his neck and a soccer ball under his arm. He was calling out directions when Sierra was hauled into the mob by her new fan club.
“She’s on our team!” they yelled.
Paul looked at her with what Sierra interpreted to be a mix of admiration and surprise.
“Okay, then,” he called out, tossing the ball into the air. “It’s every kid for himself. The goal is the oak tree.”
He blew the whistle and immediately the twenty or so grade-school kids began to clamor for the ball.
“This way,” the girls squealed, dashing after the ball.
Sierra jogged along with them, noticing that Randy had set himself up as the goalie. With a quick glance over her shoulder at Paul, Sierra knew once and for all that he wasn’t a dream. He really was standing there, wearing that smile—the one that started in his eyes and lit up his face. And he was staring right at her.
The soccer-playing little girls huddled close to Sierra as they charged toward the oak tree. It was a warm afternoon, and Sierra wished she had worn shorts instead of jeans. The lively gang of soccer players ran all over the yard, and Sierra trotted along with them until finally one of them hit the ball past Randy and made a goal by slamming it against the oak tree.
That kid then replaced Randy as the goalie, and the game continued. Only now Randy was jogging alongside Sierra, giving her advice as they went.
“Kick it out toward the front fence,” Randy said. “I’ll be waiting for it.”
He started to run off as Sierra was saying, “But Randy, this is for the kids!”
Suddenly, the ball was before her, and without hesitation, she kicked it toward the front fence. Randy was ready as promised, and he slammed it into the tree before the goalie even had a chance to turn around.
“Yahoo!” Randy shouted, arms in the air. “Way to go!”
He ran over to Sierra and gave her a high five with both hands, leaning close to say in her ear, “I told you we make a great team!” Spontaneously, he wrapped his arms around her in a quick hug.
Sierra felt prickly from her neck up. Randy’s gesture was the most affectionate thing he had ever done. She knew Paul had observed it. The blush crawled from her neck to her cheeks and then burst like a sunrise across her sweaty forehead.
“No fair!” the kids began to yell. “You two can’t do that.”
“You know what,” Sierra said, wiping perspiration from her top lip as she saw Paul coming closer. “I think I’ll step out this next round.”
“Not now,” Randy said. “With a little strategy, we can have this thing wired.”
“Don’t leave!” Sierra’s little fan club cried, grabbing her arms.
“Come on,” one of the older boys called out. “Throw the ball in, Paul. Let’s play.”
“Everyone ready?” Paul asked. He now stood less than six feet away, the group of eager players huddled around him. Sierra could smell Monte again, only she wasn’t sure if her own armpits were contributing to the sudden air pollution as well.
“I’m out this round,” Sierra said to the little girls beside her. “I need to check on something inside.” She hurried away before anyone could see how red her face was.
She didn’t look back, so she would never know what Paul’s face looked like as he watched her go.
“THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING,” Sierra stated emphatically on the phone with Amy later that evening. She had repeated the whole scenario to Amy and concluded with, “The worst part is, nothing happened. Paul left before I did, and now I don’t know if he’ll be there Friday or not.”
“So you’re telling me that for one brief moment you two spoke, and now Paul is back to being a phantom.”
“In a way, yes. But don’t you think it’s a God-thing?”
“Well,” Amy said, “I hate to be the realist here, but nothing happened, Sierra. I mean, he was there, but all he did was look at you,
say a few words, and disappear.”
“I know, but when he looked at me, it was as if the rest of the room started to fade away into smeared watercolors.”
“Oh, please!” Amy started to laugh. “You are so melodramatic, Sierra. Nobody really feels like that when she’s around a guy.”
“I’m not making this up, Amy. That’s exactly how I felt.”
“So where was Vicki the whole time?” Amy asked.
“She was playing jacks with a little girl on the back porch.”
“She didn’t see Paul, then?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“I was curious, that’s all. If Vicki noticed Paul, I’m sure I’ll hear about it.”
There was a stretch of silence as Sierra tried to keep her imagination from spinning out of control. Vicki had a tendency to attract and hold the attention of most of the guys she set her sights on. Would Paul be the next one on her list?
“Why don’t you come with us to the Highland House this Friday?” Sierra wasn’t sure what this would prove, but it seemed like a good idea as she said it.
“I can’t. That’s when Byron and I are doing our service project. Oh, did I tell you that next weekend I’m going to start working at my uncle’s restaurant?”
“Did another hostess quit?” Sierra was finding it difficult to be thrilled about Amy’s news when her own news about Paul was still on the conversation table, even if Amy wasn’t devouring it the way Sierra had. Amy wasn’t even sampling it.
“Yes. He wanted me to start this Saturday, but I told him I already had a commitment. When do you get off on Saturday?”
“Probably four.”
“Why don’t you come straight to my house, and we’ll start dinner for Randy and Drake. Did I tell you I got a chocolate cheesecake for us?”
Sierra had forgotten about the dinner. “Great.”
“Oh, well, you sound excited. Don’t you like cheesecake?”
“No. I mean yes. I like cheesecake.”
“Okay. Good. I better get going,” Amy said. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Wait for me by my locker in the morning, okay?”
Sierra waited until the bell rang, but Amy never showed up at her locker the next morning. Slipping into class right before the tardy bell, Sierra pulled out her assignment to hand in. She had been up late again, trying to type her report in spite of the way her mind kept wandering to Paul. What had he thought of her? Why didn’t he say anything more to her? Would she see him again?
So much had been going on at her house last night with all of Tawni’s plans that Sierra hadn’t tried to redirect the conversation to her and Paul. When Amy had downplayed the encounter, Sierra decided not to make a big deal about it with anyone else.
The funny thing was, she wanted to tell Randy. He was her buddy. She told him lots of things, including how she felt about Tawni leaving. And Randy was there at the Highland House. He had met Paul. Certainly, Randy of all people would agree with her that it was God-thing.
Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. She was still trying to convince herself that his brief hug at the soccer game was only a brotherly expression of joy over their victory. Still, it had confused her. Funny thing—she hadn’t even thought to tell Amy about the hug. Amy would have loved to hear all about it since it came from Randy. Sierra decided she wouldn’t tell Randy about Paul and she wouldn’t tell Amy about Randy’s hug. It wasn’t important.
Then, on their way to the cafeteria for lunch, Amy complicated things. She told Sierra she had been talking to Vicki in the parking lot and that’s why she hadn’t made it to her locker that morning.
“I asked Vicki if she had met a guy named Paul, and she said she saw some guy out in the yard playing soccer with the kids, but she didn’t know his name.”
“You didn’t tell her I knew him, did you?”
“Well…” Amy lowered her big brown eyes.
“You did. What did you tell her?”
“Oh, not much.”
“You told her everything, didn’t you?”
“Vicki and I have been friends a long time,” Amy said, quickly defending herself. “She won’t say anything to anyone. I told her not to.”
“Amy, that really ticks me off!” Sierra turned to her friend and embarked on the first argument of the friendship.
“Sor-ry!” Amy retorted in an exaggerated tone.
“You knew I was telling you all those things about Paul in confidence,” Sierra said, stopping in front of the cafeteria door and stepping to the side. “I feel betrayed. You didn’t have my permission to share those things.”
Students streamed past them. Sierra spoke only loud enough for Amy to hear her. Amy looked away as if she were a little kid who had just gotten in trouble.
Feeling her temper cool, Sierra said, “I wish you hadn’t been so free with my personal life, Amy, that’s all. Back at Easter when you found out I thought Randy had invited me to that formal dinner when really he had been asked by Vicki, you told me you were good at keeping secrets.”
“I said that?”
The blood began to drain from Sierra’s face. “You didn’t say anything to Randy, did you?”
Amy’s face gave away the answer. “I only told him because he was trying to figure out how you felt about him,” Amy said.
“He could ask me that!” Sierra spouted. “Any time! Any day! He knows I’d tell him the truth.” She caught her breath in the empty hallway and said, “Is that why you’ve been pushing for me to spend time with him? Because you told him I liked him, and now you’re trying to verify your statement?”
“You make it sound so cold and cruel,” Amy said.
“I think it was inconsiderate,” Sierra shot back. “You were talking behind my back about my personal feelings and about information I had shared with you in confidence.”
Sierra felt as if she were in junior high again, squabbling with her best friend. The image calmed her down. Maybe in a way she was still on a junior high level when it came to dating. She wasn’t experienced like Vicki or eager like Amy. Instead, she was absorbed by this all-consuming crush on an older guy.
“You’re right,” Amy said, looking soberly at Sierra. “I said too much to Vicki and to Randy. I am sorry, really. I apologize.”
Sierra let out a huge breath and said, “Apology accepted. Come on. Let’s get some lunch.” One thing Sierra did well was fight fair. She had learned early in her family to express herself openly and accurately. She also had learned the most powerful position in an argument was to be the first one to forgive and forget.
“You’re not mad anymore?” Amy asked.
“I’ll get over it. I told you I accept your apology, and I do. I won’t hold it against you anymore.”
“Wow,” Amy said as they headed for their usual table.
“Wow?”
“That was the quickest I’ve ever been pardoned. In my family, you have to wash someone’s car or make his favorite cake before he’ll even begin to think about forgiving you.”
Sierra smiled. It certainly wasn’t that way in her family.
“Can we join you guys?” Sierra asked as they stopped at a table in front of Drake, Randy, and four other people. Vicki wasn’t in the bunch, which made Sierra feel better, knowing that the topic of Paul was less likely to come up.
“You’re really different, Sierra,” Amy said.
“Thanks. I think.”
“How is she different?” Drake asked, lifting a nacho chip to his mouth and catching the dripping cheese before it globbed all over the cafeteria tray.
“Is that all they have today?” Amy asked, avoiding Drake’s question. “Nachos?”
“There are sub sandwiches, too.” Randy said. “Did Sierra tell you what a great time we had at the Highland House yesterday?”
“As a matter of fact, she did. I heard a lot of interesting individuals were there.” Amy’s slightly raised eyebrows hinted that she knew more than she was saying.
Sierra held her
breath, waiting to see if Amy would say anything more about Paul.
“I’m going to buy a sandwich,” Amy said, letting her previous comment drop. “Anyone else want anything?”
Sierra shot her friend an appreciative glance for keeping her comments to a minimum.
“Hey, I had an idea, Sierra,” Randy said. “When we go back on Friday, why don’t we go for a pizza afterward?”
“Do you mean all of us? Tre and Vicki, too? And maybe some of the staff at the Highland House, if they’re able to join us?”
“Oh.” Randy sounded surprised. “Sure. That’d be fine with me.”
Sierra turned to Tre, who sat quietly on the other side of Drake, and said, “Would you like to go out for pizza with us on Friday after we’re finished at the Highland House?”
Tre caught her eye and nodded. She was pretty sure he knew what she had just asked. At any rate, she made the pizza event a safe situation. Regardless of what Amy may have said to Randy, now he couldn’t read into their friendship any kind of message that Sierra was spending time with him because she wanted to be considered his girlfriend.
Digging her thumbnail into her orange, Sierra listened to the ruckus all around her in the small cafeteria and tried to figure out if she had truly calmed down after the confrontation with Amy.
Is my heart with You, Lord? Sierra thought as she slipped the first orange wedge past her lips and let the sweet juice burst in her mouth. I don’t want to get things out of whack here.
But she had the feeling it was too late. Her life felt as if it were about to spin off into outer space.
SIERRA TOOK A LONG TIME to decide what to wear on Friday morning. She got up early to take her shower and to have ample opportunity to choose just the right outfit.