“Whatever that means. It sounds like a curse,” Christy said with a laugh.
“Not at all.” Katie shook her head. “I’d say it’s a blessing. Just look at your life. Everything is perfect. You’ve never hit a wall with God. I mean, what’s the worst thing that could ever happen to you?”
“I don’t know. I guess my parents could die.”
“Then you’d go live with Bob and Marti and be pampered to death. And the only other awful thing would be if Todd broke up with you.”
There was a moment of jaw-clenching silence.
Then Katie said, “But that would never happen. Don’t you see? You are living with the reward of having your relationships according to God’s way and in His time. I want that kind of blessing on my life too.”
Christy wasn’t sure it all worked as neatly as Katie claimed.
It was the fastest week on record, Christy was sure. She couldn’t believe it was Friday already. She was driving to the pet store after school, but she wished she was going home instead. She could use a nap.
Every night that week Christy had stayed up until after eleven studying. The worst part was, everyone said it would be like this for another three weeks until finals. She didn’t think she could keep up the pace. But she had no choice. What kept her going was knowing that Todd would come up tomorrow.
“Wonderful,” Christy spoke into the stillness of the car. “No, marvelous. No. no, no. Delicious. Fantastic. Unbelievably terrific!”
No, that’s still not it, she insisted. How can I describe what I’m feeling? How do I put my thoughts about Todd into words? It’s too good to be true. This must be love. But how do I describe it?
As Christy parked her car and took quick steps into the mall, she realized that her problem was a common one. What was it her English teacher had said last year? Through all the generations, poets, composers, and artists have tried to describe love. Yet no one has completely captured it, so the world is still full of poets, composers, and artists who continue in the footsteps of their forefathers, attempting to portray love, yet never with complete success.
“Hi, Jon,” Christy said, taking her position behind the cash register.
“Hi. I’ve been meaning to ask you how your bunny is.”
Christy thought Jon said “honey.” It seemed strange that he would ask about Todd that way.
“He’s fine. I’m going to see him tomorrow.”
Jon gave her a puzzled look. “Has he been eating well?”
Christy laughed. “Of course. He eats all the time. Why do you ask?”
“No reason. It’s just that if they’re not feeling well, they tend to stop eating. What about spending time with him? You still hold him a lot, don’t you? Give him lots of snuggles and love?”
Now Christy really laughed, only it was an embarrassed laugh. She glanced around to make sure no customers in the store could hear their conversation.
“Yes, I give him lots of snuggles. Why in the world are you asking?”
“Because I know how easy it is to end up neglecting the little guy when you’re not around him all the time.”
“The little guy?”
“Don’t your parents make you keep him in the garage?”
“In the garage?” Christy questioned.
“Isn’t that where Hershey’s cage is? In the garage? You know. Hershey, the rabbit I gave you a couple of months ago.”
“Oh, Hershey! Yes, his cage is in the garage.” Christy tried to stifle her laughter.
“Why? Who did you think I was talking about?”
“Never mind,” Christy said, grateful and relieved that a customer had stepped in front of Jon and placed an aquarium filter on the counter.
Christy smiled at the woman. “How are you today?”
“Fine, thanks. Is this one on sale?”
“Yes,” Christy said, double-checking the price sticker. “This one is 20 percent off.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not the only one,” Jon said loud enough for Christy to hear.
She shot him a quick glance and then focused back on the customer. “That’s fifteen cents change for you.” Christy placed a dime and a nickel in the woman’s open palm and handed her the bag. “Thanks a lot. Have a nice afternoon.”
The woman smiled and left. Another customer stepped up to the counter. Christy went through the process of scanning the merchandise, ringing it up on the cash register, and making change. She had done this so many times that she could almost do it in her sleep, which was a good thing. She was incredibly tired. She had a hard time staying alert until closing at nine.
“You look like you’re all ready to go,” Jon commented as Christy began to pull down the metal cage door that closed the pet store off from the rest of the mall. “We still have two more minutes.”
“Do you want me to put the door back up?”
“No, that’s fine. You go ahead and leave. You look beat. I’ll close up.”
“Preparing for finals,” Christy offered by way of explanation. “Get used to this walking-in-my-sleep look. I’ll probably be like this for the next few weeks.”
“Do you want to take some time off? I have a new guy starting next Wednesday, and he was asking for more hours than I could give him. It would just be until you want the hours back,” Jon said.
“I’d miss the money, but it sure would help right now.” Christy thought a moment and then said, “You know, if it would be okay, I could use the next few weekends off. Maybe the next three?” In the back of her mind she was trying to calculate when the prom was. She wanted to be prepared in case she and Todd decided to go. It was almost too late to buy tickets, but she wanted to leave every door open.
“Okay,” Jon said, reaching for the clipboard behind the register. “Let’s say you work tomorrow and then again on Friday a month from now. Is that too much time off?”
“It sounds like a lot.”
“It’s up to you.”
“I think it’s fine. Go ahead and give the other guy my hours. I need to make it through this next intense month of school. Thanks for being so understanding, Jon.”
“It’s part of my managerial role. Besides, who says I’m too old to remember how stressful the end of your senior year can be? You take it easy. And try to get some sleep, okay?”
“I will. Thanks, Jon. See you tomorrow morning.”
Christy barely remembered her head hitting the pillow that night. On Saturday morning her mom came in to wake her up at 10:15.
“Christy? Time to get up, honey. You need to leave for work in half an hour.”
“Ohhhh.” Christy groaned. “My head is pounding.”
“Are you feeling all right?”
“My throat is swollen. I feel awful!”
Mom placed her cool hand on Christy’s cheek. “Feels like you’re running a temperature. When did this start?”
“I was tired yesterday.” Christy swallowed. It felt like she had a wad of gum stuck in her throat. “My throat didn’t hurt though. And I didn’t ache this much either.”
“I think you’d better stay in bed. Do you want me to call work for you?”
“I guess.” Christy groaned. “Tell Jon I’m going to sleep some more, and if I feel better, I’ll work this afternoon.”
Mom left the room, and Christy rolled over and kicked off her sheets. She felt as though she was burning up. She could hear her pulse pounding in her inner ear.
What happened to me? I feel awful.
“Okay,” Mom said a few minutes later, entering Christy’s room. “Jon said he doesn’t want you to come in at all. He has someone to cover your hours, and he didn’t want you to bring any flu bugs into work.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Jon also told me about your arrangement to take time off for the next few weeks. I think that was wise of you. Perhaps you should have started sooner. Do you feel like taking a bath? That would be the best thing for the aches.”
“I guess,” Christy said feebly. Ever since she was a child she was used to
special treatment when she got sick. Her mom seemed like a natural nurse, bringing Christy juice, taking her temperature, and scanning the vitamin book to find a natural cure for every ailment. It was easy for Christy to surrender to her mom’s babying.
“I’ll go run the water in the tub.”
Christy slowly sat up in bed. The room felt as if it were spinning. Today reminded her of one of her greatest fears: One day she would be mature and self-sufficient, living in a college dorm room or an apartment. She would come down with some kind of killer flu, and she wouldn’t have her mom to take care of her.
Standing on wobbly feet and inching her way across the carpeted floor, Christy shuffled to the bathroom, where Mom had already placed a tray with ice water in a glass with a straw, several vitamins, and two aspirins on a napkin. Christy noticed an unpleasant fragrance rising from the steaming tub.
“I’ve put some apple cider vinegar in the water,” Mom said. “The book said it helps to draw out the toxins. Soak in there for at least twenty minutes, okay?”
“You’re starting to sound like Katie.” Christy realized that it hurt her throat to talk. She twisted her hair up on top of her head and secured it with a clip.
“I’m going to change the sheets on your bed and air your room out.” Mom closed the bathroom door. Christy could hear her humming as she went about her nursing tasks.
Gingerly lowering herself into the stinky, steaming water, Christy closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to get sick if she was Katie’s roommate. She could picture Katie popping her head into Christy’s room and saying, “Oh, you’re sick? Well, don’t worry about answering the phone. I’ll put the machine on. There’s some leftover Chinese takeout from a couple days ago. I won’t be back until late tonight, so don’t bother to wait up for me.”
Yes, the image of independent life made her grateful to still be at home and have her mom to take care of her. Even the water didn’t smell so bad once she snuggled all the way in and grew used to it.
She soaked until the water felt cool and her fingers felt wrinkly. But when she stood up, she didn’t feel much better. Only dizzy. Mom had delivered a clean set of sweats to the bathroom, which Christy put on. Even her feet hurt as they plunged into the legs of the sweatpants.
Glancing in the mirror, Christy thought, Scary! Look at the dark rings under my eyes. I’m glad Todd isn’t here to see me looking like this.
Then it hit her. Todd was coming today!
“Mom!” Christy called out hoarsely, opening the bathroom door and making her way back to her bed by the most direct route possible. She found her room looking fresh and her sheets changed with the corner of the covers turned down, inviting her to crawl in. Even the clutter on her floor had been picked up. On her nightstand stood another glass of ice water with a bent straw and a box of throat lozenges. Christy slid in between the sheets and felt as if a million pounds had been lifted from her when her head touched the soft pillow.
“How are you feeling?” Mom entered the room carrying a tray adorned with a cup of tea and some dry toast. “You want to try to eat something?”
Christy shook her head. “Todd,” she whispered, trying not to strain her sore throat. “Call him and tell him not to come.”
“Oh, dear,” Mom said. “I hope he hasn’t left yet. I’ll call him right away.”
Christy felt exhausted from the hot bath. Her bed was clean and comforting, and her room smelled fresh. The fragrance from Mom’s can of Lysol was a vast improvement over the apple cider vinegar bath. Christy sniffed, thinking she could still smell some of the vinegar. Then she fell asleep.
Sometime later, she felt a cool hand on her forehead. Without opening her eyes, she whispered, “Todd?” as a question to see if Mom had called him.
“I’m right here,” Todd’s deep voice answered. He removed his hand from her forehead and took her hand in his. “How are you doing?”
“I…but, you…” She tried to express that she was sorry he had come all this way when she was sick. But the words were caught in her swollen throat, and she swallowed them.
“Hey, don’t try to talk. You should drink something though. Here, let me hold this for you.” Todd lifted the glass of ice water to her lips, and she obediently sipped from the straw. The coldness felt good on her raw throat, and she drank nearly half the glass before letting go of the straw.
“Good job. We’ll do that again in about five minutes. Your mom gave me strict orders to make you drink water and take all your pills. Think you can manage this one?” He placed a small vitamin between her lips and held the glass of water for her. She swallowed the pill, even though it hurt going down, and drank most of the rest of the glass of water.
“Want some more water?”
Christy shook her head.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll be here.” Todd said. “I have some reading to do. You have some recuperating to do.”
“I’m sorry.” Christy forced out the words.
“Sorry for what? Sorry you’re sick? I’m sorry you’re sick too. That doesn’t change anything. I wanted to spend some time with you, and that’s what I’m doing. You rest. Don’t worry about me. I have finals to study for, and there’s no place I’d rather sit and study than by your side.”
As Christy slipped off into a dream, she thought of how those were probably the sweetest words Todd had ever said to her. No, the sweetest words anyone had ever said to her. Even though she still felt sick, her heart soared.
It was late afternoon when Christy began to wake up. She remembered the feel of Todd’s hand on her forehead and thought it must have been part of her dream.
He had placed his hand on her forehead like that once before. It was early morning on the beach a year and a hall ago. Todd was about to leave for Hawaii, and Christy had begun to date a guy named Rick. As Todd’s farewell, he had placed his cool hand on Christy’s forehead and blessed her, saying, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you His peace. And may you always love Jesus first, above all else.”
Surely Todd’s hand on her forehead had been just a memory evoked by her feverish dreams. She now had only to open her eyes to verify if it was a dream. She hesitated. Keeping her eyes closed, she decided it would be better to continue in her lovely dream than to see nothing but thin air beside her bed.
But the sound of someone moving in a chair prompted her to open her eyes. And there he was. For real. A dream come true. Todd’s blond head was bent over a thick textbook, a notebook was draped on his lap, and a pencil was in his mouth. Christy tried to lie as still as she could, watching Todd without his knowing she was awake.
That’s when she realized her throat didn’t feel quite so swollen anymore, and her head wasn’t throbbing either. She actually felt a lot better.
Just then her bedroom door squeaked open, and Christy snapped her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.
She heard her mom’s voice whisper, “How’s our patient?”
Footsteps followed closer to the bed.
“Still sleeping,” Todd answered. “Her fever seems to be down.”
“Good,” Mom whispered back. “You know, Todd, this is above and beyond the call of friendship to spend your whole day here with her.”
“I’m getting a lot done,” Todd said and then added with a hint of teasing in his voice, “since it’s quieter here than in the library. Besides,” now his voice turned serious, “what I feel for Christy is above and beyond the call of friendship.”
Christy couldn’t believe Todd said that to her mom. Her heart began to beat a little faster. It was one thing for Todd to reveal his feelings to Christy at Disneyland, but it was quite another to say something to her mother. She never would have imagined such a moment.
“You know you have our blessing in that area,” a deep voice said.
My dad is in here too? Todd said that in front of Dad, and he said Todd has his blessing? This has to be a dream!
Christy stretched her
long legs beneath the covers and pretended to be stirring from her sleep. With the finesse of an actress, she let out a slight sigh and fluttered her eyes open.
Her dad and mom were standing beside her bed, and Todd was still seated at the foot. As soon as she opened her eyes, Todd leaned forward and reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze.
“Well, Sleeping Beauty, did you have sweet dreams?”
She felt like telling him the conversation she awoke to was sweeter than any dream ever. Their eyes met, and she wondered if Todd knew she had overheard their conversation.
“Your fever seems to be gone.” Mom said, feeling Christy’s forehead. “You look better around the eyes. How’s your throat?”
“It’s lots better.”
“Good! Now you should eat some soup. I’ll get it.”
Christy’s dad brushed his large, gruff hand across her flushed cheek. “Glad you’re feeling better.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Christy smiled at him. She was amazed that she could be in bed, holding hands with her boyfriend while exchanging tender, meaningful smiles with her dad. It all seemed natural. Sweet. In everyway, a dream come true.
“You’re here!” Katie said, coming up behind Christy at her locker on Monday morning. “I called this weekend, and your mom said you were sick. Are you better?”
Christy closed her locker, and the two of them maneuvered their way through the crowded hallway. “I’m getting there. I might go home after lunch, but I didn’t want to get behind in my classes. I have something to tell you at lunch though. Can you meet me out at the tree?”
“Sure. And I have something to tell you that you won’t believe!” Katie’s eyes sparkled as she waved and called out, “Ta-ta!” before ducking into her classroom.
I wonder what’s up? Does it have something to do with Michael?
It was torture sitting through her classes, waiting for lunch so she could find out what Katie’s secret was. Finally the lunch bell rang, and Christy hurried out to their meeting spot.
“You go first.” Katie sat on the ground beneath the tree where they usually ate. It was also the spot where Katie had first met Michael at the beginning of the school year.