“No, you go. My curiosity is overflowing.”
“It’s about Fred,” Katie said excitedly.
“Oh,” Christy retorted flatly. “Maybe I should go first. My news about Todd is definitely more exciting than anything you could tell me about Fred.”
“Not necessarily,” Katie said coyly.
“Okay, go ahead. What about Fred?”
“He came to church yesterday,” Katie said. “He sat next to me.”
Christy wasn’t impressed. She bit into her apple. “He asked about church. I told you that, didn’t I? I’m glad he went. Now, do you want to hear about Todd?”
“I have more,” Katie said. “After church we walked out to the parking lot together. When we got to my car, Fred said, So, how do I give my heart to God, like that minister talked about?’”
Christy lost interest in her apple. “Really? That’s great! What did you tell him?”
Katie looked like she was about to bubble over with excitement. “I just told him that God knew his heart. If he wanted to get things right between him and God, all he had to do was ask God to forgive him for everything wrong he had ever done and then invite the Lord to take over his life.”
“And?”
“And he and I prayed right there in the parking lot by my car. Fred gave his heart to the Lord.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“I know. What a God-thing! It was so incredible. He was so ready, I felt like I just stood there and watched. All these months of trying to convince Michael to give his life to God. All our long conversations and all my explanations and pleadings, and here Fred, of all people, follows me to my car and gets saved!”
Christy laughed with joy. “That’s great! It was kind of the same way with Alissa. I mean, Todd and I had been praying for her, but then one afternoon on the beach she said ‘I’m ready,’ and her life has never been the same since.”
“I don’t understand why it was so easy for Fred and impossible for Michael,” Katie commented, opening her sack and looking inside.
“Who knows. God is weird,” Christy said reverently. “Not weird like goofy, but weird like unexplainable.”
“Yeah, God is weird, and we are tweaked,” Katie surmised. “That’s my philosophy of life. God’s way of doing things is never our way, and we’re bent. Tweaked. We always want to do things in a way that’s twisted from God’s.”
“I like that.” Christy said. “Only you could put it so eloquently.”
“So when you see Fred in yearbook next period, act real excited for him.”
“Don’t worry! I won’t have to act. I will be!”
True to her word, Christy was excited for Fred when she told him, “I’m so glad you’ve become a Christian! That’s the best thing that could ever happen to you, Fred.”
Fred beamed his toothy smile. “And the second best thing would be if you went to the prom with me. I already have the tickets, you know.”
Christy’s enthusiasm stopped cold. Is that why Fred started going to church and said he became a Christian? Was it all part of a scheme to become involved in Christy’s world? And how could she ask him without sounding accusatory?
“Fred,” she began, “I am not going to the prom with you. Not even because you’ve become a Christian.”
Fred’s face fell. “You think that’s why I did it?”
“Well, no. I just want you to know I really can’t go with you. I have a boyfriend. If I do go, it will be with him.”
Fred turned and walked away. Was he hurt? Mad? Finally giving up? She wondered if she should follow him to the other side of the classroom. But then what would she say?
Instead, she slipped into her desk and breathed out a heavy sigh. At least now Fred knows I won’t go out with him. I’m sorry to hurt his feelings, but his bugging me about the prom has gone far enough. He’ll be okay. He’ll bounce back. He always does.
She and Todd needed to decide tonight if they were going to the prom. That would settle the matter once and for all. She tried to concentrate on her reading, knowing this free class time would enable her to lessen her homework load. But all she could think about was Todd.
He had been wonderful to stay with her all day Saturday. Then he had called and talked to her for almost two hours on Sunday. Their conversation had been full of plans for the upcoming weeks and even into the summer. Christy hadn’t brought up the prom though, and she didn’t know if Todd was even interested.
She called him that night and started out by asking what he thought about the prom.
“It’s a poor imitation of the real thing.”
“What?” Christy asked, not following him.
“It’s like pretending you’re at the wedding feast. It’s a poor imitation of the real thing.”
“You mean, you think people who go to the prom are pretending like they’re getting married?” It had a certain ring of truth, Christy thought. She had heard from some of the girls how much they were spending on their dresses. Then there was the whole extravaganza of flowers, tux, and the limo.
“You see, I think that what every human soul longs for, whether that person knows it or not, is to be at the marriage feast of the Lamb,” Todd explained.
“You lost me,” Christy said.
“Christy, you know when this world comes to an end and we all stand before God, He’s going to bring all those who He’s prepared to be the bride of Christ—the church—into the marriage feast, where the believers and Christ will be united forever. It’s going to be the biggest, wildest party ever.”
Christy guessed Todd must be talking about prophecies from the Bible, from the book of Revelation. It was an area she didn’t know a lot about.
“So deep within the heart of every person is the desire to be invited,” Todd continued, “to be dressed like royalty and treated the same, and to be included in the celebration. Something like a prom is a hollow imitation of the real thing you and I will experience one day.”
Now Christy felt annoyed. It was one thing to have an opinion about the prom. It was another thing to have the blessed hope to spend eternity celebrating around God’s throne. But to overlap these two and invalidate the prom in light of heaven was ridiculous.
“Todd. I know you like to see something spiritual in everything, and I think that’s great. But this is just the prom. It’s a human, earthly celebration, and I don’t see how it has anything to do with heaven. May I rephrase my original question? Would you like to go to the prom with me?
“If you really want to go.”
Christy hated answers like that. It wasn’t an answer; it only put the question back on her. “I don’t know what I want. That’s why I’m asking what you want.”
“Let’s talk about it then.” Todd said. “How much does it cost? Do we want to go with some others or by ourselves? Do you want to go out to dinner first? Do you have a dress or money to buy a dress? And most importantly, why do you want to go?”
For twenty minutes the two of them tossed back and forth the pros and cons. In the end, Christy said, “I don’t know. I still feel like I could go either way. It would be fun and wonderful and romantic to get all dressed up and go with you, but it would take all our money, and I’m not into dancing.”
“It’s up to you,” Todd said, putting the decision back in her lap again. “If we do go, you need to know that even if you don’t see a parallel between the two, while I’m at the prom I’m going to be thinking about heaven and our ultimate celebration there one day.”
After Christy hung up, she wasn’t sure how to take Todd’s comments. Did he mean that he wouldn’t be focusing on her that evening or admiring her or enjoying being with her because he would be centering his thoughts on eternal things? Why did Todd have to be like that? God was always first in his life.
Then Christy realized that that was a compliment, not a slam. It was a rare thing to be so focused on God. Todd seemed to see God’s perspective on everything.
Christy decided to let go of the p
rom question and focus on her homework so she could get some sleep. Her flu bug had passed, but she felt weak and ready for bed at five-thirty. She decided to put all her energies into studying this week. When she saw Todd over the weekend, they could come to a conclusion about the prom. That would still give them two weeks to make any arrangements. She could come up with a dress by then—couldn’t she?
Even though she thought she had set the prom question aside for the week, it kept popping up in her mind. After all, she would remind herself, this was her senior year. She was graduating. She had a boyfriend. It was only natural they should go to the prom. Secretly, she would love to show off Todd to all the other girls in her class. More than that, though, she would love to have a reason to dress up and be with Todd in a formal setting. He was always so casual. She had only seen him dressed up a few times, and she had never danced with him.
Not that Christy was sure she knew how to dance. She had never been to a dance and had never really learned how to dance.
The more she thought about it, the more complicated the whole thing became. She had almost $450 saved up from work, and it killed her to think that if she did go to the prom, it would cut deeply into her savings. And Todd didn’t have much money. How much was she expecting him to pay for the tux, flowers, dinner, and the tickets?
The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became. Two years ago, Rick had asked her to his prom, and her parents had said absolutely not. She was a sophomore then. Now she was a senior. Her parents hadn’t been fond of Rick. They liked Todd. Still, what would they say if she told them she wanted to go?
“Are you sure don’t want to come to Newport Beach with me this weekend?” Christy asked Katie over the phone on Thursday night. “We had such a good time a couple of weeks ago. I have the weekend off work, and I’m taking my books to study with Todd. You know you’re welcome to come.”
“I know, but I feel like staying home. Can you believe I just said that?” Katie said. “I feel I need time to sort things out. I talked to Michael yesterday.”
“Was that the first time?”
“Yeah. It was awful. He’s such a sweetheart. I love him. I truly do. Do you think it’s possible to genuinely love someone even though that’s not the person you’ll marry?”
Christy gave it some thought. “I think it is possible, Katie.”
“Do you suppose that for the rest of your life in some small way you remain in love with him?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. That would sure hurt for a long time if you did. Maybe you grow out of love the more you’re away from that person. You then grow in love with someone else, and it dims the memory of that first love.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, if I am going to grow out of love with Michael, all I know is that it’s going to take longer than two weeks.”
“Are you sure you want to stay home this weekend? It seems like you’ll be depressed the whole time.”
“That’s sort of what I want,” Katie admitted. “I want to lock myself in my room and put on the CD Doug gave me. It has this one song that gets me every time. I need to put away all my Michael souvenirs and have some time to cry out the rest of my tears in a less public place than Disneyland.”
Christy thought about her next words and then decided to go ahead and say them. “Would you like me to stick around with you? I will if you want me to.”
“No, you need to see Todd. You guys only have the weekends, and you were sick last weekend. Really, I’m fine. You go. Call me when you get back, okay?”
“Okay. And Katie?”
“Yeah?”
“I think you’re doing great. You amaze me the way you put your mind to something and stick with it. I’m sure it would be a lot easier to get back together with Michael and let go of all the hurt. Instead, I see you willing to keep the hurt and let go of Michael. You’re incredible. I love you, Katie.”
Christy could hear Katie sniffling and felt bad for her.
“Thanks, Chris,” Katie said in a wobbly voice. “I really needed to hear that. I love you too. And I appreciate you more than you will ever know.”
“Listen, Katie, if you want to talk anytime this weekend, just call me at Bob and Marti’s, okay? I mean it. Any hour of the day or night. You have the number, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. And thanks. I might do that. You have a fun weekend, okay? Say hi to Todd for me. And if you see Doug, tell him I really appreciated the card he sent me last week. It cheered me up a lot.”
“Okay, I will. Bye.” Christy hung up and sat still for several minutes, thinking about Katie. She wished she could do something to make this Michael withdrawal easier. She thought about how every country-western song she had ever heard was true. Love hurts. Bad.
Friday after school, Christy hurried home to throw her stuff together for the weekend. Todd was coming to pick her up. She knew he would probably stay for dinner, but she wanted to be ready to leave whenever he was. She planned to discuss the prom during their ninety-minute drive to Bob and Marti’s. If they did end up going, she would probably have a better choice of dresses at one of the big malls near her aunt and uncle’s, and this would be the weekend to buy one.
Todd arrived a little past six o’clock, and Christy’s mom had dinner all ready. Todd seemed like such a natural part of her family. Most of the dinner conversation flowed between Todd, Christy’s little brother, and Christy’s dad. As she cleared the table and served her mom’s apple crisp for dessert, she realized there hadn’t been even a pinch of a letup in the conversation. It was nice, really. Familiar. Secure.
For a brief instant, Christy wondered if life would be like this if she and Todd were married and invited her family over to their apartment for dinner. There was only one thing wrong with this picture. The apartment in her mind was the Swiss Family Tree House, and her parents and brother came by canoe. Even then. Christy couldn’t quite picture herself wearing animal-skin garments with a bone in her hair, serving apple crisp in bowls carved out of gourds.
The jungle was Todd’s dream, not necessarily hers. And that was a long, long way off. For now, there was a prom dress to worry about.
They didn’t get on their way until after nine. As Christy crawled into the passenger seat of Gus, she felt more like stretching out in the back and taking a nap than initiating a lively conversation about the prom.
“Is it okay if I move these?” Christy asked Todd, holding up a handful of mail that was strewn on the passenger seat.
“Sure. Toss it on the floor.”
“They might get lost.” Christy said. “Are these letters supposed to be mailed?”
“No. It’s my mail. I hadn’t picked it up for almost a month, so there was a bunch.”
They waved to Christy’s mom and dad, who were standing on the front porch under the arched trellis covered with fragrant jasmine. Christy smiled with memories of the front porch and of Todd.
Todd cranked Gus into gear, and they puttered down Christy’s quiet, tree-lined street and headed for the freeway. “You still feel up for going to the beach early tomorrow morning? You were looking a little tired after dinner. “
“I am tired. I can’t seem to get my energy back.”
“Why don’t you take a nap? I have a new tape from Doug. I’ll put it on, and you can crash.”
Christy knew Todd was right. She should sleep. They would be together lots more during the weekend. They would have time to talk about the prom later. Grabbing her jacket from the backseat, she wadded it up into a pillow and leaned against the window.
Todd popped in the tape, and the mellow music came tiptoeing out, oblivious to the noisy rumble of the Volkswagen bus engine.
“This is nice,” Christy said with her eyes closed. “Who is it?”
“It’s a collection of different Christian artists. It’s Doug’s latest favorite.”
“I wonder if this is the same CD he gave to Katie. She said she liked it
and was going to lock herself in her room and listen to it all weekend.” Then with a half smile she added, “I almost got a ticket when she took off her seat belt in the car and started rummaging through her pack trying to find it on the way home from Bob and Marti’s.”
For the next hour or so, Christy dozed while Gus rumbled up the freeway. She didn’t fully wake up until they arrived at Bob and Marti’s.
“Kilikina,” Todd said softly when he turned off the motor and it was suddenly quiet. “We’re here.”
“How are you doing?” Christy asked, stretching her stiff neck.
“I’m a little tired from driving, but I’m okay. You ready to go in?”
“Sure.” Christy yawned and put on her jacket, ready to brace herself against the brisk chill off the ocean. She noticed something white on her lap. Holding it up to the light, she realized it was one of the letters tucked on the dashboard that had slipped off during the trip.
Todd came around and opened her door.
“Here.” Christy said, handing him the letter. “It fell in my lap.” She hopped out and zipped up the front of her jacket.
“Thanks.” Todd took the letter and placed it on the vacated passenger seat without even glancing at it.
Guys are weird, she thought. No sense of curiosity. I’d never let my mail go for a month.
“Let’s walk on the beach.” Christy felt awake and alert, especially when the salty ocean scent hit her.
“Okay. We’d better tell Bob and Marti we’re here though.” Todd suggested. He carried Christy’s bag to the front door and knocked before turning the unlocked doorknob and walking in. “We’re here!” he called out.
“Come on in.” Bob answered. “I’m in the den.”
Bob was pedaling away on his exercise bike, which was set up in front of the wide-screen TV. “How was the ride up?” he asked, puffing for breath.
“I slept,” Christy admitted.
“We’re going for a walk on the beach.” Todd said. “Just wanted to let you know we were here.”
“Great! Beautiful night. Marti’s in bed. I’ll be turning in as soon as the news is over. How about if I leave the back door unlocked?”