Just one more reason to like him so much, Christy thought. I wonder if Todd enjoys being around me as much as I enjoy being with him? The way Doug is teasing Katie, I wonder if he’s starting to get more interested in her?
Todd prayed for their food, and they dug in, chatting and dining under the moon. Marti appeared right on cue with two dinner plates steaming with the main course of rice, broccoli, and chicken with some kind of lemon-butter sauce and sprinkled with slivered almonds. Marti served Christy and Katie first and then returned with two plates for the guys.
“Is everything to your liking?” Marti asked.
“Great,” Todd said.
Christy thought it looked great except for the nuts. She hated nuts. She’d tried some in the past and had thought they were okay. But now she was back to disliking them. Maybe no one would notice if she discretely scraped off the almonds and pushed them to the side of her plate.
“Do you happen to have any meatballs?” Doug asked. Christy could tell Marti was a little perturbed that they were being so silly and not acting mature and romantic as she had planned.
“I’m going to put some music on these outside speakers,” Marti announced. “Some soothing dinner music to help set the mood for you young people.”
A few moments later, the strains of sweet violins surrounded them.
Katie burst out laughing. It’s the Italian music we ordered!”
“I like it.” Christy quickly defended the classical music.
“Are you serious?” Katie asked.
“Of course I’m serious. I love this kind of music. Don’t you?”
“Sure, in an elevator or at the dentist’s office!”
“I like it too.” Todd reached over and gave Christy’s arm a tender squeeze. “This is music to touch the heart.” He smiled at Christy, and she smiled back.
“Do you kind of get the feeling these two might want to be alone?” Katie said to Doug. “We could always take our dinner plates up on the roof. What do you think?”
Doug seemed to have sobered quickly after all the laughter. Instead of answering Katie, he lifted another bite of chicken to his mouth. “Good dinner.”
“I made the rice,” Katie said. “Well, actually I boiled the water.”
No one seemed to think that was as funny as Katie did. They ate quietly, aware of Marti’s ever-watchful gaze. She seemed pleased that the music had apparently tempered their silliness, and she tiptoed in and out as she served dessert.
The quiet must have been too much for Katie, because when the brownie with a cloud of whipped cream on top was served to Doug, Christy spotted a mischievous glint in her friend’s eye.
“Eww,” Katie said, looking at Doug’s dessert and then at hers. “Can you smell that?”
“What?” Doug asked.
Katie daintily sniffed at her whipped cream. “I don’t think we should eat this. Can’t you smell it?”
“Smell what?” Doug sniffed his dessert. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Then smell mine.” Katie lifted her dessert plate with one hand on the bottom and held it up for Doug to smell. Doug leaned forward. Then Katie let loose with her sweet revenge and shoved the whipped cream and brownie into Doug’s unsuspecting face.
“Gotcha!” Katie squealed with delight as Doug peeled the goo off his face. “That’s for flipping Christy and me off the raft the first day. Now we’re even.”
Doug licked at the whipped cream and felt the table in search of his napkin.
“Here you go.” Todd removed his bow tie and offered it to Doug. “I knew these things would come in handy.”
Katie was still laughing. Marti hurried outside to see what was going on. “What happened here? How did this happen?”
“Just a little accident.” Doug said good-naturedly. Half of his pretend mustache had been wiped off by Todd’s bow tie. The other half of his face still sported chunks of chocolate and whipped cream. “Could we order one more dessert and maybe a few paper towels out here?”
Katie had dropped her fork during her attack, and as she bent down to pick it up, Doug lifted his empty plate to hand it to Marti. Somehow, the moment Katie’s head came up, Doug’s long arm swung out, connecting with Katie’s face. The plate and his hand slammed into Katie’s nose. The plate crashed to the ground, and Katie let out a wail and grabbed her nose. Christy sprang from her chair.
Doug, still wearing his dessert, jumped up and frantically said, “I didn’t mean that, Katie. It was an accident. Really. Are you okay? You guys, tell her it was an accident!”
Katie seemed to be trying not to cry, but the tears came and so did a gush of blood from her nose.
“Don’t tilt your head back.” Todd jumped up and grabbed a corner of the tablecloth to apply to Katie’s nose. “Here, put your hand on this and press right here.”
Christy stepped back and let Todd take over. The sight of blood on Katie’s white T-shirt made Christy feel kind of woozy. It all had happened so fast. The classical music still played in the background in cruel contrast to the frenzied activity around the table.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Todd said, his voice calm and steady. “Try to breathe normally through your mouth. Christy, could you bring me some ice in a plastic bag?”
“Sure.” Christy sprang into action and slid past her aunt, who seemed to be frozen in place next to the screen door. Christy grabbed a plastic bag from the cupboard and filled it with ice cubes. She was glad Todd knew what to do. He had probably seen lots of bloody noses during his years of surfing.
“Everything okay back there?” Bob called from the captain’s seat at the front of the boat.
“Nothing major.” Christy called down the hallway. “Katie got a bloody nose. It’s under control. I think.” She slipped out to the deck and handed the bag of ice to Todd. “Can I do anything else?”
“No. thanks. This ought to do it. Hold this ice right here. Katie, with one hand. Good. Now give me your other hand.” Todd guided her finger to a pressure point on the gum under her top lip. “Press here. That’s good. It should stop bleeding in a minute.”
Todd was right. Within a few minutes the crisis had passed. Doug wiped the rest of the brownie off his face and said, “Hey, it was totally an accident, Katie. Honest. I didn’t see you there.”
Katie said in a garbled voice, “That’s probably because you had brownies in your eyes.”
Everyone let out a short, relieved spurt of laughter. Everyone but Marti. She seemed completely undone. They had ruined her plans for a perfect evening.
“Do you want to share my dessert?” Christy asked, not sure what to say to Katie.
“I’m not exactly hungry anymore.” Katie wiped her cheek. “I think I’d better go change.”
Even though no one told them to clear the table, the three remaining dinner guests started to gather up the dishes and tear down the romantic dinner for four. The moon was now high above them as Christy blew out the candles and wadded up the soiled tablecloth.
The bella notte had not exactly turned out the way she had hoped.
“No, it’s me,” Katie whispered to Christy in the darkness. “I know it is.”
“No, it’s not,” Christy immediately responded. “It’s the circumstances, or the guys, but really, Katie, it’s not you.”
The two of them had traded sleeping quarters with the guys for their final night of the trip and were lying in their sleeping bags on the roof of the houseboat. Nothing was above them but the inky sky flung with thousands of diamonds. The moon had taken its curtain call for the night and slipped behind Mount Shasta.
“I know you’re saying all this to be nice to me, Christy, but I’d like to think our friendship is past the point of us lying to each other in the interest of being polite.”
“I’m not lying. You don’t have a boyfriend, but not because of anything you’re doing or not doing. The ‘right guy just hasn’t come along yet. That’s all.”
“In almost eighteen years not one right guy’ h
as come along, and you think it’s not because of me? Think again.”
It was silent for a few minutes except for the lulling sound of the water lapping on the houseboat’s sides and a few late-night crickets and frogs saying good night to each other.
“Maybe we should pray about it,” Christy suggested meekly.
“You mean the way you pray for your future husband and have a shoe box full of letters to him stashed under your bed? I don’t think so, Christy. That’s not me. I could never write a letter to someone I don’t know. And what am I supposed to pray? ‘God, bring me a man—now’? I thought really spiritual Christians prayed for patience and stuff like that. Not for boyfriends.”
“But, Katie, if God knows all about us and if He cares about everything that happens to us, then of course you should pray about everything. Even about a boyfriend. God already knows what would be best for you too.”
“I hope you know how easy it is for you to say all that,” Katie said quickly. “You have the perfect boyfriend of the universe. Of course you believe God is giving you His best. It’s harder to believe stuff like that when you’re like me and no answer to your prayers is sitting next to you holding your hand. I mean, what if God’s best for me is that I don’t get a boyfriend?”
“God still cares, Katie.”
“How do you know that? I mean, don’t you wonder sometimes how much of what we believe about God is real and how much of it we say simply because we want to believe it?”
Christy propped herself up on her elbow and looked at Katie. “What do you mean? It sounds like you’re saying you don’t trust God.”
“I don’t know. It just seems that God has forgotten about me when it comes to boyfriends, that’s all. Not that I hold it against Him. After all, God must be rather busy these days—earthquakes, pestilence, famines, wars. What’s a plea from Katie for a boyfriend when He has so much else to tend to?”
“God is big enough to handle all of that and your feelings too. Please don’t think He’s forgotten you.”
“If you say so,” Katie said with a sigh.
It was quiet for a few moments before Katie asked, “So what time are we leaving in the morning?”
“I don’t know. Pretty early, I guess. I’m sure the rest of them will wake us when they get up.”
“Then we’d better get some sleep. Good night.” Katie rolled over on her side with her back to Christy. In minutes, the only sound that came from her was the deep, slow, rhythmic breathing of someone lost in dreamland.
Christy was unable to enter dreamland herself for quite some time. She lay on her back in the stillness, watching for shooting stars and thinking about Katie. It bothered her that Katie had sounded like she was doubting her faith in God. What bothered Christy even more was that she didn’t have any really good answers for Katie.
Not that I have to defend You, God. You are God. You can do what You want. But I do wish sometimes that You and Your ways were easier to understand. Sometimes all I know is that You’re there. Maybe sometimes that’s all I need to know.
Christy noticed a trail of thin, iridescent clouds moving slowly across the night sky. The dust beneath His feet, she thought. You are here, and You do care, don’t You, God? Please help Katie to see that and to understand You. Christy closed her eyes and drifted into a deep, sweet sleep.
When she awoke, the first thing Christy saw was Katie’s face, which made Christy gasp. Katie had two black rings around both her eyes, a result of the blow she took to her nose the night before.
“Katie,” Christy called softly, nudging her on the shoulder. “Katie, wake up.”
“What?” Katie answered, sounding groggy and irritated. “Just five more minutes, okay?”
“It’s time to get up, Katie. We’re on the houseboat. We have to get going. And you need to look in a mirror.” Christy said the last part in a low voice and bit her lower lip, wondering how Katie would react to what she would see in the mirror.
Christy knew that if it had happened to her, she would be devastated and would probably try to find a way out of going to school the next morning. How could anyone begin her senior year with two black eyes?
Amazingly enough, the prize fighter look only bothered Katie for about two seconds. She looked in the mirror, screamed, then laughed and laughed until everyone else couldn’t help but laugh along with her.
“You wait, Doug! I’m really going to get you back for this one!” she threatened him. She was still threatening when they arrived home from their trip late that evening. As Doug unloaded Katie’s gear from the back of his truck. Katie reminded him, “When you least expect it. I will get you back. Doug. You can count on it.”
Christy would have expected the jovial attitude to be long gone by the next morning. But when Christy picked up Katie for school, the first thing Katie said as she bounced into the car was, “What do you think of laxatives?”
Christy looked blankly at her friend. Katie had not even tried to cover up the black and blue with makeup. She looked awful. “What do you mean, laxatives?” Christy asked.
“You know the way Doug will eat anything? Why don’t we make him some cookies and fill the dough with laxatives? He’d never know what hit him!”
“Katie, I can’t believe you’re even suggesting such a thing! That is so cruel. You would never really do anything like that, would you? You know when he hit your nose it was an accident. He felt awful about it. I think he apologized to you every five minutes on the drive home.”
“Good. If you ask me, a little guilt is good for a guy.”
Christy pulled into the parking lot on the back side of Kelley High and slowly proceeded up and down the rows in search of a parking place. “Did everybody decide to be early today or what? This seems like a lot more cars than last year.”
“You know how it is on the first day,” Katie commented. “Everyone wants to make a good impression and all that. Besides, there are a lot more seniors this year than last. You know what I think?”
Christy found a remote parking spot and carefully eased the car in between the narrow white lines.
“I think,” Katie continued, “since you’re on yearbook staff you should put a picture of the parking lot in the yearbook. Nobody ever does that. I think a parking lot is as important as a locker. Maybe more so. Especially your senior year.”
“You could be right. That’s a good idea, Katie.” Christy gathered the few things she had brought with her and carefully locked the car.
Even though she had been at this same school for three years and she liked Kelley High, Christy still felt as if a load of bricks had just been dumped in her stomach. It didn’t matter that this was her senior year. She felt the same way she had the first day of kindergarten back in Wisconsin. Terrified.
“I think it’s a really good idea,” Katie chattered on cheerfully as they entered the main building. They merged into a stream of people who were all yakking and laughing and bumping each other with their backpacks slung over their shoulders. “Hey, Danny, how’s it going?” Katie greeted a guy who passed them.
Danny waved back. He had on shorts and a T-shirt, and he wore sunglasses even though he was inside the building.
“Did you see who Danny was with?” Katie grabbed Christy by the wrist.
The two of them looked over their shoulders at Danny and the slim, dark-haired girl he had his arm around. “That’s Lynn! Can you believe they’re together?” Kate said. “Actually, if you ask me. they make a good couple. I’ve known Danny since second grade. We used to get into trouble together when we went to Myers Middle School. I can’t believe even Danny has a girlfriend!”
Christy felt relieved that Katie was by her side, breaking the ice, overshadowing Christy’s timid feelings with her bold, friendly personality. Apparently first days didn’t bother Katie a bit. And with two black eyes, no less!
Christy wished she had the right words at that moment to tell Katie what her friendship meant to her. How much she appreciated having someone besi
de her who could so easily lighten the brick load in her stomach.
“This is where I get off.” Katie stopped in front of a classroom and flashed a confident smile. “I’ll see you at lunch? Same old spot?”
“Okay.” Christy smiled back, trying to siphon one more burst of self-assurance from Katie before heading down the hallway to her first class. “See you!”
At 11:42 the bell rang for lunch, and Christy hurried to their meeting spot under a tree on the grass. Last year they had decided not to eat at the picnic tables or to rush out to their car and hurry through some drive-through fast-food place like a lot of the other students did. Instead, Christy and Katie met at this remote spot.
But today their routine was interrupted. Sitting under “their” tree was a guy Christy didn’t recognize. His sandaled feet were stretched out in front of him, and he looked a little too comfortable. A little too permanent. Christy stood back and watched. The guy pulled an apple from his brown leather backpack and chomped into it.
How could she tell him he was in their space?
“Hi!” Katie called out. She stepped up beside Christy and eyed the intruder.
“Who’s that?” Katie said, almost loud enough for the guy to hear.
“I don’t know,” Christy whispered, turning back to him and scrunching up her nose at Katie. “Why don’t we find a new spot?”
“Why?” Katie asked. “We can still sit there. There’s more than one side to a tree, you know. Besides, once he overhears the kind of stuff we talk about, he’ll probably leave in a second.”
Katie boldly marched over to the tree as the guy watched. She planted herself like a flag of victory. Christy followed her lead, fully aware that the guy was observing their every move.
As if nothing were out of the ordinary, Katie opened a bag of chips. “So how did all your classes go?” she asked Christy.
It was a little more difficult for Christy to jump right into their lunch routine and act as if they weren’t being observed by this stranger.