Oh, how wrong she was.
“Was your mom… okay?” Christy asked.
“Sort of. He cut her throat too. Then he ran off because a woman from our village came over just then. If she hadn’t come… A visiting surgeon was there that day, and he was able to work on my mom and me right away, which was incredible at that clinic. My mom needed more stitches. For me, the problem was the cut. It was deep and close… close to my jugular. Less than a quarter of an inch, the surgeon said.”
Katie could barely breathe. She couldn’t imagine going through anything like that.
“We both contracted infections afterward. The compound didn’t have the right antibiotics, but they eventually got what we needed and… we just went on.”
“Wow, Eli.” Todd’s voice was tight with emotion. “You and your mom…”
“I know,” Eli said quickly. “God had his hand on our lives. We know that.”
Obviously Eli had been around Todd enough to know his bent toward the spiritual side of every situation. Eli’s comment didn’t carry any hint of irritation.
Katie had nothing to say. She waited for Eli to look her direction so she could offer a look that expressed her heartfelt sympathies.
He glanced around the table briefly. “I don’t like to talk about this much.”
Christy, Todd, and Katie all gave agreeing nods.
“Actually, aside from you guys, my uncle is the only one I’ve talked to about it. He’s my mom’s brother; so of course he knew about everything when it happened.”
The pace of Eli’s words picked up now that the story had gotten past the rocky place and was on a more level path. “My uncle was the one who convinced me to come to Rancho Corona. When we moved from Zaire to Nairobi, I think my parents figured being in a city would help me get over being so withdrawn and hesitant with people. I’m not sure exactly why they thought that, but my uncle told me a number of times that I needed to experience life outside of Africa. That’s why I joined up with the missions outreach project in Spain. It was the first possibility that came up, so I went. It was good, and coming here to school has been good. But I don’t know if my uncle really understands that you can leave your home and live somewhere else, but when you love a certain place, it never leaves you.”
Todd nodded. “I feel that way about Hawaii.”
“Do you think you’ll always live in Africa, then?” Christy asked.
“I don’t know.” Eli wrapped his hands around the mug that still brimmed with untouched tea that had now cooled. “Since I’ve told you guys all this already, I might as well tell you something else. I’ve been meaning to say this for a while. Todd, I wanted to thank you for including me in your life. Ever since I got here you’ve been a solid friend to me. I appreciate your connecting me with Rick and getting me into this apartment complex. It’s been good.”
“Where did you live before you moved in with Rick?” Katie asked. “You weren’t in the dorms, were you?”
“No, I lived with my uncle. That worked out okay last summer, but I was ready to move on. And Katie, I wanted to thank you for inviting me to the pizza night last fall. I don’t know if you remember giving me your etiquette tips that night, but I really appreciated them. What you said helped a lot.”
Katie definitely remembered how she had briefed Eli on socially approved ways to enter into the group, such as not to stare so much. She felt bad now that she had been critical of his rough-around-the-edges ways. The guy was dealing with a lot. Culture shock as well as trying to fit in on campus and work on campus security.
“If we’re turning this into a true-confessions time, then I have to say a few things to you, Eli.” Katie took a quick sip of her tea for courage. “I have to apologize to you for being so rude. I know I was more than once.”
Eli’s expression was returning to his good-humored self. He calmly said, “Do you mean the first week of school when I gave you a parking ticket?”
Katie scowled. “Oh, I forgot about that time. No, I don’t think I want to apologize for yelling at you in the parking lot. I think you should have given me a little more grace.”
“I think you should have given me a little more respect.”
“Why? Because you were wearing a uniform and looking all campus-security macho? I’ll tell you something; if the powers-that-be at Rancho want their campus security guy to be treated with more respect, then they are going to have to do something about those beat-up golf carts. I mean, seriously! Those carts look like reject clown cars from the circus. You might as well put one of those oooga squeezy horns on the steering wheel and hang a bunch of balloons out the back.”
“Baboons?” Christy said, squelching a laugh.
“No, I said balloons. Not baboons.”
“I heard baboons.”
“Me too,” Todd said.
“Oh, you always take Christy’s side. What did you hear me say, Eli?”
“It could have gone either way. How about if I say balloons just to even the score?”
“Thanks. I don’t know what’s going on lately. Julia misunderstood me the other day when I was trying to say the word tea.”
“What did you say instead?” Eli asked.
Katie suddenly remembered the entire incident at Bella Barista and lowered her eyes. “It was just something crazy. I don’t know what’s going on with my brain. Study overload, I think.”
“Not to overdo this topic or anything,” Eli said, moving back to his previous conversation. “But I wanted to finish saying thank you to all three of you for helping me to find a place here in California and at Rancho.”
“No problem, man.” Todd extended his hand across the table and exchanged the brawny sort of handshake that men give by clasping each other by the wrist. “Christy and I are here for you anytime. You know that, don’t you?”
“I do. Thanks.”
It seemed like a good time for Katie to echo Todd’s sentiment and say that Eli could count on her as well. Anytime. Katie didn’t quite know what to say. Her view of Eli had been tilted in a new direction, but she didn’t want to indicate she had a vulnerable soft spot in her heart for him.
Instead of adding words of renewed allegiance to their friendship, Katie took another sip of tea and said, “This sure is good tea. Thanks for bringing it over and sharing it with us.”
“Anytime.”
Katie relented just slightly and added, “And, Eli, I mean this more than I think it’s going to sound, but thank you for sharing about your life with us. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you. Or for your mom. This might be too personal of a question, so you don’t have to answer, but did you get any counseling? I mean, have you resolved all this internally?”
“That’s part of the reason my uncle wanted me to come here. He set up a counselor for me and paid for it. I started last summer and went to him for about six months. So, yeah, I think I’ve resolved some of this.”
Katie was impressed with how open Eli was being.
Quiet settled around the table for a moment before Eli added, “The one piece that helped me the most from the counseling was getting ahold of being a victim. A victim of grace.”
None of them responded right away.
Todd leaned back and nodded. “A victim of grace. That’s intense. It’s true, though, isn’t it? All of us are victims of grace. We don’t usually ask for good things to happen to us. We don’t see it coming. We certainly don’t deserve all of God’s love and kindness, but he keeps pouring it out on us. That’s strong stuff, Eli. Instead of being a victim of evil, you see God’s hand in it all and name yourself a victim of grace. I’m going to remember that one.”
“I love that phrase,” Christy added. “It really flips around the concept of seeing yourself as being a helpless victim of all the bad stuff that happens in life.”
Eli nodded. “Once I reframed it that way, I started to feel again, you know? I’d shut down in some ways, and I think the counseling helped me to get my heart back on track with G
od. I don’t know how to explain it. All I know is that I feel like a whole person now.”
Katie felt bad all over again that she had been so judgmental of Eli last summer and fall. Here he was, dealing with so much stuff, and Katie was treating him as if he should have been her idea of a normal American guy who came from a cushy, middle-class home and had gone to a private school and received whatever he wanted each year at Christmas. She wished she had this year to do over again. Not that she wanted to do her relationship with Rick over or do it differently, nor her year of classes or her RA position. All of those parts of the past year had been good. Even the breakup with Rick felt right. What didn’t feel good was that she had judged Eli and kept him at a distance for so long.
Katie decided there, at Todd and Christy’s kitchen table, that she was going to be kinder to people, especially when she didn’t know why they were acting the way they were. She definitely would treat Eli with more kindness and respect from here on out.
Her personal pledge to show Eli more kindness and respect was put to the test the next evening when he showed up at the Spring Fling uninvited. He entered Crown Hall’s lobby with Rick.
Katie waved to both of them but found she was glad she couldn’t go over to greet them because she was “on duty” with Nicole and responsible to make the party happen. She felt a little uncomfortable and unsure of what to say to either of them.
Her idea of passing out the boxes of Twister to the teams was a big hit until all the groups opened their boxes and found the reason they were such a great price at Bargain Barn was that the spinners didn’t work. Some of them didn’t spin. Others were missing the arrow piece altogether.
“Listen up!” Katie called out to the restless crowd. When they didn’t turn their attention her way, Katie whistled shrilly. That got their attention.
“How many of you can’t make your spinner work?”
Every one of the groups responded in the affirmative. Katie was about to say they should skip the game altogether, go for the food, and call it a party. But before she could pull the plug, Nicole appeared at her side, just as she had been all school year.
“Call out the combinations,” Nicole said to Katie. “Like a big Bingo game. You can call them out, and each team does the same moves at the same time.”
“Great idea! Okay, everyone, we have a Plan B, thanks to our fearless and fabulous Nicole. Here’s what we’re going to do.” Katie issued the revised instructions, confiscated one of the defective spinners as a reminder of the colors, and called out, “Let the games begin!”
For the first few minutes all the teams managed Katie’s call-outs with ease. As soon as one person toppled or crumbled, the next person in line took the first player’s place. From where she stood on top of one of the coffee tables, Katie saw everyone was mixing it up nicely.
Then she decided to spice it up and added, “Right ear to green!”
“Ear?” everyone called out.
“Yes, ear! Go!”
The noise level kicked up a notch, as the teams faced the challenging job of deciding who was really out because that person had fallen and who was just trying to get his or her ear to the ground.
“Okay, forget the ears. Here we go. Left elbow to blue.”
More pandemonium ensued as those with their ears dutifully touching the green tried an anatomically impossible move.
“Forget the ears!” Katie called out, waving her hands, trying to restore some semblance of order. “Take your ears off the green. Or the blue. Or whatever I called. Just put your right elbow on blue.”
“I think it was left elbow.” Eli had come alongside Katie.
“I think this game is about to tank,” Katie said to him.
“No, it isn’t. You’re doing fine. Everyone is having a good time. Keep going.”
“I’m not good at this. Here, do you want to do it? You be the caller. Everyone listens to you, Eli.”
“That was in chapel.”
“So? Here.” She thrust the spinner at him and called out, “Get ready for a real treat, my twisted friends! Eli Lorenzo is your new caller. Hit it, Eli.”
His speaking voice rolled out nice and loud and commanding. Not high and bossy and squeaky like Katie’s was getting. Eli brought a faster pace to the game, which the players appreciated so they didn’t experience muscle cramps waiting.
Eli jump-started the party, from Katie’s point of view. She went over to the sound system and turned the speaker back on. When everyone was congregating in the lobby at seven o’clock, Nicole had the music going to make them feel like this really was a party and not just a lame sort of meeting for those who wanted to get away from studying. Nicole also had put up a banner that read, “Spring Fling,” and had dotted the area with brightly colored gerbera daisies, Nicole’s favorite flower.
Katie adjusted the volume of the music so it was in the background and not competing with Eli, but just enough to bring back the party atmosphere. Nicole came over and said, “Great idea to put the music back on. I think it’s working out.”
“Yeah, thanks to Eli. By the way, I noticed you went with the boy-catcher sweater. Good choice. Has it worked its marvels yet?”
“No, not even a tiny bit. I went over and said hi when he came in. He said hi back and asked if I thought the paint color in the men’s bathroom at the café was too dark.”
“That’s all he talked to you about? Paint in the men’s bathroom? He can be so clueless sometimes.”
Nicole looked a little forlorn, but the hint of disappointment quickly vanished. “It’s no big deal, Katie. I talked with Julia about it some more, and I’m okay. Ever since she prayed with me, I’ve felt settled. As least more settled than I have been the past few months.”
Katie knew Nicole was switching to more generic statements because Carley, one of the girls from their floor, had slid up close to the two of them. Carley had a history of being divisive and flat-out ornery. Nicole was wise not to reveal any specifics, especially about Rick, when it was possible that Carley could hear.
Katie and Nicole turned their attention to the group. Things were going much better with Eli than they had with Katie at the helm. Katie wasn’t the only one who noticed the improvement. Rick wandered over to where Katie and Nicole stood and said, “You can go ahead and say it now, if you want.”
“Say what?” Katie asked.
“Say that you’re glad I brought Eli. Say that I saved the party by making him come. Anything along those lines will be considered acceptable.”
Widening her eyes and putting on a playful baby-doll face, Katie entered into the flirty fun with Rick like she used to back in high school. In an overly lollypop-and-rainbows voice, she said, “Oh, thank you, Rick Doyle. You’re so wonderful. I don’t know what I would ever do without you. You’re my hero.”
The last line unexpectedly caught in Katie’s throat.
She and Rick locked glances. A last twinge of pain and loss seemed to exchange a whisper between their two hearts. She saw it in his face too.
Katie and Christy had long challenged each other to “hold out for a hero” when it came to their love lives. Christy had held out for Todd, and he definitely was her hero.
Katie had held out for Rick for a long time. And while he most certainly had turned into a hero, he wasn’t her hero.
Katie couldn’t swallow. She blinked rapidly and turned to the side. “Nicole, take it from here, will you? I’ll… I’ll be back.”
19
A week and a half later, when Katie met with Julia for another one of her evaluation meetings, she expected to get reamed for leaving the Spring Fling and not returning to finish her part of the program. Nicole had covered beautifully, and no one at the event knew that Katie was supposed to close out the evening by passing out humorous year-end awards to select students.
When Katie stepped into Julia’s room, she dipped her chin in a humbled posture. “Go ahead. Let me have it. I can take it.”
“What are you doing?” Julia a
sked.
“I’m repenting for leaving the Spring Fling.”
“Don’t worry about it, Katie. Nicole told me what was going on, and I understand. You had a heart moment with Rick, and you needed to tend to it right then.”
“A heart moment? Yeah, I guess that’s exactly what it was. Where did you hear that?”
“From Nicole. I also heard from others that Nicole covered beautifully. They said they had a good time. So don’t worry about going AWOL. The event was a big success. I’m the one who should be repenting for not being there with you.”
“You told us ahead of time that you had the big faculty dinner. Of course you needed to be there with John. Nicole and I understood, so you don’t have to apologize.”
Julia’s expression lightened. “Speaking of John and weddings and maids of honor… John and I are each having only one attendant at our wedding, and I’d like you to be my maid of honor.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“Why me? I mean, I’m honored to be your maid of honor, but are you sure?”
“Yes, very sure. I’ve thought about it a lot. John and I talked about it a number of times, and I would like you to be the one who stands up with me. Part of the reason is because most of my close friends were there for me over all the years I went through everything with Trent. They are great friends and have been supportive. But they’re woven into my first love story. None of them has been part of this new journey with me as I’ve fallen in love with John. We kept it all very quiet and private.”
Katie could see why Julia had done that. News of an RD and a professor getting together would open up opportunities for lots of rumors, no matter how much integrity was infused in their relationship.
“Another reason I wanted to have you be part of this next season of my life is the way you took me into your confidence with the inheritance. I think that whole process put you and me into each other’s lives in an intense way. I feel very connected to you, Katie.”