“He said that the way I was acting wasn’t me. It wasn’t who I was or how he raised me. The drinking was one issue, but the stealing was the thing that most disappointed him. They didn’t raise me to be dishonest or untrustworthy.”
“Did they punish you?”
“Oh yeah, I was grounded. But you know, it wasn’t the punishment that was the worst part.”
I found his honesty very attractive. “What was?”
“The fact that they were disappointed in me. They’ve always been great parents, but I’d treated them like dirt. They were hurt and disappointed in me. I hated it.”
“Nothing like having a conscience, huh?”
“Tell me about it,” he mumbled.
“So what made you change? Just the fact that they were disappointed in you?”
“No, I was grounded for three months, and the only places I was allowed to go were school and church. That’s when I ended up becoming a Christian, and my life pretty much changed immediately after that. Melody became a Christian about a month after me and then she died a month after that.”
“Then it was all worth it. Who would have thought that getting drunk, stealing Cheetos, and spending a night in the pokey would end up helping to save Melody’s soul? And just in time.”
His eyebrows rose, causing lines to fill his forehead. “I’ve never thought about it like that. I guess that God can use our issues to bring change in other people.”
“I hope so. I have a lot of issues, so they better be good for something.”
He doubled up laughing. “You crack me up.”
“Well, I’m glad my misery amuses you.”
“Me too.” He picked up one of my hands and slowly kissed me on the inside of my wrist.
“I can’t believe you were such a bad boy, spending the night in the pokey and everything.”
A sly grin spread across his face. “Do you like bad boys?”
“Not if they’re still bad boys. I’ve got enough problems to deal with.”
“Good thing I’m an angel now.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” I joked.
“You’re right. Not quite an angel, but I’m trying hard to be good.”
“You’re a good boy, Riley. A great boy.”
We stayed on the swing for several more minutes until the sun completely set and it was pitch dark outside.
“All right, it’s time,” he announced.
“Time for what?”
“You’ll see; wait right here.” As I got out of the swing, he ran inside and returned with two empty mayonnaise jars.
“No more fun and games like when we were kids. This time, it’s war.”
“Oh?” I rubbed my hands together in preparation for a battle.
“Yep, we have thirty minutes,” he explained as he set his watch. “When this thing goes off, the person who caught the most fireflies wins.”
“You’re on. What’s the prize?”
“The person who wins gets to choose the theme for a week of movie nights.”
“That’s not a prize for you; you already choose every time.”
“Well then, if you want me to watch any of your dumb chick flicks, you better get busy.”
I grabbed a jar out of his hands and was off the porch and running toward the backyard before he even finished his sentence.
After our battle, we walked inside to announce the victor.
“Well, Marme, I just got us a week of chick flicks, so start making up your wish list so Riley can order them from Netflix.”
“Awesome!” she squealed.
“Riley, what did you do?” Pops whimpered.
“Riley lost a bet, so I get to choose the movies for the next week. It’s going to be chick flick mania around here.”
“Son, what in the world? How could you risk something like that without clearing it through me?”
“I didn’t think she had a chance. She’s a lot faster than I thought. She’s like the freakin’ firefly whisperer or something.”
I hopped around the kitchen showing off my jar of light.
“Don’t rub it in, Charlie; be a good sport.”
“Heck no, I never win anything, and this feels good!”
“We have to start with Pride and Prejudice and then maybe do A Walk to Remember,” Marme announced.
“Oh Lord, this is gonna be worse than I thought.” Riley flung himself onto the couch.
“Riley,” I said as I sat next to him, “don’t you want to better understand the female mind?”
“Is that even possible?” he asked, looking at his father.
“No,” Pops spat. “Heck no, it’s not possible.”
“Relax, boys, it won’t be that bad. We’ll go easy on you,” I offered.
“Yeah right,” Riley moaned as he got up to put in the newest DVD.
“What’s showing tonight?” I asked.
“We’re watching Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America.”
“Oooh, Thomas, do you remember the song that Eddie Murphy sang?” Marme asked.
“No.”
“Riley, jot that one down; I need to add it to my iTunes.”
“What’s it called?”
She started singing the song. “My girl wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the ti-ime.”
He rolled his eyes at her. “Mom, seriously, stop.”
“It’s a good song, Riley; wait until you hear it.”
“I’ll load it on there if you’ll promise to stop singing it so we can watch the movie.”
“You’re no fun,” she pouted. “He’s not any fun, is he, Attie?”
“Nope. No fun at all, and he’s also a sore loser.”
“You’re a poor winner—you rub it in.”
“Poor baby, got his butt kicked by a girl,” I sang.
“Again,” Pops added. “It’s becoming a regular event around here.”
The doorbell rang at ten o’clock sharp the next morning. I started to run to answer it, but Riley beat me to it. As I finished getting ready, I could hear the conversation from my room.
“Hey, Riley!”
“Chase, what are you doing here, bud?” Riley asked.
I smiled as I waited for Chase to respond.
“Attie invited me to go horseback riding at Cooper’s with her today.”
“Really? She invited you along?”
“Yeah, wasn’t that nice?” Chase sounded pleased. He had no idea that I had ulterior motives when I suggested he tag along.
“Yes, it was nice,” Riley agreed. “Well, come on in; I’ll go get her. Dad, keep Chase company while I get Attie.”
Hearing Riley’s footsteps running up the stairs, I waited for him to enter my room. He had a huge grin on his face as he walked through my door. “You invited Chase to go with you?”
“Chase loves horseback riding. I thought he would enjoy it.”
As he walked closer to me, his grin somehow grew larger. “Is that the only reason you invited him?”
“Well,”—I shrugged—“I wouldn’t want Cooper to get the wrong idea. I mean, it’s not like it’s a date or anything.”
He grabbed me and gave me a hug as he picked me up off the floor. “Thank you, Charlie; you don’t know how much this means to me.”
“Yes, I do.” I wrapped my hands around his neck and looked down at him. “Besides, you were my first kiss, Riley. I’ll be darned if you aren’t going to be my first date too.”
He lovingly gazed up at me. “I’m so crazy about you.”
“I know.”
“I swear, if I could kiss you right now, I would.”
“If you could kiss me right now, I’d let you.”
He slowly lowered me to the ground and then gently grabbed my hands and kissed the inside of each of my wrists.
“That’ll have to do for now,” he said miserably.
I could feel my face blush. “I’m starting to like it when you do that.”
“Then I’ll do it more often.”
After bringing Chase along with me to horseback riding, Cooper got the point that I wasn’t interested in a summer fling. We worked alongside each other every Tuesday and Thursday thoroughly enjoying each other’s company, but he never asked me out again. We did continue going to lunch once a week as he helped me prepare for CLEP testing. We also spent a day at UCO getting all of the necessary enrollment information together. He became a very good friend, and I enjoyed spending time with him. I never brought him up to Riley, and I never talked about Riley with him. I believe that they both preferred it that way.
chapter 24
Summer quickly passed, and Riley and I spent almost every night watching movies with his parents followed by camping out on my bedroom floor. I still experienced nightmares almost every night, but Riley learned to calm me so that we were both able to fall back to sleep within a matter of minutes.
Cheerleading practice began, and if it hadn’t been for Anne and Jennifer, it would have been the worst two hours of each and every day. Most of the senior girls wanted nothing to do with me, and Tiffany managed to make it the entire summer’s worth of practices without so much as saying hello. I wished that I’d stuck with my initial gut reaction to have Mr. Bennett get me completely off the cheer squad. Surely living with the school principal had to have some advantages.
After my first counseling session with Joshua and Nicole, every session also became “driver’s license therapy,” or “DLT” for short. They were set on me getting my license before school started.
The first DLT session was spent with me sitting in the driver’s seat of Joshua’s old Honda. He sat in the passenger seat, and Nicole sat behind him in the backseat. All we did was pray. I never even got to start the engine.
During the second and third sessions, I got to stick the key in the ignition and turn it on. The rest of the time we prayed while a Chris Tomlin CD played in the background.
The following week we focused on getting in the car, turning on the ignition, and doing visualization techniques. Or, as Joshua called them, DLT-VT (for some reason he was into titles). I closed my eyes as Joshua took me through different driving scenarios, and I would respond with acting out the appropriate behavior. In a typical session, you might have heard the following:
Joshua: (speaking slowly) “You’re driving down the street, and a stop sign is coming up in twenty feet.”
Me: I would tap the brake to slow down.
Joshua: “You’re six feet from the stop sign and have decided to turn left.”
Me: I would turn on my blinker and slowly apply steady pressure to the break.
By the middle of June, we moved on to DLT-Advanced Visualization Therapy. DLT-AVT was similar to the regular visualization except that Joshua would suddenly scream some action as it could possibly happen if I ever actually left the driveway.
Joshua: “You’re driving through an intersection, and someone just ran a red light!”
Me: I would calmly but firmly press the brake.
Unfortunately, I almost failed one DLT-AVT session.
Joshua: “We’re driving past Mr. Hendricks’s house, and his dog just ran into the street in front of your car!”
Me: I swerved to miss it by yanking the steering wheel to the right.
Joshua: “No, Attie, you never swerve like that. You could roll the car or get out of control and crash. Your life is much more valuable than a dog’s.”
Me: “Is it necessary to hit the dog?”
Nicole: “You didn’t tell the future vet to hit the dog, did you?”
Joshua: “Nicole! Would you rather she hurt herself and save the dog? Isn’t that the point of DLT? To save her life and the life of other human beings? Seriously, this could set us back a few sessions.”
Nicole: “No! Attie, next time, you hit the dang dog, do you hear me?”
Me: “Yes.”
Nicole: “See, Joshua, next time she’s gonna hit the dog. Aren’t you, Attie? You’re gonna hit the dog?”
Me: “Yes! I’ll take the dog out!”
Nicole: “Thank God. We’re not adding more sessions! If we don’t eventually get out of this driveway, I’m going to lose my mind.”
Me: “I know a good therapist.”
Joshua: “Very funny, Attie. I’m trying to be thorough, Nicole!”
Nicole: “No, you want to be able to say ‘DLT-AVT’ some more!”
And with that, DLT-AVT sessions were over.
The third week of June we actually got out and drove. Of course Joshua drove the car to a remote location and then let me take over, but at least we were moving.
The first week of July I got to drive on city streets, and by the third week I was on the highway and was allowed to turn the music up beyond a whisper.
On the fourth Tuesday of July, Nicole finally took me to take my driver’s test.
(Riley)
We brought every extra chair and lawn chair into the family room so that we could wait for Attie to get back from taking her driver’s test. Anne, Tammy, Tess, Chase, Matt, Curt, Gramps, Joshua, my parents, and I all started praying when Nicole called to announce that Attie had “gone into the building.”
“Do you suppose that God has ever heard so many prayers for one poor child to get her driver’s license?” Gramps asked when we were finished.
“I couldn’t imagine it,” Dad replied.
I paced, Joshua was biting his fingernails, and Anne knelt praying in the corner.
“I’ve gotta leave the room. You people are freaking me out!” Tammy announced. “She might as well be having a baby!”
“I’m a nervous wreck,” Tess said as she rocked back and forth in her chair.
Finally we heard the car pull into the driveway. Everyone jumped up and looked at the front door in anticipation. We held our breath.
The door opened, Nicole walked in, and I noticed that her eyes were red. She’d been crying. The air left the room, and our hearts broke.
“Where is she?” Joshua asked.
“Composing herself. She’ll be right in.” Nicole cried and walked into Joshua’s arms.
We all looked back at the door and prepared ourselves to comfort Attie after she failed for the fourth time. I could hear her footsteps make their way slowly up the patio stairs, and I waited to see her face. But instead of walking into the room, she merely stuck her arm inside the door, and in her hand she held a driver’s license.
The room exploded in screams and cheers.
Attie ran into the room. “I’m a licensed driver!”
“Watch out, world,” Dad yelled.
She wore the largest smile I’d ever seen. The girls ran to her, and they all jumped around in circles and took turns looking at her driver’s license picture.
“Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!” Gramps waved his hands in the air.
I looked over and saw Joshua on his knees crying. I didn’t know if he was crying out of happiness for Attie or out of relief for not having to continue DLT sessions. I assumed it was probably a combination of both.
Nicole sat next to him laughing. “I fooled you! I fooled you!”
After a long celebration of hugs all around, Mom brought out a celebratory cake. The cake decorator had drawn a blonde cartoon character with car keys in her hand sitting in a tank. Attie’s favorite part was the angel’s wings coming out of the roof.
Chase
, our official photographer, made sure to document the entire event, and we all sat and ate cake as Nicole shared the journal entries she made after every DLT session. By the time she finished, Attie and Joshua were bright red, and the rest of us were in stitches.
“I can’t believe you agreed to kill the dog, Attie,” Tess teased.
“I was willing to do anything not to have to add Advanced Visualization sessions,” Attie said, giggling.
Gramps stood up and quieted the crowd. “I’d like to lead a prayer in thanksgiving,” he requested.
Everyone got serious and bowed their head.
“Dear Lord, Heavenly Father. It’s about time. Amen.”
“Amen!” everyone shouted.
I hadn’t ever seen Attie as joyful as she was that day. There were no signs of the girl who moved in almost three months before. She’d turned the corner and was enjoying life again.
“Okay, Attie, are you ready for your present?” Gramps asked.
“Yes!” she squealed. “I love presents!”
“Riley?” Gramps looked at me, and I got up and grabbed her hand.
“Are you my present, Riley?” she whispered while squeezing my hand.
“I wish,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Everybody out the back door,” Gramps ordered.
Friends filed out, and Attie went to follow them, but I gently kept hold of her hand to keep her back.
“Just wait,” I whispered.
After a few minutes Gramps told me to go ahead and bring her out. She closed her eyes, and I led her through the kitchen and out the back door to the patio.
“Now, stay right here, and don’t open your eyes ‘til we tell you to.” I ran to join the others.
“Okay, open them,” Gramps yelled.
She opened her eyes.
“Surprise!”
Her jaw dropped, and she didn’t move a muscle.
“It’s a miracle!” Tammy yelled. “She’s speechless!”
“Is it mine?”
“Yes,” her Gramps told her as he walked up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Gramps, it’s brand new. It’s too much!”