Part 10 (1/2)
”Why not?”
”Because I shouldn't have gotten so upset.”
”You know what C. S. Lewis said?” Todd asked. ”He said, *Anger is the fluid that love bleeds when you cut it.' I just read that the other day. You love Katie; Michael is cutting into that relations.h.i.+p; you're bleeding anger. It's natural.”
”So you think it's right for me to feel this way?”
”I didn't say it was right; I said it was natural. The right way is hardly ever the natural way. The right way is G.o.d's way, which is supernatural.”
”How am I supposed to get from the natural to the supernatural?” As soon as Christy asked, she had a feeling she knew what Todd was going to say.
”Pray.”
”That's what I thought you'd say.”
Todd let out a low chuckle. ”It's hard, isn't it?”
”Yes, it is. I thought the longer I was a Christian, the easier it would become. It seems to only get harder.”
”Harder and richer,” Todd added. ”I guess we shouldn't want it any other way. All true love relations.h.i.+ps seem to become harder and richer the more they grow.”
Christy wondered if Todd was referring to his relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d, with her, or both. She thought the harder-richer part certainly applied to both relations.h.i.+ps in her life.
”Well, I still want to apologize for hanging up on you, Todd. And I still feel concerned about Katie. I'll try to pray about it more. If nothing else, I've learned that I don't ever want to have to wait so long to apologize to you again. It was awful going a whole day without things feeling settled and right between us.”
”Yeah, I didn't like the feeling much either. I was over at Doug's when I called you last night, and I have to admit that when you hung up on me I felt pretty weird about calling you back, especially with Doug right there. He told me to let it go. He even said it was probably good for our relations.h.i.+p to go through this. For a while I almost thought he seemed glad you were ticked off at me. He didn't happen to call you last night, did he?”
”No. I tried to call your house but only got your answering machine.”
”You want to come up here this weekend?” Todd asked. ”Can you stay at Bob and Marti's and go to church with me Sunday?”
”I have to work Friday night and Sat.u.r.day. And I have one more week to volunteer at the church nursery. I wish I didn't have so many things going on. I'd really like to spend some time with you. More than just a quick Sat.u.r.day night movie.”
”I know what you mean. How about next weekend then, if you're done with nursery duty? Think Jon would let you off early on Sat.u.r.day?”
”I'll work it out somehow, Todd. I need to spend more time with you. It seems like there's so much going on, and we're so far apart.”
”Next weekend,” Todd said. ”We'll get together then. I'll call you this weekend after you get off work.”
Christy didn't even try to hide her disappointment when she replied. ”You mean, you're not coming down this weekend? We could do something when I get off work Sat.u.r.day or maybe Sunday afternoon.”
”I'd better stick around here and get some studying done. This semester is taking off without me. I'm already behind. I'll call you, and we'll get together the next weekend.”
Two horrible, long weeks! Christy thought. It was bad enough going twenty-four hours without feeling that things with Todd were settled. Now waiting two weeks to see him again seemed like an eternity.
It hadn't seemed so difficult in the past, before they were actually going together. Then it was a treat whenever he did show up. Now it seemed like it was mandatory that they be together whenever possible.
Christy determined that she would get off work all of Sat.u.r.day the following weekend, and she would have her homework done so nothing would interfere with their time together.
Everything seemed fine until the next evening when Christy ran the plans past her mom.
”That's Dad's birthday weekend. I thought we'd do something together as a family.” Mom said. ”Maybe go to the mountains for a picnic.”
”Todd could come with us, couldn't he?”
”Well, I don't know, Christy. It's your dad's weekend. He should be the one to choose who comes with us.”
That didn't concern Christy. Dad liked Todd. Although Todd had been included on lots of outings with Bob and Marti, he hadn't done much with Christy's parents. Certainly now was the time to start.
”I think we'll just have a birthday cake here at home,” Dad said later that evening. ”I'm not much for gallivanting around the countryside.”
”It's okay if I invite Todd over, isn't it?” Christy asked. She could immediately tell by the look on Dad's face that the thought of including Todd in their quiet family celebration had never crossed his mind.
”Maybe not, Christy,” Mom said, also interpreting Dad's expression. ”Let's just keep it the four of us, and you and Todd can spend some time together the following weekend.”
Three weeks! Christy thought it seemed like a lifetime. How could she contentedly wait three weeks to spend time with her boyfriend? Something had to change.
The first thing she thought of was her job. She would change her hours so she could have Sat.u.r.days off. Maybe she could work one or two weeknights besides Fridays, especially since Todd was busy with cla.s.ses and wouldn't be coming down on weeknights anyway. That way they would have all their Sat.u.r.days free to spend together.
That Friday when Christy arrived at work, she approached Jon with the request. He looked thoughtful. ”Perhaps if I can get someone to cover the Sat.u.r.day hours I can give you Sat.u.r.days off. but I don't have any open s.h.i.+fts on weeknights right now. If you want to give up your Sat.u.r.day hours, it will most likely mean that all you'll have for a while are your five hours on Fridays. Is that going to be enough money to put gas in the car?”
Jon was right. Five hours on her minimum-wage salary was not much money compared to the expenses she had, especially with all the added expenses that came with her senior year.
”I don't know.” Christy told Jon. ”All I know is that I have too much going on and something has to give. I have no time for a social life.”
Jon made a clicking noise. She had heard him use that sound to get the attention of the birds and guinea pigs when he was about to feed them. Now he seemed to be using it to comfort her. ”Time is a funny thing, isn't it? There never seems to be enough of it when you have something to do, and when you have nothing to do, there's too much of it.”
”You're right.” Christy looked as forlorn as she felt.
”Don't worry about it. We'll work out something. You might as well make time to enjoy your only senior year in high school.” Then with a wink and grin, he added, ”Let's hope you only have one senior year in high school!”
What was it that Todd had said? Harder and richer. He might be right about the richer, but right now things just seemed harder.
As Christy drove home from work that Friday night, she knew she needed to get a few things in order in her life. First on the list was to make peace with Katie.
The next morning she called Katie to ask if she wanted to ride to work and plan to have their lunch breaks together. the way they used to. When Christy called, Katie obviously wasn't up yet.
”What time is it?”
”A little after eight. Did I wake you?”
”Yeah, but that's okay. I didn't get home until almost two.” Katie said with a huge yawn. ”I'm really tired. But I'm glad you called. I was kind of wondering for a while there if you were going to ignore me forever.”
”Why didn't you get home until two? Where were you?” The instant Christy said it. she realized she sounded like a nagging old hen and was defeating her plan to rebuild bridges.
Katie paused and then in an irritated voice said. ”We were at a concert in San Diego.”
”I didn't mean to sound like that,” Christy said. Then trying hard to change her tone, she asked, ”Did you and Michael have a good time?”
”Yes, we did. Michael and I always have a good time.”