I Promise (17 page)

Overwhelmed by the intense insights, Christy put away her diary and turned out the light. Then quietly, she turned her face into her pillow and cried. Part of her tears were a good-bye and I'll-see-you-in-heaven to her grandfather; part were for her joyous love for Todd; part were for the mystery of
God's loving her and wanting her to be with Him forever. The final batch of tears was for her aunt, who still hadn't said yes to Christ. Christy knew that according to God's Word, Aunt Marti wouldn't be with Him forever unless she surrendered her heart to Him.

The door opened, and Katie slipped in, humming. “You awake?” she whispered.

“Hmm,” Christy responded. She didn't want Katie to turn on the overhead light and keep Christy up talking all night. Yet, if Katie had any big announcements to make, Christy didn't want to miss them.

“I'm leaving early in the morning for the Natural Food Fest in San Diego. Rick is picking me up at six. I just wanted you to know.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Christy answered.

“Are you okay?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Good. Everything is going great with Rick. I'll see you sometime tomorrow night.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Christy fell asleep to the happy sound of Katie humming her way into her pajamas.

12
The calendar that hung on Christy's wall in her dorm room stared back innocently at her as she tried to find some white space to write down her scheduled trip to the dentist. She had made the appointment at work that afternoon without the benefit of consulting her crowded calendar.

“March twelve,” she muttered to herself. “How did it get to be March twelve already? If I go to the dentist at four o'clock next Tuesday, that means I'll be late for our counseling appointment at church.”

Christy chewed on the end of her pen and tried to decide if she should ask Todd for the car that day or for him to take off from work to drive her to the dentist. They could reschedule their counseling appointment for a little later.

Christy was trying hard to remain flexible. It was getting more and more difficult to coordinate schedules, what with Todd working so much. The past few weeks had flown by. The only fun time the two of
them had managed to fit in was their Saturday breakfast on the beach. The morning had turned out to be clear, crisp, and sunny, and they had enjoyed every minute of it. Christy had bought fifteen small gifts that she had wrapped for Todd. He opened the first one at seven o'clock while the bacon was sizzling over the dancing fire. It was wax for his surfboard.

From then on, every hour on the hour, she gave Todd another little present until nine o'clock that night. The last gift was a picture of the two of them that Tracy had taken years ago on the beach. They were sitting with the rest of the gang, and the late-afternoon sun shone on their faces just right. Tracy had captured them on film at the very second Todd and Christy were exchanging glances. Their expressions were lit up with the glimmer of wonder and joy at the birth of first love.

Christy didn't remember the picture being taken, but the morning they had eaten omelets at Doug and Tracy's, Tracy had pulled it out of a photo album and given it to Christy.

She loved the picture and had made a special mat for it by gluing on dried, browned carnation petals extracted from the first bouquet Todd had given her. The flowers had been stored for more than five years in an old Folgers coffee can and smelled a little funny. In her nicest printing, Christy had written at the bottom of the mat,
I hold you in my heart. Forever, Your Kilikina.

Todd got choked up when he opened his final gift and stared at the picture. “We were so young.” Then he
held Christy close and told her this was the best birthday he had ever had.

The warm memories of that special day had been Christy's only company in the midst of her overly full schedule. The only good thing was that the time was going by quickly.

Every free moment Christy had, she spent working on embroidering her wedding gown. She nearly was finished with the string of tiny white forget-me-nots that lined the neckline and was trying to decide if she wanted to put the time into adding the flowers on the sleeves or to leave them plain. The embroidery was taking a lot longer than she had thought it would.

Katie's opinion was that it didn't matter. She said no one would notice the flowers on the sleeves. Sierra, however, said the little things would matter the most to Christy on her wedding day. At least, that's how it had been for Sierra's sister when she got married.

Sierra had come to Christy's dorm room two nights ago and had arrived just in time to hear Katie's opinion on the sleeves. A freshman, Sierra was one of the most free-spirited young women Christy had ever known. Katie and Christy had met Sierra three years ago, when they had shared a room in England while on a missions trip.

Sierra's visit to the dorm room had been prompted by her need to ask if Christy could pick up Sierra from her job at the local grocery store Friday night.

The last thing Christy needed was to add anything to her brimming schedule. But she said yes to Sierra
because Christy knew she would have the car since Todd was going on an overnight backpacking trip with some of the guys from the youth group. Even though the trip had been scheduled before Christy and Todd had made their agreement to spend every Saturday together, Todd had offered to cancel the trip. But Christy thought it would be better if he went. She planned to work on wedding plans with Marti and her mom on Saturday.

Marti was back from her extended stay in Wisconsin and had dropped her investigation of the hospital. Apparently, when she had interviewed the surgeon, he told her he had found an inoperable tumor in Grandpa's stomach. Apparently, it had been there for some time and must have bothered him, but he never complained. So by the time it was discovered, it was too late to do anything.

Christy's mom said that Marti had accepted the facts better than any of them had expected. She had dropped the idea of filing charges and had come home ready to dive in to plans for Todd and Christy's wedding. Todd's having asked Bob and Marti to sit on his side in the front row seemed to give Marti even more incentive to be involved.

At the appointed time Friday night, Christy showed up at the grocery store to find Sierra already waiting out front. Sierra was easy to spot because she had long, wild, curly blond hair, and she dressed in unique outfits. Tonight Sierra wore a mid-calf skirt that appeared to be made from neckties sewn together. Her feet were
clad in the same pair of cowboy boots she had worn in England when Christy first met her.

“Have you been waiting long?” Christy opened the car door from the inside.

“No, only a few minutes. I finished early because I ran out of sausage.”

Christy gave Sierra a strange look. “The grocery store ran out of sausage?”

“No, I did. I was demonstrating. Didn't I tell you that's what I was doing? I go to different grocery stores and hand out samples of whatever the company tells me to. Tonight it was sausages, but they told me only to use twenty packages. I didn't figure out until halfway through that they wanted me to cut the sausages into little pieces and stick toothpicks in them. I was passing out entire sausages, and people were standing there waiting, like I was working at a free hot dog stand.”

Christy laughed. “Sounds like a fun job.”

“It's perfect for me, except for the transportation. I hate having to bum rides off someone. I really appreciate your doing this for me, Christy.”

“No problem. It worked out fine.” Her plan was to zip Sierra back to campus and then drive up to her aunt's in Newport Beach since her mom was already there. That way they could start their planning early in the morning.

“Your skirt is adorable,” Christy said as she headed out of the parking lot. “Did you make it?”

“My mom helped me. We worked on it over Christmas
vacation. I had a short skirt made out of ties, but it got ruined a couple of summers ago. These ties were my grandpa's. Aren't they hilarious? Look at this one.”

Sierra pointed to a green-and-brown-striped tie that ran down her left side. It had tiny orange curlicues and thin blue triangles on top of the stripes.

“I guess it would match about anything with all those colors in it,” Christy said.

Sierra laughed. “Or not match anything because of all the colors in it. My Granna Mae had a story to tell me about every one of these ties while we were sewing them together. She has serious memory lapses and gets confused and disoriented, but she could remember every minute detail of places she and Grandpa had gone and things they had done when he was wearing these ties.”

Christy told Sierra how her grandpa had passed away last month and how much it made her think about the brevity of life.

“I know what you mean,” Sierra said. “I've been thinking about that this semester because I've had some big decisions to make.”

“By any chance would those decisions be about relationships?” Christy asked.

“Sort of. Are you hungry?” Sierra asked.

“Hungry?”

“Well, The Golden Calf is closed by now, and I've been standing in the grocery store cooking sausages for the past three and a half hours. I could go for something substantial to eat. If you have the time, I'd love
to hear your opinion on a few things.”

Christy couldn't remember the last time she had hung out with a girl friend for an evening. She could readjust her plans and make the hour and a half drive to Newport Beach early in the morning. After all, she had just made a little speech about the brevity of life. This would be a good time to
carpe
the
diem
.

“Sure,” Christy said. “Where should we go?”

“How about The Dove's Nest? Randy and his band are playing there tonight. That's why I couldn't bum a ride from my usual source.”

“Okay, it'll be kind of refreshing to see my roommate.”

“You and Katie never see each other?” Sierra surmised.

“We're both pretty busy.”

“I told my sister that Katie and Rick were getting really close, and she was shocked. Did you know that Rick tried to flirt with Tawni at Doug and Tracy's wedding?”

Christy smiled as she pulled onto the freeway. “I'm not surprised.”

“But Katie says he's changed a lot.”

“Oh yes, Rick has changed a lot. God has been working in big ways.”

“You know what?” Sierra said. “I think Katie and Rick are good for each other. I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up getting married.”

“Why do you say that?” Christy asked.

“They're both so vibrant,” Sierra said. “The few
times I've seen them together, a sort of electricity flows between them. They spark each other. Katie is energetic all by herself, but when she's with Rick, she's brighter than ever, and so is he. Without her, he's kind of blah.”

“That's an interesting way of putting it.” Christy had never known anyone to describe Rick as blah. Sierra impressed Christy as someone who didn't let the outward shell of a person distract from the true self, which was hidden within.

They arrived at The Dove's Nest to find the parking lot packed.

“We might not be able to find a place to sit in there,” Christy said.

“This is good for Randy and the band,” Sierra observed.

“And for Rick.”

They entered and spotted a bunch of people they knew from Rancho. Sierra waved at her roommate, Vicki, and Christy said, “Do you want to sit with their group?”

“I'd rather just sit with you so we can talk. Let's see if the couch is open on the bookstore side. Last time I was here people were eating on the couches by the fire.”

Christy followed Sierra into the book portion of the store known as The Ark. The fireplace that was open to both the café side and the bookstore side had a couch and two cozy chairs circled around it on The Ark side. The couch was open.

“Perfect!” Christy said. “Would you like to save the couch for us while I order some food?”

Randy's band had just finished a song, and applause rose from the café. Christy was glad they weren't sitting in the noisy café. They could still hear Randy's band from The Ark but could carry on a conversation, as well.

“We could take turns,” Sierra suggested. “I don't know what I want.”

“Okay.” Christy went first, thinking how nice it was to hear someone else say she didn't know what she wanted. That had always been one of Christy's worst problems when ordering at restaurants. She had gotten much better, though.

Tonight she knew she wanted whatever the chef's special was. Katie had been raving about the fabulous chef they recently had hired. Tonight Miguel was offering artichoke pizza with sun-dried tomatoes. It sounded a little unusual, but Christy decided to give it a try. She stepped up to the counter, and Katie noticed her for the first time.