Chapter 4 – Date Night
Next Monday John and I bumped into each other, literally. I was walking around a corner in the science building and I threw up all over him. He laughed it off to Dr. Hendricks, and got us out of physics, but I didn’t appreciate his niceness so much this time. The whole horrible thing was his fault. Plus, I had to go see Dr. Shammas again.
His hair looked as bushy as ever and he'd had Mexican food for lunch. He looked in my eyes and ears and throat and listened to my chest. He asked all sorts of questions about my symptoms.
“It’s just the one symptom,” I told him. “I feel perfectly fine most of the time. I think, well, I think…” I trailed off. He was looking at me with suppressed excitement. I felt like an idiot trying to say that another student was making me sick.
“Maybe we should do a blood test to make sure you don’t have a parasite of some sort,” he said, still looking at me closely. “And I think, maybe a vision test,” he paused, as if debating whether to allow himself a piece of dessert. “Yes,” he finally said, like it was a treat, “I’ll do a vision test as well, sometimes changes in vision can cause disorientation and nausea.” I half expected him to rub his hands together and laugh or maybe drool in anticipation. He took some of my blood and while taping the cotton ball on me, asked me how I was adjusting to Rosemary Choate.
"It's great, just great," I said.
"You'll need to lay here for a minute. We don't want you getting dizzy or nauseated again." He leaned forward. "I understand your parents are in Mexico City?"
"Yep."
"Second largest city in the world."
"Okay." I didn't feel like being helpful. I'd gotten one too many strange vibes from him. Not to mention smells.
"I grew up in Cairo," he said. "Not as large as Mexico City, but close."
"Huh."
"A missionary couple came to Manshiyet Nasr, where I lived. They didn't stay long, but their visit meant a lot to me as a child."
"That's...that's cool. Is that how you became a Christian?" I asked. Maybe I was the one with a problem, judging him just because he liked to talk about religion.
"No, no, we were already Christians, but they illustrated an interesting point to me."
"What?" I asked.
"The necessity of the end."
Okay, I wasn't wrong, he was weird. "The end of what?"
"The end of the world, the beginning of the new heaven and earth - eternity. Don't you believe in heaven?"
Questions about heaven make me uneasy. People who spring questions about heaven are capable of anything... like hugging you unexpectedly or picking your nose.
"Yeah, I believe in heaven," I told him. "Can I go now? I've got a lot of work to do."
"Certainly." He leaned back in his chair finally. "I'll see you on Tuesday at ten for your vision test."
"This coming Tuesday?" I clarified.
"Oh... let's see, it'll take a week to set it up... Let's make it the following Tuesday, just in case."
Jayden caught me on the way to my room, and asked me out on a date. I pictured myself puking all over John. "You know what? I'd love to!" I said, somewhat defiantly. He was a little taken aback at my tone, but happy anyway.
Then I went on to my room and slept until the phone rang. It was my mom, calling from Mexico. Dr. Shammas had called to inform her of my illness. She offered twice to fly me out to them, or for her to fly to see me. I tried to convince her I was fine.
"It's probably how my body is relieving stress, Mom. You know how I used to sleep so much when I was stressed? Well, this is a faster way to get it out." I didn't need to tell her I'd just slept the afternoon away. She always worried when I slept a lot.
“You know Mom,” I told her, “it’s helped me to make friends faster too! Only the nicest people are trying to get to know me.” I laughed. “It’s saved me loads of stress. I told you about Katie, and now I’m friends with her friend Ava, and bunch of her friends have kind of adopted me. They’re super friendly. We're all going to a movie tomorrow night, and I’m going to start going to their church.” That sidetracked her fast enough. She was thrilled that I had some church going friends, and urged me to start going right away. I'd hedged a little when Katie invited me, but I figured I could start going anytime, so I wasn’t lying to my mother. I wasn’t sure what kind of church they went to, but Ava didn’t strike me as the kind of solid Baptist churchgoer my mom was probably picturing. My mom and I talked a while longer before saying goodbye, and I think she was reasonably reassured.
I was enjoying school, I hadn’t lied about that part. My group of friends was easygoing and accepting, for highschoolers, and I liked my classes too. I liked to be challenged and I certainly was. I’d gotten through my first round of papers and tests in the third week and I knew my grades were really good. I was proud of that too. This was a hard school, and it made me feel good to know I was doing well.
But I still felt guilty after talking to my mom. I hadn’t wanted to go to Mexico when they moved, and I didn’t want to now. I didn't love the idea of high school in a third world country, but the real problem was being a missionary.
I felt awful about not wanting to do it. Dr. Shammas' questions had brought it all out again. I googled Manshiyet Nasr. It was also called Garbage City. The pictures were worse than the name.
I was a Christian. I believed the same things my parents did, more or less, so I knew that I should want to be a missionary. I should want to spread hope to people in great poverty. It made sense. If I believed that Jesus died to secure men an eternity in heaven – how could I not want to share that? If I thought that people’s lives would improve by knowing the truth, if I thought Christ was the source of all joy, wouldn’t I want to go with my parents and be a part of it?
Well, embarrassment was one problem. I knew it was petty, and weak-spirited, but I was well aware how dumb and simplistic it sounded to say, "Christ is the answer." Like the world's problems are oh-so-simple. Like someone on the edge of starvation wanted a lecture on theology.
That was the other problem: the poverty. I had gone on short mission trips to Mexico, and it was so hard to tell people about my faith when they desperately needed better housing, clothes, and even food. It felt wrong to offer faith when they were sick and poor. My parents were trying to help with the physical stuff too, I knew that. But the whole thing made me uncomfortable. I'd felt like a hypocrite the whole time my parents were packing our house.
I'd tried not to think about it much since I got to school. I didn't want to go to church and be reminded. I knew I should just suck it up and go anyway. Particularly now that I'd told my mom I would go to church with Katie.
The next evening, Friday night, I met Jayden in front of the school for our date. I felt nervous, but just sweaty-palms nervous, not tied-in-a-knot public-speaking nervous. I wasn't sure if it was because Jayden always made everyone feel comfortable, or because I couldn't help thinking how much more nervous I would feel if I was going out with John.
Cut that out! - my inner voice yelled at me. John makes you sick, he's not worth it.
Jayden had invited me on a double date with Katie and Lucas, so I was surprised to see Ava and Bart in the backseat of his car. I was counting on Katie's chatter to fill the silences. I climbed in the front seat with trepidation. Ava's floral wrap skirt over her torn jeans looked way cooler than my brown slacks and green sweater.
"Hi Dara! Let's go!" Jayden said as I buckled up. "Lucas got demerits for his bathroom so he and Katie couldn't come. So I begged Ava and Bart to come, even though I know Ava will tear the movie into sentimental confetti when we're done." Ava looked positively pleasant when I snatched a peek at her through the rear view mirror.
The car ride might have been awkward, but Jayden was another talker, like Katie. Probably why I felt so comfortable with him. He wasn't a juggler like her though. He reminded me of someone shooting hoops by themselves. Occasionally the ball would get away from him and you'd have to throw it back. He was a little too conscious of the performance. But what high school guy doesn't want to make people laugh? At least Jayden was more confident than most.
I was relieved when we got into the theater. The smell of popcorn flooded into the darkness as we neared the doors. The lights and crowds were invigorating. I hadn't been away from campus for a month. We waited in a long line for popcorn and Sour Patch Kids.
The movie was long and romantic (I guess) and the heroine died at the end. I have zip patience with that kind of thing. It's not a good story when the main girl dies and the others are left heartbroken, but stronger for the experience. I mean, how much did we pay for that?
We were all kind of quiet when we walked through the crowds of the lobby back to the car. I'd remembered Ava's mother. I didn't know what was safe to say.
"Were we still thinking of getting ice cream?" Ava asked.
That did the trick. It had started raining hard so we all put on our coats and sprinted to the car. At the ice cream place I shook some of the water out of my hair and I got hot chocolate instead of ice cream.
Bart got butter rum ice cream and we all tasted a little bit. I didn't like it too much...I preferred chocolate. I wrapped my hands around the hot paper cup to warm up. The hot chocolate scorched a little going down, but the aftertaste was rich and dark and perfect. I took off the lid to blow on my drink when a crack of thunder made me jerk.
"Ouch! Hot! That hurt." I wiped my hands on a napkin.
The lightning flashed again followed immediately by another roar of thunder. The rain pounded down, I couldn't even see Jayden's car through the window.
At first it was fun. I liked storms. In Texas we always got some fantastic thunderstorms in the summer and fall. Spring and winter, too, actually. Pretty much anytime. But this one kept going.
After half an hour we started debating whether we should wait, or drive back to school in the rain. We were supposed to check in with our dorm monitors by 10:30, and it was nearly ten now. I was in favor of waiting. (Tornado warning, anyone?) But Jayden laughed at that. Bart and Ava were serious about not being late. I suspected Bart, and maybe Ava, had some demerits to worry about. Being late might put them over the edge.
Jayden gave in to Bart's urging, and agreed to drive on back. We ducked out into the rain, the cold drops bouncing on our faces and drenching our hair. My breath made a white cloud as I ran. Forget tornadoes, I thought, there's gonna be ice on the road.
I was a few feet behind the others when a flash of light illuminated the parking lot and I saw Jayden spin around with his mouth open.
Next thing I knew I was laying flat on my back in a puddle of water, getting drenched in the rain. Really drenched, my underwear was getting cold and sticky. The neon sign above me sparked and flickered, "Ic- Cre-m -alace." What on earth?
I felt like I'd just woken from a nap. A nap with a little sleet thrown in for good measure.
"Ow," was my first thought, my head throbbing. My second thought was, "Cats are the pentagons of the animal kingdom." I considered that for a moment and decided it wasn't pertinent to the situation. Which brought me back to, "Ow." To which I added, "Cold and wet."
I felt myself being lifted and realized I must have shut my eyes. I opened them with a snap and saw that, of all people, John was carrying me. I pondered that for a moment, and then added an exclamation point. John was carrying me! What was he doing here? Where was Jayden? Why wasn't I puking all over John?
One of my questions was answered as I saw Jayden run past us, to open the door of the Ice Cream Palace.
"Is she okay? You might have been shocked!" Jayden was saying.
John maneuvered me through the door and laid me on the bench of a booth. I sat up, holding onto the table, embarrassed.Ava's face swam into view, looking quite scared, for her. Jayden was kneeling in front of me.
"Dara, can you hear us? How do you feel?" he asked.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said, embarrassed at making such a scene. It came out, "Um fine, um fine." My brain was playing hide and seek with my mouth.
I tried again. "I'm fine. But I don't know what happened." I felt someone pressing on the back of my head, feeling here and there in a confident manner. I still felt disoriented. At any moment the ice cream place would flip over and leave me dangling from the ceiling.
"I don't think you hit your head too hard," John said, coming back into view. "Probably no concussion. Can you remember your address?"
"Um, Rosemary Choate?" I asked, feeling clearer now, "Or Mexico? The only one I can think of is in Texas - 15906 Parkway Dr., Canton, TX."
"Well, I don't know if that's right but you sound lucid enough. Do you feel nauseated?" he asked.
I laughed out loud, couldn't help it. For the first time since I met John, I wasn't nauseated. The laughter made my head throb again. Jayden looked confused and worried, probably thought I was really hurt.
"No, no, I feel fine now. My head doesn't even hurt." I had no idea why I felt fine though. John's presence alone should have guaranteed the contrary. "Is somebody gonna tell me what happened?"
Jayden shuddered, "You were struck by lightning, I think. I saw it hit the neon sign outside. You were a little behind us and your feet were in the water at the base of the sign. It must have ground out in the puddle and got you too. You just fell down. We were scared to step in the water..." he shot a glance at John, "but I guess it was safe after all. Are you sure you feel okay?"
"Yeah I feel fine now, seriously. Sorry for the big scene." I shrugged to my feet, shivering in my sodden clothes.
"Well, we'll get you back right away. The storm is letting up now," Jayden said, putting his arm around me. He reached up with his other hand to smooth my hair, "You look a little fried." My hair crackled with static when he touched me, despite being all wet, and he jerked his hand away from the shock. "You definitely got a dose of electricity out there. Let's get you to Dr. Shammas."