Mom paused. “We’ll be home soon.” Then she hung up.
Now Sierra was really stumped. Why couldn’t Mom say anything on the phone? Sierra retrieved her paper out of the printer and checked her e-mail, which was depressing when she saw it was almost all spam. She shut down the computer and cleared her things out of the office. Then she lugged the laundry basket upstairs to her room and started to sort clothes on her smoothly made bed. All her T-shirts were in one pile and all the clothes that needed hangers in another pile, while the third stack consisted of her underwear. One of her socks was missing its mate. For some reason, she thought she had seen it in her backpack.
Sierra went downstairs, retrieved her backpack, and brought it up to her room. Then, because she was in a cleaning mood, she dumped its contents out in the middle of the floor and started to sort through all the junk.
The sock was there, but it was dirty. She decided to run down to the basement and toss in another load so her laundry would be all caught up. On her way back up through the kitchen, Sierra decided a little midnight snack would be nice. She popped a piece of bread in the toaster oven and poured herself a glass of milk. The only way to eat toast late at night, according to Dad, was with butter and honey. That had become Sierra’s favorite way too.
Balancing the plate in one hand and carefully sipping the milk as she walked, Sierra returned to her room. She sat cross-legged on the floor, sorting through the backpack mess and munching on her toast, trying not to panic over Granna Mae.
In the thick of her sorting frenzy, she heard the front door open. She jumped up and ran downstairs. “Well? Is she okay?”
Tawni hung up her purse. “What a mess! That has to be the most unorganized hospital in the world.”
“What happened?”
“Granna Mae was confused. She got out of her bed and walked down the hall.”
“With the IV in?” Sierra asked.
“She pulled it out. Then she took the elevator to the lobby and went into the gift shop. She slipped and fell. Mom and Dad have been sitting with her this whole time in X-ray. That’s why they didn’t call. They were worried about leaving her.”
“I thought you were going to call,” Sierra said.
“Don’t you want to know how she is?”
“Of course I do.”
“She broke her foot,” Tawni said. “They just started to put the cast on when I left. I think Mom and Dad will be with her another hour or at least until she settles down for the night.”
“Is she still confused?” Sierra asked.
“Very. I think the doctor is going to put her on some stronger medication to sedate her.”
“When will she come home? Don’t you think she would do better here where she would be in familiar surroundings?”
“I don’t know what the doctor is going to say. I wasn’t convinced the guy even knew what he was doing.”
“He isn’t her regular doctor,” Sierra said, turning to go back to her room. Tawni followed her upstairs.
“Well, I didn’t think much of him,” Tawni said.
The minute Tawni stepped into their room, she barked, “Aren’t you ever going to clean up this disaster?”
“I did!” Sierra protested. Then she glanced around and realized that, even though her side of the room had been cleaned up for about ten minutes, now it was a disheveled mess with clothes on the bed, backpack innards strewn across the floor, and the remains of her midnight snack on her previously tidy dresser.
“You could have fooled me,” Tawni said, kicking off her shoes and placing them in her closet.
Sierra jammed most of her loose stuff into her backpack. Then, because Tawni had irritated her, she purposely shoved all her clean, folded clothes off her bed and onto the floor. She climbed into bed, unable to enjoy the fresh, clean sheets, and snapped off her light.
fifteen
THE ROLLER COASTER on which Sierra’s emotions had been riding came to a halt Saturday afternoon for a few precious moments. Then, without warning, the ride began all over again.
She was at work and had successfully made it through the first five hours without a mishap. She felt kind of eerie, as if she was just waiting for something to go wrong.
It had been a wildly busy morning. The time flew by. At noon, Mrs. Kraus told her to take a break and get something to eat. A tray of slightly burnt cinnamon rolls were up for grabs in the kitchen, so Sierra picked at one of them. But she had lost her appetite for cinnamon rolls after being around them all morning.
As she sat there, her hands sticky and her clothes smelling like coffee, Sierra felt content. Her job was going well, her dad had made the airline reservations, yesterday she had eaten lunch at school with Vicki and Amy, and this afternoon the sun had come out.
Sierra adjusted the dangling silver earring in her right earlobe and smiled to herself. She thought of another verse she had read in her speedy journey through Isaiah that morning. “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Right now she felt a little bit of that quietness and confidence in the Lord. It was very sweet.
Then the roller coaster ride started up again. Mrs. Kraus called into the back room, “Sierra, you have a visitor.”
She walked out into the busy shop and glanced around, looking for who it might be. Randy was standing by the cash register.
“Hi,” he said. “Do you want to go out tonight?”
Sierra felt her cheeks instantly flush. Several people were staring at her. “Ahh, tonight?”
“Around seven.” Randy said. “I thought maybe we could see a movie or something. When do you get off?”
“At four.” Sierra realized that Mrs. Kraus was beside her, trying to ring up a purchase at the register. “Oh, excuse me.” She stepped to the side.
“Randy—” Sierra began.
“Just say yes,” he said, lowering his voice. “Don’t make everything so hard, Sierra. We’re just friends, right? Friends can go to the movies without it being a big deal, can’t they?”
“Is anyone else going?”
“No. Do you want someone else to go?”
“Well.” Sierra didn’t know how to tell him that she had never been on a date before. She had never been asked, so she had never gotten an okay from Mom and Dad. Her parents had said that when she turned sixteen she could date, but her sixteenth birthday had come and gone without any dating prospects. “Could you do me a favor, Randy?”
“Sure,” he said, his crooked smile lighting up.
“Could you give me a call at home sometime after five? I need to check with my parents.” Then, because she thought it sounded kind of babyish, she added, “My grandmother is in the hospital, and I’m not sure if it would work out for me tonight.”
“Sure. I understand. Now can I ask you a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Can you give me your phone number?”
Sierra reached for a napkin and wrote it down.
“Thanks,” he said. “Now may I buy a cinnamon roll from you, or do I have to go back and stand in line?”
“I’ll get it for you,” Sierra said. “With or without frosting?”
“With. Definitely with.”
Sierra made sure she was paying attention as she pulled out a tray of hot, frosted rolls and used the wide spatula to scoop one into a container to go. She even plopped a little extra frosting on top before she closed the container’s lid. Randy took the roll from her and handed her the exact amount of cash. “I’ll call you,” he said. With a wave, he was gone.
Sierra let out a tight-chested breath and glanced at the clock. Her break was over, so she moved on to helping the next customer. None of her coworkers made any comments about Randy. She was thankful for that.
At the same time, she was dying to talk to someone about this major event in her life. She had been asked out on a real date.
As the afternoon continued at a sporadic pace, Sierra had more time to think about this date. She had dreamed about what it would be like when she was
asked out for the first time and who the guy would be. But she never had dreamed it would be like this, rather unromantic and so direct. And she never had dreamed it would be with a guy like Randy.
Nothing was wrong with Randy—or so she tried to convince herself. He was valuable “buddy” material. But she had never thought about going out with him. It made her wonder how long he had contemplated asking her out. Did he like her the first day he had met her at school? Or did something spark for him the other day in the cafeteria when she offered her hand in friendship? And if it did for him, why hadn’t anything sparked inside of her?
In the midst of wiping off tables and filling the little ceramic baskets with packs of sugar, it hit Sierra that maybe he was doing this out of pity. Maybe he felt sorry for her since she opened up a little about not having any friends. Sierra jammed a blue packet of artificial sweetener into the white basket and thought, He can forget it if that’s what this is all about. I don’t need his sympathy. I would much rather have no dates—ever—than to accept a charity date, especially from someone I thought was my friend!
She held to that course of logic the rest of the afternoon. That is, until she started to walk home and passed the mailbox into which she had dumped her flaming letter to Paul earlier that week. She still regretted sending it. If only she had waited and thought it through a little more clearly. Paul was teasing her, not attacking her.
She had had such strong feelings for Paul when she first met him. For weeks she had prayed fervently for him. And now she had ruined even the little bit of friendship they had had. Maybe it wasn’t friendship, but it was something. And it was still there, inside her head.
“Mom,” Sierra called out when she entered the house. “Are you home?”
“She’s at the hospital,” Tawni shouted back from the family room.
Sierra went into the family room, which was being remodeled. Dad had made an entertainment center and had christened it fully operational the night before. The boys were sprawled on the floor playing a video game, and Tawni was labeling some videotapes and filing them in a new tape drawer.
“Make sure you put them in alphabetical order,” Sierra said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tawni shot her a glance over her shoulder.
“I’m just sure that you’ll be happier once everything is in its proper place.” Sierra dropped onto the floor next to the boys and asked, “Who’s winning?”
“Nothing is wrong with being organized, Sierra,” Tawni snapped. “But then you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” She went back to her task, and the two sisters ignored each other.
“Do you want to play the winner?” Dillon asked Sierra.
“Sure,” she said. Then she remembered. Randy was calling at five. “Do you guys know when Mom and Dad will get home?”
“Dad’s here,” Gavin said. “He’s out in the workshop.”
“I’ll be back.” Sierra bounded to her feet and hurried out to the backyard. She found Dad in the dollhouse-looking workshop with goggles on and an electric saw revved at full speed in his hand. She covered her ears and waited for him to notice her.
He reached the end of the board he was cutting and saw her. Dad turned off the saw, flipped up the safety glasses, and said, “You’re home! So how did today go? Any adventures to add to Thursday’s account? By the way, I’ve called the people from Guinness Book of World Records, and they’re considering your experience for the ‘worst first day’ page.”
“Tell them to find some other klutz to write about. My dork days are over. Today was relatively uneventful.”
“Relatively?”
“I was asked out,” Sierra said.
Dad put down his saw and stepped closer to look into Sierra’s eyes. He had done that with all his children when they were little to see if they were telling the truth. As they grew older, he continued the gesture. Sierra thought it was his way of reading pains and joys they had learned to bury deeper inside the older they became. Dad always said that eyes were the heart’s mirror. “Tell me about it,” he said.
“It was a guy from school, not someone I just met at work, if that’s what you’re thinking. He kind of ate lunch with me one day at school this week. His name is Randy. He came into work and asked if I wanted to go out tonight at seven o’clock. I told him I’d need to talk to you. He’s calling at five. What should I do?”
A slow smile spread across Dad’s face. Sierra wasn’t sure what it meant. “Five o’clock, huh?” He checked his watch. “Leave it to me.” He revved up his radial saw one more time before turning it off and placing it on the workbench. Like a man on a mission, Dad whipped off his safety glasses and, with long strides, made his way out of the workshop toward the kitchen phone. “Yep,” he called over his shoulder, “you just leave this one to me, Sierra.”
sixteen
“DAD,” SIERRA PLEADED, glancing at the kitchen clock. It was quarter to five, and Dad stood next to the kitchen wall phone looking ready to “draw” the instant it rang. “You’re not going to do anything weird, are you?”
“Moi?” he teased.
“I don’t want you to do to Randy what you did to Tawni’s old boyfriend, Martin,” Sierra said.
“Who, Martin the Martian?” Dad asked.
“Are you guys talking about me?” Tawni said, stepping into the kitchen at just the right moment.
“Did Sierra tell you?” Dad asked. “She’s been asked out on a real, live date.”
“You’re kidding!” Tawni said.
“Nope. It’s true. Some poor, unsuspecting fellow named Randy asked her out at work today.”
“Where did you meet him?” Tawni asked.
“At school. He’s just a friend, you guys. I never would have thought he would ask me out.”
“It’s time you realized what a beauty you are, Sierra. I’m sure Randy will only be the first in a long line,” Dad said.
“Yeah, well, I just don’t want him to be the last after you get ahold of him,” Sierra said, crossing her arms and giving Dad a stern look.
“Oh, you’re not going to do to him what you did to Martin, are you?” Tawni asked. It was the first time she had taken Sierra’s side on anything in a long time.
“Listen to her, Dad,” Sierra said.
“That interview stuff you did with Martin was too much, Dad. Don’t do that with this guy. What’s his name?”
“Randy.”
“Don’t do that to Randy. You scared off Martin, and I gained a reputation for being the least accessible girl in Pineville! Don’t you remember how everyone made fun of me and said that whoever wanted to go out with Tawni Jensen had to first go out with her father?”
“It didn’t hurt you any, and I got a free game of golf and two dinners out of the deal,” Dad said. “Besides, that’s the kind of reputation I want my girls to have.”
“It doesn’t have to be extreme, Daddy,” Tawni said, slipping into her mushy side and pleading on Sierra’s behalf. “Maybe you could invite him over for dinner or something casual with the whole family. That one-on-one male bonding approach is too severe. Okay?”
Dad thought a minute and said, “I have an idea.”
Just then the phone rang.
Sierra looked at the clock: five o’clock on the button. She looked at her dad and then shot a skeptical glance at Tawni.
“I’ll answer it,” Dad said. He waved a hand at Sierra and Tawni as if to say, Don’t worry about a thing.
Sierra bit her lower lip and listened.
“Hello … Yes, Sierra’s right here. By any chance is this Randy?”
A short pause followed.
“Nice to meet you Randy. Hey, before I hand the phone to Sierra, I was wondering … ah, Sierra said you two were trying to make plans to do something tonight around seven.”
Another short pause.
“Well, if you’re interested, we’re having pizza here at six o’clock. You’re welcome to join us if you would like.”
Anot
her pause.
“Okay. Did you want to talk with Sierra?… Oh, okay. ‘Bye.” Dad hung up. His expression didn’t give any clues to what Randy’s answer had been.
“He said no, didn’t he?” Sierra said. “He canceled the whole thing and said he would never bother me again, right?”
Dad’s sly grin crept up his face, and the corners of his eyes crinkled the way they did when he was trying not to cry.
“What did he say?” Tawni asked, grabbing one of Dad’s arms.
Sierra grabbed the other arm and gave it a yank. “Tell us or we’ll pull you apart at the seams.”
“What kind of pizza do you ladies want?”
“He’s coming, then?”
“At six o’clock.”
Just then the phone rang. Sierra grabbed it before Dad had a chance to. “Hello?”
“Sierra?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, hi. It’s me again. I can’t believe this, but I forgot to ask where you live.”
Sierra let out a nervous laugh. While Dad and Tawni listened in, she gave Randy directions and then asked, “So you don’t mind having pizza with my family?”
“Are you kidding? I never turn down free food!” Randy laughed when he said it, and Sierra felt more at ease.
“I’ll see you in about an hour then. ‘Bye.”
“See you!” he said.
Sierra hung up and turned to face Dad and Tawni with a hint of a smile on her face.
“I told you to leave it to me. I know the way to a man’s heart. It’s through his stomach. Always has been, always will be. Trust me on this one, girls.”
“So what’s going to happen when the poor guinea pig arrives?” Tawni asked. “Are you going to lock him in the office and make him sign release papers before they can go out?”
“Noooo.” Dad gave Tawni a quick kiss on the forehead and then repeated the gesture on Sierra’s temple.
“What are you going to do to him?” Sierra asked.
“You’ll see.” He headed for the front door and called into the family room, “You guys want to go with me to pick up a pizza?”
“You’re going to change, aren’t you?” Tawni asked.
Sierra Jensen Collection, Vol 1 Page 20