Sophie's Heart

by Lori Wick

  "Grandma Frazier?" Sophie questioned.

  "No, Grandma Riley in Florida. She and Grandpa run a big

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  souvenir shop down there, and they buy for all the people who work for them."

  Sophie was glad that Tory had filled her in, but she was desperate to draw Craig out.

  "Did you sell the most in class, Craig, or in school?"

  "In the school."

  Sophie's eyes widened, and a reluctant smile stretched across Craig's mouth.

  "How much, Craig?"

  "Three hundred twenty-nine dollars' worth."

  This time Sophie's mouth swung open, and Craig actually laughed.

  "Why, Craig, this is so good! I am so proud of you. I think I help with one little box, and here you are, world-famous salesman."

  Both kids laughed at Sophie's words as well as her expression, and Sophie's heart was greatly encouraged when Craig reached for his book bag and began his homework right at the kitchen table. It was only a small turning point, nothing too dramatic, but Sophie was thankful for this one slight step.

  ***

  Sophie had begun to think this day would never come. The calendar read November 7, 1989, and Sophie now stood just outside the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles, her driver's license in her hand. To earn it had taken a written test whereupon she earned her learner's permit, six weeks of lessons, and over 250 dollars, but she had done it. Brad Marshall had not been with her, but an older man, a Mr. Parker, accompanied her and was more than kind.

  "Well, you did it," he said and beamed at her. "Would you like to drive back?"

  "Oh, Mr. Parker, I would like that."

  He passed her the keys and away they went. It was a dream come true for Sophie, and in her excitement she had to force herself to concentrate on the ride back to the house. She thanked Mr. Parker a half dozen times, almost forgot to pay him, and nearly tripped on the walkway up to the front door, but she had done it; she had her license. She could drive a car! Her grandmother was going to be thrilled.

  Sophie entered the house to work, but she was so delighted that all she could do was plop down in the big chair in the family room. She prayed for many minutes before realizing that she

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  must get to work; however, something else caught her eye. The TV remote control was at her fingertips and, out of sheer exhilaration, Sophie pressed the button. She was flicking through the channels the way she had seen the children do, when she heard a man say, "Come on down! You're the next contestant on 'The Price is Right!'"

  Sophie moved to the edge of her seat and watched in amazement. She had certainly heard of game shows, but this was the first she'd ever seen. The colors were wonderful and the prizes were huge. Sophie's eyes turned to saucers when a woman won a brand-new, shiny white Cadillac.

  By the time the show ended, Sophie was talking to the TV and waving her arms at the contestants as though she were in the audience. Had anyone been home he would have heard things like: "No, no, you're going to overbid." "Take the money, take the money!" "Listen to the woman in blue, she knows." "Fifty-five cents is not enough. Spin again."

  By the time the show ended, Sophie was spent. She also realized she had been sitting for over 45 minutes.

  "What would Mr. Riley say to this, Sophie Velikonja," she scolded herself out loud and gave a determined push to the off button. "You are not being paid to watch television. For shame on you. Now, you get to work!"

  Sophie took her own advice, but the wonder of the game was still on her mind. In fact, when Tory arrived home from school and they had a few moments to themselves in the kitchen, Sophie put her face close and said, "I watched, Tory. I watched the show."

  "The Price is Right?" Tory nearly shouted.

  Sophie's head nodded an enthusiastic yes. "I won a boat," she stated triumphantly, and Tory howled with laugher.

  "I did not even know price. Ijust guess and I won a boat. Will you go sailing with me, Tory?"

  Tory's face was turning red from laughter, and tears were coming to her eyes, but Sophie did not let up.

  "I will wear little skipper hat and you can be the mate."

  She now did a silly little sailor's jig in the middle of the kitchen floor, and Tory collapsed into a chair.

  "Stop, Sophie," she gasped. "I can't take any more."

  Sophie only grinned. "Are you proud of me?"

  "Yes. I only wish it came on Saturdays."

  "Oh, me too. Then we could watch together."

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  They had just finished talking and laughing some more when Craig came downstairs. He searched Sophie out in the living room and struggled through the next few sentences.

  "I have to finish my homework," he began.

  "All right," Sophie said, wondering what was really on his mind and was thankful that Tory had gone to the family room when she'd moved to the living room.

  "Are you going to be around?"

  "Yes, Craig, I will work until after supper tonight."

  "Well, there's this girl coming. I mean, she's not coming to see me, but we need to go to the library and Rick's mom is taking us, but Melissa's mom is only bringing her this far."

  "All right." Sophie was sorting this out. "You want me to tell you when she comes?"

  "No, I didn't mean that." Craig looked flustered. "Ijust want you to invite her in."

  "Of course, Craig. I can do this."

  It looked like he had more to say, but couldn't find the words. After a few unsuccessful attempts, he only shook his head and returned to the stairs. His warning to Sophie was just in time. Five minutes later the front doorbell rang.

  "Hello. Is Craig here?"

  "Yes, he is," Sophie told the cute little girl on the step. "Please come in." Sophie waited until she was inside and then explained.

  "Craig is finishing homework. Would you like to wait in kitchen?"

  "Sure."

  Sophie led the way, and a moment later the girl was seated at the table.

  "I am Sophie."

  The girl smiled. "I'm Melissa. I live just a few blocks away."

  "Would you like a cookie, Melissa?"

  "Oh, sure. Thank you."

  "You're welcome. Craig tells me you are going to library."

  "Right. We're studying creation at school, and a few of us have agreed to be the evolutionists. Our library has a few books, but we need more. It's going to be hard because I don't believe all that stuff about millions of years ago, but I'm sure we'll learn a lot."

  "You and Craig are in same class?"

  "Yeah. Oh, hi, Craig."

  "Hi, Melissa. Rick here yet?"

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  "No."

  "Craig, would you like cookie?"

  Craig thanked Sophie and took a seat at the table. Sophie and Melissa continued to talk, but Craig did not join in. However, it didn't escape Sophie's notice that Craig rarely took his eyes from the girl.

  "Is there debate planned?"

  "Yes. It's not until next week, but we need to get ready. I don't know if you've met Rick, but he likes to make jokes, and every time we try to work on this we end up laughing."

  "You think it will be better at public library."

  "Yeah, they're pretty strict about noise, and we can spread out if we need to."

  "I gave report on evolution when I was 15.Iwas so nervous I don't remember everything I said, but I made people angry when I said it was godless."

  "That does get people upset," Melissa agreed. "They think we're bringing religion into it, but it's the truth. To believe in evolution is to say that the Bible is a lie, so God's a part of it whether people like it or not."

  "That sounds like good closing sentence to your debate," Sophie told her, and Melissa smiled a huge smile and reached for her notebook. Craig and Sophie sat quietly while she wrote, and it was at that moment that Rita joined them.

  "You look upset, Rita," Sophie commented.

  "I am!" she said in disgust. "I can't get a hold of Tina, and this Ger
man homework doesn't make any sense."

  "You are taking German?"

  "Yes." There was still anger in her voice.

  "Maybe I can help," Sophie offered, but both Craig and Rita looked at her as if she had grown another head. Sophie was about to laugh, make a joke of their response, and explain, but the front doorbell rang. It was Rick coming for Craig and Melissa. Sophie saw them to the door. By the time she returned to the kitchen, Rita had finally gotten Tina on the phone.

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  Another week passed before Sophie was able to tell heremployer that she was now a licensed driver. For weeks now Sophie had been retrieving the mail from the box out front since her own mail came c/o Mr. Alec Riley, but on this day Alec came in with the mail before she had a chance. Since he was there to work in his office, he probably wouldn't have spoken to Sophie at all. But there was a letter for her, so he sought her out in the basement.

  She had read somewhere that it was important to keep the filters clean on a furnace, so she had dragged the vacuum down the basement stairs to do the job. Alec's presence startled her because the vacuum had disguised all noise of his footsteps.

  "Sorry to scare you," he said distractedly, "but you have a letter."

  "Oh, thank you, Mr. Riley."

  Alec handed it to her and turned to go.

  "Mr. Riley?"

  "Yes." He was already on the stairs and not really looking at her.

  "I have license now."

  This captured Alec's attention. He came back down and stood before his housekeeper.

  "What's this now?"

  "I have Wisconsin state driver's license, Mr. Riley. I thought you should know." There was no missing the pride in Sophie's voice, and Alec smiled.

  "Well, now, that's great. I didn't know you were trying."

  "Tuesday mornings I do lessons."

  "That's right, Tuesday mornings. Well, congratulations. How long did it take?"

  "Six lessons and test on the next week."

  "Sounds like you're a quick learner. Did you drive in Czechoslovakia?"

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  "Some."

  "Well, good. Whenever you need the van for shopping and such, just tell the kids and make plans to take them to school."

  "All right."

  Alec then bid her good-bye, and Sophie went back to work. It seemed like such a little thing, but the fact that Mr. Riley trusted her so thoroughly brought freedom to Sophie. She asked God to help her be cautious and never destroy that trust.

  ***

  Friday and Saturday brought warm enough temperatures that Sophie and the children all went skating. Bundled up in her new jeans and a thick sweater, Sophie realized the girls had been right: It was much easier to skate in jeans. It was a great time of fun and laughter and seemingly their last chance.

  Sunday dawned with freezing temperatures. Knowing how cold she would be, Sophie could not bring herself to wear a skirt to church. But since she felt that attending was more important than how she was dressed, she set off with plans for Sunday school and the late service.

  She spotted Brad across the classroom during Sunday school. But other than a small wave with no accompanying smile, he did not look her way. Sophie would have liked to have told him that she passed her test, but his manner did not encourage such familiarity. In her final lessons he had been more like the warm, encouraging Brad from the first lesson, but Sophie still sensed a reserve without knowing the cause.

  Brad's behavior was still on her mind as she walked home, since she was a little fearful that she had done something wrong. In fact, she was so preoccupied that it took her a moment to see that the Rileys' van had pulled to the curb ahead of her. She stopped and watched the big sliding door open and Tory's head poke out.

  "Hop in, Sophie. We'll give you a ride."

  Sophie moved forward and climbed in to sit on the backseat. Alec was driving, Craig had the other front seat, and the girls occupied the second seat.

  "Thank you," Sophie spoke softly when the door was closed and Alec moved out into traffic.

  "Do you always walk to church, Sophie?" Tory had turned in her seat to ask.

  "Yes, I do."

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  "It's a long way."

  This was true, so Sophie only smiled. Alec had listened to this interchange and watched it in the rearview mirror, but he didn't comment until they were home.

  "Thank you for ride, Mr. Riley."

  "You're welcome, Sophie. Why don't you plan on riding with us each week?"

  Sophie blinked at him. "I do not wish to crowd, Mr. Riley," Sophie spoke soberly. She wasn't sure it was her place to ride with the family and didn't know what else to say.

  "I appreciate that, Sophie, but it's getting too cold to walk all that way. We leave at 9:30, and from now on we'll just plan on it."

  He turned and walked away then, leaving no time for discussion. Sophie wasn't sure her joining them was wise, but she could not find an argument that sounded reasonable. She had no choice but to let it pass. It stayed on her mind for quite a while that day, but she still had no answers. Then she realized that he was right. It was cold and it hadn't even snowed yet. She did need a ride.

  Unlike Sophie, Alec walked away from the conversation and didn't give it another thought. Today was the day he'd settled in his mind for an unpleasant task, and right now it consumed his thoughts. He had made a quick sandwich for lunch, had a glass of milk with it, and now he stood in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom and stared at Vanessa's clothes.

  He had shopped with her for some of these outfits and had actually given her others, but most she had bought on her own. Some she hadn't worn at all. He picked up the long sleeve of a paisley dress and found a price tag.

  Rita was Vanessa's size, but months ago when they had talked about her taking some of the clothes, Rita had not been interested. He now made himself grasp a handful of hangers and carry the clothes to the bed. He had worked methodically for some minutes, hangers in this pile, blouses here, dresses there, pants over there, when Tory joined him. She sat on the bed, almost on top of the blouses, and watched as he brought another load from the closet.

  "What are you going to do with Mom's clothes?'

  "Give them away. I don't think Rita wants any of them, and they're still a little big for you."

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  "This isn't."

  Alec stopped his sorting and looked at Tory. She was holding a pale pink sweater that he had tossed off to one side.

  "Try it on, Tory," he said easily, trying to ignore the yearning in her eyes.

  She slipped into it and then stood before him for inspection. He rolled the sleeves back several times, but still spoke encouragingly.

  "It's going to fit you before we know it, so why don't you run and put this in your closet?"

  "All right. I can maybe wear it next year."

  "Maybe."

  She was off, and Alec thought he'd seen the last of her, but she was back just minutes later. Without being asked, she began bringing shoes from the closet and stacking them at the foot of the bed. She got sidetracked at one point when she tried on a pair of very high dress heels, but she worked efficiently for some time.

  Rita was the next family member to join them, and not long after that Craig made an appearance. They both watched silently for a time and then began to help, too. Rita also slipped into a sweater, one that was a perfect fit, but she returned it to the pile. Alec had already decided to put a few things aside and mentally noted to include that sweater.

  "What are you going to do with all of this, Dad?" Craig finally asked. He was used to seeing his father with a hammer in his hand, and this all felt so odd that he didn't know what to think.

  "I'm going to box it up for your Aunt Janet. She offered a long time ago to take care of them for me, so I'm going to let her do it."

  "But what will she do with them?"

  "Give them away."

  "Like to a charity or something?"

  "I don't think so. She's too
tall to wear any of them herself, but they go to a large church, and with her Bible-study class she probably has someone in mind."

  This was an answer Craig could accept. He couldn't stand the thought of these clothes going into the boxes that sat in the parking lot of the grocery store. He loved and trusted his Aunt Janet enough to do the right thing.

  "When will you give them to her?" Tory wanted to know.

  "At Christmas."

  It was quiet for a moment and then Craig asked, "Could we just have Christmas on our own this year?"

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  "Yeah, Dad," Tory chimed in. "Just the four of us."

  Alec stopped what he was doing and stared at his kids. Rita hadn't said anything, but he could see in her eyes that she was warming to the idea.

  "I thought you guys loved going to Janet and David's."

  "We do, but we want to do Christmas and Christmas Eve here, on our own," Tory explained.

  Alec was so surprised that he was speechless. He was already looking forward to seeing David and his sister, but his kids' faces were hard to ignore.

  "We can have our own meal here." Rita now caught the idea. "I know Sophie would help us put it together."

  "So now we're inviting Sophie?" Alec asked.

  "No," Craig said quietly, "but I think she would help us cook if we ask her."

  "I see. We just say, 'Sophie, cook the meal and then take yourself out of here.'"

  That wasn't what they had meant at all, and in truth Alec did not know why he was giving them such a hard time-or maybe he did. Didn't they know what it was costing him to box up these clothes? And didn't they know how hard it was to be here at Christmas without Vanessa? They obviously didn't.

  "If you don't like the idea, Dad, we can still go to Chicago," Rita said after studying her father's face.

  "It's not a bad idea," he began, and then realized he was running again. He'd been on the verge of making excuses, but he had to stop. He spoke a moment later after he'd taken time to ask God for strength in this situation.

  "Run and get the calendar, Tory, so we can see what days we're talking about."

  She was gone and back in a shot, and everyone's head bent over the page when Tory pressed the 1989 calendar into her dad's hands.

  "Christmas is on a Monday. Would you want to go down Tuesday, or not at all?"