by Amanda Tru
Talk to you soon!
Woong
P.S. If you can’t think of anyone else maybe you should invite that police chief over. Does he like muffins?
Dear Miss Sheldon,
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to write again. Things didn’t exactly go as planned this week. You know that breakfast I was supposed to go out and have with my dad? Well, that didn’t work out for two different reasons. First, Mom read the school calendar wrong, and it’s not until next week that the teachers have those special meetings except she didn’t realize it soon enough, and I got to school late. But even if it had been a late school day, I couldn’t have gone to breakfast with my dad on account of him sleeping in. But it’s not because he’s lazy. The night before he actually got a phone call at two in the morning! Can you believe it? See, there’s this foster sister of mine, and she has a little girl with a lot of medical problems, and last night Tiff had to take her to the hospital and wanted to call my parents to ask them for prayers.
Dad said that after he prayed with my sister, he had a hard time going back to sleep, so he just got up and started working on his sermon, and he didn’t fall asleep until four or five in the morning, and he slept right on through that men’s breakfast anyway.
So that was the first thing that went wrong.
Then, that same day at school, I was supposed to turn in my social studies report. I worked hard and printed it up right before bed. But would you believe it if I told you that I printed up the wrong paper? Instead of the one that was due, I handed in the report on Martin Luther King Jr., the one Mr. Sheen already gave me a B+ on. I explained to him the mistake, and he said he was still going to take five points off, which is the same thing that happens if you hand in a paper late no matter what reason you have for it. I didn’t think that was very fair, but then Becky Linklater told me a funny story at lunch about her grandma getting stuck in a closet at the nursing home where she lives. (It’s okay because her grandma was fine which is why it turned out to be a funny story instead of a sad one.) For the rest of the day, whenever I got upset about those extra five points or mad at myself for printing the wrong report, I just thought about Becky’s grandma waiting around in that closet. The entire nursing home spent hours looking for her, and they were really worried she was lost or hurt or something on account of her going missing for that long. But then they discovered her in the closet, and do you know what she said? She looked right at the worker who found her and said, “That’s the slowest elevator I’ve ever been on.” And I think it’s so funny I laugh just picturing it.
Even though I started to feel better about my paper, the rest of that day didn’t go too well either because my throat started to hurt, and by the time I got home I had a fever too. So Mom put me to bed, and I didn’t even go to school the next day. (I got to email Mr. Sheen my report though, so it’s only going to count as late for one day, which is good news).
All that is to say that by the time the weekend came, I still hadn’t asked Dad about falling in love with Mom, and weekends are always super busy at our house on account of Dad being a pastor. On Saturday, he usually goes to his office to go over his notes, and that’s the day Mom gives me a lot of extra chores too, and it was the first day I wasn’t sick anymore, so there were a lot of extra things on my list. So that took up most of Saturday (plus I lost my computer time anyway for talking back to Mom when she told me to re-clean under my bed). And then it was Sunday, and did I tell you our church is so big we have three different services? Have you ever been to a church with that many services? Well, since my dad has to preach at all three of them, we’re at church all day. And then Mom almost always invites folks over for lunch or dinner or sometimes both after all those services are done, but I guess that’s not too bad because Sundays are electronic-free days at home anyway, so it’s not like I could be spending that time on my Wii or anything like that.
Which gets me kind of curious. What sorts of things does a Christmas ornament maker do for fun? Maybe you can write back and let me know.
Speaking of writing back, I have to go because Mr. Sheen gave us two whole chapters to read for social studies, and he says there might be a pop quiz tomorrow. I already finished the reading part, but I better go back and look at it again because I really want to go to summer camp next year only I can’t unless I get good enough grades.
But I’m planning to talk to Dad at dinner tonight about when he fell in love with Mom, so maybe I’ll have more to tell you tomorrow. Talk to you soon!
Woong
P.S. I liked hearing about your dog in your last email. What does he look like?
Hey, Miss Sheldon.
It was fun to hear from you. I really liked the picture you sent of Orion. He looks like a really nice dog. Did you name him that because of the constellation? We don’t have any pets, which I sort of think is an abomination, but Mom has allergies, and Dad says he’s too old to stand outside in the cold waiting for a dog to do his business on the lawn, plus we have a grumpy neighbor across the way who’d probably complain if we got a dog that barked anyway, so I just have to content myself with looking at pictures of other people’s pets.
I really liked your story about how Orion started eating so many of your ornaments that you made him doggie treats to hang on the tree. My only question is what happens if he forgets which one’s which and eats a glass one by mistake? One more question about Orion. Does he do any tricks?
So you know how yesterday I mentioned how I was going to ask Dad at dinner about when he met Mom? Well, I forgot that he had to go over to the church and lead youth group. He didn’t used to do it, but the youth pastor got married and moved, so now Dad has to run youth group until he finds someone else to take over. So we didn’t have much time to talk over dinner, but I did find out a few new things.
Like would you believe me if I told you that Mom and Dad had their first fight planning that Bible retreat I mentioned earlier? Dad wanted to make everything just about praying and studying the Bible and whatnot, but Mom said that they should do things like being outside and having campfires too. She said that God made the earth so we could enjoy it, so why should all the students at the retreat have to stay inside all day looking at hymnals or stuff and nonsense like that?
But then Dad told me his side of it, and it makes a lot of sense too when you hear how he puts it. He said there’s nothing wrong with enjoying hiking and campfires, but he wanted this retreat to be just for people to spend time on praying. He said if people were outside hanging out, it wouldn’t be any different from one big college party, which is exactly what they didn’t want it to be.
I thought that made a lot of sense until Mom said something like, “We can worship God outside just as much as we can worship him inside, and doesn’t the Bible say we should fellowship with each other just like we should pray to God and study the Word?” And even though that retreat happened so long ago, I could tell they still didn’t agree, and I thought it might turn into a real fight. But then Dad leaned over and asked me, “And who do you think won?” So I said, “Mom,” and he smiled and told me I’m a pretty smart kid. Then he had to go lead youth group, and I stayed home, and while I was helping Mom clear the table, she told me a little more about what happened next.
“After we had that fight,” she said, “I think we both learned to respect each other more. I learned that even though he can be stubborn sometimes, your dad is a very wise man with a real heart for helping people grow in their faith. And he learned that I wasn’t going to be the kind of woman who just sits back and lets the man make every single little decision he wants to.” Which if you knew my mom and dad is an awful lot like how they act with each other today, and they’ve been married basically forever already.
When we started cleaning up the dishes, I asked Mom how people liked that retreat they planned, and she said, “I don’t know. I didn’t go.”
I asked why not, and she said, “Because we had to cancel it.”
So all that
work and even that big fight, and they didn’t even get to have the retreat after all. But it’s kind of a sad story about why they couldn’t have it, and that’s the part Mom explained to me next.
“Dad and I were spending more and more time together the closer we got to the retreat,” she said, “and some folks on campus started to notice. They thought it was wrong for a black man and a white woman to be together that much. I don’t know who it was, but somebody told Dave at the hospital where he was working, and when he found out, he was furious.”
Dave was so mad, he called her parents and told them she was spending time with a colored man. That’s the term they used back then in the South for black folks like my dad. And her parents were so upset they told her if she didn’t quit going to my dad’s campus meetings, they weren’t going to pay for her college anymore.
Mom didn’t like that, not at all, and she said she’d rather drop out of school than stop going to church, which is basically what they wanted her to do even though it wasn’t a real church, just a college one. Mom said she had some money saved that would pay for her to finish the semester she was doing, and after that she’d either get a job and work her way through the rest or just not finish at all, but when Dad found out, he said he’d rather cancel the retreat than make her get in trouble with her parents.
So it’s kind of funny if you think about it in a certain way because she was going to drop out of college so she could go to his retreat, but he was going to quit working on the retreat so she could finish college like she’d been planning on.
Well, in the end, I think Mom would have got her way (because that’s how things happen around here more often than not) except it turns out neither of them got their way. Here’s what happened.
It wasn’t just Dave at the hospital and Mom’s parents who were mad about how much time she was spending with Dad. It was some other students from the college too. They started a rumor that there was a black man dating a white woman, even though they weren’t actually in love with each other or anything. Not yet at least.
The rumor got people upset, not just with my parents but with the college group too, and even a lot of the Christians were angry about it. A bunch of them came and said they wouldn’t come to the meetings anymore because it wasn’t right for a black man and a white woman to be dating each other. Which if you look in the Bible, it never says anything about it in there, but these folks acted like it did.
People started to threaten to beat up anyone who came to Dad’s church meetings, and a lot of students stopped coming then because they were too afraid. So even nice folks who didn’t have a problem with people dating even if they had two different colors of skin quit coming because they were scared, and that made things even worse for my parents, especially for my Dad since it was his job to be the campus minister.
You would think maybe it couldn’t get too much worse except that’s not what happened. Next someone called the campsite where they were going to have the retreat and told a really bad lie to the owners there. It’s probably not something I should write out, but it was about Mom and Dad doing things only married folks are supposed to do, and of course they weren’t married at the time, so the campsite told Mom and Dad they couldn’t have their retreat there after all. It really upset them both because the people who owned the campsite were good Christian folks.
Which makes me kind of sad, you know what I mean? Because it’s one thing if someone like Chuckie Mansfield, who says there isn’t any God and we all evolved from bacteria, is the person being so mean. But it’s a lot harder if it’s someone who says they love Jesus and have all their sins forgiven and goes to church regularly to act like that. Don’t you think?
That reminds me of another one of those stories Dad told my social studies class when he came in to talk about civil rights. Remember when I mentioned that? Well, Dad said that one of the things he and two of his black friends did back in the old days is they went to a white church. Because I don’t know if you know this, but in the South it used to be that white people went to one church, and black folks went to another church. It’s a lot different today because my dad’s black but the church has all kinds of people from all kinds of colors, and I’ve met a kid like me who was adopted from Korea, but he’s got an Indian mom (the real kind of Indian, not the Native American kind). And one of my dad’s friends is from this little island called Samoa, and he’s married to a white woman from Australia, so their kids have the coolest accent you’ve ever heard.
But back when my dad was just a teenager, before Dr. King convinced everybody to change things, whites didn’t tend to let black people into their churches. So my dad and two of his friends thought it was unfair, and they showed up one day at a white church in time for Sunday service. And at first, the usher refused to let them in, but then this little old lady —Dad says she had white hair and wasn’t any taller than four and a half feet all bent over —walked up to the ushers and told them they should be ashamed of themselves. Then she took my dad’s hand in hers and the hand of one of his other friends in her other, and she said, “Won’t you be my guests today in worship?” and led them all the way to her seat, which was in the very first pew in front of the entire congregation.
There was one man really angry about it, and Dad was afraid he was going to start a fight, but that lady got between him and Dad and said really loud-like, “The good Lord Jesus made us all the same in his eyes, and if you keep my guests from worshipping God with me today, I’ll just take my tithe money and worship somewhere else,” and that’s when the pastor came up and told Dad and his friends they were welcome. Dad isn’t sure if it’s because he was a good man or if he was worried about that little white-haired old lady taking her money away, but he said he’s never forgotten that old woman and what she did for them.
I kind of wish something interesting like that would happen at St. Margaret’s because nothing exciting ever seems to happen there, but I guess it’s probably good that we don’t have troublemakers like that at church anymore.
So that’s all the part of the story I’ve heard so far, but I’ll try to get Mom or Dad to tell me more soon. I hope you’re having a really good day. Did you try any of those muffin recipes I sent you? I’d recommend pumpkin, but the banana nut ones are pretty good too.
Did that police chief say yes to having breakfast with you?
Talk to you soon!
Woong
Hi, Miss Sheldon.
Well, I did it. I got Mom and Dad to tell me the rest of their story. You remember when I mentioned Becky Linklater’s grandma? The one who got herself stuck in the closet only she thought it was an elevator? Well, early last week she fell at that nursing home where she’s been living, and the doctors ended up having to give her an operation, which is kind of sad actually, but she’s recovering just fine now, so it’s all okay. Anyway, here’s what happened. Mom and Dad and me all went to the hospital to pray with the Linklaters. At one point, Becky and her mom got to go in to see her grandma, but me and my parents couldn’t come on account of us not being relatives. So while we waited to hear if the surgery had gone okay, Mom and Dad told me the rest of their story. And this time I got to hear it from both of them at the same time, so I can give you both of their sides.
Here’s what happened.
Remember how I told you about that rumor people started about Mom and Dad? Well, it got enough people so angry that Dad nearly lost his job as the campus minister. He had to do this meeting with a whole bunch of people who were like his bosses, and they were the ones who were going to decide if he was going to get himself fired or not. Mom came, and she was at that meeting with Dad because the rumors were about her too. Plus she felt bad that it was her boyfriend Dave (they had broken up by this point, by the way, and weren’t planning on getting married anymore) who caused Dad some of the problems in the first place.
Dad was really scared about getting fired. I guess you don’t have to worry about stuff like that, Miss Sheldon, on account of yo
u being your own boss and all making ornaments whenever you feel like, but for people working normal jobs, it’s a pretty big deal. Because Dad said he couldn’t think of anything else he’d like to do besides being a campus minister. He couldn’t play any more football on account of his knee getting hurt, and he hadn’t gone to seminary yet (that’s where folks study how to become a pastor), so he didn’t know how to start up a church like he eventually did. So he said he was scared, which if you knew my dad would mean a lot because when you first meet him you wouldn’t guess he was scared of anything in his entire life.
Well, Mom told me that when she went to that meeting, she just wanted to show up and set the record straight about that rumor and that was it, but when she saw how mean these men were treating Dad, she got real mad at them. She said, “Carl’s the most godly man I ever met. The only reason people are spreading lies about him is because of his skin color. I think you know it, and I think you’re looking for an excuse to get rid of him.”
Well, that got those bosses of his pretty mad! Mom can do that, you know, if she sets her mind to it.
And then she said, “I’m not dating Carl, and I never planned on dating Carl, but seeing how graciously he’s handled all the accusations you’re bringing against him, seeing how mature he is for putting up with this kind of prejudice, I have no problem going on record saying that I would consider it an honor to be with as fine a man as this.”
Well, the way she tells the story, she was just upset and said the first thing that was on her mind. But wouldn’t you know it, Dad thought she was being serious, so after the meeting (they ended up letting him keep his job, by the way), he asked her out on a date, and she said sure.