by Reni Huang
Dan huffed. “Easy for you to say, you just have to bring your guitar. I have a whole drum set to lug around.”
“You’re killing me,” Geoff smirked.
As more people entered the room, Julia started to feel a bit claustrophobic. After the worship set, the lights came back on, and Julia noticed all the leaders heading up towards the front of the room. They performed a funny skit to welcome everyone back to school year, highlighting a couple of annual A.A.C.F. events that take place during the year. The room erupted with laughter and hoots of applause afterwards, as the leadership lined up and Randall began introducing them.
After the applause died down, Randall held up his hand and said, “Last but not least, Wynn Yoshida, who takes care of all our behind-the-scenes multimedia magic.”
Julia swiveled around to catch Wynn give his usual nod from the back of the room.
After the meeting, Lexi dragged Julia and Elliott to weave towards the back of the room to talk to Wynn. When they finally reach the little table Wynn had set up, a couple of upperclassmen were already gathered around him, chatting.
“Hi, Wynn,” Lexi said, not shy about interrupting the conversation.
Wynn looked up and grinned. “What’s up?”
“So we made a decision, and we’d love to help out with your church youth group!” Lexi announced without preamble.
“Nice,” Wynn nodded, glancing briefly at Julia to see if she was in agreement on this. “Let me give you my email. If you’re up for it, I can pick you guys up on Friday to check it out. You can meet the kids, and get to know them a little.”
Lexi and Wynn exchange information on their cell phones just as Geoff made his way towards them.
“Hey, Wynn, everyone’s headed to In-N-Out. Are you coming?”
“Yeah, sure, let me just pack all of this stuff up first.” Wynn glanced over at Julia and said, “You guys want to come?”
Geoff laughed and threw one arm around Julia and the other around Elliott. “Of course they’re coming, got to have the freshies.”
Julia cringed at being referred to as a “freshie” and knew Elliott read her thoughts by his muffled laugh.
Chapter Six
By the end of the week, Julia got around to buying a shredder from the campus bookstore. It had been tempting at times to try and rewrite her journals, especially the painful or humiliating parts. She cringed when she read the parts about how easily she had fallen in love with Craig. She had been so blind to his inability to be honest with her.
But she resisted the urge to rewrite her past. Better to face the truth, to make these painful guideposts serve as a reminder to her poor naïve heart.
Delving into her past through her journals brought to focus the revising of her Memoir assignment. Her first draft had been superficial she realized, just touching on facts about her family history, reading more as a biography outline with no distinct voice.
She had always viewed truth as something raw and blunt and vulnerable, that she reserved only for the privacy of her journals. It had been a barrier for her, something she was unable to connect into her Memoir piece. Never in a million years would she ever reveal to another person the things she confessed in her journals. But now reading through her journals in retrospect she was starting to see the flow of a story hidden in there, the journey, the growth.
Sitting on the floor next to her bed, Julia systematically ripped the pages out of her old journal, the words safely transcribed and saved on the black memory disc, and sent them zipping through the shredder. It was a bit sad seeing the words get torn to pieces, but she knew the sacrifice she had to make to keep her journals safe from prying eyes.
* * *
By the time Wynn’s car pulled into the cul-de-sac behind their dormitory, Julia thoroughly disposed the paper shreds into the back dumpster and had started on the third draft of her Memoir piece. It had been a long couple of hours between her last class and getting ready for Youth Group, giving her some space to relax and think. But at the now familiar sight of Wynn’s dark grey Honda Element, Julia felt a new surge of excitement flow through her mingled in with some panic.
As a child, Julia had followed Lexi and Grammy Lois to church. She grew to love being part of that church family. Youth Group had been a natural extension of that family.
Lexi had been the cyclone, with everything and everyone revolving around her, but Julia had been content with her place in that group. She was Lexi’s best friend, and for a time Craig’s girlfriend.
A part of her was excited to be helping out at a Youth Group now, while the other part only felt fear of the unknown.
“Hi, Wynn,” Lexi called out, as his car came to a stop.
Elliott put his guitar back in its case and stood up. Lexi had asked him to bring it along in case they needed it. He had been strumming a song, the same nameless melody he often played, while Lexi had excitedly chatted about random things while they had waited to be picked up.
The sun was starting to set when Wynn pulled into the small and empty parking lot of Leavesly Church. Around a thick leafy grove of trees, a small but tidily trimmed lawn curved around the modest paint-peeling yellow building.
“Those trees are beautiful,” Julia said, admiring their coppery rich leaves. “What kind of trees are they?”
“Cherry blossoms,” Wynn answered.
“Oh. I’ve never seen Cherry blossom trees in the autumn. I always pictured them covered with the pink and white little flowers.”
“Yeah, you’ll see it in the spring. The whole yard gets covered with them, like pink snow on the grass.”
Julia smiled at the thought and climbed out of Wynn’s car, trailing behind Lexi and Elliott. The church looked worn but well-loved. There were small attentions to detail with the hand-painted Sunday school banner strung along one wall, to the collection of mismatched used playground toys assembled under a cluster of trees to create a little children’s park that displayed the care of its members.
Wynn dug around for the church keys then let them into the dark building. There was a stale smell of the room being unused during the week. He flipped on light switches as they made their way into the small sanctuary. Their footsteps echoed on the wooden floor. The pews had a worn and faded red cushion attached to it. The stage area was small and seemed crammed even with only a piano and pulpit and two large chairs on it.
Elliott set down his guitar case, the sound echoing off the bare floors and walls, and Julia filed behind her friends into one of the pews and sat down. Wynn busied himself for a couple minutes, picking up leftover bulletins from the week before, and opening windows and doors to air out the week-old musty room.
“Should we help him?” Lexi whispered. Elliott shrugged, and they remained unmoving. After pushing the side door near the stage open, Wynn headed back to them and sat down on the pews in front of theirs.
“So, this is it. Not much but its home.” His usual confidence slipped a little, and Julia wondered if he regretted having them join him as his helpers. Having no words, she smiled reassuringly back at him.
“No, it’s great,” Lexi piped up next to her.
“So we usually start by singing a couple of songs. Chloe plays the piano, and if you want, Elliott, feel free to play along. I’m not sure what songs she chose for this week.”
Elliott grimaced at Wynn’s acknowledgement of his guitar. “Uh, yeah, I don’t have to play.”
Lexi seemed to notice Elliott’s embarrassment and quickly added. “I made him bring it, just in case. I wasn’t sure what the set up was like.”
Wynn nodded. “Either way, Chloe tends to play really softly, so it’d be nice to have a guitar. After that I usually go over the lesson. Just a heads up, public speaking isn’t my forte, I’m definitely more comfortable behind-the-scenes. But duty calls. Then after that we go over the questions listed in the book. And that’s it.”
“Sounds good.”
“So, uh,” Wynn mumbled as he swiftly pulled out his ce
ll phone to check the time. “I guess the kids are late. But this will give us some time to pray before they show up.”
They shuffled around until the four of them were in a huddle at the front of the room. Wynn began praying, and Julia couldn’t help but feel his anxiety. She wondered if it was because they were here and he felt uncomfortable leading and giving his lesson for the kids with them watching him. She knew that would freak her out, having an audience and everything. Or maybe he was slightly embarrassed by his humble church and the fact that his kids hadn’t shown up on time.
Lexi prayed next and Julia could tell she wanted to be encouraging with her words. She probably sensed Wynn’s nervousness too, but knowing Lexi, the unknown of tonight’s outcome was just an exciting challenge and nothing to worry about. For some reason she has always had that ability to fully trust in God’s sovereignty over a situation, completely believing that God was about to do something amazing and wonderful no matter the circumstance.
As Elliott started praying, Julia started to feel nervous. She had never felt really comfortable praying out loud in a group. Part of it was because she was just a private person, but more than just being shy, she never knew quite what to say, and especially following one of Lexi’s heartfelt prayers, hers always came out hollow and simple. Lexi giggled when Elliott ended his prayer by saying, “and please don’t let us mess up the kids too much. Amen.”
Julia took a deep breath and said, “Dear God, help us to know them and to love them the way you do. We need your guidance because based on our own abilities, we’re so limited. Amen.”
Before they could break from their huddle, the sound of a car engine shutting off and doors slamming could be heard from the open windows. Loud giggling and muffled voices wafted in along with the cool breeze of the early evening.
“Here they come,” Lexi squealed in anticipation, giving Julia an excited squeeze on the arm. Julia felt a bit faint.
The rest of the night blurred, and crawled at some points. With only five kids in the youth group, it didn’t take long to recognize some key traits about each one. Wynn had explained on the car ride over that they had all grown up together, their parents being friends from the church before they were even born.
Shep Yoshida was the oldest, a senior in high school, and Wynn’s cousin. He was tall and very serious.
Koda Nakahara was a junior in high school, and it was clear he did not care to be here tonight. During the worship set while everyone else attempted to sing along to Chloe’s muted piano playing, Koda kept his head bent over his cell phone, doing what seemed like text messaging by the way his fingers flew rapidly over the key pad. He also didn’t bother to disguise his loud yawns and long-suffering sighs throughout Wynn’s message.
Then there was Chloe Komura, a sophomore, who by the extremely soft way she was playing the piano either lack confidence, or was forced against her will to play. It was almost as if she hoped no one would be able to hear the music. It didn’t help matters that Wynn, who was leading the singing, was a bit tone-deaf and the rest of the kids straggled along barely singing.
The only two people who really gave it their all were Lexi, who sang as if an entire choir and orchestra accompanied her. And of course, Elliott, who as usual good-naturedly followed Lexi’s cue and sang along without breaking into the laughter Julia could hear at the edge of his voice. His guitar, which he had brought along, remained closed and set off to the side.
The two youngest girls were Vangy Yoshida and Pamela Komura, who are both freshmen. They were the younger sisters of Shep and Chloe, respectively. Wynn described them as being very hyper, which Julia believed to be true by their laughter and chatter when they first arrived. But right when Wynn called them to join the group, they fell silent, and now followed the lead of the older kids with their unanimated expressions and bored, uninterested attitude.
Not that Julia could really blame them. It was a bit discouraging how little the group was, and a bit funny in a sad way that there was almost a one-to-one ratio of leaders and youth kids. The most baffling part was Wynn’s delivery of his message. It was robotic to say the least. Julia tried not to cringe every time he began reading off his ratty old workbook in a distant and droning tone. He seemed unprepared, and the way he spoke lacked any kind of conviction, which was so strange because he was nothing like the person who rebuked her with fervor at the beach bonfire, and not even close to the guy who shared about his church’s youth group with apparent affection.
In the car, on the way over, the way Wynn described each kid, giving some funny or memorable background story on them, it was evident he cared about them. Without him even having to say so, Julia knew they were important to him. There was no other reason why he would give up attending a vibrant ministry like Aosta Verde Church to come back to this small, unorganized group unless he cared. But the way he spoke, none of it came across, least of all his love and passion for Christ. Julia almost nodded in agreement when Koda accidently let out a loud snort of a snore before Shep gave his arm a hard jab with his elbow.
* * *
“So that was interesting,” Elliott said as they waved good-bye to the retreating tail lights of Wynn’s car. Elliott followed the girls up the stairs to their dorm room. The car ride back to campus had been quiet except for the worship music playing in the background.
“Oh my goodness,” Lexi wailed dramatically, as Julia unlocked the door and they spilled into the room. “What did we get ourselves into?” At that, the three friends burst out laughing.
Julia wanted to say “it wasn’t that bad” but knew it would be a lie so she kept her mouth shut.
“Why didn’t you help him out and play the guitar?” Lexi asked Elliott as he sprawled out on her bed, his guitar already in his hands as he strummed out one of the songs they had attempted to sing earlier tonight.
Elliott laughed. “Nah, it seemed rude. I didn’t want to be like, well, hey, let me show you how it’s done.”
“And about the message, was that really Wynn up there? Who was that guy?”
Julia sighed. She agreed with Lexi. But what was there to say? It was so weird.
Elliott shrugged as well, but just continued strumming without commenting.
“What are we going to do?”
Julia sat on her bed and watched Lexi pace around their small shared room as she mumbled to herself, kicked off her flip flops, and started rummaging through their snack stash until she pulled out a bag of half-eaten Shrimp Chips.
Lexi had shamelessly begged Julia’s mom over the phone to buy some the next time she grocery shopped at Marukai, and then had nearly gone into cardiac arrest from excitement when a box full of Shrimp Chips arrived a couple days later.
“Lex,” Elliott signaled to her, and Lexi grabbed a handful of Shrimp Chips for herself before tossing the bag at him. Laying aside his guitar, Elliott munched noisily at the thin salty curly strips.
“Ok, this is what we’ll do,” Lexi said, wiping the crumbs off her hands, and going into organizer mode. “We can’t quit since obviously Wynn needs our help. Those kids all grew up in the church, which means they’ve heard all the Bible stories. So the next level is to make it really mean something to them on a personal level.”
“What are your ideas?”
“I think whenever we had to put into action something we were learning that’s when it made the most impact, like planning for a retreat, or preparing for our annual music tours, or serving at different charities,” Lexi listed on her fingers. “That’s when the lessons we were taught became real for me.”
Lexi continued to plan out loud, as Julia reached for one of her notebooks and started jotting down notes.
“And we need to do something about the worship time,” Elliott said half-jokingly, crumpling up the snack bag and tossing it across the room into the trash can.
Lexi gave him a hard glare and snapped, “Ellie! Did you eat all of my Shrimp Chips? You know how hard it was to get those. Now I’m going to ha
ve to beg Lia’s mom for more.”
Elliott shrugged and laughed, unaffected. Lexi never stayed mad at him for long. Knowing she had nothing on him, Lexi let out one last grumble, shook out her long hair, and then switched back into business mode.
“Fine, you’re right. Something major has got to change with the worship time. Els, how do you feel about starting up a worship team?”
Elliott shrugged and picked up his guitar again. “I’m fine with that, but we should run all of this by Wynn first. He is the leader.”
“Oh, right.” Lexi paused, then without missing a beat turned to look at Julia. “How do you feel about writing a script for a musical?”
“What do you have in mind?” Julia asked cautiously. Their youth group back at home went on a music tour every summer, performing at various churches and children’s hospitals along the coast of California. But Julia had never written a full-length musical, and wasn’t sure if she was up to the task.
“Well, considering that Wynn’s forte is producing, and some of my fondest memories from our youth group was rehearsing for then performing our annual musicals, maybe if we cater make one for this group, it could breathe some life and excitement and purpose into this youth group.”
“Do you think they’re ready for that? Our youth group was really different from this one.”
“That’s why we’ll write it ourselves, nothing too extravagant, maybe a short skit and two songs, something to get the kids thinking about how to share about God to other people. Hopefully it’ll make them more excited to show up, and make them pay a little bit more attention to the messages. Wynn can prepare lessons that stem from the theme of the skit.”
“I like it.”
“Me, too,” Julia admitted.
Lexi beamed. “Then let’s do it!”
Chapter Seven
Julia spent the next day sketching out a script in between homework. By Sunday morning, she had an outline ready for Lexi to present to Wynn. The three friends stood by the curve of the cul-de-sac and waited until his car pulled into view. The second they were in the car Lexi launched into her spiel about revamping the youth group. Julia wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she expected from him, but he seemed neither offended nor enthusiastic as Lexi rambled on about her Christmas skit idea. Every once in a while he would silently nod his head as he swerved up the mountain road towards Leavesly Church. Julia was trying to gauge his opinion on the whole matter, when he asked abruptly, “Do you write much?”