Peculiar Treasures

by Robin Jones Gunn

  “That’s too bad,” Katie said.

  “The sink works fine now. Did you know your Great Aunt Mabel died?”

  “No.” Katie paused. “Did I know I had a Great Aunt Mabel?”

  “Of course you did. Mabel was Edith’s sister. You know, my brother’s sister-in-law, Edith.”

  Katie tried to make all the connections in her head. She only knew a few of her distant relatives by way of photos that came occasionally with Christmas cards. She knew she had some cousins in Missouri. Or maybe it was Michigan.

  “I’m sorry for your loss, Mom.”

  “Wasn’t much of a loss for me. I never met the woman. I just thought you might be interested to hear the family news since I never know when you’re going to call.”

  Katie recognized the jab but dodged it and kept going. “Well, I’m calling now because I have some news.”

  “Are you getting married?”

  “No.”

  “You’re not already married, are you?”

  “No, Mom.”

  A pause on her mother’s end of the line was followed with, “You better not tell me you’re pregnant.”

  Katie clenched her jaw and fought the urge to hang up and never dial this number again. “No, Mother, I am not pregnant.”

  Katie was walking past a trio of freshmen women who stopped their conversation and stared at Katie. She lowered her head and steered off the main path to keep the rest of her conversation a little more private.

  “Listen, I have to go to a meeting in a few minutes, but I wanted to tell you my good news. I have a new job for the fall. I’m going to be an RA. A resident assistant. I’ll work in the dorm where I’ll be living in the fall.”

  A pause followed. “Is that like a janitor job?”

  “No, it’s more like being a counselor. A peer counselor. I’ll oversee the women in one of the wings of the dorm.”

  “Sort of like an apartment manager? Is that it?”

  Katie gave up. “Sort of.”

  Her mom paused. Katie knew something random would follow and braced herself for the hit. “Now, if the sink backs up there in the dorm, if you’re the manager, you don’t have to fix it or pay for it, do you?”

  “No, Mom.”

  “I’m only asking because our sink backed up last week. In the bathroom. Did I tell you that?”

  “Yes, you told me. I need to get going now. I just wanted to check in and tell you about the RA position.”

  “The what?”

  “The RA position.” Katie translated for her sixty-three-year-old mother. “The manager job at the dorms.”

  “Yes, you already told me about your apartment job. Was that it?

  Was that why you called?”

  “Yes, pretty much. That was it. I have to go now . . .”

  “Katie, you did check into doing janitorial work, though, didn’t you? The pay might not be as good as the apartment manager job, but you could work nights, and the hours would be more flexible, I would think. Did you consider that?”

  Katie swallowed and switched her cell phone to the other ear. She didn’t think it was possible for her insides to cringe any more than they were at this moment. No words came out of her mouth, which was probably a good thing.

  When she didn’t respond to her mom’s suggestion, her mother said, “Hello? Katie? Are you still there?”

  “Yes, I’m still here.”

  “I thought you said you had to go to a meeting.”

  “I do. I’ll talk to you later. Bye, Mom.”

  She heard a click on her mom’s end of the phone. No final, “Goodbye, Katie.” No “thanks for calling.” No “congratulations on your new job,” and certainly not now or ever a sweet or affectionate “I love you,” “I miss you,” or even an “I’m proud of you.”

  Only a click and an unemotional dial tone.

  8

  Katie clenched her jaw and fought to hold in the emotions she felt about her conversation with her mother. The last thing she wanted was to step into her first RA meeting looking as if her face had just gone through a car wash.

  She noticed a stone bench off to the side of the front of Crown Hall. Behind the bench was an outcropping of purple bougainvillea that climbed the wall and stretched out forming a protective canopy. Katie took a detour for the shaded bench of refuge and sat with her back to the door of the busy dormitory. With effort she convinced her breathing to return to a calm and steady pace.

  Note to self: Do not call your mother right before anything important. Better yet, stop calling your mother altogether!

  Katie knew her mother had no idea what an honor it was to be offered this position. Sadly, it was one of the many things her mother would never know or understand about her.

  Katie had spent years trying to explain the emotional disconnect she had with her parents. She attributed their detachment to her being a surprise baby who showed up when her parents were well into their forties. Her two older brothers were a pack of adolescent trouble, and then boisterous baby Katie was added to the mix. In many ways she had raised herself.

  That rationale didn’t make it any easier to accept that her parents never would know how hard Katie had worked to make it this far in college. If she managed to graduate, she would be the first person in her immediate family — and extended family, for all she knew — to graduate from college. That accomplishment alone was reason for her to keep going.

  Katie understood, however, that her friends rather than her family would truly celebrate with her on graduation day. Christy, Todd, Doug, Tracy, and especially Rick were the ones who grasped what an accomplishment her college degree would be.

  That is, once she decided what her major was.

  One issue at a time. I got the phone call to my mom over with. I’m through finals week, and right now, I should concentrate on the RA meeting.

  She walked into the meeting with her chin up and was met by a rush of welcoming comments from the group of seven other Crown Hall RAs.

  Nicole greeted Katie with a big smile, hugged her, and said, “They wouldn’t tell me who my new RA partner was. Then you walked in the door, and I was so happy! I’m glad it’s you!”

  Nicole was someone Katie had misjudged on first meeting her. Nicole’s thick, dark hair appeared always to cooperate. Her smooth skin, beautiful round eyes, and wide smile had put her into a pageant princess category in Katie’s mind. However, once Katie got to know Nicole, she discovered her to be down-to-earth, kindhearted, and occasionally hilarious. Katie felt confident they would get along well.

  In the glow of Nicole’s warm welcome, Katie entered the meeting and felt at home with her new pals. They spent some time connecting and getting a feel for what their responsibilities would be in the fall.

  Afterwards Julia invited the women to her apartment, but Katie was the only one who didn’t have previous plans for the evening. At first she felt a little awkward taking Julia up on the invitation, but in the end she was glad she did.

  Julia’s apartment was located at the end of the hall on the third floor, at the opposite end from the RDs’ office.

  “Craig and his wife have the RD apartment that connects with the office. I like it better down here,” Julia said as she opened her door. “Usually when someone comes to see me in my apartment, it’s for socializing. When they see me in the office it’s more for straightening out problems. Do you like tea, Katie?”

  “Yes, I love tea, and wow-oh-wow, where did you get all this stuff?”

  With a sweeping gesture to the collection of artwork scattered around the apartment living room, Julia said, “Around.”

  “Around where? Around the world?”

  “Yes, more or less.”

  “Where have you been?”

  “I’ve been in a few corners of creation. I’d like to visit a few more one day.” Julia headed for her tiny kitchen and put some water in the teakettle, plugging it into the wall. Katie started with the first wall in the living room and examined a picture of a sandy
beach that curved around a calm bay. Colorful fishing boats lined up in the sand, and tattered grass umbrellas fluttered in the afternoon breeze.

  “Where is this corner of creation?”

  “That’s Playa de las Canteras.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.”

  “And where is that?” Katie grinned at her hostess. “I hate to show my lack of geography skills, but . . .”

  “It’s okay. I can’t say I knew where the Canary Islands were located until I went there. They are a province of Spain, and they’re located about fifty kilometers off the coast of West Africa.”

  “I never would have guessed. What about this picture? Is that you?” Katie pointed to a framed photo on the end table. It was a desert setting with a brightly colored tent in the background, and a woman in sunglasses riding a camel in the foreground.

  “Yes, that’s me.”

  “In the Sahara Desert?”

  “No, they have camels in the Canary Islands. That was a fun day.”

  Katie had seen parts of Europe the previous summer when Todd, Christy, and she had traveled around together, but she couldn’t picture a place in the world where you could walk along a beautiful beach and ride camels in a desert setting on the same island.

  “The Canary Islands’ claim to fame is that Christopher Columbus set sail from there on his voyage to discover the New World.” Julia pointed to the large picture of the fishing boats and the bay. “Some things on the island seem similar to how they must have been when he was there outfitting his ships for the journey.”

  “Okay,” Katie said. “I’m officially in awe. So where else have you been?”

  “I lived in Austria for awhile. Then New Zealand and Brazil.”

  “How very, very cool. I think I’m jealous of your life. I have a friend who’s going to Brazil.”

  “Are you talking about Sierra?” Julia asked.

  “That’s right. Sierra lived in this dorm. Of course you know Sierra.”

  “She’s staying with some of my friends while in Brazil.”

  The teakettle whistled. “I’m guessing herbal tea is your preference,” Julia said. “Unless you’re still recovering from your herbal experiment.”

  Katie smiled. “I was hoping you had forgotten that piece of information from our first meeting.”

  “Do you like honey or sugar with your tea?”

  “Neither. I’m a purist.”

  Julia handed Katie a china mug that was sprinkled with purple and yellow flowers. “I bought that cup in London at the airport.”

  “Heathrow?” Katie asked. “They have great shopping there, don’t they? When I was there I wished I had money for souvenirs.”

  Julia lit a candle in the center of a trunk that doubled as a coffee table. “I love to celebrate conversations by lighting a candle. If the fragrance is too strong for you, let me know.”

  Katie took a sip of the tea. “This is nice.”

  The air around them now was laced with a calming vanilla-almond fragrance. Julia settled into a corner of her love seat, leaving a snuggly chair open for Katie. It was the sort of chair that beckoned weary souls from across the room and turned into a world of ministering coziness by the time the person sank into it.

  “Tell me about when you were in London,” Julia said.

  For the next two hours Katie and Julia compared travel experiences and even discovered they both had been to the same youth hostel in Amsterdam at different times and knew some of the same people.

  Long after the tea was gone and the candle had burned low, Katie asked, “So how did you end up here?”

  “I love this school. I love this campus and this community. I graduated from here fifteen years ago. After lots of ministry around the world, I ended up back at Rancho in a season of brokenness. I came on campus to spend some time praying in the chapel. The first person I saw was Craig. He knew me from way back and told me about the opening. The minute he told me, I knew this was what I was supposed to do next.” Julia smiled. “This is my passion. This makes me happy.”

  Katie remembered their conversation from Sunday night and said, “In case you’re about to ask me what my passion is, I should tell you that with finals and everything I haven’t had time to figure it out.”

  “I already know what your passion is. You told me earlier this week.”

  “I did? When?”

  “At our meeting with Craig on Monday. You said you love people.”

  Katie hadn’t considered “people” as her passion, but she didn’t disagree with Julia’s summation.

  “So now I have a question for you,” Katie said. “What was your major when you were at Rancho?”

  Julia smiled. “Which semester?”

  “You too?” Katie asked. If she didn’t feel kinship with Julia already, Julia’s changing her major more than once bonded Katie to her freckled resident director forever.

  “Yup. I changed three times before I ended up majoring in sociology.” Julia stretched out her legs and rested her feet on the edge of her coffee table. “At that point in my life, I knew I liked humans, and I wanted to do something that would keep me interacting with people.”

  “Sociology,” Katie repeated. At that moment it sounded to her like the title of a lovely song. A song she had been humming for a long time but never knew the words to.

  Could it be that simple? You send me here to have this conversation with Julia, and I decide on a major just like that?

  “Would you think I was a copycat if I decided to major in sociology?” Katie asked.

  “Does it feel like a fit?”

  “It could be. I’m interested in checking it out. I know I can do that online. It won’t be hard to find out which classes transfer. I’m going to check it out tonight.”

  “Do you meet with your advisor again soon?”

  “Next week.”

  “Tell me how it goes.”

  “I will. Thanks. I should get going. Thanks for the tea and conversation and everything. You are such an encourager.”

  “Email me or call me after you talk to your advisor, okay? I’ll be gone for most of the summer, but I’ll be back the last week of July. I’d love to spend more time with you before the RA training week.”

  “Yeah, I’d like that too.” Katie paused by the door before letting herself out. Next to the door was a beautifully framed plaque hung at eye level. The words made no sense to her.

  He aha te mea nui?

  He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!

  “What language is that?” she asked.

  “Maori. I bought that in New Zealand. It’s an ancient riddle of the indigenous people. The first line is a question, ‘What is the greatest thing?’ The second line is the answer. ‘It is people! It is people! It is people!’ ”

  “That’s so cool. I love that. I couldn’t agree more.”

  Katie left Julia’s apartment floating. “Now that’s the kind of woman I want to become,” she said to herself.

  The only hesitancy that shadowed her declaration was that Julia was single. Katie didn’t know if Julia had been married, or if she had not had the time to pursue or be pursued romantically while skipping across creation. For so many years Katie’s unspoken focus had been on finding a guy to love and a guy who loved her for who she was. She hadn’t contemplated that she might invest the first few decades of her young adult years in other ways. Julia had given Katie much to think about.

  On Sunday night Katie and Rick went to their favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. Katie couldn’t stop talking about Julia and their conversation at her apartment. Rick listened all the way in the car and kept listening after they were seated.

  When their iced teas arrived, Rick interrupted Katie and said he wanted to offer a toast. “Here’s to you, Katie.” He lifted his glass of iced tea and smiled at her. “Here’s to the end of all your finals, the completion of your junior year, and the start of summer — ”

  “If you say
summer school, I might have to toss this iced tea in your face,” Katie teased.

  “I was going to say, here’s to the start of summer vacation, and to a new job in the fall that provides you with room and board and a new friend.”

  Their red plastic tumblers gave a dull twap as they clinked together.

  One thing Katie had discovered being around Rick and his family for the past half a year was that they were big on celebrations. Going out to eat usually included a moment when they paused to offer a toast for something they were thankful about. Katie drank up the tradition, so to speak, and wanted to continue the pattern in her life.

  “Oh, and I have other news we can celebrate,” she added. “My major dilemma is solved.”

  “Did you meet with your advisor Friday?” Rick asked. “You said at work that you were going to try to set up an appointment.”

  “No, I’m going in on Tuesday. But I’ve decided to switch to sociology. I looked up all the information, and it makes so much sense. The good part is that it looks as if most of my classes will transfer.”

  “Katie,” Rick said, raising his cup again to celebrate her decision. “That’s great news.”

  “I know. I have a major, Rick, not a major dilemma. Just a major. Do you have any idea what a huge relief that is?”

  “I know it’s been weighing you down for a long time.”

  “It has.”

  “This is really good news, Katie.”

  “I know. And I’ll tell you some other news. Just as an F.Y.I., I’m ordering the chimichanga burrito,” Katie said. “The gordito size.”

  Rick grinned and looked at his menu, shaking his head.

  “What? Are you smiling because that’s what you were going to order too? Or are you smiling because you still can’t believe how much I can eat?”

  “I’m smiling because you’re going to be alone in your efforts. I’m not even going to try to compete with you on that one.”

  “Do you think I can’t eat all of it?”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt that you’ll eat all of it. I just know I’m going to hear about it for the next two days. You’ll say, ‘Rick, I can’t believe you didn’t stop me!’ So for the record, I’m telling you now: Stop. There. Now order whatever you want. This is our celebration dinner.”