A Chance at Love

by T. K. Chapin

  Getting out of my car, I quickly headed in her direction in the hopes of catching her before she made it all the way through the faculty parking lot.

  “Mrs. Trey!” I said, raising a hand as I approached her.

  Grasping onto binders and books as she held them to her chest, she turned around and squinted through her big purple-tinted oval glasses.

  “It’s me. Kyle,” I said.

  Adjusting her stuff to one arm, she reached her hand out and shook mine as she smiled. “Oh, yes. Kyle Reynolds. The kid with the never-ending questions.”

  Grinning, I nodded. “That’s me. How’s it going?”

  She shrugged. “It’s going.” She furrowed her eyebrows and looked me over. “Thought you would have been in college by now, Kyle. I’ll admit, I’m a bit surprised.”

  “I’m taking some time off.”

  “Mmm . . .” she said with a bit of skepticism behind her tone.

  “What?”

  She looked over at her car for a moment and then looked back at me. “I’ve gotta get going, Kyle. Just get to college. Even if you don’t know what you want to do. Get there. You have a brilliant mind. It’d be a shame if you don’t use it.”

  I nodded. “Thanks, Mrs. Trey.”

  She forced a smile and patted my shoulder. “You’re a good kid. You’ll do fine in this life.”

  She turned and headed the rest of the way to her car. Putting my hands in my pockets, I turned and headed back toward my truck as I thought about what she had said in regard to college.

  As I opened the truck door, I saw Joanie come down the steps of the school from across the school yard. I smiled as I got in and fired up the truck, and Joanie picked up her pace as she looked up and saw me.

  Getting into the truck, she smiled and looked over at me. “I have a boyfriend!”

  “Oh, yeah?” I asked, bewildered by the news.

  “Yeah. He’s really, really sweet. He brought me flowers today at school.”

  “Where are the flowers at?” I asked, looking around her.

  “I put them in my locker; they came in a little vase that fits perfectly. I was going to take them home, but I’m going to keep them in my locker so I can see them every time I go to get my books. Anyway, he’s a really great guy. You’d love him.”

  “What’s his name?” I asked, pulling away from the curb at the school.

  “Brad . . .” she must have noticed my thinking face because she said, “You don’t know him, but he’s cool.”

  I nodded.

  The entire way over to Kelsey’s sandwich shop, she poured out everything she knew about the guy. It was quite impressive since she had known him for only a day and a half.

  When we arrived at the sandwich shop, we went inside and took a seat at one of the tables. Kelsey’s was a pretty small place, but it had a cozy and warm feeling to it, and the sandwiches were the best in town. With only a dozen tables in the establishment, you were sure to get outstanding service every time you ate there, even if you had to wait a bit longer than normal for a meal.

  “I’ve been blabbing all about Brad. Why don’t you tell me the latest with Ms. Emily?”

  Shaking my head as I fidgeted with a mustard packet between my fingers, I said, “There’s no update. Her phone’s disconnected and . . .”

  “What? Her phone’s disconnected?”

  “Yeah. I don’t know what I can do. She’s blind.”

  “Jeez, Kyle. Have a little couth.”

  Letting go of the mustard packet, I raised my hands up for a moment and said, “What? There’s no such thing as tossing rocks up at her window and having her sneak out or anything like that. I’m literally at a loss on what to do about it.” My hands smacked the table. “It’s frustrating.”

  “Didn’t you become a Christian? Isn’t there something you can do since you know God?”

  I laughed. “He’s not a genie in a lamp, Joanie.”

  “Wait. I saw a movie where he basically was one. They would just pray and He’d take care of everything that was wrong.”

  Shaking my head, I said, “That’s not how it works. But yes, I do need to pray more about it.”

  She leaned in across the table and lowered her voice, “What’s the deal with praying if it doesn’t get you what you need when you need it?”

  “It’s a relationship with God. I’m still new to all of it and learning, but praying helps calm me down when I’m upset. God’s there for me in a way that nobody else can be.”

  “I see,” Joanie replied. “Dad tried talking to me about salvation.”

  “And?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not feeling it.”

  “I’ll pray for you.”

  She nodded but said nothing.

  The waitress came over to our table and I ordered a turkey club and water. Joanie ordered a soda. As the waitress walked away, I said, “I talked to Mrs. Trey before you got out.”

  “She’s really weird.”

  “Bit of an odd duck, but she’s good. She recommended I get into college pronto.”

  “College?” Joanie questioned as the server came back over and set the soda and water down on the table.

  “Yeah . . . why are you questioning it?”

  She shrugged. “You just don’t seem like the college type. I figured you’d go join Uncle Brady and go right to work since he offered you a job up in Redmond.”

  “I don’t know about that. I’d have to move away from everything I know . . . bit of a leap.”

  “You’d make bank there.”

  “Yes, I know I would, but I’d have to move.” I thought about Emily. “I don’t want to move right now.”

  “Emily?” she asked as she brought her straw to her lips.

  “Yes.” I smiled. “She stole my heart, Joanie.”

  CHAPTER 15

  A few cars were in the parking lot of the mostly burned down grocery store that evening when I showed up to Mike’s men’s group. Checking my phone for the time, I saw that I was a few minutes early. I got out and headed to the west side of the building where Mike told me the entrance was. As I walked, I noticed all the damage to the building. While many of the windows were boarded up and the burned up wood cleared was out, there were still signs that a fire had ripped its way through the structure. My imagination took hold of my mind as I envisioned what the flames could have looked like as they reached out of the now boarded up windows and up the sides of the building.

  Coming around the side of the structure, I found the door. There was a laminated sign that read: Men of God. Reaching for the handle, I pulled the door open and went in.

  I walked into a room that was fairly large and open. It reminded me of the warehouse that my father’s shoe business operated out of. The floor was concrete and had a smooth feel under my sneakers.

  A few chairs were scattered in a circular shape a few feet over to the right. A couple of guys were sitting and discussing something to do with football. I looked across the room and saw Mike. He was standing with another gentleman and sipping on coffee beside what looked like some sort of treat table.

  I made my way over to Mike and the other guy. He tipped his chin to greet me as I walked over to them.

  “Hey, Mike,” I said.

  “This is Kyle, the young man I told you about that I work with at Pilo’s.”

  I shook hands with the guy Mike was introducing. The man was balding, probably in his late fifties, and held a warm smile on face. “Kyle. Nice to meet you. I’m Charles Eckerson.” He turned to Mike and continued, “Mike tells me you developed an app in High School?”

  “Yeah. It’s not much. It was an app a buddy and I made for our senior project. Just a basic inventory system for tracking groceries.”

  “I see. I see.” He raised an eyebrow as he looked intrigued. “What’d you use to build it?”

  “Primarily Java,” I replied.

  “Ahh . . . Have you ever worked with C++?”

  “A little bit. From what I understand, tho
ugh, it’s a bit unsecure in comparison with Java.”

  “There’s some validity to that.”

  Mike interjected, “Save the nerd talk. We’re about to get started.”

  We all headed over to the circle of chairs in the room, and I asked Mike, “Don’t we need to wait for everyone to get here?”

  One of the men already sitting said, “This is it.”

  “Oh, okay,” I replied.

  “It’s small,” Mike said as he took a seat and set his coffee down on the chair beside him. “But it’s big enough to make an impact on eternity. The Lord says, for where two or more gather, there am I.”

  Smiling, I nodded and took a seat.

  After taking prayer requests, Mike opened up the gathering with a prayer. Warmness wrapped itself around me as we prayed for God to heal our nation, to help the sick, and to guide those in positions of power. We also prayed for all the men of the world and a special request for the men of God that are raising families.

  “Amen,” all the men said together to finish the prayer.

  Mike opened his Bible and said, “Today, I want to talk about God’s will in our lives. Oftentimes, we have a very limited way of thinking when it comes to His will. This is natural, though, because our minds are limited. What kind of limitations do we have that God does not?”

  Charles raised his hand and Mike nodded to him. “We have only knowledge of what we have experienced. God has . . . you know . . . all of it.”

  “Good,” Mike replied. “What else?” he asked, looking around the room.

  “God exists outside of time,” another guy said. “So His thinking, like Scripture tells us, is not our thinking. He’s on a whole other level.”

  Mike nodded. “Yep. So when we talk about God’s will in our life, we’re talking about God’s desire from an entirely broader and higher level of thinking. Even though we might feel like we know what’s best, there’s no way we could possibly know better than God.” Mike looked down at his Bible and continued, “Matthew 26:39. ‘Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Mike paused for a moment and closed his Bible between his hands. “The son of God, which was man and God, had two distinct wills inside of Him, that of flesh and that of the divine. Jesus didn’t want to die, and He knew if there was a way out, His Father would deliver. Do you have two wills?” He asked, looking across the room. His voice deepened. “Are we, as men and leaders of our homes, looking for our own will to align with God’s? No matter what the cost?”

  The room was quiet as he paused again.

  His eyes met mine and then bounced to another man as he continued, “We obviously know our will should align with God’s. So how do we do it?”

  I raised my hand, and Mike looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. “I think we use this passage to outline our prayers for both wills within us. We pray for what we want, but we also pray that His will be ultimately done.”

  “That’s good, Kyle,” Mike replied. “Let me ask you this. What if God’s will doesn’t align with ours?”

  “We have to deal with that. I would suspect it’s easier to deal with not getting what we want if we are also praying His will be done regardless of our will.”

  “This kid!” Mike said with excitement as a grin broke out on his face. “Good! That’s really good.” He looked around at the other men and said, “God’s will is ultimately what we desire. Sure, we think getting our own way is ideal, but it’s really not. We don’t know what’s best for us. God does. Our thoughts only exist because he designed us to think. How much more powerful are His thoughts?”

  The words were sinking into my heart and soul. It was spot on to what I needed to hear. A little too spot on, in a way. I grew suspicious through the rest of the study. My suspicions led me to believe that Mike must have gotten some inside information about the struggles I was going through. He must have talked to somebody.

  After the meeting was over and everything was wrapping up, I hung back and followed Mike over to the table with the treats to help clean up the leftovers.

  “Did you like it?” he asked as he swiped his hand across the table to push crumbs into the garbage can.

  “I did. It was exactly what I needed to hear.”

  “Good.”

  “Yeah . . . A little too good. Who’d you talk to?”

  He stopped and looked at me. “What do you mean?”

  “Who was it? You talk to my sister or Grandma or something?”

  He laughed and continued to clean. “No, man. I didn’t talk to anyone.”

  “That’s not possible. It was exactly related to me.”

  He looked at me again, and he gently pressed his finger against my chest. “That’s the Holy Spirit, Kyle. God’s always working things together. He knew you were going to come tonight before you were even born. Remember? He knows it all. What’d you want to talk about the other day at work?”

  I smiled. “The message you delivered took care of it.”

  “Okay. I’m curious, though—what’s going on?”

  “Emily’s parents won’t let us see each other or even talk on the phone. Then the typical confusion about what to do with my life.”

  Charles came walking up to us. “Hey, Kyle,” he said, approaching me.

  “Hey,” I replied.

  “It was nice meeting you.” He handed me a business card. “Give me a call if you want to work on a project. It’s not super big, but it involves some C++ and some Java. I could help you on the C++ parts, but I feel like you could be valuable asset.”

  “Great,” I replied, putting the card in my wallet.

  “The pay isn’t bad either. I just need a young mind that can get in there and be teachable. Lot of the old cats can’t be taught new tricks.”

  “Right on,” I replied. “I’ll seriously think about it.”

  “Let me know.” Turning to Mike, he said, “Great talk tonight. Loved it.” He shook Mike’s hand and then left.

  Mike watched as Charles headed for the exit. He held a smile on his face.

  “You really as happy as you come across? This group is pretty small.”

  He nodded. “I have such a joy spending time with other men of God. That’s not to mention the thousands of lives that have changed through this group. We are actively involved with outreach in the community.” He grabbed the coffee pot and headed over to the small makeshift sink nearby to dump it out.

  I followed him over.

  As he rinsed it out, he said, “I’ve seen God make some radical changes in some of these men’s lives. I won’t go into the details, but they’ve been huge. The community outreach we’ve done has seen some excellent results too.”

  “How? If you don’t mind my asking.”

  “Door knocking is a big one. We spend a Saturday every month knocking on doors for Jesus.”

  “Wow. That’s gotta be scary.”

  He shrugged, and we walked back over to the coffee pot. “It can be. It’s good though. We invite people to church, talk about Jesus, and usually stick to one major neighborhood each time we go out.”

  “And that’s satisfying for you?”

  “Oh, yes, Kyle. There’s nothing quite like seeing the spark in someone’s eye when you tell them about how wonderful God is. It doesn’t happen all the time like that. Most of it is all about planting the little seeds.”

  “Seeds?”

  “Yeah. Just like when you plant a seed in the ground, the earth will yield something. It’s the same thing with humanity. Whatever you sow, you’ll also reap.”

  “That’s in the Bible, right?”

  “Yes it is,” he replied with a smile.

  After getting everything cleaned up, we headed out to the parking lot and I left to go home. On the drive home, I thought back to my parents and the conversation I had with my father. There wasn’t any way I could avoid a conversation with him forever, so I planned in my min
d right then and there that I would speak to him the following day.

  CHAPTER 16

  Making eye contact with my father the next morning in the kitchen as I sat at the kitchen table, I could tell he was still upset over the sour conversation we had previously. I watched as he poured his cup of coffee and then came over and sat down. Picking up the newspaper, he flipped through the pages until settling in on the sports section.

  Joanie came into the kitchen and pulled down a coffee cup. I was surprised, since I hadn’t ever seen her drink any coffee before. She glanced over as she pulled creamer out of the fridge.

  “You could cut the tension in this room with a knife,” she said with a bit of a laugh.

  “Coffee?” our father said, lowering his newspaper to eyeball Joanie as she returned over to the coffee pot to pour herself a cup.

  “I’m practically seventeen now, Dad.” She grabbed the cup and poured creamer into it, followed by coffee.

  He laughed. “You guys just seem to know everything nowadays. Why even have parents?”

  “Oh, stop that,” my mother said, coming into the kitchen. “You two boys need to talk and get over this. Did your father tell you the mechanic called?”

  “I was going to mention it . . .” my dad said, setting the newspaper down on the table. “The repair bill on your car is $437.”

  “Dang,” I replied. “There goes my savings.”

  My dad made eye contact. “Welcome to being an adult, Kyle. Next stop: the never-ending pit of debt.”

  I nodded while remaining silent. Rubbing the rim of my coffee cup, I kept my lips sealed until my mother and sister left the room.

  As Joanie rounded the corner and out of earshot, I said, “I feel bad for what happened the other day. I’m sorry for disrespecting you in any way you might have felt disrespected.”

  “I’m not paying for your car,” he retorted.

  His coldness cut me to the bone. He was ignoring the words I was saying, and he assumed that I was trying to get him to pay for my car. “I’m not looking for you to pay for it. . . I just felt bad about the other day. It wasn’t right on my part.”

  “No, it wasn’t right. But that’s what’s wrong with this generation. They think they know everything.”