A Saint for Life

by Nicole Heck

  “My hands hurt, and they’re shaky, and it’s not coming out right. It doesn’t look good. Zoe won’t even like it.”

  “Oh sweetie, she would like anything you make her.”

  “But I want to make something nice for once!” I sniffled and wiped my tears and my nose with my sleeve.

  “Here. Let me get you a tissue, and then I can help you.”

  Just as Janice handed me the box of tissues, the doorbell rang.

  “Why is someone here?” I questioned as she walked to the door.

  “Gabe, looks like you have a visitor!”

  I wiped the tears from my eyes and lifted my head up a bit from the table when I heard her talking with a familiar voice.

  “Christian!” I sat up fast. Too fast. My head spun a bit.

  “Hey, buddy!”

  “What are you doing here? Zoe’s working.”

  “Oh, she is? That’s okay. We can hang out today. Just the two of us. How does that sound?”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really! What are you working on?”

  “I was drawing a picture for Zoe, but I messed up.”

  “Maybe I can help? I used to be really good in art class.”

  I looked over at Janice, who was smiling in the corner of the kitchen.

  “I would like that.”

  “Okay, how about you start it, and I’ll help you when I’m done.”

  “Done with what?”

  “I came over to fix the vents so that way it’s not so cold in here.” I saw he was holding a tool kit.

  “Oh, Zoe will be happy.”

  “Gabe, would it be okay if I left you with Christian for a while? I need to run out to the store,” Janice asked.

  “That’s fine! We’ll be okay.”

  “Yes, we will.” Christian fist bumped me.

  Janice left, and he went to go fix our heat problem. I started to draw again, but my hands were starting to shake. I was drawing a sunrise over an ocean, Zoe’s favorite thing.

  Picking up the blue marker to start coloring the water, I couldn’t get the cap off. It was really hard for me to pull it off. I wasn’t strong enough anymore. I even tried with my teeth.

  I sat back in my chair and stared at the paper and the marker. I didn’t want Christian to see how weak I was.

  “Christian, how do you get stronger?”

  He walked toward me and set his wrench down on the table.

  “Well, strength training and eating lots of protein. You eat your meat, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but…but I’m getting weaker from being so sick, and I want to get stronger.” I looked down toward the floor.

  “You will! I believe in you.” Christian put his hand on my shoulder.

  “Do you believe that God answers prayers?” I asked him.

  “I do. Do you?”

  “I think he answered one of mine.” I smiled and tilted my head on my arm. I was starting to get tired.

  “What was that?”

  “I asked him to make Zoe happy. She’s so upset since I’m so sick. But I overheard her talking to Janice, and she said you make her really happy.”

  “She said that?” Christian smiled.

  “Yeah, she did. I think God brought you into our lives to make her happy.”

  “I think so too. Now, what are we going to draw for her?”

  “I wanted to draw the sunrise over the ocean.”

  “Well, first you have to draw the horizon.”

  Christian took a pencil and drew a line across the center of the paper.

  *

  I finished the drawing with Christian’s help. Zoe’s going to love it! He really knew what he was talking about. Having him around felt like I had a brother too.

  “Yes! I win!” I shouted.

  “You are just too good! I will win next time. Rematch?” Christian suggested. We were playing NCAA on my PS3.

  Just as I was about to press play, I could hear the front door open downstairs.

  “Hello?” Zoe called out.

  “Shh, Zoe’s home.” Christian put his finger over his mouth.

  “Where are you?”

  I hid underneath my covers. Christian hid on the other side of my bed.

  “Hmm, where could Gabe be? Is he in the closet?” She opened the closet doors.

  “Nope, not in there. What about underneath the bed?”

  Zoe got down on the ground but jumped up in panic.

  “Oh my God! Shit, Christian you scared me!”

  I laughed underneath my covers.

  “Did we get you good?” I giggled.

  “Yes, you did!”

  Christian and I laughed, and he gave me a high five.

  “What are you doing here? I didn’t see your car.”

  “I parked around the corner so you wouldn’t see it.”

  “He fixed our vents and was hanging out with me all day.”

  I looked over at Zoe and back to Christian. They were both staring at each other and wouldn’t stop. Finally Zoe smiled.

  “Did you really?” Zoe said quietly.

  “Hey, Gabe, do you mind if I go and talk to your sister for a minute? Then I’ll come back in and we can finish our game.”

  “Sure!”

  I sat in my bed and tried to listen to their conversation in the hallway, but it was too low to hear. Today was such a good day. I really like having him around.

  “Thank you, God, for making my sister happy. Now please keep her happy. I don’t like seeing her upset. It’s not fair to her when she does so much for me. Thank you for bringing Chris into our lives, and please let me win when I play him in this game, I really, really want to win.” I prayed quietly.

  {19}

  Zoe

  Emily wanted to know all of the details. I haven't had a chance to hang out with her outside of classes because my schedule has been so busy, and I refused to tell her anything over the phone.

  I started to tell her everything that has happened as we put out the bobble-heads on the tables for today’s game. It was a giveaway night.

  “I don’t even know where to start. So much has happened.”

  “We have two hours before the game and a whole lot of bobble-heads to put out. I think you can get through all of it. Just start from what happened after the last game we worked together and don’t leave anything out. Remember who is watching Gabe for you tonight so you can go out.” Emily was so excited she could barely hold it in.

  I filled her in, starting with how I skipped the date he had planned and the events that followed the next day—running into him at the store, telling him about Gabe, our first kiss. And then I got into every time we’ve hung out since then, which has been a lot.

  “The day he came over and surprised me and fixed the vents, I watched how he interacted with Gabe, and I couldn’t stop smiling. It was the moment fell for him, or at least the moment I realized I was I was falling for him.” I smiled.

  “I don’t want to say I told you so, but…” Emily and I laughed.

  “Yes, you were right to give him a chance! That Wednesday night after practice he showed up and surprised me with dinner. Tuesday and Thursday I stayed home with Gabe, and we streamed the games on the TV through my computer. Christian made it a point to text me right before each game and as soon as he could after. There hasn’t been a day he hasn’t texted me. Not even a day went by this week without receiving a good morning text from him.”

  “You know how much I love good morning texts.” She stopped putting the bobble-heads on the table and listened intently.

  “Well, the last two weeks we have just been hanging out a lot and doing a lot of…kissing.” I couldn’t stop smiling as I continued to tell her everything. Just thinking about him brought a smile to my face.

  “Zoe, this is getting serious.” Emily stared at me with a huge grin, and I didn’t disagree. It was moving quick, but I didn’t even care. I leaned against the table and sighed.

  “I haven’t even finished with the rest of
this past weekend yet.”

  “So keep going.”

  “Friday after I got out of work, he was already at my house. He had a present for Gabe. It was a basketball signed by the entire team. Emily, I have never seen Gabe so happy before. When you see him tonight, I’m sure he will tell you all about it. That night all Christian wanted to do was play games with Gabe. I was so wrong about him. He has been amazing and such a good guy. Sometimes I wonder if he is even at my house to see me or Gabe.”

  “This is amazing, Zoe! He sounds perfect for you, and you sound like you really, really like him. So where are you going tonight?”

  “I do,” I smiled, “and I have no idea.” I thought about it for a minute. Not knowing where I was headed gave me a bit of anxiety.

  “You don’t know?”

  “No. He said it was a surprise. Again. He’s very enigmatic.”

  “Hm. I wonder what he has planned.”

  “Me too! Thanks for watching Gabe tonight. I didn’t want to bother Janice because I didn’t know how late we will be, and she’s been over a lot more lately.”

  “It’s no problem at all! Gabe and I will have fun!”

  *

  The game seemed to fly right by. As I walked to my car, I couldn’t stop thinking about Christian. The entire game I had sat there with my eyes glued on him. Every now and then he would catch me looking at him, so he’d flash me his gorgeous smile.

  How did I get so lucky? How did I get to this point? Is this too good to be true?

  I thought of all the girls who had been in the arena today who had their eyes on Christian too, admiring how attractive he was and his talent. Lacey, his ex-girlfriend, couldn’t take her eyes off of him either. She was beautiful. I glanced over at her a few times. Something about her made me uneasy, but he’s taking me out tonight. He broke up with her and is now with me. I never in a million years would have thought something like this would be happening in my life.

  At the end of the game, he had motioned for me to check my phone before walking off of the court from their win. A few moments later he texted me.

  “Meet me at this address in about an hour.” I looked back at this text again.

  Looking at the address, it didn’t look familiar. I’ve lived here my entire life and I’ve never heard of this street. After putting it into my GPS, it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere.

  Where is he taking me?

  *

  Arriving at the location, my observations were right. I was literally in the middle of nowhere. Christian looked like he had just pulled in a few minutes before I did. Turning his car off and opening his door, he stepped out onto the snow-covered gravel. Behind his vehicle was a trailer. I wondered what that’s for.

  “You didn’t take me here to kill me, did you? Where are we?” I joked with him.

  “Have you ever been snowmobile riding before?”

  “No, I haven’t.” Looking down at my outfit, I wasn’t exactly dressed to go riding either.

  “Don’t worry. We won’t be for long. We just need one to get to our destination. Here.” He took his jacket off of his back and handed it to me. “Wear this so you don’t get too cold.”

  Opening up the back of the trailer, he hopped on the snowmobile that was inside and backed it off onto the ground.

  “Is this yours?”

  “No. No, we don’t even have these in the city; there’s nowhere to ride. I borrowed it. Alpin Haus is a sponsor of the basketball team, so I was able to use one for the night. I met the owner a while back, so he cut me a good deal. Here, put this on.” He handed me a helmet this time. I did not think we would be outside tonight.

  Throwing the helmet on, I have to admit I was nervous. I had never ridden on one before, and I didn’t even know anything was out here. I was curious where we were going. Sitting behind Christian, I threw my hands around his waist, holding on tight as he held down the gas lever. Nausea overcame me. I’m not sure if it was more because of my fear of not knowing where we were or that I was hungry. I just assumed we were grabbing food, so I hadn’t eaten in a few hours.

  We drove for about fifteen minutes. My eyes were drawn to anything that looked like a destination, but there were only a few houses that I could make out in the distance. We drove through trails in the woods, across an iced over pond, and up several hills. Going over another and much larger pond, he slowed down. I soon was able to identify a large cabin up ahead. As we got closer, I noticed that it was lit up with Christmas lights. A few more snowmobiles were parked in the front of the cabin.

  “What is this place?”

  “You’ll see.” Christian remained mysterious. “Are you ready to go in?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” I responded under my breath with nervousness.

  We stepped up to the door. Before Christian could grab the handle, a man opened it.

  “Mr. Michaels, you made it! Your table is ready over there. Follow me.”

  Where are we?

  {20}

  Christian

  I watched the way Zoe’s eyes lit up as soon as we stepped inside of the lodge. Looking around this place, it was everything it was made out to be. Trees were in each corner of the room, and candles were burning on each of the tables in the center of a bowl decorated with scented pinecones. A Christmas-like aroma aroused my senses. Stockings hung from the tall fireplace that was burning adjacent to the table I presumed was set for us.

  Sitting down at the table, I couldn’t help but admire Zoe’s beauty. The lodge was breathtaking and even more so because of the girl who was sitting right in front of me. When I heard about this place, I wasn't sure what to expect. Frankly, my nerves were getting the best of me. I heard an ad on the radio the other day about a “magical and romantic destination for the perfect date.” It stemmed my curiosity because I had been thinking about planning another date for Zoe that entire day, so I had to check it out. From my observations thus far, this was more beautiful than I thought it would be.

  The lodge was named “Lorraine's,” a family owned restaurant. When I called to make reservations a week ago, I expected for them to ask me questions like “What's your name? Phone number? What time do you want your reservation for?”—all the same questions you normally got for every restaurant. Well, I got those, but they also continued to a series of strange questions.

  “This is amazing. How did you find this place?” Zoe grinned.

  “I have my ways. I’m glad you like it, Zoe.” I smirked. I wasn’t about to tell her I took a chance on something I didn’t know about.

  When we sat down, a man dressed as an elf approached us.

  “Welcome to Lorraine’s, where the magic of Christmas is celebrated all year long. Can I get you started with something to drink?”

  The smile on Zoe’s face said it all, and she let out a slight laugh. The place was different. It was unlike any other restaurant, and she seemed to love it. Now I understood why they described it as magical. It was February, but in here, it was still Christmas.

  “I’ll take a water.”

  “I’ll have the same,” I said after Zoe.

  “This place is now my new favorite place ever,” she said while looking around. “Seriously, where did you ever find it? I have lived here my entire life and I’ve never heard of it.” Her eyes lit up while admiring all of the Christmas decor throughout the lodge. “And Christmas is my favorite time of year! How did you know?”

  “I guess I just know you better than you think.” Luck seemed to be on my side tonight, thankfully.

  *

  The night was going perfectly. The dinner was amazing, except we were talking so much that by the time I finished it, it had become cold. Our conversation never seemed to end. A young woman, also dressed as an elf, approached our table with bags in her hands.

  “How are you enjoying your evening?” she asked cheerfully. I recognized her voice. She must have been the woman I spoke to on the phone.

  “Great! This place is amazing
!” Zoe spoke up right away and continued to rave about it to the woman.

  “I have something for each of you. We want thank you for spending your night with us here at Lorraine's. We hope that you had a magical time!” She winked at me as she handed a bag to the both of us. I stared at the bag placed before me on the table, unsure of what it contained.

  “What is this?” Zoe asked, laughing.

  “I’m not sure. Should we open them?”

  “You first.” She said.

  “Okay, okay.” She was hard to argue with so I opened the bag first. Before I took out what was inside, I now know what those questions meant on the phone. It was a mini Bop It. I could feel the huge grin that was appearing on my face. I got nervous when I began to think—what was in Zoe’s bag? I couldn’t give the woman a clear answer when she spoke with me on the phone.

  “Well?” Zoe asked curiously.

  Pulling it out of the bag, I laughed. “It’s what I’ve always wanted for Christmas! A Bop It!”

  “Stop it. You’ve never had a Bop It?” Zoe glared at me. “I cannot wait for this! I am undefeated. I’m the master. Gabe’s not so bad either!”

  “Oh, are you? No one beats me at anything.”

  “Guess you will know what it feels like to lose then shortly.”

  “Well, what is in your bag? Open it.” I was curious to see what was in her bag. This could potentially make or break the evening since she seemed so excited.

  Gently taking the tissue paper out of the bag, she smiled, pulling out a light green scarf that brought out the beautiful color of her eyes. As she continued to dig deeper in the bag, her smile faded, and tears appeared in her eyes as she pulled out the second item.

  “What’s wrong?” She sat still, staring into the bag.

  What else was in there? I got worried.

  “This is beautiful. I don’t understand. Did you do this? How did you do this? I’ve never seen this picture before.”

  “No, honestly I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I was confused.