Love Finds You in Snowball, Arkansas
Page 11
Still hoping,
Lucy Binoche
Chapter Eleven
THE ELEVATOR GROANED DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH, and when the doors opened, two tour guides and five members of the Bender family joined Matt, Lucy, Alison, Cyndi, Rob, and Brenda as they stepped into a vastness that the guide called the Cathedral Room.
Lucy wheezed as she drew air in through her nose and down into her lungs.
“There’s plenty of air in this cavern,” Matt whispered, and she knew he was right. But it didn’t help in the least.
“The temperature in this area,” the older of the two guides told them, “is kept to a constant fifty-eight degrees. Humidity, as you’ve probably noticed, is one hundred percent.”
Lucy had noticed.
“Along the way, you may spot additional visitors, such as salamanders, crickets, bats, and the like.”
“Dude,” one of the Bender boys commented to his cousin, “it’s like the Bat Cave.”
Wide, paved trails flanked with masonry curbs and handrails led them through the limestone caves. From the Cathedral Room and the Giant Column of colorful formations to the pure calcite formations in the Coral Room, the surroundings were magnificent.
When she wasn’t gulping air, Lucy had to admit that the cavern wasn’t something she would have chosen to miss. Her favorite sight was the Coral Pond, with delicate lacy patterns formed underneath the shallow water.
“Mattie, look at that. It’s incredible. It just really reminds you how great our God is, doesn’t it?”
For several minutes at a time, Lucy marveled at her ability to forget that she was underground. Sparkling flowstone, towering columns, and delicate soda straws kept her fascinated.
“I’m proud of you,” Matt whispered as they climbed the steep incline of the path, and it brought a grin to her face.
“Thanks. Me too, kinda.”
The tour guide led them to a seating area where they took a break and listened to detailed explanations about the formations before them. Lucy overheard one of the boys say that he wanted to take a keepsake from the cavern home with him.
“We hear that a lot,” the guide said. “But think about how quickly these incredible formations would disappear if every visitor followed through on that.”
Lucy let out a sudden scream as a large, thick object came out of nowhere and whacked her right in the middle of the forehead.
“Whoa! Dude, did you see that?” one of the Bender boys asked.
“What was that?” Lucy asked while rubbing her forehead.
“How cool was that?” exclaimed Ty, the youngest of the three boys. “Lady, you got hit in the head by a bat.”
Lucy’s first thought was to wonder why someone would bring a baseball bat along on such an outing. But as realization began to dawn, panic rose within her.
“Bats are fairly rare in this part of the cavern,” the guide told them. “But it’s mating season in the area, so every now and then in the winter months we’ll see a few of them.”
“Ewww,” Brenda moaned.
“I know,” Cyndi agreed.
“That being said,” the guide added, “you almost never see one misnavigate that way. Bats are equipped with a type of inner sonar, and—”
“Wait a minute,” Lucy exclaimed, popping to her feet. “A bat? A BAT just flew into my head?”
“Settle down, Luce,” Matt said softly, just a moment too late.
Before she knew what she was going to do, Lucy pushed her way past the row of people seated next to her and took off at a full run.
“Ma’am, please stay with the group.”
“Let me out of here!” she screamed, tumbling as she ran down the trail.
“Dude, she’s crying like your little sister!” one of the teenagers declared.
Lucy ignored the burn on the palm of her hand as it scraped along the ground, and she began scrambling so hard to make it back to her feet again that she plunked down one more time.
“Lucy, it’s okay,” Matt said, as he placed both hands under her arms and lifted her to her feet again.
“Mattie, I can’t. I can’t. I can’t breathe.”
“I know. It’s going to be okay. One of the guides is going to take us back up.”
“Now,” she gasped. “I need to go now.”
The cavern began swirling around her, and when something thumped against her arm, Lucy cried out and swatted it as hard as she could.
“Hey!” Matt exclaimed. “I’m not a bat!”
“S–sorry,” she managed before diving into the steel car. “Close the door.” Grabbing the young guide with both hands, Lucy shrieked, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.”
It was bad enough that most of the singles had a front row seat for her meltdown, but Lucy also had to spend the entire hour’s ride back to the campsite listening to the story as it was recounted to Justin and Jeff. Matt knew it must be killing her.
“Our tour was one of the most amazing adventures I’ve ever been on,” Justin told them. “But I’d almost give it up to witness that!”
“You should have seen it,” Cyndi told them. “It just came out of nowhere and dove straight at Lucy and banged her right in the middle of her head.”
“Yeah, and one of the teenagers on the tour with us,” Brenda added, “turns to Lucy and says, ‘Dude. You got hit in the head by a bat.’”
Lucy clamped her eyes shut as the roar of laughter kicked in again, and Matt resisted the urge to reach out and pat her arm.
The attendant at the first-aid station had checked her thoroughly for bite marks, and he seemed to feel he was comforting Lucy by assuring her that rabies shots wouldn’t be necessary. As she tried to control the hyperventilating that the news evoked, the attendant had treated the scrape on her palm and bandaged her hand.
Even though the skin luckily hadn’t been broken, Lucy’s forehead was still emblazoned with a large red mark, and her face wore the expression of a whipped dog on a leash. Looking at her just about broke Matt’s heart.
When they arrived back at the retreat site, Lucy was the first one out of their car. Seizing the opportunity, Matt called to the others for their attention.
“Hey,” he snapped. “I think she’s had enough now. Let’s try to be a little compassionate, huh?”
“We’re just teasing her,” Brenda defended.
“And I think we’ve mastered that. How about we just be her friends now?”
Matt didn’t wait for their reactions before climbing out of the car. Lucy was already heading up the hill as Alison called them all toward the lodge for dinner.
“Luce?” Matt called to her. “Don’t you want to come and eat something?”
“Not hungry, Mattie.” She didn’t even look back at him, and Matt resisted the urge to run after her. He knew her well enough to recognize her unspoken desire to spend some time alone to regroup.
By the time Matt had filled his plate and joined the others at the table, Lucy’s adventure was being detailed yet again, this time for Wendy, who had ridden back in the other car.
“She’s had a tough day, hasn’t she?” Wendy sympathized. “It started out with the elk, and now this.”
“What elk?” Brenda piped up. “Are you telling us that Lucy had a run-in with yet another member of the wildlife community today? The girl is a drama magnet!”
Her raspy laughter rubbed Matt the wrong way. He dropped his fork to his plate and scuffed back his chair.
“Okay. I think we’ve enjoyed more than enough laughter at Lucy’s expense.”
“Oh, come on, Matt,” Brenda said. “Lighten up. You have to admit that this is all pretty hilarious.”
“Not to Lucy, it’s not,” he replied. He got up from the table, leaving his dinner behind.
“It’s not like she’s here to hear us.”
“Matt, come on,” Justin called after him.
But Matt kept on walking. He didn’t want to risk saying something he might later regret.
Lucy s
tood in front of the foggy bathroom mirror and stared at herself. The redness was nearly gone from her forehead, and the bug bites were now imperceptible. But that huge slap of embarrassment stained across her cheeks and chest was unmistakable.
She ran her fingers through her thick, wet curls several times and then combed them back into a ponytail that she clasped with a thick blue band. Wrapping herself in a soft terry towel, Lucy opened the door and padded toward her bedroom to throw on some sweats.
She poked the earphones from her iPod headset into her ears and flipped on some music. Then she leaned both pillows against the headboard and settled back into them with a can of diet soda, a snack pack of Oreos, and one of Wendy’s Christian romance novels on her lap. Two chapters and four cookies later, she was feeling a little better as Wendy creaked open the door and stuck her head through.
“Can I come in?”
Lucy pulled out her earphones and turned the book facedown on her knee.
“If you don’t feel like talking, I don’t want to bother you,” Wendy told her. “But I brought you a doggie bag from dinner.”
“What did you have?”
“Barbecued chicken.”
Lucy smiled and motioned Wendy inside with a wiggling index finger.
“Oooooh,” she cooed as she peeled back the lid from the plastic container. “Mac and cheese?”
“A comfort food supper, Betty Sue called it.”
“Except for the string beans.”
“Right. Can I get you something to drink?”
Lucy motioned to the diet soda on the nightstand, and Wendy smiled.
“You’re all set then. I can leave you alone.”
“No. Stay.”
“You’re sure?”
She nodded, and Wendy scooted back on the bed and leaned against the wall.
“How are you liking that?” she asked when she caught sight of the romance novel. “I finished it last night. It’s one of my new favorites.”
“I needed a nice diversion. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. You’ve had a pretty rough day, haven’t you?”
Lucy tried to laugh. “As my aunt Trudy used to say, it’s been like trying to swim the English Channel strapped to a cannon.”
Wendy chuckled as Lucy took a big bite out of the chicken thigh.
“She had a bunch of sayings like that. ‘Like climbing Mount Everest on roller skates.’ Or, ‘That was as much fun as having a peanut butter dumpling for dinner.’”
Wendy’s chuckle rolled into full-fledged laughter, and Lucy couldn’t help but join her.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly an outdoorsy type of girl.”
Wendy lifted her eyes and grinned. “Not everyone is.”
“I’m a disaster, actually. But I got this idea in my head that I wanted to conquer these aversions.”
“Why?”
“Oh, it’s too embarrassing to tell you,” she admitted.
“Well, I admire the attempt anyway. It’s impressive.”
“Yeah,” Lucy said with a hint of sarcasm. “I’ll bet you’d have really been impressed today when I went flying out of the Bat Cave, shrieking.”
“I’m not entirely sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing if a bat had flown into my head, Lucy.”
“That poor tour guide,” she said with a laugh. “I grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him, screaming for him to get me out of there.”
They were both laughing so hard that Lucy had to set her dinner aside. And when Wendy let out a snort, they both fell over on their sides, cackling like hysterical hens.
When they were finally able to pull themselves together and sit upright again, Lucy sniffed and shook her head.
“You know, Wendy, I’m glad Alison roomed us together.”
“Me too, Lucy. It’s really been fun.”
“I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea in the beginning,” Lucy admitted.
“Why?”
“Well, you’re just so perfect. No one wants to be constantly reminded of her own imperfections.”
Wendy snickered. “I’m not perfect.”
“No? Name one flaw.”
“My hair, for one,” Wendy told her, twisting her hair around her fist and pulling it toward her.
“Your hair! Please! It’s like silk.”
“Straight and lifeless, more like,” she corrected. “You are the one with perfect hair.”
“Are you kidding? I can’t get it to settle down and fly right for anything.”
“You don’t want it to settle down, Lucy. That’s the beauty of having all those natural curls.”
“Just once, I’d like to see myself with straight, silky hair.”
“Well, that’s why God made straightening irons, my friend. I even use one on my hair now and then.”
“You do? Do you have it with you?”
“Sure do.”
“Sometime before the week is up, would you straighten my hair for me? Just to see what it looks like?”
“Of course. But you won’t like it.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
They shared another smile, and Wendy reached out and patted Lucy’s hand.
“Anything I can get you before I grab a shower?”
“No, thanks.”
“Are you coming to devotions tonight? Or have you had enough of us today?”
“I might. I thought I’d just rest for a while and see how I feel.”
“Good idea.”
Lucy watched her leave the room, marveling at the affection for Wendy that filled her heart. She suddenly regarded Wendy as someone she wanted to continue a friendship with, someone she could see herself hanging out with, chatting about work with, laughing with.
And then she thought of Justin.
For a moment, Lucy allowed herself to wonder whether Wendy was actually a better match for him than she herself would be. But a fresh supply of confidence came out of nowhere, and Lucy was reminded of the initial flyer Alison had created to solicit singles to sign up for the retreat.
RELAX. RENEW. REFRESH.
AND SEEK HIS WILL FOR YOUR LIFE.
She had come to Snowball determined to put her best foot forward with Justin, to play out the entire weeklong retreat and see how things turned out.
Okay, so things weren’t swimming along. There had been a snafu or two along the way. But like Scarlet O’Hara’s life at Tara, tomorrow was always another day.
“You look better, by the way,” Wendy said, as she came back into the room.
“I feel better,” Lucy told her. “I’ve decided to put today behind me and start fresh tomorrow. The worst really does have to be behind me now, right?”
“Right!” Wendy exclaimed in support.
“The activities Alison planned have hit every one of my problem areas already. What else could there be? I mean, unless it’s bungee jumping off some tall building, I think I’m good to go.”
“Excellent.”
“So what does she have planned for tomorrow, do you think?”
“Let’s see,” Wendy said as she rummaged through the papers on the nightstand beside her bed. “Here we go. Tomorrow, we…oh.”
“Not bungee jumping,” Lucy inquired with caution.
“No.”
“Good. What then?”
“Um. Hot air balloons.”
Lucy fell backward onto her pillows and covered her face with one of them as she let out a muffled scream.
I woke up in the middle of the night, just before I crashed to the ground after falling six-thousand feet off the side of a mountain. In a dream, of course.
Gee, I can’t imagine why I’m dreaming about falling from great heights.
Why, Lord, why? Why? WHY??
Why didn’t I read the calendar of events beforehand?
Why didn’t I just try to bond with Justin over coffee and stale donuts before Sunday services instead of coming on this ridiculous thrill ride of a retreat?
What is wrong with me? Why can’t I be an adventurer like Wendy? She crawled around the “Wild” portion of that cave visit until her jeans were clay-colored from hip to knee. And not once did a maniacal bat swoop down and smack her in the head while she did it. Why does she have to be so cool and I have to be so…ME?
PLEASE don’t let me embarrass myself today by fainting or screaming or falling out of the balloon. Bless me with Your peace and calmness and turn me into a normal human being, if just for a few hours, Lord.
Either that, or give me a nice big rainstorm so the ballooning is canceled? That’s not too much to ask, right? Or maybe some hail.
Watching for a blizzard,
Lucy
Chapter Twelve
“THE BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER WAS FIRST DESIGNATED A NATIONAL River in nineteen-seventy-two,” Alison read to them from the brochure. “It comprises one-hundred-thirty-five miles of floatable river and protected wilderness. Serenely float in a wicker basket high above the magnificent scenery for an unparalleled view of a lifetime.”
“Serenely float,” Lucy repeated to Matt. “That sounds good, right? Serenity isn’t a description that usually precedes the tale of four people plummeting to their deaths.”
“Settle down, girl. There will be no plummeting today,” Matt promised, and Lucy made a silent agreement that ended in “Amen,” suddenly turning it into a prayer.
They all stood back and watched in the distance as two hot air balloon canvasses were unrolled on the dewy morning grass. A chill meandered from the base of Lucy’s spine to the nape of her neck as large fans began filling the balloons with air. Heat generated by burners slowly raised the multicolored balloons to attention before them. Lucy figured they were each six or seven stories tall, and she looked up at the one on the right, imagining herself in the wicker basket beneath it, floating through the sky.
“Luce? Are you all right?” Matt asked in low-toned concern.