Tracy opened the gift box, laid back the tissue, and expressed surprise and delight. Her cheeks began to turn pink.
“This is beautiful!” she exclaimed, lifting the sheer white fabric carefully from the box for everyone to see.
A chorus of oohs and aahs reverberated around the room. Tracy held up a floor-length white gossamer gown. A string of white ribbons and tiny pearls lined the front.
Tracy lifted the robe all the way out and handed it to her cousin, who sat on the other side of her, listing all the gifts as Tracy opened them. Then she drew from the box a short, sheer nightgown with thin straps.
“This is so pretty!” Tracy said. She held the elegant yet very revealing nightgown in front of her. Every woman in the room had something to say.
Sierra pursed her lips together and glanced around at the delighted guests. Tawni looked pleased that Tracy liked her selection, smiling as if she wouldn’t mind having such an outfit for her honeymoon. Christy was feeling the fine white fabric and smiling at Tracy. Tracy’s mom admired the nightgown and whispered to Tracy’s grandmother that it was a special gift.
“Doesn’t leave much to the imagination,” Katie quipped.
The women chuckled softly.
Tracy glowed. She shot her mom an excited grin and then carefully folded the gown and robe and tucked them back in the box.
“Thanks so much!” Tracy said, catching Tawni’s eye and then looking over at Sierra. “I love it, and I think Doug will, too.”
All the women chuckled again. One said, “Oh, you can be sure of that!”
Sierra felt like crying. She was surprised at her reaction. At first, she was embarrassed and a little annoyed at her sister for buying such a revealing outfit and for not telling her ahead of time what it was. Now she felt like crying. It was an emotional experience to watch her friend become excited about her honeymoon and shamelessly show how much she was looking forward to giving her body to her husband for the first time.
Swallowing quickly, Sierra held back the glistening tears that had risen to her eyes. She decided this was a powerful celebration for all the women partly because of Doug and Tracy’s purity. They hadn’t even kissed yet. Doug had vowed he wouldn’t kiss a girl until they were standing at the altar on their wedding day, and he had kept that vow. In two days, he would stand before God and many witnesses and promise himself for life to this special woman. Then he would seal that promise with their very first kiss.
The tears welled up in Sierra’s eyes again. She had never kissed a guy, and at this moment, she was intensely glad about that. She didn’t know if she wanted to wait until her wedding day for her first kiss, but she knew that when she did kiss a guy, it would mean a lot. A lot more than a first-date experiment, as it seemed to have been for Amy and Nathan.
Tracy held up a bottle of bath oil and lotion from the box on her lap. “Thanks, Heather,” she said. “You remembered.” She sniffed the top of the bottle. “I love this fragrance.”
“There’s another box there, too. It has the same wrapping. It’s for Doug, but you can open it,” Heather said.
Tracy tugged at the ribbon, and it snapped in her hand.
“Aha!” Katie’s short red hair swished as she announced, “That’s one! And on Doug’s present, too. Must mean your first child will be a boy.”
Tracy handed Christy the broken ribbon and gave a cute little shrug. She opened the box and started to laugh. “Oh, he’ll love this.”
“I thought we shouldn’t leave Doug out of all the bath-time fun,” Heather said.
Tracy lifted out a big bottle of Mr. Sudsy bubble bath.
“That’s perfect!” Katie said. “Now you have to name your first child Mr. Sudsy.”
Everyone laughed, and Tracy passed the box around the circle.
Forty-five minutes later, Tracy finished opening the gifts. All of them were personal items for her. She received four other nighties, including a long black one from Aunt Marti. The only duplicate gifts were lotion, but Tracy insisted she would use them both.
The gifts made the rounds of the women sitting in the big circle. Soft music played in the background, and candles gave off a faint scent of lilies.
“Before we cut the cake,” said Tracy’s mom, standing and trying to get everyone’s attention, “I’d like to say a few things.”
Sierra noticed Tracy’s mom had a note card in her hand, which was trembling slightly. It reminded Sierra of her dad at the restaurant. Why was it so hard for parents to speak to their children about the things deepest in their hearts?
“When Tracy was born, she weighed only four pounds and two ounces. We had to leave her in the hospital for almost three weeks because her lungs weren’t fully developed. I remember sitting by her in the hospital one night, wishing I could take her out of that incubator and hold her in my arms.”
The room had grown still as each woman listened. Looks of tender compassion brushed across their faces.
“I remember the day the doctor told me I could take you home,” Tracy’s mom said, looking over at her daughter. “I thought, ‘This is it! This is what I’ve been waiting for. Now I’m never going to let her go.’ Well, that was more than twenty years ago. And now I have to let go.”
Women all around the room began to blink. A few reached into their purses for tissues.
“I wanted to say something to you tonight that would let you know how much I love you. I found this poem, and it expresses exactly how I feel. It’s called, ‘What a Mother Thinks.’”
Tracy’s mom cleared her throat and read from her card.
“I love you so much.
There is no way I can possibly put into
words how proud I am of you.
You’re absolutely beautiful.
Sometimes when our eyes meet,
it’s like gazing into a reflecting pool.
I see in you glimmers of my past.
Do you see in me hints of your future?
You are everything I ever prayed for.
There’s nothing about you I’d change.
I love you more than you will ever know,
more than you will ever ask.
There’s nothing I wouldn’t give for you,
nothing I wouldn’t do for you.
You are my daughter, and I will always love you
with a love so immense, so eternal,
I could never find a way to squeeze it into words.”
Sierra swallowed hard and looked around the room. Everyone was crying.
“Would you please stand, honey? I’d like to bless you.”
Tracy stood, and her mother stepped over beside her. They were about the same height. With her short hair, Tracy closely resembled her mom.
Her mother placed her still-quivering hand on Tracy’s forehead, and paraphrasing Numbers 6, she said, “May the Lord bless you and keep you, Tracy Lynn. May the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”
The two women looked into each other’s eyes and exchanged unspoken words in the way only a mother and daughter can. Then her mom leaned over and, with a kiss on the cheek, whispered something in Tracy’s ear that made her smile.
The phone rang, and Katie jumped up to answer it.
“I’d like to first get a picture of Tracy cutting the cake,” her mom said. “Then please come help yourselves.”
Tracy had positioned herself at the table with the silver cake slicer when Katie burst into the room and said, “Trace, you have to take this call.”
“Just a minute,” her mother said. “Picture first!”
Tracy smiled, her mom took the shot, and Katie called out, “Hurry up! You have to hear this.”
Sierra watched as Tracy took the phone and covered her open ear with her hand. “Hello?…Yes…Yes…No… Where…Wait. Who is this?…Hello?”
She handed the phone back to Katie. All the younger women had gathered around her.
“What was that
all about?” Heather asked.
Tracy closed her eyes and shook her head. “I knew this was going to happen.”
“What?”
Tracy let out a deep breath and said, “Anyone want to go with me? The guys have kidnapped Doug. They said they won’t let him go unless I come see him first.”
“Where is he?” Tracy’s mom asked, stepping into the circle.
“They chained him to the Balboa Island Ferry and paid the captain to let him ride all night,” Tracy said.
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Christy said. “I thought the guys were going to do something really wild.”
“You haven’t heard the worst,” Tracy said. “They said I won’t recognize him.”
“Why?”
“I think they dressed him in some kind of costume.”
“Jeremy wouldn’t do anything like that to Doug,” Tawni said.
“Guess again,” Katie said. “I think that was Jeremy on the phone.”
“What kind of costume could he be wearing?” Sierra asked.
Tracy looked around at her friends. “There’s only one way to find out. Mom?”
“Go, honey. It’s okay. Here! Take the camera. We’ll save some cake for you.”
SIERRA SQUEEZED INTO THE BACKSEAT of Tracy’s car along with Christy and Tawni. Katie and another girl were in the front seat and five more followed in Heather’s car. Everyone in Tracy’s car was talking at once, and the dignity of the earlier hour had vanished.
“I’m going to park on the Newport Beach side,” Tracy said. “Let’s all walk onto the ferry together. Watch out for these guys. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had water balloons ready to launch at us.”
“Do you think it’s a trick?” Tawni asked.
“Could be,” Katie agreed. “They could be setting us up. Maybe they didn’t do anything to Doug, and they’re just trying to get you to fall into their trap. Did you ever think of that, Trace?”
Tracy stopped the car at a red light and looked over at Katie. “No—think about it. These guys have far more reasons to pull a prank on Doug than they do me. I kind of wished we had changed clothes, though.”
“There wasn’t time,” Katie said. “Your true love is in desperate need of your assistance. How can you think of changing into the appropriate attire for a rescue?”
“I like this dress. I want to take it on our honeymoon, and I don’t want those baboons to ruin it.”
“Hey, that’s my baboon you’re talking about,” Christy said.
“And mine,” Tawni added.
“If anyone has anything to get back at Doug for, it’s me,” Katie said. “I should have been on the baboons’ side tonight. Christy, remember when we went on the houseboat, and Doug gave me a black eye?”
“That was an accident,” Christy said unsympathetically.
“It’s always an accident with him, but he’s gotten me good more than once.”
The light turned green, and Tracy drove on.
“What kind of a costume would they put on him?” Tawni asked.
“Whatever they could find,” Tracy said.
“Or whatever they could afford,” Christy suggested.
“Gisele said she caught Larry calling around to costume shops last week. She didn’t hear what kind of costume he was asking about, though.”
“Oh, great!” Tracy said. “He might very well be a big baboon! Poor Doug, riding the ferry all night in a costume. I sure hope he keeps his sense of humor.”
“You think it’s a baboon costume, really?” Katie asked.
“Who knows,” said Tracy. “It could be a grass skirt and coconuts, knowing these guys.”
“I bet it’s a Raggedy Andy costume,” Tawni said.
Everyone started to laugh.
“Why in the world would you say that?” Sierra asked.
“Because Jeremy’s old roommate had a perfect Raggedy Andy costume. I saw a picture of him in it from a party he went to with his girlfriend. I bet they put Doug in that Raggedy Andy costume.”
“He would have thrown the red wig into the water,” Tracy said.
“And what’s wrong with red hair?” Katie asked indignantly.
“Nothing. It’s the wig. Doug hates anything restrictive on his head. He hardly ever wears hats. A wig would drive him crazy.”
Turning onto a side street, Tracy expertly parallel-parked the car. The girls were so eager that they piled out before Tracy had even turned off the engine. The car that was following them parked at the end of the block, and the other girls hurried to catch up.
“Does anyone have any money?” Tracy asked. “We need fare for the ferry.”
Heather said she had twenty dollars with her, enough to cover everyone. The girls took off in a rush, all talking at the same time.
“Do you have the camera?” Sierra asked.
“Yes. It’s right here. Everyone stick together and watch out for these guys. They’re sneaky.”
They rounded the corner and saw a large crowd waiting for the next ferry, which was approaching from Balboa Island, a short distance away.
“Do you see any of the guys?” Christy asked.
“No,” Katie said. “Maybe they’re on the ferry.”
The girls stood together, looking around and talking at full speed. Sierra fixed her eyes on the ferry coming toward them. When she had visited at Easter, she and some of her friends had ridden on it over to Balboa Island. She remembered the ferry was pretty small, just large enough to hold four cars. The journey took about fifteen minutes.
It was dark across the water, yet plenty of light was supplied from the Ferris wheel and the Balboa Fun Zone amusement park to their right. As the ferry inched toward them, they saw a big yellow something in the front section.
“Tracy,” Sierra said, tapping her shoulder, “what is that?”
Everyone looked to where Sierra pointed and squinted to see.
“Here he comes again,” one of the men in the crowd ahead of them said. “Poor guy. I wonder if he’s going to have to ride all night.”
A man next to him said, “I heard someone say he’s getting married this weekend. His girlfriend is supposed to come and make him promise not to chicken out.”
The people around the girls all laughed.
“His fiancée is here,” Katie said, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Now all eyes were on the girls, and the girls all looked at Tracy. She offered a weak smile to the curious crowd and gazed back out to sea.
“If I were you, I’d get while the going is good,” one of the men said. “I heard someone say they were going to call the police.”
“Oh no,” Sierra heard Tracy mutter. “He’s a big chicken.”
“No, he’s not,” Christy said. “Doug is brave when it comes to difficult situations; you know that. The police will understand it’s a prank.”
“Christy,” Sierra said, elbowing her and pointing to the big yellow blob in the front of the ferry. “Doug really is a chicken. He’s a big yellow chicken. Look.”
The ferry docked with a clunk, and poor Doug stood near the prow, dressed in a chicken costume, complete with a headdress, which Sierra imagined must be driving him crazy. He spotted them and called out, furiously waving his arms—or rather, his wings, “Trace! Over here! Hurry!”
All of them pushed through the crowd with quick apologies of “excuse me, pardon me” and dashed onto the ferry. Not one of the guys was anywhere to be seen. Doug’s costume was a mass of bright yellow feathers, detailed and authentic enough for him to qualify as halftime entertainment at a pro football game.
“Are you okay?” Tracy asked, reaching for his hand and catching her breath. A bowling ball was attached to the end of a heavy chain locked around Doug’s ankle.
“Get this head thing off me. It’s attached in the back, and I can’t undo it with these wings.”
Tracy fumbled with the clasps. “Help me, you guys.”
Tawni was the first to jump in, then Christy.
“Fare please,” the attendant said as the ferry pulled away from shore, towing them over to the island. He was a local beach boy with long, sun-bleached hair hanging in his eyes. He seemed unaffected by the chicken on board.
“Here. I have it,” Heather said, paying for all of them.
“Where are the guys?” Katie asked.
“Don’t move, Doug,” Tawni said, fiddling with the costume. “I’ve got it. Bend your neck, and we can get this off you.”
He cooperated gladly, and the giant feathered head and long orange beak pointed toward the ground. Within two minutes, Tawni had the monstrous, chicken head off him. A red-faced, heavily perspiring Doug looked at her with gratitude.
“The guys are on the island waiting for us,” Doug said.
“Oh yeah?” Katie said. “I want to see their faces when we pull up and show them we’ve freed you.”
“I’m not going anywhere with this bowling ball around my ankle,” Doug said. Turning to Tracy, he touched her cheek with his feathered hand and said, “Thanks for coming. Sorry if this interrupted your party.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tracy said. “Are you all right?” Two tiny yellow feathers stuck to her cheek.
“Much better now, thanks. I’ve been developing a bad case of claustrophobia the past hour. It feels good to breathe clean air.”
“You’ve been riding for an hour?” Tracy asked.
“I don’t know. It feels like days.”
“How are you going to take off the ball and chain?” Sierra asked. She knew she couldn’t handle having something like that around her ankle. She would do better trapped inside the claustrophobic costume than be weighted down with a bowling ball around her foot—especially on a boat. The guys hadn’t thought through how dangerous their prank could have turned if something had gone wrong on board.
“Larry has the combination to the lock,” Doug said to Sierra. “Unless you feel like trying to figure out the combination, hell have to get me off this big tub.”
Sierra Jensen Collection, Vol 2 Page 26