Christy Miller Collection, Vol 4

by Robin Jones Gunn

  Oh, it’s Tracy.

  Now she wondered where Katie was, and if everything was cleared up between the two of them. She guessed it would become evident as the week went on.

  She didn’t have to wait long to see. After chapel their team assembled in the kitchen. Within two minutes, Katie and Tracy were disagreeing over how the tables should be set.

  Mrs. Bates, the white-aproned cook, stepped in and made it clear. “Knife only on the right side. Fork only on the left side. The spoon goes above the plate, like this.”

  “But that’s not how we do it at home,” Katie protested.

  “You are not at home.” Mrs. Bates said firmly. With a twinkle of good humor in her voice, she added, “This is how we do it here. And for this week, this is your home, and I am your mother. So mind your mother!”

  Tracy had every right to say “I told you so” to Katie. But she said nothing and calmly went about setting her tables while Katie walked around her table, resetting each place with the spoon above the plate.

  Suddenly Katie blurted out, “You guys, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m being like this. I keep trying to make everything familiar, and it’s not. It all seems so weird to me.”

  Oh no, there she goes with the weird thing again!

  Christy thought Tracy would arch her back like a cat. She didn’t. Instead she quietly stepped over to Katie. “I know. It’s not easy fitting into another culture, is it?”

  “I don’t see you having such a problem with it. I don’t see anyone else having a hard time.” Katie waved her handful of knives around the room. “It’s just me. I don’t fit in here.”

  Doug had proven to be a wonderful counselor more than once to Katie. He stepped in and put his arm around her. “Can we talk in the other room, Katie? I think these guys can set the table without you.”

  Katie let her knives drop loudly onto the table. “Yeah, they’ll do a better job without me.” She walked out of the dining room with Doug’s arm still around her.

  The rest of the team went about their lunch duties without saying much.

  Tracy came up to Christy. “Could I talk to you sometime?”

  “Sure,” Christy answered. “Right after lunch.”

  Lunch was the main meal every day, and today it was sausages, scalloped potatoes, and once again, mushy peas. Doug and Katie had returned to the dining room in time to eat, and even though they sat across the room. Christy could tell Katie had been crying.

  As soon as the team had finished their cleanup duties, Tracy and Christy headed for a sequestered nook with a padded bench seat. A tall, arched window beside them opened up a view of the lawn that stretched all the way down to the brook. Beyond that was the forest.

  “I wanted to ask you something,” Tracy said.

  Christy liked Tracy, with her gentle yet direct manner. The two had shared many meaningful conversations over the years, and this felt like it was going to be one of those heart-to-heart talks.

  “What can I do to change things with Katie? I feel awful. I thought London would be so fun with you guys. And it was, in a way. But the whole time I felt like Katie was mad at me. I don’t know what to do.”

  Christy tried to accurately represent one friend to another. She found it wasn’t easy. “I know Katie doesn’t want to be acting, well…for lack of a better word, ‘weird.’ I guess this trip is harder for her than she thought it would be. I don’t think it’s you, Tracy. I think it’s everything being so different. This doesn’t seem to be Katie’s cup of tea, so to speak. I know she’s trying though. I don’t think you could do anything differently than you’ve been doing it.”

  “Every time I open my mouth, I seem to offend her,” Tracy said. “I don’t know what the problem is. What do you think I should do?”

  “I think you two should talk. You’re both special friends to me, and I’ll be honest, it has bothered me that things have been tense. I think the two of you should sit down and talk.”

  “Do you want to be there?”

  “I don’t think that would help. It would be better if it was just the two of you.”

  Tracy let out a sigh. “I guess you’re right. I’ll try to talk to her this afternoon. Pray for us, okay?”

  “I will.” Christy squeezed Tracy’s hand, and the two friends sat silently for a few minutes on the tapestry-covered seat, gazing out the window.

  “Can’t you just picture some princess sitting at this very seat hundreds of years ago, waiting for her prince to ride up on his white horse and whisk her away to the ends of the earth?” Christy said, swooping her hand through the air in a dramatic gesture.

  “You don’t have to wait for your prince,” Tracy said with temperate, steady words.

  “What do you mean?” Christy asked.

  Tracy looked at her with disbelief. “You know, Doug? That prince-type of a guy? Your knight on a white steed has already arrived.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Christy felt embarrassed and surprised that she hadn’t even been thinking about Doug. “I meant, you know, some princess long ago. I wasn’t thinking about you and me and our princes.”

  The minute the words were out, Christy wished she could reel them back in. There was no prince in Tracy’s life. There hadn’t been for a long time.

  Christy decided to probe a little. “How are things in the prince department for you. anyhow? Did anything ever work out with that guy from college you mentioned at Christmas?”

  “No, that fizzled.”

  “So there’s nobody you’re interested in?” Christy asked.

  Tracy paused. By the expression on her heart-shaped face, Christy could tell she was carefully pondering her answer. Tracy couldn’t lie. She always told the truth, which made it difficult for her when she was cornered with a question.

  “I didn’t say there’s nobody I’m interested in. However, I’ve learned over my vast years of experience that it simply works better when he’s interested in me as well.”

  “Wait a minute,” Christy said. “I distinctly remember having this same sort of conversation with you once before. Don’t you remember? We were making cookies at my aunt and uncle’s house. You liked somebody then, but you wouldn’t tell me who it was.”

  If Tracy did remember the conversation, she didn’t appear to be willing to comment on it or on her current interest.

  Christy prodded her along. “Don’t you remember that afternoon at my aunt and uncle’s? You didn’t tell me then, but I figured out later that you liked Doug.”

  Tracy nodded.

  “Can you believe you guys used to go out?” Christy asked. “Doesn’t that seem like a lifetime ago?”

  Tracy’s expression changed a little. “I guess it does. That was more than three years ago, and we only dated for a few months.”

  “Why did you guys break up?’

  Now Tracy paused longer. “What has Doug told you?”

  “Nothing. We’ve never talked about it.”

  “Maybe it’s best we leave it that way.”

  “You know,” Christy said after a pause, “this thing Doug has about how he’s never kissed a girl and how his first kiss will be at the altar on his wedding day? Well, it’s made our relationship different because I don’t wonder about his past girlfriends or what went on with them. It’s really freeing. He’s never kissed me, and that takes all the pressure off. I don’t wonder if he’s going to or not. Do you know what I mean? Of course you know what I mean.”

  Tracy looked out the window, seemingly lost in thought. “Um-hmm,” she agreed.

  “It’s just different,” Christy said. “It makes it easy for us to all be friends.”

  “Um-hmm,” Tracy agreed again.

  The two friends sat together silently, each lost in her own world of thoughts and dreams.

  Sunday morning chruch service was in the chapel. The mission director. Charles Benson, introduced the group doing the music. “And now. Undivided will lead in morning worship.”

  The name struck Christy as ironic. Trac
y and Katie had not yet talked, and in their room this morning it was obvious the tension was growing. Now at the morning service, Christy sat next to Tracy while Katie was on the other side of the chapel with two of the guys from their team. Sierra sat on the other side of Christy, and Doug was on the end of the aisle, next to Tracy. Their team was quickly becoming anything but undivided.

  The tension made it hard for Christy to concentrate as they sang and even harder to take the message for herself. Everything seemed to apply to Katie, not her.

  Dr. Benson spoke on John 17- “Did you know that Christ aclually prayed for us? Look at verse 21. Here Christ prayed that we might be one, just as He and the Father are one. This is usually the biggest challenge for ministry teams. Each of you is coming from a different background, with different opinions and points of view. It’s not easy to be one. One heart. One mind. One undivided team.”

  Christy thought Dr. Benson must know what was going on with their team, even though he seemed to speak to the whole group. He then talked about forgiveness and starting over. He urged the teams to learn how to exercise grace and peace.

  It made Christy think of the inscription she’d written in her diary on the train. Grace and peace and what was that word for harmony? Concord. That’s what they needed. Grace, peace, and concord. At this moment it seemed impossible.

  “I’m going to ask you to do something you may never have done before,” Dr. Benson said. “We’re going to take communion this morning, and we need to come before God with clean hearts. Some of you need to be reconciled with your brothers and sisters in this room. Before we serve communion, we will have ten minutes in which, if you need to ask someone for forgiveness, you should do so. It would be utterly false to take part in communion and then be commissioned for your outreach trips if any of you is harboring unforgiveness in your heart.”

  Christy closed her eyes and searched her heart. She wanted to make sure she was right with God in every way. Plenty of small things needed to be confessed, things between her and God. But she didn’t think she needed to go to anyone and ask forgiveness.

  As Christy silently prayed, she heard Katie’s voice behind her saying, “Tracy, could I talk to you for a minute?”

  Tracy slipped past Doug, and Christy peeked to see the two of them walk to the back of the chapel and speak quietly with each other. She wanted to listen in. She felt thrilled the two of them were patching things up.

  Just then Doug slid over on the pew next to Christy and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Christy, will you please forgive me?”

  She was caught off guard. “For what?” she whispered back.

  Doug hesitated and seemed to have a hard time finding the words. “I haven’t been, well, I guess I haven’t been honoring you the way I should.”

  Christy wasn’t sure what he meant. She looked up at his face for a clue. He looked distraught about something. “Of course I forgive you. Have I done anything that’s bothered you?”

  “No, no. Of course not.” Doug looked relieved. He smiled at her and said, “Life can get complicated sometimes, can’t it?”

  Christy nodded and returned the smile he was giving her, even though she still wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Perhaps he meant complicated with Tracy and Katie, and he felt he should have been more understanding of Christy since she was caught in the middle. Whatever the situation was, it didn’t matter.

  Tracy and Katie were returning to the pew now, both teary-eyed and with humble expressions. Doug scooted over closer to Christy to make room for the two of them on the end of the bench. Christy let out a tiny sigh of relief and bowed her head, waiting for the communion to be served.

  It was the most meaningful communion she had ever participated in. After that, they all stood, and the mission director and several staff members prayed for the forty and commissioned them to go forth on their outreaches next Saturday. When the service was over. Doug asked that their team stick around for a few minutes. Once they were all together, he asked if anyone had anything he or she wanted to say. It seemed as if they were all trying not to look at Katie, or at least to wait until she said something before they looked at her.

  “I need to apologize to all of you guys,” Katie said.

  All eyes quickly focused on her. “I’ve learned a lot these past few days, and God has been teaching me some stuff I didn’t want to learn. I’ve been trying to hold on to a lot of things. It’s like I had this fistful of stuff I didn’t want to give to God. and He’s been patiently trying to pry back each of my fingers to get the garbage out of there.” Katie held out her hand and demonstrated God’s imaginary hand pulling at her clenched fingers.

  “All I can say is that I’d like to start over, with a new attitude of being open to God and open to you guys. Tracy has forgiven me, and now I want to say to the rest of you, I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk. I hope you guys can all forgive me too.”

  A chorus of yeses responded to Katie.

  “You’re among friends, Katie,” Sierra said. “It’s never too late to start over.” She gave Katie a hug, and the rest of the group followed.

  “I think we should pray,” Doug said. “Let’s pray right now that our team will be knit together in love, like Dr. Benson was saying. We need to be of one mind and heart.”

  They all prayed. It was as if a huge breath of fresh air blew over them. They left the chapel with arms around each other, laughing and high-stepping their way to the dining room. Christy tried not to think about Doug’s comment. It was past. Over. She had forgiven him—for whatever it was.

  That afternoon they had four hours of free time, and Christy thought it would be fun to go for a long walk with Doug. She sidled up to him after their meal time. He was talking with Tracy, and Christy asked if either or both of them wanted to go for a walk with her.

  “Maybe a little bit later,” Doug said. “Tracy and I need to work on our music for the outreach.”

  “You guys could go now if you want to, Doug,” Tracy said quickly. “We can practice another time.”

  It was silent for an awkward minute before Christy said, “No. that’s fine. You guys don’t have much time to practice. We can go for a walk later. It doesn’t matter, really.”

  Doug turned to face Christy and looked into her eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course, I’m sure. You guys need time to practice. Have fun. okay?” Christy said sincerely. Then she willingly received Doug’s hug.

  “I’ll come looking for you later.” he said.

  “Okay.” Now Christy wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to go for a walk by herself, yet she thought a nap sounded good. What she didn’t want to do was feel sorry for herself. Not after that communion service and the way the team had started to come together.

  She decided to go to her room and headed down the hallway. The sound of laughter drew her into the great drawing room. Some of the Barcelona team was gathered around the huge marble fireplace, where a great orange fire crackled and warmed the whole room.

  Merja spotted Christy and called her over to their group. “We need one more player. Will you be on our team?”

  Spread before them on the low coffee table was some sort of word game Christy had seen before but had never played. Joining a group of laughing friends seemed much more appealing than the quiet, close quarters of the chilly dorm room.

  “Sure, but I’ve never played this before.” Christy wedged in on the rug next to Merja and tucked her long legs underneath her. Merja made quick introductions of the other players. Christy was teamed up with Merja and another girl from Finland named Satu. She said her name in English meant “fairy tale,” and then she burst out laughing.

  “It really does,” Satu said. “No one here believes me.”

  “I believe you,” Christy said.

  “And what does your name mean?” Satu asked Christy.

  “It means ‘follower of Christ.’”

  “How perfect!” Satu flipped her long blond hair behind her right ear an
d said, “I’m glad to have an American to play this English game with. English is really my fourth language, and it is not my best.”

  “What other languages do you speak?” Christy asked.

  “Finnish, Spanish, Italian, and then English. I know some Russian and some German, but not much.” Satu didn’t throw her list out in a bragging way. She almost seemed to apologize that her English wasn’t better. To Christy’s ear it sounded perfect.

  The game began, and within five minutes, Christy was laughing so hard the tears were skipping down her cheeks. It was the lirst time she had laughed that hard since she left home. There had been some funny moments in London, but the tension and exhaustion had made the first four or five days of this trip strained. For the next few hours, she. Merja, Satu, and the others laughed. It was like medicine.

  She didn’t see Doug again until the evening meal. Christy was sitting next to Satu when Doug and Tracy walked in. She waved at them, but they didn’t seem to notice her and slipped into two open seats at a table by the door. After dinner a prayer and praise meeting was held in the chapel. It lasted for nearly two hours, with singing and praying. Christy loved it, but now this growing mysterious feeling about Doug was really bothering her.

  After the evening worship, their team went as a group to the dining room for cake and hot chocolate. Doug was standing next to Sierra with a cup of cocoa in his hand when Christy decided it was time to get his attention.

  “Could I talk to you a minute, Doug?” she asked, surprised that her voice came out shaky.

  “Sure.” He turned his full attention to her, looking surprised at her expression. “Is something wrong?”

  “May I have your attention, please?” Dr. Benson stood in the doorway. “The hour draws to a close, and you need to be in your rooms in ten minutes.”

  A group groan leaked out across the room.

  “I know, I know,” the good-natured Dr. Benson said. “But good soldiers are disciplined, and this is your opportunity to exercise that discipline. Tomorrow is a full day, starting with breakfast at seven-thirty. I need to see all the team leaders for a moment in the hallway. May you all experience the truth of Proverbs 3:24: When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.’ Good night. See you all in the morning.”