Yes, the image of independent life made her grateful to still be at home and have her mom to take care of her. Even the water didn"t smell so bad once she snuggled all the way in and grew used to it.
She soaked until the water felt cool and her fingers felt wrinkly. But when she stood up, she didn"t feel much better. Only dizzy. Mom had delivered a clean set of sweats to the bathroom, which Christy put on. Even her feet hurt as they plunged into the legs of the sweatpants.
Glancing in the mirror, Christy thought, Scary! Look at the dark rings under my eyes. I"m glad Todd isn"t here to see me looking like this.
Then it hit her. Todd was coming today!
"Mom!" Christy called out hoa.r.s.ely, opening the bathroom door and making her way back to her bed by the most direct route possible. She found her room looking fresh and her sheets changed with the corner of the covers turned down, inviting her to crawl in. Even the clutter on her floor had been picked up. On her nightstand stood another gla.s.s of ice water with a bent straw and a box of throat lozenges. Christy slid in between the sheets and felt as if a million pounds had been lifted from her when her head touched the soft pillow.
"How are you feeling?" Mom entered the room carrying a tray adorned with a cup of tea and some dry toast. "You want to try to eat something?"
Christy shook her head. "Todd," she whispered, trying not to strain her sore throat. "Call him and tell him not to come."
"Oh, dear," Mom said. "I hope he hasn"t left yet. I"ll call him right away."
Christy felt exhausted from the hot bath. Her bed was clean and comforting, and her room smelled fresh. The fragrance from Mom"s can of Lysol was a vast improvement over the apple cider vinegar bath. Christy sniffed, thinking she could still smell some of the vinegar. Then she fell asleep.
Sometime later, she felt a cool hand on her forehead. Without opening her eyes, she whispered, "Todd?" as a question to see if Mom had called him.
"I"m right here," Todd"s deep voice answered. He removed his hand from her forehead and took her hand in his. "How are you doing?"
"I...but, you..." She tried to express that she was sorry he had come all this way when she was sick. But the words were caught in her swollen throat, and she swallowed them.
"Hey, don"t try to talk. You should drink something though. Here, let me hold this for you." Todd lifted the gla.s.s of ice water to her lips, and she obediently sipped from the straw. The coldness felt good on her raw throat, and she drank nearly half the gla.s.s before letting go of the straw.
"Good job. We"ll do that again in about five minutes. Your mom gave me strict orders to make you drink water and take all your pills. Think you can manage this one?" He placed a small vitamin between her lips and held the gla.s.s of water for her. She swallowed the pill, even though it hurt going down, and drank most of the rest of the gla.s.s of water.
"Want some more water?"
Christy shook her head.
"Go back to sleep. I"ll be here." Todd said. "I have some reading to do. You have some recuperating to do."
"I"m sorry." Christy forced out the words.
"Sorry for what? Sorry you"re sick? I"m sorry you"re sick too. That doesn"t change anything. I wanted to spend some time with you, and that"s what I"m doing. You rest. Don"t worry about me. I have finals to study for, and there"s no place I"d rather sit and study than by your side."
As Christy slipped off into a dream, she thought of how those were probably the sweetest words Todd had ever said to her. No, the sweetest words anyone had ever said to her. Even though she still felt sick, her heart soared.
It was late afternoon when Christy began to wake up. She remembered the feel of Todd"s hand on her forehead and thought it must have been part of her dream.
He had placed his hand on her forehead like that once before. It was early morning on the beach a year and a hall ago. Todd was about to leave for Hawaii, and Christy had begun to date a guy named Rick. As Todd"s farewell, he had placed his cool hand on Christy"s forehead and blessed her, saying, "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you His peace. And may you always love Jesus first, above all else."
Surely Todd"s hand on her forehead had been just a memory evoked by her feverish dreams. She now had only to open her eyes to verify if it was a dream. She hesitated. Keeping her eyes closed, she decided it would be better to continue in her lovely dream than to see nothing but thin air beside her bed.
But the sound of someone moving in a chair prompted her to open her eyes. And there he was. For real. A dream come true. Todd"s blond head was bent over a thick textbook, a notebook was draped on his lap, and a pencil was in his mouth. Christy tried to lie as still as she could, watching Todd without his knowing she was awake.
That"s when she realized her throat didn"t feel quite so swollen anymore, and her head wasn"t throbbing either. She actually felt a lot better.
Just then her bedroom door squeaked open, and Christy snapped her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.
She heard her mom"s voice whisper, "How"s our patient?"
Footsteps followed closer to the bed.
"Still sleeping," Todd answered. "Her fever seems to be down."
"Good," Mom whispered back. "You know, Todd, this is above and beyond the call of friendship to spend your whole day here with her."
"I"m getting a lot done," Todd said and then added with a hint of teasing in his voice, "since it"s quieter here than in the library. Besides," now his voice turned serious, "what I feel for Christy is above and beyond the call of friendship."
Christy couldn"t believe Todd said that to her mom. Her heart began to beat a little faster. It was one thing for Todd to reveal his feelings to Christy at Disneyland, but it was quite another to say something to her mother. She never would have imagined such a moment.
"You know you have our blessing in that area," a deep voice said.
My dad is in here too? Todd said that in front of Dad, and he said Todd has his blessing? This has to be a dream!
Christy stretched her long legs beneath the covers and pretended to be stirring from her sleep. With the finesse of an actress, she let out a slight sigh and fluttered her eyes open.
Her dad and mom were standing beside her bed, and Todd was still seated at the foot. As soon as she opened her eyes, Todd leaned forward and reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze.
"Well, Sleeping Beauty, did you have sweet dreams?"
She felt like telling him the conversation she awoke to was sweeter than any dream ever. Their eyes met, and she wondered if Todd knew she had overheard their conversation.
"Your fever seems to be gone." Mom said, feeling Christy"s forehead. "You look better around the eyes. How"s your throat?"
"It"s lots better."
"Good! Now you should eat some soup. I"ll get it."
Christy"s dad brushed his large, gruff hand across her flushed cheek. "Glad you"re feeling better."
"Thanks, Dad." Christy smiled at him. She was amazed that she could be in bed, holding hands with her boyfriend while exchanging tender, meaningful smiles with her dad. It all seemed natural. Sweet. In everyway, a dream come true.
"You"re here!" Katie said, coming up behind Christy at her locker on Monday morning. "I called this weekend, and your mom said you were sick. Are you better?"
Christy closed her locker, and the two of them maneuvered their way through the crowded hallway. "I"m getting there. I might go home after lunch, but I didn"t want to get behind in my cla.s.ses. I have something to tell you at lunch though. Can you meet me out at the tree?"
"Sure. And I have something to tell you that you won"t believe!" Katie"s eyes sparkled as she waved and called out, "Ta-ta!" before ducking into her cla.s.sroom.
I wonder what"s up? Does it have something to do with Michael?
It was torture sitting through her cla.s.ses, waiting for lunch so she could find out what Katie"s secret was. Finally the lunch bell rang, and Christy hurried out to their meeting spot.
"You go first." Katie sat on the ground beneath the tree where they usually ate. It was also the spot where Katie had first met Michael at the beginning of the school year.
"No, you go. My curiosity is overflowing."
"It"s about Fred," Katie said excitedly.
"Oh," Christy retorted flatly. "Maybe I should go first. My news about Todd is definitely more exciting than anything you could tell me about Fred."
"Not necessarily," Katie said coyly.
"Okay, go ahead. What about Fred?"
"He came to church yesterday," Katie said. "He sat next to me."
Christy wasn"t impressed. She bit into her apple. "He asked about church. I told you that, didn"t I? I"m glad he went. Now, do you want to hear about Todd?"
"I have more," Katie said. "After church we walked out to the parking lot together. When we got to my car, Fred said, So, how do I give my heart to G.o.d, like that minister talked about?""
Christy lost interest in her apple. "Really? That"s great! What did you tell him?"
Katie looked like she was about to bubble over with excitement. "I just told him that G.o.d knew his heart. If he wanted to get things right between him and G.o.d, all he had to do was ask G.o.d to forgive him for everything wrong he had ever done and then invite the Lord to take over his life."
"And?"
"And he and I prayed right there in the parking lot by my car. Fred gave his heart to the Lord."
"I don"t believe it."
"I know. What a G.o.d-thing! It was so incredible. He was so ready, I felt like I just stood there and watched. All these months of trying to convince Michael to give his life to G.o.d. All our long conversations and all my explanations and pleadings, and here Fred, of all people, follows me to my car and gets saved!"
Christy laughed with joy. "That"s great! It was kind of the same way with Alissa. I mean, Todd and I had been praying for her, but then one afternoon on the beach she said *I"m ready," and her life has never been the same since."
"I don"t understand why it was so easy for Fred and impossible for Michael," Katie commented, opening her sack and looking inside.
"Who knows. G.o.d is weird," Christy said reverently. "Not weird like goofy, but weird like unexplainable."
"Yeah, G.o.d is weird, and we are tweaked," Katie surmised. "That"s my philosophy of life. G.o.d"s way of doing things is never our way, and we"re bent. Tweaked. We always want to do things in a way that"s twisted from G.o.d"s."
"I like that." Christy said. "Only you could put it so eloquently."
"So when you see Fred in yearbook next period, act real excited for him."
"Don"t worry! I won"t have to act. I will be!"
True to her word, Christy was excited for Fred when she told him, "I"m so glad you"ve become a Christian! That"s the best thing that could ever happen to you, Fred."
Fred beamed his toothy smile. "And the second best thing would be if you went to the prom with me. I already have the tickets, you know."
Christy"s enthusiasm stopped cold. Is that why Fred started going to church and said he became a Christian? Was it all part of a scheme to become involved in Christy"s world? And how could she ask him without sounding accusatory?
"Fred," she began, "I am not going to the prom with you. Not even because you"ve become a Christian."
Fred"s face fell. "You think that"s why I did it?"
"Well, no. I just want you to know I really can"t go with you. I have a boyfriend. If I do go, it will be with him."
Fred turned and walked away. Was he hurt? Mad? Finally giving up? She wondered if she should follow him to the other side of the cla.s.sroom. But then what would she say?
Instead, she slipped into her desk and breathed out a heavy sigh. At least now Fred knows I won"t go out with him. I"m sorry to hurt his feelings, but his bugging me about the prom has gone far enough. He"ll be okay. He"ll bounce back. He always does.
She and Todd needed to decide tonight if they were going to the prom. That would settle the matter once and for all. She tried to concentrate on her reading, knowing this free cla.s.s time would enable her to lessen her homework load. But all she could think about was Todd.
He had been wonderful to stay with her all day Sat.u.r.day. Then he had called and talked to her for almost two hours on Sunday. Their conversation had been full of plans for the upcoming weeks and even into the summer. Christy hadn"t brought up the prom though, and she didn"t know if Todd was even interested.
She called him that night and started out by asking what he thought about the prom.
"It"s a poor imitation of the real thing."
"What?" Christy asked, not following him.
"It"s like pretending you"re at the wedding feast. It"s a poor imitation of the real thing."
"You mean, you think people who go to the prom are pretending like they"re getting married?" It had a certain ring of truth, Christy thought. She had heard from some of the girls how much they were spending on their dresses. Then there was the whole extravaganza of flowers, tux, and the limo.
"You see, I think that what every human soul longs for, whether that person knows it or not, is to be at the marriage feast of the Lamb," Todd explained.
"You lost me," Christy said.
"Christy, you know when this world comes to an end and we all stand before G.o.d, He"s going to bring all those who He"s prepared to be the bride of Christ-the church-into the marriage feast, where the believers and Christ will be united forever. It"s going to be the biggest, wildest party ever."
Christy guessed Todd must be talking about prophecies from the Bible, from the book of Revelation. It was an area she didn"t know a lot about.
"So deep within the heart of every person is the desire to be invited," Todd continued, "to be dressed like royalty and treated the same, and to be included in the celebration. Something like a prom is a hollow imitation of the real thing you and I will experience one day."
Now Christy felt annoyed. It was one thing to have an opinion about the prom. It was another thing to have the blessed hope to spend eternity celebrating around G.o.d"s throne. But to overlap these two and invalidate the prom in light of heaven was ridiculous.
"Todd. I know you like to see something spiritual in everything, and I think that"s great. But this is just the prom. It"s a human, earthly celebration, and I don"t see how it has anything to do with heaven. May I rephrase my original question? Would you like to go to the prom with me?
"If you really want to go."
Christy hated answers like that. It wasn"t an answer; it only put the question back on her. "I don"t know what I want. That"s why I"m asking what you want."
"Let"s talk about it then." Todd said. "How much does it cost? Do we want to go with some others or by ourselves? Do you want to go out to dinner first? Do you have a dress or money to buy a dress? And most importantly, why do you want to go?"
For twenty minutes the two of them tossed back and forth the pros and cons. In the end, Christy said, "I don"t know. I still feel like I could go either way. It would be fun and wonderful and romantic to get all dressed up and go with you, but it would take all our money, and I"m not into dancing."
"It"s up to you," Todd said, putting the decision back in her lap again. "If we do go, you need to know that even if you don"t see a parallel between the two, while I"m at the prom I"m going to be thinking about heaven and our ultimate celebration there one day."
After Christy hung up, she wasn"t sure how to take Todd"s comments. Did he mean that he wouldn"t be focusing on her that evening or admiring her or enjoying being with her because he would be centering his thoughts on eternal things? Why did Todd have to be like that? G.o.d was always first in his life.
Then Christy realized that that was a compliment, not a slam. It was a rare thing to be so focused on G.o.d. Todd seemed to see G.o.d"s perspective on everything.
Christy decided to let go of the prom question and focus on her homework so she could get some sleep. Her flu bug had pa.s.sed, but she felt weak and ready for bed at five-thirty. She decided to put all her energies into studying this week. When she saw Todd over the weekend, they could come to a conclusion about the prom. That would still give them two weeks to make any arrangements. She could come up with a dress by then-couldn"t she?