Never Lonely Again
Author's note: Clay owns himself and his own name. I only wrote the words
to the story.
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Sunday, July 4, 2004
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The Kirche homestead
just outside of
A delighted squeal rang out from the high chair as Kate placed a noisy, wet kiss on the cheek of its occupant. Her nephew Alex giggled up at her, a wide toothy grin plastered on his face. The group of adults around the table joined in with the laughter. Drew shook his head and turned to Holly. “I still can’t believe I forgot to pack the battery for the camera. You’d think I’d remember that by now…”
“Hon, you put it on the charger…” Holly offered. “Evidently you had a last-minute distraction or something like that. We all have our moments.”
Kate smiled as Holly placed a genuine kiss on Drew’s cheek. “Well, bro, if nothing else we can break out mine. It’ll be nice to finally use it after six months…”
“How did you end up with a video camera anyway?” asked Sally, a church musician from Lincoln and cousin by marriage. “I thought you said you were going to wait until you had a family to get one.”
“I did,” Kate admitted. “It was a gift.”
“Kudos to the gift-giver.”
Kate stifled a sigh. “Something like that.”
Drew stood up to take his dirty dishes from lunch to the dishwasher in the kitchen. “Hold up, sis. Now that I’m done, I want to take a bit and check out your camera before the day gets too much farther. Maybe I can give you a few tips for the new camera owner.”
The two siblings went to the room Kate was sharing with Sarah for the sake of packing in the people. All of Patricia’s siblings and their spouses had come, a handful of the nieces and nephews had come with their families, and the house was well-stuffed as a result. Fortunately a number of them had come prepared with campers or tents to help accommodate everyone. It was tight, but everyone fit. Kate pulled the camera off of the desk, opening the battery compartment to install the freshly-charged battery. She checked for direction, put it in and shut the door before handing the camera to Drew.
“Nice…” he whistled as he looked it over. “You said this was a gift?”
“Yes, one I tried making the giver exchange for something less extravagant… but he wouldn’t hear of it. Little monkey…”
“Nice gift. Someone’s got good taste.” Drew raised an eyebrow. “He, sis? Do you finally have yourself a man hidden somewhere?”
Kate’s eyes fell to the floor with a sigh. “No.”
Fortunately for Kate, Drew picked up the paired non-verbals and saw that it was a subject she didn’t want to approach right now. He said nothing further and continued quietly inspecting the camera. “I think you’ll pick up on how to work this pretty quick. The controls are real user-friendly, and just in case you can’t figure something out you can either ask me or check the manual.”
“Okay,” Kate said.
Drew nodded. “Sis… I wanted to thank you again for that day you found Alex.”
Kate looked up at her brother’s unusually somber expression. As she had told Clay a while back, the close call had shaken and affected him deeply. “You’re welcome, Drew, but it wasn’t really my doing.”
He nodded again. “I’ve always thought that because of what I do, I’d be the first one of my little family to go… but…” He swallowed. “I almost lost my son that day.”
“A short-term earthly loss, Drew,” Kate told him gently. “But remember you and Holly had him baptized. You chose to believe in the deliberate sacrifice of God’s Son in your son’s place, and to share with him the promise of forgiveness and grace. God’s promise of eternal life in His Word is good, very good, and little Alex would have been already home in heaven. That promise is a wonderful, wonderful blessing for him, and we would have rejoiced for his sake while we mourned our own short-term loss. I won’t minimize the pain of that, if it had happened… we would have all been affected.” She shrugged. “Instead God left him here with us, which tells me that God still has more for him to see, experience, and do. That’s a blessing to us, and to Alex too.”
“You still believe in all that?”
Kate nodded quietly. “Absolutely I do. If something were to happen to me tonight, tomorrow, several weeks from now, and my earthly life were to end… I would be in heaven, because He wiped away every single screw-up I’ve ever made and gave me eternal life in its place. And I would want you to dance and laugh and tell stories at my funeral, because I would be home and whole and eternally happy.”
Drew studied her a minute or two before shaking his head. “You’re nuts, sis.”
“Perhaps. I only know how much peace He gives me in the here and now because of that promise.” Kate placed her hand on his arm. “That in itself is worth the ride.”
“I know how calm and resilient Mom and Dad can be when the chips are down. Nothing freaks them out at all. I envy that.”
Kate smiled. “Maybe in time you’ll have that same peace.”
“Maybe.” Drew handed Kate her camera. “Let’s get back to the others. I want to try that game Uncle Herb and Aunt Viv were telling us about at the table, and if it’s half as off the wall as it sounds, it’ll be worth getting on camera.”
The game in question turned out to be a version of croquet
they called “
Right away Drew volunteered for the first match, challenging both his father and sister to join him out on the field. Sally and Vivian joined as well, and before long the five of them were taking turns with the two sledges hitting their respective bowling balls around a patch of grass as the others watched at a safe distance. The bowling balls were too heavy to go flying, but the slope of the terrain didn’t always guarantee a well-aimed shot or that it would stop at the right place.
“Hey!” Sally protested as her ball kept rolling halfway through the course. “Stop that thing before it goes into the pond!”
Drew quickly caught it with a booted foot and held it in place. “You getting this on film, sis?”
“Don’t even!”
Kate snickered as she swiveled the camera from the ball to its owner shaking her finger at her. “Of course I am, bro. These are the money shots.”
“And it’s now your shot, sweetie. Let’s see if you do any better, or if we get another reason to call you by your old college nickname.”
The family continued to play that game and many others over the course of the afternoon, interspersing them with a lot of conversation and laughter before leading into the evening picnic. Since it wasn’t yet dark for the fireworks, everyone gathered inside the house to keep away from the mosquitoes a while. “Sis, why don’t we attach your new toy to the TV and see what we got? That’ll keep everyone amused until it’s dark enough to shoot fireworks at the pond.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Kate agreed and the two siblings quickly hooked up the electronics. They allowed the other family to occupy the closer seats while they stood at the perimeter of the room.
“Sally, there goes your ball again,” Vivian laughed.
Even Sally laughed this time. “I still can’t believe I came back to win that one.”
Her husband Josh squeezed her hand. “City woman or not, you surprise people. You certainly took me by surprise until I got to know you better.”
Sally smiled warmly back at him. “I’m glad you were willing to chance it.”
As the evening progressed, the gathered family watched the clips on the camera. Between Kate and Drew’s work, they had caught most everyone on film sooner or later, and certainly some of the best moments. Finally the video ended, and Kate nodded. “That’s it. Drew, you’re closer. Would you…”
The one who reached for the controls was Sally. “I’m right here, Kate, I’ll do it.” She hit the buttons on the camera in turn, switching from the play function back to the TV. Immediately the program that was going popped onto the screen, and Sally glanced up at a televised patriotic special on the local educational channel. “We can watch this until it gets a bit darker.”
Drew indicated the screen. “That’s the Capitol Fourth,” he informed her. “I was there a handful of years ago providing a bit of backup support.”
Kate’s eyes widened with recognition as they met her mother’s. That’s where he is tonight… Shortly the host began to introduce the next segment, and it quickly became apparent to Kate that her friend was exactly who came up next. She swallowed a large lump in her throat, unsure if she should stay or slip out to escape downstairs for the duration.
Patricia joined her and placed her hand on Kate’s arm in support. “Measure of a Man,” she noted quietly as the orchestra began.
By the time Clay was finished singing, Kate had fully broken down into tears. She knew that if she remained in the room, she risked a laundry list of questions from her family. Quickly Kate turned and slipped out of the room, receiving one more arm squeeze from Patricia before she escaped.
But Kate’s escape hadn’t gone unnoticed. Sally frowned darkly. “I swear, if I ever catch up with that little German…” she muttered, using an Italian word that would not have been polite had she translated it, “I’m gonna grab him by the Twinkie and stuff that thing where the sun doesn’t shine.”
“Before or after I cut it off?” Drew grumbled.
“I like your thinking.”
Drew changed the conversation. “The guy did a nice job,” he nodded at the TV, referring to Clay’s singing.
Vivian agreed. “He’s got a really pleasant voice.”
“Pleasant is an understatement,” Sally added dryly. “He’s one of the best I’ve heard in years.”
“I like the song, too,” Drew admitted. “I’ve never heard it, but I thought it really fit the occasion. Who is this guy again?”
Sally grinned, not noticing as Patricia watched their conversation closely. “Drew, let me tell you a little more about the man and the artist named Clay Aiken…”
Completely unaware that upstairs her brother and her cousin were talking about the very man on her mind and her heart, Kate continued to weep downstairs in the basement. She sat in an overstuffed chair in the corner, pulling her feet up under her and curling into a tight and miserable ball. While Kate did not begrudge the servicemen the gift Clay had bestowed upon them tonight with his performance, it was another reminder of how much they had shared and how much she missed him. In spite of having a room full of family upstairs, Kate felt adrift and completely alone.
***
That same night at a
hotel in
Bolting the hotel door behind him, Clay shuddered violently. He was never so glad to have gotten out of a situation as he had been tonight. But why was completely baffling… he had no idea at all what had happened, let alone why.
Clay walked over to his luggage and pulled out a small
stuffed dog. Placing it on the bed, he
quickly changed into his bedclothes before picking the dog back up and lying
down on the bed. He placed the
silky-soft dog on his chest almost as if it was looking into his eyes, gently
rubbing the fur on its head like petting a real dog. Kate
was right, little one… you look like
The little Beanie Baby named “Fidget” had been part of
Kate’s Christmas package to him. In
two-tone brown and sporting an orange plaid blow, it had a spooky resemblance
to his very-real terrier. Before that
disaster with the picture, he had been content to place it atop a nearby
dresser to admire it with a chuckle from afar… but since that day he had gotten
into the habit of taking it off its dresser spot at night and spending a few
minutes studying it, as if by doing so he could somehow bring Kate back into
his life. Deciding to take it to DC with
him was a last-minute impulse choice, and now as he gained comfort from its
presence he was glad that he had. He
would still have rather talked to Kate, and hugged her instead of the dog. Knock it off, Clayton… you would get far
more enjoyment out of hugging her than she ever would out of hugging you, and
you know it.
His performance for the Capitol Fourth had gone well, and people were raving about him and his voice. Then he and his family had gone to an exclusive gathering afterwards. Only something about the gathering had caused his heart rate and his nerves to set on edge, and he couldn’t figure out why. He ended up begging his family to leave the gathering early, where they spent a little time together more privately before retiring to their own hotel rooms for the night.
Clay sat pondering the myriad of questions in his mind as Fidget kept vigil with him, but after a while Clay had to admit he had no answers. Giving up at last, he went to bed in hopes that a good night’s sleep might at least put him on the path to answers.
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Summer 2004
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Friday, July 23 at the
Kirche homestead just outside of Kearney,
Sarah double-checked the pillows at the end of the couch before Arthur and Patricia assisted Kate in sitting down on it. It took the three of them to get her comfortable, her parents bracing her while Sarah helped Kate swing her other leg up beside the first. Sarah grimaced with guilt as Kate hissed from the pain. “I’m sorry, Kate.”
“Sarah, it’s not your fault.” Kate winced as she tried to settle in as comfortably as she could. “Blame the idiot who ran the red because he wouldn’t hang up his dang phone and pay full attention to more important things… like driving. The police sure did.”
“Yes, fifty extra points for the boys in blue for seeing the truth,” Patricia nodded, “and for three witnesses to back up your story.”
Sarah snorted. “Watch, his insurance agency is still going to try to make her settle out of court or something equally nonsensical.”
“Kate… your car’s totaled, you have two broken bones and bruises all over, I almost guarantee you’ll be sore for months, and who knows how long you’ll be out of class.” Her mother shook her head. “They’d better not even try suggesting the idea.”
“They will,” Kate sighed as she considered her broken left arm and leg, unhappy souvenirs from the crash. Considering the damage to her car, she was lucky to be alive… all of the emergency personnel had told her as much. “But I’m not budging. He creamed me good. I’m not going to sue him for anything crazy or exorbitant as that wouldn’t be fair, but I want my bills paid.”
“As it should be,” Arthur replied. “That would only be fair.”
“And Kate… a little something for all of the suffering you’re going through isn’t as outrageous as you think. That pain med you’re on isn’t exactly a common aspirin.” Sarah watched for a moment as Kate closed both eyes and sighed before opening them again. For the first two or three hours after taking the prescription, Kate had been quite loopy from the powerful dosage. Sarah had been worried about her until Patricia informed her that was a common side effect.
After a few minutes of watching to make sure Kate was settled as comfortably as possible, Arthur went off to accomplish other tasks. Patricia and Sarah remained a little longer. “I still say you should call him and tell him.”
It didn’t take a mind-reader for Kate to know that Patricia was referring to an earlier argument when Sarah tried to persuade Kate to email or call Clay and tell him about the accident. Patricia had taken Sarah’s side of the argument, convinced that Clay would be deeply concerned for her well-being. With how long it had been since their talk without hearing anything from him, Kate wasn’t so sure she agreed. She drooped a bit, stopping with a wince when the pain prevented her from moving too far. “I wish I could, but if he wanted to talk to me he would have sent me an email or something by now. I have to presume that nothing’s changed… and I don’t want to bother him with my trivial stuff while he’s on tour.”
“You said that he promised to keep on praying for you and Andrew,” Patricia protested, frowning. “If this isn’t worth his time praying, then I don’t know what is. I certainly wouldn’t call it trivial, I called half the church prayer list when I found out!”
With an embarrassed scowl, Kate tried to change the subject a bit. “Well, I’m certainly not going to be sending him any pictures of me like this. I’m more black and blue than a Smurf in a ninja costume.”
Sarah snickered. “At least your sense of humor’s intact.”
Kate snorted. “That’s debatable.” She sighed again. “Sarah… would it be too much trouble if I borrowed your laptop and your wireless for the evening?”
“Are you actually going to write him,” Sarah hoped, “or are you just going to follow the cellcert?”
“Follow the cellcert,” Kate mumbled sheepishly.
After sharing a knowing look with Kate’s mother, Sarah rolled her eyes but went to get the equipment that her roommate had requested. “Some days, your sense of boundaries…” she muttered under her breath.
“I don’t want to worry him,” Kate protested, hollering from her seat on the couch.
“It seems that your hearing didn’t suffer as much as you think,” Sarah drawled. “I thought I said that quietly enough you wouldn’t hear it.”
“No, I didn’t hear what you said,” Kate admitted. “My ears are still ringing from the noise the Jaws were making. Those things are LOUD. But I could tell the general gist of what you were saying by the context of the conversation and the way you were muttering.”
“That’s because you know what I think – you two were good for each other, and I know you were well on the way to being in love with him. Don’t even bother denying it, Kate, you’ve been nothing but sulky ever since that night.”
“And she’s not the only one who thinks so. I do too.” This time Patricia heard Kate muttering under her breath, but she chose to ignore it.
Plugging in the laptop, the wireless modem, and a series of extension cords, Sarah brought her work laptop to her ailing friend. “I’ll trust you to let me know if they get better clack at this one, okay?”
“Okay,” Kate agreed.
“
“That’s better than nothing,” Sarah noted as she went into the den to do some quiet reading for a while, leaving Kate in Patricia’s capable hands.
Kate agreed a second time. “Darn right.”
“And you know full well you’ve downloaded them all.” Patricia smirked at Kate’s guilty scowl and ducked into the kitchen. “Holler if you need anything else, honey. I want you to stay off that foot as much as possible the rest of the evening.”
“Like I’m going anywhere?” Kate snorted and made a face. She sighed again, thinking of her day’s bad luck. While she had to admit that she was ready to get a newer car and had saved up for it, she had planned on getting a bit of a break on trading in her old one. So much for that – now she would be settling for a salvage fee instead. Kate had owned it since high school, so she would just choose to consider herself blessed that it had lasted her this long and that it was paid in full.
Kate glanced down at the cast that went from just beneath her fingertips to just over her elbow. It would be my writing hand, too, she groaned. At least her professor had been extremely sympathetic. While waiting for the emergency personnel to extract her from her car, she had pulled her own cell phone from her purse to call the college, who transferred her to her professor in his office. He was immediately convinced by her explanation, with all of the sirens and the other noises in the background. It took a lot more convincing for Kate to persuade him that she wanted to try to keep up with the class rather than being forced to drop it. After all, Kate was going to have a lot of time on her hands and nowhere to go… and the prof had been willing to make recordings of his lectures and allow her to submit assignments via email through the end of the class. She hadn’t told Sarah or her parents that just yet. As soon as she did, they would call her a glutton for punishment. Fortunately there were only a couple class sessions left for her to blunder and chicken-peck her way through before she was done.
The other thing Kate hadn’t admitted to Sarah or her mother was that the first person she wanted to call – before her parents, before Sarah, before her professor to tell him she was going to miss the class due to circumstances beyond her control – was Clay… and that she could have very easily, as his number was saved in her phone’s memory under his fake name. But as Sarah suggested, she chose to respect the boundaries even then as she had for much of the last month, in spite of how lost she was without him.
Very carefully, Kate used the laptop’s touch pad to maneuver where she wanted on the screen, up to the URL bar for the web site. That was the easy part… now for the fun part. Using her cast to hold the laptop steady, Kate used the fingers of her right hand to peck at the keys until she punched in the address for where she could find the cellcert. Maybe a little news about how well and happy Clay was would help dull the pain… and the misery she felt at missing him so much.
***
Friday, August 6 in
Clay struggled to free himself from his prison of cloth and insulation. “Let me out already!” he snarled, his voice nearly hoarse from having vented his frustration for the last five minutes against his captors. Didn’t they realize that this was the last thing he needed when he was sick?
“Not until you settle down, man.”
Continuing to mutter and splutter, Clay once again tried to budge the zipper of his sleeping bag. Nothing. Whatever his road crew had done to trap him in here, he was stuck good. It didn’t help that they were also holding him down and keeping him from escaping. He tried reassuring them again. “I said I’m fine!” When a chorus of voices howled in laughter, Clay scowled. “That’s not funny!”
“Neither is the way you’ve been acting once you’re off the stage,” a second voice chorused. “Today was just the last straw. We’re leaving you there until you quit being such a royal pain in the – “
“Alright, alright,” Jerome’s voice broke the words off before he finished. “You guys have had your fun and your say. I’ll take it from here.”
“Jerome!” Clay called out with the first sign of relief. Finally someone with some sense had arrived who could restore sanity to the situation. “Get me out of here!”
“Sure, Clay. Just hold still, and it might take half the time it will if you keep struggling.” The words of the security chief had the desired effect as Clay obeyed, and Jerome chuckled as he began the process to free him. “You’re lucky Will didn’t get any pictures of this one, Clay. The girls would have loved to show them at your next venue.” Clay muttered beneath his voice, and Jerome chuckled again. “Hang on just a minute more, Clay. These guys put a lot of work into this one.”
“Remind me to give them a bonus for being so thorough,” Clay grumbled. Finally the bonds of Clay’s entrapment fell away, and he pushed down the folds of the sleeping bag. He took a deep breath before looking up at the patient face of his bodyguard. “Thank you, Jerome. The air was getting a little stale in there.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Jerome glanced around him to make sure the others had gone elsewhere before he cocked his head to one side. “They have a point though… you haven’t been yourself for several months now.”
“Don’t know who else I’d be,” Clay mumbled snidely.
“I’ll ignore that and get right to the point. You can try to blame it on the virus that
trashed your computer today, but you’ve been completely out of sorts ever since
Clay hung his head and closed his eyes. Pretty much everyone on the entire tour had seen right through him… but he wasn’t about to betray Kate. He couldn’t. “I’m fine,” he responded quietly, his voice almost a whisper.
Jerome sighed loudly, clearly unconvinced by Clay’s denial. “Whatever you say, dude.” He stood up. “I’ll let it be for now, but if you’re ever ready to talk you know where to find me. Meanwhile, see if you can lighten up for the sake of the crew. You can’t afford another mutiny like this one.”
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Wednesday, August 18, 2004
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Late evening at Kate
and Sarah’s apartment in
Kate glanced up from the laptop as her cell phone rang with one of the themes from the Star Trek television show. That ringtone was assigned to only one person. She grinned and grabbed for it, flipping it open to answer. “How’s it going, bro?”
“I should be asking you the same,” Drew chided, “super-sis.”
She grinned wickedly and leaned back in her chair. “Better… much better. I’m off the pain pills, through with summer classes, and very much back to work, though for right now I’m relying on rides with others. Not because I don’t have enough funds to go get another car, but because I want the casts off before I go using it.”
“Smart choice.”
“So how’s it going with you?”
Drew paused. “Better,” he finally admitted. “You know that conversation we had back on the Fourth when you showed me your camera for the first time?”
Kate thought for a minute before finally nodding. “I think I do.”
“You said that if something happened to you that night, the next day, or several weeks from then, you were going to heaven. Several weeks later, we got the phone call from Mom about the wreck.” Drew’s voice was hoarse, nearly a whisper. “I find the coincidence kinda freaky.”
“Yeah,” Kate grumbled. “You and me both, bro. Personally I would have rather that remained a hypothetical statement.”
“Me too. The other day Mom e-mailed me pictures of your car, and Holly and I agreed there’s no way you should have walked away from that – “
“Technically I didn’t,” Kate reminded him. “They had to cut me out and lift me from the wreckage.”
“Sis, you shoulda been put into a body bag, not a stretcher! That thing was a pile of metal shavings!” Drew sniffled loudly. “After Mom sent me those pictures, I went into the garage and I yelled at that God that Holly and you and the rest of the family loves so much. I asked Him why He made my son so sick… asked Him why He almost killed you in a car wreck… and asked Him when you’re finally going to move on with your life and find someone special to love you and have a family with. And I didn’t expect to get any answers.”
What??? Kate stared in shock at Drew’s admission. “What happened?”
Drew sighed quietly on the other end. “I got an answer.”
Kate waited for him to go on. “And?”
“Let’s just say that it wasn’t what I expected and leave it at that.”
“Well, that’s a given,” Kate frowned, wishing that her brother would tell her more, “considering you weren’t expecting anything at all.”
“Touché, sis… touché.” Drew cleared his throat and went on. “Actually He answered all three of my questions that day. He told me that He allowed my son to get sick to get my attention, and to give you the opportunity to talk to me at the Fourth. Then He told me that He allowed you to almost get yourself killed to make darn good and sure He had my attention.”
“Not surprised,” Kate admitted. “We as humans are kind of thick-skulled that way, and as Kirches especially so. Did it work?”
Drew snorted. “What do you think?”
“Let’s see… you were out there in your garage arguing with Him…”
“Yeah, He had my attention all right,” Drew muttered. “So I told Him, ‘Well, you’ve got it, what do you want to say?’ I shoulda known better than to ask that question, because He told me that, too.”
Kate held her breath in anticipation, waiting for the words she thought He would have for her stubborn brother.
“He… told me what you had already said, that Alex and you knew Him, so you were already His and so were your hearts… but He wanted to get my attention so that He could remind me He really is out there, He really does love me, and He wants me to get to know Him better than I do.”
“Powerful message,” Kate whispered, “isn’t it?”
“Yeah… it changes everything. Sis, I’m not sure whether to blame you, our parents, or my beloved wife… but after that day I’ve rethought this whole ‘God’ thing.” Drew’s voice suggested that he was clearly both moved and confused, but determined to tell her what he knew. “Before He was a ‘maybe He exists, but don’t make me go through all the motions’ sort of thing… now He’s ‘definitely out there’ and it’s clear He wants a lot more out of me. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but I’ve gotta find out more about Him if He’s going to go to an effort like that to talk to me.”
Kate’s heart warmed to hear her brother share his experience. For the first time in a long time, she had real hope that he would return to the faith of his youth. “I’m glad He took the time to answer all of your questions.”
“He did, but not all of His answers made sense,” Drew grunted.
“Hunh?”
Drew explained. “You forgot there was a third question I was yelling at Him about. I asked Him when in the world you’re gonna end up with a husband and kids.”
His words prompted her memory… which instantly brought up an image of Clay’s smiling face. Yeah, right… like he’d ever want a loser like me. She sighed heavily. “Did He even answer that one at all, or did He tell you some… psychological mumbo-jumbo like I get from Mom or Sarah?”
“Sis, I would have understood the mumbo-jumbo. Might have even agreed with it. What I said was that not all of His answers made sense… and that one made the least sense of all.”
“Okay…”
Drew cleared his throat. “He said, ‘That day’s coming… sit back and watch me work.’ What in the world He meant by that I have no clue, but it implied that He’s got something in mind.”
Kate stared, flabbergasted and bewildered by this revelation. “And I suppose that’s all He told you?”
“About that, yeah. He evidently didn’t feel that I needed to know any more right then.”
After a while of talking more the two ended the call. Kate sat there for a moment in pure shock at the conversation she had just shared. Finally she took a deep breath and let out a long, loud cheer as Sarah stared from afar. Drew’s coming back to the faith… I gotta tell Clay… I gotta thank him for all his prayers, they’ve worked! Quickly she hit the buttons that would call his cell phone. She waited through the ring tones for him to pick up, blinking with surprise when she was directed to an automated voicemail greeting. Ending the call, she considered the screen warily. She thought very carefully and deliberately for quite a while before she made her decision on what to do next.
***
Meanwhile in Clay’s bunk
on his tour bus somewhere between Knoxville, Tennessee and Hamburg, New York
Clay stared at the results on his computer screen. That
area code is for
The phone seemingly obeyed, its screen lighting up with the same number. Clay wasted no more time and picked up the call. “Hello?”
On the other end, the caller hesitated for a moment. “Chris?”
Clay’s heart leapt at Kate’s familiar voice. “Kate, it’s me.”
“Clay…” Kate sighed, slow and deep. “It is you.”
“Say my name again, just like that,” Clay begged.
“What?”
“Say my name again, just like that,” he repeated, “because when you said it a minute ago, it sounded as if you actually missed me.”
“I did miss you,” Kate acknowledged. “A lot, and often.”
Clay smiled weakly, his spirits regaining their strength from her admission. “I missed you too, Kate. A lot, and often.”
Kate gave a quiet chuckle. “I’m glad to hear our friendship is still intact. I was starting to wonder.”
“Why?”
“I know, it doesn’t make sense for me to think you had forgotten me… you were busy and probably didn’t have time to call or write me.”
“I didn’t have your phone number!” Clay protested. “I couldn’t call you, but I lost track of how many times I sure wanted to! Why didn’t you call me?”
Kate shrugged. “Because I knew you were busy, and I didn’t want to take a chance of getting you in trouble while you were on tour.”
Clay sighed. “Oh, well… I can respect your reasons… but I would have loved to get an email, even though my computer was down for a couple weeks…”
“What happened?”
“Virus,” Clay grumbled. “Both my computer AND me!”
“Oh no…” Kate moaned. “I’m sorry. Can I give you some good news to help make up for missing each other so much?”
“Sure,” he told her. “I’ll take some good news. What is it?”
Kate took a deep breath. “Drew is coming back to the faith. He and God had a yelling match a couple of days ago, and the fact that God worked so hard to reach him has Drew wanting to get to know him more. He actually seems eager to find out more, which has me excited… I wanted to tell you about that, and make sure to thank you for all of your prayers, because they’ve obviously helped. They’ve made a difference.”
Clay also took a deep breath. “Kate, that’s wonderful! What did they have a yelling match about, or did he tell you?”
“Er, well…” Kate began, “um… he said he talked to Him about Alex.”
Something tentative about Kate’s voice told Clay there was more. He cocked his head to one side. “And what else?” When Kate didn’t answer, he leaned forward in his seat. “Kate… what else? Has something else happened in your family’s life lately?”
“Nothing important,” Kate denied quickly. “That’s the only big news worth talking about.”
Clay wasn’t sure he believed her. He decided to change the subject in hopes that he could convince her to give him more information. “How’s school going?”
“Really well!” Kate told him with enthusiasm. “I’ve got a good batch of kids, sharp and well-behaved. The other teachers are envious.”
“Oh really?” Clay replied. “Are your favorite two problem children behaving too, or are they the exceptions to the rule?”
“No,” she acknowledged, “they’ve settled down this quarter, but that’s because I’ve given them a few more tasks helping me in the classroom. They’re good, smart kids… just bored half the time, and always hoping to get a laugh for their antics.”
“You have them helping in the classroom and it worked?” Clay asked incredulously. “How is it that other teachers have tried that for years with little success but you try it now and it works?”
“Er…” Kate began, “ah… I guarantee it’s not going to last. I know human nature, I doubt it’ll last more than first quarter.”
Clay heard Kate’s filler words and decided that she was still trying to dodge telling him something. He wondered if the two were connected. “Kathryn…” he began, using her formal first name, “I think you’re hiding something important from me. I want you to tell me; if you really do respect and care for me, please tell me now.”
Kate was silent for several moments on the other end. “The boys’ good behavior is probably due to pure old-fashioned sympathy. It’ll probably stop… when the casts come off my arm and leg, and I won’t need to have them helping me with writing on the board and passing out supplies and papers and stuff.”
Clay’s jaw dropped. “Y-You… what happened?”
“Just a car accident, Clay, nothing major.”
“WHAT???” Clay spat, sitting almost spine-straight upright. “Two broken bones, and you say that’s nothing major?? Did you have any other injuries? I have a hard time believing that is all you had.”
Kate snorted. “I had bruises in places I didn’t think there could be bruises, I was on serious pain meds for two weeks, and I’m still seeing a chiropractor. I still have some aches in places, but at least I don’t need the more powerful meds any more. Good thing, they made me sleepy and goofy… and I really didn’t want to get addicted to the things.”
“Are you serious??? And you still say that’s nothing major! So how bad was your car? I want an honest answer this time.”
Another moment passed before Kate spoke again. “Totaled. They had to cut me out of it with the Jaws of Life.”
Clay spluttered for several minutes, aghast at what Kate had just told him. “And you never told me??? Kate… I would have taken a phone call for that, and I don’t care what kind of trouble I would have gotten in for it! I would have prayed for you, and would have asked my crew to pray for you too!”
“Clay, I…” Kate stammered, “I didn’t want to bother you, you had a lot more important things to deal with than my little bang-up and all the hurt and hassle and mess that came with it.”
“And what could be more important to me,” Clay shouted, “than the well-being of my friend and sister in Christ??? No concert, no tour I could ever give would be worth as much as one person’s life, certainly not yours! You mean too much to me, Kate!”
“I… didn’t want to worry you,” Kate protested weakly.
“Maybe I want to worry about you!” Clay answered. “I bet that was the other part of Drew’s shouting match, his sister’s close-call with someone else’s fender!”
Once again Kate answered with classic understatement. “It played a part.”
“Oh… yeah. A part.” Clay grumbled. “Well, guess what, darlin’? You’re stuck with me now. I’m going to be praying for you and your healing, for all of your bills to be paid by the insurance, and in order to know if you need anything else prayed for, I’m going to be e-mailing you and calling you to make sure how you’re doing! I’m going to do whatever I can to show you that you’re not unimportant and not a bother!”
“O-Okay,” Kate’s voice crackled on the other end.
Clay had heard that sound before, the sound of a woman crying and trying not to let the other person know she was crying. “What… are you crying? Why are you crying?”
“B-Because…” Kate breathed, “I’m not… used to people, certainly not a guy, thinking I was anything other than dirt, treating me like any kind of normal human being, or showing me that I had any value at all. I’m not used to it, I-I…”
“Get used to it, Kate,” Clay informed her firmly. “This is going to be the new normal for you, even if I’m the only guy on the planet who has enough brains to treat you the way you should be treated.”
“I… I need to go for now, Clay,” Kate whispered. “My roommate’s demanding to talk to me, she’s all but ready to wrestle the phone out of my hands, and I’m not to the point where I can run from her.”
Clay frowned.
“Alright, I’ll let you go for now… but expect me to call you tomorrow
night. How late can I call you and get
by with it? Unfortunately I have a show
tomorrow night in
“If it’s an inconvenience – “
“Don’t go there, Kate…” Clay warned.
“Alright. This time is fine, but later might be better for both of us. I was trying to work on lesson plans and they don’t go as well one-handed.”
“Okay… I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Plan on it, Kate.” Clay heard her mumble some barely-coherent signoff before she hung up. He scowled as he placed the phone beside him on the desk and rubbed his face. After a few minutes thinking, he sighed and picked up the phone to make a call of his own. “Jerome? Remember you said you’d be around when I was ready to talk? Well, when we get some time away from the others… there’s something that I need to talk with you about.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sunday, August 22, 2004
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Clay’s tour bus,
somewhere between Clio, Michigan and Rockford, Illinois
“Alright, Clay…” Jerome leaned back a bit in his seat. “Now that we’ve covered the business end of things, are you ready to talk about that other thing you mentioned last week?”
Clay gave a sheepish smile. “There’s a difference between ‘being ready’ and ‘knowing it’s time,’” he admitted honestly.
Jerome blinked with pleased surprise at hearing the truth behind his words. “I agree, I completely agree. Someone once told me that courage is not so much the absence of fear, but the ability to take action and do the right thing in spite of fear.”
“Whoever told you that,” Clay noted, “is very, very
wise.” He took a long, deep breath to
steady himself, not entirely sure how Jerome would take what he had to
say. “When you talked to me in
“I had a feeling,” Jerome replied gently. “Those two notice a lot, and they know you well.”
“I’m a lucky man to have them as friends and co-workers,” Clay acknowledged.
Jerome smiled. “That you are. Tell me more about this lady friend of yours… so I can see whether you’re a lucky man to know her too, or whether you were better off without her.”
Clay gulped quietly.
This was going to be the hard part, and he had little doubt that Jerome
would not take the news very well. “Her
name is Kate. She is a fellow believer,
and a high school teacher from
“So far so good… but you’ve just barely scratched the surface.”
“Right.” Clay nodded.
“How did the two of you meet?” Jerome asked.
Clay grimaced, his voice at a near whisper to keep from being overheard. “She’s… a fan. She was sending letters and cards to the studio through the time we were on the Idol tour, but after I happened to read one of her letters I decided to contact her directly.”
“What?”
“I know, bad Clay,” Clay acknowledged again. “Believe me, I’ve already been punished for it. That’s why we stopped contacting each other for a while, neither one of us wanted to see the other hurt by… well, whomever.”
Jerome rubbed his chin deeply. “That complicates things. Tell me more about the woman herself. I want to know as much as you can recall about her.”
Clay began to talk about Kate. He told Jerome everything he could recall from letters, from e-mails, from their instant messaging chats, and from their recent phone calls. He told Jerome how much she had encouraged him, supported him, prayed for him, and insisted that he was someone special, including the events around the picture and their argument afterwards. He even offered to make Jerome copies of his e-mails and scans so that he could read them himself.
At last when Clay paused to see if there was anything else at all he could remember, Jerome took in and let out a deep breath. “She does sound special, and I can see why you were drawn to her… but you couldn’t have picked a trickier situation for us to deal with.”
“I know. And it’s completely, one hundred percent my fault.”
Jerome eyed him. “At least you’re attempting to be responsible and not pretending the situation will go away on its own. This one will not go away if ignored.”
Clay looked down at his shoes. “I know. If I try to ignore it, I go crazy and I take everyone with me. She means too much to me for me to turn away now, especially after I almost lost her for good. But I don’t know exactly what I can do to try to protect her. There’s so much at stake…”
“Yeah…” Jerome mused, leaning his head to one side. “A lot at stake, but if we look into our options now we can be prepared for what might happen down the road. That doesn’t mean it will happen, but that means we’ll be ready if it does.”
“I don’t understand.”
Jerome gave a slight smile. “Clay, when we go to the venues, one of the things I always do is look at a map of the place… the auditorium, the hallways, the crew and artists’ quarters… and try to adjust our contingency plan outline to the setup. We try to figure out where problem spots will be, and we also scope the boards to see if the fans have any knowledge of possible threats as well. Sometimes they will be privy to knowledge that we wouldn’t have otherwise.” He shrugged. “Very rarely does anything happen. The worst that typically happens is that you get an early Christmas goose.”
Clay flushed at a few memories of that very event. “That isn’t always easily planned for.”
“Right, that’s usually a case of dealing with the problem after it happens. But the point is that I gather a lot of data and do a lot of planning for things that never happen. Is it a waste of time? No. I would rather spend a lot of time making plans that don’t end up being needed than use my time in other ways and regret later not having a plan. Even if I never use the plans.”
“Okay,” Clay responded. “I think I understand that. How will that help us with Kate?”
“We don’t know what will happen, we don’t know what won’t happen… but if we try to anticipate the possibilities and plan ahead for some of them, we’ll be prepared for dealing with them. Especially if they’re scenarios that are less than happy ones. You follow me?”
“Damage prevention,” Clay answered, “rather than damage control.”
Jerome grinned. “Right. Now when it comes to this lady friend of yours…” He sighed. “Ultimately it’s your choice, and you have to follow your heart and your head alike. And they have to work together before you’ll recognize your soul mate. The only person who can ever decide who Clay Aiken loves and is right for him is… Clay Aiken. Everyone else has opinions and a stake in the decision, but at the end of the day it’s your life. It’s your choice, and yours alone… with one exception. Only the Almighty has the right to tell you differently when your choice is absolutely the wrong one.” He raised both eyebrows. “However, your safety and security is my job, and one I take very seriously. While you take the time to search your heart and mind, and I’d even suggest praying about it… I am going to read through those e-mails and those letter scans you offered so generously, and I am going to run a thorough background check on Kate and her family as well. Since you say she has a brother in military intelligence, it’s not the first time she’s had one of those.”
Clay snickered. “Probably not.”
“Just so you know,” Jerome said, “that decision’s for her safety and well-being as well as yours. I want to know if there are any ‘surprises’ in her past just in case people with fewer ethics than our old pal CR decide to see what kind of dirt they want to sling around.”
Unfortunately Clay understood that one completely. If there were people out there willing to invent scandals from scratch, there would certainly be people willing to take even the tiniest grain of sand and make a mud pie festival out of it. “Jerome, I trust you. Please keep me informed if you find anything… but somehow I doubt that you will.”
***
“Good news,” Jerome told Clay the next time the subject came up. “Your friend has an honorable record. No misdemeanors or felonies, no prior marriages or hidden children,” Jerome smirked as Clay rolled his eyes with a disdainful snort, “no questionable debts or employments. It was all pretty straightforward, open book.”
“That’s a relief to hear.”
“I’m sure it is.” Jerome smiled. “You seem to have picked a real winner, and I mean that. All of the people we talked to had nothing but good things to say about her. To hear some of them talk, you don’t find a young lady much more wholesome than that.”
Clay snorted. “So much for my bad-boy image. The label will be disappointed.”
Chuckling warmly, Jerome smiled even broader. “I think the worst thing I heard said about her is that she has a tendency to speak her mind.”
“Now that’s a shocking revelation if I ever heard one,” Clay drawled. “How dare she?”
Jerome continued to chuckle at Clay’s dry sarcasm. “I’ve also taken the liberty of talking to your legal team about this so that if the subject ever becomes public knowledge, we’ll know how to handle things… we’ll know what to tell people about how you met.”
Clay blinked with surprise at this additional bit of research. “Oh. What did they recommend?”
“The truth,” Jerome nodded, a little puzzled at their choice of advice. “They recommended the truth. They’re going to look for a legal angle that allows you to keep your friendship intact, and see if it can happen without you paying any penalties for it, but they honestly recommend not shying away from the truth of how you met.”
“Seriously?”
“It surprised me too.” Jerome shrugged with confusion. “I’m hoping they see all the angles and the loopholes to their recommendation. Too many worms in that can if you ask me… I’m hoping it never gets opened. I don’t even want to think of possible outcomes with copycatters. There’s way too many nasty people out there waiting for someone gullible to come along.”
After all this time of being friends with Kate, Clay was forced to agree with Jerome’s assessment. He had seen just a taste of the troubles that were possible, but that was enough. God had really been looking out for him on this one; things could have ended up a lot worse. “I just want to protect her as much as possible. She doesn’t deserve half the hassle I’ve been put through.”
“And you do?”
“I auditioned,” Clay answered, “I should have known what to expect.”
“Millions auditioned, Clay, and never even made it on TV.” Jerome leaned forward. “But God gave you the opportunity for His own reasons. Maybe He expects the sacrifices of you because He knows you’re willing to obey, but that doesn’t mean you deserve all the mistreatment you get. The Internet has blown this whole thing into seriously crazy proportions, and you put up with a lot more than even we thought you would.” He sat back again. “Same with Kate. You said that she claims she’s willing to deal with whatever she has to in order to support you and make sure you always have someone to turn to. Maybe she’s following a higher Call as well… one to be your much-needed friend. If it’s God’s Call she’s following, then He’ll ask sacrifices of her too. I guarantee it.”
Clay shook his head. “She shouldn’t have to make sacrifices.”
“And why do you think you should?”
“It’s my name on the ticket,” Clay responded. “It’s my name on the marquee.”
“So? God doesn’t expect us to be alone, Clay. He knows it’s not good for us.”
A deep scowl formed on Clay’s face. “Kate used that same argument on me.”
Jerome grinned. “Smart girl. I like her already.”
“Good. We’ll name our firstborn after you…” Clay murmured.
“Aww…” Jerome cooed. “I always wanted a Mini-Me.” Clay snorted, and with a chuckle Jerome continued. “Are you really that serious about her?”
Clay sighed, his face falling into a thoughtful melancholy. “In my dreams only, because I know she’d never think of me that way.”
Jerome shook his head. “You’ll never know unless you ask…”
“Then I’ll never know.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Thursday, September 9, 2004
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At one of the medical
clinics in Kearney, Nebraska
Arthur helped Kate put the cast up on the footrest of the wheelchair as a nurse waited nearby at the chair’s handles. He stood back upright to address her. “Well, honey, good luck. I know you’ve been looking forward to this day for a while now.”
“Oh yeah…” Kate sighed contentedly.
“I’ll be waiting out here in the lobby for you,” Arthur told her. “It shouldn’t take real long for them to get you feeling human again.”
Kate raised an eyebrow. “Instead of feeling like the mummy or the bionic woman.” She grinned up at her father, thankful that he had taken time from his work to chauffer her to and from the clinic to have her casts removed. Patricia had offered first, but Arthur had suggested that it would be easier for him to take a break and head to town than it would be for Patricia to arrange for a half-day classroom substitute. In the end Kate elected to award the opportunity to her father, as their respective work hours made things a little more tricky for them to find time together. He hadn’t been kidding when he said she had been looking forward to this day for a while, and had looked forward to it in more ways than one. “Thanks, Poppa. I appreciate you helping me out today.” Arthur winked at her, and her smile grew as the nurse wheeled her back to the examination room.
After the pre-requisite wait, Doctor Kelley entered the room. “Ah, Kate! So today’s the day?”
“I sure hope so, Doc,” Kate answered. “Though the one down side to losing these monsters will be that I won’t be able to use the sympathy card on my kids any more.”
Doctor Kelley chuckled. “No, you will lose that tactical advantage, but I think you will prefer swapping that for the other freedoms and skills you will regain with them off.”
“Yes…” Kate sighed again. “Plus I won’t have to hear Mom grouse at me for trying to scratch them with a chopstick.”
“And I can almost hear your mother giving a hard time about that,” he chuckled. Giving both her arm and leg a quick examination, Doctor Kelley nodded with approval. “They look fine from here, Kate. Let’s bring in the cutter and get rid of those beasts. I want to return your chopsticks to their original use.”
Kate laughed warmly as Doctor Kelley made instructions to his nurse. Within minutes a technician came with the specialized rotary cutter for her fiberglass casts. She started it going with a high-pitched whir, and as Kate held her limb still began working on removing the cast that covered her arm. It took several minutes, but at last the technician peeled back the first edge as if it was a lobster shell. “Fphew!” Kate complained, wrinkling her nose at the smell of seven weeks’ layers of dried skin.
The tech tittered at Kate’s expressive reaction. “At least now you’ll be able to bathe it properly.”
“And I plan to, as soon as I get home. Somehow I doubt my schoolkids want to put up with that the rest of the day. I can only imagine the nature of the jokes that would fly in the classroom.”
“I’m sure you can.” Finished peeling away the arm cast, she removed the discarded husk and picked back up the cutter to work on the leg. The whir began again, and the tech slowly cut her way through the fiberglass that had shielded Kate’s leg as it mended. At last that too fell away, and the ripe odor that Kate had complained of moments ago renewed itself as her bare leg was exposed.
“Ugh,” Kate grunted, making another distasteful face. “I don’t just look like the mummy, I smell like the mummy – after he was unwrapped!”
“You’ll find that too,” the tech continued, “will be easily fixed in the shower. However, the stiffness can only be worked out with time and a gradual return to using your arm and leg. I would go as far as to suggest a few sessions of physical therapy to give you some exercises and recommendations so that you don’t try too much too quickly.”
Kate’s expression turned puzzled. “What makes you think I would try too much too quickly?”
The tech gave her a knowing look. “Don’t forget that my daughter
“Yeah,” Kate grumbled. “Unfortunately I broke my writing hand. My handwriting with this hand,” she indicated the non-dominant hand, “is not the most neat in the world. They were all volunteering to help me until I got the casts off… they wanted to be able to read the board.”
“That’s not uncommon. Every now and then I’ll have some children who are able to write with the other hand, and it’s actually legible. One little girl’s handwriting was almost as good with the wrong hand as it was with her regular writing hand.”
“Lucky kid,” Kate sighed, remembering how the bank had to call her a few times to verify information on a few checks she had written for bills. After two answering machine messages for two separate checks, Sarah had agreed to fill out everything on Kate’s checks but the signature, a serious help for Kate. She did have to give the bank credit for looking out for her interest and protection though, thanking her good fortune to have chosen a conscientious close-knit bank for her home bank.
Shortly Kate was released from her appointment and since she was still a little wobbly on her feet, was also wheeled back down the hall to meet up with her father. Arthur grinned with satisfaction to see her return cast-free, and gave her his arm to help walk her out to his vehicle. Once back at the family farmhouse, he helped her inside as well. “How much more help do you want?” he asked with gentle concern for his daughter.
“Maybe just a little more to the door of the bedroom,” Kate mused. “But my shower is strictly off-limits, even if I fall on my tail in the process.”
Arthur chuckled warmly and agreed. He gave her the help to the bedroom she requested, going down the hall to be nearby if she needed but otherwise remaining out of her way. Kate quickly changed into an oversized bathrobe and hobbled down the hall to the bathroom. Using the detachable shower head and a plastic footstool for safety’s sake, she gave herself a luxurious shower that included a vigorous scrubbing of her newly freed arm and leg. Once she was satisfied that she was FINALLY clean, she toweled off and put back on her bathrobe to return to the bedroom to change into regular clothes again.
Knowing that she wasn’t going to return to her classroom the rest of the day, she carefully sauntered over to the overstuffed chair in the corner of the room. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and eagerly made a call to a friend that she knew would want to hear the good news.
“Why, Miss Kirche,” Clay’s voice playfully scolded upon picking up the phone, “are you playing hooky on such a beautiful Thursday afternoon?”
“I went to work today,” Kate told him smartly, “but just for the morning. This afternoon I had a doctor’s appointment, and I just got back a little while ago.”
“Good news, I hope.”
Kate grinned wickedly. “I’m holding the phone in my left hand.”
Clay squawked with excitement. “You got it off???”
“Got them both off, thank you very much!”
“That’s not good news,” Clay informed her. “That’s great news!”
“No kidding. I’m still plenty stiff in the limbs, as they were nearly immobile for seven weeks…” Kate admitted, “but boy, was I glad to finally scratch my itches properly, and to take a shower properly!”
Clay chuckled. “Time to finally retire the chopsticks…”
“Good thing, Mom hid them again earlier this week… and I haven’t found them this time.”
Clay laughed openly on the other end of the phone line. “Kate, Kate, Kate… you have to have come up with some of the most creative uses for household items I’ve ever heard. Until I met you, I would never have thought of chopsticks as a backscratcher or of a package of frozen peas as an ice pack.”
“Give Sarah credit for the peas,” Kate confessed, “I can’t claim that one.”
“But I would bet,” Clay drawled, “that you have a few more unique uses for ordinary items than just those two things. Am I right?”
Kate flushed slightly. “Maybe, maybe not.”
“Kate, if it’s one thing I’ve learned about you, you’re gifted at minimizing things and dodging the subject. And your tone of voice usually gives away when you’re doing it, like you are now.”
“Whatever,” Kate snorted derisively.
“And that,” Clay continued, “is your typical response when you’d just rather drop the subject, because you know I’m right.”
“Whatever!”
Mercifully Clay did change the subject. “I’m glad you called though, it’s about time those casts came off. What, they’re supposed to only be on six weeks and they kept them on seven?”
“It was a precaution on Doctor Kelley’s part,” Kate answered, “and he admitted as much when he made his decision. Yeah, they were an extra week’s annoyance, but at least I know everything is properly healed. Not yet back to snuff, of course, but healed.”
“You’ll be back to normal in no time at all, Kate.”
Kate snorted again. “Aiken, you know full well I was never normal!”
“Which is one reason I like you so much.”
With that unexpected retort Kate broke into laughter. “Glutton for punishment…”
“Yup.” He listened to her giggle for a while longer before changing the subject even further. “I have some news of my own, Kate.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve been contacted,” Clay began, “by UNICEF. You’ve heard of them, right? Well… it seems they want to recruit me to be one of their spokespeople, one of their ambassadors. They want someone to cover the area of education, and they think since I have my teacher’s degree I’m a good choice.”
“Really???” Kate squealed. “I can’t think of anyone who would be better qualified to be an activist on the behalf of children.”
“Thank you,” Clay breathed reverently. “That’s an honor, coming from you.”
“More like an accurate assessment…” Kate murmured. “Go on, tell me more if you can. But if you can’t say anything more yet, I’ll respect that. I know there are a lot of things you have to keep under wraps for one reason or another.”
“Kate, there’s only one reason I’m telling you right now at all instead of making you wait until a more formal announcement, like everyone else. Well, two reasons. One is that… you’re my friend.”
Kate bit her lip. “Somehow I doubt the rest of your friends are getting the same honor, Clay.”
“You’re right. The second reason…” Clay paused. “… is that you’re the one whose influence is really making me think about doing it. About taking the position. All of those stories about your mission work really affected me.”
It was because of how the work affected her that Kate understood. “It really does get under your skin, doesn’t it?”
“I think it does. I’ve always wanted to make a difference in the world, especially with children…” Clay sighed deeply. “But I never thought I’d get an opportunity like this.”
“Clay, I’m sure there’s a lot of opportunities you’ve had that you never dreamed of.”
“True…” So Clay began to tell her more about the nature of the appointment as he understood it.
At last Clay finished telling her all he could, and Kate mulled over what she had heard. It was very obvious to her he was deeply, sorely tempted and drawn by the opportunity. She would have been likewise tempted in his place and she knew it. But there was some undercurrent in his voice that Kate couldn’t pinpoint, and she was convinced that undercurrent was the real reason he had called her. Yes, the other two things were true and she wouldn’t dispute them, but there was more… and it was possible that not even Clay knew about the other reason. After a couple more minutes of thought, she came to her conclusion about what it was.
“Clay, it’s totally your call whether or not you want to do this. You know that I would in your shoes. But we both know it’s a sizable task they’ve set before you.”
She could almost hear Clay nodding acknowledgment on the other end. “That it is. I think the appointment is bigger than I am.”
“Of course it is. Poverty is a bigger thing than any one person can tackle and defeat, otherwise we would have conquered it by now.” Kate smiled gently. “But I think that you’re certainly up to the task of dealing with as much of it as you can, with God guiding and directing you. And I very much believe that you can do it, especially with Him guiding and directing you.”
“Do you really?” Clay asked quietly.
“Yes,” Kate answered without hesitation.
Clay was quiet on the other end for a few moments. “You know, I think I’m going to pray about it some more… but unless He gives me a decisive ‘no’, then I think I’m going to accept the appointment.”
Kate’s smile grew. “And I think you’ll do well.”
“Thank you for believing in me.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
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Never Lonely Again – Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | NLA main
Since mission work is such a big part of my heroine Kate's life, I am also going to put up a link to the web site for my Haiti 2001 Mission Trip.