After church this evening, I walked across the street to the gym to find Ava. She and Austin were supposed to be cooking for our college meal tonight, but I'd gotten a message from Henley saying it was canceled. I just wanted to check with Ava and see if they'd already made something, and if we were going to have it anyway.
As I crossed the street from the church building to the gym building, my 'brown-eyed boy' was walking across also from farther up, headed to where his car was parked beside the gym building. Our triangle converged near his car, and after exchanging greetings, I asked him if he'd had a good time at our small town's yearly Old Days celebration. By this time he'd reached his car and I was almost to the gym door - the one with the new keypad lock on it. He stood at the driver's side door looking puzzled a minute, then exclaimed, 'Oh yeah! You were there! I was trying to think how you knew about it.'
I smiled.
He said it'd been okay; he worked the booth for the local gym because several of the employees that were supposed to run it couldn't be there. I ask him if they'd paid him and he said they had. I grinned, 'Well, that's something then!'
'Oh yeah, sure!', he agreed heartily.
I turned and punched in the code and opened the door. 'Yeah, and when did that happen? I feel like I've been sort of out of it with stuff around here.' He nodded towards the keypad on the door, leaving his car and following me into the gym.
'A couple of weeks ago,' I answered. We walked together across the big basketball court, dodging third-graders rip-sticking and playing basketball now that their class was out.
'I don't feel like I've been here in so long. I mean, I've been up there,' he motioned with his head back towards the church building, 'but not over here.'
'Have they been working you alot on Wednesday nights?' I asked sympathetically. I didn't want to seem like I was fussing at him for not being there - but I wanted him to know we'd missed him.
'Yeah,' he shook his head slightly and watched the floor as he walked. 'Alot of other people had already asked for Wednesday nights off.' His head came up, he straightened his shoulders, and his voice took on a determined note. 'But I told them I was not working on Sundays!'
I grinned. 'Good for you!' I exclaimed, proud of him, knowing how hard life is right now for him, wanting so much for Good to win the struggle, and thankful that he seemingly desires to do what's right.
We reached the classroom that contains the stairwell that leads up to the youth room. Ava, Joy, and Piper were coming out, and Ava and I met in the doorway. Joy and Piper came on through and into the gym, and out the nearest outside door. My 'brown-eyed boy' continued on into the room when I stopped to talk to Ava, then soon excused himself as he passed between us back out the door, back into the gym and, I assume, out of the gym and into his car and left. I didn't really notice it until later, when I was thinking over the day, and realized he must have come into the gym building at all only because I was talking to him. And when I started talking to Ava, he left. I hope he didn't feel like I was rude to him!
Poor dear boy. All my poor dear boys! And girls! The world is such a horrible place for a Christian teenager to try to grow up in! Like flowers trying to grow in the desert. Oh the struggles, even if there are kind gardeners who tend and water the fragile plants! And if there are none... it's that much more difficult. Only the fact that their God controls the weather allows these flowers to survive, grow, and even, Lord willing, flourish in this hostile place.
Ava had gotten Henley's message about supper being canceled before she started cooking for it, so we would just go ahead and call it off completely.
We stood and chatted for a few minutes. She and Austin had gone up to go to church with Archer this morning. She said it was different - more geared to the college-age population that dominates that college town. She said it was nice and she enjoyed the service, but the way she carefully chose her wording, and her politely positive tone, made me think maybe she hadn't thought it was quite as amazing as Archer seems to feel like it is. Sweet, considerate Ava!
Switching 'gears', the youth class is starting a small-group discipleship-type study using Francis Chan's book, "Multiply" as their curriculum on Sunday nights. Tonight was the first week, and Ava is a small-group leader. She really seemed excited about that; she said Piper and Joy are the two girls in her group!
After talking with Ava, I went on out the gym door, and Piper and Abigail were standing under the over-hang, waiting, I suppose, for Law to come downstairs to take them home. I stopped to talk to them a few minutes, and sweet Piper threw her arms around me impulsively. There are different kinds of hugs. It is not uncommon for Piper and me to give each other what I mentally call 'greeting hugs' - when you meet a friend, and you're like, "Oh hey so-and-so!" and you give them a friendly hug. But there's also what I call a 'speechless hug' - where your heart is so full, and you want the person to know that you care about them and love them, but you don't know what to say. So you hug them, tight, without saying anything, and don't hurry to let go. Now, this is just my 'take' on hugs, but I theorize that it's probably similar for other people too. And if that's the case, Piper gave me a 'speechless hug' then, though I didn't really think about it until later. But she's not really a 'huggy' person, and I wonder what she had on her heart to make her give me one like that.
We stood and chatted for a few more minutes until Law came down and they loaded up in Law's Explorer.
Julia and Toby's cousin (who is here visiting for a few days) came down about the same time, and I talked to them a minute. Autumn had surgery on her wrist this past week, and wasn't there. She and Julia are best friends and I asked Julia how she was. That led to a brainstorm on Julia and Toby's cousin's part, to go visit Autumn and surprise her. Toby's cousin went with them on the mission trip to Nicaragua last year, and she and Julia and Autumn became great friends. Autumn didn't know she was here.
I left them plotting on how they were going to surprise Autumn, and headed down the sidewalk that goes beside the gym, walking back up to the church building. The S. kids hadn't pulled out yet, and I waved at them as I walked past. Abigail and Law waved back from the front seats.
I walked back up to the church building feeling a mixture of emotions. Concern, happiness, curiosity, and contentment.
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