It's My Life - Melody Carlson [21]
I grin at her. “You know, Steph, I think you'd make a great pastor's wife.”
I can see her blushing, but she gives me this sort of sly look that tells me I might not be too far off the mark, then says, “You just better keep those thoughts to yourself. You know how rumors can get started at a small church like ours.”
Now I laugh. “Get started? You better open your ears, Sister Steph, they've been circulating for some time now!”
So anyway, we finished eating lunch, and she promised to call me as soon as she heard anything, one way or another. “And don't forget to pray,” she said as we both went our separate ways.
Now, when I got back to work, I suddenly remembered something. Back when I first applied for this job I told Rita how I needed time off in August for this missions trip, and she had mentioned that the corporation sometimes donated to worthy causes and might even contribute to the Mexico trip. But because of my birthday present from my parents, working at fund-raisers, and my job, I'd never needed to ask. So, I decided, why not ask today? And so I told Rita the whole story, swearing her to secrecy about Beanie and Zach. And she smiled and said she'd see what she could do. Then I sent my dad a quick e-mail note, telling him about the whole thing too, hoping he might have a little clout he could use to help out. And he e-mailed right back saying he'd do whatever he could and had a meeting with one of the bigwigs in a few minutes anyway.
Well, by the end of the day, Rita marched triumphantly over to the little desk I use to help her stick labels on envelopes and things like that, and she said, “We did it!” And I just jumped up and hugged her so tight I knocked her glasses right off her nose.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, Rita!” I cried. “You don't know how much this will mean to everyone.”
“Just one thing, the big boss says you have to bring back lots of photos and make a poster or some kind of display to put up in the lunchroom so everyone can see what you kids did while you were down there. Is that a problem?”
I laughed. “Not at all. I think it's a great idea!”
Then she looked at her watch. “Well, your day's almost over. Why don't you just take off. I'm sure you'd like to tell your friends the good news.”
“Thanks so much, Rita! You're just like the fairy godmother!”
She pretended to wave her wand. “Well, then off with you!”
But instead of leaving, I went straight up to my dad's office. Of course, he'd already heard the good news, but he let me use his phone to call Pastor Tony and Steph. And they both agreed to handle everything (which I liked–it feels better to remain sort of anonymous in these things, and I think that's how God likes us to be anyway). Then I drove over to Steph's apartment where I found Beanie and Oliver watching Sesame Street together.
“Sheesh, Bean, I think you're getting a little old for this,” I said as I flopped down on the couch with them and immediately started making fun of Big Bird (whom I used to totally adore as a child), but I was just trying to conceal my pleasure of this latest bit of good news.
“Hey, don't knock it. It's a pretty good show, and I never got to watch it as a kid. Oliver and I've learned all kinds of things from these puppet guys.”
I could tell she was trying to cover for feeling down, and suddenly I felt guilty for not telling her the good news right then and there, but at the same time was still a little irked that she'd almost given away (albeit unwittingly) the gift I'd given specially to her. “So, you want to grab some burgers before the missions meeting tonight?” I suggested without looking her in the eye.
“Uh, that's right,” she said slowly, focusing her attention on Oliver's curly hair. “Uh, I almost forgot to tell you. I can't go on the trip.”
“You can't go?” I jumped up from the couch, acting pretty upset (you know how Beanie loves drama, or used to anyway). “What do you mean you can't go? Why can't you go? I thought it was all