When he didn’t, she struggled miserably over how she could encourage him, even though Mom, Bob, and David were right behind them, watching. She was capable of being forward like Paula. She could easily slip her arm through Todd’s and say, “Isn’t it a gorgeous night? What a perfect setting for my birthday! Isn’t it romantic, Todd?”
Okay, Christy, she coached herself, go ahead. Make a move. Paula would if she were you.
“You know.” Todd sliced through the silence between them and leaned close so the others couldn’t hear what he said. “That’s one of the things I like most about you, Christy. You don’t play games or try to be flirty like a lot of other girls.”
She swallowed hard, feeling caught.
If only you knew, Todd! One more minute, and I would have been playing “Miss Piggy.”
“It’s not that I don’t think about it,” Christy said, shocked that the honest words tumbled out before she could stop them.
“Really?” Todd looked at her curiously. “What do girls think about? I mean, why do they do that to a guy?”
Christy didn’t allow herself to hesitate. If she did, she might not say any of the things she truly felt or thought—things she often wanted to talk over with Todd but usually chickened out on before she said them.
“I guess we’re looking for some attention, some way to find out what the guy is thinking or how he feels about us.”
“That’s all backward,” Todd stated. “I think the guy should be the initiator and the girl should be the responder. Not the other way around.”
“But you don’t know what it’s like to be the girl and to have to wait and wait and wait for the guy to initiate something. When he doesn’t, you feel he’s not interested in you.”
“So girls think that the level of a guy’s interest is based on how much he touches her?” Todd sounded surprised, and his voice rose a bit.
Christy wondered if everyone else could overhear their conversation. She was saying so many things to Todd she had longed to tell him that she continued but spoke softly.
“I agree that a girl should let the guy be the leader, but I also think sometimes the guy can be a little more, well, gentle and caring by, you know, holding her hand or other little expressions of how he feels without it being a big deal.” Christy looked up at Todd, and in the dim light she could see an amazed expression on his face, as if he’d never considered that point of view before.
“Does that make sense? What I’m trying to say is that if a guy holds a girl’s hand or something like that, it lets the girl know he likes her. That’s all. It doesn’t mean he’s trying to, you know, make out with her or anything. It just means she’s special to him.”
“Interesting. It’s different for guys,” Todd said. “For a guy it’s like—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence, which frustrated Christy, because Bob interrupted them. He directed them to stop at Whalers Village and find a seat on the patio at Leilani’s Restaurant.
David helped Todd push two of the round tables together under the light of a gas tiki torch and pull up seven chairs. David then made a beeline for the seat next to Todd. Then, before Christy could get around to the other side, Paula grabbed the chair on Todd’s other side. Feeling as though she’d been cut off from one of the best conversations she’d ever had with Todd, Christy dropped into a chair next to Marti.
“Oh, Christy,” Marti scolded, “that certainly is not the way a young lady takes her seat! I thought I’d taught you better than that.”
Fortunately, the waitress stepped up to their table, and Christy didn’t have to answer.
“We’ll have seven Naughty Hula pies,” Bob ordered for them all. “And how many coffees?”
“Bob,” Marti interjected, “I only want a little bite of yours, and perhaps the girls would like to split one. The slices are gigantic, and they’re awfully rich.”
“Not the birthday girl!” Bob flashed a warm smile at a pouting Christy. “Tonight she gets whatever she wants.”
If that was true, I’d get Todd all to myself, and I’d hold his hand tightly, and I’d find a way to tell him how I feel about him. If I could wish for anything on my birthday, that would be it.
They all ordered their own slice of pie, except Marti. Then they laughed at their optimism when the huge slices of macadamia-nut ice-cream pie, covered with hot fudge and whipped cream, arrived at their table.
“I tried to warn you,” Marti said. “Now you know why they call it Naughty Hula pie. Can you even begin to guess how many calories are in this monstrous piece?”
“Let’s sing to the birthday girl and let her enjoy her pie without the guilt,” Bob suggested. “Go ahead, honey. Make a wish.”
Christy closed her eyes. She knew exactly what to wish for.
On the drive to the condo, Christy felt overly full, yet not willing to tell her aunt she had been right about the size of the pie. She told herself she’d wasted her birthday wish on something that would never come true. Todd wasn’t even sitting by her in the van. He sat by David on the back bench seat, with Paula close on his other side.
“You have something in your hair, Todd,” Paula said. Christy turned slightly in her middle seat so she could see what game Paula was up to now. Paula began to comb her long fingernails through the side of Todd’s hair, leaning close in the dark car to find the something in his hair.
“Did you get it?” Todd asked.
“I’m not sure. It’s kind of dark in here.” She kept grooming his short, sun-lightened mane. “You really have nice hair.”
Let go of him, Paula! Stop your stupid little games. Todd hates your games anyway. You’re not going to score any points with him this way.
“That feels good,” Todd said. “Little more to the left.”
He leaned his head closer to her, so she could keep scratching.
“Eww! I think you still have sand in your hair!” Paula squealed.
“Probably. I need fingernails like yours to get it out, I guess.”
That’s just great, Todd. Now who’s playing games?
Christy curled her hands into two fists in her lap. The cat-woman image reentered her mind. Would anyone try to stop her if she sprang from her seat and used her claws on Paula at this very moment?
But they were home.
Bob parked the van, and the sand-scratching ritual in the backseat came to an end.
Scrunched together in the elevator, Christy shot angry darts at Todd. Being mad at Paula was one thing. She expected Paula to play all her games to win Todd’s attention, regardless of this being Christy’s birthday. But why, oh, why would Todd say he didn’t like it when Paula played those games and he liked Christy because she didn’t play them, and then give in to Paula whenever she came on to him? Didn’t he see what he was doing when he accepted her attention? Didn’t he understand how that made Christy feel?
“I’m going to bed,” David announced when the elevator deposited them on the sixth floor. “I don’t feel very well.”
“We have a few presents for Christy. Can you wait until after she opens them?”
“No,” David groaned, holding his stomach, “I’m too full to sit up. I just want to go to bed.”
David went right to his room, while the others gathered on Bob and Marti’s lanai to admire the stars. While everyone chatted, Christy stared into the vast ocean before her.
She had to admit, the night was beautiful. She didn’t want to ruin what was left of her birthday with such a bitter attitude.
I’m sorry, Father God. She sent her heartfelt prayer on a sudden breeze that rustled the huge palm tree growing beside the lanai. Please help me not to be so jealous but to act the way You want me to.
Then she remembered. Today, or more accurately tomorrow, was her spiritual birthday. One year ago she had given her heart to the Lord.
I’m not exactly acting like one of Your daughters, am I, God? I’m sorry.
“You going to join us, Christy?” Marti called from the lanai t
able. “We have some presents here, and they all have your name on them.”
Christy took a breath and allowed a smile to replace her scowl. As demurely as possible, she sat in the seat next to her aunt, secretly pleased with her delicate descent.
The night wasn’t over yet. A few dreams could still come true.
“Open my present first,” Paula urged, sitting, of course, right next to Todd. “It was actually my mom’s idea. I hope you like it.”
Even in the dim light on the lanai, Paula looked horribly sunburned.
“Did you use anything for your sunburn yet?” Marti asked. “You really got too much sun today, Paula. You can get sick from sunburn, you know. Your lips will swell and blister, and your skin will peel. You did use sunscreen today, didn’t you?”
Paula avoided answering by focusing on Christy, who had opened the small box from Paula and lifted out a picture in a heart-shaped silver frame. Christy held it closer in the dim light to see better.
“It’s us,” Paula said. “My mom took it on our first day of kindergarten.”
Christy held it up to the light and smiled at the two little faces, pressed cheek to cheek. Both had a front tooth missing.
Christy couldn’t explain it, but all of a sudden she felt like crying. The picture delighted her. It warmed her from the inside out. It brought an ocean full of childhood memories and dreams. It made her feel closer to Paula than she had felt their whole trip. She couldn’t be angry with that little cherub beside her in the picture.
“I love it, Paula. Thank you.” Christy reached over to give her a cheek-to-cheek hug.
“Owww!” Paula responded the instant Christy touched her.
“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s your sunburn, huh?”
Instantly, the surge of closeness receded. An invisible shield went up between them again.
Mom and Marti admired the picture and handed it to Todd for his examination.
A smile spread across his face, and he teased, “Which is which?”
“Can’t you tell?” Christy asked. “I’m the one on the right.”
Todd kept looking at the picture and smiling.
Mom handed Christy her gift in a shopping bag and apologized for not being organized enough to have brought along a box and wrapping paper. It was a big, multicolored beach bag.
Christy really liked it, which was good since she and Mom usually didn’t have similar tastes.
“Here,” Todd pulled a cardboard tube out from under his chair. “I’m not one for wrapping paper either.”
Popping the plastic end off the tube, Christy pulled out a rolled-up picture of a gorgeous waterfall surrounded by tropical foliage. An old bridge stretched across the top of the waterfall.
“This is pretty. Thanks.” It was a pretty picture, but it wasn’t exactly a personal, romantic kind of gift like the gold ID bracelet Todd had given her for Christmas. He had had the word Forever engraved on it. Christy had grown familiar with its light touch on her wrist and all the hope and promise for their relationship it carried.
“You said to send you a postcard of a waterfall,” Todd said in his teasing way. “And that’s a waterfall that, well …” He looked like he wanted to explain something about the waterfall, but it was too deeply personal. “Well, I like it a lot.”
Christy smiled her thanks, unsure of his unspoken message, and rolled the picture back up. Gently, she eased it into the tube.
“One more gift, Christy,” Marti said with a song in her voice.
Christy felt even worse at the thought that she might now receive an expensive gift. “You’ve already given me my birthday present, bringing me here and taking us to the luau and everything! I really couldn’t accept anything else.”
Bob handed her an envelope, and she felt a bit relieved, thinking it might be a card with twenty dollars or something that would be easy to accept.
It was a card, all right. “Happy Sweet Sixteen,” the front proclaimed. Fortunately, no money was inside. Only an odd-shaped piece of paper that floated to her lap. Christy held it up and then looked at her aunt and uncle and asked, “What’s this?”
“Can’t you tell?” Marti bubbled. “It’s a clue. Try to guess.”
“It’s a picture of a car.”
“A car!” Paula spit out the words as if they disgusted her. “I’m so sure, Christy! You’re so spoiled, and you don’t even know it.”
“Hold on now,” Bob said calmly. “It’s not a brand-new car.”
“Remember my old car?” Marti asked.
Christy gulped, “The convertible Mercedes?”
Paula turned away and looked out at the ocean.
“We traded it in,” Bob explained. “Well, sort of traded it in. The bottom line is, after you get your license, you and your dad will go with me to the dealer and trade in your parents’ car as well. We’ll use the credit from their car and the Mercedes to do a little wheeling and dealing. Hopefully, we can manage to come up with a car for you and one for your mom and dad as well.”
“I can’t believe this! Thank you.” Christy hugged Bob and Marti and then Mom.
Her stomach had begun to do flip-flops the moment Bob said “when you get your license,” and now she felt that strange sensation of horror and expectation. So much depended on her taking the test when she got home and passing it the first time.
Just then the phone rang inside the condo.
“Who could that be?” Marti asked. “After all, your father already called this morning.”
“Want me to get it?” Christy offered, since she was the only one standing.
“Sure,” Bob said.
Christy lifted the receiver on the third ring. “Hello?”
A loud crackling and clicking came across the line.
“Hello?” she said louder. “Hello?”
A woman spoke in what sounded like Spanish or Italian, and then the phone clicked and a surprisingly clear male voice came on the line. “Yes, hello. I’m trying to reach Christy Miller.”
“This is Christy.” Her heart pounded, echoing in her ears. This is strange! Who could be calling me?
“Christy! Do you know who this is?” There was a delay and a little bit of an echo on what seemed to be a cell phone, which made it even more difficult to identify the deep, vaguely familiar voice.
“Ah, ahh …” She didn’t know what to say.
Obviously, this person knew her, knew she was in Maui, and somehow had gotten the phone number. Suddenly, she remembered the mysterious, unsigned letter she had stuck in her purse. Could this be the person who wrote the letter?
The voice laughed on the other end of the line, and she knew she had heard that laugh before. But where? When? Who was this?
“I’ll give you a clue. You owe me something, which you promised to give me on July 27. Well, where I’m calling from, it’s already July 28, but I’m calling to tell you that just because you’re in Maui, you can’t forget your promise. You still owe me.”
The strong voice had taken on a Mafia-type accent, and Christy felt a little frightened, even though she knew it had to be someone playing a trick on her.
“I intend to collect on what you owe me before the summer’s over, got it?”
“Well, um.” Christy tried hard to sound light and playful, but she was in a fog over what this masked voice was talking about. “Just exactly what is it I owe you?”
The voice laughed, not deep and mysterious but freely, in its natural range. Then switching back to Mafia style, he said, “A date, Killer Eyes. You owe me a birthday date.”
Christy burst out in wild, relieved, delighted laughter, causing everyone on the lanai to stop talking and look inside the condo at her. She pulled the phone cord around the corner, into the kitchen to be out of their view.
“Rick! I can’t believe you’re calling me!”
“You really didn’t know it was me?” he asked in his usual self-confident tone.
“No, I couldn’t figure it out at all! Where are you? I thought you were
in Europe.”
“I am. I’m on the island of Capri.”
“Where’s that?”
“Off the coast of Italy. We took a hydrofoil over from Naples yesterday. We’re going to Rome later this afternoon and then up to Florence and Venice.”
“I can’t believe this. How’d you get my number?”
“I called your house yesterday. Your dad told me you were in Maui, and he gave me your number. It was easy. You didn’t think I’d forget your birthday, did you?”
“But Rick, this is going to cost you a fortune!”
“About the same as dinner and a movie in Escondido,” he teased. “We’ll compare prices when I take you out in August. If we plan it just right, there should be about a week before I leave for college, and we’ll celebrate your birthday then. You pick the day.”
“Okay.” She knew she should keep talking, but her mind went blank. She felt her cheeks burning and heart pounding over Rick calling her all the way from Europe. He hadn’t forgotten her birthday. She never expected this.
“I thought of you yesterday,” Rick said in a low, rich voice. “We went to the Blue Grotto. You ever heard of it?”
“No.”
Her no echoed in her ear before Rick continued. “We got in this little boat, kind of a cross between a rowboat and a gondola. The guy paddled us into this place like a cave, and we had to scrunch down on the bottom of the boat because the opening was so low. Inside, the water is the most unusual color of blue. The sun reflects into the cave somehow. I don’t remember what does it, but the whole inside looks blue from the sunlight and the reflection off the water onto the rocks.”
“Sounds pretty,” Christy said.
“Not just pretty. Incredible. Awesome. Outrageous. It was killer, Christy. Just like your eyes. I felt like the whole cave was filled with Christy.”
Christy let the romance of his words sink in.
“That’s where I would’ve taken you for your birthday if I could’ve picked anywhere in the whole world, Christina. I would’ve taken you to the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri.”
There was a pause, during which Christy felt certain the sound of her heart pounding in her ears had exploded through the phone and burst in on Rick on the other side of the world.
Christy Miller Collection, Vol 2 Page 21
