At least in some areas, that prayer appeared to be sufficiently answered.
9
Eli and Katie didn’t have a chance to process their surprise kiss, because Jim asked Katie to help check in the just-arrived Texas group. Mary, who worked in the office, usually handled that job, but she had gotten sick, and Cheryl was trying to make sense of the room charts that had been left at the check-in desk.
Several hours later, everyone was in his or her assigned room with the correct luggage and a room key. Katie knew an easier way to handle check-in had to exist, because she and Cheryl had bumbled their way through the process.
Katie spent a lot of time dashing up and down the pathways with a ring of keys, trying to figure out how the numbering system had gotten so far off kilter. She eventually figured out that everyone had the key to the room next door, which meant neighbors needed to swap keys. Apparently Cheryl had read the charts incorrectly.
Once the group was settled, Katie returned to the office. It was locked up, but she peered through the window and saw that the walls were painted, with nothing remaining of the valentine. The memory of the moment and of the kiss would remain with Katie forever. She was certain of that.
Eli wasn’t at dinner, and he wasn’t working at the Coffee Bar. She knew she would see him the next morning when they boarded the tour bus with the group from Texas, but that wasn’t exactly the best place for the two of them to debrief about what was happening between them.
She thought a lot about the momentum of their relationship as she was trying to fall asleep that night. What they had experienced was powerful and passionate. How could one kiss contain so much fire?
The next morning, weary but with a lot of enthusiasm, Katie stood beside the door of the chartered tour bus to welcome everyone onboard. Most of them remembered her from the check-in fiasco and had lots of comments about how that had gone.
“Is that not your usual job?” one of the older women asked with a look of contrived sympathy.
“Good guess,” Katie said. “That was my first attempt, and I don’t think they will put me on room check-in duty again.”
“I should hope not,” the woman said it in a cheery voice, but it still felt like sandpaper to Katie’s heart.
Right before the woman boarded the bus, she asked, “And what is your position at Brockhurst?”
“I’m an extra.” Katie hadn’t premeditated her answer. It just tumbled out. “You know, like in a play when the extras have walk-on parts, such as the village carolers. Only I don’t sing.”
The woman looked even more confused. “You really should work within your passion and your skill set, young lady.”
“I agree.” To Katie’s way of viewing the last twenty-four hours, passion wasn’t exactly a problem for her. At least not around Eli.
The woman wasn’t finished. “God made you for a purpose, you know. It doesn’t bring him honor when you’re wasting time doing things outside your gifting.”
“Thank you for that insight.” It was killing Katie to continue being gracious to this woman. Katie knew that she needed to find the best fit for herself at Brockhurst, but she also didn’t respond well in her spirit to a stranger who seemed to think it was her duty to point out Katie’s weaknesses and to give her advice.
Some people have no idea how much they hurt others.
Katie looked up and noticed Eli jogging across the gravel parking lot toward the bus. She put the woman’s comments aside and felt a little embarrassed as she thought about their “whoa” moment yesterday. Her response reminded her of how she had been hesitant about holding Eli’s hand when they were with the group from Rancho. She seemed to be not quite in sync with how Eli was viewing their relationship.
But then she noticed that Eli seemed off center as well. He looked at her and then looked away. “Thanks for covering for me. I got hung up at the office with the list. Mary’s still sick.”
Katie reached over and touched his arm. He met her gaze. “Are you okay?” she asked.
Eli lowered his voice and turned his face away from the people boarding the bus. “Yeah, I’m okay. We need to talk later.” He leaned closer and gave her a tender little connecting touch by putting his forehead against the side of her head. It was awkward, but the message was received. It was still “E + K” inside his heart.
Once everyone was onboard, Katie climbed into the bus as well. It was much larger and more comfortable than the shuttle that had carted Katie and Eli to Brockhurst on their first night. Eli stood at the front behind the bus driver, used a microphone to welcome everyone, and gave some instructions.
Katie watched him from one row back where she had taken a seat next to a broad, older woman whom Katie knew from check-in was single and traveling with a group of mostly married couples. One of the feelings Katie was sure would be wired forever in her was knowing what it was like to be the leftover, odd-numbered person in a group of couples, since many of her best friends were married. She introduced herself, and the woman, warming right up to Katie, responded that her name was Susan.
As they listened to Eli, Katie recalled last semester when he had spoken at chapel about the mission his dad ran and how the organization was committed to digging wells in remote villages to provide for people who were dying from lack of clean water. His presentation had been so powerful and convincing that a mission team had formed spontaneously—the group Eli and Katie had seen the other night.
Concluding his welcome remarks to the group, Eli took his seat in the row in front of Katie. He turned, looked at her, and patted the empty seat next to him, as if indicating she could now move up and sit beside him.
Part of Katie wanted to do just that, but she didn’t want to have her relationship discussion at the front of a bus where everyone could see them and some could easily hear them. Another part of her had a pretty good idea how Susan would feel if Katie moved to sit next to Eli.
“I think I’ll stay here,” Katie said. “You’ll need to jump up and down the whole way, so you might as well take both seats. Besides, how can Susan and I heckle you in unison if I’m up there?”
“You came along to heckle me?” His words were teasing, but his eyes looked sad.
Katie bantered back in an attempt to ease the moment. “Yes, and to see the giraffes. My goals for the day are twofold. Heckle first, then hug a giraffe’s neck. They’re simple goals, really. Not ones I manage to accomplish every day, but today is looking like a good day to cross them off my bucket list.”
Eli didn’t counter with any equally witty quips. He turned around, pulled out some papers from his nicely organized folder containing the forms for the people on the bus, and started to read as if he were looking for something.
Susan had her eyes closed; so Katie let go of the idea that she needed to become Susan’s bus buddy and tried to take down her exuberance a few notches. She pulled out her phone, which she had finally updated with an international service plan, and saw that a new email from Christy was waiting in her inbox.
Katie, it was so great talking with you! I’ve been thinking a lot about the way things are unfolding for you and Eli. It has to be pretty exciting to ponder all the what ifs and the what’s nexts.
I really hope you enjoy the mystery of riding along inside the unknown. That mystery factor seems to be an important part of the journey on the way to falling in love. I don’t know why, but it is. Let your relationship with Eli open slowly like a flower.
I’m looking forward to seeing those photos of the giraffes!
Love you, my forever friend,
Christy
Katie smiled as she closed the email. Now, see, Christy can tell me whatever she wants, and I’ll take it. She’s earned the right to be in the inner circle of my life. But that lady who was boarding the bus, she’s in the outer circle. She shouldn’t think she has the right to scold me.
Katie imagined a bull’s eye and made a note to self: Only listen to people who are in the center of your bull’s eye.
> Those bull’s-eye occupants were God, Christy, Todd, and Eli. In the next circle out, she could envision a bunch of other close friends, including Nicole, Julia, Doug, Tracy, and, yes, even Rick. While he no longer was in her inner circle, he was still her valued friend and brother in the Lord. Katie also put her parents in that circle. Even though she had a stilted and fairly uncommunicative relationship with them, they were her parents.
She thought of how surprisingly smooth her call with them had been during her first week at Brockhurst. It was short, informative, and for communication with her parents, pretty positive. Katie would almost say they were supportive of her decision. Her dad commented that he always thought she would end up in some “God-forsaken place” like Africa. Awkwardly expressed, but she would take it.
Katie leaned back, settling more comfortably into her bus seat. She liked this bull’s-eye model that had formed in her thoughts, because it meant that women like the lecture-prone one who had boarded the bus earlier could try to project on Katie all the advice they wanted, but their opinions weren’t weighted like those who were closer to the center. Those outer-circle people hadn’t earned the right to tell her what to do. Not that God couldn’t use their insights to direct or motivate Katie, but rather those people weren’t empowered to boss her around or instill in her a sense of guilt or failure based on their opinions of who she was or what she should be doing.
Feeling pretty good about things at the moment, Katie looked over at her seatmate and made a comment to Susan about what a pretty day it was. Susan nodded without replying. She seemed to be very focused on the front of the bus.
“Do you get queasy on buses?” Katie asked.
Susan nodded again. The woman across from them heard Katie’s comment and said, “Well, why didn’t you say so, Susie? I have some motion sickness pills right here.”
The woman opened up her large bag and pulled out what looked like a miniature pharmacy of wonder drugs. “Here you go. You need some water?”
Susan kept looking straight ahead and nodded. The woman across from them also had a mini bar of tiny water bottles and small cans of juice. “Water or apple juice?”
“Water.”
Katie’s phone bleeped, indicating she had an incoming message. Since Susan was in good hands, Katie pulled out her phone and saw that she had a text message. It was from Eli.
I MISS YOU.
Katie grinned and curved her shoulders inward, trying to keep her message back to Eli private.
MISS YOU TOO.
She waited for his reply, glancing up at his profile as his head was bent and he focused on his phone. DAD THINKS WE SHOULD SLOW THINGS DOWN.
Katie drew in a breath and unconsciously cleared her throat.
Eli glanced at her for a moment and then looked back at his phone.
Katie started a long question but then backspaced all of it and texted, HAKUNA MATATA. She wasn’t sure she spelled it right, but she knew Eli would catch the message that they shouldn’t worry about it. Then, on second thought, she quickly typed the same question Eli had asked her the morning they were with the group from Rancho. WHAT DOES IT MATTER WHAT OTHERS THINK?
IT MATTERS WHEN IT’S MY DAD.
Katie realized Eli had the privilege of welcoming his mom and his dad into the inner circle in the bull’s eye of his life. Of course their opinions mattered. It mattered to Eli and to Katie very much.
SLOW IS GOOD. She sent the text and then quickly typed a follow-up. I THINK WE CAN STOP PRAYING ABOUT OUR LOVE INCREASING AND OVERFLOWING AND WORK ON THE HEART-STRENGTHENING PART OF OUR VERSE.
She watched as Eli read her message. He turned and gave her the best smile.
Katie smiled at him in return and felt peace coming back on ballerina slippers, doing a pirouette in her heart. Wasn’t this what Christy had just talked about in her email, enjoying the mystery of riding along inside the unknown? Katie could slow down, wait, rest, and trust God for what was next. She knew that was the recipe for experiencing the deep sense of peace she had felt a number of times in her growing relationship with Eli.
What Katie also realized was that when she felt that powerful sense of peace, she wasn’t afraid. The tormenting spirit of fear that had harassed her when she first arrived couldn’t coincide with the spirit of peace God had given her.
As the bus rolled down the road on the way to Nairobi’s outskirts, Katie looked out the window and watched the stunning views go by. A short time later, the bus stopped at a lookout spot, and Eli stood, grabbed the microphone, and explained that they were taking a fifteen-minute break to see the Rift Valley.
“Many consider this Africa’s Grand Canyon,” he said. “It’s much more than that, though. The Great Rift Valley is a geological marvel. Right here, where we’ll be disembarking in a few minutes, is where two tectonic plates are shifting. They’re pulling apart from each other. Think of the immense force going on under the earth’s surface. It always makes me think of God’s power, as if he is taking a huge chunk of Africa in one hand and another chunk in the other, and he’s stretching them in opposite directions.”
As the driver maneuvered the bus into a narrow parking area, Eli went on about the way tectonic plates shift. The movement had created the second largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, as well as the pressure that exalted Mount Kilimanjaro to rise to the height of over nineteen thousand feet, making it the fourth highest in the world.
“The Great Rift Valley covers six thousand kilometers. All of East Africa from north to south is affected by it.”
It seemed he had a few more facts to share, but the bus driver had turned off the engine, and people were standing up, making their way to the front of the bus, eager to disembark.
“Fifteen minutes,” Eli reminded them and put away the microphone.
As soon as Eli and Katie stepped off the bus, they were surrounded by locals who had set up a dozen souvenir shacks at this turnout where tour buses apparently stopped to give their passengers a look into the Great Rift Valley.
“Madam, will you look at this? Would you like to take home a blanket made of goat hair?”
“Sir, please, I ask you to look at this tribal mask and this spear that came from a Masai warrior. I will give you a very good price for both.”
Eli said something in Swahili, and all the vendors who had gathered around Eli and Katie took off like mice.
“What did you say?”
“You’ll see.” Eli walked confidently into the middle of the area where the other tourists were caught up in looking at craft items and practicing their haggling skills with the local artisans.
“Be sure you take a look over the edge,” Eli called out to the group.
No one seemed to heed his advice; they were busy shopping. Eli led Katie to the rickety-looking wood platform and stood right next to the splintered railing. Katie looked down, down to the deep valley below that ran as far as she could see.
“Wow. This is amazing. Absolutely amazing.”
She looked over her shoulder and saw that only two people in their group had ventured closer to the edge, where they were taking photos. The rest of the crew was trying to convince the vendors to lower their prices on child-sized African drums and wood-carved elephants and giraffes.
For several long minutes, Eli and Katie stood next to each other, gazing at the miles and miles of wide open valley far below.
“Are you okay?” Eli asked, still looking forward.
“I’m good. You?”
“I’m good.”
“You know,” Katie said quietly, “it seems a little odd that your parents were so happy when we arrived, and they practically cheered when you told them that you kissed me at the airport.”
“I know.”
“And now your dad saw us kiss, and he’s no longer a fan. Did you tell him it was only our second kiss?”
“It’s not the quantity, Katie. I think it’s the quality we’re talking about.”
She knew exactly what he meant. The pass
ion infused in their second kiss made it quite different from the first one.
“My dad saw our verse on the wall, and he said we should keep going and add the next seven verses to our relationship.”
“The next seven verses?”
“You’ll understand what he meant when you read them.”
Katie hated being kept in suspense. She also hated knowing tension had developed between Eli and his dad and that she was part of the unsettledness.
“I told my dad I wanted to move into Upper Nine, and he didn’t think that was a good idea.”
“Was it his way of saying he doesn’t think he can trust you or something?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
Katie could tell this was dragging Eli down. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“It’s just that my dad said something to me that I can’t get past.”
“What did he say? Can you tell me?”
“He said, ‘You can make a baby with a kiss like that.’”
Katie was surprised, and tried to make a joke of it. “Last time I checked the science reports, I’m pretty sure it takes more than a kiss to initiate regeneration.”
“You know what he was getting at. So do I. It was more than a kiss. It was …”
“I know, Eli. I was there, remember?”
He finally turned and looked at her. “So the wise thing for us to do is to hold off on kissing. That’s okay, right? We can abstain.”
“Of course. Absolutely.”
Eli looked relieved. He nudged her shoulder with his shoulder and said in a lowered voice, “It is kind of nice to know there’s a fire inside both of us, though, don’t you think?”
“Did you ever doubt it?” Katie asked.
“No, but it’s still nice to know.”
They stood together quietly for a few more minutes, not touching, but very much connected. Eli nudged Katie’s shoulder with his shoulder once again, and she took the cue that it was time for them to head back. As soon as they turned around and walked toward the bus, all the vendors who had approached them earlier came out of their stalls like honey bees swarming around Eli and Katie.
Finally and Forever Page 10
