Peculiar Treasures

by Gunn, Robin Jones

  Katie looked over at the young woman with feathery blond hair and large glasses who hung back, her shoulder tucked up against her grandmother’s arm. Katie walked over to Emily, opened her arms, and said, “I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome, Emily. I’m Katie.”

  Emily shyly received Katie’s hug and blinked back a few tears.

  Katie leaned closer and whispered to her, “You’re going to be amazed at what God is going to do in your life this year. You’re in the right place. I’m so glad you’re on our floor.”

  The grandmother pulled out a tissue and dabbed her eyes and nose while Katie reached for the bedraggled piece of luggage beside Emily. “Come on, I’ll show you to your new home. This way.”

  Katie caught Nicole’s eye as she slid through the double doors under the Peculiar Treasures banner and headed down the hall. In training that week they had been instructed to stay at the desk while checking in each student. The students were supposed to manage their own luggage. Apparently in years past the RAs had turned into baggage handlers and had overstressed their backs while carrying heavy boxes and suitcases during the move-in days.

  When Katie exchanged glances with Nicole, they both communicated that Emily would be the exception to the rule.

  Katie looked over her shoulder and saw that Emily’s grandfather hadn’t come with them. “He can join us,” she said.

  “But it’s the women’s dorm,” the grandmother said.

  “Yes, but the floors are open during move-in. Don’t you think he would like to come with us?”

  Emily went back a few steps and timidly motioned for her grandfather to enter the hallway with them. “It’s okay,” she said.

  “She’s not used to anything in the West,” the grandmother confided in Katie. “She’s been in Mozambique all her life. This is such a big step.”

  “We have your phone number in the file, I’m sure.” Katie lowered her voice so Emily and her grandfather couldn’t hear. “How about if I call you in a few days to let you know how Emily’s doing?”

  “Oh, would you?”

  Katie nodded and smiled. A big lump had been forming in her throat from the moment she had first looked into the eyes of this caring set of grandparents. Katie couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have relatives so involved in her life that they would hand deliver her to college with such concern and tenderness. Being loved was a power that couldn’t be tamed. Katie was sure of it. She knew these grandparents wouldn’t rest until they knew their beloved granddaughter was doing just fine.

  “Here’s your new hangout,” Katie said brightly, working to bring a lighthearted feel to this tearful moment. “Room 204, and your room mate is going to be . . .” Katie looked at the handmade nametags on the door and read the name: “Carlene Fischer.”

  That’s when Katie made a connection that had eluded her during their room prep sessions. Carlene was Carley. That’s why Carley had said she would be seeing a lot of Katie because she was in “204.” Katie had missed the connection earlier. No one called Carley “Carlene.”

  “Actually, no.” Katie not so subtly pulled the name card off the door.

  “What’s wrong?” the grandfather asked.

  “This is the right room for Emily. Yes, here, 204. Welcome to your room. Don’t worry. I just made a little mistake on the nametag for the door, and I need to check on what happened.” Katie tried to sound easygoing. “So I’ll let the three of you start moving Emily in, and I’ll be at the front desk if you need anything else.”

  “She will have a roommate, won’t she?” the grandmother asked.

  “Oh, yes, definitely. Emily has a great roommate. I’ll just get that settled and, um . . . yeah, you can start moving in.”

  Katie hurried back to the desk where Nicole was swamped with a line of five families, eager to assist in making their freshman daughter’s first moment on the college campus a good experience.

  Nicole was handing over some papers to the next young woman and explaining that she hadn’t completed one of the forms necessary to have her car on campus. Nicole’s sweet temperament mixed with her experience from having done this last year allowed Katie a moment to study the list of residents and try to make a last-minute change in roommates for Emily. In her heart of hearts, Katie couldn’t see Carley with Emily.

  Why isn’t Carley in Brower Hall again? I had no idea she selected Crown Hall. Why would she do that? She’s a senior. Emily can’t be more than eighteen, if that. Carley will consume this little butterfly girl.

  “Katie, could you start the paperwork with the next student?” Nicole asked.

  “In one minute.” Katie flashed a smile at the waiting student, who was chewing gum and standing next to a perturbed-looking mother.

  Katie leaned closer to Nicole and whispered “I have to change Emily’s roommate to another room.”

  “Now? Katie, the assignments are settled.”

  “I know. Please, trust me on this, Nicole.”

  The two women looked at each other, and Katie knew Nicole was going to back down and let Katie go with her gut. Their training time together had accomplished what both of them needed in a moment like this. Confidence.

  “Okay,” Nicole whispered back. “Just be as quick as you can about it.”

  At 11:30 that morning Carley arrived ready to check in. “I don’t understand,” she said to Nicole. “The papers I received a few weeks ago said I was in room 204.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry for the confusion,” Nicole said. “Your actual room is 238.”

  “How could that be? I requested a room close to the front door and away from the bathroom. Room 238 is right next to the showers. I don’t understand why the room assignment was changed.”

  Nicole looked down at the papers. Katie couldn’t stand to see Nicole take the grief from Carley so she spoke up. “I changed the room, Carley.”

  “You did? Why?”

  “I had to make a roommate adjustment.”

  “What do you mean a roommate adjustment? My roommate is Marissa Stockbridge. Don’t tell me you put us in different rooms. The only reason I’m in Crown Hall is because of Marissa.”

  Nicole and Katie looked at each other and then down at their papers. “We didn’t have you listed with Marissa,” Katie said.

  “How did this get so messed up?” What made Carley’s legitimate complaints an even bigger problem was what Katie saw listed on the papers in front of her.

  “Carley, I need to tell you that Marissa already has checked in, and she’s in room 259 with Kim Choy.”

  “What? This is a mess! Why did you put Marissa with Kim?”

  Katie glanced at the form again. Marissa and Kim had requested each other. According to the paperwork in front of Katie, Carley hadn’t been a requested roommate. That’s why she had ended up with Emily, who also hadn’t specified a roommate.

  “We didn’t — ”

  Nicole interrupted Katie and calmly said, “We can figure this out. Do you mind waiting for a little while so we can put all the pieces back together?” The line behind Carley had grown, and the patience of the waiting freshmen women was shortening.

  “No, I can’t wait. I have to go to work.” She shot a glare at Katie. “My boss is coming back today, and I can’t be late.”

  Katie felt her jaw clench. She was about to say a few choice words to Carley and ask her to stop causing a scene, but then, if Katie said anything, she knew she would be the one causing the scene.

  Rubbing the back of her neck and looking off to the side, Katie saw something that caused her to stop breathing. Heading her direction was a tall, incredibly good-looking guy with dark, wavy hair. He was wearing sunglasses and a freshly pressed shirt. Katie would know that determined stride anywhere.

  “Rick,” she whispered.

  21

  This, her first Rick sighting in two weeks, set Katie’s heart pounding in a way she never had felt it race before. She sprang from her chair and hurried to meet him halfway, greeting him with a huge hug
and a happy squeal.

  Rick let out a low rumble of a laugh and lifted his sunglasses. “Good to see you too, Sunshine,” he murmured. “How was that for a kug?”

  Katie laughed. “The kug was great. But tell me you didn’t bring that perky little nickname back with you from Arizona.”

  “You like it?”

  She reached up to rub the back of her hand across his bristly jaw line. “I think you can definitely send the ‘Sunshine’ back to Arizona, Cactus Boy.”

  “Cactus Boy, huh?”

  “Yeah. That wasn’t the look you were going for?”

  “No. I had an early plane to catch.”

  “It’s so good to see you, scruff and all.”

  “You too, unscruffed and all.” Rick looked over the top of Katie’s head and said, “It looks like you guys are pretty busy here. I better let you get back at it. Call me when you can, okay? I’m on my way to work now.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you later.” She took a closer look at his bristly face. “It’s a pretty good look on you, you know, Mr. Lumberjack.”

  “Lumberjack is definitely not the look I was aspiring for.”

  “How about Undercover Secret Agent?”

  “Better.” Rick leaned close and whispered in Katie’s ear. “You, by the way, look absolutely gorgeous.”

  He turned to go, but as he did, Carley called out, “Rick, wait! You have to help me. Everything is a mess.”

  Rick looked at Carley and glanced back at Katie. She tried to tell him with her eyes that he really didn’t need to get tangled up in this. But Rick Doyle’s hero complex took over, and he strode past Katie to hear Carley’s problem.

  The only good thing about Rick taking an interest in Carley’s room problem was that he pulled her to the side, away from the lineup of listening ears. Katie and Nicole were able to meet the next young woman and check her in with no complications.

  They processed the paperwork for three more women in line before Rick stepped over to the table. “I’m going now, Katie. Carley said she needed to make some phone calls and come back and register after work today. I guess she has a friend in another dorm she might switch with or something.” He ended his sentence with a softening expression around the eyes, and Katie felt herself blush remembering how he had said earlier that she looked gorgeous.

  “Thanks for helping her. We’ll figure everything out,” Katie said.

  “I know you will.” Rick reached over and gave her forearm a squeeze. Then he smiled a classic, Rick Doyle, most-charming-man-alive smile just for her.

  Katie couldn’t believe how being around him after their time apart was unraveling her emotions.

  Rickster, what are you doing to me?

  Nicole and Katie checked in the rest of the women in line without any snags and after half an hour had some free time. Nicole leaned back in the folding chair. “Mama mia!”

  “No kidding,” Katie said. “What an onslaught.”

  “I wasn’t saying ‘mama mia’ about the people checking in. I was making reference to you and your boyfriend.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend. I explained it to you before. We’re still floating. No commitment. Just ‘almost.’ ” Katie could feel her face flush.

  Nicole smiled broadly and shook her head. “I don’t think you’re going to convince anyone of that. Least of all yourself. Katie, I’m thinking you two better have another DTR pretty soon. You are the most in love ‘almost’ couple I’ve ever seen.”

  “In love!” The phrase jumped out of Katie’s mouth like a caged bird finding the door left ajar. She was glad no one was around at the moment to hear their conversation.

  “Katie, you guys were smoldering.”

  “Smoldering? Oh, come on.”

  Nicole nodded, seeming to enjoy this moment a whole lot more than Katie was. “I’m telling you, Katie, if I had a coat hanger and a couple of marshmallows near you two a few minutes ago, we’d be having s’mores right now.”

  Katie laughed off Nicole’s comments. She thought back to how she had used the “L” word when she was telling Christy how she felt about Rick when the two of them started hanging out last fall. But that was at the beginning of all this, and she had been talking to Christy; Katie could exaggerate all she wanted with Christy.

  Now that she and Rick were so many months into their relationship, Katie didn’t want to exaggerate anything. She wanted all decisions and promises to be clear and not subject to wavering, just as they had been proceeding the past few months.

  Another group of students arrived. Katie put her Rick thoughts away.

  Some of the women who had checked in earlier were coming back to the table with questions and problems. Two of them had keys that didn’t work on their door, so Katie had to send them to Student Ser vices.

  One young woman brought all her clothes in a literal wardrobe. The beautiful, large piece of furniture was offloaded from a trailer in the parking lot and navigated up to the front door on a dolly. The dolly lost one of its wheels right in front of the main double doors where dozens of students were trying to bring in their boxes. Placing a call to campus maintenance, Katie went down to the front to help redirect traffic.

  One of the wobbly green campus golf carts pulled up and a guy in a cap came toward Katie with a tool chest.

  “Thanks for coming so quickly,” she said.

  The campus maintenance employee looked up at her from under his cap and broke into a wide smile. It was Goatee Guy. Katie had almost forgotten about him.

  “I was wondering when I would see you again,” he said. “How’s your summer been?”

  “Fine, thanks,” Katie answered curtly. She couldn’t believe he was trying to start a conversation. “You may have noticed we have a traffic jam going on here. Would you mind if we skipped the chat?”

  He looked at Katie more closely. “Sure. But I have to tell you something.”

  “Can you tell me later?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I waited to run into you again, and I told myself when I saw you I would tell you this.”

  “Okay,” Katie said impatiently.

  “You should know that you are unforgettable. That’s my problem and not yours at this point, but I thought you should know.”

  He turned and left Katie looking right and left to see if anyone had heard what he had said.

  What? What was that? What am I supposed to do with a declaration like that? Is it my new top or what? This is crazy!

  Shaking off the awkward encounter with Goatee Guy, Katie hurried back to the desk where Nicole was once again busy with women waiting to check in. No other break in the workflow arrived until almost four o’clock.

  Nicole went in search of something for them to drink while Katie tried to figure out the Carley room problem. So far, forty-three of their fifty-two women had checked in. Unfortunately, Katie wasn’t acquainted with any of the remaining check-ins, so she didn’t know if any of them would be a good match for Emily.

  Why did I start this? Craig told us in training not to make more work for ourselves by rearranging anything at registration. Maybe it was God’s idea all along for Carley and Emily to be roommates. What if I’m the one messing things up?

  Katie thought it odd that Carley had selected Crown Hall and hadn’t told Katie about her decision except for her encrypted statement about being in 204. Even though Carley was someone Katie didn’t exactly want to be around, Carley was assigned to their floor. She was one of the women Katie was supposed to be “assisting” as a resident assistant.

  I really need you to give me some direction here, God. Do you want Carley and Emily in the same room? Because if you do, I’ ll back off.

  Katie didn’t feel any peace about backing off. She didn’t have confidence that the two women should be together in 204. If anything, she felt more determined to find a different roommate for Emily after she prayed.

  Julia came by a few minutes later and apologized for not checking in earlier to see how Katie and Nicole were doing. Appar
ently the freshman floor had experienced challenges all day, and Julia had been the problem solver.

  Since no one else was around at the moment, Katie told Julia about Katie’s decision to do a last-minute roommate swap. Julia seemed to read between the lines the declarations Katie wasn’t making. She had just enough background from the conversation Katie had had with her on the Catalina ferry to fill in some of the missing pieces.

  “What are your thoughts on this at the moment?” Julia asked.

  “I prayed about it,” Katie said. “And I don’t exactly have peace about backing off in my quest for a different roommate. I know we’re not supposed to listen to our feelings for stuff like this, but that’s all I have at the moment.”

  “Who says you’re not supposed to listen to your feelings?” Julia asked. “ ‘Listen,’ of course, is the key word. Listen to your feelings. Don’t be dominated by them.”

  Katie nodded and tried to figure out how in the world not to let her strong feelings dominate her. Before she had any clue as to what that might look like, the next student arrived carrying a guitar case in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

  Lowering the cell phone, she said “Hey, there. How y’all doin’?

  I’m Emilee Monroe.”

  “I’m Katie. This is Julia. Welcome to Crown Hall.”

  “We’re really glad you’re here,” Julia said.

  “Shoot! You’re gonna make me cry!” said Emilee.

  “Cry?”

  “You have no idea how sweet those words sound to me. I’ve been waiting a long time to be here. This is like a dream come true.”

  “I felt the same way when I came here,” Katie said.

  “So you know what a privilege this is.”

  Katie nodded. She looked down at her list and put a check next to the name Emilee Monroe from Alabaster, Alabama. Without verifying her original room assignment, Katie made an on-the-spot decision. “You’re in room 204.”