“Man, that’s too bad,” Bucky commiserated, thinking to himself that it could certainly have been worse. Tracy, her perky self again, took charge of the day’s assigned experiment. For the moment the romantic mood of the past weekend seemed to be little more than a pleasant memory.
The Litton / Stone hitting parade picked up right where it left off as the two star athletes powered the Panther varsity team to five wins in a row before their first defeat. But despite the duo’s hot hitting, the squad’s two pitchers both went into an extended slide during the second half, and the Hampton elite team missed the playoff round by a single contest.
“You gave it your best, Stone. I got you pegged at .388 with five dingers and nineteen runs batted in. Not bad at all. Next year we’ll go all the way; I guarantee it,” Coach Brayshaw consoled, as the Panthers limped off the field at the season’s close.
Graduation night was an electrifying event. Despite his earlier vows, Bucky felt a stir of excitement when Tracy sat down beside him and Dan as Sam and the other seniors paraded in to the slow strains of “Pomp and Circumstance.” It was the only traditional element of the evening, as endless catcalls, sirens, and confetti interrupted the procedures. Even Bucky got caught up in it.
The biggest surprise of the evening came when the name “Sam Trung Minh” was announced with the second highest cumulative GPA among the senior class. “Man, I didn’t know he was up there that high,” Bucky said to Dan. He leaned over toward Tracy. “He’s almost as smart as you are.” She laughed, her red curls shaking.
At the back of the huge athletic field, Pastor Jensen gave the boys an enthusiastic greeting. “Good show!” he grinned as he examined Sam’s Merit Certificate. “I had no idea you were pulling in so many A’s. I should have you write my sermons for me.” He greeted the senior’s Vietnamese parents warmly.
“Honey, we’ll see you back at the house,” Mom said as she took Dad’s hand. “Come on, Rachel Marie.” She waved to Sam again. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks for the present,” the tall senior said, setting the package on top of a pile of gifts.
A few seconds later, Bucky found an opportunity to introduce Tracy to the pastor. “Well, good evening, young lady,” Jensen said with a big smile. “One more year, and you folks will be doing all the celebrating.”
“Yeah, she’ll be sitting up there in the valedictorian’s chair,” Bucky reminded.
Pastor Jensen glanced around at the thinning crowds as if to look for somebody. “You fellows be sure to get to church on time this weekend,” he advised. “I’ve got a blockbuster surprise for you.”
One of the seniors from the varsity basketball team came ambling by with his arm around his girlfriend. “Hey, Stone!” He accepted a high five of congratulations. “We’re having a party over at my place. Got about a hundred bucks’ worth of pizza waiting for us and a couple of kegs.” Glancing over at Tracy, he added, “You too, Tracy. You can do some physics problems for us if we run out of DVDs.” Looking at both Dan and Bucky, he asked, “What do you say?”
Bucky hesitated as he glanced over at Tracy. In a new dress and with her cheeks still flushed with the excitement of graduation, she had never looked prettier. A party? With a secular sweetheart who was heartstoppingly irresistible? Something inside him threatened to pull itself loose.
Then he took a deep breath. “I . . . I’m gonna pass,” he said at last. “But thanks, man. You guys have a great time.”
The senior looked confused as he glanced over at Tracy. She shook her head too. At last he shrugged.
“Whatever. You guys have a good summer.”
“Sure.” Bucky, his heartbeat racing, saw Tracy still watching him. He tried to force away the feeling.
Dan peeled away to congratulate some of the graduating athletes, and Bucky found himself alone with Tracy. “Well, we made it,” he managed, suddenly feeling the old awkwardness returning.
She came up next to him. “Come on, walk me out to the parking lot.” She took his arm as they made their way to the edge of the athletic field. Somehow by common consent they turned to the right instead of the left and did a slow, easy loop around the campus. It was a comfortable, easy silence between them as he felt the softness of her hand resting in the crook of his arm. A faint trace of perfume hung in the air.
The wordless journey around Hampton Beach High School ended all too soon as they came at last to the parking lot. “You need a ride?” Bucky asked softly, half - hoping that she did.
Slowly she shook her head. “No, I got my car here.” She looked up at him. “I think I want to thank you.”
“For what?”
Her eyes dampened. “I’ve always been smart,” she said. “But until I met you, I never used it for anything except to pile up a bunch of facts. And to show off.”
He waited.
“I guess maybe you’ve gotten me to start thinking about life. You know? About what’s really going to happen to me.”
Bucky nodded. “I hope we’ll see each other this summer.” Although he wasn’t sure he should say it, somehow it seemed OK.
“Yeah.” She hesitated, then reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Good-bye, babe.”
For a while he sat in the front seat of the Toyota, simply watching as the last remaining seniors strolled by in the moonlight on the way to their various celebrations. At that moment he felt a richness in life that came from caring for people in ways that went beyond romance. Even though romance still poked its head through once in a while. He grinned as he started the engine.
• • • • •
He had forgotten Pastor Jensen’s hints until he pulled up with Mom and Rachel Marie at church the next weekend. There in the parking lot stood Miss Cochran, clutching a small traveling bag along with her purse.
For a moment the significance of it didn’t register. Then all at once a big smile lit up his face. “Does this mean what I think it does?”
She laughed, happier than he’d heard her since her father’s funeral earlier that school year. “It sure does.”
He let out a little yell that echoed through the church parking lot. “Yes!”
Miss Cochran gave him a teasing smile. “Is that how a dignified senior acts?”
Bucky pointed to the little bag with its baptism attire. “Hey, when God answers a prayer as big as this one, it sure is!” A grin on his face, he walked with her over to the front door of the church.
• • • • •
Bucky Stone Book #8
Summer Camp Scars
By
David B. Smith
Contents
Chapter One: Ready For Summer
Chapter Two: Another Jensen Surprise
Chapter Three: First Time on Skis
Chapter Four: “Sorry, Lisa’s Out”
Chapter Five: Ski Teacher
Chapter Six: Teasing
Chapter Seven: Mystery Kid
Chapter Eight: “Who Did This to You?”
Chapter Nine: Kidnapped!
Chapter Ten: A Final Phone Call
Chapter Eleven: An Unexpected Visitor
Chapter Twelve: Who’s Telling the Truth?
Chapter Thirteen: News Bulletin
Chapter One: Ready For Summer
“ . . . Twenty-eight . . . twenty-nine . . . thirty.” With a grunt, Bucky released the handles of the weight - lifting bar and allowed the metal blocks to settle back into place. “Man, those are heavy suckers.”
“Not too bad, though, Stone.” His body glistening, Dan pulled the restraining pin out and edged it up to the next block. “Want to try a few more?”
“No way.” Bucky shook his head wearily. “That’s it for me. I can’t do as much as you.”
The older boy grinned. “What do you think of this thing?”
“It’s great.” Bucky slipped down onto the faded carpet of Dan’s bedroom. “Fifty bucks?”
“That’s all the guy wanted for it,” Dan shrugged. “So I grabbed it quick before he
could change his mind. Now you and I can bulk up for varsity everything next year.”
Bucky jabbed a finger in his friend’s face. “And this year we’re gonna win the whole thing. No more cheesing it the last week.”
The rejoinder was a painful reminder that their junior season at Hampton High had ended with the varsity baseball squad going into a collective swoon in the second half, with the team losing four contests in a row, all by wide margins.
“You back to full time at the bank?” Dan changed the subject.
“Yup. All day every day. Gotta make some serious money.”
“How come all of a sudden?”
Bucky shook his head. “Well, it’s not really all of a sudden. I mean, college is just a year away.”
Dan heaved a tired sigh. “Man, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Hey, no question about it. It’s Sam and me and you in that little tiny dorm room up in Angwin. All for one and one for all.”
The bold words hung in the air between them. Even without either of them verbalizing it, they sensed the hurdles that loomed ahead. Dan’s father, a reluctant witness to his son’s baptism, was sure to oppose the idea of a Christian college education.
“We got one year to save up. And really cook with the grades,” Bucky pointed out.
“That’s where I’m going to die.” Dan gave the weightlifting machine a tiny shove with his foot so it didn’t block quite so much of the cluttered bedroom. “I’m barely pulling a 2.5. Not like you and Sam.”
“So you get hot here at the finish line. You and me – we’re going to get the best grades we ever got, get in the best shape of our lives for varsity, and . . .”
“I know – all for God’s glory.”
“You got it.” Bucky grinned.
His cheerfulness suddenly succumbing to a serious acknowledgement of what lay ahead, Dan nodded warily.
The air conditioning at First California Bank felt good the next morning as it protected Bucky and his fellow bank employees from an unseasonable Bay Area heat wave. Bank procedures, always a snap for Bucky, were an almost automatic routine by now, and the time passed quickly.
“Well, look who’s guarding my cash.” A perky voice cut through a momentary lull in the workday.
Bucky felt a flutter of emotion as he looked down to see Tracy peering up at him. “Hey, hey.” It was almost an instinctive reaction to mask the tingle the little redhead still caused in him, but he couldn’t hide his grin. “How’s it going, pretty lady?”
“Oh, happy as a little clam,” she told him. “Just letting the old brain vegetate all summer.”
“Don’t kid me,” he teased. “You’re probably writing a trigonometry textbook or something.”
She shook her head, her red curls jiggling. “Nope. Just sitting by the pool waiting for you to come by.”
He gulped. “I, uh . . . well, if you’re ever drowning, grab your cell phone and give me a gurgle.” Lame, he thought to himself. “I didn’t know you had an account here.” He tried to change the subject and recoup a bit of his male dignity.
‘‘Well, I don’t,” she admitted. “But I just came into some green stuff here, and didn’t know where else to put it. I had it in my underwear drawer till now.” She set a pile of bills down on the counter.
“How much you got?” He forced a laugh. “I guess that didn’t sound very businesslike.”
“Three hundred.” She cocked her head. “Will that do for starters?”
“Sure. Except I don’t do new accounts. You’ll have to go over to Jenny’s desk. Right over there.”
“Oh.” Tracy looked over at the senior account officer. “Rats. I thought you could personally sneak me a good rate.”
Again he laughed. “Actually, right now your underwear drawer is probably paying about as much as we are.”
“Bummer.” She gathered up the bills. “Don’t forget about my little swimming pool. I’m just sitting there waiting for you, hot thing.”
He took a breath. “Don’t tempt me.”
The encounter left him feeling flushed for the rest of the morning. During his lunch break images of the little redhead continued to intrude his thoughts. Did he really have the resolve to turn down her continuing overtures? Was there any chance at all that Tracy could learn to love the Lord the way that he did?
The warm June sun was still high overhead when his full - time shift finally came to an end. Waving goodbye to Mr. Willis, he climbed into his Toyota and pulled out into traffic. Without quite knowing why, he turned left at the traffic light instead of right and drove the four blocks to Sam’s house.
He rang the doorbell fully expecting his friend to answer. But it was Mrs. Minh who came to the door. She smiled when she recognized him. “Yes. Hello.” She gave a little nod. “Please to come in.”
He tried to mask his surprise. “Uh, sure. Thanks.” He took two steps onto the spotless carpet before remembering. “Oops. Sorry.” He began to pull his shoes free.
“Thank you.” With another little nod, the small Vietnamese woman retreated to the kitchen.
Sam appeared in the hallway just as he finished taking off his shoes. “Hey, man.”
Bucky looked toward the kitchen before making a little gesture of confusion. “Your mom invited me in,” he whispered.
The older student grinned. “That’s progress, man.”
“What’s the deal?”
Sam shook his head. “I don’t know. Just lately they’ve been a little easier about stuff like that.”
“Well, hey, show me your room.”
“Sure.” Sam led the way to the back of the house.
Entering the spotless room, Bucky glanced around. “Not bad.” An expensive Mac notebook on the desk flickered with the random images of a screensaver.
“When did you get that?”
“Oh, I kind of pooled all my graduation cash and decided to finally do it.”
“Got any games in there?”
“A few.” Sam motioned to a chair. “Sit.”
Bucky stretched out and looked at his friend. “So what’s up?”
For a moment Sam didn’t answer, then all at once a little sparkle came into his eyes. “Pacific College.”
“What?”
“As of yesterday.”
“Are you kidding? That’s fantastic! How . . .”
Crossing to the door, Sam shut it. “Well, hey, you know it didn’t look too good.”
“I know. With tuition being as high as it is and everything.”
Sam reached over and punched a button on the notebook computer, causing the screen to go black. “Well, I’d turned in all those financial aid forms and everything. You know, the FAFSA? ‘Course, all the seniors take those college qualifying tests every year. Anyway, yesterday the financial aid guy from the college called. He said I qualified for the standard Cal Grant, and then with my grades here being pretty good, they were able to add some for that. Together it comes to just about half.”
Bucky shook his head. “Man, half of the whole thing? That’s a chunk!”
“Tell me about it. Anyway, my folks finally said it was OK.”
“How’re you going to come up with the rest?”
“Well, they said they’d help some. I mean, they don’t really mind me going there versus any other place. There’s some tuition anyplace you go, even community college. And they know I don’t really want to go there.”
“And then you just work off the rest?”
The Vietnamese boy nodded. “Uh huh. Plus all this summer.”
Reaching into his pocket, Bucky pulled out a dime. “Here’s my contribution.”
Sam laughed as he picked up the tiny coin. “See, if I just had about two hundred and fifty thousand friends as good as you, I’d be all set.”
“Are you working this summer? Albertson’s again?”
“Yeah. It’s not full time, but pretty close. About thirty-two hours a week. I might try to find something else in the meantime.”
“So you’re going for sure?”
The other boy nodded. “Unless something really goes wrong. Pastor Jensen said the church might be able to help out some, just a sliver, he said.”
“That’d be awesome.” Bucky rose to his feet and stretched to his full six - foot - four. “Next year Dan and I are going to truck up there with you. So you can just mark up one of those student directories they print every year with all the girls’ pictures in it. Tell us who you recommend.”
Sam laughed. “Are you kidding? You’ve always got more going on with girls than anybody I ever met.”
Bucky gulped. “I’ve gotten the victory over that.”
“Yeah, right.”
The two guys chatted for about half an hour before Bucky glanced at the digital clock next to Sam’s bed. “Oh, man. I’m gonna be late for supper.”
“Anything big coming up this weekend?”
“Nah.” Bucky glanced down at his stocking feet with a momentary look of confusion. “Where are my shoes?” Then he remembered. “Oh, yeah, out at the front door.”
“You and Dan want to get together this weekend and do something?” Sam asked. “Go out to the lake or anything?”
“Sounds good.” Waving goodbye to his friend, Bucky headed for the car.
Chapter Two: Another Jensen Surprise
It was one of those Bay Area evenings that made a Hampton Beach resident determine to live and die without ever moving away. In a word, gorgeous. Even at 8:00 it was a pleasant seventy-three degrees out as Bucky and Rachel Marie pedaled around the neighborhood surrounding Woodman Avenue.
“You’re going too fast!” she scolded, her long braid streaming behind her as she tried to keep up with her brother.
“Sorry.” He eased up on the speed, allowing his sister to pull even with him. The breeze felt marvelous on his skin after a long day indoors at the bank.
“Can we go around one more time?” Her cheeks were flushed with pleasure.
Bucky Stone: The Complete Adventure (Volumes 1-10) Page 72
