A Chance at Love (14 page)

S
unday morning soon came, and I headed out to Chattaroy to pick my grandma up for service. When she came out of her house and down the path out to my car, I took note of how fancy she looked. She was wearing a baby-blue dress, a pair of gold hooped earrings, and a pair of white gloves that matched her oversized, oval-brimmed hat. She looked stunning.

Leaning across the armrest and over to the door, I opened it for her to get in. “Sorry. I would have gotten out and helped you in, but I was marveling at your outfit,” I said, making eye contact with her.

She got inside and shooed her hand, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” The smell of Grandma, which was old perfume mixed with just old in general, filled the inside of my car, and I smiled. I loved that she was willing to come to church with me.

On the drive into town, I glanced over at her and saw a smile resting on her face. I said, “You seem happier than your usual self.”

“Today’s the anniversary of your grandfather’s death.”

My eyebrows shot up, and I jerked my head to look at her. “Why on earth would you be happy about that?”

“It’s been a while now, Kyle. I’m not happy he’s gone. That fact alone still makes me sad. The difference now, though, is that I know my time is coming around the corner any day, and this day serves as a reminder of when he went to be with the Lord. If you ask me, he got lucky to go first!”

“Okay . . . maybe you are crazy!”

She laughed and gently smacked my arm. “When you get my age and almost every person you care about is dead, and you have more pains in your body than you know what to do with, you might be a little more excited to get on to glory!”

I laughed. “Maybe . . .”

“You ready to talk to those parents of Emily?”

I shook my head. “I already did . . .”

“You didn’t go to their house, did you?”

“No. I ran into her mom when I went to pick up my car. Then her father met me for a late cup of coffee that night.” I shook my head.

My grandmother’s eyebrows went up. “And?”

“They still want me to keep away from her. Her dad even tried to get me not to go to church.”

“That’s rude. It’s not his church, it’s God’s church.”

“Right?” I said. “I like Pastor Brown’s preaching. I don’t know why they would discourage me from going.”

“Don’t you mind those stinkers, Kyle! You’ll always have Christians out there that are kinda wonky. You can’t let them affect you.”

“I agree. I started praying for both of them after I met with her dad. I just . . . I felt bad for them. Not sure why.”

“That’s God, Kyle. You have the Holy Spirit inside of you. When you’re walking with the Lord, you’ll be able to see more of the world as He does, broken, fallen, and straying from the original design.”

“Huh . . . I didn’t know that.”

“You’re growing rather quickly in the Lord. Keep it up. Speaking of walking with the Lord, are you going to get baptized?”

“Funny you ask. I’m actually going to speak with the pastor about it today.”

“Good. I’m so proud of you, Kyle.”

As service was about to conclude, the Pastor opened up a time of invitation. Slipping out of the pew, I headed up to the front of the church and met with him.

“How are you, Son?” he asked, resting his hand on my shoulder as he brought me in closer to him so we could chat.

“Good. I made a commitment to Christ a couple of weeks ago, and I want to follow through with baptism.”

“Praise the Lord,” he replied with a smile. “Welcome to the family of God!”

We talked for a bit until the song finished. He then turned his portable microphone clip on and asked everyone to sit down. Looking into the sea of faces, my eyes fell to Emily and her parents. Steve and Patricia looked enraged, but Emily looked as beautiful as ever. I smiled as I looked at her.

“We have Mr. Kyle Reynolds, who came here today with his grandmother. He made a commitment to Christ not too long ago, and is now coming forward to be baptized. Could we get his grandma to come forward and stand up here with him?” The pastor looked across the crowd until my grandma slipped out of the pew and headed toward the front.

I looked over at Emily to see how she was holding up. Tears were running down her cheeks as her mother and father sat on both sides of her and whispered into her ears. My heart broke for her.

Service wrapped up with another song, and the pastor invited the congregation to make their way up to the front and welcome me into the family of God. As the line of people grew to shake my hand, I saw Emily and her parents slip out the back door.

Dropping my grandma off at her house after service, I headed home for a bite to eat before my shift at Pilo’s. My father was home and sitting in his recliner in the living room when I was putting together a sandwich in the kitchen.

My mother walked in and set her hand on my back. “How was church?” she asked.

“Good. Grandma enjoyed it too. I’m going to get baptized . . . Hey, I heard from Grandma that today was the day your dad died.”

Pausing, she nodded. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen him. I still think about him every day,” she said with a longing sigh. Shaking it off, she smiled. “Anyway, thank you. That’s good that you’re getting baptized, and it’s really nice of you to take my mother along with you. Are you working tonight?”

“Yeah. Until close.”

She nodded and then glanced toward the living room and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You should try to fix things up with your father. I think he’s in a good mood today.”

“And say what?” I asked as I took the bread and other sandwich stuff back to the fridge.

My mother leaned in between my face and the fridge as I set the items back inside. She said, “Just get it right with him. He’s your father, Kyle.”

“I tried, Mom. He wasn’t down.” Grabbing my plate, I went and sat at the table. “Told him I’m sorry and everything. Not much else I can do.”

My mother sat down at the table and leaned in a little as she brought her hands together. “You probably caught him on a bad day.”

“What’s a good day look like?” I asked. Leaning slightly in my chair so I could see into the living room, I spotted a couple of beer cans beside his recliner. “When he’s drinking?” I laughed and shook my head as I took a bite of my sandwich.

My mother’s demeanor shifted dramatically as she sat back in her chair. “Frank!” she shouted loudly.

I froze.

“What, Lucy!” my father shouted from his recliner in the living room.

“Get in here and figure this out with your son.”

“He can come in here.”

She looked at me and raised her eyebrows with a smile. “You left me no choice.”

Taking my plate, I got up from the table and went and sat down on the couch in the living room. Glancing at the TV, I saw that a football game was on. I kept quiet and smiled at my mother as she crossed through the living room to go upstairs.

The game took a break and went to commercial. My dad muted the TV. Letting out a long, drawn out sigh, he said, “We need to make this right so your mother stops bothering us. I know she’s been after you about it too.”

I nodded.

“Kyle.”

I looked over at him. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry. I’m proud of the change you made and the decision to follow Christ. I could give you a list of reasons why I’m not in church, but really, those are just excuses. My biggest issue I have comes from within and my own selfishness.”

I nodded but remained quiet.

“The truth is, Kyle, that you’re doing the right thing. I’m also quite impressed with how you’re dealing with all this stuff going on with Emily. I know I don’t talk much about it to you, but I’m very proud of you, Son.”

“Thanks, Dad. I’ve been really—” Seeing the game come back on out of the corner of my eye, I looked over. “Go ahead.”

He reached for the remote and turned off the TV. “No. You go ahead.” He sat the recliner up and brought his hands together. “What were you saying?”

My heart warmed from his focus on our conversation. “I’ve been really struggling. Not just with Emily, but about us, you know? Our family. There have been a couple of times where I wondered what it would have been like if I grew up in the church. How much life could have been different if I wasn’t cruel to all those Christians early on in school.”

He shook his head. “You can’t go there, Son. You have to look forward. Let the past be the past.”

“Why won’t you go to church?” I asked. “What is it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t really know outside of my excuses.”

“Will you come to church with me? I’m getting baptized soon; I would love for you to be there.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “You are? That’s awesome, Son. I just don’t know if I can make myself go to church, even though I would want to be there for you. . .”

“Why? If you believe in the Bible, why aren’t you going? Why isn’t my getting baptized enough to get you to come? And is this going to happen to me someday?” I looked over at the beer and then the TV and said, “Will my own Sundays consist of this someday?”

“There’s nothing wrong with sports and having a beer once in a while.”

“You know what I mean . . .”

He nodded lightly as he thought. “I’ll think about going back to church, especially for your baptism. Just give me some space on it. Okay?”

I smiled and set my plate to the side of me on the couch and got up to hug him. “Thank you.”

“I love you, Son.”

“I love you too, Dad.”

T
he following day, I was dreading going into work early. There was a large order, and Jessica had called and asked if I could come in at ten instead of eleven to help make pizzas and get everything situated. After I got off the phone with her that morning, I was lying in bed, glaring at my dirty work shirt that was lying on the floor. I had worked until one in the morning last night because the orders wouldn’t stop coming in. Pilo’s had a strict policy of not closing until the orders stopped.

Leaning over the edge of my bed, I let my arm drop toward the floor and I looked over at my jeans that were sitting near my work shirt. The business card that I had gotten from Charles the other night at the Bible study with Mike was in perfect view, lying out on the floor. Reaching out, I grabbed the card and rolled onto my back as I looked at it.

This was it.

I could get out of the pizza business and start moving in some direction with my life. If I didn’t want to do it long term, I could always quit down the line, unlike if I went and worked for my Uncle Brady in Redmond. There wouldn’t be upset family members over my leaving a job with some random guy.

I called him.

“Hey. It’s me, Kyle.”

“Kyle! How’s it going?”

“Good, good. That offer still on the table? With the app?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome. I’ll have to give notice at Pilo’s.”

“That’s fine and totally understandable.”

Jessica, Mike and the others were a bit saddened when I gave notice later that afternoon before clocking off for the day. They all understood, though, after I explained that I was going to help develop a mobile application.

As Jessica and the others walked away, Mike stepped up to me and said, “I’ve been praying God’s will would be done with that situation ever since it happened.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “I don’t know if it’ll be long term.”

“But it’s something to do for now. A lot better than tossing pizzas around here. I can tell you don’t care much for the work here.”

“Am I that obvious?” I replied, crossing my arms as I leaned my back against the counter near the phones.

He laughed and patted my shoulder. “Pretending like you have to use the restroom whenever the phone rings when I’m around was a dead giveaway.”

Laughing, I turned red and said in a soft tone, “I thought I was being pretty sneaky.”

He grinned and headed over to load up a delivery. As he put the stacks of pizzas into the delivery bag, I said, “Have a good night, Mike.”

“You too,” he replied.

Joanie was sitting outside on the front porch when I arrived home that afternoon. She didn’t look upset, just contemplative.

Walking up the driveway after I got out of my car, I made eye contact with her. “What’s up, Sis?”

She smiled and said, “Promise not to laugh at me.”

“I can’t promise that,” I replied as I sat down next to her on the top step. “But I’ll do my best.”

“Well . . . I’m in love with him.”

“C’mon, Joanie. You just started seeing this guy.”

“I know, but he’s the one. I’m telling you . . . I have
never
felt so loved in my life.”

“All right,” I said raising my hands up. “You’re in love.”

“There’s a problem though.”

“What’s that?”

“I found out that he’s deeply religious.”

Shaking my head, I looked out to the street and said, “That’s not a problem. That’s a good thing.”

“I know you’re a Christian now, but can you empathize for a second?”

I looked over at her and furrowed my eyebrows. “No, Joanie. I can’t empathize. Being religious isn’t a bad thing. You just have a jagged viewpoint from . . . well, I don’t know what it’s from.”

“We didn’t grow up in church. There are too many rules for me to feel comfortable with Christianity.”

“Like what?”

She paused and tilted her head as she thought about it. “I don’t know. It’s just not me. It works great for other people, like you, and I get that.”

“Sounds like it works for this guy you love, too.”

She nodded.

Standing up, I said, “Sister. I love you. Do me a favor and don’t close yourself off entirely to God. I’m guessing God is the reason why this guy can love you the way he does.”

“I didn’t think of it like that. I promise you I’ll think about it.”

Going inside, I shut the door and headed into the kitchen. As I walked into the kitchen, I saw my mother preparing a casserole of some sort on the counter. Leaning over her shoulder, I saw that it was chicken rice casserole. “Mmm . . .” I said.

“I made it because I knew you’d be home tonight. You’ve been working so much the last couple of days.”

“Thanks, Mom.” My dad walked into the kitchen just then and I said, “I have some news for the both of you.”

Joanie came in from outside and walked into the kitchen as I began to tell them. “I met a guy that needs some help with a mobile app he’s working on. The pay’s good, so I’m going to be leaving Pilo’s.”

“A mobile app?” my dad asked, taking a seat at the table.

“Yeah,” I replied, sitting down in one of the chairs.

“Isn’t that temporary? What happens after the app is done?”

“He has other prospects out there. I’m sure it’d work out. I don’t really know if I’ll end up doing this job forever. I’m still kickin’ around the idea of college.”

“I thought you didn’t know what you wanted to do,” my mother said, coming over to the table and resting a hand on the back of my chair.

“I don’t,” I replied, looking up at her. “I’m okay with that, though. I know God will lead me. I just know that I can’t sit idle forever, hoping something happens.”

“Really embracing this
God
thing, aren’t you?” my dad asked.

“Yep.”

“Maybe it’s because we didn’t force it on you like we had it forced on us,” he added.

“I, for one, am glad you didn’t force it on us,” Joanie said. “That’d be annoying. We should get to choose.”

“You didn’t get to choose to be taught the theory of evolution in school. They taught it as truth,” I retorted.

“Who taught ya that? Grandma?” Joanie lashed back at me. “Stop trying to force God on us because you had some magical experience up in the sticks at Grandma’s house.”

“We believe in God,” my father replied to Joanie. “I even tried talking to you about salvation. You need to show some respect in this house, missy.”

Joanie’s words penetrated my heart like poison from a viper’s bite. She was being ruthless with little to no reason. It instantly brought back all the memories of high school when I had done much of the same with my classmates who were Christians. I didn’t reply to Joanie’s hatred. There was no desire to continue the conversation within me. Instead, I stood up and excused myself to my room.

When I got into my room and shut the door, my eyes searched for my Bible as my heart began a prayer.

Help me be comforted by You who preserves. Amen.

Sitting down on my bed, I began thumbing through the books of the Bible. I wanted to find something, anything to do with persecution and comfort.

Exhausted from searching, I set the Bible down beside me and pulled out my phone. Remembering what my grandma said about looking things up online, I did a search and found a wealth of verses.

“Matthew 5:44 . . . But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” I said, reading the screen. Looking toward my bedroom door, I thought of my sister. There wasn’t a thought in my mind that considered her to be an enemy, but I knew she was one of God. I needed to pray for her.

Getting off my phone, I went and sat down on my bed. Holding the worn Bible of my grandfather’s in my hands, I let my fingers glide over the worn cover. I thought about the fact that my mother, his only daughter, ran off with a guy and raised a family outside of the church. He must have been devastated by that choice that my mother and father had made.

While I was upset over the persecution I felt by my family, I knew God was working everything together for His will. Reminding myself of that brought a peaceful, easy feeling over me. The more I felt in turmoil over what was going on in my life, the closer I could feel the peace of God dwell within me. He was carrying me when I couldn’t walk.