As You Wish (14 page)

“Katie, are you okay?”

“Read this,” Katie said, holding up a letter.

Christy took the handwritten, one-page letter from her roommate and immediately checked the signature.

“Rick? You got a letter from Rick Doyle?”

Katie nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “He says he's sorry,” Katie said before Christy had a chance to read the first line. “He got his life back together with God this summer, and he's apologizing for not . . . how does he say it? For not treating me with respect.”

Christy scanned the opening paragraph. “It says, ‘I ran into Doug, and he told me you and Christy were going to Rancho this year.' ”

“Keep going,” Katie said.

Christy read the second paragraph to herself and said, “He's asking you to forgive him for being a jerk and not treating you with the dignity and respect you deserve.”

“Can you believe that?” Katie said. “I never expected anything like that to happen. Remember how just yesterday I said it would help if one of the guys who hurt me would apologize?”

Christy nodded and lowered herself to the edge of Katie's unmade bed.

“This has to be the creepiest God-thing I've ever experienced,” Katie said. “I make that big declaration, and the very next day I pick up my mail and find this letter from Rick. At first I thought it might be a joke, but read that last part.”

“ ‘This summer I finally surrendered my life completely to Christ, and He's real to me now. Very real. I just want to make things right with you, Katie. You don't have to write me back. I know God has forgiven me. I hope you can, too.' ”

Christy looked up. “He sounds like he really means it.”

Katie nodded. “Christy, I have to apologize to you, too. And I really mean it. I shouldn't have left in such a huff yesterday. What you were telling me was all true. I just didn't want to hear it.”

Christy rushed to her friend and gave her a hug. “I'm the one who needs to apologize. I was so insensitive, Katie. I'm sorry. I should have come to Sierra's room last night so we could clear things up.”

“No, I needed time to think everything through. It took me a while to realize you were right. I need to start forgiving completely. I had decided this afternoon I was going to start
by forgiving Rick because I think he hurt me the most. I went to the chapel after dinner and prayed, and then this.” Katie pointed to the letter Christy still held in her hand. “This blew me away. I mean, Rick Doyle is asking for my forgiveness. So what am I doing avoiding you? You and I are a team, Christy. We've waited for years to be roommates, and within the first week, I go and mess things up.”

“You didn't mess anything up, Katie. We got off track, that's all. We need to talk things through whenever we get upset with each other. For whatever reason.”

“You're right,” Katie said. She rose and tucked the folded letter into the back flap of her Bible. “Did you check your mail today?”

“No, why?”

“Don't you wonder if Rick wrote you, too?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. Rick didn't exactly treat you with the utmost dignity while you were dating him.”

“But he and I settled it all back then,” Christy said. “I don't think he has anything to apologize for. I didn't exactly handle the relationship with a lot of sensitivity to him. I tend to get pretty intense about things and only see them from my point of view.”

Katie's sly grin returned. “We all are basically self-centered, when you think about it. That's why we need a Savior. Has Dr. Mitchell said that yet in Old Testament Survey? He said it all the time last year. Whenever we were studying about how all those heroes of faith had messed up so badly in the Old Testament, he would say, ‘And once again we see this is why we all need a Savior.' ”

Christy smiled. She was thinking of Rick and the verse from John about how those who believe and receive Christ
have the right to become God's adopted children.

Rick is really, truly one of God's kids now.

“You're thinking about Rick, aren't you?” Katie asked.

“How did you know?”

“I was thinking the same thing. The original ‘poser' got saved for real.”

“Where did that word come from? What is a ‘poser'? I heard Todd use it a couple of times with the group in Sunday school.”

“You've been in the Alps too long,” Katie said. “I first heard it as a surfer term. A ‘poser' is someone who acts like he can surf, but he never actually gets up on a board. You know the kind—they put surfing stickers on their cars, wear shirts with surf logos, and talk about how great the waves were last week, but they don't surf. They just make you think they do.”

“Do you think that was the situation with Rick? He was just a ‘poser' Christian when we were in high school?”

“Who knows? It's for God to judge, not us. I'm just amazed he's got it together now and he wrote me.”

“Are you going to write him back?” Christy asked.

“He didn't include a return address.” Katie tilted her head. The gesture was especially charming now that her hair was short and wispy. It made her look playful rather than slightly frenzied, which is what that same gesture suggested when her hair was longer and swishy. “But Doug might know where he is. Or I could send a letter to his parents' home in Escondido.”

As Christy got ready for bed, Katie cranked up her stereo and went to work composing a letter to Rick. By the time Christy had washed her face, brushed her teeth, and was
snuggled under her covers, Katie the night owl was ready to talk.

“How does this sound: ‘Dear Rick, I got your letter, and it made me cry. Of course I forgive you, you big baboon. Now it's my turn to ask you to forgive me. I don't think I was exactly at my best as a Christian or as a friend while we were hanging out together. I'm so excited to hear about what God has been doing in your life. Let's keep in touch, okay? Friends forever, Katie.' What do you think?”

“Big baboon?”

“I had to say something like that, or he wouldn't think it was from me.”

“Then it sounds good,” Christy said with a yawn. “It sounds like you, and it sounds sincere.”

“You're not going to sleep now, are you?”

“Katie, it's almost midnight.”

“But I'm going to write letters to all my lost loves. I want you to tell me if they sound okay.”

“I'll read them in the morning.”

Christy never did read Katie's letters. She thought of them on Friday, the end of their first week of classes. While they were checking their mailboxes before dinner, Christy remembered and asked Katie if she had ever mailed her letters.

“I only mailed the one to Rick.” Katie and Christy stepped out of the student center and strolled toward The Golden Calf. “My mom gave me his parents' address, and I sent it there. The other letters didn't need to be mailed because they ended up turning into one long letter I wrote to God asking Him to forgive me for not forgiving
those guys. I put the letter in my Bible. On the back of it I wrote out some verses that really helped me. One of them was the part where Jesus is hanging on the cross and He says, ‘Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.' That verse helped me the most because it made me realize that most people don't know what they're doing when they hurt us.”

Christy was about to respond to Katie's insight, when Matt came running across campus toward them.

Christy smiled at him and said, “Hey, Matt, where have you been all week? This is the first I've seen you.”

“Hi, Christy,” Matt said quickly. His gaze was fixed on Katie. “Wes just told me you're Katie. Are you?”

A cute, flirty sort of grin lit up Katie's face. The expression wasn't typical for Katie, but it fit her new, softer, more sophisticated image. “That depends,” she said. “There's probably more than one Katie on this campus. Which one are you looking for?”

Matt glanced at Christy and then at Katie and said, “I don't know her last name.”

“Oh, really?” Katie played this moment for all it was worth. “What do you know about the Katie you're looking for?”

“I'm trying to find the Katie who played in the softball game last Sunday afternoon against Wes Jensen's team.”

“That would be me.”

“Oh, good. Well, here's the deal. Wes said you were supposed to take Christy's place at their last game, but you sided with Sierra's team and single-handedly beat our team.”

Christy hadn't heard all this before.

“We're trying to set up a rematch sometime this weekend,”
Matt said. “Best two out of three. Sierra said you were going to stay with her team. I'm playing in the rematch, and if we could get you on our team, we'd win for sure. What can I do to convince you to join with Wes and me?”

Katie glanced at Christy. Then, with her dancing green eyes locked on Matt, Katie said, “That depends. How much money do you have?”

Christy wanted to burst out laughing when she saw the look on Matt's face.

“How much were you thinking about?” Matt asked cautiously.

Katie started to laugh. Christy knew that laugh. It was Katie's happiest laugh, the one she used when the two of them had gone searching for the statue of the
Little Mermaid
in Copenhagen last June. It was the laugh she used in Christy's car her first day on the job as a Santa's helper elf, when they tried to hide from Rick, and Katie's pointed ear kept falling off.

“I'm only kidding,” Katie said to Matt. “But Todd tells me you know your way around a Volkswagen engine. If you can tell me why the dashboard lights won't turn on in Baby Hummer, I might be persuaded to join you and Wes.”

“And what is a Baby Hummer?” Matt asked.

“My car. It's a VW Thing.”

“The yellow one?” Matt asked. “That's yours? Hey, I'll check that Baby Hummer out any day. Where did you get it?”

“One of my brothers works at an auto body repair shop.”

“Do you know how rare those cars are in Wisconsin?
My friend found one on the Internet that he wanted to buy, but he would have had to go to Mexico to get it.”

“She's parked out in the side lot. Do you want to meet her after dinner?”

Christy rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together to keep the laughter from bubbling over as she watched her coy friend and bumbling Matthew Kingsley. It appeared the two of them had discovered each other at last.

“I'm going on into The Golden Calf,” Christy said. “The line looks like it's growing.”

“We might as well wait, then,” Matt said to Katie. “Wait to eat, I mean. Why don't you show me your car now?”

Katie took off with Matt. She turned her head just enough for Christy to see the gleeful expression on her face.

Christy shook her head at her wacky friend. Matt hadn't given any indication that he remembered Christy introducing him to Katie a week ago and telling him that Katie was her roommate. Of course, Katie looked different with her new haircut. She was even wearing her “soft” skirt and “pretty” blouse for the second time that week. Apparently, as far as Matt was concerned, this was the first time he had ever seen Katie.

A fresh start for my dearest friend! I love it! And no phone books of unforgiveness for her to lug around.

Christy headed for the salad bar, where she proceeded to make a huge creation out of lettuce, broccoli, cheese, shredded carrots, and raisins all drizzled with ranch dressing. She had missed the variety of fresh California vegetables in Basel.

Spotting Todd at what had become their private table
by the window, she walked over to join him. The first thing she said even before she sat down was “It happened!”

“What?”

“Matt discovered Katie, and I had nothing to do with it.” She gave Todd the full rundown. He appeared as humored by the story as Christy had been. Digging into his salad of lettuce and peas, he added a forkful of mashed potatoes to the mix. His next bite was one of his chicken strips smothered in honey mustard dip.

“You sure enjoy variety, don't you?” Christy asked.

“Why do you say that?”

“I've been watching you eat this week. You eat a little of everything until it's gone.”

“So?”

“I never noticed that about you before.” Christy smiled at him. “I'm learning new things about you. I like it. We've never been able to see each other so consistently for so long.”

Todd scooped up some more mashed potatoes and dipped them in his puddle of honey mustard.

Christy contentedly ate a few more bites of salad. She wondered if Todd had been noticing this week that she tended to eat just one thing at a time before moving on to the next item.

“Does it bother you that I hopscotch all over my plate?” Todd asked.

“No, not at all. I just mentioned it because I'd never noticed that about you before.”

“And it honestly doesn't bother you?”

“No.” Christy couldn't read the expression on his face.
“Does it bother you that I usually eat everything in order?”

Todd shook his head. Then, with a half grin, he added, “Except that one time when you insisted on eating everything in alphabetical order.”

Christy swatted him with her napkin. “I've never done that.”

They ate quietly for a minute before Todd said, “I have to confess something to you. I've been nervous ever since our talk in the park last Saturday.”

“You? Nervous? Why?”

“I felt like, after you heard about how I grew up, you had enough reasons to turn away and run for your life.”

“Todd, I didn't feel that way. I was a little surprised at some of the things you told me, but you can't do anything to change who your parents were or the decisions they made. You're not responsible for their choices.”