Coming Home (7 page)

"Oh, you give me too much credit. You have made that
restaurant what it is, and now you are going on the World War Web."

Susan laughed, "World Wide Web. Not war."

"Right. I wanted to ask you on Sunday but didn't get a
chance, are you still seeing Craig?"

"No, I mean, I wasn't seeing him in the first place.
We both know it won't work out between us."

"Why is that, dear?"

"He's a Christian and I'm not. And he's not just a go
to church on Sunday and let it be kind of Christian; he's an everyday
Christian. Like he goes with the junior high kids to the beach every Tuesday
and they sing and pray and everything right out there for everyone and his
brother to see."

"That's the best kind to be."

"It's really weird to hear you say that, Nana."

"Well, I hope it will become weird for you to not hear
me say stuff like that. Isn't today Tuesday?"

"Yes." Susan said warily.

"You should go to the beach and tell Craig about your
wonderful news. I bet he would like to hear it from you before he sees it on
the World Web thing."

"I don't know, Nana. It's complicated."

"Life is complicated. That is what keeps it
interesting. If it were always easy we would get bored and kill ourselves. But
then that would make it complicated.  So just take it as it comes to you and go
to the beach."

"I’m not even going to try to figure out how you came
up with that one. But in an effort to stop anymore such reasoning, fine, I'll
go to the beach."

"I knew you would.  I'll see you Sunday."

Susan hung up the phone feeling as if she were being ganged
up on. First Craig, then Amy now Nana. It wasn't fair.

Craig poked at the wood in the fire pit in an effort to get
it to start burning. He had put enough kindling in there to start a forest
fire, yet this wood was acting like it didn't know what it was supposed to do
when it came into contact with the flames. He didn't like to use charcoal
lighter on his fires so he just put a little more kindling under the wood.

"Maybe if you do a fire dance it would start."

Craig spun around at the sound of her voice. He had been
sure she wouldn't show up tonight. He had forced himself to not call her
because he knew he would push her farther away if he hounded her. "You
came," he said simply.

She nodded her head then gestured toward the fire-pit. He
turned to look at it and one of the logs had started to actually burn. He
turned to look at her again, "I think you are good luck."

She shrugged, "Maybe."

They stood looking at each other for an awkward moment.

"I came earlier," she said looking around.

He looked around; there were only a few junior high kids
and a couple of leaders there so far, "Yes you did. And I will keep my
promise to treat you to one of my gourmet hot dogs."

She looked at him a little skeptically, "I'm not sure
hot dog and gourmet can be used in the same sentence."

He waggled his eyebrows at her, "Just you wait and
see."

"Hmmm," she said noncommittally. "So what do
you do when you get here this early?"

"We just hang out. We have to get here early to get a
fire ring." He gestured down the beach toward the other fire rings of
which most of them had people around already. There were only a couple open
quite a ways farther down the beach.

"Ah. Well, in that case, I'm glad I brought my chair
this time,"  she said holding up her chair.

"Very good. Here let me set it up for you."

"I can set it up, Craig."

He put a finger up to her lips, "Let me do this for
you."

She nodded her head and handed her chair to him. She didn't
say anything until he had made sure it was set level and wiped any granules of
sand off the seat. "Thank you."

"You're welcome.  Can I get you a drink?"

"I thought they didn't allow alcohol on the
beach?"

"Well, that is true. I was offering you a
non-alcoholic beverage." He loved the way her face turned pink.

"Do you have any soda?"

"I'm catering to a mob of tweens and teenagers, if I
didn't have soda I probably wouldn't live to see tomorrow."

"Vicious, huh?"

"You have no idea."

"I'll have a lemon-lime soda, if you have one of
those."

He smiled, "I'll see what I can rustle up for
you."

He walked over to the cooler that was stocked with sodas
and found the flavor she wanted. He didn't rush right back to where she was,
but stopped to pray first.
God, thank You so much for bringing her here
tonight. Please soften her heart to hear Your voice through me, the other
people here, the songs and the message. Draw her to You.
He finished
praying and went back to give her the soda. He settled down on the sand next to
her chair and they both looked out toward the ocean for a few quiet minutes.

He heard her clear her throat and he turned to look at her.
He was surprised to find her looking at him. "What?"

She cleared her throat again, "Well, I have some good
news."

"Really, what?" He was both afraid and interested
at the same time. Good news to her could mean she had a boyfriend. Or it could
be that she had come to know Jesus.

"I'm building a web-site for my restaurant. Well, I'm
not building it, Amy is."

"A web-site?"  He said a little shocked. It was
better than a boyfriend, but...

"Uhmhmm. Amy offered to do it for me."

"Amy?" He was just a little confused.

"Abby's mom, Amy."

He raised his eyebrows, "Abby from the youth group
here?"

"Yeah, she brought her parents to my restaurant and
Amy offered to make a web-site for me."

"Is she with Web builders for the Carpenter?" He
asked slightly surprised.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"It is a ministry through our church."

"Oh, I didn't know."

"From what I hear they do excellent work."

She nodded, "Amy seemed to really know what she was
talking about."

"Wow, that's great news that you are getting a
web-site."

"That's not all, though," she said with
excitement.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense, what else?"

"People are going to be able to order my baked goods
from the website." She said with a big smile.

"Susan, that is absolutely awesome!"

She just smiled at him and he wanted so badly to hug her.
He grabbed two fistfuls of sand instead.

"I can't tell you how excited I am, Craig. This is
like a dream that I never dared to dream coming true."

He watched her with a smile. Her eyes were shining and her
smile was incredible. "You deserve the best, Susan. I'm glad Amy is
helping you."

Susan took a deep breath and gazed out over the ocean.

Craig thought he could sit there and just look at her all night
long, but he had responsibilities to take care of. He stood up and squeezed her
shoulder, "Thanks for telling me, Susan."

Susan watched Craig walk over to greet a group of young
people who had just arrived. Her shoulder was still tingling from where his
warm hand had touched it. She smiled as she watched him interact with the kids.
She could tell that he really loved all of them. It was really kind of neat to
see him in this kind of setting. He was so relaxed. Actually he almost always
seemed relaxed -- at least more so than he had back when they had been dating.
She briefly wondered if that had anything to do with his belief in God, but
shook her head. She didn't want to give God too much credit for the good things
she saw in Craig. After all, it was because of God that they had broken up in
the first place.

She scowled as she turned to watch the waves roll in, how
could a God who says he loves her take away the best thing that ever happened
to her? It didn't make any sense. She had had boyfriends since Craig, even
lived with one of them thinking that would make their relationship better, but
it hadn't. It had only made it worse. They didn't even talk to each other
anymore.  She shook her head and heaved a sigh. Life was too complicated --
especially where relationships were concerned. She often wished that people
knew who they were supposed to marry. She wasn't sure how they would know,
maybe an angel could just tell everyone who they were supposed to marry and
take away all the guess-work. Of course that probably wouldn't work because she
had heard Jean say on more than one occasion that if someone had told her that
she would one day be married to her husband she would have laughed in their
face. They had met in high school, but hadn't started dating until they were in
their late twenties. Susan smiled; Jean sure did love to tell that story.  So
maybe it was unrealistic to wish for everyone to know who they would marry one
day. She turned her gaze toward where Craig was gathering the kids together for
a game. He was still a man she would consider marrying... if it weren't for
God. Just then Craig turned and motioned to her to join him. She took another
drink of her sweating soda and meandered over to join in the fun.

The rest of the week went by in a blur for Susan.  Amy came
by a few times to show Susan how the website was coming along and Susan was
getting a little nervous about the whole endeavor. What if she couldn't keep up
with the orders? What if the baked goods didn't ship well? What if nobody even
ordered anything? These thoughts swirled around in her mind along with ones
about Craig and Nana and going to church.

Saturday morning dawned a little overcast and Susan wished
she could stay in bed and sleep in for just a while. She got tired of getting
up six days a week. Seven now that she had agreed to go to church with Nana
tomorrow morning. She groaned and rolled over but her snooze alarm went off at
that moment. "Alright alright. I'm getting up." She said as she clicked
off the alarm and swung her feet out of bed and headed to the shower. An hour
and a half later she walked out of her front door closing it behind her. She
looked up and saw Craig leaning against his car with his arms folded across his
chest. She cleared her throat as she walked over to him. "What are you
doing here?"

He smiled at her. "Why do you always ask me
that?"

"I don't always ask you that," she denied.
"And if I do, it's because you are where I don't expect you to be."

"You weren't expecting me to be here?"

She shook her head slowly, "No, should I have expected
you to be here?"

"Not necessarily."

"So why are you here?"

"I want to take you somewhere."

She looked at him dubiously, "Take me somewhere."

Craig nodded his head, wishing he could pull her into a
hug. He loved playing little word games with her. "Get in my car and I
will show you."

"I have to go to work, Craig."

"Susan, you work six days a week. You need a break.
Humor me."

Susan rolled her eyes, "Fine. Just let me call my
manager."

He nodded his head as she pulled out her cell phone to let
her manager know she wouldn't be coming in today. He opened the passenger door
for her as she talked and let her get in. He was just getting in behind the
steering wheel as she hung up. "Everything okay?" He asked as he
started the car.

"Yes, everything is fine. I just don't usually take
time off. This is really not normal for me."

"All the more reason for you to do it today then. You
need to take some time for yourself."

"So, where are we going?" She asked as he merged
onto the freeway.

"Have you ever heard of geocaching?"

She shook her head, "No."

"Well, that is what we are going to do."

"Okaaay. What is it?"

"Well, people hide things all over the world and they
log the coordinates into a web site and then other people can use those
coordinates to find...well, the geocache."

"How do you know where the coordinates are?"

"Well, I use an app on my iPhone, but if you have a
GPS that would work, too."

"Okay. So what is in these geocaches?"

"It depends on how big they are. The micro ones just
have a piece of paper for you to log your user name and the date."

"You need a user name?"

"Well, when you set up an account on the website you
need to choose a user name."

"What is your user name?"

"KnightRyder."

She chuckled, "I get the Ryder part, assuming it is
from your last name?" She looked at him with raised eyebrows.

He nodded his head, "It is."

"How did you get the night part? Do you usually do
this at night?"

He shook his head, "No knight with a 'k' like knight
in shining armor."

"Okay, how did you come up with that?"

"I think my brother thought of it."

"Your brother?

"Yeah, you remember Dennis?"

"Vaguely. How did he come up with it?"

Craig shook his head, "I have no idea, but I liked it,
so I used it."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."

They rode in silence for a few minutes.

"So where do you do this geocaching?"

"You’re curious about it, aren't you?"

"You basically kidnapped me to do this, so of course
I'm curious."

"I wouldn't exactly call it kidnapping. You did come
of your own free will."

"Whatever. Where do you go to find these things?"

He pressed a button on his iPhone. "Well, there are a
few up in the La Jolla area that I thought would be fun to look for." He
pressed a couple more buttons. "See?"

She looked at the screen on his phone and just saw a few
dots on a geographical map. "I'm not really sure what I am looking at
here."

"These dots are where some geocaches are hidden."

"Huh."

He smiled at her, "I'll explain it better when we get
out of the car," he said as he pulled the car into a parking spot.

He opened her door for her and as they walked he held his
phone so she could see it. "See, this dot is a geocache. We are walking
toward it and when we get close it will look like we are on it. We just need to
find where the person hid it."

"What is the purpose of this?"

"To have fun," he said with a smile.

As they got close to where the first one was hidden he gave
her some tips about how to look for the geocache. "Try to be as
inconspicuous as possible," he said as they searched around a park bench.

"Inconspicuous? We are in the middle of a public park,
a busy public park, mind you, looking at a park bench like it is a work of art.
I don't think you can make that look inconspicuous."

He chuckled, "Well, okay, you have a point, just don't
yell, 'Eureka' when you find it, then."

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," she
said, enjoying herself in spite of the fact that she actually had no clue what
she was doing.

"Susan, come here," Craig whispered.

She walked toward him looking around. "Why are you
whispering?" She asked in a whisper herself.

"I think I found it," he said softly motioning
with his head toward the bench.

"It?" She hissed back.

"Yes, it," he said with a little jerk of his head
and eyes toward the bench.

Susan looked at the bench.

"Look for something out of place," he whispered
while shielding her from a couple of people passing by.

She searched the part of the bench that she thought he had
indicated and just when she was about ready to tell him she couldn't see
anything out of place, she saw it. There was a third "screw" where
there should have only been two. She looked at him, "I think I see
it," she whispered. "What do we do now?"

"Take it off the bench."

"Take it off?" She asked in surprise.

He nodded his head.

As discreetly as possible she placed her hand on the extra
"screw" and pulled. It was actually a magnet and it came off easily.
She handed it to Craig and watched as he opened it and pulled out a tiny piece
of rolled up paper.

"What is that?" Susan asked looking over his
shoulder.

"This is the log where we put our initials and the
date," he said as he wrote KR & SJ and the date in writing so tiny it
was difficult to read. Then he placed the piece of paper back into the fake
magnetized screw-head and placed it back on the bench.

They walked away from the bench and Susan glanced over her
shoulder back at it. She looked back at Craig, "So there are things like
this all over the place?"

Craig nodded his head as he did something with his phone.
"I'm logging in on my account that we found this one," he explained
as he put his phone back in his pocket. "They are hidden all over the
place, but they have to be at least five hundred feet apart."

"Oh. Why?"

He shrugged, "I'm not really sure."

"Oh, so where are the other ones we were going to look
for?"

He smiled at her, "You do like it, don't you?"

She nodded her head, "I think it is fascinating that
people would go to the trouble to hide a piece of paper so other people can
find it and write their initials on it."

Craig gave a shout of laughter, "Yes, I guess that is
fascinating."

"And the people who find it can walk away with a sense
that they accomplished something."

"Yes, that's true. Don't you feel like you
accomplished something?"

"Of course I do," she said with a smile.

They walked around the park for a couple more hours and
found three more geocaches. One was a fairly large tin with little trinkets
inside it. Craig explained to her that some people put travel bugs in the
geocaches and these travel bugs have a specific destination to get to.

"Have you ever placed a travel bug?" She asked
him as they walked.

He shook his head, "No, but I have moved a few."

"Really?" she asked with interest.

"Yeah, one time I was geocaching and I found a travel
bug that was trying to get to Seattle, Washington. I happened to be going on a
business trip the following week to Seattle, so I took it with me and put it in
a geocache up there."

"So the travel bug got to its destination and you got
a feeling that you accomplished something."

He nodded his head, "And it led me back to you."

She looked at him doubtfully, "I have never been in
Seattle."

"No, but when I was up in Seattle, I met the men who I
was meeting with the morning that I bumped into you outside your
restaurant."

"But you were going up there anyway on a business
trip. That didn't have anything to do with the travel bug."

"Well, I was up there on business, but the people I
had gone up there to meet decided to go with a different company."

"That's too bad."

"I think it’s okay. Anyway, I decided to place the
travel bug before I went to catch my flight home and I got lost."

"Lost in Seattle instead of Sleepless in
Seattle?" She asked with a smile.

"Hahaha. Anyway, to make a long story short, I met
these men in the airport while I was waiting for my flight to be rescheduled.
So if I hadn't placed the travel bug I wouldn't have gotten lost, I wouldn’t
have missed my flight, I wouldn’t have met these gentlemen, I wouldn't have had
a meeting to meet them at this fabulous bakery and restaurant and I wouldn't
have bumped into you."

"So I can thank a travel bug for you coming back into
my life?"

"I would thank God for that," he said looking at
her seriously. "God uses all kinds of circumstances to get us where He
wants us to be when He wants us to be there."

"So you think God wants us to be here right now?"
She asked.

"I believe God brought us back into each other's lives
for a reason, yes."

"I don't think I will ever understand that kind of
faith." She looked around. "Are there any more geocaches around
here?" She asked, effectively changing the subject.

Craig turned his head as though looking around the park in
an effort to hide his disappointment. God, please draw her to You, he prayed
silently. Then he pulled out his phone and pressed a few buttons, "No, I
think we found all of them that are here."

"Oh,"

"You sound disappointed."

"Well, it was fun."

"I'm glad you liked it. It was better than hanging out
at the restaurant, wasn't it?"

She smiled at him, "Yes, it was very nice having a day
off."

"The day is still young. How about lunch?"

"That sounds good, I'm famished."

They ate at a quaint little restaurant that overlooked the
ocean. They talked about old times and things they had done during the years
since they had last seen each other and each of them enjoyed being with the
other one more than they felt they should.

When they were finished eating Susan leaned back in her
chair, "I think I ate way more than I should have. But it was so good, I
couldn't stop."

Craig patted his stomach, "Me too. It certainly was
delicious." They both stood up to leave the restaurant. Craig placed his
hand on Susan's back as he guided her through the maze of tables and Susan
closed her eyes briefly at the feel of his hand on her back. It sent shivers of
electricity right into her heart and made it constrict with a desire for
something more than friendship. She shook her head at that line of thinking.

"Let's walk for a while," Craig said as they
exited the restaurant and stepped into the brilliant sunshine.

"Okay," Susan said as they turned toward the
shopping district. They spent the afternoon talking and laughing as they went
through the shops and art galleries. As they headed toward the car a couple
hours later, Susan felt more relaxed that she had in a very long time. She
looked at Craig, "Thank you for kidnapping me today."