Wow — that was some story.” Mom brushed a few tears from her face as we gathered our belongings.
Chuck and Carmie came over to greet us.
“Did you guys really pay for Diane to go to nursing school?” I asked. “Are you rich too?”
“Riley, don’t be so nosy,” Mom said.
Chuck patted my mom on the shoulder. “I’m glad she asked. It gives me a chance to give God some more glory. Back a long time ago, we scraped up some change and invested in a little piece of property in Wyoming. Seems it had a little flow of oil under it.”
Carmie crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. “A little oil?”
“Ha!” Chuck slapped his knee. “It’s been flowin’ for twenty years or so.”
“Wow — you are lucky.” I said.
“Nah, just blessed that God trusted this old cowboy with the resources.”
“I’m gonna go find Sunday,” Brady said. “I’m gonna give him my dry shoes.” Then he disappeared. Wow, that was nice of my brother.
We all gathered in the reception hall of the church to wait for the newly baptized people to dry off and join us for cookies and lemonade. The little boy came in first, and the crowd all applauded for him. He smiled at me. He was missing his two front teeth.
“He must be a second grader,” I said to Rusty.
The old guy came in next, and when he smiled, he didn’t have front teeth either.
Rusty looked at me and we both whispered it at the same time.
“Second grader.”
Diane was the last to come in. She had dried her hair, and it shined as it rested in soft curls just on top of her shoulders. Her cheeks were all pink, and her eyes sparkled. She jumped a little and waved. “Hi, everybody.”
We all rushed forward and got in line for hugs, and when Rusty and I finally got ours, we gave her the gift plate of cookies. “Oh, wow. These look great,” she said, and she lifted the wrap off the top, grabbed one, and took a big bite. “Yum. Who made these?”
I pointed my thumb at Rusty. “Shari Olivia,” I said.
Diane started to choke. I wasn’t surprised, that bite had been huge.
“Are you okay?” Matt asked. He looked ready to proceed with the Heimlich maneuver.
Diane nodded and then ran for the lemonade table. She took a big swig of drink and leaned over, her hands on the table.
“I hate when food goes down the wrong way,” I said.
“Yeah,” Mom said. “Why don’t you girls go find Brady and Sunday? I’ll go make sure Diane’s okay. Maybe she can join us for lunch back at the Stevens’ place.”
We didn’t have to look for the boys, because right then they ran into the reception hall and raided the cookie table.
“I’m starving!” Sunday said. He shoved a bite of chocolate, chocolate chip cookie into his mouth. “I’m embarrassed to have slept through breakfast. When is lunch?”