That night, I tossed and turned off and on and dreamed of Brendan and Max with gaping holes in their chests. I woke in a cold sweat and lay awake a long time. The last thing I remembered before going back to sleep was saying out loud, “I promise I won’t let anything happen to my friends.”
Everything was back to normal the next morning at church. All the guys safe and accounted for, we stood around talking before heading for Youth Group. Renee Woods and Alyssa Dwyer walked by going in that direction.
“Hi, Brendan,” Renee said over her shoulder, all girlie-like, as she continued down the hallway.
Hi, Brendan? Hey, what about the rest of us? What are we . . . invisible? Not that I cared or anything that she didn’t say hi to us.
“Uh, see ya, guys,” Brendan said and turned toward the Youth wing.
“What in the . . . ?” My mouth wouldn’t shut as I watched him go then turned and looked at my friends, a big question mark on my face.
“Aw, come on, Patrick,” James said, poking me in the shoulder. “You didn’t notice Renee hanging around Brendan last night at the picnic?”
I remembered her and Alyssa bringing their plates and sitting at our table. “She and Alyssa were hanging around all of us.”
“Huh-uh, buddy,” Max put in. “You were on the other end of the bench and old Renee squeezed herself right in next to Brendan.”
“So?”
James put his hand on my shoulder while Max and Jeremy doubled over laughing. “We need to talk, dude,” James said, steering me toward class.
I can be slow about some things but it didn’t take much for me to get the picture once James painted the details for me. I felt like a real doofus, but how was I supposed to know that girls were like looking at Brendan? And he was looking back it seemed. Only made sense, though. He was a jock, after all, besides being older than the rest of us. Oh, and there were the chest hairs, too.
Brendan sat with us during services, as usual, but I noticed that he kept looking over to where Renee sat with the rest of the girls. And she was actually making eyes at him! Alyssa gave old Renee a sharp jab in the ribs and she turned and gave Alyssa a really dirty look.
A couple of seconds later, Alyssa looked over at me and rolled her eyes. I couldn’t remember seeing that look before. I’d known Alyssa almost as long as I’d known all the guys. We’d all gone to school together from the time we were in elementary school and attended the same church. I’d always thought of her as one of the guys. Good thing, too. She could punch really hard if we ever treated her like a girl. She would have gotten a big kick out of launching that mouse. Now, she was sitting with a girl who was making eyes at Brendan.
I sure hoped she didn’t think whatever she was doing with her eyes was attractive. Or that I’d care anyway.
The morning couldn’t end soon enough for me. All I wanted to do was go home with my family and have our normal Sunday lunch and a normal family day.
After we ate and the table was cleared, I went to my room and finished my reading assignment for the next day. Then I went to see what the family was watching on TV. I was ready for some outer space sci-fi action. Any mindless entertainment to get my mind off that morning.
My mind cleared up real quick when my mother said she wanted to talk to me before we started watching the movie. I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. The last time she and my dad had ‘wanted to talk’ to me, I’d found out there was no summer vacation.
“Patrick, sweetie,” Mom started, “I know you were really disappointed that we didn’t go on vacation in the summer.”
Yep. Here it was. My parents were finally going to tell me the grand and glorious news. Should I act surprised? Pretend I’m thrilled about going to one-horse junction? Act like I’m so happy for Taylor? Gag. Well, get on with it.
“Fall Break is only a few weeks away and we thought you’d like to know we have some really special plans.”
For one split second, I imagined my parents had changed their minds about The Plan. Maybe we were going to Disney World after all. I didn’t hold my breath. Good thing.
“Son,” my dad said, taking over now. “We’re all going to Arkansas.”
I decided on raised eyebrows for a surprised look, and waited.
Then my mom was sitting on the edge of her seat. “We are all going! Everyone, the whole family: Clint and Judith and the girls; Nathan and Liz and Abby. And we’re all going to Daly, grandmother’s home town, where she grew up. You remember going there, don’t you?”
Oh, yeah. I remembered all right. Nothing, forever. I nodded my head all excited-like, and smiled really big like I was just tickled pink.
“We’re thinking the family all getting together like this may change plans for Christmas, we might not be able to be together then. I hope you won’t be too disappointed. But we just thought this was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
“Tell him about the Fall Festival,” my dad said.
“Oh, yes. I almost forgot. Daly has a Fall Festival every year in the middle of October, and we will be there. They have a parade, and booths, and lots of food. Oh, and games, I believe I remember. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
I kept nodding and smiling, waiting for them to tell the part about how Taylor’s plans all fit into this trip. I had a lot more waiting to do.