Bless Us Father (18 page)

Just then, she heard someone running behind her and turned just as a sophomore girl, Karla Porter passed her. She was calling to Danny to wait for her, and he finally heard her and stopped. When Karla caught up to him he took her books and put his arm around her waist.

Feelings of disappointment overwhelmed Mary Margaret as she realized she wouldn’t be going to the prom with Danny.

“Mrs. Hunter? Are you here?” Mary Margaret said as she entered the back door of the rectory.

“I’m in the kitchen, Mary Margaret. Come have a piece of lemon cake before you start on the phones.”

She entered the kitchen and dropped her books on a chair. Taking the cake Mrs. Hunter offered, she said, “Did you make this from the lemons off your tree?”

“You know I did. That tree is just full this year. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of them.”

“How about more lemon cake, lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, lemonade. I never get tired of lemons,” Mary Margaret said.

“Well then my dear, I’ll make certain you get plenty.”

The cake melted in Mary Margaret’s mouth. It was soft and moist, full of tart juice and covered with a sweet powdered sugar icing. It was probably the best lemon cake she’d ever had, and she said so.

“I’m glad you like it, child.” Mrs. Hunter put a glass of cold milk in front of Mary Margaret. “Tell me, do you have a date for the prom yet? I knew you couldn’t date until you were seventeen.”

“No, I don’t have a date,” Mary Margaret answered, her face flushed with embarrassment.

“I have an idea, and you’re free to say no if it doesn’t appeal to you. I have a nephew, Todd, and he’s a junior at St. John Bosco. He’s very shy and he doesn’t have a girlfriend, so I thought maybe the two of you might want to meet. Maybe you can go to each other’s proms.”

Mary Margaret didn’t know what to say. What if he didn’t want to meet her? What if he didn’t like her?

“Yeah...I guess so. How would we do that?”

“Why, I’ll corral him and bring him here to the rectory one night this week. He likes lemon cake, too, so I’ll make another one and you two can get to know each other while you snack.”

They heard the back door slam and turned to see Father O’Malley enter the kitchen.

“I see neither of you are getting any work done around here,” he said. “I guess I’d better have a piece of that cake, too.”

“Now Matthew, your diabetes...” Mrs. Hunter said.

“Don’t start with me, woman. Just give me some of that cake.” He pulled up a chair at the table and sat next to Mary Margaret.

“Young lady, I understand you needed to have an important meeting with me today. Nothing too serious, I hope.”

“I
hope
it isn’t a problem for you, but I need to take a night off each week for awhile. I have service hours to do for religion class, and I signed up to be a candy striper at Memorial Hospital.”

“Oh, I wish that all my problems were this easy, young lady. Of course you can take a night off every week for as long as you need. I think that’s a good thing you’re doing.”

“It won’t be for long. I just need to go during the week for a couple of months for training, then they’ll let me do my volunteer hours on Sunday afternoons.”

Father O’Malley wolfed down the rest of his cake and followed it with a big glass of milk. He wiped his mouth on a napkin, and stood up to leave.

“Mrs. Hunter, you’ll have to see if you can find a temporary replacement for Mary Margaret one night a week. Do you know of anyone?”

“No, I can’t think of anyone right now but I’ll ask Father Antonio if he knows someone from his youth group.”

Hearing this, Father O’Malley said under his breath, “I’ll just bet he does.”

#

The next evening, Mary Margaret arrived for work at the rectory and found it empty. The back door had been unlocked for her, so she went into the front office and sat down at her desk. The phone rang almost immediately. It was Mrs. Hunter.

“Mary Margaret, dear. I’ve just gotten to my sister-in-law’s house to get my nephew, and I wanted to make sure you’re there before I bring him over to meet you. Will that be all right?”

“Well...sure, I guess.”

“We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

Mary Margaret hung up the phone then grabbed her purse. She pulled out her compact and lipstick and looked at herself in the mirror. She quickly powdered her nose, applied some lipstick, and then got out her mascara and coated her lashes. Checking her hair, she saw that it needed a good brushing, so took her brush and went to the bathroom. She then checked her clothing to make sure she hadn’t spilled anything on her uniform during the day, and was glad to see her white blouse and navy pleated skirt were clean, though the blouse was a bit wrinkled. She got her red cardigan sweater out of the coat closet and put it on. Another quick glance in the mirror, and she decided she looked good.

She sat back down at the desk and spread her homework out in front of her. That way, if the meeting with Mrs. Hunter’s nephew didn’t go well, she could say she had a lot of work today and cut it off early.

It wasn’t long until she heard the back door open and footsteps coming down the hallway.

Mrs. Hunter entered first, followed by a young man with bright curly red hair and freckles across his nose. He was wearing glasses with black, Buddy Holly type frames. He had his head down and was smiling slightly.

“Mary Margaret, I’d like you to meet my nephew, Todd.”

“Hi Todd,” Mary Margaret said, looking into the bluest pair of eyes she’d ever seen. They were light, like the sky, and fringed with long, brown eyelashes. He was really quite cute with a deep dimple in each cheek.

“Nice to meet you, Mary Margaret,” he said, extending his hand for her to shake.

His grip was firm and exuded more confidence that she would have expected.

“Well, now, shall we go into the kitchen for some of that cake that you both like so well?” Mrs. Hunter said, leading the way.

They sat at the kitchen table and waited for their cake and milk. Once Mrs. Hunter served them, she left, using the excuse that she had to go tidy the priest’s rooms upstairs.

“My aunt said you go to Saint Mary’s Academy. How do you like it?” Todd asked.

“Oh, it’s okay, I suppose. I kind of don’t like being at an all girls’ school, though. How about you? How’s Bosco?”

“Sort of the same thing. The school is all right, but I’d rather go to a high school where there are both boys and girls. It’s too hard to meet people.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Do you date?” Mary Margaret asked.

“Not much. Actually, that’s why I’m here. We’re having our Junior prom next month and I don’t have a date for that. Would you like to go with me?” Todd asked.

“On one condition. If you’ll go to mine with me.”

“You’ve got a deal,” Todd said, smiling broadly.

Mary Margaret was amazed at how comfortable she felt with Todd, having never met him before. Maybe it was because he reminded her of his aunt, Mrs. Hunter, and Mary Margaret was really comfortable with her. At any rate, it was wonderful that she was going to get to go to not one, but two proms! And, they were at different schools with different groups of kids, so she could wear the same dress to both.

They exchanged telephone numbers and all the information on dates and times, and Mary Margaret told him the dress she’d picked out to buy was lavender with a dark purple ribbon belt, so he’d know what color flowers to get her.

Mary Margaret stood up and took the dishes and glasses to the sink, rinsed them and put them in the soapy water Mrs. Hunter had run. She heard someone come into the room.

“Hello, young man. I’m Father Antonio.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Father. I’m Todd Hunter, Mrs. Hunter’s nephew.”

Mary Margaret turned to see the two facing each other, shaking hands. A shiver ran up her spine.

“Has our Mary Margaret been taking good care of you?”

“Yes, Father. We’ve decided to go to our proms together. It was my aunt’s idea. We’ve just been making our plans.”

“Isn’t that nice,” Father said as he looked over his shoulder at Mary Margaret. He was smiling, but his eyes were dark and menacing.

“I’d better go find my aunt,” Todd said. “I need to go home and do homework.”

Mary Margaret waved and smiled weakly at Todd. “I’ll be talking to you soon.”

“Great,” he said, leaving the kitchen.

Father Antonio just looked at Mary Margaret before he too, turned and left the kitchen.

She wrapped her arms around her waist, trying to quell the churning of her stomach.

“I’ll be taking Todd home, now,” Mrs. Hunter said. “I’ll come back and do the dishes, so just leave them.”

“Don’t bother coming back. There are just a few. I’ll do them.”

“Thank you, dear. And, I’m so glad you and Todd got on so well.”

Mary Margaret washed and dried the few dishes that were in the sink, tidied up the kitchen, then went back to the front office to do her homework.

It wasn’t long before Father Antonio walked in.

“So, you’re going to start dating, is that right?”

Unable to meet his eyes, she said softly, “I’m just going to the prom, that’s all. It’s an arrangement, not a date.”

“You know you’re my special one, don’t you? I don’t want to share you with anyone else. Do you understand?” he asked, cupping his hand under her chin and lifting her up to face him.

“It’s just a dance. Actually two dances.”

“You’d better make sure that’s all it is, Mary Margaret.”

Suddenly, a wave of anger washed over her, causing her to stand up and put her hands on her hips. She glared at Father Antonio.

“You know what, Father? I think I’m tired of being your special one. I think I’m really tired of it and I’m tired of missing out on life.”

“Just what are you going to do about it?” he asked, his face now just inches from hers.

“I’m going to talk to Father O’Malley, that’s what.”

“Don’t even think about it. Because if you do, I’m going to tell your parents that you’ve been coming on to me, trying to seduce me when we’re here alone. And just who do you think they’re going to believe? A priest? Or a spoiled, sullen little girl?”

Knowing he was right and that her parents would never believe her--and neither would Father O’Malley. The anger left her as quickly as it had arrived and was replaced by overwhelming hopelessness.

“I’m sorry, Father. I’ll go to the proms with him and that’s all. I won’t be dating.” Tears welled up in her eyes at the thought that high school was almost over and she hadn’t had a chance to enjoy any of it.

“It doesn’t matter now. I’m through with you.” He spat the words at her through clenched teeth before striding out the door.

Mary Margaret burst into tears. Now she’d lost everything.

May every sunrise hold more promise, every moonrise hold more peace.

-Anonymous-

CHAPTER TWENTY

Learning the duties of a Candy Striper volunteer was more fun than Mary Margaret thought she deserved. She felt like a young girl again, like maybe a teenager should. And she loved the pink and white striped jumper she wore on top of her white school uniform blouse.

So far she’d been trained to go to patient rooms to water flowers, and to push the library cart around from room to room and offer books to patients. She liked these tasks better than putting together wash basins, tissue boxes, kidney basins, lotions and mouthwash for the patients to use. That had to be done in the hospital basement, near the central supply area and away from contact with people.

Another fun part about being a Candy Striper was she met new friends, other girls her same age from the local public high school. Twyla and Vivian were two she especially liked. The three of them would get to the hospital early and go down to the cafeteria for a snack and chat before starting their assignments. Usually the talk went from boys to parents to school then back to boys again.

“I got my dress for the prom. I wish you could see it. It’s so pretty,” Mary Margaret said.

“How about shoes and stuff?” Twyla asked.

“I’ve got it all. I talked my mom into driving me to Huntington Park to a store that had everything.”

“What color shoes did you get?” Vivian asked.

“I told you my dress was lavender with a dark purple velvet ribbon around the empire waist. So I thought white would look best. I got white over-the-elbow gloves, white shoes and a white purse. Oh, and I even had enough money left over for a tiara! It’s so pretty I feel like a princess when I’m wearing it.”

“Maybe we can come by some day and see it. You could model for us,” Twyla suggested.

Mary Margaret hesitated for a moment. Dare I tell them the truth? If I do, will they accept me? She decided to level with these new friends.

“I’d love for you to come over, but my parents aren’t getting along and I never know when they’re going to be fighting. It’s so awful I try to be away as much as I can and I really can’t have friends over. It’s so embarrassing.”