Coming Attractions (20 page)

“I’d like to know too,” Todd said. His statement sat there, waiting for Eli to pick it up.

Eli didn’t reach for it. He let it sit there, steeping, as it were.

After a long moment, Eli drew in a deep breath, but still he didn’t speak. His gaze was fixed on the teapot in the center
of the table.

Katie felt for him. She knew all too well what it was like to be the target when Todd was stuck on a topic. Not more than
ten minutes ago Katie had felt she had been in that same place as he tried to convince her that love was on the hunt for her
and was going to take her down. The longevity of their friendship gave Katie the feeling that she could talk her way out the
back door of Todd’s direct comments.

She didn’t know, however, if Eli had that same sense of freedom with them.

Without speaking, Eli reached for the teapot and the strainer and served each of them, pouring the steaming tea into their
cups.

Katie watched with reverence for the way Eli carried out this ceremony that represented friendship’s simplicity to her. She
could see that the tea leaves had unfurled during their four-minute soak. The water had turned into tea. Its unmistakably
rich yet delicate fragrance rose to encircle them.

“I was eleven,” Eli said in low, even words.

Katie knew that what was about to unfurl at this table was a deep, fluttering part of Eli’s heart and life. Part of her wanted
to be excused. She wanted to leave now and not listen to what Eli was about to say.

That was because her gut told her this communion between these gathered friends would be neither delicate nor fragrant. But
it would be true. And truth has a way of staying in the heart for a very long time.

W
e lived in Zaire.” Eli told his story in steady tones as he finished pouring the tea. “Our home was inside a medical compound.”

Katie’s mind flashed back to something Eli had said at Thanksgiving dinner when they were all feasting at the Doyles’ home.
He said his favorite birthday was when he was nine, and it rained that day after a long drought. School was let out at the
compound, and all the children ran around in the rain and danced in the mud. The image from that story had stayed with Katie;
she had filed it away as one of her favorite virtual pictures of Africa.

Eli kept going with his story. “Our family was relatively safe on the mission compound. We lived right next to the medical
facilities. People from the villages came into the compound every day. Individuals from warring groups put aside their differences,
and all came to the same place for treatment.”

He looked at Katie and then at Todd.

“I was supposed to be in school, but I was feeling sick, so the teacher sent me home since she knew my mom was home that day.
She sent a note with me. I read it, even though I wasn’t supposed to. The note said that if I was faking it, my mom was supposed
to send me right back.”

Christy smiled softly.

“I went into the house, which was small but one of the more sturdy structures on the compound. I called for my mom, but she
didn’t answer. I thought she might be out back hanging up laundry or in the vegetable garden. She loves growing carrots and
tomatoes.”

Eli paused. He kept his gaze on the untouched mug of tea in front of him.

“My mother wasn’t in the garden. She was in the bedroom. And a man… a man from a different village… intended to rape her.”

The stillness that fell on them seemed to draw their hearts together. Katie sensed all their pulses were beating in inaudible
unison.

“I ran at him. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I jumped on his back and… he had a knife.” Eli stopped there.

Katie felt awful on many levels. From the way Eli weighed each word before speaking it, it was clear he hadn’t offered this
story to many people in the past. She wished she hadn’t voiced the question that caused him to tell them. Katie also felt
horrible about what she had thought of Eli last May when she first saw him at Christy and Todd’s wedding. When she noticed
the backward
L
, Katie had made one of her familiar notes to self from that season and quipped that the
L
stood for “Loser.”

Oh, how wrong she was.

“Was your mom… okay?” Christy asked.

“Sort of. He cut her throat too. Then he ran off because a woman from our village came over just then. If she hadn’t come…
A visiting surgeon was there that day, and he was able to work on my mom and me right away, which was incredible at that clinic.
My mom needed more stitches. For me, the problem was the cut. It was deep and close… close to my jugular. Less than a quarter
of an inch, the surgeon said.”

Katie could barely breathe. She couldn’t imagine going through anything like that.

“We both contracted infections afterward. The compound didn’t have the right antibiotics, but they eventually got what we
needed and… we just went on.”

“Wow, Eli.” Todd’s voice was tight with emotion. “You and your mom…”

“I know,” Eli said quickly. “God had his hand on our lives. We know that.”

Obviously Eli had been around Todd enough to know his bent toward the spiritual side of every situation. Eli’s comment didn’t
carry any hint of irritation.

Katie had nothing to say. She waited for Eli to look her direction so she could offer a look that expressed her heartfelt
sympathies.

He glanced around the table briefly. “I don’t like to talk about this much.”

Christy, Todd, and Katie all gave agreeing nods.

“Actually, aside from you guys, my uncle is the only one I’ve talked to about it. He’s my mom’s brother; so of course he knew
about everything when it happened.”

The pace of Eli’s words picked up now that the story had gotten past the rocky place and was on a more level path. “My uncle
was the one who convinced me to come to Rancho Corona. When we moved from Zaire to Nairobi, I think my parents figured being
in a city would help me get over being so withdrawn and hesitant with people. I’m not sure exactly why they thought that,
but my uncle told me a number of times that I needed to experience life outside of Africa. That’s why I joined up with the
missions outreach project in Spain. It was the first possibility that came up, so I went. It was good, and coming here to
school has been good. But I don’t know if my uncle really understands that you can leave your home and live somewhere else,
but when you love a certain place, it never leaves you.”

Todd nodded. “I feel that way about Hawaii.”

“Do you think you’ll always live in Africa, then?” Christy asked.

“I don’t know.” Eli wrapped his hands around the mug that still brimmed with untouched tea that had now cooled. “Since I’ve
told you guys all this already, I might as well tell you something else. I’ve been meaning to say this for a while. Todd,
I wanted to thank you for including me in your life. Ever since I got here you’ve been a solid friend to me. I appreciate
your connecting me with Rick and getting me into this apartment complex. It’s been good.”

“Where did you live before you moved in with Rick?” Katie asked. “You weren’t in the dorms, were you?”

“No, I lived with my uncle. That worked out okay last summer, but I was ready to move on. And Katie, I wanted to thank you
for inviting me to the pizza night last fall. I don’t know if you remember giving me your etiquette tips that night, but I
really appreciated them. What you said helped a lot.”

Katie definitely remembered how she had briefed Eli on socially approved ways to enter into the group, such as not to stare
so much. She felt bad now that she had been critical of his rough-around-the-edges ways. The guy was dealing with a lot. Culture
shock as well as trying to fit in on campus and work on campus security.

“If we’re turning this into a true-confessions time, then I have to say a few things to you, Eli.” Katie took a quick sip
of her tea for courage. “I have to apologize to you for being so rude. I know I was more than once.”

Eli’s expression was returning to his good-humored self. He calmly said, “Do you mean the first week of school when I gave
you a parking ticket?”

Katie scowled. “Oh, I forgot about that time. No, I don’t think I want to apologize for yelling at you in the parking lot.
I think you should have given me a little more grace.”

“I think you should have given me a little more respect.”

“Why? Because you were wearing a uniform and looking all campus-security macho? I’ll tell you something; if the powers-that-be
at Rancho want their campus security guy to be treated with more respect, then they are going to have to do something about
those beat-up golf carts. I mean, seriously! Those carts look like reject clown cars from the circus. You might as well put
one of those oooga squeezy horns on the steering wheel and hang a bunch of balloons out the back.”

“Baboons?” Christy said, squelching a laugh.

“No, I said balloons. Not baboons.”

“I heard baboons.”

“Me too,” Todd said.

“Oh, you always take Christy’s side. What did you hear me say, Eli?”

“It could have gone either way. How about if I say balloons just to even the score?”

“Thanks. I don’t know what’s going on lately. Julia misunderstood me the other day when I was trying to say the word
tea
.”

“What did you say instead?” Eli asked.

Katie suddenly remembered the entire incident at Bella Barista and lowered her eyes. “It was just something crazy. I don’t
know what’s going on with my brain. Study overload, I think.”

“Not to overdo this topic or anything,” Eli said, moving back to his previous conversation. “But I wanted to finish saying
thank you to all three of you for helping me to find a place here in California and at Rancho.”

“No problem, man.” Todd extended his hand across the table and exchanged the brawny sort of handshake that men give by clasping
each other by the wrist. “Christy and I are here for you anytime. You know that, don’t you?”

“I do. Thanks.”

It seemed like a good time for Katie to echo Todd’s sentiment and say that Eli could count on her as well. Anytime. Katie
didn’t quite know what to say. Her view of Eli had been tilted in a new direction, but she didn’t want to indicate she had
a vulnerable soft spot in her heart for him.

Instead of adding words of renewed allegiance to their friendship, Katie took another sip of tea and said, “This sure is good
tea. Thanks for bringing it over and sharing it with us.”

“Anytime.”

Katie relented just slightly and added, “And, Eli, I mean this more than I think it’s going to sound, but thank you for sharing
about your life with us. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you. Or for your mom. This might be too personal
of a question, so you don’t have to answer, but did you get any counseling? I mean, have you resolved all this internally?”

“That’s part of the reason my uncle wanted me to come here. He set up a counselor for me and paid for it. I started last summer
and went to him for about six months. So, yeah, I think I’ve resolved some of this.”

Katie was impressed with how open Eli was being.

Quiet settled around the table for a moment before Eli added, “The one piece that helped me the most from the counseling was
getting ahold of being a victim. A victim of grace.”

None of them responded right away.

Todd leaned back and nodded. “A victim of grace. That’s intense. It’s true, though, isn’t it? All of us are victims of grace.
We don’t usually ask for good things to happen to us. We don’t see it coming. We certainly don’t deserve all of God’s love
and kindness, but he keeps pouring it out on us. That’s strong stuff, Eli. Instead of being a victim of evil, you see God’s
hand in it all and name yourself a victim of grace. I’m going to remember that one.”

“I love that phrase,” Christy added. “It really flips around the concept of seeing yourself as being a helpless victim of
all the bad stuff that happens in life.”

Eli nodded. “Once I reframed it that way, I started to feel again, you know? I’d shut down in some ways, and I think the counseling
helped me to get my heart back on track with God. I don’t know how to explain it. All I know is that I feel like a whole person
now.”

Katie felt bad all over again that she had been so judgmental of Eli last summer and fall. Here he was, dealing with so much
stuff, and Katie was treating him as if he should have been her idea of a normal American guy who came from a cushy, middle-class
home and had gone to a private school and received whatever he wanted each year at Christmas. She wished she had this year
to do over again. Not that she wanted to do her relationship with Rick over or do it differently, nor her year of classes
or her RA position. All of those parts of the past year had been good. Even the breakup with Rick felt right. What didn’t
feel good was that she had judged Eli and kept him at a distance for so long.

Katie decided there, at Todd and Christy’s kitchen table, that she was going to be kinder to people, especially when she didn’t
know why they were acting the way they were. She definitely would treat Eli with more kindness and respect from here on out.

Her personal pledge to show Eli more kindness and respect was put to the test the next evening when he showed up at the Spring
Fling uninvited. He entered Crown Hall’s lobby with Rick.

Katie waved to both of them but found she was glad she couldn’t go over to greet them because she was “on duty” with Nicole
and responsible to make the party happen. She felt a little uncomfortable and unsure of what to say to either of them.

Her idea of passing out the boxes of Twister to the teams was a big hit until all the groups opened their boxes and found
the reason they were such a great price at Bargain Barn was that the spinners didn’t work. Some of them didn’t spin. Others
were missing the arrow piece altogether.

“Listen up!” Katie called out to the restless crowd. When they didn’t turn their attention her way, Katie whistled shrilly.
That got their attention.