Found in Translation (26 page)

“We didn’t know Geoff’s friends were teaching him an act for home that would free him to do whatever they wanted him to outside. His relationship with Jill moved from a zero on the scale to a nine. Maybe a ten. Jill didn’t have to ask him to do chores around the house, and he started earning the best grades ever. He must’ve been starving for his friends’ approval, though, for he began making a series of foolish decisions.”

I couldn’t imagine what Rob would say next, but I dabbed my eyes once with my shirtsleeve. Anjelita snuggled up in my arms.

“He’d probably fooled us about some lesser things, but he really pulled the wool over our eyes when he pretended to become a Christian. Not every seventeen-year-old boy has the courage to come forward at the end of a worship service and request baptism at the earliest possible opportunity. His friends sat together at his baptismal service several weeks later. Several of them took some great photographs.

“Geoff’s hair was still wet from his immersion when he went joyriding with his friends, drinking beer one of the boys got somewhere. The police stopped them, and the driver lost his license. Underage DUI. We thank God daily they didn’t have an accident. The scales dropped from the parents’ eyes that day, and we saw things clearly for the first time.

“The other boys blamed Geoff for getting the beer. He didn’t deny it, but neither did he admit it. Although Jill and I still don’t know the truth, we suspect he meant to ingratiate himself with his friends by keeping them out of additional trouble. We don’t know where he would have gotten beer, anyhow. Jill and I don’t drink, and neither of us keeps anything like that at home. I don’t know about the other boys’ parents.”

“Rob! How awful! But he made a profession of faith and was baptized.” I couldn’t imagine that he’d only pretended to become a believer. “As for his actions, well, he was still a baby Christian. He still is ….”

Rob’s news, no matter how upsetting, boosted my spirits. My greatest concern for Geoff was spiritual, although the trouble he’d gotten into was too serious to gloss over. But this was the information I’d been dying for.

I needed to learn everything I could about Geoff if I had any hope of helping him. “Maybe so, Kimmy. But Jill and I are skeptical. Although he told us he and the boys were just drinking to ‘celebrate’ his baptism, Jill and I are scared that his profession of faith was a sham—a mockery. Something the other boys put him up to.”

Maybe I didn’t know boys as well as I thought, but I couldn’t picture a seventeen-year-old faking conversion to Christianity to please a bunch of other guys. Yet his conversion could have served as an initiation rite. Pretending to become God’s while intentionally denying God control of his life was horrible enough.

“Kimmy, the long and the short of it is the parents grounded the boys for the duration of their senior year. They permitted the guys to get together once a month—always strictly supervised—at one of their homes.

“Several of them—not Geoff, though—were star athletes. Their parents yanked them out of all sports activities. Popular athletes are apt to face temptations these boys had already proved incapable of resisting. They resented the curtailment of their activities more than anything else, but we didn’t know how much.

“Each boy reached his eighteenth birthday during the school year. They didn’t rebel openly toward their folks or assert their adult status. If anything, they acted calmer and more mature than ever. Geoff and Jill got along great. We were thankful for that.

“The boys attended church with their folks and became what everyone else considered model Christians. Jill and I were more skeptical than the other parents. But we gave them the benefit of the dou—”

I raised an eyebrow at Rob. He stopped in mid-word. Then I winked. “Other parents …?”

He thought for a second, laughed at the implication that he was one of Geoff’s parents, and then continued.

“And so the parents—along with one uncle—met one evening to evaluate the boys’ attitudes and behavior. Concluding that our punishment had been effective, we agreed to set them free on senior prom afternoon. That was around the beginning of May.

“When they voluntarily offered full details of their plans for the evening, we pronounced them successfully rehabilitated. Parents prayed with their sons before they left for the prom. They all looked clean and glowing in their suits. Poor guys probably thought we’d never finish taking pictures.

“None of them had dates. That seemed strange since Geoff had been dating a girl from church for about a year; but he didn’t offer any explanation, and we didn’t think we should ask.

“The parents—and uncle—met again sooner than expected, though. Late that night, several hours after the prom, we had to go to the police station. The boys were not only completely sober, they hadn’t been drinking. But had they evermore outdone themselves otherwise.”

I had the hardest time keeping from interrupting, but I needed to hear the whole story first. Rob would answer my questions after he finished.

“Months before getting out of their home-prisons, they’d decided to deface some tombstones with black spray paint. They searched online for local cemeteries and identified tombstones that looked so age weathered no one would care about them anymore.

“Each boy painted his parents’ names on different stones and entered the date of the prom as their date of death. If the results were any indication, they worked with a flourish, competing to see who could do the most professional-looking job. Just as they were finishing, the police showed up. The boys insisted they didn’t hate us. They just wanted to express their indignation over a wasted senior year. They thought this would be a fun way to do it, and no one would be hurt.”

My eyes began misting, and I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn’t.

“Yes, Kimmy,” Rob said, anticipating my unasked question, “Geoff planned to deface a stone for me, too ….”

“Planned to?”

“Yes. Turns out he was the only boy with the gumption to scrap the plan. That’s what we want to believe, but maybe he was too scared to do it. He still got in trouble, but not as much as the other boys. Unfortunately, he’d purchased spray paint, cans of paint, and brushes, so the judge couldn’t pretend Geoff had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have to give the other boys credit, though. They voluntarily told the police Geoff hadn’t done anything.

“But he’d been there supporting the other boys, and—after the trouble they’d gotten in before—the judge sentenced him to seventy-five hours of community service and scheduled it to begin during the summer after graduation. The other parents refused to bail their sons out, so their boys spent a few days in the pokey and faced stiff fines when they got out. The judge took a special interest in Geoff’s case, though. Said he’d wipe Geoff’s record clean—upon the completion of his public service.”

“How did all of this affect him?” I asked while Rob took a breath.

“I think it scared the daylights out of him. He acted embarrassed at first. But then he copped the attitude that’s bothering you now. It’s been a constant mask—his only companion—and rarely does he let it down. He can’t seem to face himself—or anyone else—without it. Worse still, he doesn’t think God wants to forgive him.”

“Rob, no. That is so sad ….” Tears streamed down my face, and Anjelita wiped my eyes with the sleeve of her whole arm. Although she didn’t understand what was wrong, she was crying, too.

“A public mask of respectability had been important before—when he was with his friends—but he won’t let anyone get close now. Various people have tried, but nobody can reach him.”

“What about Geoff’s girlfriend? Surely she—”

“Jane refused to go to the prom with him after he told her what the boys were planning to do. Although she wasn’t sure he’d go through with it, she was the one who called the cops. She broke up with him right after that and quit speaking to him at church. You can imagine how devastated he was.”

“Oh, man. I’ll bet he resents girls now. You don’t suppose he’d, uh …?”

“I could be wrong, Kimmy, but I don’t see Geoff as a potential rapist. I’m no psychologist, but I think Geoff is confused and angry about the way those guys misled him and messed up his relationship with Jane. He needs someone his own age to talk with, but he’s probably scared that any girl he’s attracted to will reject him once she discovers the truth.

“So no, I don’t think he’s dangerous—not to anyone else, anyhow. His anger is self-directed. It’s part of the mask. From what the pastor told us, Geoff probably believes no girl will accept the real him unless she first accepts the angry, obnoxious Geoff.”

I looked at Rob with tears in my eyes. I couldn’t speak. I suddenly realized I was clinging to Anjelita like a life preserver. I changed the subject to keep from bawling aloud. And because I had one more question. “Rob, you mentioned a ‘deal’ several minutes ago …?”

“Yes. Jill was beside herself after the arrest, and Geoff kept procrastinating about his community service. He didn’t want anyone to see him in public. So—”

“So you offered to bring him on this trip?”

“Yes. I didn’t know anything about the original project, but Geoff wouldn’t have done evangelism, and it wouldn’t have counted as community service. The new project sounded perfect, though. I talked to the judge, and he agreed that this trip would surround Geoff with wholesome companions and inspire him to make a turnaround. It didn’t matter to him that the community service wasn’t local, since Geoff would be under my supervision.

“He lowered his mask an inch or so by jumping at the chance to come to Mexico. But he pushed it back up when I pointed out I’d be responsible for his actions—good or bad—and I’d send him home and back to court at the first infraction of the rules. He still agreed to the deal, though—community service in Santa María with perfect behavior or home again, back to the judge, and probably off to jail for a few weeks with a prison record that wouldn’t go away.

“I promised not to tell anyone on the team about him or our relationship. He’d sink or swim on his own. Not even Charlie knows.”

“You’re breaking a confidence telling me.”
Rob, I’ve been counting on you to keep mum about my secrets. Have I made a mistake trusting you?

“Kimmy, you aren’t just anyone. You’re my daughter away from home, and that makes you part of Geoff’s family. He just doesn’t know it yet. Besides, I think you might be just the young lady Geoff needs to talk with.”

I nodded. Rob made perfect sense. Now that I understood Geoff’s situation, it was time to change subjects. “Rob, you said you were looking for me earlier. What did you need?”

“Oh, that?” He chuckled as if our conversation had been hilarious instead of tragic. “I wanted to caution you about Geoff.”

So much for changing subjects. “Why?”

“Everyone has noticed the way he looks at you. His team captain has complained about Geoff not getting much work done. He spends too much time maneuvering to be where you are.”

“That’s for sure … the day before yesterday, anyhow. Then Anjelita and I started working together, and he’s been conspicuously absent ever since. Aleesha and I concluded he didn’t like having a little chaperone.”

“I don’t have to remind you that what I’m telling you is confidential ….”

“What about Al—?”

“Confidential between you, me, and Aleesha, that is. Her perspective will be helpful.”

“I wouldn’t want to tell anyone but Aleesha.”

“Geoff stayed away from you yesterday because I had a talk with him. I didn’t mention you specifically, but I reminded him of his responsibilities and told him he was either going to do his share of the work or go home. That didn’t go over very well.”

“Going home would be disastrous, wouldn’t it? He might keep his mask on forever.”

He nodded. “By the way, if Geoff is jealous of anything, it’s Anjelita’s freedom to spend all day with you. Finding the two of you together when he’s not working probably rubs him the wrong way.”

“I’d never thought about that.”

Rob cleared his throat. Twice. “It’s confession time again, Kimmy. Last night, I saw Geoff approach you after Anjelita’s mom took her. I was curious.”

“Oh?” I thought I knew what he was going to say.

“I found an out-of-sight spot where you wouldn’t see me.”

“You were spying.” Pretending to sound stern and disapproving took all my effort. I was about to crack up laughing. For an upper-middle-aged guy who made such an effort to live by his convictions, Rob could act pretty adolescent at times.

“Yes, spying, and I’m sorry. It was wrong. I asked God’s forgiveness last night, but He told me in no uncertain terms to ask yours first thing this morning.”

I just shook my head, avoiding eye contact. I didn’t want him to see how tickled I was. “Spying,” I repeated, leaving the word hanging like a drenched beach towel drying on a clothesline when rain is expected any minute.

“And not just spying,” Rob continued. Never had I seen a grown man look so conscience stricken over such a tiny offense. “Eavesdropping. I listened to the whole conversation. I’m sorry, Kimmy. I wasn’t a very responsible Christian adult last night.”

I put my hand over my mouth to suppress the laughter and hoped that the merriment in my eyes wouldn’t give me away.

“Again, I’m just as sorry as I can be. Will you forgive me, Kimmy?”

Here the poor guy was pleading his heart out for forgiveness, and I was doing my best not to laugh. I finally gave up, took my hand down, and let the laughter erupt like a carbonated drink someone shook before opening.

Rob couldn’t resist. As confused as he looked, he soon started laughing with me. One of us would point to the other, and we’d start all over again. The tears poured down our cheeks.

We didn’t realize that Anjelita had slipped away until we saw her coming back. She’d been to the mess tent, and her arm-and-a-half carried enough food for the three of us. That little girl always amazed me. She brought Rob and me the same foods she’d seen us eating all week.

But when she saw us wiping our eyes, she dropped her load—she didn’t take time to set it down—and ran to console us. Then she discovered we were laughing, not crying.