Perchance (6 page)

             
“Do you have a dress or something to wear?” She asked.

             
“I have some dresses. What time?”

             
“We will leave here for church about eight and then we will go from church to Baton Rouge if that’s ok.”

             
“Sure, sounds great,” She hit her hands on the table and declared, “Great. We’re gonna have a shopping day!”

             
We cleaned up and turned the lights out in the kitchen and the living room.  I was happy that she was this great person and not the hag I had dreamed her up to be.  It was then that I did something very uncharacteristic.  I reached out to her, halfway down the hall and hugged her.  She stood stunned for a few moments and then hugged me back.  I turned and went straight into my room and shut my door. 

             
Maybe this was going to turn out ok after all.

             
I woke up to the sound of a truck pulling into the driveway.  But I was still laying there when there was a rapping at the door. 

             
“Come in” I managed to wrangle out of my throat.

             
Eric walked in, still in his uniform.  He looked around once and said. “Round here we go to church on Sunday mornings. I know your mother made you go to church, right?”

             
I nodded and said,
“Ok, what time?”
I started to roll myself out of bed.

             
“We leave in about forty five minutes.  Here, I got you some breakfast.”

             
He put a white paper bag on the small table and walked out. 

             
I took a shower and got dressed in some jeans and a green button down and rolled my
sleeves up because again
it was hotter than Hades outside.  I threw on some Chucks, ate my bagel that Eric brought me and headed down the stairs.  Before I left the apartment, I put the keys to the Cuda in my front pocket.  I had a plan.

             
I got to the bottom stair and Eric was coming out of the house’s front door.  He was changed into black slacks and a white button down shirt.  He was heading towards his truck. Here was my chance.

             
“Hey Eric. Can we take the car?” I tried to make the idea sound like a good one.

             
He smiled before saying,
“Well, yeah, we can.  But you’ve got to park a little ways from the church.  She’s a loud one.”

             
“Ok, yeah, thanks!” We hopped in the car.  He asked me if I had talked to my Mom and I looked at him like he was ridiculous. 

             
“Yeah, I figured that I would be getting a phone call from her if you didn’t
.
”
He chuckled as he said it and it was weird to think that he knew my mom like I did.

             
He directed me with his pointer finger
to the church and made me park on the street a ways down from it.  We walked to the church and people were still filing in.
  It was a huge white church with a steeple and a cross at the top.  It was complete with stained glass windows and fit the bill of the small town church to a T.
We sat near the back as the congregation was starting to play.  After the first song
,
the pastor made some announcements
. H
e said we all had to get up and shake hands with someone we didn’t know.  That was easy. I only knew one person in this who
le
freakin’ place. 

             
I stood up and was tapped on the shoulder by an older lady who shook my hand and so did her husband.  Everyone was out of their pews and walking around.

             
When I saw her, she was smiling and shaking a lady’s hand who had a huge hat on but I could see her if I leaned to the right a bit.  It was Remi
and she was wearing a pale pink
dress that had pearl buttons down
the front. It swished against her knees as she moved
. Her hair was down and curly and she was even more stunning than the day before.  All of the sudden I was very eager to ‘meet and greet’.
I needed to redeem myself for yesterday.

             
I got up my nerve and started to walk her way.
Just as I moved my feet that way, the pastor
tapped the microphone and called for everyone to sit down and open their hymnals.  I sighed a little too loudly and Eric gave me a sideways glare.

             
The rest of the sermon was short. Probably because I had my eyes fixed to the back of Remi’s hair but she was paying attention like she’d never
seen a church service before.
All I knew was that I couldn’t take my eyes off of her and the very sight of her made me want to stand on top of the pew and declare my feelings. Maybe she went to a different kind of church.  Maybe she had never been to a church. 
These are things that I wanted to find out, like now. 
There were so many things I wanted to know about this girl and I had only known her for twenty four hours.  It was killing me.

             
We sat
in the middle of the church on the right side.  It was such a beautiful church.  I felt a little uncomfortable because I didn’t know what to expect but I was
comforted by the song Amazing G
race as it filled the air.  I had always loved that song even though we were never a regular church going family. 

             
Aunt Brenda kept looking over to me and smiling like she was gauging my reaction to the place.  After some announcements about baby showers and Sunday school lessons, we were asked to get up and shake hands with someone we didn’t know.  Easy task for me.  I got up and was bombarded with hands and welcomes. I turned around in the pew at the prompting of my aunt and was again confronted with a wall of hands.  I smiled and shook them all but there was no way I could remember all of the names that were cooed at me. 

             
It was then when I was shaking hands with an older man in overalls that I saw him in the back on t
he other side of the church.  Cooper
looked awkward and he had both of his hands in his front pock
ets as almost a show of rebellion
against shaking hands.
  He looked a little out of place.  I giggled a tiny amount
and Aunt Brenda didn’t miss it. 
She looked in the direction I was looking and tipped her chin and waggled her eyebrows. 
Before she knew it she was pushed aside by a woman, I think her name was Sharon, in a hat that was bigger than anything I’ve ever seen.  The edge of her hat clipped Aunt Brenda in the forehead and it made me smile at her.  She was too sweet to say anything to the hat lady.  We shook hands and then we were told that it was time to sit down again.

             
I sat and listened to the pastor as he spoke.  It wasn’t the speaker or the way he spoke that captivated me.  I think it was just the experience as a whole.  I felt eyes on my back during the sermon and I almost had to hold my chin in place in an effort
not to turn around and see if Cooper was looking at me. 
I wanted him to be looking at me.

             
We sang an ending hymn and a man got up from his pew and stood in place to say the departing prayer.  Aunt Brenda looked at me and smiled excitedly as we left the church.  I think she was more excited than me to go shopping.  We got into her car and pulled out of the parking lot.  She turned right onto the main street and I spotted Cooper and his Dad getting into the greatest car.  I have no idea what kind it was or anything about it, but it was cool.  It was navy blue on top and silver on the sides.  Cooper started it up as we passed him and I could feel the rumble of it in my chest. 
I smiled and Aunt Brenda giggled at me.

             
“What?” I asked.

             
“Nothing, nothing at all.”
She kept driving without another word about it.

             
I sa
w her looking at the car.  I kne
w it.  She wasn’t looking at me, unfortunately, but she was checking out the car.
That I could work with.
  I caressed the steering wheel trying to thank it for the opportunity to see Remi again.  If I could get away with talking to the car and telling her thank you and kissing it without being thrown onto an episode of Taboo, I would do it in a heartbeat. 

             
We drove home and Eric said that he had cooked so we went inside his part of the house.  I walked inside and I smelled something fantastic, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.  He opened a huge crockpot and said that the content was gumbo.  I didn’t know what gumbo was but I was starving and it smelled like heaven.  We ate and I fully intended to go take a nap.  Over lunch Eric told me that school started soon and asked me if I needed clothes or anything.  I did need some stuff but I hated shopping.

             
Eric said that his friend had a son named
Troy who was my age and could show me around Baton Rouge and point me towards the mall.  He got on the phone and made arrangements for Troy to be at the house at four.  It was twelve and that gave me a couple hours to myself.  I decided to finish unpacking and clean up my place a little bit. 

             
“Do you need money to go shopping Cooper?
” He asked.

             
It took everything in me not to say ‘What after all this time you want to give me money?’ but I restrained myself, barely.

             
“Nah, I’m good.  I have money that I saved from working and Mom gave me some money too.”

             
He looked upset at that, but I was pissed.  He should be glad I didn’t say anything worse.

             
“I’m going to bed then.  Be careful.  I will be leaving at seven again so if I’m not home by the time you get home I will see you tomorrow, Ok?”

             
“Yeah.”

             
“Ok.” He went down the hall and I cleaned up the kitchen, because now I felt guilty for being pissed.  Mom would be pissed at me for acting like that. 

             
I walked out and to my apartment
and called my Mom.  I almost immediately confessed what I had done to Eric.  She didn’t say anything other than to remind me that I’m only responsible for my own actions and words and how I react to people.  She had drilled that into
me since I was little.  I told her that I was going shopping with Troy.  She laughed because she knew that I hated shopping, but it had to be done. 

             
After talking to Mom, I slept for a while.  I woke up about three fifty five and jumped up to get ready. 
I looked outside and sure enough there was a guy who looked my age sitting on the hood of my car.  I grabbed the keys and my wallet and my sunglasses and headed out.  This was not going to be fun.

             
We drove for about an
hour. Troy asked me questions about where I was from and why I was here.  He told me that the high school was small, maybe only four hundred students, so everyone knew each other.  He played football and it was a very big deal around here.  I didn’t play sports.  I tried to play baseball when I was in elementary but I sucked so bad that I begged my Mom to quit.  She wouldn’t let me quit, but never made me go back after the season was over. 

             
We parked and the place was packed.  Troy convinced me that the best place to park was by the food court. 
I couldn’t have agreed more.  And that was our first stop.  Troy got this enormous Philly cheese
steak and after I saw it, I had to have one too. 

             
“Ok, I hate shopping so tell me where the Old Navy is and let’s get this over with.”

             
“Hey, I got volunteered for this, I hate shopping too.  And honestly, I have no clue where any of the stores are so we either walk around until we find one or we act like morons and look at the mall map.”