Mercy date

I Instant Message with Micayla for a few minutes most every afternoon. She works second shift, so after she gets up at noon, she logs in to check her mail, and we exchange a few words. Then she’s off to get a shower and go to work. If you’ve read some of my back entries, you’ll also remember that she goes to my church, and that we both go to the same Bible study.

Or did. About the same time that I had a falling out with the leader — and fall-out in my own life — Micayla was scheduled to work Monday nights. So we have both been absent from the study for several months.

Last week was her last Monday night shift, and the leader of our Bible Study has withdrawn from the group, as he is now heading to plant a church in Alaska. Micayla and I had talked about yesterday evening being our “triumphant return”.

Micayla: Chet will not be there, nor will Jill or Bret L. Any idea who IS going these days?
Parradoxx: Wow. How’d you learn all that?
Micayla: well I know Bret hasn’t been going, Jill is with her familly and Chet is in his way to or already in NE at summer camp.
Micayla: To be entirely honset I’d vote for going to Scooby Doo instead
Parradoxx: I’d assume everyone else is, then. Chet and Jill being obvious exception… hmm….Okay….
Parradoxx: Was that an offer, or just thinking out loud?
Micayla: an offer
Parradoxx: *tail wags* Do you know showtimes?

Note that, right now, I am broke. I am overdrawn at the bank, and my direct depost doesn’t hit until Wednesday. The cause of this is my truck payments, and that I am still trying to shift the payment times of my other bills around so that too much doesn’t go out at once. However, I took a chance and wrote a check for cash at the grocery store. With what I had in my pocket, I figured that $10 should be enough.

At 6:30, I arrived at her home (actually, its the home of friends where she is staying) and was invited in to join them for dinner. Table talk was humorous, reviewing “The Kings’ Guard” and quotes from “the Princess Bride” (Micayla’s all-time fav). It turns out, the hosts had discount movie passes, so we each bought one from them, saving $2.25 at the door. Shortly before 7, I packed an extra cheddar biscuit, and we departed.

My vehicle interior is still coated in a fine layer of dust from the roads around Cedar Bluffs on the 4th of July weekend [look for this in an upcoming entry], however I did manage to fit all the cargo I was carrying, including a bag of trash, behind the seats and arrange it in a pleasing fashion.

This was not a date – at least, not a romantic date – since she is happily seeing someone. But it was nonetheless important to me, and I made what I felt was an appropriate effort: concern for a friend. Conversation was light and bounced around, and I was my normal attentive self. We had planned on running some errands, and so stopped by Hobby Lobby (which is across from the theaters). I returned a display case I hadn’t needed for a project at work, and she picked up a “treasure chest” looking thing that she’d had her eye on for some time. As we were getting close to showtime, we didn’t make a trip by an ATM for her, so I ended up buying the chest for her from cash on hand.

As we entered the theater, we both saw that Minority Report started in 40 minutes. We opted for that instead of Scooby Doo. We bought our tickets, then left again for Wal-Mart, where she bought spouncing supplies *grins for someone* and paint for her treasure chest. She paid me back for the chest with change from her purchase.

We got back to the theater, and she gave me a $10 to buy her some refreshments while she visited the ladies’ room. It turns out that our total fare (including a shared popcorn) was $10.50. I gave her back a $5. (I am secretly delighted by this seemingly fast back-n-forth trading of bills.)

In the theater: I am somewhat reactionary to what I see on the screen. During one startling moment, I reared back in my chair, and during one of the more gruesome scenes, Micayla and I were kinda pushing against each other – as if the one could help hold down the other’s heebie jeeebies. I am more so this way than her, but if I made her uncomfortable, she didn’t say a word. That acceptance was nice. (OTOH, she’s a leg tapper. There was a point early in the movie, while the plot was just starting to unfold, when I reached over and stopped her leg from vibrating. She grinned.)

The movie is excellent, by the way, if you enjoy sci-fi.

As we entered the theater, we had talked about playing Area51 in the lobby arcade after the movie. Unfortunately, its a very LONG movie, and the arcade was closed by the time we got out. Getting into my truck, Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” was on the radio. Micayla commented on how much she liked it, so I switched over to CDs and played it for her from a custom disk I burned.

She had mentioned going to Barnes & Noble for hot chocolate, but she decided against it after we started rolling. Instead, she became interested in the particular custom CD, and we drove around the lake near her host’s home, listening to the music, and my explaining how I chose and ordered the songs.

I dropped her off, and she thanked me, I thanked her, and I walked her to the garage door despite her protestation. A pleasant end to a nice evening.

I can’t say how much I needed something like that – to just hang with someone; no aires, no pretense, no pressure. Someone I already knew, someone I was already comfortable with, just sharing the moment with. *deep sighs* How much I miss that. How desperate I had become for that simple experience. I hunger for it still, and I hope that Micayla would enjoy filling that roll more often. But even not, last night was enough to keep me standing firm. It eased my desperate edge, so I can hold strong.

In case the reason for my title isn’t clear – her host family are long time friends of mine. The woman of the family also works in the church office, and has been for, well, a long time, aware of my aloneness. I think that two people from that office made a significant contribution to last evening even happening.

I am no less appreciative!