The Book of Carly by Jessica Foster

Author:Jessica Foster [Foster, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-28T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9 TH

Carly’s second official visit took forever to arrive, and then it was over in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, we were sitting on the roof of Duke’s Frat outside of his bedroom, doing our best to slow the night down and with it, morning from arriving. We didn’t want to waste our time sleeping. Not when there was a sunrise on its way.

Two weeks ago when she rode the bus back with me, we agreed that going forward she would stick around for brunch, but after that she had to return to East Lansing so I could focus on homework. As our time together inched towards it’s inevitable end, I wished that Carly liked to do homework so she could stick around.

“Can I ask you something?” she posited after I shut the alarm off on my phone. I encouraged her to continue while resting my head on her chest, daring to get a little closer since we were the only ones in the lounge. “You can say no if you want,” she assured me.

“What is it?” I asked, urging her on.

“Can I go to church with you?” she inquired.

“Like inside the church?” I asked. She agreed the night before that she’d walk me to church, and wait outside, so I was surprised by her question.

“You really want to?” I asked.

She let out a laugh, “Well no, but I want to spend more time with you,” she admitted.

“Oh,” I responded, disappointed. Right away she backtracked, fearing that she was being clingy. Normally I would assure her that wasn’t the case, but something about her request made it feel that way this time. “You shouldn’t go unless you really want to be there for the message,” I told her.

Her face fell and I felt awful. As I sought to explain myself in imperfect words, it hit me that maybe I wasn’t being fair. “I suppose, though, how can you really know if you want to be there for the message if you’ve never gone, right?” I made her smile return.

“Exactly,” she replied.

Satisfied that she would give her full attention to the service, and not me, I agreed. After it was over, and we walked back towards campus, I asked, “So what did you think?”

Carly gave a shrug. She didn’t seem impressed. “Really?” I asked. She agreed that it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, but still didn’t really get it, and by it, she meant the entire idea of God and heaven, hell, and a confusing list of things that either got you into the country club (as she called heaven) or banished you from it. It was a complex conversation that neither of us were really trying to have, but I liked knowing that she was interested in the subject and wasn’t closed off to learning more.

“I would like to go again,” she told me. I looked over at her to gauge her response.

When I couldn’t tell what her angle was, I asked.

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