Chapter Seven
It was Sunday again. Eroica went to church, this time with no expectations. Lots of callings were extended to lots of people. She was glad that she wasn’t one of them. Mark Wallace, who apparently was not one to attend student wards, was called to be the executive secretary. Also, the pairing up for the computer date had been finished, and Eroica was supposed to go home, and sit by her phone, and wait for that special someone to call her. It made her cringe. Was it too late for her to back out of the activity?
Not only was it too late, but she didn’t even have to sit by her phone. As she walked out of church, she was followed by a good-looking, carefree young man with white-blond hair and sea-blue eyes.
“Hello, Eroica Hamilton.” He tried to sound mysterious.
“Hello,” she said flatly. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to humour him.
“I’ll bet you’re wondering how I know your name.”
Eroica continued walking as she mused over this. Was she wondering? No. But he seemed friendly enough, so she decided not to ruin his fun.
“Okay, how did you find out my name?”
“You have to guess at least one time.”
Eroica, sighing inwardly and smiling outwardly, replied, “I imagine that you have been talking to Valarie Rogers or Lisa Prescott.”
“That was a good guess, and I do know Val and Lisa very well. But you are wrong.”
As Eroica walked homeward, she wondered if this person that she didn’t even know was going to follow her all the way to her front door.
“All right, I’ll tell you,” he said after giving her enough time to guess again and finding that she wasn’t going to. “You are my date for Friday’s activity.”
“Oh,” she responded, trying to keep the surprised tone out of her voice. “What do you think made us compatible? Or do you think they put any effort into pairing people? Maybe they just put all the names up on the wall and threw darts at them.”
“Actually, I’m in charge of the entertainment committee,” he said with a boast. “So I know what went on. We put people together the best that we could. But some poor souls just don’t seem to be compatible with anyone.”
Eroica wondered if he thought he could get along with everyone. Women in particular.
“But you,” he went on, “I undertook you personally. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even look at your questionnaire. You were just too pretty to let get by, so I paired us up. As far as being compatible goes, I’m sure we’ll find that we have all sorts of things in common.”
He smiled at her, showing all of his glossy, perfect teeth. Eroica all of a sudden felt very uncomfortable. She could see him, in her mind, unhinging his jaw like a snake, so that he could swallow her. She quickly brushed that thought from her mind.
“Since you and I are going out together,” Eroica gave in, “I guess you had better tell me your name.”
“My name?” he laughed in surprise. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew who I was. I’m Barry.”
“Oh, Barry.” She looked puzzled.
“Barry Drewer. Some people call me Bones. My professional name is Barry Bones. I’m a jazz trombonist.”
Eroica was seized with a sudden impulse to scream. But she had a greater desire to get home and be done with Barry Drewer for the day. So instead of screaming she walked faster. This would be Eroica’s first real date since coming back from Germany, and it was going to be with the campus flirt. She didn’t mind so much what others would think, but she did mind being forced into this situation.
“Well, Barry,” Eroica managed, “Should I meet you at the church Friday night?” She hoped this would eliminate some of the time she would have to spend with him.
“Hey, you can call me Bones,” he smiled. “And I’ll pick you up at your place. I’ve got a car. I’m doing all right. But since I’m in charge of the entertainment committee, I do have to be there early to help set up. How about if I pick you up around six o’clock?”
“That sounds fine, Barry.” Eroica was not about to start using pet names on him. “See you Friday then.”
When Eroica arrived home, she closed the door, and leaned against it with a sigh. She could get through this. He seemed like a nice enough person, and she had been hard on him. After all, she didn’t even know him.
Eroica set her scriptures on the table and walked into the kitchen. Sunday afternoons were always lonely for her. AnnaMaria and John were still at church, so it was very quiet. She wished that she knew someone well enough to invite over for Sunday dinner, if only to give her a reason to cook. But since she didn’t, she made herself a cream cheese and chopped olive sandwich. These were her favorite. Her mother made them for her all the time when she was a little girl.
As she ate she wondered what she was going to do with herself for the rest of the day. She had been reading The History of the Church and was in the middle of the third volume. She had been there for quite a while. Because she was a convert to the Church she had determined to read all the volumes of The History of the Church, and then go on to The Journal of Discourses. So when she finished eating, she picked up her book and went over to her too-small couch with it. And within five minutes she was sound asleep.
Eroica awoke with a start. It was late afternoon so she had been asleep for quite a while. Joshua and Charlie were making their very welcomed noises again, and AnnaMaria was knocking on the door.
“Eroica, are you home?”
Eroica answered by opening the front door.
“Oh, good, you are home. It was so quiet over here that I wasn’t sure. Come on over. There is someone that I want you to meet.”
Eroica immediately concluded that her sister was matchmaking. “I look a sight. I can’t meet anyone until I have at least run a brush through my hair.”
“Don’t worry. You look good enough to meet Tilly Tenner. Come on.”
“Tilly? What kind of a name is Tilly?”
“You’ll love her. She is so much fun.”
Eroica followed AnnaMaria next door. They entered upon a pleasant-looking woman of around forty years, who was down on the floor playing with Charlie. Joshua was keeping from getting knocked over by holding onto her hair.
“Joshua, let go of Sister Tenner’s hair,” AnnaMaria cried as she hurried to pick him up. “Tilly, this is my sister Eroica.”
“I’m so glad to finally meet you,” Tilly stood up. “AnnaMaria has done nothing but talk about you since the day I met her. And I’m glad that you arrived safely from Germany. Airplanes can be such precarious things, you know. But what an exciting adventure. You’ll have to tell me all about it. Years ago, when I was in high school, I had a schoolgirl friend whose family moved to Germany. Her father had some sort of government job. I never heard from her again. But then, I never did write to her. I lost her address. My dog chewed up my address book the very day that they moved. The very day. Can you imagine? I suppose it was owing to the fact that I had taken the last Chunky Chocolate Ice Cream Bar and was trying to hide it from my sister Taffy. Her real name is Tiffany, but we always called her Taffy. I still do, although she doesn’t like it anymore. Being called Taffy, I mean. She has always loved to eat taffy. That’s where her nickname came from.
“Anyhow, Jem called. I had such a crush on him. He’s my husband now. I got all flustered and forgot about the Chunky Chocolate Ice Cream Bar, and it melted all over my address book. Well, our dog Speedy just loved chocolate. I’ve never seen a dog love chocolate more that Speedy did. He chewed my address book to bits trying to get all of the chocolate. To bits! Can you imagine? Did you know that we are neighbors?”
“No, I didn’t.” Eroica was barely able to keep up with this dizzying, one-sided conversation.
“Tilly lives on the corner, in the big white house with the dark blue trim.”
“That is such a beautiful home. Someone put in a lot of work to make that house look
so nice.”
“It was a run-down old house when we bought it,” Tilly went on. “But when you have five boys, you have to find ways to keep them busy. I guess that’s why I’m so talkative. All that my boys ever want to do is eat and slug out their differences. But it’s wonderful to have neighbors like you two young girls. I would have loved to have had a daughter, but it just never happened.
“So Eroica, I’m going to have to take you in hand and get you married. I sew wedding dresses. Brides come to me and tell me what they want, and I put it all together for them. I’ve made hundreds of wedding dresses. It’s always a bit hard to see each one go. Except for the extremely unusual ones. Some girls’ choices I just can’t account for. I remember, several years ago, a young bride wanted her wedding dress to be gray. I could never have made anything so frightening. Can you imagine? I managed to talk her into a beautiful silver taffeta that had a purple tint. The dress turned out to be quite stunning, but it didn’t look at all like a wedding dress.
“Bridal gowns take a lot of work, time, and patience. I’ve never made two that are exactly alike. I take a picture of each one and put them into an album. That way brides, or more specifically, their mothers, can look at my handiwork. You’ll have to look through my wedding gown albums someday so you can get an idea of what you want. I’ll make something magnificent for you, Eroica. It will be my wedding gift to you.”
“Tilly,” laughed Eroica, “I think you are forgetting something. There is no groom.”
“A minor detail, Eroica. A minor detail. One will turn up. You are just too pretty to stay single for too much longer. Well, girls, I have to run. If I don’t get home and get some sort of dinner on the table, those boys will tear my kitchen apart. Goodbye, goodbye,” she called over her shoulder as she hurried off.
“Wow, what a whirlwind,” Eroica cried as soon as Tilly was gone. “I’m amazed that she gave you a chance to tell her that I was your sister.”
“She seems determined to adopt you as her project,” AnnaMaria apologized.
“I don’t mind. She is so nice. I’m sure that Tilly and I will get along just fine.”
“So, Eroica, How did church go today?” AnnaMaria asked cautiously.
“I’m not engaged yet, if that’s what you mean,” she laughed.
“No, that’s not what I mean. At least, that’s not all I mean.”
“But I did meet the person who is taking me to the computer date activity this Friday. His name is Barry Drewer. He plays the trombone.”
“Do you know anything about him?”
“Not much. He seems friendly and well-liked.” Eroica was determined to have a good outlook on this, even if he was the campus flirt. “I’m sure we’ll have a nice time together.”
“You sound as if you are trying to convince yourself.”
“Maybe I am a little bit. I’m not good at this sort of thing. I don’t know why. I always get so flustered.”
“You’ll be fine. Becoming flustered is part of falling in love. It could be a good sign. When John and I were dating, I was such a klutz. I was so in love. I kept dropping things and breaking them. Once I went to a piano lesson and discovered that I had left all of my music at home on the piano. The worst thing though, was the time that I almost drove into a parked car.”
“And these were good signs?” Eroica cried. “Falling in love sounds hazardous.”
“It was a fun time of life. Being engaged was wonderful. Being married is even better. If I can say that when I am so uncomfortably pregnant, then you know it must be true.”
Eroica listened to her sister and wondered if she would ever have those same feelings. She wanted so much to belong to someone. To have someone to share with. Her dreams and hopes were all falling apart. She had given up on her cellist, and now she was going out with someone who wanted to spend his whole life dating.
Eroica’s sigh caught AnnaMaria’s attention. She could see that Eroica was no longer benefiting from this conversation, so she quickly changed the subject. And until John came back from his meeting, Eroica and AnnaMaria talked about possible names for the new baby.