Gail Sattler - Changing Her Heart

“You don’t still get motion sickness, do you? I can see using the skates to get to the mall, but it’s quite an uphill journey back. How do you get home? Do you walk?” Walking home from work would explain why Randy was late, but not why Randy was being so evasive about it. He looked out the window to Randy’s car parked on the street. “You’ve got your car now.”

“I got a ride home, and I took my own car from there.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. But if you got a ride, how in the world could you have been late?”

Randy’s movements quickened as he turned the levels on the sound board down to zero, and began unplugging the unit. “Because we went out for dinner before she took me home,” Randy told him, barely audible.

Adrian nearly dropped the microphone in his hand. “She? You mean, like a woman?”

Randy tossed another neatly wrapped cord into the bin with far more force than was necessary. “No. A dog drove me home. What do you think?”

“You don’t have to get so sarcastic. I was only asking.” He moved in closer to Randy. “What’s she like?”

Randy dragged one hand down his face. “She’s different than any woman I’ve ever met before. Funny, but not by telling jokes…she’s witty. Smart. Unbelievably organized. Modest, if people use words like that anymore. I haven’t known her for more than a few days, but I feel good being with her. I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it. I keep thinking about her. I don’t know what it is. For the past couple of days, we’ve started out talking about computers, but then we end up talking about something else, and we have a lot of fun. So much fun that it will almost be worth it when her boyfriend shows up and punches my lights out.”

Adrian blinked. “Boyfriend? If she’s got a boyfriend, what are you doing going out with her?”

Using his toes, Randy pushed at a guitar pick lying on the carpet. “I’m not really going out with her. She’s buying him a computer for his birthday, and she has a lot of questions, so we’ve been going out for dinner, just to talk. I also don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth when she offers me a ride, because then I don’t have to kill myself skating home.”

“If she’s got a boyfriend, regardless of the reason you’re getting together, it must be pretty awkward.”

Randy turned toward Adrian. “You want to hear awkward? She’s invited me to his birthday party.”

“Are you going?”

“Yeah. She asked me to put the computer together for him. It’s a surprise.”

Adrian winced. “And you’re okay with that?”

“No, but I don’t have any choice. She said she’ll give me a ride home every day this week, and I have to return the favor.”

Memories flooded Adrian of his initial contacts with his wife, Celeste. In hindsight, he could now see how much she’d affected him, and it had all happened so quickly. Adrian wanted to caution Randy about the same thing, because he knew how Randy felt about relationships, especially with his background. But before he could figure out how to put the words together, Randy stood up.

“Adrian, I feel really tired all of a sudden. I think whatever is happening with this woman is getting to me, and I can’t let that happen. I’m going to go home and read my Bible for a little while, and then I should see if anyone from my chat group is online. I need to talk to someone.”

Before Adrian had a chance to volunteer to talk to Randy in person instead of having Randy go to his online support group, Randy turned around and left.

Without first stopping in the kitchen and raiding the doughnuts.

“Uh-oh…” Adrian said as he heard Randy’s car squeal off in the distance.

“I can’t talk now, Mom. I’m at work. But I have a price for the computer.”

Lacey nodded at another customer who entered the store, made a few quick calculations, then whispered the figures to her mother.

“Will you be going out with that young man after work again?”

Lacey’s fingers froze over the calculator. “Probably.”

“How well do you know him? I mean, really know him?”

“Uh…not a lot….”

“You’ve already bought the computer so you don’t need to see him again. Just be careful.”

Lacey gulped. She knew what her mother meant. Her family had a history of making bad choices when it came to men, from her father to her brother-in-law. Lacey was very likely to follow her mother’s and her sister’s patterns—it was obviously in her genes. And that was why Lacey had decided that she would never get married.

“I will.” Lacey hung up the phone, but instead of returning to her work, her hand stayed on the phone as she stared at the wall. The wall between her store and the computer store. Randy was on the other side of that wall.

She knew she didn’t have to see him again, but she would anyway. She really hadn’t needed to invite him to Bryce’s party to set up the computer, either.

The only reason she was continuing to see him was because he needed a ride.

If there was anything she’d learned from all her hardships growing up, it was the pain of what it was like to do without. When she started going to church and the people there discovered the financial plight of her family, many stepped in to help. Their out-pouring of kindness, help and financial assistance was the first thing that opened her heart, as well as the hearts of her family, to God’s love. At times it was humiliating to take charity. But it was also a lesson in how to accept graciously, as well as how to give sacrificially.

That was why she wanted to give Randy a ride home every day. Simply because he needed it. There was no other reason. Really.

She jerked her hand away from the phone and continued with her task of checking inventory for the sidewalk sale, but she was soon interrupted by a customer.

The woman closed her eyes briefly and inhaled deeply as she slid a pair of earrings toward the cash register. “It’s really hot out there. It must be so nice to work in here, where it’s air-conditioned.”

Lacey sighed. “Maybe, but I’m missing out on one of the last really hot days of the summer. It’s different when you don’t have a choice.”

The woman shrugged her shoulders. “Suit yourself.”

After the woman left, the comment about the hot weather outside stuck on Lacey like a burr. When the rush died down, she retrieved her lunch from the fridge and called out to Kate, “I’m going to take my break outside. I’ll see you in half an hour.”

Lacey smiled at the blast of heat as she stepped outside and headed straight for the small park next door. A gazebo sheltered people from the hot sun, and beside the gazebo, a patch of trees provided shade, where a number of people were sitting or lying on blankets. Blankets weren’t her thing, but half an hour of sunshine sure was.

On the other side of the park a few benches lined the sidewalk, which was beside a small bed of flowers. Unlike the gazebo and the area under the trees, the benches were vacant because they were in the full sun.

Lacey headed for the benches.

Everything was fairly quiet, until the sound of a soft, clattery rumble began. She turned her head to see a lone man on inline skates approaching from the other side of the park.

She recognized the man, even from the distance.

Since he was coming quite fast, Lacey moved to the side of the path so he could pass without difficulty.

“Hi, Randy,” she said as he whizzed past.

The noise of the skates on the cement sidewalk stopped instantly. Lacy spun around, expecting to see Randy lying on the ground. Her heart pounded as she watched him, running on the grass, slowing his speed until he came to a stop. He turned around, stepped back onto the sidewalk and skated back to her.