Chapter 2
Dining with Cannibals
If this is your first time here, I’m sharing a novel in progress in the hopes that it’ll spark some more enthusiasm and the desire to finish it. It’s also an exercise in creating in public. This is the second chapter. I suggest you go back and read Chapter 1 if you haven’t.
And don’t worry, I’ll also keep sharing my other usual musings. However, I’m on vacation with my kids this week, so I figure I’d share this second chapter with you. Enjoy!
Dining with Cannibals
Chapter 2
By the time I get to the restaurant, Tommy has been there for almost a half hour. He’s sitting by a booth near one of the windows that face the new fancy apartments for wealthy university students. I can’t always afford a delicious burger here, so I especially cannot even fathom living in one of those apartments. That’s the main reason I still live with my grandparents. Tommy sees me and signals me over.
“The show ran late today?” he asks, taking a sip of his beer.
“Ha ha, very funny,” I say. “Church did run a little late. But when the spirit moves, it moves.”
“Sure, or when the wallet is getting empty…” he says, laughing.
I choose to ignore his comment and focus on the important thing.
“So, what’s the bad news?”
“Do you wanna to get something to eat first?”
I had completely forgotten that at The Burger Stand you order your food, pay and then you pick it up when they call your name. I was too anxious to even think of eating. I need to know.
“No, I want the news first.”
“Alright,” says Tommy, sighing heavily.
“What is it? Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s fine. The thing is that she’s going away for a while.”
“Going away? Where?”
“I don’t know for sure, but some island in the South Pacific. She’s going on a mission trip.”
“My God! You made it sound like she was going to prison. Who says, ‘she’s going away’?”
Tommy laughs and nods.
“When is she leaving?” I ask, my voice filled with anxiety.
Tommy takes another sip of beer. “In three days.”
“In three days? That’s crazy!”
“It kind of is,” he agrees.
“Well, do you have an idea of how long she’s going to be there for?”
“No, not an time frame. But Natalie, Grace’s little sister, says that Emma was talking about a long-term mission. Dude, that could mean her whole life.”
I almost want to vomit at this news. I have been in love with Emma ever since we were together in youth group. I was the new kid and she was the first person to speak to me. We were in all kind of church activities together all the way until the incident, when everything changed. I’ve been meaning to tell her about my love for her, but things always got in the way, especially other guys. She’s had two boyfriends since I’ve known her and both were long-term relationships. I had three girlfriends since then, but I was never in love with them, at least not in the same way that I love Emma. The longer of those “relationships” only lasted six months. They could never measure up to her. I’ve always believed we were meant to be together.
“I warned you it was bad news,” Tommy says. “Let’s get some grub. I’m starving.” With that, he gets up and walks toward the front desk.
I just sit there for a minute, letting it all sink in. I’m sure that Emma is the “one,” so this must be some test from God. It’s a cruel test, for sure.
“Are you going to eat?” Tommy says. “You need your strength to deal with this.”
Tommy’s right. I can’t deal with this on an empty stomach, so I order a regular burger with no tomatoes and a side of sweet potato fries. I also order a Blue Moon, a local beer.
We eat in silence for a while. I keep thinking of all the good times I had with Emma. All of our retreats, beach worship services and just other times hanging out as friends. I’m grateful that Tommy is giving me some space to deal with this on my own, mentally. Or maybe he’s just really hungry. Whatever the case may be, I appreciate the time for silent reflection.
“How are you holding up?” he finally asks.
“How do you think? This sucks!”
“Sorry. That was a dumb question. I guess a better question is, what are you gonna do?” His mouth is full when he asks that question.
“I don’t know,” I say and take a sip of the cold beer.
“You can talk to her.”
“And tell her what? Hey, ‘Emma, don’t go evangelize people and stay here with me.’ Yeah, that’s really unselfish and godly I’m sure she’ll love that.”
“When was the last time you talked to her,” Tommy asks, and then finishes his beer with one chug.
“Like two months ago,” I say.
“I didn’t realize it had been that long. How come?”
“You know, I was just was trying the whole thing of ignoring her and see if she reached out to me. I saw it online somewhere.”
“And did it work?”
“Sort of.”
“What does that mean?”
“She called me a few times, but I told her I was just busy with work, school and church, which is true. It’s not like I was lying or anything.”
Tommy leans back in his chair. “So, what happened after that?”
“Nothing, I thought I should give it more time, so I just kept ignoring her.”
“Seems like you gave it too much time.”
“Thanks, Tommy.”
“Sorry dude. My bad.”
“That’s okay. You’re right. I did give it too much time. I should have told her since the beginning. And I shouldn’t have played dumb mind games. It just seem to made sense on that YouTube video I saw.”
“Yeah, you should have told her,” Tommy says and it stings, but it’s true.
I don’t really have a problem talking with women. I only have a problem talking to the women that I really like. It’s always been that way since I can remember. Me and Emma became such good friends because I was able to hide my feelings deeply. I just wanted to get to know her and for her to know me. Tommy says that Emma probably knows about my feelings for her and that all women know these things. It’s like a sixth sense or something. I don’t know if that’s true, but I wish I had that ability. I could have really used it throughout my life.
“Oh now that I remember,” Tommy says. “That’s not the worst thing.”
“What could possibly we worse than Emma going away in such a short time?”
“This place she’s going to, this small island of unreached people? Well, they have cannibals there.”
“Cannibals?”
“Cannibals. That’s what Grace said.”
“That’s insane.”
“It’s very dangerous,” Tommy says. “Grace said that a decade ago or so a few missionaries got eaten.”
“That’s freaking crazy!” I say, putting my beer down hard on the table. A few people look at us. I quickly apologize for my outburst to the slightly interested crowd of drunk college students. I wanted to use another “f” word, but I just had come from church. It didn’t seem appropriate.
“That’s crazy,” I tell Tommy, lowering my voice. “I mean, I admire her bravery and all, but that’s just crazy.”
“I know, but hey, cannibals deserve the gospel, too. Right?” He says, with a smirk.
“I suppose they do,” I say. “But can’t someone else go? Why her?”
“She’s always been into missions. You know that.” Tommy says.
“Yeah, I know, but I always thought it would be short-term missions, like going to a country in Latin America, you know, the typical stuff. Or that time we cleaned up the neighborhoods here in NoTo.”
I take another long sip of my beer, thinking. “I need to do something.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure,” I say. “But I have to do something.”
And as we sit there and I finish my beer, I know that I have to do something drastic, something extreme to show Emma how much she means to me. A big romantic gesture, perhaps? I think girls like that.
Thanks for reading.