The First Love Of Alipang Havens

Oh my. What fantastic additions! That cult thing was pretty crazy.

Side note: I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but Uncle Doug in this story is like my dad. His name is Doug, he is an uncle to many, and he's from Pennsylvania. Pretty cool.
 
PART TWENTY-SEVEN:
PASSAGES TO ADULTHOOD​


On the Tuesday after the Kramers had been hosted by the Wesselroods, there was fine autumn weather at the campus of Doverwood Community College. In a late-morning period when she had no class meeting on Tuesdays or Thursdays, Kim Tisdale went walking across the main quadrangle toward the library, meaning to put in some useful study time there before having lunch at the modest cafeteria.

Halfway to her goal, however, Kim's plans were changed by an unexpected experience. In one moment, she was abruptly struck with as much fascination as she, a normal female, could feel toward another girl.

Kim had long known that there was a dance curriculum at the community college. Several of the Tai Chi students were in dance classes, including Yvonne Delany's older friend Lenore who had been part of the visit to the Escrima school. But Kim, with her long-standing inhibitions about dancing in the sight of anyone else, had never even considered enrolling in a dance course, or even joining after-hours dance activities for which no fee was charged. So it was the more startling when the dance curriculum seemingly went out of its way to encounter her.

First, Kim's ears were caught by a boombox playing an Eighties tune: "Doin' It All For My Baby," by Huey Lewis and the News. When her eyes followed her ears, she saw ten or twelve students seated in a ring on the grass. Their circle was much wider than the one which had been formed the day Alipang had his contest with Curving Breeze, affording more space for action within. And within _this_ enclosed space....

Curving Breeze was an attractive woman, but she would have seemed ordinary by comparison if she had stood alongside the girl who was dancing to Huey Lewis, wearing shorts and a T-shirt and no shoes.

She was a natural blonde, about Kim's height, but a bit slimmer. That was what caught the eye, that she was slim without being skinny or flat. If some engineer or technician with sophisticated laser-measurement apparatus had constructed a girl android, setting her bodily proportions just barely on the good side of a razor-fine boundary between "sexy" and "too thin," the result would have resembled the girl Kim saw dancing. She could have gained a few pounds and still been exquisitely beautiful, but _losing_ the least bit of her current weight would have been unhealthy. As it was, she appeared to have achieved safely the elusive "perfect" figure which anorexic girls killed themselves trying to achieve. Her dance movements were a blend of ballet and jazz dancing, including some astonishing leaps which seemed as if they should carry her ten yards forward in space, yet which really were vertical and landed her where she had started.

The solo ended, a new song followed it, and the students got up and began dancing also. Kim, standing in self-forgetful attentiveness, took no notice of the fact that some of these students had been present at the idiotic "Theatre of the Absurd" show; she had eyes only for the girl who seemed to be their teacher, albeit an exceptionally young teacher. Nothing could budge Kim from the spot, until the outdoor teaching session broke up.

Then the dark-haired beauty with some residual insecurities hurried to introduce herself to the fair-haired beauty who seemed like an embodiment of benign self-confidence.

"Excuse me! That was wonderful! I never saw anything like it! Are you a teacher? My name's Kim Tisdale, what's your name?"

The dancer's face was narrower and longer-nosed than Kim's; but like her slenderness of build, it was perfect of its kind. She put out a smooth, strong hand to shake Kim's eager hand. "Yes, I'm a teacher, brand new on the faculty this semester. And thank you; I'll take all the positive reviews I can get. My name's Holly Brighton."
 
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As she found herself walking with Holly, the reality was that boys within eyesight were admiring Kim equally as much as they admired Holly; but in Kim's mind it seemed that Holly was getting all the attention--not that Kim wished to be scoped out by all boys anyway. This perception only added to the aura that the 23-year-old dance instructor was acquiring for Kim.

Holly, however, far from being stuck up, took a real interest in her new friend, asking Kim various perfectly reasonable questions. This led to expressions of Holly's sympathy when Kim told of her father's desertion; Holly's parents in Pennsylvania had a durable and happy marriage. (Holly being this far away from her parents now did not signify any rift between herself and them; it had simply happened that the first available teaching position that appealed to her had been here at Doverwood.) Then, having briefly mentioned that her sisters all were unlucky so far in romance, Kim told Holly about Alipang.

The initial news of Kim having a serious boyfriend younger than herself, who still had one year of high school to go, left Holly guardedly quiet, as if not wanting to give offense by saying out loud that this was weird. But when Kim gave Alipang's name, and said that he was a martial artist, a lightbulb seemed to go on for Holly.

"Oh! Sister! Tisdale! Havens! Martial artist! I've heard about this from students right here! Wasn't one of your sisters a material witness in a criminal case last year, and gangsters were sent after her, and your boyfriend...?" Thus far and no farther; Holly's careful stillness returned.

Kim nodded soberly. "Yes, Al shot one of the crooks with the crook's own gun, then killed another one in a knife fight." The grim part confirmed, she could relax again. "Even worse than that, he plans to become a dentist. To everyone who isn't a criminal predator, Al is a teddy bear."

Holly's long, straight blonde hair stirred as she lightly shook her head in awe. "Wow, and double wow: you've got a hero for a boyfriend! And here I don't have ANY boyfriend."

It was Kim's turn again to be surprised. "You don't? But you're so beautiful, and talented besides! You should have boys taking numbers for the privilege of fighting over you."

"I'm not really any better looking than you, Kim; and of course, I've only been in Virginia for a couple of months. I have a little apartment in Shilohsville: part of being a grownup woman, but with no interesting male neighbors." The smile she had been giving Kim for most of this conversation widened. "Still, it's nice to have just made a local female friend."

Kim now mirrored Holly's smile. "I'm very local. We live on the edge of Smoky Lake that's closer to Shilohsville--a literal stone's throw, if one end of the reservoir weren't in between. Hey, my family boards and exercises horses. Would you like to come over and ride sometime?"

"Oh my God, I would love that! Even if you don't set me up with Alipang's older brother."

"Good thing; the only brother Al has is about five months old. As for a boyfriend for you, I'll pray for God's will in that area."

These last words evoked a still more dramatic response: Holly flung her arms around Kim and squeezed her like a big sponge. "You'll pray! Oh, hallelujah! Finally, someone on this campus who prays about things, instead of putting on a mask and yelling obscenities!"

Kim hugged back. "What, were you at the Theatre of the Absurd? I don't know how I could have missed seeing a super-hottie like you in that crowd of geeks."

"No, I didn't attend that, I just heard about it. I could see trash like that in Philly if I wanted; it isn't what I came to Virginia for."

Kim's dark eyes fastened onto Holly's blue ones at close range. "I think God brought you to Virginia to be my friend;" and they hugged more deeply.
 
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With one thing leading to another, and since she knew that Alipang would be working on two highschool projects tonight AND helping Chilena with one besides, Kim ended up asking Holly to come to her house for supper; this, as the two young women ate lunch together on campus. Kim had classes to attend in the afternoon, and Holly had classes to teach--one of them an ordinary English course, to fill out the workload otherwise made from the dance curriculum. During the afternoon, Kim reached her mother by phone to secure approval after the fact for the supper invitation.

"Can you reconcile the invitation with a call I just got from Peggy Holder?" said Elizabeth Tisdale. "She wants you to eat out with her tonight."

"Oh boy; I'll try to reach her and ask if she minds a third person." But Peggy, though graduated from Smoky Lake East like Kim, was not in any college; rather, she was a checker at a grocery store. Kim was unable to reach her friend's phone during the remainder of the class day. This made a conference necessary when she next got together with her new friend.

"Holly, when we go by your apartment as planned, do you think you can do me a favor, and try NOT to look scorching hot? We're going to be making a threesome with a highschool friend of mine--almost the ONLY female friend I had at East High. She's a bit heavyset, a bit Goth, and a LOT envious of girls who look like supermodels, though she seldom admits it."

"Then how could she stand hanging out with supermodel Kim Tisdale?" asked Holly.

"For almost all our time at East, all I was modelling was indie style. See these boots I've got on? Used to be, I didn't only wear them with jeans, like now, I also wore them with dresses. It's only since getting together with Al that I make any effort to look girly. So Peggy's been comfortable with me."

"Okay, I'll put my hair in an Amish bun and wear baggy khaki pants. More importantly, is Peggy a believer?"

"Kind of on the front porch of it. She's been hovering there for months; does come to church sometimes, but hasn't yet made a commitment to Jesus."

Kim and Holly got in their respective cars, Holly's being a Cooper Mini which looked as if it would fall to pieces if a squirrel jumped onto it. Upon reaching Holly's place in Shilohsville, Kim was handed a Brighton family photo album to look at while Holly changed clothes and uglified her hair. Then they both got into Kim's white sedan and set out for the Tisdale house, hoping that Peggy would make contact.

She did. Kim's phone signalled an incoming text message, which she asked Holly to read aloud.

"It says, '3 isnt bad if 1 of the 3 is U. Chicksteel.' Is that Peggy?"

"Yeah, Chicksteel is her internet nickname. Unlike me, Peggy hasn't outgrown online fantasies in which every twelve-year-old girl can break a 300-pound linebacker's neck with a strand of her hair."

"That just might be one of her problems in coming to a male Savior," mused Holly.

"She's not nearly as bad as she used to be in that area. She will at least listen to male Christians now, such as Pastor Tom at my church. But it may still take female urging to help her over the line to the light. Which could be another reason why God brought you to northern Virginia."
 
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"You danffed onda graff? Howgum?" Peggy asked, around a mouthful of pepperoni pizza.

"Partly just because it was such a nice day, of course," replied Holly, _between_ mouthfuls of pepperoni pizza. "But also to demonstrate to the students directly what a difference the surface you dance on makes. It is totally physically impossible to tap dance on grass; but on the other hand, you can do something like a shoulder roll on grass with much less risk of hurting your shoulder than on a polished hardwood floor."

Peggy swallowed, then grumbled, "Grass can seem as hard as that wooden floor, if someone _throws_ you down on the grass. I found that out when I tried to join the East Falcons football team."

Holly blinked; though Peggy was a sturdy girl, this was not something Holly had expected to hear. She took a long drink of Mr. Pibb to delay having to comment.

Kim filled in the vacuum between her new and old friends. "Yes, Peggy was the only girl in the history of _either_ high school in Smoky Lake to try to play on the football team. I have to give her credit; the players all said she kept on getting back up."

Her mouth full again, Peggy sputtered, "Phyzhigs wuz agains' me. Any boy weigh'n a hunner pondz more'n me, weighs a hunner pondz more'n me." She swallowed again, and then: "Coach Escobar just _refused_ to put me in scrimmage against geeky spazzy 105-pound freshman boys wearing glasses."

Feeling that laughter at this was welcome, Holly laughed.

Kim also laughed, knowing Peggy well enough to _know_ that laughter was welcome. "Holly, I forgot to ask you: have you ever studied Tai Chi Chuan?"

"I've heard of it, naturally, but never studied it. I know from our talk that your boyfriend's in the Mixed Martial Arts Club that includes Tai Chi. What does he think of it?"

"He thinks it's a little overrated as a fighting style, but he's openminded to the health benefits." The _real_ reason why Kim had asked Holly about Tai Chi was because she had experienced a spontaneous vision of Holly, dressed as she had been while dancing, strolling past a crowd of Yvonne Delany's male admirers and swiping all of them away with ease. But Kim choked back any word about this cheerful fantasy, for she had a policy never to make Peggy feel herself adversely compared with other girls.

As it was, Kim and Holly both succeeded in putting Peggy at ease with the addition of Holly to the friendship. Thus, after more casual talk, they were eventually able to induce Peggy to discuss the Christian faith with them.
 
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"Drawing a face, or a whole body, is just a matter of proportions," Chilena calmly explained.

This was late on the same evening as Kim's pizza outing with her old young friend and her new older friend. Alipang was seated at the kitchen table, with several pencils and several sheets of graph paper in front of him. Chilena was standing behind him, leaning in to rest her chin on his right shoulder, while her arms alternately hugged him from behind and reached past him to perform bits of drawing.

"Now, Al, count the number of graph squares between the two eyes. You'll see that the _distance_ between the inner corners of the eyes is right about equal to the _width_ of one eye from corner to corner. Now, put your pencil at the center of the space between the eyes. From there, move the point down the page for a number of squares equal to twice the width of one eye....Okay, now go back up just one square; no, make it two. There, make a very small smiley curve there....Good." Chilena paused to kiss her brother's cheek. "That little curve is the tip of the nose; an average nose extends downward for a bit less than twice as far as the width of one eye."

She went on to help Alipang with the nostrils; then they moved up the page again to add eyebrows before tackling the mouth. Chilena had already helped him to draw a successful profile view, which had been easier than full-face drawing was proving to be. When this picture was completed, with a much more realistic look than Alipang's previous two tries at front views, Chilena kissed him again, called a halt, and parked herself on his lap--where she had not sat in many days.

When she was settled, Alipang kissed her in return. "Sweets, this is a course I would flunk for sure if not for you. As it is, I almost feel as if I'm cheating."

Chilena's arms tightened around his neck. "You're not. The drawings you actually turn in for a grade will be your own unassisted work. There's no rule against my helping you practice, any more than there's a rule against you helping Jason study chemistry. Besides, I'm glad to be the one helping you for a change. You made all the difference for my Economics essay." She did not loosen her hold on his neck; he tightened his arms around her waist; and they sat this way in loving quietude for more than a minute, listening to each other's breathing, the way they had formerly done every night on the living room couch.

Then Chilena softly rubbed her left cheek against Alipang's left cheek. "Just where did the Wonder Twins go, anyway?"

He stroked her hair. "Not far; but they have new uses for their activated superpowers."

Chilena shifted to listen to her brother's heartbeat in her old way; then: "Why do things have to change?"

"So there can be new things. If my life on Luzon hadn't been changed by adoption, you and I would never have had the years together that we've had. But now you're eighteen, and I will be soon, and--God willing--we each have a future. Deputy Dawg told me one day that you can't step into the same river twice, because the water moves."

Chilena set her nose and forehead against Alipang's nose and forehead. "Please don't move out of sight just yet."

They finished up the schoolwork, then indulged in a few minutes of cuddling on the meeting sofa. The only words uttered during this were when Alipang whispered into Chilena's blonde hair, "What we've had will always mean something. Everything means something; and our loving each other can only mean good things. It has largely made us what we are."

At last they mounted the stairs...held each other for a long while on the landing...kissed goodnight four times...then parted and went to their rooms, where each had mostly an entirely separate list of items to pray about.

One way or another, they were developing lives independent of each other.
 
The following Saturday, Eric Havens emceed a third healthcare townhall--this one in the auditorium of Shilohsville High School. This building was more decrepit than either of the high schools in Smoky Lake; but the crowd that came was the largest yet, and lively in its participation. Eric was ready with printouts of information about how the state of Hawaii had inflicted huge fiscal damage on itself with a "public option" health plan. On the whole, the meeting went well.

Alipang and Kim had ridden there with Eric--certainly out of loyalty, but Alipang's father had arranged a treat for them besides. By prior arrangement, one of his regular dental patients had lent him a fiberglass canoe, with trailer and equipment, in return for a free checkup at Eric's regular office. The trailer was hitched to the Havens family SUV. When the townhall was finished, Eric drove the young couple into the county forest preserve on the Shilohsville side, right up to the shore of Smoky Lake the lake. He and Alipang unloaded the canoe from the trailer and set it near the water; then Alipang and Kim donned two of the supply of lifejackets, picked up their paddles, and placed a small cooler in the center of the canoe.

Eric watched to make sure they launched the canoe properly, then said, "Al, you can cross the reservoir at a relaxed pace in half an hour or less. There probably won't be any motorboats out this late in the season, but keep your eyes open. Don't count on them to respect your right of way. I'll give you a hair over an hour after the crossing to eat your picnic lunch; then I'll come to Lakeshore Park looking for you. I'll have the rest of the family with me, and I'll take a turn giving Chilena and Harmony a canoe ride while you digest, then let Chilena watch Terrance while I take Mom and Melody out on the water. After that, you and Kim can go again, before we call it a day."



Once they were in the privacy of the lake, happily with no motorboats around, Kim remarked, "You and your Dad are alike in that way: both of you are capable of being spontaneous, but most of the time you like to plan things carefully."

"I have to think of the future, it can't be helped. Counting this last year of high school, it's going to take me NINE YEARS to earn my D.D.S. degree. By the time I'm able to hang out my shingle as a dentist, I'll be older than Dad was when he married Mom."

"Which means that he married Mrs. Havens before he had completed all his training and internship. So you have an honorable precedent for doing the same."

From where he sat in the stern, Alipang couldn't see Kim's facial expression; but he felt confident that he could kid around a little about the utterly serious matter on both of their minds. "It does require a woman, though. Do you know any young Christian woman who might be willing to marry a dental student, and go through all the struggles with him on the way to a distant career?"

"I think I know one; at least, she would be diligent at praying that the government doesn't somehow take away your career before you can even get started."

Alipang's paddle made the canoe surge ahead. "That's a good feature. But remember that I'm pretty choosy. The girl I propose to has to be a dark-chocolate brunette, she has to like Tori Amos, and she MUST own a pair of combat boots."

Kim was quiet for longer than Alipang would have preferred. Then she said, "That model is probably available. But the man who proposes to her will need to be patient, because she may have seen her own parents' marriage fail. That could make her overanxious about her own risk of a failed marriage...." She looked over her shoulder at him for the first time in this conversation. "Even with the best and most wonderful boy she ever met or heard of."

After a silence of his own, in which he let the canoe drift, Alipang stated simply: "I can be very patient."
 
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Private Hyland's first combat action with Fourth Marines in Afghanistan occurred with both new and old forms of guidance. It was the old form, however, which represented the new hopes of Afghan people, if those hopes could just be realized.

The new-type resource: an Air Force reconnaissance drone had spotted seven terrorists setting up a mortar and machinegun position on a rooftop. The old-style resource: an Afghan woman, who _liked_ the idea of being able to step outdoors without being punished, told the Marines that the building in question was linked to at least one other by a tunnel, giving the terrorists a handy line of retreat.

So, when the Marines went against the enemy position, a squad was detached to cut off that retreat. They had with them a wheeled bomb-finding robot, which they sent ahead of them into the house to which the tunnel came. While this went on, two men of the squad were stationed in a place with a stone wall for shelter, from which they could watch out for additional hostiles trying to move in on their buddies. These two men were Brendan Hyland and his mentor-guardian, Lance Corporal Ricardo Mendoza.

Hearing the noises of the assault on the rooftop half a mile away, Brendan was one part relieved to two parts disappointed that he wasn't in that action. But when the distant shooting subsided, the word that came by radio to him and Mendoza that only two of the the rooftop terrorists were confirmed killed and one captured; the other four seemed to have bolted into the tunnel.

The men who had secured the tunnel-terminus house, finding it bomb-free, also got this news; but the still-active drone would not have spotted a new threat in time, without Mendoza's alertness.

To Brendan, it seemed that the lance corporal simply popped up on a random impulse and fired in a random direction. An instant later, though, there was a terrific explosion from a spot some fifty yards away. As Brendan was later to learn, a terrorist had been aiming a rocket launcher at the house occupied by the rest of the squad. When shot by Mendoza, this man had fallen forward in the act of shooting, so his rocket smashed into the ground and blew up there.

Dropping back into cover as the surviving enemies opened up and the Marines in the house returned fire, Mendoza told Brendan, "Enemy at our two o'clock. Move over that way a bit; fire after I fire."

When the lance corporal rose and fired again, Brendan followed suit. Two things then happened in rapid succession: Brendan's carbine clicked uselessly--and Mendoza, at the first sound of that clicking, lunged over and yanked Brendan back down just in time to save him.

"Not your fault, kid, those _________ M-4's have been jamming a lot lately. Here, take this instead; only has the one clip, so I've set it on single shot for you." He handed Brendan the souvenir AK-47 that he had been carrying around with him. The Russian weapon worked properly; and although Brendan did not personally kill any of the enemy during the rest of the firefight, he and Mendoza did keep the enemy street contingent engaged until a helicopter gunship came up as reinforcement, allowing the rest of the Marine squad to intercept the enemy rooftop contingent coming through the tunnel.

When the day's action was over, Mendoza scrounged four more AK-47 clips for Brendan from among the weapons of the slain or captured terrorists. "Keep the Kalashnikov until we can get your M-4 fixed or replaced. The Lieutenant won't say anything about it, he knows the score. Don't let yourself get too worried about our being issued defective weapons; remember that America hosting the Olympics is far more important than whether you and I live or die."
 
On a sunny October Monday, Kim and Holly were walking together to eat lunch, both in a mood as sunny as the Virginia sky. Not only had Holly attended Redemption Free Church for the first time yesterday morning, but on the same Sunday Kim's pal Peggy had made a public profession of belief in Jesus Christ. Hearing what a happy family life Holly had known with her still-married Christian parents had been one of the needed extra pebbles in the scales for Peggy.

A piece of paper on a bulletin board outside the cafeteria, however, was destined to cast at least a temporary shadow over Kim and Holly's happy mood.

Mr. Grovemore and the Performing Arts Dept.
invite students to audition for roles in the
Doverwood College Winter Play:
"A SOLSTICE CAROL"
Script by Judd Grovemore
Open auditions all this Friday afternoon​

As soon as Kim read this, she turned to Holly with an unasked question in her eyes. She didn't need to ask.

"I first heard about this last week," the blonde dancer sighed. "I have the mixed privilege of attending faculty meetings. As you may have guessed, in this Dickens rip-off, Christmas itself is the _evil_ which the main character has to be led _away_ from."

"I shouldn't be surprised, since he was responsible for that idiotic 'Theatre of the Absurd' at the start of the semester. But how does he justify Scrooge going _from_ Merry Christmas to Bah, Humbug?"

Holly glanced around to make sure no one was listening to them. "First, by having it be not exactly Scrooge. The main character in Mr. Grovemore's play is called Pastor Scraggart. Instead of a loan company, he runs an evil megachurch whose entire purpose is--"

"--to preach hate, right?" Kim anticipated.

"Yeah. Grovemore is being _really_ subtle about it; the church interior set is to be decorated in part with swastikas. You can add Grovemore to the armies of people who think they're brilliantly creative to compare anyone they don't like to Nazis."

"What, so Pastor Scraggart gets corrected by pagan Solstice spirits?"

"Basically, yes. And his eventual conversion is shown by his becoming an activist for W.A.L.N.U.T."

Kim's eyes widened. "He identifies the group by name?"

"That's right. You can also add him to the armies of people who call for non-partisanship, but only to be enforced on the _other_ side."

"Holly, I'm getting an awful feeling. As the bottom-seniority person in Performing Arts here, are you being ordered to do choreography for this mess?"

Holly reached over and hugged Kim. "I came _this_ close to it"--meaning as close as a hug. "But I flattered Grovemore out of it. I told him, and I quote, 'The job you did with stage movement for the Theatre of the Absurd production was _exactly_ suited to the quality of the content; and I know you can come up with your own movements that will also perfectly suit the spirit of your Solstice play. After all, you know your message; it will be expressed as you mean it to be if you maintain a unified artistic vision.' "

Kim hugged Holly back, then turned loose. "Unified as trash; but you spoke nothing but true words. Let's eat."
 
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Judd Grovemore's petty artistic empire at the community college was not the only place where theatrical plans were causing consternation this autumn. East High School's chosen fall play was an extremely obscure* musical titled Dark of the Moon, whose main purpose for existence was to portray rural Christians with every low, despicable and crude characteristic that could possibly be attributed to them.

Principal Flora Lewiston exulted in the choice made by drama teacher Tricia Calder; she saw the odd hillbilly-sorceror hero as the embodiment of "change," being mindlessly hated by the religious fanatics.

Eric and Cecilia Havens, after they read the script, were unanimous that Chilena was to have nothing to do with this production, NOT EVEN as a crew member.

Unlike the former case of producing Man of La Mancha, this play's undisguised animosity against the Christian faith was SO obvious to Chilena that she herself didn't even ask to be in it once she knew the content.

But Chilena's boyfriend was cast as the male lead.


Like a baby koala clasped against its mother, a weepy Chilena lay closely plastered on top of a supine Alipang on their familiar sofa after everyone else had gone to bed. The fading institution of downstairs meetings was in a temporary resurgence, likely to continue on all available evenings until Dark of the Moon ended its rehearsals and performance nights. This evening was eminently available, because Kim--who had told Alipang about A Solstice Carol--was hanging out with Holly Brighton, giving the dance teacher company and a listening ear. Apart from the matter of Chilena, Alipang was happy for Kim's new best friend at college to be a female one; and WITH Chilena now constantly on his mind (and in his arms), he was glad that Kim by her own wish was passing some of her time with Holly.

"Think about the disputes the Apostle Paul found himself refereeing," Alipang softly urged his sister as her current crying fit subsided. "He didn't ONLY have to deal with a range of positions running from right wing to left wing; there were multiple topics TO have a range of positions on them. He might have met one brother who was liberal on the meat offered to idols, but rigid about observing holidays, and then a brother who was exactly the reverse--with each of those men claiming to be more orthodox than the other."

During this not-very-sentimental speech by Alipang, Chilena's face migrated from resting on his shoulder, to being evenly lined up with his face. As soon as he paused, they kissed, and were quiet for a minute or two.

It was Chilena who returned to the other use for lips: "But Dan isn't even in a controversy IN the church; he's acting in a secular show that goes overboard from start to finish to make believers look bad--make US look bad, you and me and Mom and Dad."

"I've talked with Dan about similar things, movies and whatever. I'm sure he would say, and mean it, that the church hypocrites in Dark of the Moon aren't supposed to be typical, that they're the bad apples."

"But that's how ALL the Christians in the play are; the author won't admit that there can be ANY decent Christians at all! Even The Wizard of Oz has a Good Witch, but there's no Glinda the Good Christian in this play."

"And yet we're the ones who get called 'intolerant.' I know, sweets, I know." Alipang kissed her right cheek, lips and left cheek. "But we have to give Dan the benefit of the doubt. I think he's trying to prove that he isn't self-exiled in a Christian ghetto. Maybe this will actually create the opening for some unlikely soul to be led to the faith, like with Kim's friend Peggy. Neither Dan nor I ever thought Peggy would come to Jesus, but she has." When he had said this, Chilena fitted herself more tightly against him from head to feet, and another silent snuggle began.

In this way, in manageable fragments, they talked through all of Chilena's misgivings about Dan playing the young Appalachian warlock. Alipang himself didn't like Dan doing it, but felt sure that his potential brother-in-law was only faulty in judgment at the worst, not intentionally rebelling against his Savior. And Alipang was tacitly pleased that even the insecure, clingy Chilena did not excessively fear another girl stealing Dan.

For now, Chilena had her brother to cling to, and cling she did at great length, which Alipang didn't mind a bit. When at last they disentangled themselves and headed for the landing and their multiple goodnight kisses, they did something which had been uncommon even in the peak years of downstairs meetings: they had a huggy-snuggly stairway fight going UP the stairs.


* But real; I've seen it performed.
 
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On the evening after Alipang's discussion of the play with Chilena, Tricia Calder had the cast gathered in the East High auditorium to read the script through aloud. Several crew members were simultaneously painting canvas flats off to one side.

Dan Salisbury sat with two of the only three other professed Christians taking any part in this production: Kaitlyn and Jason Katon. Extra bait had been dangled in front of them to induce them to act in the show: Kaitlyn had been invited to design the sets, and Jason to draw pictures for the posters and programs. In the actual performance, they were to be the "Conjure Man" and "Conjure Woman," to whom the leading male appealed in an early scene to "change him to a human man."

The Katon siblings were almost the _only_ cast members who were not making predictable sexy-vampire analogies in conversation. Dan, however, didn't think of himself as a hunky monster--only as an actor, agreeing to act in a play outside his comfort zone, in the hope of shooting down cliches about Christians hiding from the world around them.

When the transformation part of the story was done, Lori Purdue, Dan's leading lady in the role of "Barbara," repositioned her folding chair to put herself knee to knee and face to face with Dan. "Not long now till it's you and me talking," she pointed out, reaching forth a hand to pat her warlock on the thighs. Aware of Jason and Kaitlyn watching him, Dan shifted his own chair just two or three inches back away from Lori. The line-reading continued, as did Mrs. Calder's advice on motivation and expression.

When they got as far as the cynical scheme concocted by the evil intolerant church people to separate Barbara from the warlock, Dan squirmed a little at this raunchy plot turn. He was not any less uncomfortable with it for the fact that his character wasn't in the scene.

He was made uncomfortable in a different way when someone younger than himself, and less highly placed in the production, raised the question that he had felt unable to ask.

When they had read on through to the end, a freshman girl among the set painters approached the drama teacher. "Excuse me, Mrs. Calder. I was wondering about something--about what they do to Barbara. I mean, before she gets killed at the very end." The questioner was Daisy Kleinvelt, younger sister of last June's valedictorian. Daisy was the fourth Christian in the project. "Mrs. Calder, if this play said that Buddhists, or Hindus, or Muslims did to Barbara what the supposed Christians are shown as doing to her, wouldn't the playwright be accused of prejudice and hate speech?"

Every student was hushed. Mrs. Calder tried to intimidate the girl with her stare, to no avail. So she tried to achieve the effect with the frosty pride in her voice. "The point is really about _American_ intolerance. This play speaks truth to power, daring to break step with American national chauvinism, daring to pioneer a new path away from automatic super-patriotism."

Daisy was unfazed. "A new path, Mrs. Calder? American patriotism and American culture were already being debunked long before I was born, also before you were born. Like in the Sixties movies M*A*S*H and Billy Jack. All this play does is make the _same_ accusations which have been heard constantly for more than forty years. What's new or daring about that?"

Mrs. Calder seethed. "Miss Kleinvelt, since you prefer not to accept the consensus and blend with the group, it would probably spare you and us distress if you end your participation in this production."

"What distresses me, Mrs. Calder, is that you never answered my original question. Goodnight, everyone."

Jason and Kaitlyn, who were not needed here as much as Dan was, offered to drive Daisy home. She accepted. Only after Daisy had left the auditorium did Mrs. Сalder grumble to herself, "Homeschoolers!"

Dan, having said nothing during this, felt almost like Peter denying Jesus. Yet he had openly declared his faith many times before now; he had even marched in the rally for Deputy Kramer. Did he personally have to be in _every_ confrontation in the spiritual war? No, surely there was a place for the indirect, the subtle, the diplomatic. The Body was not all one organ; it had Alipangs for the aggressive action, but Dan was designed for other things.

He hoped he was right. Mrs. Calder told the cast to turn to the beginning of Act Two. Dan _really_ hoped he was right. But he admired the freshman girl who had just made a genuine sacrifice for convictions.
 
With no evening rehearsal on the next Sunday, Dan grabbed at the chance to ask Chilena out, to try to mend fences with her insofar as this might be needed. They went to Amore Casual, the Italian restaurant which had been the scene of their very first dinner date, more than a year ago. At the same time, Alipang and Kim went to dine together at the Pansit Paradise, out of loyalty to the Imadas. Dan and Chilena had a very deep conversation; Kim and Alipang learned that no catering jobs were in the offing at present.

More out of the ordinary than any of this was what happened after Kim dropped off Alipang at the Havens house, considerably ahead of Chilena's return. Melody, now exactly the middle child in the Havens family and still homeschooled, asked if SHE could have a downstairs meeting with her big brother tonight.

Most of this meeting, held in the family room, was quite simple. It consisted of Melody sitting on Alipang's lap facing forward, with her head tilted back to rest alongside his, while they watched the extended DVD of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Harmony invited herself there also for the first twenty minutes, and got a share of Alipang's attention too, but then allowed Mommy to call her away to something else. Chilena did get home before the movie was over--but allowed Melody to retain possession of their brother. Fair was fair. Melody didn't have to say aloud that she was pleased to see her big sister NOT monopolizing Alipang. Chilena used the time to tell her father about her talk with Dan, and then to catch up on homework.

Only when the ending credits were rolling, after Aslan's farewell roar from within the Wardrobe, did Melody say something of substance:

"Al, are you going to marry Kim as soon as you have your grownup birthday?"

"No, little honey, not that soon. It isn't even totally certain that she and I will marry at all."

"Don't you want to marry her?"

"Of course I do. But I can't marry anyone until I have some kind of steady income. At the moment, Uncle Rafael can only give me work now and then. Then besides needing work, I have to figure out with Mom and Dad where I'm going to go to college, after I've gotten what I can get from the community college."

Melody swivelled her head around to look her hero in the eyes. "But that's years! What if some other boy marries Kim before then?"

"If that happens, I'll feel bad about it, but it'll show that God wasn't planning for me to marry her after all. And by the way, Melody, thank you for not suggesting that I just beat up the other boy."

The little girl nestled closer to her brother. "You're welcome. I know that's not how love works."

After Melody went to bed, once the house was quiet, Alipang and Chilena found each other and made for the living-room sofa without either needing to suggest it. Lap-sitting and initial hugs and kisses proceeded in the customary fashion, before Chilena commenced her account of the dinner with Dan. There was no need to tell Alipang what had happened to Daisy Kleinvelt; they already knew this from school. But Chilena now could relate how Dan felt about staying safe himself while someone else made a sacrifice:

"He told me he had spent some time reading the Bible book he's named for. It struck him that THE Daniel seemed not to have been present for the fiery-furnace incident, and his lion's-den incident happened much later in life. So Dan felt a little better: figured it wasn't his time to draw the line in the sand. He still hopes to win the trust and the ears of the unbelieving kids; later, he may feel it's God's will for him to be more unbending in some different situation."

Alipang hugged Chilena more closely. "I've wondered about Daniel myself. I think he was out of town on some government errand at the time of the furnace incident, and so simply wasn't there to be called on to worship the idol in Babylon. One way or another, I hope that OUR Daniel doesn't fall into a lasting habit of compromise."

Chilena tightened her arms around her brother's neck. "Amen. I can live with his believing he's supposed to be diplomatic. But if he ever becomes outright ashamed of the gospel, I'll be ashamed of him."

Having just this evening discussed the theoretical possibility of a breakup with Kim, Alipang found it unsettling to have the same possibility ALSO brought up for his sister and her boyfriend. But he knew exactly where, under God, both he and Chilena would look for moral support in such an eventuality.

They remained warmly clasped together for a very long time.
 
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On Saturday, 31 October, Brendan Hyland was part of a four-man patrol led by Lance Corporal Mendoza. They were touring a marketplace area which for several days had seemed to be clear of hostiles. It wasn't clear of disgusting sights, though; the four Americans came upon a local butcher who was keeping flies off a freshly-hung beef carcass--by spraying the meat with insect repellent. Seeing this on top of seeing other carcasses which had not been sprayed against flies, Brendan almost wanted to become a sworn vegetarian then and there.

The other two Marines, Privates Wilcox and Fletcher, turned to shake the hands of two little Afghan boys who trotted up to greet them and beg for treats. Wilcox was carrying some granola bars, and gave these to the boys; Fletcher added some local coins.

Three bulky black burkas were waddling across the square, each carrying a baby swaddled against the increasingly cool autumn weather. Brendan had wondered how Afghan women could survive in those things in summer; at least now the burkas might give welcome warmth.

But they also gave concealment.

Mendoza, alert as usual, shouted, "Down!"--as compact, concealable automatic weapons, MAC-10's or something similar, appeared in the free hands of the cloth-muffled beings. The native shoppers scattered. Brendan hit the deck with Mendoza, already doing the same thing Mendoza was doing: aiming to shoot at the legs and abdomens of the terrorists, thus not hitting the babies.

Wilcox and Fletcher, also caring about the lives of children, made it their first reaction to shove the boys next to them out of the line of fire. They saved those children's lives, but they would have to be given their reward for this in the next world; more than ten bullets each hit them, killing them instantly. Ten yards behind them, a vendor of teapots and cups also fell wounded.

Retribution was swift. Shooting prone, Brendan and Mendoza poured their fire as perfectly into the legs and bowels of their attackers as was possible through the obscuring burkas. No friendlies appeared to be hit by their bullets, anyway. The three disguised men dropped into the dust; the babies, dropping with them, cried piteously. Mendoza snaked across the ground, put a finishing bullet into each terrorist, and looked to be sure the babies had not been hit. They were all unhurt. Mendoza had already seen that Wilcox and Fletcher were unmistakably dead. Forcing grief to wait for later, he radioed for reinforcements.

Meanwhile, a bullet smacked into the dirt an inch from Brendan's ear. Sniper in a window. Rolling furiously, Brendan was just in time to see which window the sniper was ducking back from. The last two rounds in his clip at least persuaded the sniper to stay out of sight for a moment. Brendan changed clips frantically, though a part of his brain screamed that he should be trying to help Wilcox and Fletcher.

Today was the first time that buddies had died right next to him.

When the sniper reappeared, one window over, Brendan and Mendoza were both ready. An instant later, that adversary was joining his friends in the opposite place from where Wilcox and Fletcher had just gone.

* * * * * * * *

Ricardo Mendoza took it on himself to write to the families of Wilcox and Fletcher. He made a vehement point of the difference between his brother Marines who had died saving the lives of children, and the Taliban partisans who had forcibly taken babies from their mothers to use as human shields. Mendoza had long been aware of how many Americans actually needed to have this difference _explained_ to them. In each letter, Mendoza included this observation: "So many people tell us that we have to learn to be better than our enemies. I've got news for them: we already ARE better than our enemies. Your son proved that."

Taliban sympathizers in the town, knowing the exact circumstances of the ambush, began spreading complaints that the Geneva Conventions had been violated....by the Marines. When Brendan, getting over the first shock of losing his two friends, heard about this, he bitterly remarked, "But of course! It happened on Halloween; we should have known they were just trick-or-treaters!"

But the attempt to fabricate a phony war-crimes charge against Mendoza and Brendan got nowhere, because there were two native Afghan witnesses willing and able to give a true and compelling testimony:

The boys Wilcox and Fletcher had saved.
 
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The following Thursday was IT: Alipang Havens' eighteenth birthday. Alipang had heard by e-mail about Brendan's loss of two friends, and had sent back a message of sympathy. Tonight, however, Alipang could be pardoned for being in a happy mood. Not only was he crossing the line to legal adulthood; but the Virginia gubernatorial election had gone the way he would have voted if he had been able to vote two days ago. And on the intervening Wednesday evening, a _fourth_ healthcare townhall meeting had been held in the area. Dr. Havens had not needed to run that one; a lady optometrist from Plattford, who had just lately joined the volunteer corps of the Smoky Lake Free Clinic, had stepped up to be the emcee. Word was that she had spoken very eloquently about the prospect of all non-governmental health coverage being taxed as a form of income.

"Will you forgive me for not hiring you to work _this_ catering job?" asked Mr. Imada, as he personally handed Alipang a paper plate heaped with lumpia in the fellowship room of Redemption Church.

"Of course he will," replied Kim Tisdale, before Alipang could even speak. She was standing beside her sometime boss, also dishing out food. She was earning money by helping Rafael and Carmen to cater this party, which was also freeing Maria Ramos to stay at the Pansit Paradise and keep it open tonight for regular business; and Kim's important role in this party was itself her birthday gift to her boyfriend. No one, least of all the boyfriend, thought less of Kim for the practicality of her actions.

"Of course I will," Alipang echoed. "After all, I'm a grown man now, and I'm above childish things--for a few minutes, anyway. Kim, when you're able to leave your post, I'll be saving you a seat next to me."

Kim winked at him. "I should certainly hope so, _Mister_ Havens." Privately, Kim was glad that she had not made the wisecrack which had crossed her mind, about her needing tonight's work to make back the money she had spent on gasoline, driving Alipang to places because he did not yet own a car. She was aware that he was saving all the money he could for his focussed purpose of going to dental school. His Uncle Doug and Aunt Tracy were reported to have sent him a 300-dollar birthday check, every cent of which Alipang had placed in his college account.

On his way to his seat, Alipang was intercepted by Summer Heron's father. "Al, you're not going to give up telling jokes now just because you're an old man, are you?"

"Never, sir; humor will keep me youthful at this advanced age. Do you know where motorcycles are mentioned in the Bible?....Joshua's Triumph was heard throughout the land."
 
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