"I'm sure glad you guys came by. Sorry you couldn't stay longer," she said, not feeling ready to say good-bye to either of them.

She would have loved to jump into the truck with them and go down to San Diego to their G.o.d-Lovers fellowship. She would have loved to hear Rick lead a Bible study and see firsthand what was going on in his life. Could it be that he really was getting serious about G.o.d?

"We'll all have to get together and do something during Christmas break," Doug said. "Are you going to be around, Christy?"

"Yes, I'll be around. We should do that. It would be fun!"

Doug gave her another bear hug before hopping up into his truck's front seat. "You can come down and see us anytime. Or if you can't come, send cookies!"

Christy laughed.

"I'm serious," Doug said. "Remember those cookies you made for Todd and me last Christmas? Those were the best cookies I've ever had."

"I'll see what I can do," Christy said with a smile. "Oh, but wait! I don't have your address."

Doug scrounged underneath his seat for a piece of paper and pulled out an empty French fry wrapper. "Here," he said, handing the wrapper to Rick along with a pen from his glove box. "Give her our address."

Rick scribbled down the address. When he handed it to Christy, she reached for the paper with her right hand, and her bracelet came into plain view.

She watched Rick's face for any indication that he had noticed. He seemed to be looking at it, but the only change on his face were the corners of his mouth, which moved slightly upward. He didn't look at her. He didn't say anything.

Without even a good-bye hug, Rick hopped into the pa.s.senger side of the truck. He reached for his sungla.s.ses on the dashboard, slipped them on, and rested his arm on the rim of the open window.

"Bye," Christy said, sad -that they were leaving after such a short visit. "I'm glad you guys came by. Next time stay longer, okay?"

Doug revved up the engine. Right before he backed out of the driveway, he called out, "Don't forget about sending those cookies!"

"I won't." Christy waved the French fry wrapper in the air. "I'll send you some. I promise!"

Rick held up his hand, all five fingers outstretched in a frozen wave, as they backed up and headed down the street. She couldn't read his expression because the dark gla.s.ses covered his eyes. Very unsettling.

The encounter left her full of questions. Rick didn't seem like his old, domineering self. He didn't really seem mad. Was he hurt? Was it hard for him to be around her with Doug there, since they hadn't talked in so long? Did he feel the same way that Christy did, that things weren't completely cleared up between them?

She decided to go inside and call Katie to get her opinion.

"She's not here," Katie's brother said when he answered the phone.

"Could you please tell her I called and I'll see her tomorrow at school?"

The next morning, as Christy grabbed her lunch off the counter on her way to school, Mom said, "Why don't you take that post office notice with you and pick up your package? I didn't get there this weekend."

Christy had forgotten all about the mystery package from 96817. She found the slip, stuck it in her purse, and rushed out the door.

In English cla.s.s, her teacher finally handed back their essays on "ATrue Friend Isa" Christy got a B-minus, with a note that said, "Try working a little harder on sentence structure."

This shouldn't have been that hard. Wry is it so tough for me to put my feelings into words? I guess it doesn't help much that Ym being graded for sentence structure instead of what I said.

The teacher gave them the last fifteen minutes of cla.s.s to work on their next reading a.s.signment. Christy pulled out her book and began to read, determined to finish in cla.s.s so she wouldn't have more homework.

The girl behind Christy tapped her on the shoulder and slipped her a note. It was from Katie, and it said, "Do you want to read my paper? I got an A!"

Christy turned her head in Katie's direction and, with a smile, nodded her head. The paper was pa.s.sed up to Christy while the teacher wrote on the board.

Sure enough, at the top of the page was a big A. Katie's first line was a quote: Piglet sidled up to Pooh.

"Pooh!" he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."

Her paper went on to describe a true friend as someone who is there for you all the time, no matter what. Someone you don't have to impress because you always know you can be yourself and that person will still accept you. She even quoted Proverbs 1717: "A friend loves at all times."

The last few lines of Katie's paper said, I feel I am more blessed than many people because I have this kind of friend in my life. A friend who is always therefor me no matter what. A friend who accepts me as I am but loves me too much to let me stay that way. Yes, I would say I am blessed because I have a true friend.

Christy bit her lower lip, feeling self-conscious and guilty. She didn't exactly measure up to all the qualities that Katie had listed as true friend characteristics. She would be a better friend to Katie.

Christy handed the paper back to Katie at lunch and said, "It's really good. I have to tell you that it made me feel guilty though."

"Why?" Katie asked.

"The way you described your true friend as always being there for you and accepting you in every situationa" Christy hesitated. "I mean, that's really a strong statement."

"You think it was too strong? I thought I watered it down too much." Katie examined the paper. "I even changed the last line before I handed it in. At first I had, 'I have a true friend, and His name is Jesus Christ.' But then I thought she might lower my grade."

Oh! That makes sense. The Lord is always there, and all those other things Katie wrote about Him are true too. Man, am I arrogant or what, to think Katie wrote about me!

"By the way," Katie said. "Can you give me a ride home today? My brother borrowed my car again."

"I'll have to call my mom and ask, but I'm sure it'll be okay. I have to stop by the post office anyway. I received this strange notice that a'package was sent to me with postage due."

"It's probably that free sample of sunscreen we sent away for last summer," Katie suggested. "I still haven't gotten mine."

"Could be," Christy said.

"Why? You think it's from Rick or something?"

"No. Oh! I didn't tell you yet! Did your brother mention I called last night?"

"Mr. Message Messer-Upper? No, not likely."

"Where were you? Did Glen come by?"

"No, I was at the grocery store with my mom. Glen didn't even call. Or maybe he did, and my brother forgot to give me the message. I'll see Glen Wednesday night at Bible study, and I'll find out then. Why did you call?"

"No big reason. Only to tell you that Rick and Doug came by yesterday."

Katie stopped eating her sandwich, and her eyes grew huge. "Why didn't you tell me? What happened? Did he notice your bracelet?"

Christy gave a detailed rundown of the situation.

Katie presented her evaluation. "If you ask me, Rick is still hurting over your breaking up with him. And if you want my opinion on that, it was good for the boy. About time someone showed him what it feels like."

"That's not why I broke up with him."

"You broke up with him because he was a jerk, right?"

"No, Katie. He's not a jerk. He's just Rick."

"Same thing," Katie muttered.

"No, it isn't. It's hard to explain why I broke up with him. At the time it was based a lot on my feelings, and I knew I was doing the right thing. The only way I can describe it is that Rick didn't have a spiritual dimension to him, and I really missed that, since Todd is 90 percent spiritual and IO percent emotions. Rick was like 90 percent emotions, and I don't know how much of anything else. But when I saw him yesterday, he seemed more spiritual. He definitely wasn't the same guy. I think Doug has been a good influence on him."

"That's great. Really, I mean it. I know we're not supposed to judge, but with Rick it always seemed like he was playing Christian. You couldn't tell if it was real to him, or if it was all stuff he was role-playing since he's been going to that church ever since he was a baby."

"I'd like to believe it's becoming real to him," Christy said. "That's what I'm going to start praying for. I put Jennifer, Shannon, and Tiffany on my prayer list. Maybe I should add Rick too."

"The one you should be praying for is Todd," Katie said. "You never heard back from him after you sent that card, did you?"

"No."

"Don't look like that, Christy."

"Like what?"

"You have that look that says, *Todd has forgotten about me, and I'm never going to see him again in my entire life.' You know that's not true," Katie chided.

"Sometimes it's hard to know what's true." Christy tried not to sound sad. She looked down and spun her bracelet around her wrist. "I guess it's all the stuff on the true friend essays and being reminded of it today. I guess I feel like Piglet. Sometimes I just want to be sure of Pooh, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But the Lord is the only one who is always going to be there for us every single time. You know that."

"I know that about the Lord, but I never know what to think about Todd."

"If you want my opiniona" Katie hesitated.

Christy smiled, "You know I always want your opinion, or at least almost always."

Katie smiled back, "Well, whether you want it or not, my opinion on Todd is that you should always go back to what you know is true and repeat it to yourself. That way you won't get so confused with all these uncertainties."

"What do you mean?"

"Like those verses you wrote him from Philippians about how you thank G.o.d for him and how it's only right for you to feel that way because you hold him in your heart. He said he'd be your friend forever, remember? He promised you that."

"You're right. I need to remember a quote I used in my paper." Christy pulled out her essay and showed Katie. "*My treasures are my friends.'"

"Right," Katie added, "and some friends are 'peculiar treasures.' I'd say Todd falls into the 'peculiar treasure' category."

The bell interrupted their pondering. Christy shoved her paper back in her notebook and said with a sigh, "I hope you're right, Katie."

"Of course I'm right. You know I'm right. Well, at least most of the time." "

Christy smiled. "See you after school. I'm off to Spanish."

"My favorite subject lately," Katie said with her comical glint. "Don't forget to call your mom to see if you can take me home."

The remainder of the day went quickly, and Christy met Katie at her car. "My mom said it was fine for me to take you home. Is it okay if we stop at the post office first?"

"You're the driver," Katie said, dropping her backpack on the floor of the car. "How do you manage to keep your car so clean?"

"Mom's orders. She has a thing about dirty cars."

"I guess it doesn't hurt that your brother isn't old enough to borrow it yet," Katie said.

When they were in front of the post office, Christy parked the car and asked Katie if she wanted to come in.

"Are you kidding? You've got my curiosity going on this mysterious package. Do you have the claim slip?"

"Right here." Christy pulled it out of her backpack.

Four people were in line ahead of them, and soon five more people filed in behind them. When Christy reached the window, she handed the clerk the slip of paper and said, "I have a package with postage due. Here's the 57 cents I owe on it."

"Just a moment." The clerk took off for the back with the slip in his hand. He returned right away with his hand behind his back and a funny grin on his face.

"Are you Christy Miller?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Do you know anyone named Phil?"

"Phil?" Christy turned to Katie to see if she recognized the name. "No, I don't think so."

"Just wondering," the clerk said. "Here you go." He plopped a big, egg-shaped, greenish object on the counter. Her address was written on one side in thick black letters. "It's all yours."

"What's that?" Katie asked. "Some kind of overgrown kiwi?"

"No, it's a coconut," Christy said. "That's what they look like when they fall off the trees in Hawaii."

As soon as she said "Hawaii," her eyes grew big. She and Katie locked gazes, their mouths dropping open in unison. The girls quickly moved to the side wall, out of the way of the gawking customers.

"Turn it over, turn it over!" Katie urged. "What's written on the other side?"

Her heart pounding, Christy obediently turned over the coconut and spotted some more black letters. Aloud she read, '"Phil. 1:7-' What does that mean?"

"Philippians!" Catie practically screamed. "Phil is short for Philippians. Don't you get it? He's sending your message back to you. I can't believe this! This is so incredible! What are those other words? They're kind of smeared. Can you read them?"

Christy held the coconut in the light, with Katie's face right beside hers. "I think it says, Iaholdayouainamya hearta too.'"

"Ayhhhhhhhhhhh!" Both girls screamed and grabbed each other by the shoulders. Suddenly aware of their curious audience, Katie pushed Christy out of the post office and into the parking lot.