Leap of Faith by Cassidy Shay (the giving tree read aloud .txt) 📕

When I look at the clock, it’s 7:15. I bolt out of bed and rush to throw some clothes on. I’m late. I’m really late. Luckily, I took my shower last night. I hurry up and get dressed, shave, and hop in the car at 7:32. I knock on her door at 7:40. I breathe a sigh of relief. Only ten minutes late.

Lisa opens the door. “Hi, Mikey,” she says. “Amia’s almost ready. This is like the one time that she’s ever been late.” 

I smile. “Thanks.” She leads me to the kitchen, where she’s eating cereal.

“Do you always get up this early on weekends?” She looks like she’s never been up this early in her life.

“Only on Sundays. When I was little, we lived in a different part of town, and mass was at seven. So this isn’t too bad.” I lean against the counter. “Don’t you go to church? Amia said that you’re the only one in the family who still does that.”

She smiles. “It doesn’t start until five in the evening. I can sleep in as late as I want.”

I hear footsteps, and I turn towards the doorway. Amia’s there, in a black skirt and purple shirt.

“Sorry for making you wait,” she says.

I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it. We have plenty of time. I just like to get there early, especially if you want to sit up front.”

We say goodbye to Lisa and head out the door. As we drive to the church, I explain a couple things. “There are lots of times when you stand, sit, or kneel. Just do what everyone else does, and you’ll be okay. And there’s communion, where you-.”

“Mikey. Focus on getting us there alive, and then you can tell me all of this. Okay?”

I look at her face, which is pale. Her hand is wrapped around the door handle so tight that her knuckles are white.

“Sorry,” I say. I’d had my head turned so that she could read my lips, so I wasn’t able to watch the road as well as I should have been.

In a couple minutes, I park the car in the church parking lot and we walk in through the big doors. Once we’re seated in a pew, I start whispering to her.

“Okay. So stand, sit, and kneel as we do. For communion, you can either stay here in the pew or you can go up with me. If you go up with me, you’ll get a blessing from Father. And you’ll walk like this,” I cross my arms, making an X across my chest, “to show that you aren’t receiving communion.”

She nods as I talk. “And, pretty much, just listen, enjoy, sing along with the songs.” I hand her a song book, flip to a page in the beginning. I realize that she might not actually sing, but she’ll probably want to read along with the lyrics instead of just standing there.

“I’ll let you know when we get to this prayer, and you can follow along with the readings here,” I flip to another page. “And all the songs are numbered.” I point to the sign up at the altar that tells which songs we’ll sing.

A couple minutes later, someone taps on my shoulder. I turn around and see Joe with his mom, dad, and sister. “Where are your mom and dad?”

“They went to see my grandma and grandpa,” I answer. Joe nods once, and then motions to Amia.

“Who’s your friend?” He smiles. “You’ve never brought a girl to church before.”

“It’s Amia. The girl from the radio. The deaf one.”

“Oh.” His voice gets a little louder, now that he’s not concerned with her hearing our conversation. “So you guys are pretty close, huh?” I nod. “That’s cool.” He taps her on the shoulder and she turns around. She seems a little startled that anyone is behind us.

“Hi,” she whispers.

Joe reaches his hand over the back of the pew, and she shakes it, confused. “I’m Mikey’s cousin,” he explains. “And he’s kind of my best friend.” He leans in closer to her. “So, you know. Back off.”

She tries to smile a little. She looks at me, and I gently push Joe back. “Ignore him,” I tell her. “He’s kind of a spaz.” She’s more relaxed now, and I introduce her to the rest of my family.

“This is Mary, Joe’s little sister. And Aunt Ruth, and Uncle Henry.” They all nod as I whisper their names. “This is Amia.”

Aunt Ruth frowns. “Is this the girl that your mother told me about?” I roll my eyes. She shakes her head. “I can imagine how upset your mother will be about this.”

Uncle Henry puts a hand on her arm. “Let it go. It’s not your responsibility to take care of him.” He looks at me and winks. “Now, you just enjoy your time with your girl.”

I turn back around and Amia smiles at me, but it’s still a little confused. “Does he think that you are I are dating?”

I sigh. “I think they all do. Which means I’ll probably get lectured by my mom about you and-.”

“What? Does your mom have a problem with me? Did I do something wrong?”

I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you later. But mass is about to start.”

After communion, I pull out the kneeler, fold my hands, and bow my head. But I don’t really pray. I just think about Amia, how she seems to really be enjoying herself. All my other friends who have gone to church with me have commented on how boring it is. But she seems to really enjoy it. Of course I don’t think that means she’ll get baptized tomorrow, but still.

After the final song ends, we exit the building. I stop to talk to a few of my parents’ friends, shake hands with Father Steve. “This is Amia, that girl that I told you about,” I tell him.

He grabs her hand and smiles. “It’s so nice to meet you, Amia,” he says. “You’ve made quite the impression on this young man.”

As we walk to the car, she lightly punches my shoulder. “You told him about me?”

“Of course,” I say. “Father Steve is a close friend. I used to be an altar server, up until just a couple years ago. And he’s been over at our house for countless dinners. He knows my whole family. Plus, he’s a priest. Of course I told him about the girl whose life is full of miracles.”

Once we get in the car, she exhales, long and slow. “What did you think?” I ask her.

A small smile appears on her face. “I really liked it. A lot. I felt like… Once I was in there, everything, all my problems went away.” She talks about how, a couple times, she wasn’t able to tell what was being said, but it was still worth it. “Can I come again next week?”

I nod and smile. “Of course you can. But for now, do you want to go home, or do you want to go get breakfast?” I look at my watch. “It’s about 9:20.”

Her stomach chooses that moment to let out a deep growl. “Alright, breakfast. Where do you want to go?”

She shrugs. “Anywhere is fine with me. On one condition. You have to remember to tell me why your mom doesn’t like me.”

“Okay,” I sigh. I pull out of the parking lot and drive a few blocks down the street to a little diner.

We walk in and are seated at a booth next to a window. There are waitresses on roller skates and ‘50’s rock and roll comes through the speakers.

Picking up a menu, I say, “They have lots of milkshakes here. They’ve got caramel, vanilla, banana, chocolate, and a bunch of other ones. Go ahead and order one. I know it’s kinda early for lunch, but you won’t regret it.” She nods, and turns her attention to the menu.

After a few minutes, she puts the menu down. “I know what I want,” she says. Once I close my menu, she looks around at the rest of the restaurant. “This is a cool place.” She puts her hands on the table, palm facing down so that she can feel the vibrations. “What kind of music are they playing?”

I tell her and she nods, then folds her hands. “Are you going to tell me about your mom now?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a waitress skating over to our table. “After we order,” I tell Amia.

“Hello,” says the waitress. “Welcome. What can I get for you today?” We order, and after she leaves, I look at Amia. She’s waiting for my explanation.

“You really don’t want to know. It’s not anything that matters, and none of it is anything that you’ve done wrong.”

“No, Mikey. I need to know. You’re…” She hesitates, takes a deep breath. “You’re my best friend. And we’ve known each other for several months and I’ve never even met your mom. I think I have a right to know what people say about me.”

I shake my head. “Okay. But it’s totally ridiculous, irrational, and just plain rude for her to think this way.”

Her eyes are on my lips, concentrating. “She doesn’t like that you’re not only not Catholic, but you don’t go to church. And the other thing is that your parents are divorced. So she thinks that you have no morals or structure in your life and that you’re a bad influence.”

She nods, her face solemn as she takes it in. After a couple seconds, she smiles, and then starts laughing. “She’s gonna get a real wake-up call when you go off to college.” She shakes her head slowly. “You’ll have way worse people hanging around you than me. And she won’t be able to stop you then.”

My head is tilted to the side a little, and I smile at her. I had expected her to get defensive, or just not say anything at all. But, like she always does, she surprised me.

We talk for a while, and then the waitress comes with our food. Since it’s only 10 or so, the restaurant is pretty empty. As she sets our plates down, she starts a little conversation.

“How long have you guys been dating?”

Amia was looking at her plate, so she didn’t hear the questions. “Oh,” I say, “No, we’re just friends.”

She winks at me. “Don’t worry. You’ll be out of the friend zone eventually.” She glances over at Amia, who’s trying to figure out what she missed.

“When the waitress leaves, Amia kicks me under the table. “Why did she look at me like that?”

I shrug, even though she knows I’m lying. “She just asked if I wanted fry sauce.” Amia reaches for the bottle of fry sauce that’s sitting by the napkins.

“Really? Even though there’s a full bottle right here?” She’s trying to be stern, to keep an angry look on her face, but it doesn’t last. I make a funny face and she laughs.

“You’re a turd,” she says. I just smile.

Later on, I drop her off at home. “I had an awesome time,” she says. “I’m going with you next week.”

I nod in agreement. “Sounds good to me.” I watch as she gets out of