The Humper Game Pt. 05 Ch. 06

Aunt Sally waited a moment, then said, "Phil, you'll probably like tonight's dinner better than last night's casserole. For this, the broth does get thickened. But you did the hard work earlier. Now the three of you go off and enjoy yourselves for a while. I'll get the pies made later, and when they're in the oven maybe you'll set the table."

When we went out, I told the girls, "I want a nap, I'm afraid. Is it all right with you if I leave you two to your girl talk and do that?"

Ellen said, "I might want to join you, and I may do that in the end. But for the moment, what you suggested sounds good to me." So they headed outside, probably to those benches again, and I went upstairs and lay down. Despite the time of day and the lack of true darkness, it took me probably a minute to be asleep.

It wasn't quite so light when I woke up, and I woke because Ellen was shaking me. "Phil!" she said firmly but quietly. I managed to sit up. I had been deeply enough asleep that I was having trouble figuring out where I was and what was happening, for a minute or two.

Ellen said, "Phil, Kelly is downstairs setting the table, and dinner will be on it soon. Sally told me to go make sure you were awake, which is why I'm not setting the table and helping downstairs. Wake up!"

I said, "Will you please give me a hand as I stand up? I think I won't fall, but I really am still kind of asleep." She did that, and once I was sure I was steady on my feet I gave her a quick kiss and we went out. In the upstairs bathroom, I washed my face with cold water, then used the toilet, washed my hands, and combed my hair. I headed downstairs, feeling much wider awake but not sure I'd remain so once I was seated for a few minutes.

So I just stood and watched as Ellen helped Kelly and Aunt Sally get dinner on the table. The pot pie was in a large casserole dish, and it looked like it probably had a bottom crust as well as a top—which proved true in the eating. It looked and smelled wonderful. And I've already mentioned how good it tasted. I gradually woke up completely as I ate.

We talked about Ellen's classes. A lot the topics were things I didn't know anything about, but it was all very interesting. I did say more than either Kelly or Aunt Sally, but Uncle John knew enough to keep up his end of the conversation. And I'm quite sure Kelly and Aunt Sally enjoyed the discussion as much as I did. Ellen found herself forced to stop and explain technical jargon from time to time, and of course she did so very ably. Again, I found myself overcome with emotion, that this beautiful, kind, intelligent woman loved me enough to want to be married to me.

We discussed the schedule for the morning. The girls and I weren't going running, but we needed to be ready in plenty of time for church. We decided that the three of us would drive separately, but when I said that I would again like to be there to hear the musicians rehearse and warm up, as well as for Sunday School, both of them were willing. I also warned everyone that if I could, I planned to ask Pastor Billings for a few minutes to talk with Ellen and me. We all agreed that if this came off, Kelly would ride home with Uncle John and Aunt Sally.

Kelly told Ellen and me to go ahead and get ready for bed, taking priority in the bathroom, so that's how we did it. The other three continued to sit up talking a little longer. Ellen and I tried to keep the volume down as we made love, not just Ellen's orgasmic noises but everything, as we heard our hosts come upstairs and start getting ready for bed. We were both asleep before they were in bed themselves.

Sunday morning our alarm was set later than it had been the days before, but still with more than enough time to get ready before church. We took a little of it making love, then went down to shave and shower. When we were dressed, we went into the kitchen. Ellen made coffee while I fixed a sausage and egg casserole. I knew coffeemakers were simple to run, but I'd worked hard to avoid learning things like how much coffee to use. Probably there were instructions on the package, and if not there was always google.

There were various noises from upstairs, too.

We had knocked on Kelly's door to tell her the bathroom was available, and after her shower she set the table, while Ellen managed beverages and toast and things. Uncle John and Aunt Sally came down about as things were ready. Aunt Sally looked at us all with a happy smile on her face. "Thank you all so much. Your hosts are supposed to see that their guests are taken care of, and it's truly a luxury to find that you're all taking care of us this morning."

We sat down, and Aunt Sally prayed, giving thanks for what she had just mentioned as well as for other blessings. She also praised the food, once she had tasted it. Conversation was light and very pleasant, I thought for everyone. We didn't rush, but we still left for church rather earlier than Uncle John and Aunt Sally usually would have. Ellen and I—with Kelly—drove separately, this time.

In fact, we arrived before the normal greeters were in place at the door. I knew from experience that at least one of them would usually be there a few minutes before the musicians' practice began. The pastor was doing what pastors often do that far before service time—moving around from place to place, seeing to last-minute details and speaking briefly to many different people, often regarding those last-minute details but also just to greet people and to be available to his congregation. He saw us and came over, saying hello to Uncle John and Aunt Sally—who then went off where they would be needed—and to us. He remembered me, and greeted me warmly by name. I introduced Ellen to him.

"Pastor, I'd like you to meet Ellen Chan. We expect to be getting married, probably next spring or summer, but we're not formally engaged yet. We have yet to meet each other's families, and there are a few other details to clear up."

They spoke briefly, and then I said, "And this is our good friend, Kelly Greene. We asked Uncle John and Aunt Sally to let us bring her here with us for Thanksgiving. She's a believer, but—"

As I paused to think of some way to say what I meant politely but also clearly, Kelly just jumped in herself. "When Phil and Ellen met me, in the beginning of September, I was pretty ignorant, even though I was brought up in church, and I had a lot of questions. They've been good enough to meet with me every Friday evening to study the Bible and discuss my questions, and that's been wonderful. But Phil doesn't feel well qualified to give spiritual counsel—even though he's done a fabulous job at it with me!—and he thought it would help me to talk with John and Sally. And it has! This weekend has been a blessing to me in so many ways!

"I wouldn't have been doing anything special for Thanksgiving, and John and Sally have been so welcoming. I'll treasure the memory of this time forever."

As she said all this, the pastor shot a rather sharp look at me once, but his attention was on Kelly. He said, "John has said something to me about you all, and I'm very pleased to meet you two ladies. Would it be possible for all of you to stay after the service and talk more to me? I'm afraid it won't be right away, but I really would like a little time with you when I can give you my full attention."

I said, "I was hoping that you would be available then to talk to Ellen and me. So thank you very much."

Kelly said, "I would love to, if I won't be in the way of what Phil and Ellen wanted to discuss."

I said, "Not at all. You're aware of most of what we want to ask, and none of it is extremely personal or anything. Um. It's personal in the sense that it's about us, of course, I mean it's not confidential." A few moments later, I thought with amusement that "confidential" had meant what I used it to mean for a very long time, but that this was still a rather odd meaning for that word.

The pastor took his leave, hailing someone else as he walked away from us. I led the girls into the auditorium, and we sat in a pew where we would be able to see and hear the musicians. Actually, of course, we already could. Their practice, or warmup, session hadn't started yet, but most of them were already present and tuning or running over bits and warming up for themselves. The result was a not unpleasant chaos, mostly reasonably quiet.

I told Ellen, "I was hoping that Uncle John had spoken to Pastor about you and me. The last time I was here, I was with Sam. I'm pretty sure we'll get questions from a lot of other people who haven't been clued in, though. I will say, other than Sam's putting her head on my shoulder as she cried during the sermon, and my putting my arm around her then, there wasn't anything to say to everyone that she had any claim on me. But I'm sure people jumped to conclusions."

About then, Aunt Sally began running through some of the songs, and the other instrumentalists mostly joined in, one stanza each for the most part. Some of the choir sang along, too. They stopped when the director arrived and stood in front of his stand. He briefly reviewed what was planned for the whole service and how the music fit into it. Then they went through all the music for the service, beginning with the music for congregational singing, and then going through the choir's song twice, stopping to work on some bits that needed it. Ellen and Kelly and I mostly listened, but we talked quietly part of the time.

As the practice ended, I told the girls, "Last time, Sam and I went to Uncle John's class. If I were alone, that's where I'd go again—I got on well with them. But classes here are basically by age—I don't know what you're used to, Kelly, but I think that's pretty common. We can ask after a class our age, or go where our hosts go, and I think you two should decide. Though we don't all have to go together."

Ellen grinned and said, "With you, anything, Phil. Yes, I'm teasing, but I really mean I'm OK with any choice as long as I can stay with you for it."

Kelly said, "It's not like I'll be here every Sunday, probably not ever again in fact. I'd say that if you fit into that class last time, and since we're here as John and Sally's guests, we should go to their class. If it's all right with them, anyway."

So we went up to Aunt Sally at the piano, waiting until she was through talking to one of the other instrumentalists. I said, "If we were going to be here all the time, we should probably go to a younger class. But we thought we'd rather go with you again, if it's all right."

"Certainly! You're all here as our guests. Even if Phil and Ellen started coming every month or so, that might make sense." She looked at Kelly and said, "I hope you won't feel too much like Daniel in the den of lions, though."

"Uncle John didn't press Sam with questions last time, just me. I'm reasonably sure he won't push either Kelly or Ellen. He knows where they are." I looked at Ellen. "He may put me on a spit and grill me, though."

At any rate, we waited a few minutes, and then went with Aunt Sally. Many of the people in the class remembered me from three months before and greeted us all warmly. I introduced Ellen as my girlfriend and likely soon to be fiancée, and Kelly as our friend who had come with us for Thanksgiving to the Goodfriends'. I was asked about Sam, and reported some on what she was doing. I told them that Uncle John and Aunt Sally had copies of some drawings Sam had done, one portraying a difficult time in my life, the other about difficult decisions Sam was facing, and suggested that they would find these worth looking at. I took a moment to remind them all of why I referred to the Goodfriends as aunt and uncle.

At Ellen's suggestion, I pulled out my phone, and pulled up the images of Sam's drawings to show those who were interested. I thought a couple of them knew something about art, and were likely to come look at them full size one of those days. Everyone admired them, as well as they could be seen in such a small depiction. And I said that Sam was considering designs for an engagement ring for Ellen, but that since this was a new area for her nothing might come of that.

By then it was time for class to begin—past time, in fact—and we all sat down. I hadn't thought to ask Uncle John what the lesson concerned, but unsurprisingly it was a later passage in the same book they had been studying at the end of August—Isaiah, as it happened. Uncle John had lent Kelly and me Bibles, saying Ellen could look on with me. He felt that since the church officially used the King James Version, it would be well for us to have that. The previous time, I had just depended on memory.

Once again, I tried to keep quiet, and once again I wasn't successful. This time, it wasn't primarily Uncle John who asked me to comment, though, but several of the more active participants in the discussion. I was still flattered by the high opinion they had of me, and I did enjoy the discussion quite a lot. I could tell that Kelly still found the archaic language of that version an obstacle, but on the other hand we had gone over part of the chapter at one point and she understood what it was saying quite well. Ellen had no problem with the language, and offered a comment once—nothing very profound, but as she gently corrected what someone else had said, she made a good impression.

During the service, we sat with Uncle John, as Sam and I had in August. For the sermon, Aunt Sally came down and joined us. Uncle John was the one who went forward to read the scripture this Sunday, before the sermon. The text was from Jeremiah, chapter 9: "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."

Again, the sermon was very strong. And if the one Sam and I had listened to in August had seemed to be aimed straight at her, this one was equally aimed at me. I didn't have tears running down my cheeks, but I felt like crying pretty much all through it. I could make no claim to be particularly strong, and I certainly wasn't rich—except, I reflected, in contrast to many, many people in the world, who simply weren't the ones confronting me day to day. Did I in fact take pride in my riches? I hoped not, but maybe I did. But I surely liked to think of myself as wise, and yes, I took pride in it. And one of these days I was going to have to make a decision about whether I could really do that.

I managed not to cry, but Ellen clearly noticed something, and moved up tight against me, putting her arm around me for a moment and hugging me hard. This wasn't a position she could maintain comfortably in the pew—and she was short enough that she couldn't put her arm across my shoulders, as I had for Sam—but she clasped my right hand in her left, and held it tightly.

Toward the end of the sermon, the pastor brought in 1 Corinthians 6:1-2: "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" He read the context from which Paul had quoted, from Isaiah 49, and noted that to some degree this could only apply to Christ himself—of no one else could it truly be said that God would give him for a covenant for the peoples, in particular—but that the larger context also clearly indicated that this passage was for the comfort and correction of God's people. He put himself down as agreeing with Calvin regarding these verses, that if we ask why God enlightened us at the particular time he did, the ultimate answer had to be that it was God's sovereign choice, not ours, and that though our choice was necessary, it could occur only as the working out of God's choice, God's good pleasure. He promised to continue on that thought the next week, by bringing in the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

In the meantime, he went back to Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians. He called all of his hearers not to receive God's grace in vain. For any who were willing to listen, now was the accepted time, the day of salvation. For any who did not believe, it was time to stop considering and believe. For those who did believe, it was time to be doing the Lord's work, of which Isaiah had specifically mentioned bringing freedom to prisoners.

The instrumentalists went forward to lead the final song, the choir being at that point scattered among the congregation. As always, I listened and enjoyed without disturbing those around me by trying to sing, but the words of the song again pierced my heart. It was the hymn Aunt Sally had played and sung for us. I could tell that the congregation as a whole wasn't familiar with it, and having choir members—who had rehearsed it earlier, and probably even before that morning—having them all around was a great asset. I was still very near weeping, and Ellen had her arm around me as we stood. She certainly sang it strongly.

After the benediction, quite a few people came over to speak to us, even as we were still in the pew. Initially, I couldn't really respond. Ellen looked at me with concern, and replied on my behalf as well as her own, apologizing for me, explaining that both the sermon and the hymn had greatly moved me. After three or four minutes I began to recover, enough to speak politely anyway.

Some of the people who came to greet us were people we hadn't met. They either habitually greeted strangers, or else spoke to us as the Goodfriends' guests. Others were those whom we had met before the service, mostly in Sunday School, plus a number who remembered me from August. Kelly managed to handle her share of the attention, speaking for herself, explaining herself as Ellen's friend and mine. As for Ellen and me, our engaged-to-be-engaged state was readily accepted when we mentioned wanting to meet each other's families before formalizing things.

We gradually moved out of the auditorium. Uncle John and Aunt Sally had collected their things and gone out a while earlier, and were deep in conversation with others. Some people more our age carried Kelly off to an adjoining room where there were some snacks. Ellen and I continued speaking with people who came up to us. Enough asked about Sam that I finally just kept her drawings open on my phone so I could show them. We received a lot of best wishes for going ahead toward marriage. Again, as had happened in August, a few people from the Sunday School class came to follow up on points that had been raised—that is, to ask what I thought.

At a point when no one was with us, Ellen murmured, "You certainly made a good impression this morning, and I assume when you were here with Sam."

"Remind me later to tell you what Sam said about it. I was mystified, the last time."

As the throng dwindled, the pastor came to invite us to his office. I said, "Ellen, will you please let Uncle John and Aunt Sally know where we'll be? And please apologize to her for our absence when she's starting on dinner preparations. I'll go collect Kelly." The pastor told me where his office was, and went with Ellen over to Uncle John and Aunt Sally.

When we all were there, we sat at a table in the pastor's office. I had grabbed a cup of tea while in collecting Kelly, and Ellen and the pastor had stopped by for cups of coffee. He started by saying to me, "I'm glad John had spoken to me about the situation. I had gotten the impression that you and Samantha were heading toward marriage. He said that both of you had told them from the outset that you thought Ellen was the likely one for you, and that much as they might wish otherwise for Samantha's sake, he and Sally both felt that you were in fact being wise. I understand that you—" looking at Ellen "—visited briefly on your way to college, and had talked to them whenever Phil called them, and they approve very highly of you. So I'm very pleased to have a little time with you." He turned to Kelly. "And John mentioned you as well. He said that he was sure that Phil was giving you a good grounding in the scriptures, but that Phil felt you needed spiritual advice as well, which he didn't feel he could give. I know that after the past three days he could tell me a lot more, and I'm sure we will talk some, but I really wish you would tell me a bit more about yourself."