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But do they know how
to craft fiction? Do
they know how to spin
lies?
His eyes swear forever,
flatter with vows of only
me. But are they empty
promises?
I stare into his eyes, as
into a crystal ball, but
I cannot find forever,
only
movies of yesterday,
a sketchbook of today,
dreams of a shared
tomorrow.
His eyes whisper secrets.
But are they truths or fairy tales?
I wonder if even he
knows.
Eden
Some People
Never find the right kind of love.
You know, the kind that steals
your breath away, like diving into snowmelt.
The kind that jolts your heart,
sets it beating apace, an anxious
hiccuping of hummingbird wings.
The kind that makes every terrible
minute apart feel like hours. Days.
Some people flit from one possibility
to the next, never experiencing the incredible
connection of two people, rocked by destiny.
Never knowing what it means to love
someone else more than themselves.
More than life itself, or the promise
of something better, beyond this world.
More, even (forgive me!) than God.
Lucky me. I found the right kind
of love. With the wrong person.
Not Wrong for Me
No, not at all. Andrew is pretty much
perfect. Not gorgeous, not in a male
model kind of way, but he is really cute,
with crazy hair that sometimes hides
his eyes, dark chocolate eyes that hold
laughter, even when he's deadly serious.
He's not a hunk, but toned, and tall enough
to effortlessly tuck me under his arms,
arms that are gentle but strong from honest
ranch work, arms that make me feel
safe when they gather me in. It's the only
time I really feel wanted, and the absolute
best part of any day is when I manage
to steal cherished time with Andrew.
No, he's not even a little wrong for me
except maybe -- maybe! -- in the eyes
of God. But much, much worse than that,
he's completely wrong for my parents.
See, My Papa
Is a hellfire-and-brimstone-preaching
Assembly of God minister, and Mama
is his not-nearly-as-sweet-as-she-seems
right-hand woman, and by almighty God,
their daughters (that's me, Eden, and my
little sister, Eve -- yeah, no pressure at all)
will toe the Pentecostal line. Sometimes
Eve and I even pretend to talk in tongues,
just to keep them believing we're heavenbound,
despite the fact that we go to public school
(Mama's too lazy to homeschool) and come
face-to-face with the unsaved every day.
But anyway, my father and mother
maintain certain expectations when
it comes to their daughters' all-too-human
future plans and desires.
You Get My Dilemma
I'm definitely not ready to marry,
so I can't risk letting them know
I'm already dating, let alone dating
a guy who isn't born-again, and even
worse, doesn't believe he needs to be.
Andrew is spiritual, yes. But religious?
At the time, I was only half in love
with Andrew and thought I needed
definitions. "What, exactly, is your
relationship with our Heavenly Father?"
Yes, he enjoyed the horrified look
on my face. More laughter settled
into those amazing eyes, creasing
them at the corners. So sexy!
After that, I was a lot more than
halfway in love with Andrew.
The Funny Thing Is
We actually met at a revival, where nearly
everyone was babbling in tongues,
or getting a healthy dose of Holy Spirit
healing. Andrew's sister, Mariah, had
forsaken her Roman Catholic roots
in favor of born-again believing and had
dragged her brother along that night,
hoping he'd find salvation. Instead
he found me, sitting in the very back
row, half grinning at the goings-on.
I hadn't noticed him come in, and when
I turned to respond, my voice caught
in my throat. Andrew was the best-looking
guy to ever sit next to me,
let alone actually say something to me.
In fact, I didn't know they came that cute
in Idaho. A good ten seconds passed before
I realized he had asked a question.
"I...uh...well, yes, in fact I come here
fairly regularly. See the short guy up there?"
I pointed toward Papa, who kept the crowd
chanting and praying while the visiting evangelist
busily laid on his hands. "He's the regular
preacher and happens to be my father."
His consternation surprised me. "No,
not kidding. Why would you think so?"
I leaned closer to him, and for the first
time inhaled his characteristic scent --
clean and somehow green, like the alfalfa
fields I later learned he helps work for cash.
I dropped my voice very low. "Promise not
to tell, but I know just what you mean."
It Was a Defining Moment
For me, who had never dared confess
that I have questioned church dogma
for quite some time, mostly because I am
highly aware of hypocrisy and notice
it all too often among my father's flock.
I mean, how can you claim to walk
in the light of the Lord when you're
cheating on your husband or stealing
from your best friend/business partner?
Okay, I'm something of a cynic.
But there was more that evening -- instant
connection, to a guy who on the surface
was very different from me. And yet,
we both knew instinctively that we needed
something from each other. Some people might
call it chemistry -- two parts hydrogen,
one part oxygen, voilà! You've got water.
A steady trickle, building to a cascade.
If Andrew
Was the poser type, things would
probably be easier. I mean, if he could
pretend to accept the Lord into his heart,
on my father's strictest of terms, maybe
we could be seen together in public -- not
really dating, of course. Not without a ring.
But Andrew is the most honest person
I've ever met, and deadly honest that night.
We had slipped out the back door,
when everyone's attention turned to
some unbelievable miracle at the front
of the church. I smiled. "Theatrical.
That sums it up pretty well, I guess.
You probably couldn't see it in back, but..."
I glanced around dramatically, whispered,
"Brother Bradley even wears makeup!"
I shrugged. "Certain expectations are
attached to the 'pastor's daughter' job
description. Easier just to meet them, or
at least pretend they don't bother you."
It was early November, and the night wore
a chill. I shivered at the nip in the air,
or at the sudden magnetic pull I felt toward
this perfect stranger. Without a second
thought, Andrew took off his leather
jacket, eased it around my shoulders.
He was standing very close to me.
I sank into that earthy green aura, looked
up into his eyes. "You don't believe in
miracles, but you do believe in signs?"
It Was Unfamiliar Turf
I mean, of course I'd thought guys were cute
before, and the truth is, I'd even kissed
a few. But they'd all been "kiss and run,"
and none had come sprinting back for seconds.
Probably because most of the guys here
at Boise High know who my father is.
But Andrew went to Borah High, clear
across town, and he graduated last year.
He's a freshman at Boise State, where his mom
teaches feminist theory. Yes, she and his rancher
dad make an odd couple. Love is like that.
Guess where his progressive theories came from.
That makes him nineteen, all the more reason
we have to keep our relationship discreet.
In Idaho, age of consent is eighteen,
and my parents wouldn't even think
twice about locking him up for statutory.
That horrible thought has crossed my mind
more than once in the four months since
Andrew decided to take a chance on me.
Four Months
Of him coming to church with Mariah,
both of us patiently wading through Papa's
sermons, then waiting for post-services coffee
hours to slip separately out the side doors, into
the thick stand of riverside trees for a walk.
Conversation. After a while, we held hands
as we ducked in between the old cottonwoods,
grown skeletal with autumn. We joked about
how soon we'd have to bring our own leaves
for cover. And then one day Andrew stopped.
He pleated me into his arms, burrowed his face
in my hair, inhaled. Smells like rain, he said.
My heart quickstepped. He wanted to kiss
me. That scared me. What if I wasn't good?
I was scared, but not of burning, and I wanted
that kiss more than anything I'd ever wanted
in my life. "Probably. And I'll burn with you.
But it will be worth it." I closed my eyes.
It was cold that morning, maybe thirty
degrees. But Andrew's lips were feverish
against mine. It was the kiss in the dream
you never want to wake up from -- sultry,
fueled by desire, and yet somehow innocent,
because brand-new, budding love was the heart
of our passion. Andrew lifted me gently
in his sinewy arms, spun me in small circles,
lips still welded to mine. I'd never known
such joy, and it all flowed from Andrew.
And when we finally stopped, I knew
my life had irrevocably changed.
Day by Day
I've grown to love him more and more.
Now, though I haven't dared confess
it yet, I'm forever and ever in love with
him. After I tell him (if I ever find the nerve),
I'll have to hide it from everyone. Boise,
Idaho, isn't very big. Word gets around.
Can't even tell Eve. She's awful about
keeping secrets. Good thing she goes to
middle school, where she isn't privy
to what happens here at Boise High.
I'm sixteen, a junior. A year and a half,
and I'll be free to do whatever I please.
For now, I'm sneaking off to spend
a few precious minutes with Andrew.
I duck out the exit, run down the steps,
hoping I don't trip. Last thing I need
is an emergency room visit when I'm
supposed to be in study hall. Around one
corner. Two. And there's his Tundra across
the street, idling at the curb. He spots me
and even from here, I can see his face
light up. Glance left. No one I know.
Right. Ditto. No familiar faces or cars.
I don't even wait for the corner,
but jaywalk midblock at a furious
pace, practically dive through the door
and across the seat, barely saying hello
before kissing Andrew like I might
never see him again. Maybe that's because
always, in the back of my mind, I realize
that's a distinct possibility, if we're ever
discovered kissing like this. One other
thought branded into my brain is that maybe
kissing like this will bring God's almighty wrath
crashing down all around us. I swear, God,
it's not just about the delicious electricity
coursing through my veins. It's all about love.
And you are the source of that, right? Amen.
Copyright © 2009 by Ellen Hopkins
A Poem by Seth Parnell
Possibilities
As a child, I was wary,
often felt cornered.
To escape, I regularly
stashed myself
in the closet,
comforted by curtains
of cotton. Silk. Velour.
Avoided wool, which
encouraged my
itching
the ever-present rashes
on my arms, legs. My skin
reacted to secrets, lies,
and taunts by wanting
to break out.
Now I hide behind
a wall of silence, bricked
in by the crushing
desire to confess,
but afraid of
my family's reaction.
Fearful I don't have
the strength to survive
the fallout.
Seth
As Far Back
As I can remember,
I have known thatwhen I decided that.
I was the little boy
or playing army rangers.
Not easy, coming from
always been tool and die.
My dream is liberal arts,
a New Agey university.But that won't happen.
Not with Mom Gone
She was the one who
work is killing us all.
Factory work may
have jump-started it,and three months ago.
At least she didn't
have to find out aboutme to be happy, with all her
heart. But when it came to
sex, she was all Catholicafter marriage. I'll never forget
what she said when my cousin
Liz got pregnant. She was justto an army base in Georgia.
Mom got off the phone with
Aunt Josie, clucking like a hen.grow up to be such a whore?
I thought that was harsh,
and told her so. She said,makes her a whore in God's eyes.
I knew better than to argue
with Mom, but if she felther know about me, suffer
the disgrace that would have
followed. Beyond Mom,as much as those freaks in Kansas
do -- the ones who picket dead
soldiers' funerals, claimingthe hell are the two things related?
And Anyway
If God were inclined
to punish someonebe punishment enough
to insert that innocent
soul inside the wombgravel roads are no place
for someone like me.
Considering almost everyfor the future but farming
or assembly-line work,
it sure isn't easy to fit inthat frigging closet.
I can't even tell Dad,
though I've come verycliché homophobic views:
Adam and Eve, not Adam
and Steve, and no damn
bleeding-heart liberal
Most definitely not this
bleeding-heart liberal.become. Because of who
I am, all the way inside,
the biggest part of me,if I told him the first person
to recognize what I am
was a priest. Father Howardto Dad someday. But not
while he's still grieving
over Mom. I am too.don't know what I'd do.
So I Keep the Real Seth
Mostly hidden away.
It is spring, a time of hope,Maize. The main ingredient
in American ethanol,
the fuel of the future, andthreatens to thaw me,
like it has started to thaw
the ground. The big Johnthe soil, readying it for seed.
I don't mind this work.
There's something satisfyingyes, and almost as ancient
as the submission of one
beast, throat up to another.always another, hungering.
Hunger
Drives the beast, human
or otherwise, and it isSex. All tangled together.
It was hunger that made
me post a personal adI could never taste here.
Hunger that put me on
the freeway to Louisville,Hunger that gave me
the courage to knock on
a stranger's door. LookingOr maybe just starved.
I'd Dated Girls, of Course
Trying to convince
myself the attractionSatan, luring me with
the promise of a penis.
I'd even fallen for a female.just-turned apple cider.
But love and sexual desire
don't always go hand in hand.just fine. After a while,
though, I figured I should
be looking to get laid, likewith Janet -- who I believed
I loved, even -- not turn
me on one bit? Worse, whyturn me on so completely?
Not that Leon Winkler
is particularly special.socket. What he does have
going on is a fullback's
physique. Pure muscle.myself watching his butt,
thinking it was perfect.
Something not exactlybother me. Well, except for
the idea someone might
notice how my eyes oftenlusted for Janet like that.
I tried to let her down
easy. Gave her the ol'is never an easy thing.
Not Easy for Janet
Who never saw it coming.
When I told her, she lookedtold me you love me.
"I do love you," I said.
"But things are, well...Can't believe I used
her cancer as an excuse
to try and smooth thingsit gave Janet something
to hold on to. I know, Seth.
But don't you think youspoke clearly. She tried
another tactic, sliding
her arms around my neck,a different kind of kiss
than any we'd shared
before. Swollen with desire.if I give you this...?
Her hand found my own,
urged it along her body'sthe one I had never asked for.
To be honest, I thought
about doing it. What if itI even got hard, especially
when Janet touched me,
dropped onto her knees,she knew how to do. Yes...
No! Shouldn't...How...?
The haze in my brainwas all I could say.
All Janet Could Say
Before she stalked off
was, Up yours! What areshe pivoted sharply, went
in search of moral support.
So she never heard me say,past, to find out for sure.
But not in Perry County,
Indiana, where if you'reis. All fact here is rooted
in gossip, and gossip can
prove deadly. Like last year,kissing some guy out back
of a tavern. Total lie, but
that didn't help Nate's momCaught up to her after Mass
Sunday morning, and when
he was done, that churchkind of bad. But he blamed
Nate's dad one hundred percent.
Not Nate, who took outgood for hunting now, not
with an eye missing. Since
I'd really like to hang onbetter find my true self
somewhere other than Perry
County. Best way I couldpossibilities of online dating.
Granted, One Possibility
Was hooking up with a creep --
a pervert, looking to spreadthan one pervert, but I never
let them do me. Nope, horny
or not, I wasn't an idiot. Noguy who swung the correct
direction into my jeans.
I wanted my first real sexme, but not humiliate me.
Someone good-looking.
Young. Educated. A goodhoping to fall in love.
Incredibly
Unimaginably, Loren turned
out to be all those things,world, introduced me to the
avant-garde -- performance art,
nude theater, alternativeCalifornia cabernet. After
years of fried chicken and
Pabst Blue Ribbon, suchlove was unexpected. I've
said it before, and I'll repeat,
I didn't fall out of the treeI took one look and fell
flat on my face. Figuratively,
of course. I barely stumbledthe certainty of who I am.
Copyright © 2009 by Ellen Hopkins