Three Converts

Part 8

I verily floated back home that evening. Sophie met me as she always did at the top of the mountain path. She flung her arms around me. "Look at the smile on your face!" she exclaimed, "Did you get your third convert?! Did you? Did you?" she bounced up and down, her curls even more buoyant than usual.

Before she bounced right off the mountain, I steadied her. "No! Soph, I didn't." I couldn't help adding slyly, "Yet."

"But you have a lead? You have a leeeeaaaad!"

"Shhhhh... I don't want to get Mother and Father's hopes up. It could fall through. I just can't get a good read on this guy."

Sophie stopped moving altogether and looked hard at me. "This guy."

"Griffin," I explained.

"Griffin." She repeated. She stared me down until I knew I was blushing furiously.

"Oh geez, Luce. You can't get tangled up with one of your converts! That's not good!"

"Tangled up?! What does that even mean? I'm not 'tangled up' we just talked. I answered his questions about the commune."

"Uh-huh. Your face definitely looks tangled up."

"It does not! Would you quit saying 'tangled up'?" I walked past her. She didn't follow me right away, but by the time I got to the top of the mountain, I could hear her footsteps behind me. Her arm linked through mine.

"It's the closest thing I've had to a lead in two years, Soph. Can I just be a little excited about that?" Her head bobbed yes.

"Of course. It's great news. It's just... remember Kimmyann?" I did. Everyone did. It was a huge scandal. Kimmyann was several years older than Misty, and as pious as Franklin. Her story was a cautionary one. She made her first convert easily. Then she fell in love with a boy she was converting. She didn't say as much, but it didn't take a genius to crack her blushing code. She talked incessantly about what an asset he would be to our commune. One day she never came back from town. Some people think she ran away with the boy, a darker theory is that he killed her. Either way, it didn't end well, and it's loomed over the rest of us every time a member of the opposite sex so much as glanced at us.

"Sophie, this is most definitely not a Kimmyann situation! Can you imagine? Like I'd ever leave you and Mother and Father! That would never happen."

Sophie looked me up and down. Her muscles relaxed, and she shrunk slightly. "Okay. Just tell me if I need to panic. Just give me a heads up." I tugged her close to me. "There's nothing to panic about. This is good news!" She gave me a smile, begrudgingly, but it turned into a real smile because Sophie can't help smiling. We chatted about less weighty issues the rest of the way home.

We agreed not to raise Mother and Father's hopes since Griffin's conversion wasn't a sure thing. I answered their questions about my day vaguely and turned in to bed early. Naturally, I was too excited to sleep. I ran through talking points, issues I wanted to touch on the next day with Griffin. Eventually, my conscious began to give way to the deep recesses of my mind. Without my consent, it was imagining a life in which Griffin was converted and moved to the mountain where we married. We could live near my parents and Sophie. Our kids would inherit Griffin's eyes and charm. They'd make their conversions in no time. There was no doubt that Griffin was a morning person. I couldn't wait to show him the sun rise from my perch on the mountain.