There Must Be Something More

58 | Good Days

I should have listened to them. If I had it probably wouldn't have had to come to this. It probably didn't have to come to the point where your best friend was lying on the hospital bed, chalky white and stiff. I gave up a shaky breath. Liam Kirby was dead.

I should've known it was starting that particular Wednesday night. I was completely aware of the fact that Worship Night was at 6:30 PM.

"I'll be at church as soon as possible," I promised.

Meredith, Samuel, and I stopped by the school steps. The moment I told them Liam had just asked me to come with him and his friends for a baseball game, they both gave me wary looks.

"It's just baseball," I said. I looked at Meredith. "Besides, wasn't it you who told me I should befriend Liam? This is it."

"But it's Worship Night, dude," Samuel said. "A person isn't worth missing worshipping God. I mean, not unless God is telling you to go through with this. Is He?"

I didn't know. I honestly didn't know. I didn't hear a conviction at all when Liam texted me. But I felt compelled to go.

I doubted if it was because I needed an opportunity to share to Liam about God or because I wanted to play baseball with a bunch of private school kids. Either way I didn't want to miss it. And I honestly was too excited to ask God.

"I'll be in church before you even know I'm gone," I said, jogging to my pickup.

Meredith had that same disappointed look that had a baseball to my head the very first time. And it did send me a pang of guilt. But I also knew Liam needed me. And he was really starting to like me. I might just get an open field to evangelize him.

"You better be!" Samuel said when I shut my pickup door.

I adjusted my rearview mirror and revved the engine. Backing up the parking lot, I saw Meredith still looking at me on the rearview.

How is it that reading me comes so easily with her and not with me?

But that look sure had me worried. Because as I drove through the highway, I couldn't think of anything else but it. Usually when Meredith gave me that look, I wasn't doing something good. Even when I didn't know it.

Was I doing something bad? Was accepting Liam's kind invitation to join him and his baseball team something God wouldn't be pleased about? What was so wrong with it?

A person isn't worth missing worshipping God.

I took a deep breath. I can't be sure, I thought. Just because it played again in my head doesn't mean it's from God. Besides, this could be a really good way to form a friendship with Liam and then tell him about God.

Right?

As soon as I got to the West Shores Prep diamond, I saw Liam and his team hitting home runs. When I stepped onto the tall weeds of grass, Liam caught sight of my arrival and started to gesture that I hurry.

Hope I'm doing the right thing, I thought. I jogged to the field.

I probably did the right thing. At least I assumed because I had such a good time. Liam and his teammates, the West Shores Dinos, were a challenge. But we spent the nightly hours taking turns with the winning streak.

It was a good day for me.

And it seemed as if the good days just followed.

Very so often Liam invited me over to his house and we would play videogames for hours until Mom and Dad called for curfew. I would tell them we were studying but we hadn't done anything but hold the controller and tried to win in a virtual world.

Days in school seemed restless too. I wanted to see Liam everyday. It was as if I had just discovered I had a twin brother and couldn't waste a minute without him again. It strongly felt that way. I felt more myself with him than with anyone.

Once as Mom was wiping the window shingles in my bedroom I asked her, "Can we adopt Liam?"

She threw me an astounded look and almost dropped her rag. I could tell because it fell on the ledge. She picked it up and brushed her hair over her ear.

"Charlie, honey, I feel like you've been spending a lot of time with that kid. I mean, I'm not opposed to it, but... maybe it's a little good if you spend time with other people too? Like, Amanda and Calum."

I looked away. "I've never spoken to them for weeks."

"Okay," she took a deep breath. "What about your church friends? I haven't heard you talk about them in a while. Haven't heard Meredith's name for quite some time now, I miss it."

I felt a little guilty. I admitted it had been quite some time since I took the time to be with Meredith and Samuel and the others. I wasn't even responding to Steven's text messages, I thought I had no time.

Had I gone too far? I didn't think so. It wasn't in my conscience to feel anything bad. In all honesty I held on to the fact that God had told me to befriend Liam. Not even what happened that following day.

Friday.

I tossed my car keys to the couch. I could have just whizzed past the view to the dining table when I heard unreserved laughter. I tilted my head and boggled to see who it was.

"Hi, Charlie!" Meredith waved with a grin.

"Look who agreed to stop by for a talk," Mom said. "I especially love her story with Sheila the sheep."

"Me too. I love her," I said, smiling skittishly. I glanced back to Meredith. Her grin never faded.

"You could have told me," I said, pacing the front porch. I studied the jet-black skyline and felt a little out of place.

"It wouldn't have been a surprise," she said. "Where have you been? Don't you go home early?"

"I did," I said.

"But you weren't here for the past three hours."

I was quiet. I didn't know what to say, so I didn't. I studied the saguaro a few feet away in our neighbor's yard. I wondered how they grew it.

"You didn't come to Worship Nights," Meredith said. "Samuel and I waited for you."

"Oh, yeah!" I slapped my forehead. "I totally forgot. Sorry."

"Forgot?" She asked. "Did you also forget Grace Club? You haven't been stopping by."

I looked at her this time. Which was hard. She was the honest one in the situation.

"I'm just having a busy week, that's all," I said. "I mean, with baseball and school and my best friend--"

"Best friend? You haven't been hanging out with us."

"I meant my other best friend," I blurted. And then I regretted it. "I... I mean Liam."

Meredith stared at me.

I felt irritated. "What?"

"Charlie, I didn't mean what I told you when I might have implied that you be friends with him. I mean, that's great and all. But bad company corrupts good character. Liam isn't a believer yet. You have to tell him about God, and if he doesn't act on the truth, then you can't be all buddy-buddy with him. Christianity is being set apart for God. We are not of this world."

"That's why I'm trying to reach out to Liam. I need to be friends with him so he can trust me enough to tell him the truth about God."

Meredith folded her hands to her chest. "By the way you're compromising to what he does, I doubt he's going to believe about God in the Bible. The real God."

I had never felt so offended. Who was she to tell me off for doing something good for God? Who was she to tell me how to approach people about Him?

"You know what, I have my own way of talking to people and I feel fine. If you want you can evangelize people your way," I said. I threw one last mad look and said, "Good night."

But even as I turned away, I knew she was staring. Why did she always seem right? Why didn't it have to be me who's right this time?

When I stepped into our foyer again, frost formed in the back of my neck.