Chapter 3: Our Last Summer

May 24, 1981, West Monroe, Ohio

I was up early on Sunday morning to head to Holy Transfiguration. As Head Acolyte, I was responsible for being at the church about ninety minutes before Matins so that I could refill and light all the oil lamps, replace the tapers in the candle box, sift the sand in front of the icon of the Theotokos to remove the candle stubs and ensure that the nave was in proper order.

When I arrived, I unlocked all the doors, adjusted the thermostat to cool the nave, put on a simple black cassock, and went about my work. Once I finished, I went to the basement and brought up five loaves of prosphora that Father Herman would use for the Proskomide, the preparation of the gifts for the Eucharist. I placed them on the Altar of Prothesis, a small table set into an alcove in the altar, then filled the cruet with wine. I returned to the sacristy and got a hot pot to fill with water for the zeon during the Divine Liturgy. I put the filled hot pot on a small table next to the Prothesis table.

After I finished preparing the Prothesis table, I cleaned the censer and put in a new piece of charcoal. It wasn't quite yet time to light it, so I went out to the reader's stand and opened the Horologion and other books to the correct pages for the day, then made sure that the list of hymns on the chanter's stand was correct, and finally, double-checked the choir director's stand to ensure the order of service was correct. As my final task before the priest arrived, I did a quick inventory of all the liturgical supplies and made a note of things we needed to order.

About five minutes later, Father Herman and Deacon Vasily arrived and began their vesting prayers. When they finished their prayers, the whirlwind of activity that was the Proskemede, Matins, and Divine Liturgy began. I knew every prayer, every response, and every motion by heart and could probably have done them in a coma, but I always smiled when Father Herman sang Let us complete our prayers unto the Lord, signifying that there were about fifteen minutes until the completion of the service. That one verse caused more consternation amongst visitors than anything else that was done or said, as they expected the Divine Liturgy to end almost immediately.

After the service, we met in the church basement for a light lunch. I ate quickly, and as soon as it was possible to leave without drawing too much attention, I made a beeline for the door so that I could drive home to change. I wasn't surprised when Lizzy was close on my heels, though I'd hoped she wasn't paying attention and I could escape without her noticing.

"No chance, Mikey," she said. "I knew you would try to sneak out!"

"I was in a hurry and didn't even think about it," I said, laying the groundwork for a defense with my mom if Liz were to complain.

"You were trying to ditch me, and you know it!" she said, climbing into the passenger seat of my Mustang.

"You know how busy I am with my responsibilities here," I countered as I slipped into the driver's seat. "I booked as soon as I felt I could avoid Father complaining about it."

"Well, here I am."

"Here you are. Remember what Mom said. You have to leave when I'm ready with no complaints. If you delay me even one second, I'll make sure you never have another ride all Summer."

"A-hole," she spat.

"A-hole?" I laughed. "That's the best you can do?"

"If I said what I was thinking, you'd tell Mom, and I'd be grounded for the rest of the Summer."

"Russian swear words are the quickest way to grounding and extra chores. Trust me."

"Did you and April break up?"

"Yes."

"Over church?"

"Pretty much."

"You are WAY too serious about church, Mikey! You let it get in the way of getting laid!"

"I am NOT having a conversation about my sex life with my little sister, Lizzy!"

"What sex life?" she giggled.

She had a point, but hearing that from my fifteen-year-old sister was just not right. Even the oblique conversations I'd had with my mom and dad on the topic were challenging enough, though they were pretty cool about most things. I could tease Liz back but decided that on the off chance she actually had more experience than I did, it was better to just keep my mouth shut rather than embarrass myself.

We arrived home, went to our rooms, and quickly changed into our bathing suits. I pulled shorts and a T-shirt over my suit, slipped on a pair of deck shoes, and was waiting downstairs when Liz came out of her room. She stuck her tongue out at me, but I simply ignored her. She was doing her best to get my goat, and I wasn't going to allow her the satisfaction of showing that she bothered me. We got back into my Mustang and drove the short distance to Emmy's house. Fortunately, she was ready and was waiting for us on the front porch. The girls got into the back seat, and I headed for the public pool.

"We're staying about two hours," I said. "So be prepared to leave anytime from 3:00pm on. Remember what Mom said!"

"Whatever," Liz replied.

A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed my sister rolling her eyes while her friend Emmy smirked. I just let it go, and the girls started chatting about some inane subject that I tuned out, then drowned out by turning up the radio for the latest REO Speedwagon song. If Liz gave me the slightest grief about leaving, I'd complain to Mom, and that would be that. I was careful with those complaints, as I didn't want to ever put myself in a position where Mom wouldn't trust me to tell the truth, which would put me entirely at Liz's mercy.

When we arrived at the pool, the girls ran ahead as I walked slowly up to the gate and showed my pass. I saw Dale and Jocelyn by the lockers and went over and stripped off my T-shirt, shorts, and shoes and tossed them, along with my wallet and keys, into the locker the three of us would share. I paused momentarily to take in Jocelyn's fine figure, and then the three of us hopped into the pool. I ducked under the floats into the swimming lanes and swam ten laps before moving back to where my friends were.

"How are you doing?" Jocelyn asked.

"OK. April's pretty upset, but I honestly don't know what choice I had. She was expecting to get engaged when she graduated."

"Have you talked to her about church?"

"I've invited her a bunch of times," I replied. "I even asked her once again if she'd go to church with me, ever, and she said it was 'too Catholic'. She had an opportunity to offer to go to church with me, but she didn't that it."

"Did she offer to sleep with you?" Jocelyn asked.

"I'm not sure I should answer that question," I said.

"That's a 'yes', then. And you're too nice of a guy to do that, even at the expense of still being a virgin."

"You know, you two could solve each other's problem," Dale snickered.

Jocelyn shoved Dale hard, and he fell backwards, going underwater. As he flailed, he grabbed the bikini top of a very voluptuous college-age girl, and her huge breasts popped out for all to see. She screamed and managed to tuck them away, but not before I and a few other lucky souls got an eyeful of female flesh.

"Thanks, Dale," I grinned when he stood back up in the pool.

Before he could answer, the girl yelled for the lifeguard and pointed at Dale. A few seconds later, the lifeguard blew her whistle and pointed to Dale.

"Out! You're done for the day!"

"It was an accident!" he protested, to no avail.

"Out! Now!"

"Sorry, guys," Dale said.

"It's my fault," Jocelyn said. "Let's just go for our root beer and burgers."

"It's kind of early to eat. How about Putt-Putt?"

"Sure," Dale said.

"Let me tell Liz. When we finish mini golf, I'll come back and get the girls and take them home."

I found Liz and Emmy on deck chairs, chatting with two college guys. I wasn't surprised they were attracting attention. Both were wearing the skimpiest bikinis they could get away with. I noticed that Emmy had filled out nicely since the end of the previous Summer and was actually pretty cute. But she was Liz's friend, and that was a headache I felt I didn't need.

"Dale has to leave," I said. "And Jocelyn and I are going with him."

"No way!" Liz protested. "We just got here!"

"You can stay. I'll be back around 3:15pm to pick you up. Meet me at the gate."

"Fine," she said flatly, clearly annoyed by the interruption.

I shook my head. I was giving her what she wanted, and she was still being a pain in the butt about it! The only thing to do was turn away from her. I did and walked towards the lockers where Jocelyn and Dale were waiting for me. We got our stuff, dried off the best we could, then dressed. Our clothes would be a bit wet, but they would dry quickly in the Summer heat.

We decided to take Jocelyn's Grand Am because it had far more legroom in the backseat than my Mustang or Dale's Monza. I got to the car first and stood by the back door on the passenger's side because of Dale's silly comment in the pool. I was annoyed with him, not for getting kicked out of the pool, but for the comment. It was going to make the rest of the Summer uncomfortable.

Fortunately, nothing more was said about that, and the conversation drifted to other things we'd do this Summer. All of us had jobs, but neither Dale's job at McDonald's nor Jocelyn's job at Dairy Queen would have them working as many hours a week as I was at the hardware store.

We arrived at Putt-Putt about ten minutes after leaving the pool. We paid, got our clubs and balls, and then walked to the first hole. We played eighteen holes, and the outcome was in doubt right until the last hole. We were all about evenly matched, and Dale won the final hole with a perfect carom off the boards that went into the cup, giving him a 1-stroke victory over me and two over Jocelyn.

"I think I'll apply for my PGA Tour card," Dale teased.

"Six over par isn't going to get you very far!" I teased. "I'll be playing for the world chess championship before you make the PGA!"

"What's your Elo rating these days?" Jocelyn asked as we walked back to the desk to return our balls and clubs.

"1870. That signifies what's called a 'Class A' player. I'll have to work some to move to the next level, and honestly, with medical school, there is just no way I'm going to be able to play enough to advance. Karate is going to take what little free time I have, and I need that for exercise and mental discipline."

"Any idea what specialty you want?"

"That hasn't changed since fourth grade! Emergency Medicine. You can branch off in so many ways from that. You learn more and do more as an Intern in the ER than in any other department."

"What's the hardest?" Dale asked.

"Depends on what you mean. Mentally and emotionally, it's probably oncology, especially if you deal with kids. The most demanding would be one of the surgical options, but I don't think I want to be a surgeon. Doing the same procedures day in and day out would drive me nuts!"

"But that's exactly what you do in church!" Jocelyn said with a laugh as we climbed into her car.

I smiled as I fastened my seat belt, "I want things at church to never change. It's the touchstone of stability in an otherwise crazy world. I want excitement and change everywhere BUT church! I really like it on Sunday mornings when I'm alone with the icons, the oil lamps, and the smell of incense. It's my favorite time of the week. It really recharges me."

"You got all A's in science," Jocelyn said. "I never asked this, but how do you reconcile things?"

"The Orthodox Church never got into fights with scientists and makes no attempts to explain things which simply can't be explained. The West made a huge error with Scholasticism. The way to answer science is not to fight with it but to let science speak to things it knows, then to practice apophatic theology. But I don't think you guys want a Sunday School lesson!"

"Heck no!" Dale said. "I want an A&W Burger, fries, and a frosted mug of root beer! And then a root beer float for dessert!"

Jocelyn and I both laughed. Dale had a serious addiction to A&W root beer, which was why we ate there at least twice a month. It was our usual hangout on Friday nights if we didn't have anything else to do.

When we arrived at the pool, I walked quickly to the gate and was pleased to see Liz and Emmy waiting for me as I'd asked them to. They followed me to my Mustang, and we headed for home. The quickest route was to drop Liz at home, then drop Emmy, and then head to A&W. The girls didn't object to my plan, so I headed for our house, where I dropped Liz at the end of the driveway, then headed for Emmy's house.

"I heard you broke up with your girlfriend," she said from the backseat.

"I'm sure Liz was typically snotty about it," I sighed.

"She's my friend."

"Yeah, I know. I realize you can't say anything that would upset her."

"Maybe. It depends."

"On what?"

"Whether or not you'll take me on a date on Friday night."

I nearly swerved off the road but managed, just, to keep the car pointed straight. The last thing in the world I expected was Emily Nelson to ask me on a date! Well, that wasn't entirely true. The last thing in the world I expected was Tasha Antonova to speak to me about anything substantive, let alone go on a date with me.

"Say something, Mike," Emmy said quietly.

"You, uh, caught me off guard. What about Liz?"

"I wasn't asking HER out!" Emily tittered.

"And you know I meant that she'd object!"

"She'll get over it."

"Yeah, but will I? Does she know you're asking?"

"No. She'd have told me not to do it."

"Exactly. And you know I'm going to William Howard Taft in August."

"I asked for one date," she giggled. "I didn't ask to go steady! I'm not ready for THAT yet! You'll be my very first date!"

"What do you want to do?"

"I can't get into any good movies. All the ones I want to see at the Cineplex in McKinley are rated 'R'! I think Urban Cowboy is showing at the Drive-In over in Rutherford. I think it's either that or roller skating. Will you take me?"

That was the question. I'd noticed at the pool that she'd looked terrific in the bikini, and she'd always been nice enough to me. My biggest concern was that she was Liz's best friend. My second concern was that she was only fifteen. She'd be a Sophomore in the Fall, and I'd be going off to college. Stacey's friend Carol was supposed to call me, and she was seventeen, which I felt was more appropriate. That said, it wasn't like agreeing to go out with Emmy was a commitment. She'd said so herself.