The End of A Salty Day

Tonight I was walking down the hill from the dining hall with some of my camp students. I looked behind me to see another student running after us. He's a tall, thin guy. Athletic, slouchy, too cool. I haven't been sure he likes me that much. I'm always poking him and saying things like, "Wake up" or "pay attention." His English isn't very good even though he seems smart enough. Today he missed a class. When I gave him a hard time, he said he'd been buying medicine for a cold. Could be. Or he could have been hanging out with his very pretty girlfriend.

So after dinner, there he is running down the hill after me with the pretty girlfriend coming along as fast as she could in her heels. I thought it must be an emergency. When he reached us, he explained in his out-of-breath, poorly pronounced English that his girlfriend was going to walk with me because she wanted to talk to me. Then she came up and so I said that, "sure, she could talk to me." He just smiled and smiled, and then he left the girlfriend to walk back to my dorm with me. She was very nice and had better English, so we talked as we walked along slowly. Where was she from in China? Which school did she attend?

Finally, the suspense was killing me. "So why did you want to talk to me tonight?" I asked.

"He is in your class and he thinks you are nice. He loves you and wanted me to talk to you."

Wow. After lunch, I'd spent time talking to Father about this boy by name, and here was an open door of friendship to him and this sweet girl. As I left her and climbed the steps up to my room, I was pondering the mysteries that still lie behind the certainty that this is where I am supposed to be.