As they folded the blankets and tucked them behind Chad’s seat, Chuck and Willow discussed the beauty of the fireworks and he marveled that she’d never seen them so clearly.  “Mother and I would sometimes sit on the barn or even watch from that field on the other side of the lake but that’s private property and sometimes they pasture a bull in that field so most years we just stayed home.”
“Where do you live?”
Willow described her farm along “Brant’s Highway” and laughed when Chuck asked if they grew crops.  “Nope.  We’re more of a homestead than a real farm but I plan to expand next year.”
Chad wondered what Bill would have to say about that and started to tease her but Chuck’s words cut him off.  “That’s right on my way home.  I’ll drop you off if you like.”
The scene played out in slow motion for Chad.  The moonlight gave it an eerie ethereal feeling as though he’d entered a horror movie as an extra without a voice to warn the heroine.  “Oh now that would be nice!  It’d save Chad a trip.  Are you sure you don’t mind?”
Chuck said something but Chad didn’t hear it.  Instead, he saw Willow gliding toward him in that same maddening slow motion speaking but her words not penetrating the rushing in Chad’s head.  He shook his head no emphatically trying to stop the idea before it spun out of control.
A quick hug, a word of thanks, and a smile later, Willow wandered off with Chuck carrying her pie pan and talking as though she and Chuck had been friends for years.  “What part of no didn’t she understand?” he muttered to himself.  He replayed the scene through his mind and heard the question again, her lips carefully enunciating each word.
“Do you mind if Chuck takes me home?  It’d save you a trip and it’s on his way…”
“Oh Lord, help,” he muttered in exasperation sending one eye skyward.  A thought ripped open his mind and he sank to the tailgate once more.  “Lord, Bill is gonna kill me.”

***

“Turn left up there where the big tree is.  That’s our drive.”
“So how long have you lived here?”  Chuck had been tongue-tied all the way to the Finley farm and grasped at the first straw of normal conversation he could.
“I was born here.”
“Wow.  Was your dad ok with that?”
The question took her aback for a moment.  Almost no one had asked about her father.  She rarely thought of herself as having a father of any kind.  “I don’t have a father.”
“Everyone has a father Willow-”
Willow interrupted quickly.  “You’re right.  I’ve never known a father and based upon the little I do know about him, I have no interest in the man who could make that claim.”
“Bad dude huh?”
“Yes.”
Chuck parked his little sports car and, with another first in his life, dashed around the hood to open the door for Willow.  “Here, I’ll take that,” he said pulling the pie pan from Willow’s hands.
“Would you like to come in and have another piece?”
His mouth opened to say, “Well duh” but shocked himself by answering, “Well do you have ice cream?”
“No but I can make some.  How’s your cranking arm?”
“Who’s callin’ me cranky?”
Chuck’s ‘friends’ and family wouldn’t have recognized him.  He had his familiar gaffes but compared to his normal boorish manner, he was a perfect gentleman.  Chuck wouldn’t hear of Willow cranking the ice cream freezer, serving their food, or washing the dishes.  Service was a new concept to Chuck and he liked it.  Maybe.
Near midnight, Willow stood and tossed her water glass outside on the rhododendron bush.  “I’ve had fun getting to know you Chuck but I have to be up early so it’s time for you to go home.”
This was exactly the kind of forthrightness that Chuck understood.  “Oh, sure.  I didn’t realize it was so late.  Can I have your phone number?”
Willow called out the numbers while Chuck punched them into his phone.  She walked him to the front porch steps and said goodnight.  At his car, Chuck turned around and returned to stand at the base of the porch.
“Would you mind if I called?  Do you want me to call or are you being nice?”
“Chuck, I don’t know what kind of people you are used to but I don’t say anything if I don’t mean it.  You’re welcome here any time.”
Back in his own car, Chuck inserted the key and put it in gear.  “Wow.”
***
The quiet din of congregational fellowship muffled the sounds of an approaching cyclone.  “Willow!  There you are!  I looked all over your place for you but I couldn’t find you.  I said I’d be there in time to save you the walk.”
Willow’s momentary shocked expression put all those nearby on their guard.  Chuck had a habit of not hearing when someone said no to one of his plans.  This could get ugly.  Fast.
To everyone’s surprise, Willow rearranged her features into a genuine smile, took his hand, and quietly led him out a side door into the quiet prayer courtyard behind the main building.  A quick glance around the yard assured her they were alone.  “Did we have the same conversation?”
“What do you mean?”  Chuck’s voice already held a trace of defensiveness.
“You seemed surprised that I wasn’t waiting for you at my house.  I distinctly remember saying I did not want a ride-”
“But I told you-”
Willow dropped his hand and turned away trying to control her temper.  This man was excessively ill mannered but it seemed to her, that everyone almost encouraged it by ignoring it.  She whirled back to face him and found her face almost buried in his chest.  “Oh!”
Chuck stepped back.  “I’m sorry Willow I-”
“Are you?”  With a deep sigh, she sank onto the nearest bench and patted the seat next to her.  “We need to talk.”
An uncomfortable look covered Chuck’s face.  “Really, I didn’t-”
“You’re lying to me.  Sit down.”
Chuck sat.  What else could you do when a pair of green eyes saw through to a side of you that you tried not to acknowledge.  “I’m not-”
She folded her hands in her lap and waited.  After several dozen seconds of protests and blustering, Chuck closed his mouth in a stony silence.  Willow tried again.
“You done?”
His expression was a cross between that of a trapped rabbit and a charging bull.  “I don’t understand what the problem is Willow.  You seem upset at me.”
“I am not accustomed to people lying to me.”
“But I didn’t lie!”
A peace stole over her as she prayed for guidance.  “Chuck, you offered me a ride to church.  What did I say?”
“I said I’d be there by nine-fifteen.  You weren’t there.”
“I said I would walk.”
“But I said-”
Willow interrupted before he was stuck on that track again.  “So in other words, it is my fault that I didn’t ignore what I’d already told you and assume you would also ignore it?”
“What?”
“I told you that I was walking and that I would not be there when you arrived so not to stop and pick me up.  Now, you are irritated with me because I did what I said.  I was supposed to go back on my word and wait around hoping you’d ignore me.”
“But I said-”
Her patience was thinning rapidly.  “Chuck.  What did I say?”
“But I said-”
“And I said?”
Chuck repeatedly insisted that he’d promised to arrive, he had done what he’d promised, and didn’t understand why she was upset at him and why she wasn’t waiting when he arrived.  Conversely, Willow refused to be bullied into acquiescence.  Chad overheard part of the argument on his way into the auditorium and was tempted to tell Willow it was a hopeless cause.  Chuck never backed down.
“What do you want from me Willow?  I tried to do something nice-”
“Since when is it nice to ignore a woman’s wishes?”
“But it’s five miles!”
“Since when is it nice to ignore-”
Chuck’s voice rose in exasperation.  “You’re being impossible!”
A very quiet and low reply punched the wind from his lungs.  “Do not ever raise your voice at me like that.  Ever.”
“I just-”
With a deep sigh, Willow stood.  “Chuck, I want to be your friend.  I like you.  However, I will not tolerate being ignored and I won’t be lied to.  If you want to be my friend, you’re going to have to listen when I say no and you’re going to have to be honest with both of us when you do something wrong.”
She was nearly at the door when Chuck’s quiet voice reached her.  “I’m sorry.”
Willow turned and saw a new expression on Chuck’s face. Few had ever seen it on him.  She saw humility and genuine contrition.  Chuck’s shoulders slumped as he continued.  “I heard you say you were walking and not to stop.”
Returning to the bench, Willow glanced up into Chuck’s miserable face.  “Why did you act like you didn’t?  That’s a lie Chuck.  You tried to shift the blame onto me.  You accused me of rudeness.  I have never had many friends, just Chad and Bill- well and maybe Lee, but friends don’t do that Chuck!”
“People don’t do anything with me if I just ask.”
“Does it work to ignore them when they decline?”
Chuck’s miserable face tugged at a maternal heartstring Willow didn’t know she had.  “Sometimes.”
In a lifetime of solitude with her mother, Willow had never imagined someone so alone.  She wondered about Chuck’s mother, his family.  How had he been allowed o continue such a self-destructive path?  Would she be able to have a reasonable friendship with someone like him?
Another thought crossed her mind.  A man like Chuck was probably starved for fellowship and affection.  Heedless of how she might be misunderstood, Willow hugged him.  “I’m so sorry Chuck.  You must be so frustrated sometimes.”  She pulled away and stood offering her hand.  “Come on, let’s go inside.  We’re missing Bible Study.  Just remember,” She warned playfully.  “If I say no, I mean no and we’ll get along great.”
A ripple of surprise rolled over the congregation as Willow and Chuck entered the auditorium hand in hand, and sat comfortably next to Alexa.  Pastor Allen watched as Willow turned her attention to the study at hand but included Chuck as he called out passages in rapid succession.
Fifteen minutes and a jumbled and incomprehensible lesson later, Pastor Allen snapped his Bible shut with a smile.  “I can’t focus on the lesson.  I’m trying to teach James chapter two but I think we’ve all seen it lived before our eyes this morning.”  His voice wavered.  “Scripture spoken by action- isn’t it beautiful?”