Everything that happened and every way that we grew led us to this moment.
With my wallet and my phone missing, it was shaping up to be a pretty frustrating night/day. Here's the resolution to the very Rough Day.
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Chapter 7: Rough Day, Part II
By this time I was crying pretty hard, as you can imagine.
I wheeled my car out of the gas station and drove back to Jordan's*. How I managed to see through the tears pouring from my eyes, I'll never know, but I'm glad I made it back. I walked back in and tossed my purse and backpack on the floor. Grabbing Jordan, I pulled him aside.
"Guess what else is missing," I whispered.
"Oh no," he moaned.
Without money or a driver's license or a phone, I decided it wouldn't be prudent to try to drive home for three hours in the middle of the night on a desolate western Kansas highway. Yanking my laptop out of my bag, I plopped down on Jordan's couch, glowering at the screen. First, I cancelled my credit card and filed a stolen card report. Then I suspended my phone.
I listened to people chat for awhile longer, but people eventually filtered out or found a corner for the night. I snatched a blanket for my feet and wrapped my coat around my shoulders, curled up in a ball, and tried to sleep.
By about 9:00 a.m. I'd heard most people leave. As I poked my head out from under my jacket, the living room looked bright and and entirely too cheery to me. Before making the long, depressing drive home, praying I didn't get pulled over, I needed to do one thing: I needed to clean my ears.
As a side note, I'll just let y'all know that I'm obsessive about my ears. One of the first things I do in the morning every day is clean my ears. And I wasn't about the let the fiasco I'd just been through deter me from some semblance of normalcy.
I walked into Jordan's bathroom, rubbing my eyes and wondering why I'd even bothered to come last night. I opened his bathroom cupboard and blinked a little bit, trying to focus on the contents. I didn't see any q-tips, but in the back of the cupboard there was a purple and gold notebook. A very familiar-looking purple and gold notebook. Frowning at what I was seeing, I pulled it out. It was mine.
It began to dawn on me. I yanked open the rest of his cupboards, and at the back of the third one was my wallet. I pulled open his drawers and found my phone in the far one. My phone was dead, so I'd have to wait to see if anything was done to it. I clicked open my wallet, and, as expected, my money and gift cards were gone. My credit card was still there, but I didn't trust that. I mean, if you could just write down a number, who needed the actual card? And with my driver's license right there? Yep, not trusting it.
No longer angry but much more upset, I went back into the living room to check on my card and phone before I left. Things were in order, so I checked my e-mail quickly.
Levi had written. I opened his e-mail and immediately smiled. I was so encouraged and relieved to have a friend talking to me and saying sweet things, making jokes about Star Wars, and telling me more about himself. I cried a little bit as I read the letter, I must admit.
As I drove home in the morning sun, I found myself feeling lighter and lighter. I was no longer depressed about returning home. I was glad to be going home. At least at home my problems were familiar and manageable. As soon as I got home, I rushed to the bathroom to take care of some much-needed business. I also brought my laptop with me and typed out an e-mail to Levi.
As a side note, yes, I do use the computer on the pot sometimes. People have made fun of this habit, but I'd guess there are a lot of more us out there than people might think. And, no, don't worry. I didn't write any of this while on the toilet. This is written from the clean and safe comfort of my living room.
As I wrote my e-mail to Levi, I found myself unable to write something cheery and light. My choice was either to tell him about my rough night or to wait until I'd gotten past it to write to him. After a bit of thought, I decided to tell him about my night. I'd give him a bit of my real life. As I sent off the long, sad story of my night, I felt a little better.
That afternoon I tried to do a bit of lesson planning, but my head and stomach started bothering me, mostly because I'd stressed myself out so much the night before and gotten very little sleep. I fell into bed and slept.
When I woke up around 8:00 that night, I stumbled to the kitchen to grab a glass of water for my parched throat. I checked my e-mail, and to my surprise there was an e-mail waiting from Levi already.
It was short, and it was very sincere. This e-mail wasn't filled with goofy stories and pleasantries like our previous ones. His words encouraged me in multiple ways. They encouraged me to feel better and to forgive Tracy, and they also encouraged me that Levi's faith existed in hard times, too.
Here's a bit of what he said to me:
"It really is hard when people lash out at you for no reason. I've been in that sort of situation before and wondered why a complete stranger was so intent on breaking me. What helps me is to think about the person I would be if I didn't belong to Christ. I know I would treat people terribly too. Then my heart just aches for those people that have hurt me. Because I know that they're miserable and lost and that it will only get worse for them the longer they try to avoid Christ."
He ended the letter by saying, "I wish I could offer you a hug. [. . .] But just know that I'm thinking about you and I hope you have a much, much better day tomorrow. :)"
I was encouraged in one more way.
I was encouraged that I'd been given a man who wasn't going anywhere . . .
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If you thought things were moving quickly before this, just wait until you hear what happens over the next few chapters. Levi and I have gathered some momentum, and now we're about to take a full-on plunge . . . in a good way! :)
*Names changed
Next Chapter (Chapter 8: Following Well) Previous Chapter (Chapter 6: Rough Day, Part I)
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