An Eternity of Mirrors by Johnny Townsend

Author:Johnny Townsend [Townsend, Johnny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction
Publisher: Johnny Townsend
Published: 2023-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

The Date

We stood looking at each other, in our creased suit pants and white shirts, our short hair and our business ties. Our black shoes shone brightly from their recent polishing. Elder Tanner grinned at me nervously and pulled my nametag off my shirt. I grinned back at him and pulled his off as well.

“Tonight we go out just as two men,” he said. He took my hand. I could feel it trembling. He glanced at the front door. “Would you like to offer a prayer, Elder Smith?”

I nodded and bowed my head. “Dear Heavenly Father,” I began, “please help us to have a good time tonight getting to know each other not as missionaries but as people. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

It felt a little strange asking God for a blessing when we were about to break the rules.

It wasn’t as if going to a restaurant was a sin, of course. It was just that it wasn’t Preparation Day, and we were supposed to be out working on Saturday night. Also, Mormon missionaries weren’t supposed to date for the entire two years they were on their mission.

Certainly not each other.

It was raining lightly, typical for springtime in Renton. I had enjoyed my last district in north Seattle, but I had to admit, the suburbs down south felt more like home back in Toledo. Elder Tanner was from Logan. It was the only piece of personal information I knew about him. As missionaries, we weren’t supposed to talk about our former “civilian” lives. We were supposed to focus on missionary work.

We climbed in the car, Elder Tanner behind the wheel. He was the senior and always drove. He’d been in the mission field thirteen months, me just six. He was nineteen now. I was still eighteen. We’d been together a full two months, and I loved him more every day.

He tended my foot for a week when I stepped on a nail. He traded chores with me that I didn’t like, letting me get all the easy ones. He let me win at basketball at church on P-Day, the only thing that made the boring game bearable. He bought me a piece of cheesecake when an investigator turned on us last week and yelled at me.

Last night, he read me the Song of Solomon.

We drove from our apartment past Fred Meyer and Wal-Mart and the Ford dealership and pulled into the parking lot at Buddy’s Steakhouse. When we stopped the car, neither of us got out. Elder Tanner grabbed my hand and smiled. I smiled back. Both our hands were trembling now.

It was raining a little harder now, so we ran across the asphalt to the door of the restaurant. Inside was a tiny waiting room with an empty bench. A stuffed goose hung from the ceiling. A stuffed wolf looked out a window. From our vantage point, all we could see was the animal’s behind. Elder Tanner pointed and giggled.

We walked through another door just as a huge man and slightly smaller woman came out.

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