3809/2801: Motorola M6800 EXORcises

2801
Motorola M6800 EXORcises

Early Morning Seminary

TOC

(I'm sure I lost a lot of readers on the shift to the teen romance that never was. And I'm going to lose even more readers shifting back to technology now. At least the tech is real -- for the current chapter or so.) 

Nothing remarkable happened in either chemistry class or homeroom. After homeroom, I went to the east student parking lot to meet Rick.

When he saw me, he looked me over with a doubtful expression.

"What?" 

"Mmuhhn yeah." He just shook his head. "Let's get to OC." 

We both climbed in his car, and he started the engine. Then he looked at me again, wrinkling his nose.

"Hit me with it," I said.

"When you called me last night, were you at Sapphire's house?" 

This time it was my turn to be puzzled, while he put the car in reverse, checked his mirrors and the blind spots, and backed out of the parking space. 

"No?" I responded. 

"I'm definitely getting a whiff of something," he said, as he put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot. "Like recent. You're not wearing some strange cologne?"

"Oh." I tested the air around me and chuckled wryly. "Becca and Maralea invited Sapphire to Seminary, so I may have gotten a hug or two from her already today. Yeah, she was wearing perfume."

He nodded, absently.

"You don't believe me?"

"Why would she be going to your seminary?"

"Good question. I guess she likes me."

He laughed. "Well, let's hope that's what it is."

"You could come to seminary, too, you know. I might need an objective point of view."

"Any reason to get me to visit your church."

We both laughed.

"I might have to do that," he complained as we waited for a stop light. The light changed and he accelerated. "Are you're going to help me with the calculus homework today?"

"I did about half of it last night, while I was studying with Sapphire. It's dead simple stuff, just working through some basic area summations preparing to discuss integration." 

"Good. I'm glad the class only meets Monday Wednesday Friday, so we have Tuesdays and Thursdays to work on homework in the library."

"Yeah. And I'm wondering if the library has books on microprocessors."

Rick glanced at me. "We can ask. After we finish the calculus homework."

At the college library, we found a study table and set up to study.

"You're right," Rick said. "This is easy stuff." 

We both got busy.

After maybe twenty-five minutes, Rick asked, "Done?"

"Just about."

He looked across the table at my work. "Working ahead again."

"Hey. It's fun." I grinned and put down my pencil.

"Says you." He grinned back. "I'll go ask at the desk."

"I'll go check the card catalog."

Rick and the library assistant beat me to the stacks.

"Univac 1100 Series would be mainframe, wouldn't it?" Rick asked in a low voice.

The assistant nodded. "That's what I understand." 

I read the spine of a nearby volume quietly, "IBM 370."

"Mainframe," Rick replied. He read another. "PDP-11 series." He reached for the DEC manual.

"I think that's a minicomputer," I muttered.

The assistant nodded in agreement again. 

"So not a microcomputer." His hand paused. "Maybe later."

(The LSI-11 implementation of the PDP-11 did exist at the time. But it was not a single-chip microprocessor. It required four chips to function, was very expensive, and studying it would probably have taught lessons of less utility to high-school students than the microprocessors we were talking about in class would teach. It was a significantly more mature class of computer. But it would have been a dream to use. 

For the record, the T-11 single-chip implementation of the LSI-11 was still several years away.) 

I responded with a non-committal "Mmm hmm."

The library assistant pointed out a sign on the shelf I was looking at. "Just a reminder, these are reference works, and can't be checked out." 

Rick and I both nodded our acknowledgement.

"Understood," I said. 

"8080 -- Intel. Repetitious cover. RCA 1800? oh, COSMAC CDP 1802. F8? What's that?" Rick picked up a Fairchild manual.

"And these don't fit on the regular shelf." The library assistant pointed out the oversize shelf. 

"Ah, 6800," I said as I picked up the Motorola M6800 Programming Reference Manual from the shelf she had just indicated.

"Do you think you'll find everything okay?" she asked.

"Probably," Rick responded as he thumbed through the F8 manual. "For now. Thanks."

"The technology department has requisitioned manuals for a few more this semester," she volunteered. "the, uhm, Western Design Center 6502 and a couple of Texas Instruments microprocessors."

"9900?" Rick asked.

"I remember that one," she answered. "They seem to be really new products."

"They are," I confirmed. 

"If you give me your names and phone numbers, we can let you know when we get them."

We did so, and thanked her again, and she returned to the checkout counter.

Rick and I flipped through the manuals we had picked up.

"Wow." Rick muttered. "The F8 looks even more primitive than the 1802." 

He put the Fairchild manual on the returns shelf. "Maybe later."

"The explanations of the microprocessor instructions in this manual look pretty detailed." I handed him the 6800 Programming manual I had picked up.

"For me?" He gave me a lopsided grin.

"Unless you don't want it." 

He opened it up to a random page. 

I grabbed the M6800 Microprocessor Applications manual that had been next to it on the shelf. " I think I'm going to go sit down."

"Good idea." 

We went back to the study table. 

While Rick flipped randomly through the pages of the Programming manual, I opened the Applications manual to the table of contents and started scanning it, subvocalizing the sections. 

"Addressing modes, instruction set, pointer operations, branch and jump, looks like it repeats or summarizes a lot of the information in the Programming manual. Hmm. Plus the electronics side of things." 

Rick didn't say anything, just continued flipping through the pages. 

"Code examples. Addition and subtraction routines, multiplication and division, counting. Chapter two, section one point five." 

I opened to section 2-1.5 and read in a low voice to myself.

  L-D-A-A ALPHA ; Maybe, load A ALPHA?" 
  A-D-D-A BETA ; Add A BETA? 
  S-T-A-A GAMMA  ; Store A GAMMA?

I explained to myself, "I guess that means GAMMA = ALPHA + BETA, if GAMMA and ALPHA and BETA are all bytes. Load the left side, add the right side, store the result. And it looks like the same sort of thing for subtraction."

"Hang on," Rick said. "There's an appendix that has a description of the instructions. Let me see." Rick flipped pages. "L-D-A loads the contents of memory into the accumulator. And," He flipped pages back. "ADD," he read in English instead of reading each letter, "adds the contents of A-C-C-X and the contents of M and places the result in A-C-C-X. A-C-C-X means accumulator A or B?" He turned the Programming Manual so I could read the page.

"Mmmm -- immediate, direct page, indexed, and extended mode operands for each of accumulators A and B. Sounds right."

"And M is memory?"

"Apparently."

"Okay," he pulled it back and flipped pages forward. "S-T-A stores the contents of accumulator X in memory. The contents of accumulator X remain unchanged. I guess I can follow that. Not that I know what to do next."

"Add with carry?"

He flipped back a few pages. "A-D-C. Right here." 

"It's a start?"

"I hope so. Hmm." He flipped pages back and forth. 

"What?"

"I don't see any ADD to X instruction," he replied.

"Increment?"

He flipped pages. "I-N-X. increment X. Add one to X."

"Maybe it has to be done in memory and then loaded into X. Hang on, there are some tables of instructions here." I flipped back a bit. "Not this one." I flipped back a bit farther. "Accumulator and memory, ah, index register and stack pointer operations. Compare, decrement, increment, load, store, transfer between the stack and index registers. No add or subtract, so it looks like we have to add in memory and then load it. Or if it's quicker, use more than one increment or decrement instruction."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

I flipped some more pages. "I'm going to copy some of this out." And I got a sheet of loose-leaf paper out of my notebook.

"Copier over there?"

"Nah. I don't want the whole page, and the manual isn't going anywhere. And I think I might remember it better if I copy it." 

I copied the very short sequences for adding and subtracting multiple bytes while Rick went back to paging through the Programming Manual. 

After a few minutes, I said, "I think I'm going to take a guess at how to add B to X," and wrote down,

 STX X16 

Rick read, "Store X in X16. How do you know there is something called X16 that you can store X in?"

"I'm sure one of these manuals explains that." 

"You're making it up."

"For now. Uhm,"

  ADDB X16

"Mmm, how do I do this?" I flipped pages in the manual, looking at the sample code. "Oh, this would probably work."

  ADDB X16+1

"Add to accumulator B from X16 plus one," Rick read. "That would be one memory location beyond X16?"

"I think so."

"Your have B reversed from the example."

"I wonder if it matters." 

Rick give me a "Who knows?" shrug.

I continued. "If it doesn't,"

 LDAA X16
 ADCA 

Again I got stuck.

Rick suggested, "Just adding zero along with the carry might work?"

"Genius."

"Huh."

"Constant is immediate mode, and that uses the, uhm, pound sign." I continued,

 ADCA #0 
 STAB X16+1
 STAA X16 
 LDX X16

Rick read, "Load accumulator A from location X16, add carry immediate zero to A, store B at one beyond X16, store A at X16, and finally load X back in from X16."

We both stared at the code for maybe half a minute. 

"Sounds good, but I wonder if you could clear A and add A from X16 instead?"

"I wonder what would happen to the carry flag. Wait." I flipped back, looking for a table that had the load instruction in it. 

Rick flipped forward a bit.

"C-L-R clear," he said. "R stands for reset. Clears the carry flag."

"Maybe you could clear A first." I read from the table I found, "But loading the accumulator does not affect the carry flag."

"So that sounds like your sequence should work. That's a lot of work to go to every time you want to add B to X."

"There's got to be a way to avoid repeating that every time."

(There is a way to avoid repeating the code, of course, but that's for them to discover later. And what they came up with is not the most optimal, but it's pretty good first efforts. Way better than I and my friends in the reality you know could have done.) 

"I think I'm going to look at decimal adjust later," I commented to myself. "I wonder if carries are the same for decimal and binary."

Rick gave me another shrug, and I turned back to the manual and continued reading. 

"Hmm. It looks like they're saying that standard multiply by column works for binary like it works for base ten, but we knew that."

"You knew that."

"You did too."

"You told me about it once." 

I continued browsing. "Booth's algorithm? I wonder what that is." 

I turned a querying glance at Rick, and he returned a shrug.

"Maybe I'll copy this out later, too." 

I went back to the table of contents. "DMA -- direct memory access." 

"I wish I could make as much sense out of things as you do," Rick complained quietly, as he flipped pages.  

"What do you mean. You are making as much sense out of it as I am. Huh." I stopped flipping pages. "Scanning wand, UPC symbol." 

"Wand?" Rick grinned.

"Magic, I guess." 

We laughed. Quietly.

"Chapter six, design techniques. This looks like it might make a good textbook for our class. Hardware/software tradeoffs, hardware configuration, what's macro flow?"

Rick set the Programming manual down and moved around to my side of the table so he could get a better look.

I continued scanning the table of contents. "Chapter seven, development tasks." I continued silently to the bottom of the page. "Any idea what 'build virtual machine' means?"

"No idea." Rick shrugged and read the next entry, a little loudly. "The EXORciser?" He started humming the signature opening phrase of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", and we both laughed out loud.

We heard a shush from the checkout counter. I looked up and gave the library staff a thumbs-up, and the librarian who had helped us gave me a mock stern look, but with a real warning behind it.

"For getting the demons out of our designs?" I suggested, more quietly than before.

We both snickered. I glanced back to check with the librarian at the desk. She rolled her eyes.

"Chapter seven, page sixty-nine." I flipped to the specified page. That page had an image of a rather non-descript box. The swept-back front panel with an exaggerated lower lip might have been an attempt to make it look futuristic or something. The left three-quarters was occupied by a blank inset, and the only controls were to the right of the inset -- a keyswitch between two pushbuttons, with three indicator lamps, probably LEDs, above the controls, and the EXORciser logo above that.  

Rick shook his head. "Looks kind of like a squashed toaster oven." 

"No blinkenlights?" I turned the page. "Seventeen inches wide, nineteen deep, seven high. Forty-five pounds." (43.18 cm by 48.26 cm by 17.78 cm; about 20.412 kg.)

"The Altair 8800 looks a lot more interesting, what with all the switches and lights on the front panel."

"I wonder if we could put that kind of front panel on this."  

"I wonder how much it costs, and what you can do with it."

"I don't see any indication of prices. I might have asked about that in my letter of inquiry, if I had read this first." 

"Maybe they'll send you a price list anyway. I'll bet the SWTPC will be cheaper."

"Different purposes, probably." 

"Yeah, I think we need to know more about what these gadgets do before worrying about prices." 

We scanned more of the chapter without comment until Rick looked at his watch. 

"Time to go for lunch." 

"Whataburger?" 

"Yah." 

We put the manuals on the returns shelf, thanked the library staff on our way out, and headed north in Rick's car for the Whataburger down the road.

"Onions today?" Rick joked as we pulled into the drive-in.

I chuckled. "Is that relevant?" 

But I think I did order onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and cheese, with ketchup and mayonnaise. I usually did. Rick probably ordered grilled chicken with mayonnaise sauce, per his usual.

We talked about math and electronics while we ate, and then headed for Permian. 

TOC		Next
Where it starts

Copyright 2026 Joel Matthew Rees

[Edit record here:  https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2026/07/mark00-3809-2801-motorola-m6800-exorcises.html]

[MARK00] 3809/2801: Motorola M6800 EXORcises

EDIT MARK record 00
Read the current version at: 
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2026/07/3809-2801-motorola-m6800-exorcises.html

2801
Motorola M6800 EXORcises

Early Morning Seminary

TOC

(I'm sure I lost a lot of readers on the shift to the teen romance that never was. And I'm going to lose even more readers shifting back to technology now. At least the tech is real -- for the current chapter or so.) 

Nothing remarkable happened in either chemistry class or homeroom. After homeroom, I went to the east student parking lot to meet Rick.

When he saw me, he looked me over with a doubtful expression.

"What?" 

"Mmuhhn yeah." He just shook his head. "Let's get to OC." 

We both climbed in his car, and he started the engine. Then he looked at me again, wrinkling his nose.

"Hit me with it," I said.

"When you called me last night, were you at Sapphire's house?" 

This time it was my turn to be puzzled, while he put the car in reverse, checked his mirrors and the blind spots, and backed out of the parking space. 

"No?" I responded. 

"I'm definitely getting a whiff of something," he said, as he put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot. "Like recent. You're not wearing some strange cologne?"

"Oh." I tested the air around me and chuckled wryly. "Becca and Maralea invited Sapphire to Seminary, so I may have gotten a hug or two from her already today. Yeah, she was wearing perfume."

He nodded, absently.

"You don't believe me?"

"Why would she be going to your seminary?"

"Good question. I guess she likes me."

He laughed. "Well, let's hope that's what it is."

"You could come to seminary, too, you know. I might need an objective point of view."

"Any reason to get me to visit your church."

We both laughed.

"I might have to do that," he complained as we waited for a stop light. The light changed and he accelerated. "Are you're going to help me with the calculus homework today?"

"I did about half of it last night, while I was studying with Sapphire. It's dead simple stuff, just working through some basic area summations preparing to discuss integration." 

"Good. I'm glad the class only meets Monday Wednesday Friday, so we have Tuesdays and Thursdays to work on homework in the library."

"Yeah. And I'm wondering if the library has books on microprocessors."

Rick glanced at me. "We can ask. After we finish the calculus homework."

At the college library, we found a study table and set up to study.

"You're right," Rick said. "This is easy stuff." 

We both got busy.

After maybe twenty-five minutes, Rick asked, "Done?"

"Just about."

He looked across the table at my work. "Working ahead again."

"Hey. It's fun." I grinned and put down my pencil.

"Says you." He grinned back. "I'll go ask at the desk."

"I'll go check the card catalog."

Rick and the library assistant beat me to the stacks.

"Univac 1100 Series would be mainframe, wouldn't it?" Rick asked in a low voice.

The assistant nodded. "That's what I understand." 

I read the spine of a nearby volume quietly, "IBM 370."

"Mainframe," Rick replied. He read another. "PDP-11 series." He reached for the DEC manual.

"I think that's a minicomputer," I muttered.

The assistant nodded in agreement again. 

"So not a microcomputer." His hand paused. "Maybe later."

(The LSI-11 implementation of the PDP-11 did exist at the time. But it was not a single-chip microprocessor. It required four chips to function, was very expensive, and studying it would probably have taught lessons of less utility to high-school students than the microprocessors we were talking about in class would teach. It was a significantly more mature class of computer. But it would have been a dream to use. 

For the record, the T-11 single-chip implementation of the LSI-11 was still several years away.) 

I responded with a non-committal "Mmm hmm."

The library assistant pointed out a sign on the shelf I was looking at. "Just a reminder, these are reference works, and can't be checked out." 

Rick and I both nodded our acknowledgement.

"Understood," I said. 

"8080 -- Intel. Repetitious cover. RCA 1800? oh, COSMAC CDP 1802. F8? What's that?" Rick picked up a Fairchild manual.

"And these don't fit on the regular shelf." The library assistant pointed out the oversize shelf. 

"Ah, 6800," I said as I picked up the Motorola M6800 Programming Reference Manual from the shelf she had just indicated.

"Do you think you'll find everything okay?" she asked.

"Probably," Rick responded as he thumbed through the F8 manual. "For now. Thanks."

"The technology department has requisitioned manuals for a few more this semester," she volunteered. "the, uhm, Western Design Center 6502 and a couple of Texas Instruments microprocessors."

"9900?" Rick asked.

"I remember that one," she answered. "They seem to be really new products."

"They are," I confirmed. 

"If you give me your names and phone numbers, we can let you know when we get them."

We did so, and thanked her again, and she returned to the checkout counter.

Rick and I flipped through the manuals we had picked up.

"Wow." Rick muttered. "The F8 looks even more primitive than the 1802." 

He put the Fairchild manual on the returns shelf. "Maybe later."

"The explanations of the microprocessor instructions in this manual look pretty detailed." I handed him the 6800 Programming manual I had picked up.

"For me?" He gave me a lopsided grin.

"Unless you don't want it." 

He opened it up to a random page. 

I grabbed the M6800 Microprocessor Applications manual that had been next to it on the shelf. " I think I'm going to go sit down."

"Good idea." 

We went back to the study table. 

While Rick flipped randomly through the pages of the Programming manual, I opened the Applications manual to the table of contents and started scanning it, subvocalizing the sections. 

"Addressing modes, instruction set, pointer operations, branch and jump, looks like it repeats or summarizes a lot of the information in the Programming manual. Hmm. Plus the electronics side of things." 

Rick didn't say anything, just continued flipping through the pages. 

"Code examples. Addition and subtraction routines, multiplication and division, counting. Chapter two, section one point five." 

I opened to section 2-1.5 and read in a low voice to myself.

  L-D-A-A ALPHA ; Maybe, load A ALPHA?" 
  A-D-D-A BETA ; Add A BETA? 
  S-T-A-A GAMMA  ; Store A GAMMA?

I explained to myself, "I guess that means GAMMA = ALPHA + BETA, if GAMMA and ALPHA and BETA are all bytes. Load the left side, add the right side, store the result. And it looks like the same sort of thing for subtraction."

"Hang on," Rick said. "There's an appendix that has a description of the instructions. Let me see." Rick flipped pages. "L-D-A loads the contents of memory into the accumulator. And," He flipped pages back. "ADD," he read in English instead of reading each letter, "adds the contents of A-C-C-X and the contents of M and places the result in A-C-C-X. A-C-C-X means accumulator A or B?" He turned the Programming Manual so I could read the page.

"Mmmm -- immediate, direct page, indexed, and extended mode operands for each of accumulators A and B. Sounds right."

"And M is memory?"

"Apparently."

"Okay," he pulled it back and flipped pages forward. "S-T-A stores the contents of accumulator X in memory. The contents of accumulator X remain unchanged. I guess I can follow that. Not that I know what to do next."

"Add with carry?"

He flipped back a few pages. "A-D-C. Right here." 

"It's a start?"

"I hope so. Hmm." He flipped pages back and forth. 

"What?"

"I don't see any ADD to X instruction," he replied.

"Increment?"

He flipped pages. "I-N-X. increment X. Add one to X."

"Maybe it has to be done in memory and then loaded into X. Hang on, there are some tables of instructions here." I flipped back a bit. "Not this one." I flipped back a bit farther. "Accumulator and memory, ah, index register and stack pointer operations. Compare, decrement, increment, load, store, transfer between the stack and index registers. No add or subtract, so it looks like we have to add in memory and then load it. Or if it's quicker, use more than one increment or decrement instruction."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

I flipped some more pages. "I'm going to copy some of this out." And I got a sheet of loose-leaf paper out of my notebook.

"Copier over there?"

"Nah. I don't want the whole page, and the manual isn't going anywhere. And I think I might remember it better if I copy it." 

I copied the very short sequences for adding and subtracting multiple bytes while Rick went back to paging through the Programming Manual. 

After a few minutes, I said, "I think I'm going to take a guess at how to add B to X," and wrote down,

 STX X16 

Rick read, "Store X in X16. How do you know there is something called X16 that you can store X in?"

"I'm sure one of these manuals explains that." 

"You're making it up."

"For now. Uhm,"

  ADDB X16

"Mmm, how do I do this?" I flipped pages in the manual, looking at the sample code. "Oh, this would probably work."

  ADDB X16+1

"Add to accumulator B from X16 plus one," Rick read. "That would be one memory location beyond X16?"

"I think so."

"Your have B reversed from the example."

"I wonder if it matters." 

Rick give me a "Who knows?" shrug.

I continued. "If it doesn't,"

 LDAA X16
 ADCA 

Again I got stuck.

Rick suggested, "Just adding zero along with the carry might work?"

"Genius."

"Huh."

"Constant is immediate mode, and that uses the, uhm, pound sign." I continued,

 ADCA #0 
 STAB X16+1
 STAA X16 
 LDX X16

Rick read, "Load accumulator A from location X16, add carry immediate zero to A, store B at one beyond X16, store A at X16, and finally load X back in from X16."

We both stared at the code for maybe half a minute. 

"Sounds good, but I wonder if you could clear A and add A from X16 instead?"

"I wonder what would happen to the carry flag. Wait." I flipped back, looking for a table that had the load instruction in it. 

Rick flipped forward a bit.

"C-L-R clear," he said. "R stands for reset. Clears the carry flag."

"Maybe you could clear A first." I read from the table I found, "But loading the accumulator does not affect the carry flag."

"So that sounds like your sequence should work. That's a lot of work to go to every time you want to add B to X."

"There's got to be a way to avoid repeating that every time."

(There is a way to avoid repeating the code, of course, but that's for them to discover later. And what they came up with is not the most optimal, but it's pretty good first efforts. Way better than I and my friends in the reality you know could have done.) 

"I think I'm going to look at decimal adjust later," I commented to myself. "I wonder if carries are the same for decimal and binary."

Rick gave me another shrug, and I turned back to the manual and continued reading. 

"Hmm. It looks like they're saying that standard multiply by column works for binary like it works for base ten, but we knew that."

"You knew that."

"You did too."

"You told me about it once." 

I continued browsing. "Booth's algorithm? I wonder what that is." 

I turned a querying glance at Rick, and he returned a shrug.

"Maybe I'll copy this out later, too." 

I went back to the table of contents. "DMA -- direct memory access." 

"I wish I could make as much sense out of things as you do," Rick complained quietly, as he flipped pages.  

"What do you mean. You are making as much sense out of it as I am. Huh." I stopped flipping pages. "Scanning wand, UPC symbol." 

"Wand?" Rick grinned.

"Magic, I guess." 

We laughed. Quietly.

"Chapter six, design techniques. This looks like it might make a good textbook for our class. Hardware/software tradeoffs, hardware configuration, what's macro flow?"

Rick set the Programming manual down and moved around to my side of the table so he could get a better look.

I continued scanning the table of contents. "Chapter seven, development tasks." I continued silently to the bottom of the page. "Any idea what 'build virtual machine' means?"

"No idea." Rick shrugged and read the next entry, a little loudly. "The EXORciser?" He started humming the signature opening phrase of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", and we both laughed out loud.

We heard a shush from the checkout counter. I looked up and gave the library staff a thumbs-up, and the librarian who had helped us gave me a mock stern look, but with a real warning behind it.

"For getting the demons out of our designs?" I suggested, more quietly than before.

We both snickered. I glanced back to check with the librarian at the desk. She rolled her eyes.

"Chapter seven, page sixty-nine." I flipped to the specified page. That page had an image of a rather non-descript box. The swept-back front panel with an exaggerated lower lip might have been an attempt to make it look futuristic or something. The left three-quarters was occupied by a blank inset, and the only controls were to the right of the inset -- a keyswitch between two pushbuttons, with three indicator lamps, probably LEDs, above the controls, and the EXORciser logo above that.  

Rick shook his head. "Looks kind of like a squashed toaster oven." 

"No blinkenlights?" I turned the page. "Seventeen inches wide, nineteen deep, seven high. Forty-five pounds." (43.18 cm by 48.26 cm by 17.78 cm; about 20.412 kg.)

"The Altair 8800 looks a lot more interesting, what with all the switches and lights on the front panel."

"I wonder if we could put that kind of front panel on this."  

"I wonder how much it costs, and what you can do with it."

"I don't see any indication of prices. I might have asked about that in my letter of inquiry, if I had read this first." 

"Maybe they'll send you a price list anyway. I'll bet the SWTPC will be cheaper."

"Different purposes, probably." 

"Yeah, I think we need to know more about what these gadgets do before worrying about prices." 

We scanned more of the chapter without comment until Rick looked at his watch. 

"Time to go for lunch." 

"Whataburger?" 

"Yah." 

We put the manuals on the returns shelf, thanked the library staff on our way out, and headed north in Rick's car for the Whataburger down the road.

"Onions today?" Rick joked as we pulled into the drive-in.

I chuckled. "Is that relevant?" 

But I think I did order onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and cheese, with ketchup and mayonnaise. I usually did. Rick probably ordered grilled chicken with mayonnaise sauce, per his usual.

We talked about math and electronics while we ate, and then headed for Permian. 

TOC		Next
Where it starts

Copyright 2026 Joel Matthew Rees

3809/2801: Early Morning Seminary

2801
Early Morning Seminary

Terms of Engagement -- Reality

TOC

Sometime during the night, I woke up with the recurring nightmare I'd had since before grade school, where I was running for the gate and couldn't get to the latch in time to get through. But this time, I got through before I woke up. And I saw who it was I was running from, even though I didn't quite remember what it meant. 

The alarm rang at 5:45 in the morning, and I headed sleepily to the shower.   The stream of my memory of the events of the previous day blasted me along with the stream of water, and I wished I had thought to set the alarm for a few minutes earlier. And I wondered whether I should have braved her parents reactions and invited Sapphire to Seminary.

Satisfying myself with the usual soap-only-where-it-counts, and promising myself to set the alarm at least five minutes earlier that night, I toweled off, threw on the clothes I had worn the day before, and went into the kitchen for toast and peanut butter.

"Good morning Joey." Mom was at the stove. "How does a boiled egg sound this morning?"

"Mmm. Sounds good. Thanks, Mom." I gave Mom a hug, grabbed some bread from the counter behind her, and loaded the toaster.

"You're going to need more complete protein if you're going to be doing all this stuff that uses your muscles."

"Peanut butter's not going to be enough?" I reached into the fridge and pulled out the milk and the dish of raw vegetables Dad had cut the night before.

"I think not. That's yesterday's shirt, isn't it?"

I looked down at my shirt. It was a medium blue casual button-down shirt, didn't look that wrinkled. I sniffed, and I caught a little of my own body odor. "Not a good idea?"

She shook her head.

I set the milk and vegetables on the table and went back to my room to grab a clean rayon Swedish knit tee with a color print of an air balloon on front, tossing the previous day's shirt in the hamper as I passed the bathroom again on the way back to the kitchen. I pulled the clean shirt on over my head as I passed through the living room and ignored the scratchy feel against my skin. 

Mom looked at the shirt with an air of dissatisfaction as she spread peanut butter on a slice of toast for me, but she didn't say anything. 

"You think I should wear something else?" I got out a plate and Mom put the the peanut-buttered toast on it, picking up the other slice to repeat. 

She shrugged. "I'm the one who bought it for you three years ago."

I put two more slices in the toaster and got out more plates. "Are the eggs ready to cool?"

"Yep." Mom put the second slice on my plate.

I poured the boiled water out of the pan, holding the eggs in with the lid, then poured cold tap water over the eggs, repeating several times until the eggs were cool, Then I picked one out and started peeling it while Mom buttered the second batch of toast with regular butter (Real butter, not margarine. We had quit eating margarine about the time I hit my sophomore year.) for herself. I peeled another egg for Mom, and we sat down. Mom gave me a nod, so I offered a quick blessing, and we ate.  

Dad came in as we finished up, rubbing his hair with a towel.

"Buenos dias."

"G'mornin' Dad. Want me to peel you one of Momma's eggs?"

"No, I've got it. You guys get to Seminary."

I grabbed my books and Mom grabbed something she wanted to work on in the library at church, and I drove, taking my usual quick route past Polyantha Park and up University Boulevard.

Mom didn't mention Sapphire on the way, giving me room to think while I drove in mostly automatic mode.

I parked the car in the new parking lot in back.

Shelly Rudd and her mom approached as we walked to the back hall entrance. Shelly gave me a guarded look. "Hi, Joe. Good morning, Sister Reeves." 

"Hey, Shelly, how's it going?" I responded.

"Good morning, Shelly," Mom greeted her, as well.

"It's, uhm, okay." Shelly paused by the door. "Joe, don't get any ideas, but can I ask for a ride to school after seminary? My mom needs the car." 

"I think so." I looked at Mom, and she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head.

"But I'll be at Permian after lunch," I added. "So you'll need another ride home."

"I usually catch the bus."

Sister Rudd added, "I need to go in to the office early for a while, so we're wondering, if maybe she could catch a ride regularly?"

I looked at Mom. She wasn't giving me any more clues. "I think we can do that," I said.

Both Mom's eyebrows went up.

"Am I not thinking of something, Mom?" I asked.

"Maybe I'm not the one to ask."

"Uhm, well, I don't think Sapphire would mind."

"Sapphire might not be the only one whose opinion needs to be considered."

Mom still wasn't giving me enough clues.

"Sapphire?" Shelly asked.

"Who is Sapphire?" her mother asked. 

"She's," I turned back to Shelly, "a girl I know from Hood." I was choosing my words carefully. 

Shelly suddenly became inquisitive. "You have a girlfriend? Since when?"

I looked back at my mom for help. She just gave me a "You got yourself into this." smile.

I dodged. "We've known each other since seventh grade. I guess we've been getting a little more serious about each other recently." 

Mom blinked and nodded.

"I really don't think she'll mind," I added.

Shelly's focus shifted and her expression shifted with it. 

From behind me, Becca said, "Good morning, Joe. Why haven't you invited Sapphire to Seminary yet?"

It took me a fraction of a second to shift gears. "I didn't think her Mom would --" I started to turn.

Hands covered my eyes from behind, hands I would not have recognized the morning before.

I smiled sheepishly and said, "Good morning, Sapphire," and put my left hand over her's.

I felt as much as heard her giggle. And I thought I heard Shelly say a quiet "Oh." 

"I guess your mom figured it would be okay if it was Becca and not me inviting you?" 

Maralea and Becca broke out laughing behind me. Sapphire slipped her hand out from under mine, and she gave me a hug from behind with both hands, dodging the books under my right arm. I felt her laughter against my back before I turned to face her.

"Good morning, Joey. Yeah, kinda. But it was Maralea who invited me. And Mom and Dad really would have both been okay with it if you had invited me yourself last night."

"I'm glad someone is on top of things." I reached around her waist and drew her to my side, dodging her shoulder bag hanging from her left shoulder.

I tipped my head toward Shelly. "Shelly, meet Sapphire."

"Hi, Sapphire." Shelly's face was a mask telling me nothing.

"Sapphire, Shelly," I was stuck. "I, uh, took  Shelly to see that Pink Panther movie last year after my birthday -- when I could finally drive by myself without someone eighteen or older riding shotgun."

Sapphire gave her a smile. "Hi, Shelly. That's a fun movie."

Shelly's mask resolved into a lopsided smile. "I guess I don't like British slapstick that much. And I was kind of expecting the animated cartoon more than Peter Sellers."

I ducked my head apologetically. "I should have found out more about the movie before I invited you." 

"That's okay. I learned that we don't have the same taste in movies."

"Since you're here, Sapphire," I began.

Shelly interrupted me. "Never mind, Joe. It's okay. I can walk if Rusty can't give me a ride."

Sapphire raised her eyebrows with a smile. "What kind of friend would I be if I objected to giving a friend a ride to school?" 

I looked from Sapphire to Mom to Shelly. 

Sister Rudd asked, "You wouldn't mind?"

"It's not like we're engaged or anything." Sapphire turned her head to give me a sly wink. "Yet."

I nodded absently. "Yet. Why do I feel threatened by that?"

She smirked at me. Then she turned and reached out for Shelly's hand. "I'm glad to meet you, Shelly. I hope we can be friends." 

Shelly grinned suddenly as their hands met, and she nodded. "I hope so, too." 

Sapphire gave me a side hug. "Can you guys go in ahead of us? I need to talk with Joe."

"Now I'm Joe again."

Sapphire gave me another smirk.

Nobody disagreed, and Becca, Maralea, and Shelly went inside, and my mom walked with Sister Rudd over to her car.

Sapphire and I walked north a few yards, moving away from the back entrance towards the junior high school across the street from the church, remaining on the sidewalk on the church side of the street. Her smile went away and she buried her face in my chest. She gave me a muffled "Thanks." 

I wrapped my left arm around her waist, thinking distractedly about how books got in the way more if they were loose, and not in a backpack. "For what?"

We stood that way for an extended moment. A car came up the street, slowing down as it pulled even with us. Alex Dent raised his hand from the steering wheel in a small wave as he turned into the parking lot. I raised the books in my right hand to wave back.

"This isn't going to work with your friends." Still muffled.

"Mmm?" 

Sapphire pulled back, resting her hands on my shoulders. "Maralea called after you left last night. She'd been talking with Becca, and neither of them could believe you'd been dating me for the last two years." 

"Yeah, that's going to be kind of hard to pull off at church."

"So I 'fessed up."

I nodded. 

Alex and several others got out of his car, but didn't seem to be in a hurry to head for the entrance. 

"Maralea said she wouldn't lie, but she promised she wouldn't tell anyone more than they need to know. This morning, when they picked me up, Becca said she didn't think it was everybody's business either." 

"It seems like, at church, everyone knows who's dating who and all."

"Kiss and tell?"

"Kiss and get found out. And I'm pretty much known for being a lone wolf. And having never been kissed." 

Another car came up and slowed down to turn, hands reaching out to wave from both the driver's side and passenger's side as it approached. "Joe!!" Rusty called out from the driver's side window as he drew even. "Yew dawg!" Liz peered around him from inside the car, giving us another small wave with her fingers as they turned in.

I released Sapphire's hand to give him a thumbs-up, and Sapphire and I both watched them park. 

And she took my hand again. "Who's that?" 

"That's Rusty. He's probably my best friend at church. And his little sister, Liz." 

"Really never kissed a girl?"

"Didn't I mention that?"

"No, you didn't."

"Not bragging, by the way." 

Rusty and Liz got out and joined Alex and his group and they all headed towards the back entrance.

"I'm wondering if I should accept that as a challenge." Sapphire squeezed my hand. She chuckled. 

I chuckled nervously. 

"Liz, you said?" she asked, somewhat absently.

"Yeah?"

"She's really cute."

"Spunky, too. Is 'spunky' too archaic?"

"Probably not." 

Alex and his group all gave us small waves as they passed and went inside, but Rusty and Liz came over.

"So who's your friend, Joe?" Liz asked as they approached, her lisp on the consonants just barely audible.

"I'm Sapphire." 

Rusty tossed his head back. "I think I remember Joe talking about a crush he had on a girl named Sapphire a couple of years back when we were looking through our junior high annuals," He raised his hand and I met it with a hand slap.

"We somehow ended up in the same typing class over at Permian," I explained. 

"Somehow," Rusty echoed ironically.

"Yeah," I chuckled. 

"Fate?" Sapphire joked. 

"He had this huge crush on you."

"So I've heard. Again."

I nodded "Yep."

"Anyway, I'm Rusty, if Joe didn't already tell you. Joe and I go way back."

"And I'm Rusty's little sister, Liz."

"Nice to meet you both." 

"So, are you going to skip Seminary today?" Liz asked.

Sapphire tilted her head. "That's not why I came to your Bible study."

Liz grinned. 

"Well, not the only reason. I just needed to talk with Joey before we went in."

"Talk." Liz raised her eyebrows.

"Talk." I nodded. Then I added, "Long story, but Sapphire has been kind-of using me as an excuse for not dating since Hood. So we are being kind of ambiguous when we talk about our history."

Rusty nodded with mock gravity, but Liz looked puzzled. 

"Not lying," Sapphire added. "Just not telling the guys who ask me out everything. About our relationship. I've had a crush on him for a long time, too, anyway."

"Gotcha." Rusty raised his fist, and Sapphire and I raised ours and we bumped our fists together. 

"Oh." Liz exclaimed. "I get it." And she joined the fist bump. 

Rusty gave us a sly chuckle. "Well, maybe we should let you two, uhm, talk about ambiguities. C'mon, Liz."

They headed to the rear entrance, but Liz turned back. "Have fun," she paused, grinned, and raised her eyebrows, "talking." She waved her fingers, and Sapphire returned the finger wave with a grin.

"I think she's beautiful." Sapphire said quietly.

"Yeah, I have a crush on her, too. But she knows I get crushes easily." 

"I think I like your friends at church." Sapphire turned to me, her expression turning puzzled. "But now I have a question."

"Yeah?"

She was silent while a couple more cars came by and turned in and their occupants waved. 

"But I don't think I want to ask with all your friends going by. It'll wait. Let's go inside." 

"We could go sit on Bowie's lawn for a minute or two."

She looked over at the junior high and back at the cars that were parking.

"I'll ask you when we're studying tonight." 

"Guessing, since I just told you I've never been kissed, that you're wondering," I lowered my voice, "about the time Buddy Howell asked me in art class if I was a virgin?"

"You remember that."

I nodded. 

"I guess maybe I do want to talk now." She dragged me towards Bowie. 

"I went home and looked up the word," I said as we crossed the street, "because I thought it was a stupid thing to ask a guy and wanted to be sure how I was being insulted."

"Insulted?" We stopped on the sidewalk on the Bowie side of the street.

"That was what I thought. I'm sure I am not the only one who has ever misunderstood the word. Yeah, I should have corrected myself the next day, but I was too embarrassed."

Sapphire gave me a puzzled look, holding my hand with both of hers.

"Also I wasn't sure."

"Explain, please? I'm not following this."

More students waved as they entered the church, and we waved back. They all respected the street between. 

I turned Sapphire's hand loose and scratched the back of my head. "Up until fourth or fifth grade, the only times I had heard the word 'virgin' were in the context of Mary being pregnant with Jesus."

Sapphire's head tilted, her eyes holding back her thoughts. 

"So I had this idea that it meant being pregnant with the son of God."

She didn't even blink. 

"But the sex ed classes talked about it, so then I decided it just meant being pregnant in general, and kind of bleeped over why it didn't really make sense the way they were using it. Not like the sex ed class really made any kind of sense at all."

Now she blinked and rolled her eyes. 

"I'm not the only one."

"I suppose so. Maybe I didn't know what the Virgin Mary meant when I was really young, either. Really young." Extra emphasis on "really", the second time.

"Hey."

She grinned and tickled me. And took my hand back again.

"Yeah," I continued. "Well, in the sixth grade, when some of the guys were teasing each other about being pregnant, some of them said 'virgin'. I'm not sure they knew if they were using the word ironically or just wrong."

She nodded. "Maybe it wasn't being pregnant they thought they were teasing each other about?" she suggested.

I pursed my lips, but shook my head. "Some of them were talking about nine months, and couple of them played with stuffing a basketball under their shirts."

She thought, then slowly shook her head. "Okay. There's some irony in there that might be, mmm, a little beyond some sixth grade boys." She bit her lip and breathed a sigh. "So you're a virgin, after all."

I consulted my conscience and checked my courage and my grammar while the seconds dragged before I asked. But I asked, keeping my voice low, "Except, does masturbation count?" The gate from the nightmare, and the neighbor's back yard, came into my mind, but I pushed the images aside, not wanting to the distraction.

She took a quick breath and put her free left hand to her mouth, which didn't hide the corners turning up. 

"Oh, Joey." 

But she didn't release my left hand. 

"I'm not laughing at you," she protested.

"But you are laughing." 

She shook her head with a chagrined grin, and we stood, holding hands, in silence for a few moments.

"If that counted," she said, "I don't think there'd be any virgins."

"No?" 

"Guys or girls." 

I had to think about that.

"You ...?"

"Everybody bops." 

(No, neither Cyndi Lauper nor Francois de la Brioskee, whoever he was, invented that truism.) 

I was still processing things. "Be-bop?" 

"Quit that."

We stood in silence for a few moments more, still holding hands. 

"You know," she said. "We're going to have a really hard time studying Bible this morning."

"We'd better go inside." 

"I think so." 

We crossed the street, swinging our hands together. 

As we opened the door to the back entrance, Sapphire looked down the hall, then stopped and pulled back, out of sight, and looked around as if looking for cover. 

I looked down the hall at the open door at the far end, where I saw through the door some of the guys joking around in the classroom. I let the entrance door close in front of us.

"I'd forgotten Stewart was one of you guys," she muttered.

I wrinkled my forehead. "Us guys."

She looked a little guilty. "Well, I don't exactly consider myself a Mormon. At least not yet."

"We're both Christian." I raised my eyebrows with a small smile.

"What I mean is I didn't think ..."

"Never mind, I'm just being obnoxious."

We were still holding hands. 

"I didn't realize there would be guys I knew here besides you and Becca and Maralea. You're not offended?"

I gave her a lopsided grin. "Nah. 'At least not yet.' You'll think about it?"

"Becoming a Mormon? Of course. I am. Thinking about it."

"So, I'm guessing Stu is one of the guys you told you had a boyfriend?"

She nodded hesitantly.

I raised my eyebrows again, with a grin. "So now we are going to see how this strategy of minimal necessary truth works for real?" 

She thought, then nodded, still hesitant. 

I gave her a conspiratorial nod and opened the door, and we went inside. Stu was no longer visible through the door at the far end of the hall.

I stopped her and gave her a quick side hug just before we walked into the classroom, and we walked in together holding hands. Stu and some other guys were in the back row, joking loudly. They didn't immediately take notice of us. Stu's current steady, Katie, was sitting at the desk Stu was sitting on.

Becca, Maralea, Shelly, Rusty, and Liz had strategically picked desks that surrounded two empty desks, side-by-side. Sapphire checked with me with her eyes, and I nodded, and we moved to the open desks.

"Thanks, guys," Sapphire said as she set her bag down. Shelly and Liz touched fingers with her.

"No!" Stu protested from the back row. 

Sapphire and I glanced at each other with conspiratorial grins.

I subvocalized, "Delayed reaction."

And she laughed. 

Becca and Maralea were breaking up behind us. 

"Sapphire, what are you doing here?" 

Sapphire and I turned in unison.

"And why are you sitting with Joe? You should be sitting back here with us."

"Oh, hi, Stu." Sapphire turned to me in feigned confusion. "Joey, is there a rule in your church against a girl sitting with her boyfriend?"

"Maybe we should ask Stu's dad, since he's bishop," I said in mock seriousness. 

Stu stood. "Sapphire is not your girlfriend, Joe!"

We both turned back to Stu.

Katie was shaking her head in disbelief. 

Sapphire asked, innocently, "Whatever would make you say such a thing?" 

I grinned. "And a good morning to you, too, Stu."

Rusty laughed. "Don't take it personal, Stu."

Stu doubled down. "No way. Sapphire, you do not need to be sitting by Joe. You need to be sitting back here with us."

I opened my mouth, but Katie cut me off.

"And where do I sit, Stewart Kirk?" If looks could have killed --

Stu looked at Katie, registered her non-verbal accusation, then snuck a look in our direction. "I don't ..."

"Don't you!" Katie scolded.

"Stu," I said, "there's something called compatibility that cannot be forced. Loyalty, too."

Sapphire put her hand on mine. 

Stu suppressed a recoil. "Huh?" 

Katie added, "And right now, I'm thinking hard about compatibility. Real hard. Sure would have been nice to have some loyalty."

Stu gave me a hard look, and I met his glare with a neutral, but slightly sideways expression. 

"There's no way she's going to be going steady with you Joe."

Sapphire cut me off this time. "I beg to differ."

"There's no way you've been going steady for two years."

Sapphire and I turned and smiled at each other, both of us with raised eyebrows. 

"Is that so?", we chorused. 

"Mphhh." Shelly almost lost it.

"What are you laughing at, Shelly? You've gone out with Joe."

"Once. They obviously weren't seeing each other at the time," she answered.

Sapphire reached behind me and touched fingers with Shelly. Shelly squeezed her hand.

"Stu," I became pedantic. "You don't have to know everything that's going on in the ward. Even though your dad is the Bishop. Especially since your dad is the Bishop."

Bishop Kirk cleared his voice at the door. "Joe's right, Stu. Sapphire, is it?"

"Uh, hi. That's me."

We both turned. 

"I apologize for my son. I hope he hasn't been misbehaving," he paused, "too much. Not at all is a little beyond us at this point."

"Well, he's not the worst of the guys at school. And he didn't keep pushing after I told him I wasn't available. That's a plus."

"I'll have to have another talk with him." Bishop Kirk gave Stu a meaningful look. 

Stu glared back. 

I quietly said, "Dang, Phi. I'm sorry."

Sapphire tilted her head. "It's not your fault."

"Tell me about it?"

She gave me a small grimace. "Later."

I nodded.  

"Katie, I didn't mean ...," Stu tried to apologize.

"Sure you didn't." She cut him off.

Bishop Kirk cleared his throat, and we all quieted down and those of us still standing sat down, and those of us who had scriptures and student manuals got them out.

I moved my desk close to Sapphire's so we could share my scriptures and student manual. She got her Bible and a notebook out of her bag.

Sister Kirk came in, and Bishop Kirk asked Liz to give the opening prayer.

After the prayer, the bishop asked, "Okay, who's read the assignment?"

I looked around, then raised my hand at the same time as Shelly. Alex was also hesitating, but he raised his hand too, followed by Mike and Becca. Katie and some others raised their hands, too. 

Sapphire started to lift her hand, but I said quietly, "What we read last night in Jonah was different."

"Oh." She put her hand down, disappointed.

"Sorry."

She grinned.

I opened my Doctrine and Covenants paired paperback edition to the Pearl of Great Price in the back and showed her the first chapter of the Book of Moses.

She furrowed her eyebrows. 

"Okay, who wants to summarize?" Sister Kirk asked.

 Katie said, "The burning bush wasn't all that Moses saw."

"Very good. Tell us about it?"

"I don't remember everything, but God showed him, well, basically, everything in the world."

"Okay." Bishop Kirk encouraged her.

"And then Satan came and tried to pretend he was Jesus. But Moses resisted temptation. And God showed him even more stuff. And there are other planets in the universe and people who worship God live on them."

Sapphire gave me a look that was hard to translate. "I really want to read this with you," she whispered.

"You got it," I whispered back.

"So," Katie continued. "Is the Bible basically what God showed Moses at the bush?"

Alex said, "The first chapters of Genesis." 

Sister Kirk said, "That's more or less correct. The first five books of the Bible are what Moses recorded of his revelations for the children of Israel, and the first few chapters of Genesis are Moses telling them about the creation and the Garden of Eden. Shelly, can you tell us about Abraham?"

"Well, Abraham basically got to see what Moses got to see, too. Plus or minus a bit. Are the scrolls Joseph Smith got the Book of Abraham from, I mean, does the Church still have them?"

Bishop Kirk grinned. "Yes, basically the same, although there are some differences between Moses' and Abraham's experiences. But, no, the scrolls were lost in a fire." 

Sister Kirk added, "Emma sold the scrolls and the mummies after Joseph was gone, and we don't really know for sure what happened to them after that. But we think they ended up in a museum in Chicago, where they were probably destroyed when a lot of Chicago burned in the fire of 1871. What we think are scraps of the scrolls have been found in some museum holdings since then. What else did you learn from Abraham, Shelly?" 

"It doesn't say Abraham saw the devil pretending to be the Son of God like Moses did, but it does say that the priests where Abraham was tried to make a human sacrifice of him, and an angel from God saved him. So Abraham was tested by the devil, too."

Mike raised his hand. "We all have to be tested, don't we?"

Bishop and Sister Kirk both nodded. 

Bishop Kirk pointed out, "According to the responsibilities God wants to give us." 

"Kolob's the sun, isn't it?" Stu asked.

His dad sighed. "Stu, please actually read the scriptures, and don't depend on what others say."

I raised my hand. "Parts of the description of Kolob sound like the sun, but other things just don't match."

"Doesn't that prove the Book of Abraham wrong?" Stu asked.

Rusty replied, "I think it proves that we shouldn't think we understand things we haven't read carefully and asked God about."

Ian asked, "Why did God tell Abraham to lie about Sarah?"

Shelly replied, "It explains that right there in chapter two. Sarah must have been beautiful enough to kill for." 

"But God telling Abraham to lie?" Ian pressed.

"Why didn't I see this?" Stu joked.

Sapphire raised her hand, "Sarah was Abraham's niece. In their language, a niece was a sister. It wasn't a lie."

The class suddenly became quiet.

Sister Kirk smiled, and said, "That's what we understand about it, and it's explained in the student manual. It wasn't a lie. It was just enough of the truth to help protect Abraham and Sarah and any man who might have been tempted to kill Abraham for Sarah."

I gave Sapphire a thumbs-up, and Liz reached over and touched fingertips with her again. Shelly nodded in agreement. 

Bishop Kirk asked, "So, before we dig in too deep, was there anything that anyone wants to share about these chapters that really impressed them?"

I raised my hand. "I really like Abraham 1 verse 2."

"Care to read it for us?"

I thumbed over to the Book of Abraham and read, 

And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. 

Bishop Kirk nodded. "What is it you like about it?"

"The idea that there is greater happiness to be found in following the teachings of God, for one."

Mike and Rusty gave me a thumbs-up.

Stu said, "Oooh, Joe, that's pretty cool," in a mocking tune.

Sapphire nodded and gave my hand a squeeze.

Katie said, "Stu, shut up. You're embarrassing yourself." You could almost hear the glare in her voice.

Mike said, "Take it easy on him, Sis." 

"Hmph."

Stu was looking perplexed, but refused to be chastened.

We continued for about 40 minutes, reading and discussing. At the end of the class, Sister Kirk told us we would be studying next from the three versions of the Genesis account, and asked us to read them and pray about them. Bishop Kirk added that whatever we could study in fifteen minutes in a day should  be enough for that day. Then he asked Mike to say the closing prayer. 

After Mike gave the closing prayer, we all gathered our books noisily. 

Well, mostly noisily. 

"Joey, there's just so much we have to talk about," Sapphire said quietly as she stood up.

"Plenty of time." I stood up as well. "I've got to go meet my mom in the library." 

"Where's that?"

"The room next to this one."

Becca picked up her books. "Five minutes, max."

Sapphire laughed ruefully. "I should be the one reminding myself that we don't have time." 

Stu and Katie came up.

Katie said, "I have to apologize for Stu."

Mike said, from where he was still sitting, "No, sis, you don't."

Stu shook his head. "I still don't understand." 

Sapphire reached out and clasped Katie's hand, and commiserated with her without saying anything. 

I said, "I don't claim to understand, either," and held my fist up for a bump.

Stu returned the bump, hesitantly, slowly forming a lopsided grin. 

Becca said, "Four minutes and counting. And no making out in the library."

"Hey!" I protested.

Becca shifted to a mock reprimand voice. "I know you want to, Joe, but it's not appropriate."

"Joe's mom will be our chaperone." Sapphire pretended innocence.

We didn't make out, of course, just helped my mom.

I finished a run of handouts on the spirit duplicator and muttered, "I am so tempted to suggest we play hooky today."

Sapphire looked over at me from where she was helping Mom put some of the Sunday School lesson materials from the previous Sunday away. She said, quietly, "I am so tempted to take you up on that."

Mom grinned. "I've got a meeting at the Globe today, and I'm not postponing it so you two can have the car after you take Shelly to school. You'd be on foot or on bike."

"Did your mom just say we could go truant?"

I shook my head. "Not exactly." 

Mom added. "Truancy law is only 'til you're sixteen." 

"Mom!" Sapphire exclaimed.

Mom grinned. "Well, this pile has been significantly reduced, but I think Shelly is waiting, and maybe you should tell Becca to go ahead. If you're going to skip classes today."

"We've got club." Sapphire grinned at me regretfully.

"And I guess I don't really want to miss the electronics lecture today." I gave her a mock grimace.

"Rain check." 

"Rain check." 

Mom nodded. 

Becca and Shelly appeared in the doorway. "Time to go," Becca said.

I walked Sapphire to Becca's car, and we squeezed each others hands one last time and they took off while Shelly and I and Mom walked to our car. Mom let Shelly ride in front, and we headed for OHS.

"You know, Joe," Shelly commented as we turned a corner. "I think I understand now why I didn't think we should go out again."

"Oh?"

"Peter Sellers isn't that bad. I just could tell you belonged to someone else."

I looked at Mom in the rear view mirror. Again, she offered me no clues.

"I appreciate that," I replied.

Shelly nodded. So did Mom. 

I parked at a curb at OHS, and we all got out. Mom slid into the driver's seat and waved goodbye. Shelly and I watched her drive off.

"So, see you tomorrow." Shelly said.

I responded with, "Tomorrow," and we touched palms, and headed different directions. 

TOC		Motorola M6800 EXORcises
Where it starts

Copyright 2026 Joel Matthew Rees

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[MARK00] 3809/2801: Early Morning Seminary

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2801
Early Morning Seminary

Terms of Engagement -- Reality

TOC

Sometime during the night, I woke up with the recurring nightmare I'd had since before grade school, where I was running for the gate and couldn't get to the latch in time to get through. But this time, I got through before I woke up. And I saw who it was I was running from, even though I didn't remember what it meant. 

The alarm rang at 5:45 in the morning, and I headed sleepily to the shower.   The stream of my memory of the events of the previous day blasted me along with the stream of water, and I wished I had thought to set the alarm for a few minutes earlier. And I wondered whether I should have braved her parents reactions and invited Sapphire to Seminary.

Satisfying myself with the usual soap-only-where-it-counts, and promising myself to set the alarm at least five minutes earlier that night, I toweled off, threw on the clothes I had worn the day before, and went into the kitchen for toast and peanut butter.

"Good morning Joey." Mom was at the stove. "How does a boiled egg sound this morning?"

"Mmm. Sounds good. Thanks, Mom." I gave Mom a hug, grabbed some bread from the counter behind her, and loaded the toaster.

"You're going to need more complete protein if you're going to be doing all this stuff that uses your muscles."

"Peanut butter's not going to be enough?" I reached into the fridge and pulled out the milk and the dish of raw vegetables Dad had cut the night before.

"I think not. That's yesterday's shirt, isn't it?"

I looked down at my shirt. It was a medium blue casual button-down shirt, didn't look that wrinkled. I sniffed, and I caught a little of my own body odor. "Not a good idea?"

She shook her head.

I set the milk and vegetables on the table and went back to my room to grab a clean rayon Swedish knit tee with a color print of an air balloon on front, tossing the previous day's shirt in the hamper as I passed the bathroom again on the way back to the kitchen. I pulled the clean shirt on over my head as I passed through the living room and ignored the scratchy feel against my skin. 

Mom looked at the shirt with an air of dissatisfaction as she spread peanut butter on a slice of toast for me, but she didn't say anything. 

"You think I should wear something else?" I got out a plate and Mom put the the peanut-buttered toast on it, picking up the other slice to repeat. 

She shrugged. "I'm the one who bought it for you three years ago."

I put two more slices in the toaster and got out more plates. "Are the eggs ready to cool?"

"Yep." Mom put the second slice on my plate.

I poured the boiled water out of the pan, holding the eggs in with the lid, then poured cold tap water over the eggs, repeating several times until the eggs were cool, Then I picked one out and started peeling it while Mom buttered the second batch of toast with regular butter (Real butter, not margarine. We had quit eating margarine about the time I hit my sophomore year.) for herself. I peeled another egg for Mom, and we sat down. Mom gave me a nod, so I offered a quick blessing, and we ate.  

Dad came in as we finished up, rubbing his hair with a towel.

"Buenos dias."

"G'mornin' Dad. Want me to peel you one of Momma's eggs?"

"No, I've got it. You guys get to Seminary."

I grabbed my books and Mom grabbed something she wanted to work on in the library at church, and I drove, taking my usual quick route past Polyantha Park and up University Boulevard.

Mom didn't mention Sapphire on the way, giving me room to think while I drove in mostly automatic mode.

I parked the car in the new parking lot in back.

Shelly Rudd and her mom approached as we walked to the back hall entrance. Shelly gave me a guarded look. "Hi, Joe. Good morning, Sister Reeves." 

"Hey, Shelly, how's it going?" I responded.

"Good morning, Shelly," Mom greeted her, as well.

"It's, uhm, okay." Shelly paused by the door. "Joe, don't get any ideas, but can I ask for a ride to school after seminary? My mom needs the car." 

"I think so." I looked at Mom, and she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head.

"But I'll be at Permian after lunch," I added. "So you'll need another ride home."

"I usually catch the bus."

Sister Rudd added, "I need to go in to the office early for a while, so we're wondering, if maybe she could catch a ride regularly?"

I looked at Mom. She wasn't giving me any more clues. "I think we can do that," I said.

Both Mom's eyebrows went up.

"Am I not thinking of something, Mom?" I asked.

"Maybe I'm not the one to ask."

"Uhm, well, I don't think Sapphire would mind."

"Sapphire might not be the only one whose opinion needs to be considered."

Mom still wasn't giving me enough clues.

"Sapphire?" Shelly asked.

"Who is Sapphire?" her mother asked. 

"She's," I turned back to Shelly, "a girl I know from Hood." I was choosing my words carefully. 

Shelly suddenly became inquisitive. "You have a girlfriend? Since when?"

I looked back at my mom for help. She just gave me a "You got yourself into this." smile.

I dodged. "We've known each other since seventh grade. I guess we've been getting a little more serious about each other recently." 

Mom blinked and nodded.

"I really don't think she'll mind," I added.

Shelly's focus shifted and her expression shifted with it. 

From behind me, Becca said, "Good morning, Joe. Why haven't you invited Sapphire to Seminary yet?"

It took me a fraction of a second to shift gears. "I didn't think her Mom would --" I started to turn.

Hands covered my eyes from behind, hands I would not have recognized the morning before.

I smiled sheepishly and said, "Good morning, Sapphire," and put my left hand over her's.

I felt as much as heard her giggle. And I thought I heard Shelly say a quiet "Oh." 

"I guess your mom figured it would be okay if it was Becca and not me inviting you?" 

Maralea and Becca broke out laughing behind me. Sapphire slipped her hand out from under mine, and she gave me a hug from behind with both hands, dodging the books under my right arm. I felt her laughter against my back before I turned to face her.

"Good morning, Joey. Yeah, kinda. But it was Maralea who invited me. And Mom and Dad really would have both been okay with it if you had invited me yourself last night."

"I'm glad someone is on top of things." I reached around her waste and drew her to my side, dodging her shoulder bag hanging from her left shoulder.

I tipped my head toward Shelly. "Shelly, meet Sapphire."

"Hi, Sapphire." Shelly's face was a mask telling me nothing.

"Sapphire, Shelly," I was stuck. "I, uh, took  Shelly to see that Pink Panther movie last year after my birthday -- when I could finally drive by myself without someone eighteen or older riding shotgun."

Sapphire gave her a smile. "Hi, Shelly. That's a fun movie."

Shelly's mask resolved into a lopsided smile. "I guess I don't like British slapstick that much. And I was kind of expecting the animated cartoon more than Peter Sellers."

I ducked my head apologetically. "I should have found out more about the movie before I invited you." 

"That's okay. I learned that we don't have the same taste in movies."

"Since you're here, Sapphire," I began.

Shelly interrupted me. "Never mind, Joe. It's okay. I can walk if Rusty can't give me a ride."

Sapphire raised her eyebrows with a smile. "What kind of friend would I be if I objected to giving a friend a ride to school?" 

I looked from Sapphire to Mom to Shelly. 

Sister Rudd asked, "You wouldn't mind?"

"It's not like we're engaged or anything." Sapphire turned her head to give me a sly wink. "Yet."

I nodded absently. "Yet. Why do I feel threatened by that?"

She smirked at me. Then she turned and reached out for Shelly's hand. "I'm glad to meet you, Shelly. I hope we can be friends." 

Shelly grinned suddenly as their hands met, and she nodded. "I hope so, too." 

Sapphire gave me a side hug. "Can you guys go in ahead of us? I need to talk with Joe."

"Now I'm Joe again."

Sapphire gave me another smirk.

Nobody disagreed, and Becca, Maralea, and Shelly went inside, and my mom walked with Sister Rudd over to her car.

Sapphire and I walked north a few yards, moving away from the back entrance towards the junior high school across the street from the church, remaining on the sidewalk on the church side of the street. Her smile went away and she buried her face in my chest. She gave me a muffled "Thanks." 

I wrapped my left arm around her waste, thinking distractedly about how books got in the way more if they were loose, and not in a backpack. "For what?"

We stood that way for an extended moment. A car came up the street, slowing down as it pulled even with us. Alex Dent raised his hand from the steering wheel in a small wave as he turned into the parking lot. I raised the books in my right hand to wave back.

"This isn't going to work with your friends." Still muffled.

"Mmm?" 

Sapphire pulled back, resting her hands on my shoulders. "Maralea called after you left last night. She'd been talking with Becca, and neither of them could believe you'd been dating me for the last two years." 

"Yeah, that's going to be kind of hard to pull off at church."

"So I 'fessed up."

I nodded. 

Alex and several others got out of his car, but didn't seem to be in a hurry to head for the entrance. 

"Maralea said she wouldn't lie, but she promised she wouldn't tell anyone more than they need to know. This morning, when they picked me up, Becca said she didn't think it was everybody's business either." 

"It seems like, at church, everyone knows who's dating who and all."

"Kiss and tell?"

"Kiss and get found out. And I'm pretty much known for being a lone wolf. And having never been kissed." 

Another car came up and slowed down to turn, hands reaching out to wave from both the driver's side and passenger's side as it approached. "Joe!!" Rusty called out from the driver's side window as he drew even. "Yew dawg!" Liz peered around him from inside the car, giving us another small wave with her fingers as they turned in.

I released Sapphire's hand to give him a thumbs-up, and Sapphire and I both watched them park. 

And she took my hand again. "Who's that?" 

"That's Rusty. He's probably my best friend at church. And his little sister, Liz." 

"Really never kissed a girl?"

"Didn't I mention that?"

"No, you didn't."

"Not bragging, by the way." 

Rusty and Liz got out and joined Alex and his group and they all headed towards the back entrance.

"I'm wondering if I should accept that as a challenge." Sapphire squeezed my hand. She chuckled. 

I chuckled nervously. 

"Liz, you said?" she asked, somewhat absently.

"Yeah?"

"She's really cute."

"Spunky, too. Is 'spunky' too archaic?"

"Probably not." 

Alex and his group all gave us small waves as they passed and went inside, but Rusty and Liz came over.

"So who's your friend, Joe?" Liz asked as they approached, her lisp on the consonants just barely audible.

"I'm Sapphire." 

Rusty tossed his head back. "I think I remember Joe talking about a crush he had on a girl named Sapphire a couple of years back when we were looking through our junior high annuals," He raised his hand and I met it with a hand slap.

"We somehow ended up in the same typing class over at Permian," I explained. 

"Somehow," Rusty echoed ironically.

"Yeah," I chuckled. 

"Fate?" Sapphire joked. 

"He had this huge crush on you."

"So I've heard. Again."

I nodded "Yep."

"Anyway, I'm Rusty, if Joe didn't already tell you. Joe and I go way back."

"And I'm Rusty's little sister, Liz."

"Nice to meet you both." 

"So, are you going to skip Seminary today?" Liz asked.

Sapphire tilted her head. "That's not why I came to your Bible study."

Liz grinned. 

"Well, not the only reason. I just needed to talk with Joey before we went in."

"Talk." Liz raised her eyebrows.

"Talk." I nodded. Then I added, "Long story, but Sapphire has been kind-of using me as an excuse for not dating since Hood. So we are being kind of ambiguous when we talk about our history."

Rusty nodded with mock gravity, but Liz looked puzzled. 

"Not lying," Sapphire added. "Just not telling the guys who ask me out everything. About our relationship. I've had a crush on him for a long time, too, anyway."

"Gotcha." Rusty raised his fist, and Sapphire and I raised ours and we bumped our fists together. 

"Oh." Liz exclaimed. "I get it." And she joined the fist bump. 

Rusty gave us a sly chuckle. "Well, maybe we should let you two, uhm, talk about ambiguities. C'mon, Liz."

They headed to the rear entrance, but Liz turned back. "Have fun," she paused, grinned, and raised her eyebrows, "talking." She waved her fingers, and Sapphire returned the finger wave with a grin.

"I think she's beautiful." Sapphire said quietly.

"Yeah, I have a crush on her, too. But she knows I get crushes easily." 

"I think I like your friends at church." Sapphire turned to me, her expression turning puzzled. "But now I have a question."

"Yeah?"

She was silent while a couple more cars came by and turned in and their occupants waved. 

"But I don't think I want to ask with all your friends going by. It'll wait. Let's go inside." 

"We could go sit on Bowie's lawn for a minute or two."

She looked over at the junior high and back at the cars that were parking.

"I'll ask you when we're studying tonight." 

"Guessing, since I just told you I've never been kissed, that you're wondering," I lowered my voice, "about when Buddy Howell asked me in art class if I was a virgin?"

"You remember that."

I nodded. 

"I guess maybe I do want to talk now." She dragged me towards Bowie. 

"I went home and looked up the word," I said as we crossed the street, "because I thought it was a stupid thing to ask a guy and wanted to be sure how I was being insulted."

"Insulted?" We stopped on the sidewalk on the Bowie side of the street.

"That was what I thought. I'm sure I am not the only one who has ever misunderstood the word. Yeah, I should have corrected myself the next day, but I was too embarrassed."

Sapphire gave me a puzzled look, holding my hand with both of hers.

"Also I wasn't sure."

"Explain, please? I'm not following this."

More students waved as they entered the church, and we waved back. They all respected the street between. 

I scratched the back of my head with my free hand. "Up until fourth or fifth grade, the only times I had heard the word 'virgin' were in the context of Mary being pregnant with Jesus."

Sapphire's head tilted, her eyes holding back her thoughts. 

"So I had this idea that it meant being pregnant with the son of God."

She didn't even blink. 

"But the sex ed classes talked about it, so then I decided it just meant being pregnant in general, and kind of bleeped over why it didn't really make sense the way they were using it. Not like the sex ed class really made any kind of sense at all."

Now she blinked and rolled her eyes. 

"I'm not the only one."

"I suppose so. Maybe I didn't know what the Virgin Mary meant when I was really young, either. Really young." Extra emphasis on "really".

"Hey."

She grinned and tickled me. 

"Yeah," I continued. "Well, in the sixth grade, when some of the guys were teasing each other about being pregnant, some of them said 'virgin'. I'm not sure they knew if they were using the word ironically or just wrong."

She nodded. "Maybe it wasn't being pregnant they thought they were teasing each other about?" she suggested.

I pursed my lips, but shook my head. "Some of them were talking about nine months, and couple of them played with stuffing a basketball under their shirts."

She thought, then slowly shook her head. "Okay. There's some irony in there that might be, mmm, a little beyond some sixth grade boys." She bit her lip and breathed a sigh. "So you're a virgin, after all."

I consulted my conscience and checked my courage and my grammar while the seconds dragged before I asked. But I asked, keeping my voice low, "Except, does masturbation count?" The gate from the nightmare, and the neighbor's back yard, came into my mind, but I pushed the images aside, not wanting to the distraction.

She took a quick breath and put her free left hand to her mouth, which didn't hide the corners turning up. 

"Oh, Joey." 

But she still didn't release my left hand. 

"I'm not laughing at you," she protested.

"But you are laughing." 

She shook her head with a chagrined grin, and we stood, holding hands, in silence for a few moments.

"If that counted," she said, "I don't think there'd be any virgins."

"No?" 

"Guys or girls." 

I had to think about that.

"You ...?"

"Everybody bops." 

(No, neither Cyndi Lauper nor Francois de la Brioskee, whoever he was, invented that phrase.) 

I was still processing things. "Be-bop?" 

"Quit that."

We stood in silence for a few moments more, still holding hands. 

"You know," she said. "We're going to have a really hard time studying Bible this morning."

"We'd better go inside." 

"I think so." 

We crossed the street, swinging our hands together. 

As we opened the door to the back entrance, Sapphire looked down the hall, then stopped and pulled back, out of sight, and looked around as if looking for cover. 

I looked down the hall at the open door at the far end, where I saw through the door some of the guys joking around in the classroom. I let the entrance door close in front of us.

"I'd forgotten Stewart was one of you guys," she muttered.

I wrinkled my forehead. "Us guys."

She looked a little guilty. "Well, I don't exactly consider myself a Mormon. At least not yet."

"We're both Christian." I raised my eyebrows with a small smile.

"What I mean is I didn't think ..."

"Never mind, I'm just being obnoxious."

We were still holding hands. 

"I didn't realize there would be guys I knew here besides you and Becca and Maralea. You're not offended?"

I gave her a lopsided grin. "Nah. 'At least not yet.' You'll think about it?"

"Becoming a Mormon? Of course. I am. Thinking about it."

"So, I'm guessing Stu is one of the guys you told you had a boyfriend?"

She nodded hesitantly.

I raised my eyebrows again, with a grin. "So now we are going to see how this strategy of minimal necessary truth works for real?" 

She thought, then nodded, still hesitant. 

I gave her a conspiratorial nod and opened the door, and we went inside. Stu was no longer visible through the door at the far end of the hall.

I stopped her and gave her a quick side hug just before we walked into the classroom, and we walked in together holding hands. Stu and some other guys were in the back row, joking loudly. They didn't immediately take notice of us. Stu's current steady, Katie, was sitting at the desk Stu was sitting on.

Becca, Maralea, Shelly, Rusty, and Liz had strategically picked desks that surrounded two empty desks, side-by-side. Sapphire checked with me with her eyes, and I nodded, and we moved to the open desks.

"Thanks, guys," Sapphire said as she set her bag down. Shelly and Liz touched fingers with her.

"No!" Stu protested from the back row. 

Sapphire and I glanced at each other with conspiratorial grins.

I subvocalized, "Delayed reaction."

And she laughed. 

Becca and Maralea were breaking up behind us. 

"Sapphire, what are you doing here?" 

Sapphire and I turned in unison.

"And why are you sitting with Joe? You should be sitting back here with us."

"Oh, hi, Stu." Sapphire turned to me in feigned confusion. "Joey, is there a rule in your church against a girl sitting with her boyfriend?"

"Maybe we should ask Stu's dad, since he's bishop," I said in mock seriousness. 

Stu stood. "Sapphire is not your girlfriend, Joe!"

We both turned back to Stu.

Katie was shaking her head in disbelief. 

Sapphire asked, innocently, "Whatever would make you say such a thing?" 

I grinned. "And a good morning to you, too, Stu."

Rusty laughed. "Don't take it personal, Stu."

Stu doubled down. "No way. Sapphire, you do not need to be sitting by Joe. You need to be sitting back here with us."

I opened my mouth, but Katie cut me off.

"And where do I sit, Stewart Kirk?" If looks could have killed --

Stu looked at Katie, registered her non-verbal accusation, then snuck a look in our direction. "I don't ..."

"Don't you!" Katie scolded.

"Stu," I said, "there's something called compatibility that cannot be forced. Loyalty, too."

Sapphire put her hand on mine. 

Stu suppressed a recoil. "Huh?" 

Katie added, "And right now, I'm thinking hard about compatibility. Real hard. Sure would have been nice to have some loyalty."

Stu gave me a hard look, and I met his glare with a neutral, but slightly sideways expression. 

"There's no way she's going to be going steady with you Joe."

Sapphire cut me off this time. "I beg to differ."

"There's no way you've been going steady for two years."

Sapphire and I turned and smiled at each other, both of us with raised eyebrows. 

"Is that so?", we chorused. 

"Mphhh." Shelly almost lost it.

"What are you laughing at, Shelly? You've gone out with Joe."

"Once. They obviously weren't seeing each other at the time," she answered.

Sapphire reached behind me and touched fingers with Shelly. Shelly squeezed her hand.

"Stu," I became pedantic. "You don't have to know everything that's going on in the ward. Even though your dad is the Bishop. Especially since your dad is the Bishop."

Bishop Kirk cleared his voice at the door. "Joe's right, Stu. Sapphire, is it?"

"Uh, hi. That's me."

We both turned. 

"I apologize for my son. I hope he hasn't been misbehaving," he paused, "too much. Not at all is a little beyond us at this point."

"Well, he's not the worst of the guys at school. And he didn't keep pushing after I told him I wasn't available. That's a plus."

"I'll have to have another talk with him." Bishop Kirk gave Stu a meaningful look. 

Stu glared back. 

I quietly said, "Dang, Phi. I'm sorry."

Sapphire tilted her head. "It's not your fault."

"Tell me about it?"

She gave me a small grimace. "Later."

I nodded.  

"Katie, I didn't mean ...," Stu tried to apologize.

"Sure you didn't." She cut him off.

Bishop Kirk cleared his throat, and we all quieted down and those of us still standing sat down, and those of us who had scriptures and student manuals got them out.

I moved my desk close to Sapphire's so we could share my scriptures and student manual. She got her Bible and a notebook out of her bag.

Sister Kirk came in, and Bishop Kirk asked Liz to give the opening prayer.

After the prayer, the bishop asked, "Okay, who's read the assignment?"

I looked around, then raised my hand at the same time as Shelly. Alex was also hesitating, but he raised his hand too, followed by Mike and Becca. Katie and some others raised their hands, too. 

Sapphire started to lift her hand, but I said quietly, "What we read last night in Jonah was different."

"Oh." She put her hand down, disappointed.

"Sorry."

She grinned.

I opened my Doctrine and Covenants twin paperback edition to the Pearl of Great Price in the back and showed her the first chapter of the Book of Moses.

She furrowed her eyebrows. 

"Okay, who wants to summarize?" Sister Kirk asked.

 Katie said, "The burning bush wasn't all that Moses saw."

"Very good. Tell us about it?"

"I don't remember everything, but God showed him, well, basically, everything in the world."

"Okay." Bishop Kirk encouraged her.

"And then Satan came and tried to pretend he was Jesus. But Moses resisted temptation. And God showed him even more stuff. And there are other planets in the universe and people who worship God live on them."

Sapphire gave me a look that was hard to translate. "I really want to read this with you," she whispered.

"You got it," I whispered back.

"So," Katie continued. "Is the Bible basically what God showed Moses at the bush?"

Alex said, "The first chapters of Genesis." 

Sister Kirk said, "That's more or less correct. The first five books of the Bible are what Moses recorded of his revelations for the children of Israel, and the first few chapters of Genesis are Moses telling them about the creation and the Garden of Eden. Shelly, can you tell us about Abraham?"

"Well, Abraham basically got to see what Moses got to see, too. Plus or minus a bit. Are the scrolls Joseph Smith got the Book of Abraham from, I mean, does the Church still have them?"

Bishop Kirk grinned. "Yes, although there are some differences between Moses' and Abraham's experiences. But, no, the scrolls were lost in a fire." 

Sister Kirk added, "Emma sold the scrolls and the mummies after Joseph was gone, and we don't really know for sure what happened after that. But we think they ended up in a museum in Chicago, where they were probably destroyed when a lot of Chicago burned in the fire of 1871. What we think are scraps of the scrolls have been found in some museum holdings since then. What else did you learn from Abraham, Shelly?" 

"It doesn't say Abraham saw the devil pretending to be the Son of God like Moses did, but it does say that the priests where Abraham was tried to make a human sacrifice of him, and an angel from God saved him. So Abraham was tested by the devil, too."

Mike raised his hand. "We all have to be tested, don't we?"

Bishop and Sister Kirk both nodded. 

Bishop Kirk pointed out, "According to the responsibilities God wants to give us." 

"Kolob's the sun, isn't it?" Stu asked.

His dad sighed. "Stu, please actually read the scriptures, and don't depend on what others say."

I raised my hand. "Parts of the description of Kolob sound like the sun, but other things just don't match."

"Doesn't that prove the Book of Abraham wrong?" Stu asked.

Rusty replied, "I think it proves that we shouldn't think we understand things we haven't read carefully and asked God about."

Ian asked, "Why did God tell Abraham to lie about Sarah?"

Shelly replied, "It explains that right there in chapter two. Sarah must have been beautiful enough to kill for." 

"But God telling Abraham to lie?" Ian pressed.

"Why didn't I see this?" Stu joked.

Sapphire raised her hand, "Sarah was Abraham's niece. In their language, a niece was a sister. It wasn't a lie."

The class suddenly became quiet.

Sister Kirk smiled, and said, "That's what we understand about it, and it's explained in the student manual. It wasn't a lie. It was just enough of the truth to help protect Abraham and Sarah and any man who might have been tempted to kill Abraham for Sarah."

I gave Sapphire a thumbs-up, and Liz reached over and touched fingertips with her. 

Bishop Kirk asked, "So, before we dig in too deep, was there anything that anyone wants to share about this that really impressed them?"

I raised my hand. "I really like Abraham 1 verse 2."

"Care to read it for us?"

I thumbed over to the Book of Abraham and read, 

And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. 

Bishop Kirk nodded. "What is it you like about it?"

"The idea that there is greater happiness to be found in following the teachings of God, for one."

Mike and Rusty gave me a thumbs-up.

Stu said, "Oooh, Joe, that's pretty cool," in a mocking tune.

Sapphire nodded and gave my hand a squeeze.

Katie turned and gave Stu a glare. "Stu, shut up. You're embarrassing yourself."

Mike said, "Take it easy on him, Sis." 

"Hmph."

Stu looked perplexed, but refused to be chastened.

We continued for about 40 minutes, reading and discussing. At the end of the class, Sister Kirk told us we would be studying next from the three versions of the Genesis account, and asked us to read them and pray about them. Bishop Kirk added that whatever we could study in fifteen minutes in a day should  be enough for that day. Then he asked Mike to say the closing prayer. 

After Mike gave the closing prayer, we all gathered our books noisily. 

Well, mostly noisily. 

"Joey, there's just so much we have to talk about," Sapphire said quietly as she stood up.

"Plenty of time." I stood up as well. "I've got to go meet my mom in the library." 

"Where's that?"

"The room next to this one."

Becca picked up her books. "Five minutes, max."

Sapphire laughed ruefully. "I should be the one reminding myself that we don't have time." 

Stu and Katie came up.

Katie said, "I have to apologize for Stu."

Mike said, from where he was sitting, "No, sis, you don't."

Stu shook his head. "I still don't understand." 

Sapphire reached out and clasped Katie's hand, and commiserated with her without saying anything. 

I said, "I don't claim to understand, either," and held my fist up for a bump.

He returned the bump, hesitantly. 

Becca said, "Four minutes and counting. And no making out in the library."

"Hey!" I protested.

Becca shifted to a mock reprimand voice. "I know you want to, Joe, but it's not appropriate."

"Joe's mom will be our chaperone." Sapphire pretended innocence.

We didn't make out, of course, just helped my mom.

I finished a run of handouts on the spirit duplicator and muttered, "I am so tempted to suggest we play hooky today."

Sapphire looked over at me from where she was helping Mom put some of the Sunday School lesson materials from the previous Sunday away. She said, quietly, "I am so tempted to take you up on that."

Mom grinned. "I've got a meeting at the Globe today, and I'm not postponing it so you two can have the car after you take Shelly to school. You'd be on foot or on bike."

"Did your mom just say we could go truant?"

I shook my head. "Not exactly." 

Mom added. "Truancy law is only 'til you're sixteen." 

"Mom!" Sapphire exclaimed.

Mom grinned. "Well, this pile has been significantly reduced, but I think Shelly is waiting, and maybe you should tell Becca to go ahead. If you're going to skip classes today."

"We've got club." Sapphire grinned at me regretfully.

"And I guess I don't really want to miss the electronics lecture today." I gave her a mock grimace.

"Rain check." 

"Rain check." 

Mom nodded. 

Becca and Shelly appeared in the doorway. "Time to go," Becca said.

I walked Sapphire to Becca's car, and we squeezed each others hands one last time and they took off while Shelly and I and Mom walked to our car. Mom let Shelly ride in front, and we headed for OHS.

"You know, Joe," Shelly commented. "I think I understand now why I didn't think we should go out again."

"Oh?"

"Peter Sellers isn't that bad. I just could tell you belonged to someone else."

I looked at Mom in the rear view mirror. Again, she offered me no clues.

"I appreciate that," I replied.

Shelly nodded. So did Mom. 

I parked at a curb at OHS, and we all got out. Mom slid into the driver's seat and waved goodbye. Shelly and I watched her drive off.

"So, see you tomorrow." Shelly said.

I responded with, "Tomorrow," and we touched palms, and headed different directions. 

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Copyright 2026 Joel Matthew Rees