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. 

TOC		Next
Where it starts

Copyright 2026 Joel Matthew Rees

[CUTTING ROOM FLOOR] 3809/2801: Early Morning Seminary through 6502 Indexing

Scraps from the cutting room floor,
from Early Morning Seminary to 6502 Indexing

This is the author's record of some of the stuff that got discarded; 
taken out of order, 
it does not tell things hidden things that happened,
or indicate directions the plot will take, etc. 

More than what is here,
you should want to read the story,
which begins here:  
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2025/09/3809-2801-tale-of-mcus-and-time-part-1-2801.html

2801
Terms of Engagement
Cutting Room Floor

Early Morning Seminary

TOC

 

she saw stu at the far end of the hall. 

Stu was one of the guys she had excused herself by the boyfriend at OHS.

Stu apologizes at.Katie's insistence 

Something else needs to happen as they head to school on different paths 

******************** 

"Well, he did take no for an answer, after I told him I wasn't available. That's better than some of the guys at school."

 

(I want to remind the reader -- and myself, maybe? that Joe is not the author. He does not exist in your reality. He seems to share some history with the author, but there is already significant divergence by this point.)  

 

I raised my eyebrows. "So we see how this strategy of minimal necessary truth works?" 

She nodded emphatically. "Yes. Let's." 

I opened the door.

We went inside. As we approached the classroom, I dropped her hand and wrapped my arm around her waist, and she settled in beside me.

Stu looked up and his jaw dropped  

 

"For keeping it close." Her voice was muffled. 

"Close?"

She lifted her head a little. "For letting me keep my fantasy a little longer."

"Uhm, ..." 

She put her hands against my chest and drew back. "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."

"Joe! Yew dawg!" Rusty called out from the window of his family's car as he drove into the parking lot.

"Who's that?" 

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

"Really never kissed a girl?"

We watched them park.

"Didn't I mention that?"

"No, you didn't."

"Not bragging, by the way." 

Rusty and Liz got out and waved and headed over to meet us. 

We waved back. 

"I was wondering if I should accept that as a challenge."

We both chuckled. 

"She's really cute."

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

"Probably not." 

[tracking the rest of the changes got too hard.]

"In art class at Hood, Buddy asked you if you were a virgin, and you said, of course you weren't."

"Ah. That. Something I should have cleared up the next day, but didn't have the courage."

"But you've never kissed."

I scratched the back of my head. "I don't know about you, but the only time I had heard the word 'virgin', up until junior high, was in the context of Mary being pregnant with Jesus." 

Sapphire's mouth dropped open, then closed. 

"Okay. So I'm not the only one, although I got it cleared up during elementary." 

"The sex ed class had me confused, but I looked it up after Buddy asked."

"But then you didn't want to be teased for misunderstanding." She gave me a wry smile.

"Yep. Well," I had to stop and think for a moment. But I continued. "And I was, well, I am still not really clear on something."

"Oh?"

I took a deep breath. "Masturbation."

She let out an explosive but quiet laugh. 

"Does that make a guy not a virgin?" 

"If it did, we wouldn't have very many virgins. Guys or girls."

I processed that. "But there are less  

 

 

Rusty bobbed his head. "Liz and I should probably head inside." 

 

 

"My, uh, girlfriend." I turned back to Shelly. "From Hood." I was choosing my words carefully.

Shelly's expression became a little sharp. "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 expression shifted with her focus. 

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 around.

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

"Good morning, Sapphire," I said with a chuckle.

I felt as much as heard her giggle through her arms. In front of me, I thought I heard Shelly breath out sharply. 

"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's hands slipped down, and she hugged me. I felt her laughter against my back.

"Good morning, Joey. You guess right, except it was Maralea who invited me."

"I'm glad someone is on top of things." I gave her hands a squeeze, then slipped one arm behind her and brought her beside me.

"Sapphire, this is Shelly. She's the girl I took 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."

"Hi, Sapphire." Shelly's face was a mask.

"Hi, Shelly. That's a fun movie," Sapphire smiled.

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

"I should have found out more about the movie before I asked you to see it." 

"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."

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 blinked. "You wouldn't mind?"

"It's not like we're engaged or anything." She turned and gave me a sly wink. "Yet."

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

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

Shelly nodded suddenly. "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 away from the back entrance to the sidewalk, across the street from Bowie Junior High. Her smile went away and she buried her face in my chest. "Thanks." 

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. "Mmm?"

"For keeping things close." Her voice was muffled. 

"Close?"

"Quiet?" She put her hands against my chest and drew back. "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 two years."

"Yeah, that's going to be hard to pull off here."

"So I came clean. Maralea said she would keep it quiet, even though she wouldn't lie. This morning, when they picked me up, Becca agreed the same." 

"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." 

"Joe! Yew dawg!" Rusty called out from the window of his family car as he drove into the parking lot.

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

"Really never been kissed?"

We watched Rusty park.

"Didn't I mention that?"

Rusty and Liz got out and headed over to meet us. 

"She's cute." Sapphire didn't mention the scar from Liz's surgery for cleft palate. 

"Yeah."  

"Should I be jealous?"

"She doesn't pay attention to me." 

"Who doesn't pay attention to you?" Liz asked. 

I slapped hands with Rusty. "Sapphire, meet Rusty, and Rusty's little sister Lizzie."

Shelly interrupted me. "Never mind, Joe. It's okay."

"What's okay?" Sapphire looked at me inquisitively. 

"Shelly's mom won't be able take her to school from here for a while, so she was thinking Shelly could catch a ride with me."

Sapphire put on airs. "And you're asking me if I care?" 

"Well?"

Her airs tilted. "What kind of friend would I be if I said she had to walk?"

"You wouldn't mind?" Shelly's mom asked.

"I'm his girlfriend, not his wife, and even if I were his wife, I trust him." Sapphire gave me a squeeze. "Can you guys go in ahead of us? I need to talk with Joe."

"Now I'm Joe again."

Sapphire gave me another smirk.

"I guess everyone at your church will know we haven't been going steady for two years? Becca and Maralea were adamant."

"Well, you know, I figured you'd be okay with me giving Shelly a ride without even mentioning you to Shelly, but Mom seemed to think I needed to talk to you about it. It's convenient that you're here."

Sapphire gave me a moue.

"No?"

Rusty called out to me from the church parking lot, and I waved and answered. He and his little sister, Lizzy Lou, waved as they entered the building. 

"Your mom was giving you a way to let Shelly know you have a girlfriend."

"Oh. Well, anyway, Shelly wanted to know how long we've been together, and I said we'd known each other since seventh grade, and we had been getting more serious about each other recently."

"How true is that?"

"True as far as it goes, isn't it?"

"Uh huh. What do we do if people ask what we've been doing for two years?"

"Tell them it's none of their business."

She shook her head.

"But not in so many words unless they demand to know." 

"We've never had sex."

"Of course. Nor do we make out." 

"I've told a few people that my boyfriend at OHS and I are pretty close, but that doesn't really require making out. It looks like I've been the more committed one, though, since you've dated. How many girls, how much?"

"A couple of group dates that were arranged as youth activities here at church, and one date with Shelly, and that's it. My crush on you is partly to blame for that, by the way." 

"Okay, I think I haven't said anything that I can't fudge that into just me being more committed. Have we kissed?"

"I've told several people here at church, Shelly included, also at school, that I've never kissed a girl, so I think not." 

"Might be difficult to convince some of my friends. I almost kissed you now." 

"Oh. So many times we've almost kissed in the last, uhm, twenty-four hours."

"Are you disappointed?" She smiled lopsidedly at me.

"That you were tempted or that you didn't? Yes."

She giggled. "We should have talked about this yesterday."

"We'll need to talk about it again. Let's go inside before we miss the opening prayer."

"Kiss?"

"Not yet. Give me time."

She gave me a sideways hug as we turned to walk inside together. 

 

 

 "What did you tell Shelly about us?" 

"I fudged a little. Was a little vague, didn't lie, didn't tell the whole truth."

"Will she be upset?"

"Hard to say. But I guess it's what I chose when I chose to go along with this charade."

Sapphire's face clouded.

"I know, it's real even though it's a charade." I gave her a sardonic grin. "At some point, once we have an idea which way we're going with this, we'll have to ...." I trailed off and my grin disappeared, and I kissed her. 

 

 

"Sure. We can do that."

"Thanks. Thank you, Sister Reeves." Shelly turned and waved to her mom, who was waiting in their car.

My mom went over to talk to Sister Rudd while Shelly and I went inside.

In the classroom, Shelly waited until I had put my books down and took a desk away from where I had chosen. 

Rusty Brennan came in with his little sister and said hello. Rusty sat by me. Lizzy sat by Shelly. Several other kids came in and sat down, exchanging the usual greetings.

Becca and Maralea came in and saw me and waved hello, and took desks in the middle of the room. 

(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 more shifting back to technology. At least, for the current chapters, the tech is real. But first, there's some loose ends from the last chapter.) 

The alarm rang at 5:45 the next morning, and I headed sleepily to the shower. The stream 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. Or maybe not.

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. "Boiled egg this morning?"

"Oh. 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 using 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 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 swedish knit rayon tee with an air balloon print 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. 

Mom looked at the shirt with an air of dissatisfaction as she spread peanut butter on a slice of my toast, 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 put two more slices in the toaster and got out more plates. "Are the eggs ready to cool?"

"Yep." Mom put the peanut butter toast on my plate.

I poured the boiled water out of the pan, holding the eggs in with the lid, and poured cold tap water over the eggs, repeating several times until the eggs were cool, then grabbed one and started peeling it while Mom buttered the second batch of toast with regular butter (real butter, not margarine) for herself. I peeled another egg for Mom, and we sat down. I said 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 Polyanna Park and up University Boulevard.

Mom didn't mention Sapphire on the way, giving me room to think.

Shelly Rudd met us in the parking lot.

"Hi, Joe. Sister Reeves."

"Hey."

"God morning, Shelly. How are you doing?"

"Okay, uhm, Joe, don't get any ideas, but can I ask for a ride to school after seminary? My mom needs the car today."

I'd taken Shelly to a movie a year before, and she had made it clear at the time she wasn't interested in going out again.

 "To school?" I looked at Mom, and she raised her eyebrows, but nodded. "No problem. But I'll but at Permian after lunch, so you'll need another ride home."

"That's okay. Mom will pick me up after school."

"Sure. We can do that."

"Thanks. Thank you, Sister Reeves." Shelly turned and waved to her mom, who was waiting in their car.

My mom went over to talk to Sister Rudd while Shelly and I went inside.

In the classroom, Shelly waited until I had put my books down and took a desk away from where I had chosen. 

Rusty Brennan came in with his little sister and said hello. Rusty sat by me. Lizzy sat by Shelly. Several other kids came in and sat down, exchanging the usual greetings.

Becca and Maralea came in and saw me and waved hello, and took desks in the middle of the room. 

Other than that, nothing really interesting happened. We talked about Moses and about how the book of Genesis was Moses teaching the children of Israel some of what we learn in our temples, if I remember right. And we talked about random stuff in between talking about the scriptures.

After class, I gathered my books to head to the library. As I passed Becca and Maralea on my way out, they looked up.

Becca started, "Joe, ...." But she stopped.

"Yeah?"

She seemed to change her mind. "You'll be there after school?"

"Planning on it."

"Uhm 'kay. See you then." 

"Yeah. See you there."

Shelly was talking to Christa, so I waited for a break in the conversation. "Shelly, I'll be in the library with my mom."

"I'll catch up with you."

Maralea and Becca looked at me and then at each other, but didn't say anything. 

I helped my mom with a few things in the library, and we cleared things away and turned out the lights.

Shelly came up as we were closing the door.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she said.

"No problem."

"I can walk to school if  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad came in and grabbed a boiled egg, too, and  

nd we sat down for a quick blessing and breakfast. 

 

 

 

Mom rode with me to early morning Seminary class at the church the next morning, so she could drive the Colt home. While she waited for Seminary to finish, she would be taking care of library business.

Becca and Maralea were talking by the rear entrance porch when Mom and I walked up the sidewalk.

"Good morning girls." Mom greeted them. 

I also greeted them. "Mara." I nodded. "Becca."

They looked at my Mom and then at me.

"Good morning." Becca gave my mom one of those looks that women use to communicate silently.

"Hi." Maralea gave me a similar look, not that I understood anything by it.

"I think I'll just go ahead and get started in the library," Mom said, giving me a look that said, "This is your ball to return, kid." 

"Ah. Yeah." 

Mom preceded me into the building.

As the door closed, Becca turned to me. "We're both a little worried about something."

"What's that?"

"Sapphire." Maralea said, as if her name explained something.

I debated being obtuse, chose against it. Just waited for elucidation, but none was forthcoming.

I decided the obtuse approach might be more direct after all. "Sapphire?"

"And you," Becca added.  

I thought for a long moment. "Okay. And what are you worried about?"

Maralea said, "She's out of your league." 

Becca added, "You don't know how to, uhm, you don't have the social ski ..."

I let her trail off.

"I'm not being judgemental."

I replied, "It's not exactly untrue. I do lack social skills."  

Maralea took a turn. "Look, everybody knows you're weird because you like being weird, but ... "

I let her trail off, too.

Maralea tried again. "She's a danger. To you."

"Oh." I nodded. "Now I see." I raised my eyebrows. "You might have a point. Rick said he thought she was out of my league, too."

Both of them nodded their heads enthusiastically.

"So should Hec and Rick and I just decide we don't like cheer dance, after all?"

Becca shook her head emphatically. "No, that's not ..."

Maralea looked thoughtful. "I guess maybe we should give you guys a chance to see if you like it. Ms. Michaels would shoot us if we chased you away. But that's not what we're worried about."

"So, ..." I prompted.

Maralea said, "Sapphire has a boyfriend."

Becca added, "At OHS. He's supposed to be a pretty tough guy."

"Oh, yeah. That. She mentioned it to me."

"Shouldn't you be worried?" Becca asked. 

"About her boyfriend?" I shook my head. "I'm not sure why."

"Do you know him?" Maralea asked.

"Pretty well, I think." 

Both suddenly seemed at a loss for words.

"So should we go into class?" I suggested. "They should be starting pretty soon."

They looked at each other.

I opened the door and waited, and they turned and somewhat irresolutely entered the building in front of me.

When we passed the library, I waved to my mom, who was already typing up something for the spirit duplicator. She stopped typing and waved back.

Shelly came in from the other hall. I said good morning, and Maralea and Becca stopped to talk to her. 

(Shelly was the first girl I ever asked out, at the beginning of the previous year, our junior year. I had just gotten my driver's license, and took her to the Pink Panther movie that had recently come out. I thought she was enjoying the movie up until the gag with the vacuum cleaner. 

Yeah, that scene made me uncomfortable, too, and made the whole movie feel off-color. I probably should have apologized. She wasn't interested in going out with me again.)

In the classroom, I sat at the desk on the front row at the far wall. Maralea, Becca, and Shelly came in shortly, and Becca sat beside me, Shelly behind her, and Maralea behind me, all without comment.

The room could seat twenty students in a pinch, but there were only sixteen desks set up. Maybe seven other students were standing around or already seated. 

The bishop's son, Sam, watched us from his perch on the other side of the room. He looked like he was about to say something, but his father entered the room and cleared his throat.  

Sam got off his desk and sat down, others who had been standing also sat, and Bishop Karlson began the lesson. 

The morning's lesson covered what Bishop Karlson felt were salient points in the introductory parts of Abraham and Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Some of the students, including the three around me, participated, some just sat. 

I contributed when I thought I had something useful to say. 

After class, I went into the library to help Mom, and Becca and Maralea lingered by the library door. Mom invited them in, and they gave her a hand sorting some materials.

Becca commented off-handedly, as she shuffled through some Bible pictures, "Joe, it's not that we don't want you to hang around with Sapphire, it's just that we don't want either you or her to get hurt."

I was operating the duplicator. I paused, and replied, "Yeah, and Rick said something like that, as well. Sapphire and I talked about a lot of things last night, and I think things will be okay." I started cranking the duplicator again, counting the copies. "Fifteen should be enough?" I stopped cranking.

Mom said, "Yeah. Let's get those ready for tomorrow and get you to school, Joe. Do you girls need a ride?"

Becca replied, "No, my mom's waiting for us." 

In the parking lot, Mom stopped to talk with Becca's mother about church things for a couple of minutes while I went to the Colt and started the engine.

She wrapped it up quickly, and I drove to OHS, where I stopped in front of the auditorium and grabbed my books. Mom slipped into the driver's seat and gave me a wave as she left.

Chem in first period and home room in the second (half) period had nothing of note going on, and I went out into the parking lot to meet Rick.

Rick gave me a lookover, then got closer and sniffed.

"No, I'm not wearing cologne!" I assured him.

"Just checking to see if you smell of Sapphire."

I laughed, and he did, too, and he unlocked the doors and we got in.

"I guess it's silly. But you do seem to have something of the influence of girls on you." Rick started the engine, looked behind us and backed out of the parking space. 

I cocked my head and nodded. "Becca and Maralea expressed concern at Seminary. They agree with you that Sapphire is out of my league."

"I was just blowing smoke." He shifted to drive and we left the school.

"They sat next to me during class. I don't know why. But surely that hasn't tainted me."

He shook his head. "I'm guessing it's Sapphire's influence."

"Possibly. I spent more time with her yesterday than I think I have ever spent in a day with a girl I wasn't related to."

"You didn't make out?" 

"No. We practiced some lifts while my sisters spotted. Then her folks showed up and talked with my folks."

"Say what?"

"Her mom was worried about me being a Mormon, but it turns out my dad taught them at OC a long time ago, and so they aren't worried."

"Hmmmm." 

"And then we studied. We talked about some things on the way back to her house, and that was about it."

"Maybe it's just my imagination. Time and energy I could be putting into calculus."

We talked about math and electronics until we got to the OC parking lot and headed to class.

The calculus class was in the same building as Dad's office and classrooms, down the hall on the second floor. But Dad was in class when we went by. 

There wasn't really anything of note that happened in Calculus class. I don't remember if that was the day Professor White said that correct solutions in math were sexy.

After class, as we packed up our books, I suggested, "Hey, can we stop by the library?"

Rick looked at me.

"They might have some books for the 6800."

"Good idea." 

In the library, Rick went to the desk while I went to the card catalog. A librarian showed him to the reference shelves just as I pulled up a card with "REFERENCE SECTION in red at the top. I put the drawer back in and went to the reference section. 

"We can't let you check these out," the librarian was explaining when I got there. "They're too much in demand." 

We thanked her and looked at what they had, manuals for the 6800, the 8080, and the 1802. Also for the Fairchild F8, and for the IBM 360 mainframe processor and the PDP 11 minicomputer processor. 

"Will you be getting manuals for the 6502 and 9900?" Rick asked

"I think I read those numbers mentioned in our requisition paperwork."

"That would be pretty cool," I said.

She left, and after a bit of blindly thumbing around the 6800 manuals, we decided we didn't really understand enough to make use of them yet.

"Well, now we know we can find them here," Rick said. 

We left and headed for the Whataburger down the road, for lunch.

"Onions today?" Rick asked.

I chuckled. "Is that relevant?" But I did ask for onions, with the pickles, lettuce, tomato, and cheese on my burger. No sauce, though.

We ate in his car and headed for Permian, talking a bit more about calculus on the road. 

As we got out of the car in the parking lot, Rick said, "Look who's here."

Sapphire was standing by the door nearest the parking lot. She waved when she saw us, and came to meet us.

"What's up?" I asked as she joined us.

"Hi, Rick."

Rick nodded in greeting. 

"Nothing really. Mara and Becca were talking about you at lunch. And I thought I'd have time to say hi before class."

"Well, Hi!"

She grinned at me. 

"They asked me if I knew about your boyfriend at OHS."

"I heard you didn't enlighten them."

"I did tell them I thought I knew your boyfriend pretty well."

Rick chuckled and shook his head.

"So they said. I think they spent the whole time at lunch trying to figure out why you weren't worried."

I grinned and she grinned back. 

We stopped outside the door and I looked around and gave her a quick hug.

Rick asked, "What am I supposed to say if Maralea asks me about this?" He gave us a lopsided grin. 

The lab was the room neares the door, so we stopped near the entrance.

 

*********** 

Sapphire met us on the way in from the parking lot.

***** 

 

"Becca and Maralea told me that the three of you had come to some sort of agreement." 

I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. "They agreed that it was not a good idea for Rick and Hec and me to quit Cheer Dance."

She looked at me, puzzled.

"And I guess I agreed with them about that."

Rick laughed.

Sapphire looked relieved, and she grabbed my arm and we entered the south east wing together. "Nothing else?"

"They are worried about what your boyfriend at OHS might do to me. Maybe I should be worried, too." I grinned sideways at her.

She laughed sheepishly.

Rick stopped suddenly. "Joe?"

I turned and gave him an amused look.

Sapphire turned, also, biting her lip.

RIck laughed and shook his head, and started walking again. "I guess you can be a danger to yourself sometimes."

Sapphire giggled.

I grinned at her, and she gave me a hug.

"I guess I'll have to explain someti ..."

"PDA!" 

All three of us turned. Mark came up from behind, laughing. He passed us without further comment and entered the lab.

Sapphire quietly gave my hand a squeeze, and went to her class,.

Rick and I entered the electronics lab. 

Mr. Mori had the projector fired up and had his first transparency on it, waiting for the bell to ring. 

 

***Mention my calculator watch, laugh about programmability -- need the mention for the dream stuff

 

******

(All the people I've lost on the shift to the teen romance that never was. I guess I'll lose a bunch going back to technology. But first there's some loose ends from the last chapter.) 

Mom rode with me to early morning Seminary class at the church the next morning, so she could drive the Colt home. While she waited for Seminary to finish, she would be taking care of library business.

Becca and Maralea were talking by the rear entrance porch when Mom and I walked up the sidewalk.

"Good morning girls." Mom greeted them. 

I also greeted them. "Mara." I nodded. "Becca."

They looked at my Mom and then at me.

"Good morning." Becca gave my mom one of those looks that women use to communicate silently.

"Hi." Maralea gave me a similar look, not that I understood anything by it.

"I think I'll just go ahead and get started in the library," Mom said, giving me a look that said, "This is your ball to return, kid." 

"Ah. Yeah." 

Mom preceded me into the building.

As the door closed, Becca turned to me. "We're both a little worried about something."

"What's that?"

"Sapphire." Maralea said, as if her name explained something.

I debated being obtuse, chose against it. Just waited for elucidation, but none was forthcoming.

I decided the obtuse approach might be more direct after all. "Sapphire?"

"And you," Becca added.  

I thought for a long moment. "Okay. And what are you worried about?"

Maralea said, "She's out of your league." 

Becca added, "You don't know how to, uhm, you don't have the social ski ..."

I let her trail off.

"I'm not being judgemental."

I replied, "It's not exactly untrue. I do lack social skills."  

Maralea took a turn. "Look, everybody knows you're weird because you like being weird, but ... "

I let her trail off, too.

Maralea tried again. "She's a danger. To you."

"Oh." I nodded. "Now I see." I raised my eyebrows. "You might have a point. Rick said he thought she was out of my league, too."

Both of them nodded their heads enthusiastically.

"So should Hec and Rick and I just decide we don't like cheer dance, after all?"

Becca shook her head emphatically. "No, that's not ..."

Maralea looked thoughtful. "I guess maybe we should give you guys a chance to see if you like it. Ms. Michaels would shoot us if we chased you away. But that's not what we're worried about."

"So, ..." I prompted.

Maralea said, "Sapphire has a boyfriend."

Becca added, "At OHS. He's supposed to be a pretty tough guy."

"Oh, yeah. That. She mentioned it to me."

"Shouldn't you be worried?" Becca asked. 

"About her boyfriend?" I shook my head. "I'm not sure why."

"Do you know him?" Maralea asked.

"Pretty well, I think." 

Both suddenly seemed at a loss for words.

"So should we go into class?" I suggested. "They should be starting pretty soon."

They looked at each other.

I opened the door and waited, and they turned and somewhat irresolutely entered the building in front of me.

When we passed the library, I waved to my mom, who was already typing up something for the spirit duplicator. She stopped typing and waved back.

Shelly came in from the other hall. I said good morning, and Maralea and Becca stopped to talk to her. 

(Shelly was the first girl I ever asked out, at the beginning of the previous year, our junior year. I had just gotten my driver's license, and took her to the Pink Panther movie that had recently come out. I thought she was enjoying the movie up until the gag with the vacuum cleaner. 

Yeah, that scene made me uncomfortable, too, and made the whole movie feel off-color. I probably should have apologized. She wasn't interested in going out with me again.)

In the classroom, I sat at the desk on the front row at the far wall. Maralea, Becca, and Shelly came in shortly, and Becca sat beside me, Shelly behind her, and Maralea behind me, all without comment.

The room could seat twenty students in a pinch, but there were only sixteen desks set up. Maybe seven other students were standing around or already seated. 

The bishop's son, Sam, watched us from his perch on the other side of the room. He looked like he was about to say something, but his father entered the room and cleared his throat.  

Sam got off his desk and sat down, others who had been standing also sat, and Bishop Karlson began the lesson. 

The morning's lesson covered what Bishop Karlson felt were salient points in the introductory parts of Abraham and Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Some of the students, including the three around me, participated, some just sat. 

I contributed when I thought I had something useful to say. 

After class, I went into the library to help Mom, and Becca and Maralea lingered by the library door. Mom invited them in, and they gave her a hand sorting some materials.

Becca commented off-handedly, as she shuffled through some Bible pictures, "Joe, it's not that we don't want you to hang around with Sapphire, it's just that we don't want either you or her to get hurt."

I was operating the duplicator. I paused, and replied, "Yeah, and Rick said something like that, as well. Sapphire and I talked about a lot of things last night, and I think things will be okay." I started cranking the duplicator again, counting the copies. "Fifteen should be enough?" I stopped cranking.

Mom said, "Yeah. Let's get those ready for tomorrow and get you to school, Joe. Do you girls need a ride?"

Becca replied, "No, my mom's waiting for us." 

In the parking lot, Mom stopped to talk with Becca's mother about church things for a couple of minutes while I went to the Colt and started the engine.

She wrapped it up quickly, and I drove to OHS, where I stopped in front of the auditorium and grabbed my books. Mom slipped into the driver's seat and gave me a wave as she left.

Chem in first period and home room in the second (half) period had nothing of note going on, and I went out into the parking lot to meet Rick.

Rick gave me a lookover, then got closer and sniffed.

"No, I'm not wearing cologne!" I assured him.

"Just checking to see if you smell of Sapphire."

I laughed, and he did, too, and he unlocked the doors and we got in.

"I guess it's silly. But you do seem to have something of the influence of girls on you." Rick started the engine, looked behind us and backed out of the parking space. 

I cocked my head and nodded. "Becca and Maralea expressed concern at Seminary. They agree with you that Sapphire is out of my league."

"I was just blowing smoke." He shifted to drive and we left the school.

"They sat next to me during class. I don't know why. But surely that hasn't tainted me."

He shook his head. "I'm guessing it's Sapphire's influence."

"Possibly. I spent more time with her yesterday than I think I have ever spent in a day with a girl I wasn't related to."

"You didn't make out?" 

"No. We practiced some lifts while my sisters spotted. Then her folks showed up and talked with my folks."

"Say what?"

"Her mom was worried about me being a Mormon, but it turns out my dad taught them at OC a long time ago, and so they aren't worried."

"Hmmmm." 

"And then we studied. We talked about some things on the way back to her house, and that was about it."

"Maybe it's just my imagination. Time and energy I could be putting into calculus."

We talked about math and electronics until we got to the OC parking lot and headed to class.

The calculus class was in the same building as Dad's office and classrooms, down the hall on the second floor. But Dad was in class when we went by. 

There wasn't really anything of note that happened in Calculus class. I don't remember if that was the day Professor White said that correct solutions in math were sexy.

After class, as we packed up our books, I suggested, "Hey, can we stop by the library?"

Rick looked at me.

"They might have some books for the 6800."

"Good idea." 

In the library, Rick went to the desk while I went to the card catalog. A librarian showed him to the reference shelves just as I pulled up a card with "REFERENCE SECTION in red at the top. I put the drawer back in and went to the reference section. 

"We can't let you check these out," the librarian was explaining when I got there. "They're too much in demand." 

We thanked her and looked at what they had, manuals for the 6800, the 8080, and the 1802. Also for the Fairchild F8, and for the IBM 360 mainframe processor and the PDP 11 minicomputer processor. 

"Will you be getting manuals for the 6502 and 9900?" Rick asked

"I think I read those numbers mentioned in our requisition paperwork."

"That would be pretty cool," I said.

She left, and after a bit of blindly thumbing around the 6800 manuals, we decided we didn't really understand enough to make use of them yet.

"Well, now we know we can find them here," Rick said. 

We left and headed for the Whataburger down the road, for lunch.

"Onions today?" Rick asked.

I chuckled. "Is that relevant?" But I did ask for onions, with the pickles, lettuce, tomato, and cheese on my burger. No sauce, though.

We ate in his car and headed for Permian, talking a bit more about calculus on the road. 

As we got out of the car in the parking lot, Rick said, "Look who's here."

Sapphire was standing by the door nearest the parking lot. She waved when she saw us, and came to meet us.

"What's up?" I asked as she joined us.

"Hi, Rick."

Rick nodded in greeting. 

"Nothing really. Mara and Becca were talking about you at lunch. And I thought I'd have time to say hi before class."

"Well, Hi!"

She grinned at me. 

"They asked me if I knew about your boyfriend at OHS."

"I heard you didn't enlighten them."

"I did tell them I thought I knew your boyfriend pretty well."

Rick chuckled and shook his head.

"So they said. I think they spent the whole time at lunch trying to figure out why you weren't worried."

I grinned and she grinned back. 

We stopped outside the door and I looked around and gave her a quick hug.

Rick asked, "What am I supposed to say if Maralea asks me about this?" He gave us a lopsided grin. 

The lab was the room neares the door, so we stopped near the entrance.

 

*********** 

Sapphire met us on the way in from the parking lot.

***** 

 

"Becca and Maralea told me that the three of you had come to some sort of agreement." 

I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. "They agreed that it was not a good idea for Rick and Hec and me to quit Cheer Dance."

She looked at me, puzzled.

"And I guess I agreed with them about that."

Rick laughed.

Sapphire looked relieved, and she grabbed my arm and we entered the south east wing together. "Nothing else?"

"They are worried about what your boyfriend at OHS might do to me. Maybe I should be worried, too." I grinned sideways at her.

She laughed sheepishly.

Rick stopped suddenly. "Joe?"

I turned and gave him an amused look.

Sapphire turned, also, biting her lip.

RIck laughed and shook his head, and started walking again. "I guess you can be a danger to yourself sometimes."

Sapphire giggled.

I grinned at her, and she gave me a hug.

"I guess I'll have to explain someti ..."

"PDA!" 

All three of us turned. Mark came up from behind, laughing. He passed us without further comment and entered the lab.

Sapphire quietly gave my hand a squeeze, and went to her class,.

Rick and I entered the electronics lab. 

Mr. Mori had the projector fired up and had his first transparency on it, waiting for the bell to ring. 

 

*****

 

She was the bi-ward librarian, and used the morning time to take care of library business, sorting materials, trying to determine what materials had been borrowed and by whom, using the spirit duplicator (which we mistakenly called the ditto machine) to make small runs of materials for classes and such. 

After Seminary, on days Rick was driving, she would go with me to OHS and then drive the Colt home. 

 

 ***Mention my calculator watch, laugh about programmability -- need the mention for the dream stuff

 

 

****

"Okay, Harvey, what's peculiar about the 6502?"

"It has two indexes, but they are both 8 bits wide?"

"That's one thing." 

"If the constant base address can be sixteen bits wide, we have the opposite problem from the 6800."

"How so?"

"A sixteen-bit constant base can put the array anywhere, and we'd be okay as long as the offset is less than 256. But that only works when we know where it is in advance."

"That's true. The 6502 provides this mode, and I understand that we can do with both X and Y. Would you be willing to diagram it for us?"

Harvey hesitated. "I guess I can give it a try." He approached the white board.

 

*** 

 

 

"Joe left the steps to add the two bytes out of the diagram. Is that confusing to anyone?"

Several of the guys raised their hands.

"Okay, Joe, do you mind if I take over for a bit?"

"Sure. I mean, no problem."

"Okay, we're going to role play the computer." Mr. Mori grinned and paused for effect before continuing. "When I call you, stand up. Joe, you and Rick remain standing. Scott, you're direct page memory location X16. But we need an actual address. Rick, what's the actual address?"

"I don't know. Ten, maybe?"

"Ten it is. Barry, you're location X16 plus one. What's your address?"

"Uh, eleven?"

"Okay, Bob, you're accumulator B. What do you have when the code starts here?"

"Four."

"Right. Karl, you're the index register, X. What have you got?" 

"N."

"We need a concrete value for N so Barry and Scott know what hits them." 

"Anything less that 65,536?"

"What do you say, Joe?"

"I have the impression that addresses above 32,767 get used for stuff, so maybe below that."

"How about 31,999?"

I shrugged "I think it would be okay, but we have to divide that into high byte and low byte."

Karl looked at Barry with a grin. "You do the math."

"Well, 32,000 divided by 256," He looked at Mr. Mori, who nodded. "Is a hundred twenty-five, so the high byte is 124."

Scott nodded. "And the low byte is 255."

"Okay. But you don't have those yet. What do you have?"

Barry said, "Something random?"

"Probably."

"Okay, I have seventeen."

Scott said, "I'll have a hundred seventeen." 

Mr. Mori said, "Now we need someone to be the carry flag. Mark?" 

"Okay. I'm random to start, too?"

"Yeah."

"No carry, then." 

"Okay, Joe, read the instructions."

"Store X at location ten."

Karl said, "Scott first?"

"Yeah."

"Scott gets one twenty-four." 

Scott said, "124."

"Barry gets two fifty-five."

Barry said, "255."

I said, "Now, add B from location eleven."

Barry said, "255."

Bob said,  "Four and two fifty five makes --" he stopped. "I can't hold anything bigger than 255, so it wraps around to three, with a carry, I guess?"

Mark said, "Carry." 

I continued, "Store B to location eleven." 

Bob said, "Three."

Barry said, "Three."

Mark said, "Carry unaffected?"

I said, "Right. Now load B from location ten."

Scott said, "One twenty-four."

Bob said, "One twenty-four."

Mark said, "Carry unaffected, still?"

I said, "Right. Add constant zero to B with carry."

Mark said, "Carry."

Bob said, "One twenty-four plus one is one twenty-five."

Mark said, "No carry."

I said, "Store B in location ten."

Bob said, "One twenty-five."

Scott said, "One twenty-five."

Mark said, "Carry unaffected, no carry."

I said, "Load X from location ten."

Scott said, "124."

Barry said, "3."

Karl said, "Man this gets boring."

Mr. Mori said, "It's a good thing CPUs don't get bored, isn't it?"

We all laughed.

Karl grinned. "Well, anyway, X is now 32,003." 

I said, "And we are finally ready to do whatever op-code C was, but it's in indexed mode, and the index byte is zero."

"Yay," Karl said, and we all laughed.

Mr. Mori commented, "I don't see a return instruction."

"Is that what makes code reusable?" Rick asked.

"If your code is constructed correctly," Mr. Mori replied.

"We haven't got that far yet," I apologized.

"That's okay. We'll get there. But this prepares us to talk about the 6502."

Rick asked, "Can we all sit down, then?"

"Sure." 

We all laughed and those of us standing sat down.

 

 

But what if we don't know the base address ahead of time?"

"You're going to tell us about it?"

"Give me a hand drawing this.  

 

 

 

 

 

************* 

Draw a picture of string with constant offset, 

then array in direct page with variable offset, 

then adding the offset to an index variable in memory

6502: 

introduce absolute index on X and Y, instruction limits, and direct page index on X, instruction limits and Y for LD/ST;

Motivate the 16-bit base address problem, introduce simple memory indirect and instructions that use it.

indirect indexed ([base,X] or [offset,X] points to list of addresses)

indexed indirect ([base],Y points to the operand  

absolute indirect jump only

 

***********************

 

 

I found the right section in the stacks just as a library assistant brought Rick over.

"IBM 370," I announced quietly.

"Mainframe," Rick replied, also quietly. He read a spine. "PDP-11." He reached for the DEC manual.

"I think that's a minicomputer."

"So not a microcomputer." His hand paused.

"Mmm." I nodded.

 

Sapphire waiting in classroom? Karl or somebody joking about Joey? Hold it off?

Chapter five, section one dot two, eh, page five dash twelve."

 

"We're going to have to see if we can meet you guys there, then. You think, Cyndy?" 

"Yeah, I think so."

"I get to come along?" Sapphire asserted.

"Saturday?" I suggested. 

 

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

Rick's eyes met mine, but he didn't say anything. He looked back down and continued flipping through the pages. 

I looked back down and continued. "Addition and subtraction routines, multiplication and division, counting." 

I opened to section two and read without a lot of comprehension. 

"Alpha, beta, gamma. Well, I suppose, if it's a small number and fits in an accumulator, adding requires loading the number to be added to, adding the number to add to it, and storing the result."

I moved past the table of contents

 

"Hmm. This looks like an electronic cash register," I muttered as I flipped through the pages of the manual I had. "Instructions on how to use Motorola parts to put together a point-of-sale terminal, including the programs. Complete with bar code reader." 

Rick put the Programming manual down and shifted his chair so he could read over my shoulder. 

 

I kept flipping pages and got part way through chapter 7, and stopped to look at the image at the beginning of section 2, which appeared to be a non-descript box of electronics with very few controls -- only a keylock between a couple of what appeared to be pushbuttons, with three indicator lamps or LEDs above those, on the right side of a front bevel swept back towards the top, with an exaggerated lip along the bottom edge. A large, black, blank faceplate covered an an inset open area to the right of the buttons, extending across maybe three quarters of the front panel.

"EXORciser?" Rick read the section title out loud, and hummed the signature opening phrase from Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells".

"For getting the demons out of our designs?" 

We both laughed. 

"Somebody at Motorola must have a sense of humor." He shook his head. "Looks kind of like a squashed toaster oven." 

"No blinking lights?" I turned the page. "Seventeen inches wide, nineteen deep, seven high. Forty-five pounds." I turned the page back.

"The Altair 8800 looks a lot more interesting, with 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."

 

 

Which we did when we arrived at the library. 

The librarian took us to the section where the microprocessor books were.

"These are reference works, so we can't let you check them out," she advised us, pointing out the sign of the shelves that said the same thing.

"Thanks." 

 

"Hmm, Intel 8080. IBM 360. Fairchild F8. What's that?" Rick picked up one of the Fairchild manuals and thumbed through it.

"Here we are, Motorola M6800." I picked up one of the Motorola manuals and started thumbing through it.

"Do you need anything more?" the librarian asked.

"Do you know if you'll be getting manuals for other processors?" Rick asked.

She gave Rick a thoughtful look, and said, "Let me check." 

While she went to check, Rick looked at the F8 manual, and I looked at the Motorola manual.

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

We thumbed through the manuals. 

"What have we here?" I muttered. "Source code and engineering diagrams for an example cash register controller."

Rick put the F8 manual down and started looking over my shoulder. "I might be able to make some sense of that," he said.

We continued to peruse the source code for a few minutes, and the librarian returned.

"The electronics technology staff has requisitioned manuals for the, uhm, Western Design Center 6502 and a couple of Texas Instruments microprocessors," she said.

"9900?" Rick asked.

"That's the one," she answered. "Both seem to be really new products."

"That's what we understand," I responded. 

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

We did so, and thanked her.

 

 

 

"Oh." Rick put his car in reverse, checked his mirrors and over his shoulder and backed out of the parking space. "I guess that explains it." 

We headed for the college.

"Maybe," he added.

"You don't believe me? You could come to Seminary, you know."

Rick laughed. "Maybe I should. Just to keep an eye on you two."

 

 

The calculus class was on the second floor of Wilkerson Hall, and we passed my dad's office on the way. But Dad was in class, so we didn't see him. 

In the calculus class, Professor White held up a loaf of pumpernickel.

"How are we going to measure the volume of this loaf of brot?" 

Rick raised his hand. "Cut it in slices and measure each slice?"

"You've been reading the text. Good for you."

One of the girls whose name I don't remember suggested, "Or he saw the sliced loaf on your desk."

"Being observant is also good." Professor White lifted the tray of sliced pumpernickel. "Now, how do we measure each slice?"

"Slice up a slice?" I suggested.

"Excellent. Now, could you draw that on the chalkboard?"

 

Professor White explained sums of infinitesimals, inviting us to thing of real-world examples, waxing excited about the elegance of correct solutions, calling correct math sexy.

After class, I suggested, "Hey, I wonder if there's any docs on microprocessors in the library."

Rick looked thoughtful. He said, "We probably do have time to check."

At the library, I headed for the card catalog. Rick asked at the checkout counter. We both ended up in the stacks about the same time.

"Please note," the librarian who helped Rick said, "that this is a reference shelf, and these books cannot be checked out." 

"Got it," I answered, and Rick nodded. 

"Hmm, Intel 8080. IBM 360. Fairchild F8. What's that?" Rick picked up one of the Fairchild manuals and thumbed through it.

"Here we are, Motorola M6800." I picked up one of the Motorola manuals and started thumbing through it.

"Do you need anything more?" the librarian asked.

"Do you know if you'll be getting manuals for other processors?" Rick asked.

She gave Rick a thoughtful look, and said, "Let me check." 

While she went to check, Rick looked at the F8 manual, and I looked at the Motorola manual.

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

We thumbed through the manuals. 

"What have we here?" I muttered. "Source code and engineering diagrams for an example cash register controller."

Rick put the F8 manual down and started looking over my shoulder. "I might be able to make some sense of that," he said.

We continued to peruse the source code for a few minutes, and the librarian returned.

"The electronics technology staff has requisitioned manuals for the, uhm, Western Design Center 6502 and a couple of Texas Instruments microprocessors," she said.

"9900?" Rick asked.

"That's the one," she answered. "Both seem to be really new products."

"That's what we understand," I responded. 

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

We did so, and thanked her.

"Are we going to eat lunch?" Rick asked as she returned to the checkout counter.

"I guess we can look at these some more tomorrow," I answered.

We left and got in his car and headed for the Whataburger down the road.

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

I chuckled. "Is that relevant?" 

But I did order onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and cheese, with ketchup and mayonnaise. Rick ordered a grilled chicken lunch.

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

As we pulled into the east student parking lot, Rick said, "Look who's here."

Sapphire was waiting outside the south-east wing entrance. I waved, and she waved back.

"What's up?" I asked, as we approached.

She shook her head. "Just missing you."

I could feel Rick's eyes roll, even though I didn't look to check.

"I'm kind of, I don't know. You're seminary was --"

Rick filled in, "Wild? Cult-like?"

"Hey," I complained.

"Wild, yes. Cult-like, no. Just things I never knew about Moses and Abraham." 

"Maybe I should come to your Seminary to protect Sapphire," Rick suggested.

"Ah, how sweet." She gave him a moue.

"Stop. I'm melting." Rick chuckled.

The electronics classroom/lab was the easternmost room of the south wing, so we talked outside until a few minutes before the bell, and Sapphire hurried for her class.

"You know you're welcome to visit the Seminary class any time."

"I need my beauty sleep."

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Where it starts

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