Devil Mail (13 page)

             
The neglected devotionals and morning prayers of the previous week became a part of her routine again. From the outside, everything appeared to be intact, but on the inside, Angela was wounded.

CHAPTER NINE

T
he bowling alley on a Saturday night was a lively and noisy place to be. Amidst the laughter, spirited chatter and roars of success was the sound of balls thundering down lanes, smashing into pins demolishing their orderly set up, and sending them in various directions. The place was teeming with men, young and old, eager to display their prowess, which made it all the more amusing when a ball, thrown with supreme strength to impress onlookers, unexpectedly veered off and flew down the gutter.

             
There was a good turn out by the REACH Christian Center singles; enough for them to occupy four lanes with five or six players on each. Both Angela and Julia were among the six on lane 41 and Judith was among the five players on lane 42 to the right of them. The three made sure they were in close proximity for maximum laughs. The venue housed an arcade, a billiards room and a grille responsible for arguably the best tasting pizza and Italian dog around.

Sasha
Whitlock, the director of the singles ministry always tried to facilitate varied and interesting activities to engage the singles and bring them together as a group. She was unaware of the fact that she was the subject of a private joke among some of the singles who just called her ‘The Director’. She had brought this on herself, because whenever someone new attended a meeting or event, she would introduce herself as ‘the director of the singles ministry’ instead of by her name. Nonetheless, she was good at what she did. Throughout the year she organized informative workshops and brought in speakers to support them in their diverse vocations. Angela was a keen supporter of many of the events that took place, but mostly busied herself behind the scenes, in the setting up, serving or pulling down phase.

             
Angela was in need of some cheering up. Judith had, quite literally, dragged her out of her apartment in keeping with her threat. Despite her protests, Angela was glad that she came, but she completely understood the notion of a person being lonely in a crowd. There was no one there who she could talk to about how she felt. Even if she managed to articulate her feelings, they’d probably tell her to snap out of it and move on. Although physically present, she was mentally absent; the epicenter of her thoughts being where she could have been had things turned out differently. Tonight would have been the night that she made good on her promise to accompany Aiden for dinner on the Disney Grand One yacht. She had ignored another of his calls before she left home and suspected that, had she answered the telephone, he would have tried to cajole her into still going with him so that the expensive tickets wouldn’t go to waste. Alas, his loss was brought on by his own dishonest behavior; but it didn’t stop Angela from missing him.

             
With her just going through the motions and her thoughts being miles away, Angela did not fare too well in the first game. “Good job, Angie, you got the fifth best score,” Julia scoffed.

             
“Shut your pie hole; I’m just warming up.” Angela retorted as if she was truly hurt by the comment. She had fared slightly better than Judith in lane 42, who also came in with the fifth best score…out of five. Had Judith been a cursing lady, the air would have been blue with her rants. The fact that she had something to say after every turn she took, provided much entertainment without the unseemliness of colorful language.

“These balls are satanic!” she hollered after another one spun off into the gutter.

“Operator error!” Julia shouted across the lane.

“The v
ibrations from your lane are jolting my balls into the gutter!” Judith shrieked after a further failed attempt at striking even one pin.

             
“Loser error!” Julia barracked. By the end of the first game, it would have taken no one by surprise to see smoke manifesting from Judith’s ears.  The atmosphere was pleasant and friendly though, and the banter in good faith.

             
By the second game, Angela’s spirits had been boosted. She reached for another slice of pepperoni pizza, which seemed to be in endless supply. “A moment on the lips, an extra aerobics class for you next week – think about it,” Julia warned lightheartedly. For a split second, Angela thought about putting it back, but pizza at the bowling alley was taking the place of fine dining on a Disney yacht, so she was going to make the most of it. She shoved as much of it into her mouth as would fit, and wagged her head at her sister. “Pig!” Julia uttered pretending to be disgusted.

             
“Oink!” Angela replied as she polished off the remainder of the slice. Julia had eaten two slices of pizza herself and would probably tuck another in her stomach before the evening’s end. Angela often decried the injustice of them being from the same gene pool, yet Julia could eat whatever she liked without adverse corollary; while she, on the other hand, needed only to think about, see, smell or spell ‘doughnut’ to gain three pounds. Julia had inherited her taller, slender frame from their father’s side of the family, while Angela’s more curvaceous figure was bestowed upon her by their mother’s side. Angela liked having a shapely figure, and in that respect, she wouldn’t swap places with Julia for the world. In fact, the sisters differed widely in all physical aspects, their equally long, dark, naturally curved eyelashes was where the similarities ended. Julia’s hair, although wavy, was not nearly as wild as Angela’s, her eyes were a lighter shade of brown and her face more tapered, boasting high cheekbones. There were days when Angela wouldn’t have minded having a nose like Julia’s - an almost flawless Roman nose that curved delicately at the tip, but on most days, Angela would agree that her slightly upturned, celestial nose suited her face just fine.

             
“Don’t look now, but you have an admirer at nine o’clock,” Julia whispered, drawing the immediate attention of Judith who came over to investigate.

             
“What’s going on?” Judith inquired.

             
“Angie has a nine o’clock admirer, hasn’t taken his eyes off her all night.”

             
“What?” Angela’s puzzlement was evidenced by her knitted brow.             

             
“I saw him looking, but I wasn’t sure who he was looking at,” Judith nodded.

             
“Would someone tell me what you’re talking about?” Angela remained clueless.

             
“Nine o’clock admirer, Angie!” Julia repeated. Angela looked at her watch. “No, you dupe! Imagine you’re looking at a clock. The pins down there are twelve o’clock, so where would nine o’clock be?” Angela spun to her left. “I said don’t look now!” Julia and Judith tried to stifle their laughter. Angela tried to turn back, but it was too late; her eyes met those of a tall, well-groomed male. The even complexion of his tanned skin coupled with his perfectly trimmed goatee added to his attractiveness. He began to smile at her as she was attempting to snatch back her glance. She didn’t want to appear unfriendly, but she’d feel silly looking back at him, just to return the smile, so she just sat there facing forward, keeping him in her peripheral view.

             
“He has pretty eyes, Angie,” Judith observed. 

             
“And a nice firm body,” Julia piped, admiringly. His athleticism was flattered by the close-fitting sky blue T-shirt he wore above blue straight leg denim and Fendi sneakers. He obviously took pride in his appearance which gave the impression that his tastes resided on the more affluent side.

             
“Check out the shoes – he must have a little dough,” Judith spoke through the side of her mouth.

             
“Really, you two? You’re really doing this right in front of the guy?” Angela was at a disadvantage because she was unable to appreciate the details they referred to without overtly look at him. Judith returned to her lane to take her turn.

             
“Let’s see if he can bowl,” Julia nudged Angela as the man stepped forward with a sixteen pound ball. They watched the careering ball zip down the lane before sending the pins into explosive disarray.

             
“Strike!” someone shouted, while others roared in support of his accomplishment. He glanced over at Angela who quickly averted her gaze as if his skill had gone unnoticed.

             
“You wicked girl! He’s obviously trying to impress you,” Julia said, clearly having the most fun of all.

             
“It’ll take more than that to impress me.”

             
“Uh-hu, and God help the next man who dares to try,” Julia replied.             

             
After two games the crowd dwindled to approximately eleven people who wanted to stay on for a third game. Angela didn’t turn to acknowledge the speaker above her head; she didn’t need to. She could see his clothing in her peripherals, but what struck her was the unmistakably sweet scent of the Armani cologne he was wearing. “May I join you guys if you’re staying?”

             
“Sure.” Julia bounced over to the next seat to allow him to sit beside Angela, who effectively communicated her thoughts to Julia with narrowed eyes, a clenched jaw and pursed lips. Judith was the next to join them, followed by two other males, David and Tripp, from different lanes. The remaining five people played alongside on lane 42.

             
“Hi, I’m Kieran,” he said as he took his seat beside Angela, extending his hand for a shake. He withdrew it when she failed to react to the gesture in the manner expected. “Haven’t seen anyone quite so ugly, huh?” He smiled at her, then turned and introduced himself to Julia, Judith, David and Tripp.

              Angela realized that she was staring raptly at him; a peculiar, indescribable feeling swept over her. “I’m so sorry,” she belatedly stretched her hand forward, “I’m Angela. I didn’t mean to stare, you just look so familiar. Are you a member of REACH?”

             
“No, last Sunday was my first Sunday there. I heard the announcement about the singles going bowling and they said any single person could come, so here I am.” His voice was lyrical and colorful; the kind that one could listen to for hours on end without boredom setting in. Angela realized that on the previous Sunday, she had been far too wrapped up in her thoughts of Aiden to have noticed a newcomer to the church, but Judith having missed him defied belief.

             
“Which church do you regularly attend?” Judith asked.

             
“Oh, I’ve been bouncing around trying to find a good fit.”

             
“And REACH?” David inquired.

             
“I like what I see so far,” he replied. Angela could feel his eyes on her as he delivered the line. She avoided his gaze.

             
The friendly banter continued between the two lanes; strikes celebrated with unique dance moves and the exercise of bragging rights, whereas gutter balls were marked by humorous put downs and Judith’s cock-eyed interpretations. On one of the few occasions when Kieran missed the pins completely, Angela razzed in a childish manner, “Aww, such a nice gentleman; didn’t want to hurt the pins?”

             
“Cute
and
funny, huh?” Kieran clearly enjoyed Angela’s mockery. Was he flirting with her? She glanced at Judith. To anyone else, Judith’s tightly smooshed lips spread narrowly across her face would be enigmatic, but to Angela, it translated into, “I’m less than impressed.” Julia’s smirk suggested that she was more than tickled by the whole situation - Kieran was flirting with her sister!

             
“He looks familiar,” Angela told her sister when he went up to bowl.

             
“He does, I was thinking the same thing, but I can’t think where I’d have seen him before,” Julia replied.

             
From the bowling alley, at Sasha’s suggestion, the whole group made an unscheduled stop at the Magnolia Coffeehouse, where they caught a poetry slam just as it was heating up. Kieran howled and laughed and clicked his fingers along with everyone else, but his earnest focus was rarely on anything or anybody other than Angela. She stole a discreet gander whenever she could, because she just couldn’t shake the feeling that they had met somewhere before.

             
“Are you sure we’ve never met before?” Angela slipped her question in between artists.

             
“I would definitely have remembered if we had. Yours isn’t a face I would forget.” His words were almost as sweet to Angela’s ears as his cologne was to her nostrils. With every ingratiating word that proceeded out of his mouth, and there were many, she could feel the blood rushing to her face; her eyes darting sideways to see if the others were listening. She was mildly embarrassed to be the subject of such candid advances in public, especially in the presence of her younger sister, but at the same time, it felt like a belly rub to a puppy – gratifying.