I Called Him!

The summer ended, school started, and still Moe hadn't asked me out. He called me the last Tuesday of break, but I wasn't home. Holly answered the phone, so he told her to tell me he'd called. When he came into the cafeteria that Friday he came up to me and said, “You're in big trouble, you know.” I looked at him in surprise and asked, “Why?”

“Because you didn't call me back,” he told me.

“Sure,” I laughed. “And how am I supposed to call you if I don't know your phone number?” You've got to remember this was back in the days before cell phones, or even caller ID. “Anyway, girls aren't supposed to call men.”

Moe laughed then, let me ring up his dinner, and took it over to his favorite table. While he was eating he asked me to come over and talk. There wasn't much time because he had to get back to work and I was busy in the cafeteria, but he did tell me that it was OK for a girl to call a guy once. “It says so in the Bishop's handbook,” he told me jokingly, and then he wrote down his phone number and gave it to me.

Well, all Saturday I toyed with the idea of calling him and asking him to come over for Sunday dinner, but I kept telling myself, “No. If he calls me I'll ask him.” Of course, he didn't call.

Sunday the kids and I came up with the idea of inviting him over for waffles and blackberry syrup in the evening. We'd picked buckets and buckets of blackberries up at the cabin that year, and they were delicious! During church, though, they announced a meeting for all the teenagers and their parents that night, so that idea wouldn't work. Still, Moe was on my mind all afternoon. Finally about 6:30 I got fed up with the whole thing and decided to call him anyway and invite him over for Family Night the next night.

I'll tell you, that was the hardest phone call I've ever made! I started to dial his number at least three times before I had the courage to finish dialing, and then it was busy. I was so glad. Then I had to call back, and it was still busy. It was getting close to time to take the kids to the meeting. I told myself, “Just try one more time. If he doesn't answer, then you can quit,” but this time he answered. I was so unnerved that the first thing I said was, “Darn! I was hoping you wouldn't answer your phone!” Now, was that a classy opening line or what?

Moe laughed. “Are you using your one phone call?” he wanted to know.

“No,” I blustered. “I was just calling because I didn't get a chance to find out what you tried to call me for last week.” Which was another highly intelligent and stimulating thing to say.

Well, we talked for about twenty minutes. I should actually say he talked. Each time we talked on the phone he did all the talking, which was kind of funny for a man who was supposed to be so shy. This time he told me about some of the neat things that had happened in the Temple that week. He really did love working there.

At last I told him I'd have to go, and that the real reason I'd called was to invite him to Family Night.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to go deer hunting up on the Kaiabab Plateau. I got drawn for archery deer this year, and the hunt lasts two weeks.”

“Oh,” I said, but before I could tell him we'd love to have him come when he got back he went on.

“I've also just been made the singles representative for my Stake,” (that's what our church calls a large group of individual wards) “and they have a combined Singles Family Night three weeks out of the month that I will have to go to.”

“Well, have fun hunting,” I told him, but I couldn't help wondering if he was just trying to get out of accepting my invitation.

“I wish he'd just tell me to bug off or something if he's not interested,” I thought as I drove the kids to the meeting. As it was, I still didn't know if he was interested or not. All I knew was that I was going to have to wait another two or three weeks for him to get back from hunting before I would see him at the Temple again, and then I'd have to try to find out.