Seasons Under Heaven by Beverly LaHaye, Terri Blackstock Page A

innocent. “No, Rick. It wasn’t money.”
    “What then?” Suddenly, his face changed, as if it hit him what she was talking about, and he caught his breath. “Oh! You found the…” He let his voice trail off, as if he didn’t dare say the word.
    “Yeah, it was the condom,” she said. She felt her face turning red and knew that she was going to launch into a high-octave sermon that would draw the other kids from their rooms and send Rick into a defensive rage. She didn’t want anything so futile and destructive to happen, so she set her elbows on her jean-clad knees and tried to think. “Rick, I want you to tell me why you had it.”
    He stared at her, frowning as his mouth hung open, and she braced herself for his accusation that she’d invaded his privacy. “You think I got that for myself? ”
    It wasn’t the response she’d expected. “Rick, I’m not stupid.”
    “Neither am I! I don’t believe this. I’m in trouble for something I didn’t even—”
    “Rick, it was in your pocket.”
    “I don’t care where it was. Just because I’m carrying around a condom doesn’t mean I went out and bought it and planned to use it.”
    “Then why did you have it?”
    “Every guy at school has one.”
    She closed her eyes, fuming, and ground her molars together. “Rick, I don’t care if every boy in school takes a dive off the cliff at Bright Mountain. I don’t want my son—”
    “No, you don’t get it!” he cut in. “Mom, they gave them to us at school. In a class.”
    She opened her eyes and gaped at him. She couldn’t have heard right. Had he said…? “They gave them to you?”
    “Yeah. It was ‘Condom Awareness Day,’ if you can believe that. It’s the biggest joke of the school year, every year from seventh grade on up. They get you in the room and start lecturing you about safe sex and stuff.”
    He said it matter-of-factly, as if she would naturally know and understand. Oh, yes, of course. Condom Awareness Day. But she didn’t.
    Her heart began to rampage, and she stood up, facing him at eye level. “Are you seriously telling me that they gave condoms out at school?”
    “Yeah,” he said. He was grinning now, enjoying her shock.
    “Rick, I know that sometimes I can be naive, but I didn’t just ride in on a hay truck.”
    “Mom, I’m telling you the truth. Call the school and ask them.”
    It was rare for him to suggest she call the school for any reason. For him to do so now clued her that he was probably telling the truth.
    “When did this happen?”
    “Last Friday,” he said.
    “Why didn’t you tell me about it?”
    He shrugged. “It wasn’t that big a deal, Mom. Besides, it’s weird talking to my mom about condoms.”
    “Why didn’t you just throw it away?”
    “I meant to, but I forgot. Besides, if you’d found it in the trash you would have gone just as ballistic. Mom, get real. Who would I use it with? I don’t even have a girlfriend.”
    She deflated and wilted back in the chair. “I know. That’s why I was so confused.”
    “I mean, it’s not like I couldn’t get a girlfriend if I wanted one. I could and everything. I’ve got a date to the prom.”
    She didn’t want to know. “Oh, yeah? Who?” she forced herself to ask.
    “Jeanie Bradford.”
    An image of the girl came to mind. She had been in Annie’s dance class for years, and she had a nodding acquaintance with her mother. “Cute girl.”
    “Yeah, real cute.” Pink blotches colored his cheeks, exposing his embarrassment. He turned away. “It’s not like I’m in love or anything. This’ll probably be our only date. But it is my junior year and I felt like I ought to go.”
    He was off on the prom, not even interested in the condom anymore, but Cathy couldn’t get her mind off of it. “So I’ll just throw this away. Because there’s no point in your holding onto it.”
    “Fine. Mom, just because I’m taking some girl to the prom doesn’t mean I need that. You brought me up right,