She arrived home from the office Christmas party to hear accusing shouts rising from the back bedroom.
Oh, no, she thought, now we'll be kicked out for sure.
"Don't you believe in God? You don't believe you're a child of God?!" Liza boldly sat on Juan's bed.
"Yes. But God agrees that I should have power."
This guy is warped, thought Debbie. She walked into the living room where the Nazi sword lay, under glass, on a red bandana emblazoned with the symbolic swastika. Just trying to be obnoxious, she had thought.
"The ************ are against them," Lori had told her.
"Are they?" Debbie naively asked. Lori became suddenly vague.
Debbie admired how Liza could march in there and sit on their bed. She was obviously winning the argument to Juan's frustration and rage.
"Let's torture you, Liza, and see how long you believe in your God," he countered. He stalked into the pantry.
"Hey! You can do anything you want. I'm going to Heaven!" Liza exclaimed, growing excited.
"Debbie, don't you believe that some races are superior to others?"
"No," she said.
He flung his hands in the air, jerked them around and stomped away from her.
So, that's it, Debbie thought. A woman could not disagree with him.
"I'm a Child of God!" Liza insisted from the back bedroom. "He is my Lord!"
"I care about you!" she went on.
"Well, I care about you, too," Juan replied uncomfortably.
"Well, hey. We all love each other! Praise the Lord!" She shouted feverishly.
"Liza, you have to get out. I need my privacy."
She knocked on the door.
"You know, no matter what happened, I want you to know I still like you, even if we don't agree." She lingered in the bedroom doorway. "I just want you to know I still care about you."
"OK, Liza. OK."
"I really still like you even though we don't agree. OK, I just wanted you to know that." She showed no sign of leaving.
Denise Hickey
ALL THAT GLITTERS
# 0521D
