Finding Love in Worn Floors

Tyler pulled up to the old Columbian, impressed by the trimmed hedges that bordered the edge of the property. Stepping out of his old Toyota he let his neck strain back as he tried to figure out what animal swung back and forth on the wind vane that topped the peak of the outstretching roof. However, a quick peek at his watch told him he was two minutes late for the interview with the homeowners’ son and he needed to get going. Straightening his shirt and double checking his fly, he took that step forward, and another one toward the college of his dream two miles down the street. If he could only get a room in this house, then it would all be perfect.

Of course, he didn’t want just any room—Tyler was trying for the master bedroom. So he would have to start eating more Top Ramen in order to pay for it, he would survive. After all, having the master bedroom meant more space and a private bathroom; two essentials when living in a house that was being rented out to college students. The house was being advertised for “five, Latter-Day Saint young men with stable incomes and strong testimonies,” as the flyer posted in the institute had said.

As he reached the porch, the door suddenly swung open revealing a husky, 21-year old, fresh off his mission and very anxious to be giving this tour—it was obviously his first one. He welcomed Tyler in and offered his hand, introducing himself as Elder Patterson before coughing and huffing in embarrassment.

“Ah, ha ha, sorry, I’ve only been out of the field for a month.” Tyler just smiled back, noting a hint of a Southern accent in the boy’s voice. “My name’s Eric, come on in. Tyler, right?”

“Right,” Tyler responded, offering a smile as he was reminded of how he was his first month back.

The tour began a little slow as they made their way casually through the living room then to the dining room. Tyler was amazed when Eric made a side comment that wood ran throughout the whole house from door to door and even in the bathrooms. Tyler had always lived with carpet and tile, and thought wood would be a nice change. The kitchen was adequate, with enough room in the fridge for six men to stuff their weekend junk food of cold pizza and ice cream. The family room was spacious and filled with used couches and a television. After a look around the garage, den, one bedroom, and laundry room, it was finally time to explore the upstairs and Tyler found himself mentally rubbing his hands together.

He knew his scheming to get the master bedroom was selfish and a little rude towards the boy who was leading him around. When he had called to schedule an interview and find out more about the residence, the woman on the phone hadn’t forgotten to mention that her son who had just gotten off his mission would be living there, too, as he headed off to his first year at college. That was why the six bed, three bath Columbian was only being rented out to five people. After all, it would not only help the owners keep a close connection to the home but also keep an inside eye on the renters, should anything questionable occur.

But as they made their way up the stairs off the front hall, Tyler stopped, he eyes drawn to the picture that hung at just the right angle so that any room that could see the stairs would also see this picture; including the front door. In fact, he wondered how he had missed it when he first walked in, the painting was so large.

“Oh yeah,” Eric sighed as he took a few steps back to study the picture with Tyler. “One of my parents conditions,” he explained. “We can have the furniture and put any other things we want up but we have to keep this up. But you can’t really go wrong when it’s a picture of Jesus, right?”

Tyler remotely realized he nodded in response and Eric took a step back up the stairs to urge Tyler on. Tyler stayed for only a moment more, so moved by this new image of Jesus he had never seen. Even though he had served in the Utah, Salt Lake mission that covered the whole state and all its dozen temples, this one portrait had never been hung in any of those halls. He wondered why.

Through two bed rooms that over looked the front yard and street, the boys came finally to the only room left with things still on the walls. Bulletin boards with birthday cards and prom pictures, autographed sports posters, and even a few New Era posters. Tyler was quick to pick up on the fact that this was Eric’s bedroom, even without the big letters spelling out his name above his twin bed.

Eric softly chuckled behind Tyler as he pushed in a dresser drawer. “Sorry about the mess, but you don’t have to worry, this room isn’t an option. I’m gonna stay in here. Less moving around, you know?”

Tyler smiled back and answered his understanding when he caught sight of the only framed photograph in the whole room, leaning against the wall on top of the dresser. It contained ten perfectly positioned people including four couples and with the addition of two small children. One of the couples looked like they were expecting and another must of have been parents of the group for they appeared too young to be siblings of the rest.

“That’s the photo I used on my mission,” Eric told Tyler as he noticed the boy’s second distraction of the day. “I suppose we need to update it. Lisa’s had another boy since then and Stephanie’s girl that she’s pregnant with here is almost two; plus, Paul’s married now. As you can see, I’m the youngest of five. You’ve gotta love Mormon families, huh? We just don’t know how to keep them small.”

Tyler laughed with him at the joke being the middle child of seven himself. Though he knew the joke wasn’t one-hundred percent accurate, he had met plenty of families on his mission and that were in his home ward that only had two or three kids, he had also met plenty where the number of children had to be counted on two hands. You just had to remember that the Lord blesses everyone in different ways.

“Come on, I’ll show you the master.”

Tyler could feel the butterflies in his stomach as they neared the double doors at the end of the upstairs hallway. The room wasn’t what he was expecting, however. Where he imagined lengths of wall both wide and high, the room wasn’t all too much bigger than Eric’s and the ceilings were the same height. There was a good, double-sink bathroom and even a walk-in closet like he had hoped for, but the balcony was a window that opened onto the roof of the back porch and recess lighting was limited to a reading nook. Eric began pointing out where Eric’s parents had had their furniture so that Tyler would understand that the room was, in fact, bigger than all the others in the house. He paused just off the center of the room, though, staring at the ground. Tyler moved opposite of him and looked at the four wear marks that had been made into the ancient, oak floors, waiting for Eric’s next explanation.

“This… Well, where you’re standing is where my parents’ bed was… This is where they kneeled each night as they prayed for each one of us.”

The words hung in the air and buried their selves into Tyler’s heart. Though, it wasn’t hard to see the love parent’s had for their children, never had he witnessed a physical example as powerful as those wear marks.

“I tried scrubbing them but… they wouldn’t go away, and then I realized I didn’t want them to.”

Tyler stepped beside Eric and put a hand on the young man’s shoulder, giving him comfort as memories of sneaking a peek through a crack in his parent’s bedroom door to watch them kneel together in sincere and deep prayer the Heavenly Father each night came back. Happy to remember such spirit-filled times even after his mission, Eric’s lips tugged up and drew his face into a hundredth smile just that day. But though all the other expressions he had shown Tyler had been smudged with nervousness and embarrassment, this one was true as the first smile of a newborn child.

They moved on slower after that and slowly Eric began telling Tyler stories about the house and the nineteen years he had lived in it. Stories about his brother and him playing Thanksgiving football in the backyard and their family barbeque rather than traditional turkey and stuffing. Another was about a time when his sisters had dressed him up like a girl when he was three before he knew how embarrassing it was. He told the story of why there were dark blue scruff marks randomly scattered around the house when his brother received a pedal, race car for Christmas and couldn’t ride outside because of the snow. On and on, the stories flowed and Tyler easily began telling Eric about his family’s adventures as well. What had been planned to be a simple fifteen tour had suddenly become an hour long conversation between friends about forgotten childhoods and dreams that been changed a hundred times.

It was only when Tyler glanced at his watch and realized he was late for his date with his girlfriend did the two finally stand up from sitting against the hallway wall. Eric finished his laughing as he remembered the whole reason for why Tyler was there in the first place.

“Well Tyler, I think you found yourself a room to rent. Which do you want? I’ll put your name on the door so everyone else knows it’s taken.”

Tyler paused and turned to glance at the master bedroom. Then he faced Eric, very serious about his decision. “If you don’t mind, I would really like to have the master.”

Eric stared at him for a long moment, and then held out his hand. “It’s a deal; I don’t think my parents or I would have it any other way.”

As they journeyed back downstairs, Tyler paused again at the portrait of Jesus and felt the nagging feeling in him to ask for more information about it.

“My mom painted that,” Eric answered, “after I was born and the doctor said she couldn’t have any more children. She said it was Jesus that blessed her with the five of us and it was Jesus that we needed to focus our lives around, so that we could return to Him together, as a family.”

Tyler smiled at the tale and reached his hand out, letting his fingers hovered slowly over each face of the children that surrounded Jesus and the two adults that stood behind them. From the photograph in Eric’s room, Tyler could pick out each child that had since grown into adulthood, even the tiny boy—only months old—that was curled against Jesus’ side. As the parents watched over, it was evident on their faces that they knew of all hands, their children were in the best two ever created by God.

This piece is inspired by a true story told to me by a Sunday school teacher that always knows just what to say to the members of the class he teaches.

~L.E. Stewart, November 7, 2010