Sorta Like a Rock Star(55)

“Bobby Big Boy should be ready to go home by seven tonight.”

“Thank you,” I say, and hang up, trying hard not to cry like a chick, but of course, I do leak a few tears.

I say a little thank-you prayer to JC, and then I finish my school day—working on my prom dress a little in Life Skills and daydreaming through my real classes.





By the end of the day there are posters and signs hung up all over the hallways.

The Save Bobby Big Boy Variety Show Presented by Amber Appleton

April 24—Friday Night

Save the Date

Some have pictures of Bobby Big Boy on them and I wonder how that came to be.

Weird.

Bearded Ty drives Ricky and me home in his Volvo station wagon, and as we drive, I ask him why The Five want to keep the acts a surprise.

“Don’t you like surprises?” he asks me.

“Sure,” I say.

“So?”

“Ricky Roberts is going to do Stump the Mathematician.”

“Well, I know one act, eh?” I say.

Ty looks at me in the rearview and smiles through his beard.





CHAPTER 54





After I get Ricky doing math problems at the kitchen table, I ride Donna’s bike through the ghetto to the Korean Catholic Church for the first time without BBB, doing the “I hope you are having a great day!” trick the whole way there, which always makes me feel good, because I dig lighting up people’s faces.

When I get there, Father Chee is not out front because he is not expecting me. I haven’t talked to him since I told him I couldn’t be what he needed me to be anymore.

The church door is locked, so I knock, and after a few minutes, Father Chee appears.

I ride my bike inside, and Father Chee locks the door behind me.

“You left your room,” FC says to me.

“I’m out,” I say as I hop off Donna’s bike. “And I’m sorry.”

“For what?” FC says with a smile.

I give him a big old hug.

“Welcome back,” FC says as he pats my back all fatherly.

When we let go, FC asks, “Where is BBB?”

So I tell him all about B Thrice’s tumor, The Save Bobby Big Boy Variety Show, and also about how we will know whether BBB is going to live within a week.

“I will pray for BBB,” Father Chee says. “The KDFCs have missed you. Want to say hello?”

“Hell yeah,” I say, and then we walk into the sanctuary.

The KDFCs are sitting around with English-Korean dictionaries. They are all writing Korean into what looks like new songbooks.

“Jesus sent us Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits,” Father Chee explains, and then yells something in Korean.

The Korean Divas for Christ look up and then attack me, giving me so many long drawn-out hugs that I think I might pop!

In English, they all tell me that they are sorry about my mom, and then they say a lot of things to me in Korean, which Father Chee translates into English.

These things they say in their native language are so heartfelt, so beautiful, The KDFCs make me cry, which makes them cry and hug me even more.

Finally, I tell them about Bobby Big Boy’s tumor, and The KDFCs start hugging me again and shaking their heads and talking very quickly in Korean.

So I tell them about The Bobby Big Boy Variety Show and ask them if they will perform—if they will do a few Supremes songs to help me raise money to pay for BBB’s operations.

The KDFCs look down at their feet.

“What?” I say.

Father Chee says something in Korean.

Yung Mi says something back.

Sun says something to Yung Mi.

Na Yung shakes her head, and offers her opinion.

Hye Min yells at Na Yung.

And then all of The KDFCs are bickering in Korean.

Father Chee tells me, “Some of the women want to perform, but others think that their English is not good enough yet, and that they will embarrass you and themselves.”

“Are you kidding me?” I ask them very loudly. “You guys are frickin’ pros.”

“We good backup singers,” Sun says, “but we need good English-speaking front woman. True diva.”

“Amber is the true diva,” Na Yung says.

“No, no. I’m emceeing,” I tell them.

“Why not sing with them?” Father Chee says.

But I don’t want to sing with them. I know I should sing because I am one of The Korean Divas for Christ—even if I am not actually Korean by birth, only by association—and also I shouldn’t ask people to do something that I am not willing to do, which I fully realize, but the truth is I’m not really feeling up to the task of rock-starring in front of all my classmates, especially after my mother’s death, and so the bickering continues amongst The Korean Divas for Christ, until I change the subject and simply help them translate “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”

While Father Chee jogs me home, he says, “You have to realize that you are the only white person many of our church members have had any meaningful contact with. Walking into an English-speaking high school like yours terrifies them.”

“I can understand that,” I say. “Believe me.”

“But if you would sing with them—behind you, a true diva—I think they would sing at the variety show.”