Brother D, Part I

[Note to Carol: This is a two-part blog that really makes the most sense when you don't pause between the two blogs. Please keep this in mind. Also, do you think it works, with the flashbacks and all?]


Brother Desiderio’s baptism fell on spring day in Gallup. Elder Whitley and I drove to the chapel so happy we didn’t even mind that all of our CDs were scratched except for the lamest of all the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas albums. We arrived early, but the Desiderios were already there at the chapel.


“His name is Troy Desiderio,” the ward mission leader, Brother Peck, told us. We sat in Brother Peck’s battered pickup, looking at the list of people he’d picked out for us. “His wife’s a member, and she’s started coming again. You’ll like him.”


Elder Whitley and I greeted Brother Desiderio with firm, eager handshakes and gave his son Chee high-fives. Sister Desiderio looked like she wanted to hug us but remembered missionary rules at the last moment and settled for handshakes.

“You ready for this?” I asked Brother D.

“You bet,” he said.


The three of us — two missionaries and a ward member — strode up the walkway to the Desiderios’ home.

“Do they know we’re coming?” asked Elder Hillam.

“I mentioned it to Sister Desiderio at church,” Brother Peck said. “I don’t know if she told her husband.”

“Oh, good,” I murmured.

We knocked.

The man that greeted us wore a Ramones T-shirt. Long black hair fell past his shoulders and a ring gleamed in his eyebrow.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Hey,” I said. I introduced us. “Did your wife tell you we were coming?”

“I think so,” he said, giving me a wary eye. “Come in.”