Forgiveness
Laura knocked on the back door of the Urkel house and called, "Steve? Steve, are you in there?"
"Laura!" the muffled nasal voice responded, "come on in, it's unlocked!"
Laura turned the knob and walked into the kitchen, which was a shambles, bowls and containers everywhere and everything was coated in flour, including Steve, who was wearing a frilly lacy apron as he spanked the side of a cake pan with his hand. The nerd stopped what he was doing, put the pan down and adjusted his glasses that were also coated in flour.
"Oh hi, Laura my lovely, what brings you here?" he asked.
"You didn't show up to church today, are you okay?" Laura asked.
"Oh yes yes yes," Steve insisted, "oh, hey...what happened the other night at Club Buff?"
Laura huffed and sighed. "My mom caught me trying to sneak out, I'm officially grounded for a month."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, snookums, but I did try to warn you," Steve pointed out.
"Yeah yeah yeah, I know," Laura replied. "So what's going on, why weren't you at church?"
Oh, I've had too many pressing engagements to make the service. I know that sounds bad, but I think I squared it away for this week," he counted off on his fingers, "I did a brief study of Ecclesiastics when I woke up, I said my daily prayers for half an hour, and I've been singing hymns while I work," to emphasize, he went into a small dance as he belted out, "O Happy Day!"
Laura raised a hand to cease the performance and asked, "Steve, what's going on?"
"Oh, Laura, I've been trying to get this cake made and I've just been having the darnedest luck," Steve said, "I finally got the cake right but I can't get it out of the pan, and do you have any idea how much powdered sugar it takes to make frosting?"
Laura looked at the confection and to the best of her deductive abilities, it looked like a marble cake. "It looks good, is it somebody's birthday?"
"No," Steve answered, "Tomorrow Willie Fuffner gets out of juvenile hall, I'm making this cake for him as part of a welcome back to the outside."
"Willie?" Laura repeated in disbelief with big eyes. "The fool who spiked the punch at Maxine's party and almost got you killed?"
"That's the one," Steve remarked without missing a beat.
"Steve, why would you waste a cake on him?" Laura asked. "Why would you even give him the time of day?"
"Well Laura, he's served his time and I have to believe that he's sorry for what he did."
"Yeah right," Laura cynically commented as she put her hands on her hips, "more likely sorry he got caught."
"Well that's a possibility too," Steve conceded, "but I want him to know there're no hard feelings. Oh," he fretted, "I wanted to have this done yesterday, but my hands were tied."
Laura squinted one eye questioningly, "With what?"
"I've been tutoring Bull on nights and the weekends," Steve answered.
"Bull? The guy who used to beat you up for your lunch money?" Laura asked.
"Yes snookums," Steve nodded.
"Why're you helping him?" Laura asked.
"Well, Laura, after Eddie punched him, I got to talking with him and found out he's actually a very interesting person. He was just lashing out at me in a transferred and misguided retaliation to his own personal problems. Anyway, Bull wants to quit school and get a job, and he's certainly old enough, and with his physique he could be a bouncer in any of the finer clubs that throws out unruly patrons. But I pointed out not many employers are going to be impressed with a guy who dropped out of school in the 8th grade." Steve made a shrugging 'what do you know?' gesture and added, "Well it turns out the reason Bull kept getting held back was because he couldn't read to pass the tests. So I've been tutoring him in reading comprehension so he can get ahead to high school, and hopefully get his diploma, so he'll at least be partially equipped for finding a job and making it out in the world."
Laura felt an assortment of things. On one hand she felt angry that Steve was wasting his time on the people who had bullied him, on the other hand she was awestruck, and on another, she was confused.
"Steve," she said, "those guys never did anything but treat you like dirt...why're you trying to help them?"
"Well because it's the right thing to do, Laura," Steve answered.
"Yeah, but..." Laura felt very confused and couldn't even put the words together she wanted to say. "I don't get you, Steve."
"Well what do you mean?" he asked as he rubbed his hands on the sides of his apron.
"I mean...you've always been weird...but the last couple years, you went from just being weird, and a geek, no offense."
"Oh none taken."
"But you turned into...I don't know...some kind of goodie two shoes," Laura said. "I remember when you sneaked Eddie into an underground casino to help him get the money to fix the car. The guy who did that...was definitely not the guy who tried to stop me from going to Club Buff. So...what happened with you, Steve?"
Steve looked surprised. "You really don't know, Laura?"
She shook her head. "What?"
"Well you guys did."
"Huh?" she squinted.
"When you guys let me go to church with you for the first time...Laura, that was one of the best days of my life, it was a magical experience, I felt something come over me like I'd never known before," Steve explained. "I always knew there was something missing in my life but ultimately I always figured I'd find something to fill it, success on one of my experiments, get the career of my dreams, the girl of my dreams...and sitting in that church I realized that none of that was going to make me whole. Aside from your home, that church was my home away from home, a place where I could really be me...and no one was ashamed to admit they knew me. Now I've always known I was happy with myself just the way I was, but on the grand scale of things, I realized that God accepts me just the way I am. He doesn't expect me to look a certain way, talk a certain way, dress a certain way, it's about what's in my heart. Laura, did you know that after I went to church with your family, I read the entire Bible in one night?"
Laura blinked. "Really?"
"Yep," Steve nodded proudly, "that was a very enlightening experience, and you know something? It really makes a lot of sense. It validates me liking myself for who and what I am, after all there's the commandment 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife', and then there's Exodus 20:17, where you shouldn't covet your neighbor's house, wife, servants, animals, or anything else they've got. So if you shouldn't covet anything else your neighbor has, why should you covet the way someone else looks, or dresses, or acts?"
Laura nodded slowly. "I never thought about it like that, but I guess that's a good point."
"Oh and I especially was drawn to the verse about 'Love thy neighbor as thyself'. That's what I do, Laura, I'm nuts about you Winslows, I love each and every one of you guys as much as I love me."
"Wow, Steve..." Laura was having a hard time figuring out just what to say, "I'm...touched...in a way. But how does that explain what you're doing now?"
"Oh, different chapter, 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you'," Steve explained. "So you see, Laura, helping Bull and being nice to Willie is actually my Christian duty, however odd it may seem to other people."
"Wow..." Laura was truly dumbstruck. "That's...that's amazing, Steve...I...I don't think I could do that if it was me."
"Oh sure you could," Steve replied, "because you have a good heart, Laura Winslow."
Laura looked down to the floor and a small sad smile formed on her face.
"I'm not too sure about that, Steve," she admitted as she looked up. "I mean...I knew sneaking into Club Buff was wrong, but I did it anyway, because my friends were going, and I was sick and tired of everybody thinking I was a goodie two shoes. You warned me not to go, but I didn't listen."
"Well, that's true," Steve said.
"And," Laura thought, "you tried to warn me about Ted letting his friends think that we had sex, and I didn't want to believe you."
"Mm-hmm, that's true," Steve added.
"And Max tried to warn me about Daniel Wallace, but I didn't listen to her either," Laura said. She sighed and asked, "What's wrong with me, Steve? Everytime somebody tries to warn me about something, I don't listen."
"Well that's because you're a very strong minded person," Steve said, "and that's one of the things I love about you, you know what you want and you don't back down. That's why you replaced Cassie Lynn Nubbles on the cheer squad, that's why the school got a year-round black history class, that's why you were the only one who had the guts to stand up to Fuffner at Maxine's birthday party."
She looked at him with an uncertain expression. "Lot of good that did."
Steve merely shrugged, "Well, the right thing is seldom the popular thing, that's how you know it's the right thing."
Laura thought of something, "Hey Steve, isn't there another Bible verse about...don't go to your neighbor's house too often and make them resent you?"
Steve nodded. "Yes."
"Well?" Laura asked.
He shrugged again. "Well nobody's perfect."
Something else occurred to Laura. "But that's why you didn't ask anyone for help."
"Well after all, it's my project, and I know everybody else has their own stuff they're doing," Steve explained.
Laura chewed on that for a moment, and got an idea.
"Hey Steve...how about if I help you get Willie's cake done...and then," she looked around at the kitchen that was strewn with dirty dishes, "I'll help you clean up?"
"Really?" Steve's eyes got big, "you'd do that for me?"
"Yeah," Laura nodded, "I think I've been falling down on my own Christian duty. We're supposed to help people, right?"
"Oh abso-tive-a-lutely," Steve responded eagerly.
Laura smiled genuinely. "Then I'd be happy to help you."
Steve looked at her for a second before asking, "You love me, don't you?"
"Don't push it," Laura warned him.