The maillot maker, Flanders Nickels, has just finished his work on his masterpiece of a women’s one-piece swimsuit. It is a dazzling Chevron-stripe pattern which is put on with strings and hooks and eyes in the back. Right away a beautiful woman named “Tracey Title Chalkey” comes into his shop. She wants to buy this swimsuit. Flanders is born again. Tracey is lost in her sins. It is up to him to lead her to Christ. But her two little sisters come in, one who likes to push things and one who likes to pull things. And they bring trouble with them into this shop just as Tracey is about to pray and get saved.
THE MAILLOT MAKER
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
His name was Flanders Nickels, and he was the maillot maker. He was the owner of his little swimsuit shop on the beach. And his women’s swimwear store was called, “The Maillot Boutique.”
He made only one-piece swimsuits for his customers. He did not make two-piece swimsuits or tankinis or swimsuit cover-ups. And he did make swimdresses, but only occasionally. He knew all manner of women’s maillot fabrics, and he worked with all of these swimwear materials—Spandex and nylon and polyester and Polyamide and elastane and especially the old-time swimsuit fabric, “Antron nylon/Lycra spandex.” The year was 1988. And he had competition for the Maillot Boutique from the department retail store giants K-Mart and Shopko, whose women’s swimwear selection was bigger and more diversified than his own. His one advantage, though, over those two giant chain stores was that his little shop was facing a big beach on the shores of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, and it was hot summer in July now in Wisconsin. So sales were good for Flanders. And he loved what he did for a living. And he was a happy small businessman with a fetish for his products and with a delight for all
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maillot women. The Maillot Boutique was located on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago. The big cities of northeastern Wisconsin—Appleton and Oshkosh and Fond Du Lac–were all located along the western shore of Lake Winnebago. His shop was located just south of Sherwood immediately next to High Cliff State Park, near the northeast corner of this big Wisconsin lake. And right now on his work table he finished up his last work on his most recent one-piece swimsuit. It was truly his chef d’oeuvre of swimsuits. And it shined in its fabric, and it beckoned with its pattern, and it called forth in its new type of one-piece swimsuit style. “”Hallelujah, Good Lord. What have we wrought together with this maillot?” Flanders Nickels prayed. He was a born-again Christian, and he served Christ in his ministry in making such maillots for women. This one here was both his best and his favorite. It was worth one hundred dollars. He would sell it, maybe, for fifty dollars. This women’s maillot was of the contemporary Chevron-patterned design very popular with women these days. That is, this swimming suit was full of V-Stripes going up and down its front. These V-Stripes were wide as far as V-Stripes go on such Chevron maillots. This swimsuit’s pattern was alternating black and colored V-Stripes. These colored V-stripes were known as stone-washed colors—that is, colors that looked like chalk colors. In order from top to bottom of this finished maillot, the V-Stripes were the following colors one-by-one: black, yellowish-brown, black, gray, black, brick red, black, golden yellow, black, light maroon, black, aquamarine blue, black, reddish-brown, and black. At the top, the V-Stripes ran across just below the V-Neck of this suit. They then ran diagonally across the tops of the cups. They then ran diagonally across the bottoms of the cups. They then ran across the midriff. They then ran across the belly. They then ran across the lower abdomen. They then ran across the nether regions. The back of this maillot was solid black. There were no Chevron stripes in the back of this maillot. The inside of this one-piece swimsuit was greatly abundant with tan liners, which were in all the maillots that women bought at this time. In this particular maillot, inside he had tan cups and a tan band below the cups and a tine liner covering the rest of the front and a tan liner covering the whole back and a tan crotch liner.
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As for his new type of swimsuit style, what was this? This was in the back of his masterpiece. It had the most up-to-date scoop back style that all the other maillots had. But it also had straps and hooks and eyes in the back. Back here, two long strings ran from the top of this swimsuit down to the bottom of this swimsuit and covered the whole back in a crisscross. The one ran from the top left shoulder down to the bottom right hip. The other ran from the top right shoulder down to the bottom left hip. They descended diagonally. And they each had hooks at the ends which fastened on to eyes at the hips. This showed much bare back. And the hooks held on firmly to the eyes upon the swimsuit. And the thick strings were comfortable to the back. This maillot maker Flanders Nickels had come up with this brand new idea for women’s one-piece swimwear in this workroom. And this was the only one of its kind in this Maillot Boutique. And it was all finished now. He would go and put it on the rack now in his shop. And that he did, singing the Hymn, “How Great Thou Art.” to God as he did this.
He then went to his desk in the office in the way back, and he picked up his special Book. It was the Authorized King James Version Holy Bible. And he read the two extra special dedications that were handwritten to him from his Mom and from his Dad. The first one read, “To my special son: This day that you got saved is the day God answered my prayers for you. I had this Bible waiting for you for when this day came. Now I know that you will be with me in Heaven when God calls both of us home in our time to go. Love, Mom.” Truly did Mom love Flanders with a deep and maternal love felt only by women who love children. He had gotten saved some years ago as a child. And indeed Mom loved him even more now, years later in his adult years. The second handwritten note read, “To Flanders from Dad: Your mother and I had bought you this Bible the day you got born in Appleton. I thought to give this to you when you learned how to read. But you got saved before then. So I am giving this to you now for when you learn how to read. You made a great decision about accepting Christ. I am proud of you, Son.” Dad loved Flanders as a father who raised children in good times and in bad times. And Flanders had one older sister and one older brother and one little brother in the
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family. And here, years later, the whole family was still alive and well and with many years ahead of them. Flanders, in love for Mom and Dad and his personal Saviour Jesus Christ, held this King James Bible tightly against his chest in both arms in great ardor and thanksgiving. Then he set it back down upon his office desk. And he sat down at this desk and prayed praise to the Good God Who had written this Holy Bible and prayed thanks to God Who had the King James commission back in the seventeenth century to translate the Scriptures into the English of this King James Bible. How good it was to have the Holy Bible so available to all of the English-language speaking people of the world here over three hundred years later. “Praise God for the K.J.V.!” said Flanders Nickels in a moment of spontaneity. And God heard His humble son the maillot maker from up in Heaven.
Just then his little bell rang out from the little sales floor. It was the bell above the entrance door to his shop. He had a customer now. And he eagerly left his office, walked through his workroom, and came out into his sales floor. There stood a most comely and tall and slender young woman in cheerleader apparel, maroon and white. “Hello there, Miss,” he said to his customer. “Could I be of service to you?”
“I am a cheerleader looking for a swimsuit,” she said to him.
“D.H.S.,” he read her chenille emblem out loud. “Is that Denmark High School?”
“No, sir,” she said. “It stands for De Pere High School.”
“You must be a Redbird then,” he said to her.
“How could you tell?” she asked, impressed.
“I get customers sometimes from your fine city,” he said to her.
“I just came from High Cliff State Park,” she said to him. “Climbing that steep long road is hard even for a cheerleader like myself.”
“Welcome to my little store, Miss,” he said her in good cheer.
“I wanted to go swimming in Lake Winnebago, and I forgot to bring my swimsuit,” she told
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him.
“Do you know what kind that you would like?” he asked her.
“One with lots of color,” she began. “One that shows off my curves,” she also said. “And one unlike any other swimsuit,” she finished with.
All of this criteria most surely matched the one-piece swimsuit that he had finished today. And he said, “I believe that I may have the swimsuit that you are looking for,”
And she said, “I can’t wait to see what you have.”
And he led her up to his greatest of swimsuit works that he had just put up on the swimwear rack. He picked it up on its hanger, its top held on to the hanger by way of two little metal clothespins connected to the bottom rung of the hanger, and he held it up before her.
“My. My. My,” said this pretty girl. “I like this one lots, sir!”
“It is my latest creation,” he said to her in truth.
“How does a girl put a one-piece swimsuit like this on and keep it on?” she asked in sincerity.
“You fit the hooks here into the eyes there,” he told her. And he showed her with the one hand as he held it in the air with the other hand.
“This is definitely unlike any other swimsuit,” she said.
“Does it look right for you, Miss?” he asked.
“I want it,” she said in desire.
“To make sure, I recommend that you try it on first,” said Flanders.
“You’re right, sir,” she said. “I have to see if it fits before I buy it,”
“The dressing room is off to the right by the bathroom,” he said, pointing to the side wall.
“Thank you, kind sir,” she said. “I can’t wait to try this on and see what it feels like.”
“It’s a women’s size ten,” he told her.
“Oh good. I’m a tall girl, and I am a size ten,” she said. And she skipped to the dressing room,
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hugging the brand new one-piece swimsuit and its hanger endearingly against her heart in both arms.
Flanders waited for a brief moment. He thought about this pretty girl in this pretty one-piece swimsuit. He thought about this pretty girl and what she saw in the mirror. He thought about this pretty girl and whether her soul were lost or saved. Then she came out.
Lo, a one-piece swimsuit goddess! This brunette still had on this maillot that had just been on its hanger on the rack. “Miss, you look irresistible!” exclaimed the maillot maker on the spur of the moment. “Whooo!” In her arms were the pieces of her maroon and white cheerleader uniform. She hugged these pieces against the cups of her new maillot.
“Do you really think so, sir?” she asked in flirt.
“You do my one-piece swimsuit true worthiness, Miss,” he said.
“Why, thank you,” she said in humility. “And it fits me just right, too, everywhere.” And she set her old De Pere Redbird cheerleader uniform attire upon the counter. And she ran her hand across her “V’s” and looked down upon herself in her front. “I like this a lot,” she said. “How much is it?”
“You are the prettiest girl in a maillot that I have ever seen in this Maillot Boutique,” he said.
“I will not charge you for this one-piece swimsuit. You are even more comely than the swimsuit that I have made. I tell you. I think that I’ve got a major crush on my own customer.”
“You must say these kinds of things to all of your pretty customers,” said the gal in coquetry.
“Nope,” he said. “I have never seen a girl quite like you before. You make a dazzling cheerleader and an even more stunning swimsuit gal.”
“Are you asking me for a date?” she ventured forth.
“Only if you say, ‘Yes,’” said Flanders.
“I say, ‘Yes,’” said the gal.
“You are my first,” he said.
“The first girl customer that you asked out?” she asked.
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“Yep!” he said in truth.
“You make me feel beautiful,” said the gal. And she spun around in place in this brand new Chevron-patterned one-piece swimsuit with its hooks and its eyes, and she said, “Yes!”
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“My name is ‘Tracey,’” said the young woman. “Tracey Title Chalkey.”
“And my name is ‘Flanders,’” he told her. “Flanders Arckery Nickels.”
“Thank you for my exciting new swimming suit, Flanders,” said Tracey. “This swimsuit is so good, it would be a shame to go and get it all wet.” She laughed. He laughed.
And he said, “Forbid the thought that a woman get her one-piece swimsuit wet.” Both laughed together again.
And Miss Chalkey asked, “Would you like to jump into the lake with me, Flanders?”
“We could jump into the lake, Tracey,” he said. “Yeah! Let’s do that!”
“Where’s your swimsuit?” she asked.
“It’s on the racks,” he said in mirth, pointing to the women’s swimwear racks in his little shop.
“You sly drag queen, Flanders,” she said in tease.
“I don’t have my own swimsuit with me now, but could we play in the lake with myself dressed in these?” he said, pointing to his blue jeans and his short-sleeved cotton shirt that he had on.
“You look cute in your blue jeans and plaid shirt,” she said.
“I’ll take off my penny loafers, though,” he said. “I will jump in barefoot.” He took off his shoes.
“You look good in bare feet,” said Tracey Chalkey.
“Let’s play in Lake Winnebago together, O Tracey,” he said.
“But what about your shop and your customers?” asked Tracey.
“You are the only customer for me now,” he said. “You are better than a hundred customers to
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me.”
“And I had not even made you a profit,” she said.
“You made my best maillot a living testimony,” he told her. “That’s good enough for me, girl.”
She proffered her hand, and he took it, and they rushed out of the Maillot Boutique and out unto the sand and out into the big lake.
And the maillot maker and the maillot wearer frolicked in Lake Winnebago for over an hour until they were utterly satisfied. And he proffered his hand, and she took it, and they came out of the lake and sat down upon the sand.
“I say, Flanders,” began Tracey, “I have had other dates with other men, but none were at all like this date with this man I have now.”
“What made this date so special for you, Tracey?” asked Flanders.
“I guess that it might be you,” she said.
“I made this date so good for you?” he asked.
“You are so good, Flanders,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about you expecting more from me than I wish to give.”
“You mean…?” he asked.
“You will never try to seduce your girl in a one-piece swimsuit,” she said. “I feel good and clean and safe being with you here.”
“We born-again Christians do not want to defile our bodies,” he told her. “My body belongs to the Lord.”
“You born-again people make great dates, I can now see,” said Miss Chalkey.
“Did you have fun with me in the lake, Tracey?” he asked.
“Uh huh. I did. I truly did, Flanders,” said the girl.
“I had fun with you in the lake, too,” he told her.
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He then put back on his shoes and said to her, “I’ve got to get something in my office and come right back,”
“I’ll still be here, boyfriend,” she said to the maillot maker. And he left and came right back with a big hardcover book. “Is that the dictionary, Flanders?” she asked in jest.
“It is better than a dictionary,” he said to her.
“Then that must be the Bible,” she said in hopes.
“It is my Bible,” he said.
“The Bible is a good Book,” she said in delight.
“It is my favorite Book,” he said. “I read it every day.”
“It is a good Book to read every day,” said Tracey.
“Do you read it every day, also, Tracey?” he asked.
“Uh uh,” she said. “But I think about it all of the time.”
“Could I read some to you from it?” he asked.
“Why, that sounds even more fun than a spree in the lake,” she said.
“For me even, too, girl,” he said. And he asked, “What do you want me to read about?”
“How about what happened right after creation?” she asked. “What happened after God finished creating the heaven and the earth?”
“Ah, Genesis 2:1-3,” he said. And he searched the Scriptures and found this passage and did read it out loud to his new beautiful one-piece swimsuit girlfriend: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
“God rested from his work of the six-day creation week,” said Tracey. “Was He tired in having
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wrought all of that creation, Flanders?”
“God does not get tired, Tracey,” said Flanders. “In Isaiah 40:28 it is written, ‘Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.’”
“I think, maybe, that where the Bible said that ‘God rested from his work.’ it does not mean that he was resting for weariness or fatigue, but instead that he stopped from his activity of work,” said Tracey in conjectures of a girl searching truth.
“Very well put, Tracey,” said Flanders. “You are exactly right.”
“I think that when I get home today that I will go to Mom and Dad’s room and open up their Bible and read some for myself, Flanders,” said Miss Chalkey.
“Bible-reading is a good thing to do,” said the maillot maker. “It is the only Book I like better than all of my one-piece swimsuits.”
“Even more than this one?” asked Tracey, looking down upon her brand new swimsuit.
“Even more than that one, too,” said the Christian man.
“The Bible is truly the first love for Christians,” said Tracey.
“My pastor preaches that the Holy Bible tells us where we came from and why we are here and where we are going,” preached Flanders Nickels good words.
“Where did we come from?” asked Tracey.
“God spoke His Word, and, behold, we are here,” he said about the sixth day of creation.
“Why are we here?” she asked.
“We are here to fellowship with and to glorify our Almighty God,” he said.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“We are going either to Heaven or to Hell,” he told her.
“All of that is in your Bible?” she asked.
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“Indeed all that and much more,” he said. But what about her eternal soul? He needed to find out about her eternal soul. And he asked, “Tracey…are you born again like I am?”
“I am not born again,” she said. “I have been born only once.”
God save this woman, prayed Flanders his private thoughts.
“I can tell that you are thinking about what I said,” said Miss Chalkey.
“Shall we get together back in my little store, Tracey?” he asked. “I need to talk to you in private.”
“Is it about Jesus?” she asked.
“It is,” he said with a nod of his head.
“We can do that,” she said. “Whatever you have to tell me about Jesus is something that I need you to say to me alone.”
And the maillot maker and his maillot girlfriend got up and went back inside his shop, and they sat down in his workroom, each sitting on a tall stool.
Just then there was a loud crash out in the front of the store, and one young woman’s voice saying, “You pulled too hard,” and another young woman’s voice saying, “You pushed too hard.”
And then all was quiet. The two in this workroom ran to where this noise happened. There was no one to be seen. But the front glass door that opened into his store was knocked down out of its place and lying upon the floor and all broken into big and little pieces.
“Well,” said Flanders, never having seen something like this happen before to his business. “The door is all broken and wrecked and shattered.”
Tracey yelled out to people that were nowhere to be seen, “Tasha, Trisha, God will get you for that!”
“Tasha, Trisha?” asked Flanders. “You know them?”
“They are my nasty sisters, Flanders. Tasha likes to push things. Trisha likes to pull things.
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I’m sorry for what they did to your door. They are bad women,” said Tracey.
“What made these women so bad that they do bad things like this?” asked Flanders.
“Mom and Dad spoiled them. Whenever one of them wanted something—anything–from Mom and Dad, Mom and Dad said, ‘Yes’ to them. And whenever Mom and Dad wanted them to do something—anything–to help out around the house, my two sisters always said, ‘No’ to them. They are my baby sisters, and they are wild young women who have never been disciplined at home as I have been as the oldest in the family,” explained Tracey Chalkey.
“How did they find you here of all places?” asked Flanders.
“Yesterday they both promised me that they were going to follow me around wherever I go for now on,” said Tracey. “They must have followed me here.”
“Though I may be a forgiving Christian, I think that they need to spend some time in jail,” said Flanders in frankness.
“Now Mom and Dad are afraid of them,” said Tracey. “And I think that I am, too.”
“Well, this man is not afraid of them,” said Flanders Nickels. “The one better not dare to try to push me, and the other better not dare to try to pull me.”
“Now they are trying out for women’s all-star wrestling,” said Tracey.
“They better not dare to try to come back,” said Flanders in great seriousness. “Neither God nor I will tolerate vandalism to our maillot boutique.”
“I believe that you mean business, Flanders,” said Tracey Chalkey. She felt safe near this man of God.
“Shall we return to my workroom with my Holy Bible, Tracey?” he asked.
“I want to get away from what my sisters did to this door,” said Miss Chalkey.
“Let’s forget about them for now,” said the maillot maker. And they returned to his back workroom, and they sat down upon two workbenches.
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“So, Tracey,” he said. “Do you ever think about the Saviour?”
“Is that Jesus Christ?” she asked.
“It is He,” said Flanders.
“I never think about Him,” said Tracey.
“I think about Him lots,” said the maillot maker. “I make my maillots to the glory of God, I like to think.”
“These are all the best made one-piece swimsuits that I have seen so far in Wisconsin,” said Tracey.
“Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day,” he said. “That truth is called ‘the Gospel.’”
She thought for a long while upon this Gospel that he had just defined for her. Then she said, “Is it true to say that if a Person died, that that same person had first come?”
“What do you mean?” asked the maillot maker.
“If this Lord Jesus died, then He must have had a First Coming before that,” she explained her thoughts.
“Ah, Christ’s First Advent,” said Flanders. “Christmas.”
And she said, “I’m not sure if I believe in that First Coming,” she said.
“Are you of the Jewish faith that claims that Jesus did not come to earth His first time yet and that He will yet come to this Earth for His first time in the future?” he asked her.
“I am not a Jew, really,” she said. “I just don’t believe that Jesus has or will come His first time to this Earth.”
Seeking to more fully understand this beautiful maillot girl so lost in her sins, Flanders asked her, “Are you a doubter of His Second Coming, too, Tracey?”
“Yes. I am, Flanders,” she said. “Do you born-again believers say that if Jesus did come back
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from the dead on the third day—and that day is Easter—do you also believe that He will come back again to Earth some day and make all things good on Earth?”
“Yes,” he said. “We believers also call that ‘His Second Advent.’”
“I do not believe that Jesus can come in His Second Coming,” said Tracey. “My grandma and grandpa tell me that Christ is coming back, but He still has not come back. It’s been years that they were telling me about that, and nothing is any different. It’s all a big tale, Flanders.”
“God is patient, and His timing is not our timing,” said Flanders. “Only believe.”
“I imagine that there might be things in the Holy Bible that tell about the First Coming of the Lord and the Second Coming of the Lord, Flanders,” she said, humbling herself before this maillot maker and his Jesus.
“Indeed, much is told about both the First and the Second Coming and it is all written both in the Old Testament and the New Testament,” he said. She thought for a long silent while. He then asked her, “Do you want to believe, Tracey?”
“How can an unbeliever like myself come to believe?” she asked sincerely.
“Belief in Christ can come only by faith,” he said to her.
“What kind of faith can make a woman to believe?” she asked Flanders.
“The faith that saves souls to the uttermost,” he said to her. Again the maillot gal fell upon a most thoughtful silence. He then said to her, “In Romans 10:17, it is written, ‘So then faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’”
“Am I to believe what the Holy Bible says?” she asked.
“That is the faith that conquers the Devil,” said Flanders.
“Am I to believe everything that the Holy Bible says?” she asked.
“In John 17:17, as Jesus prayed to God for His Apostles, He said these words about the Holy Bible: ‘Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth,’” said Flanders.
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“God’s Word is truth,” said the maillot girlfriend in faith as a grain of mustard seed.
Seeking to fully convince this special young woman of the perfection of God’s Word the Bible, Flanders said to her, “In II Timothy 3:16, God says about His Word, ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,…’ And in II Peter 1:21, God says about His Word, ‘For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’” And then to seal his case for eternal truth, he said to her, “God’s Holy Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is said by us Christians to be ‘God-breathed.’”
Right then, Tracey Chalkey confessed, “Then the King James Bible must be Truth.” And she said so with conviction and wisdom and understanding.
He then asked, “Do you want to hear what the Bible says about Christ’s First Coming?”
“If Christ’s First Coming is in the Bible, I will believe then in the First Coming, Flanders,” promised the maillot girl.
“Do you want also to hear what the Scriptures have to say about Christ’s Second Coming?” he went on to ask her.
And she promised, “If Christ’s Second Coming is in the Bible, then I will become a believer in the Second Coming, as well, O Flanders.”
“Then will you believe what the Bible says about so great salvation after that?” he asked her.
And she promised, “If you convince me of the First Advent and of the Second Advent, Flanders, and the Bible tells me what I need to do to find my own salvation, then I will seek my own salvation the way the Bible says that I must.”
“This day is salvation so near unto so fair a one-piece swimsuit girl,” said Flanders Nickels in joy in the Lord.
“You are a convincing teacher with your Bible, Flanders,” she said to him.
“God must become your Teacher this day that you may find Christ as your personal Saviour,”
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he said to her in endearment.
“God is Truth,” confessed Miss Chalkey.
“The First Coming first, Tracey,” he said to her, ready to read powerful Scripture to her. And he turned to Luke 2:40-52 and read thus its Words to her out loud: “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
“This is all about the Lord when he was a twelve-year-old boy!” exclaimed Miss Chalkey.
“Yes. It is,” said the maillot maker.
“Then, if this is so, he had already come in His First Advent twelve years before,” said Tracey.
“The Jewish people are tragically wrong,” said Flanders. “Their Messiah had come, and they still do not even know it.”
“And I was wrong,” said Tracey Chalkey.
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“Do you believe God’s Word that I have just read to you, Tracey?” he asked her.
“Oh, I definitely do at that now, Flanders,” said Tracey.
“What do you believe now?” he asked.
“I believe in the First Coming,” declared Tracey. “And I will never say again that it never happened.”
“Amen, pretty maillot girl!” he said to her. “Alleluia!”
“The second thing that you have to convince me of will be harder,” said Tracey.
“The Second Advent,” said Flanders, confident in the Lord.
“What can you say to that?” she said to him in challenge and some pride.
And he at once said to her, “It is written, ‘Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.’ II Peter 3:3-4.”
Why, this was the very thing that Tracey had said to her grandpa and grandma. How did the Bible know this? How did God know what she would always say in her rejection of the Second Coming? Grandpa and Grandma may have been right after all. And maybe she was the one who was wrong. She had to hear Flanders tell her now from more of the Bible.
And she said, “What can I say to that, Flanders?” And she said so in humbleness and with a ready heart for more of the Word of God.
And Flanders said, “First let me share with you Matthew 24:29-31.” And he read these three verses to her: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great
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glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
“The Second Coming?” she said in interrogative.
Flanders went on to say, “Second, let me tell you all about Mark 13:24-27.” He went on to read these four verses to her from his Bible: “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.”
“The Second Coming,” she said in declarative.
Lastly Flanders said to her, “Third, let me tell you what God says in Luke 21:25-27.” And he read this Bible passage of three verses to her: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
“The Second Coming!” she said in exclamation.
She needed say no more. She already said it. Flanders heard her. Miss Tracey Chalkey now believed fully in Christ’s Second Advent.
Flanders then said, “You also told me that if I could show you the plan of salvation in the Holy Bible that you would go and get saved according to God’s Word, Tracey,”
“Could I, instead of that, hear how you got saved, Flanders?” she asked.
“Why, yes. Of course,” he said. “I have led others to Christ the same way—by simply sharing the testimony of my own salvation long ago. I’d be thrilled to tell you how I became a born-again
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believer, Tracey.”
“Tell me all,” she said.
“It has a lot to do with why I became a maillot maker later on in life,” he said to her.
“Tell me everything,” she said.
And he told her how he became a born-again Christian many years ago as a young child: “My family took a drive to a small city in our state of Wisconsin one day. It was either ‘Berlin’ or ‘New Berlin.’ I cannot tell. I did not remember having been there before that day. And I do not remember having come back there since. I was five years old then, and I was about to go into kindergarten when summer was done. I just remembered two things there—a women’s swimwear rack and a woman in women’s swimwear.”
“I do hope that she was in a one-piece swimsuit,” said Tracey Chalkey.
“She was,” said Flanders. “I just wish that I had been old enough to remember her with the same feelings that I have you. But little boys cannot appreciate maillot women the way that men do.”
“We like it when men look at us in our one-piece swimsuits,” said Miss Chalkey.
“We went to this faraway little city in Wisconsin—the whole family—and we came to a big shop of clothes on its main street in the downtown, and we went in,” he began. Very soon all six of us separated as we browsed around the store. And then I saw a most unusual woman there, browsing as well. She was in a little white outfit that had shoulder straps and curved sides and a high leg cut and a low back cut. I did not know what kind of outfit that was.”
“It sounds like a women’s white one-pieces swimsuit,” said Tracey.
“You are right. I had not seen anything like that before. Remember, I was only five years old yet at that time,” he said.
“Was she shopping?” asked Tracey. “Or just browsing?”
“I thought that she worked there,” said Flanders.
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“In a maillot?” asked Tracey. “You are goofy, Flanders.”
“Remember. I was only five,” he said. Then he said to Tracey, “Even though I had not seen a one-piece swimsuit before then, I could tell that this woman looked different in hers than did girls my age look in theirs,” said Flanders.
“The five-year-old boy was learning things before he ought to,” said Tracey in tease about her gender.
“Then I saw her come up to a section where there were a whole slew of these swimsuits,” he said. “What I saw was a whole rack of women’s swimwear for my first time!”
“What did you think?” asked Miss Chalkey.
“I kind of got spellbound as I looked at them,” he said. “They did not beckon to me at all the same way as such garments do to me now as a grown-up. But I was fascinated by them with an innocent boy’s purity.”
“Do any words come to your mind that moment that you first discovered my gender’s swimwear, Flanders?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. And he told them to her now: “Words like ‘shiny’ and ‘bright’ and ‘colors’ and ‘solid patterns’ and ‘geometric designs.’”
“Then what happened?” asked Tracey Chalkey.
“I saw this white one-piece swimsuit woman pick up a black one-piece swimsuit off of the rack on its hanger and put it against herself in examination and decision,” he said to Tracey. “She liked it.”
And she said to herself, ‘This will be my swimsuit for the lake.’ And she was about to go and buy it. Then she paused to pray first to God whether He wanted her to have this one or another one instead.
She was speaking to God in a secret whisper, but I have good ears, and I heard her every word of prayer so spontaneous. And then I heard her say in prayer out loud, ‘Thank You, God. This one it shall be for me. Praise Jesus.’ Then she saw me standing there not far from her. And she said to me, ‘Fine
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little boy, the Good Lord has blessed me with a black one-piece swimsuit to go with my white one-piece swimsuit in my closet. The white one will be for the pool. The black one will be for the beach.’
I tell you, though this swimwear rack and this swimwear young woman were new and fascinating to see, this love for God that she had did powerfully convict me of my need for her Christ. Mom and Dad had been praying and telling me about the Saviour of the world and how I needed Him as my own Saviour. But this lady, in her Christ-likeness, truly finished what Mom and Dad were working together for me for my own soul. I knew that I was lost and going to Hell. And I knew that Mom and Dad and this lady customer were saved and going to Heaven. I told this white swimsuit lady with the black one-piece swimsuit in both of her hands, ‘I need God.’Ma’am.’
And she went ahead to teach me the basics of salvation, making it clear for a five-year-old like myself. She told me that two other phrases for ‘going to Heaven’ were ‘eternal life’ and ‘everlasting life.’ And she told me that two other phrases for ‘going to Hell’ were ‘the second death’ and ‘the lake of fire.’ She told me that Heaven was a perfect Place with a perfect Peace, people there fellowshipping with the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Himself. And she told me that Hell was a place of torments and fire, complete separation from God, and the place where all demons and the Devil end up. And she said that Heaven was forever and that Hell was forever. And then she asked me the eternal questions, asking me, ‘What will you do about Jesus Christ?’ and ‘What will you do with Jesus Christ?’ And she said, ‘This decision must be made in this life. Once you are in the life to come it is too late to answer that question. Jesus died for us and rose again the third day.’ And after that, she said, ‘The Lord Jesus Christ is the difference between Heaven and Hell for forever and ever. Jesus saves. Amen!’”
“Then you got saved. Didn’t you?” asked Tracey.
“Right away!” he said. “This grown-up maillot lady led me through a prayer, and I got saved. We Christians call this prayer for salvation ‘the sinner’s prayer.’ And in that prayer I accepted Christ’s free gift of eternal and everlasting life.”
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“I bet that you were very glad,” said Tracey.
“I was very happy, and the lady who led me to Christ was very happy,” said Flanders. “Then the whole rest of my family saw me there with this white maillot gal. I told my family that this gal had just gotten me saved with a prayer. Dad went and shook her hand in gratitude. Mom went hugged her in thanksgiving. And this good lady said to Mom and Dad, ‘God bless you and all of your family.’ And I and all the rest of us in the family blessed her in the Lord as well. Then we parted. I never saw this woman since. And I never even found out her name. But that ladies’ swimwear rack that I first discovered at that store there inspired me to become the maillot maker that I am now. And in my prayers alone with God, not a day goes by where I do not thank Him for that extra special maillot lady who won my soul for Him long ago.”
Tracey Chalkey then said, “Now I am your extra special maillot lady, Flanders.”
“Yes!” he said. “A one-piece swimsuit woman even prettier and in a prettier swimsuit than the first one in my life that day of my salvation. Tracey.”
“Really, Flanders?” asked Tracey.
“Really, Tracey,” he said in the truth of his heart.
“I think that now is a good time to go and win your new one-piece swimsuit girl to the Saviour herself,” said Miss Chalkey.
“Let us pray together the sinner’s prayer, Tracey,” he said. They were standing now in the backroom of his shop, where he had made what she had on right now, and her old cheerleader’s uniform was still resting upon his counter where she had thrown it. They bowed their heads for prayer. Flanders began this prayer for her, saying to her, “Dear Father, Who art in Heaven:”
“Dear Father, Who art in Heaven:” she repeated after him.
Just then a discordant woman’s voice called from out in the sales floor, saying, “We’re back, Big Sister.”
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And right after that, another grating female voice called forth also from the sales floor, “And I, too, Tracey.”
“Tasha! Trisha!” yelled Tracey right back. “Go away!”
Woe, her two baby sisters had come back for more trouble. And of all the times to do such—just when Tracey was about to get saved! Flanders groaned. Tracey looked out to the sales floor. Flanders marched out to the sales floor. He said to them, “Get out—both of you!”
The one said to him, “I thought that I would come back and push some of your stuff around.”
And the other one said to him, “And I came to do some mean pulling myself, sir, in here.”
“You push or pull anything in here again like you did to my door, and I will call the police.” said Flanders.
Tracey came back out to the sales floor now, and she said, “Push something that belongs to you this time, Tasha! Pull something that is your own, instead, Trisha!”
Tasha said, “No sister of mine ought to be listening to a man of God like this man.”
And Trisha said, “This Christian man is a crazy, filling your head with this Jesus stuff, Big Sister.”
“I ought to push your new swimming suit, Tracey,” said Tasha.
“And I ought to pull it,” said Trisha.
Horrified, Tracey Chalkey stepped back and fled to the backroom. The two sisters stepped forward and sought to chase her. Flanders stood firmly and mightily before the two vandals. He said to them, “No woman is going to ruin my best work. And no woman is going to hurt my Tracey. And no woman is welcome here who seeks to keep Miss Chalkey from seeking Christ.” The two little sisters were at a loss. This one man was too much for the two of them. Then Tracey came back to stand to Flanders’s side. She was holding out her cheerleader’s uniform.
And she said to her sisters, “You can push and pull on this, if it makes you happy. Just don’t
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push and pull on my wonderful new one-piece swimsuit.”
“Push. Push. Push,” said Tasha.
“Pull. Pull. Pull,” said Trisha.
And the little sisters grabbed the comely maroon and white cheerleader’s uniform in its sundry and diverse appurtenances from their biggest sister, and they commenced to wreak havoc on it. Flanders was taken aback by so bold a destruction at the hands of two young women, This ought not to be happening to a nice outfit like this. And Tracey lamented, “My cheerleader uniform! I cannot cheer anymore. It’s all torn up. It’s all ripped up.”
And Tasha and Trisha laughed diabolically at Tracey at her expense.
Then Tracey regretted her sacrifice. She said, “Tasha, you’re horrible. Trisha, you’re terrible.”
Flanders was seething inside. And he was about to do something most retaliatory to these two young women. All of this was going to come to a head. And this bullying would cease. And the problem would be gone.
Heedless and unrestrained, Tasha said, “Now your pretty little swimsuit, Tracey.”
And Trisha said, dauntless and unleashed, “With you in it, Big Sister.”
“Push! Push! Push!” chanted Tasha in mock.
“Pull! Pull! Pull!” chanted Trisha in scorn.
And they forced themselves in upon Tracey Chalkey despite Flanders Nickels as Tracey’s protector here in the Maillot Boutiques shop. They began to push and to pull on the maillot girl’s maillot like a bunch of screeching imps with hands from Hell.
“Flanders! Help!” cried out Tracey, falling down upon her bottom beneath the grabbing fiends of sisters.
In this desperate situation, Flanders Nickels was forced to take desperate measures. He took his right arm, cocked it, and threw a man’s punch at a woman. His right fist smote Tasha in her left temple.
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Tasha stood up straight with a shock in her eyes; then her eyes rolled up; then she fell to the floor, unconscious. In like, Flanders then cocked his left arm, and he threw a man’s punch at the second lady.
His left fist struck Trisha in her right temple. And she grunted out a gasp and slumped to the floor in an unconscious heap. Tasha and Trisha lay there and did not move. And their eyes were closed.
“You knocked them both out, Flanders,” said Tracey in awe and great relief.
“They will not bother you anymore, Tracey,” said Flanders.
“They will not push and pull anymore,” said Tracey, knowing her little sisters.
Flanders proffered his hand, and she took them, and she got back to her feet.
“How are you, Tracey?” he asked her.
“I’m all right,” she said, a damsel rescued by her prince.
“How is your maillot?” he asked with bated breath.
“That is okay, too,” she said.
“Is it still all good?” he asked for verification.
“It is still all good,” she said.
“Thank God,” he said in praise of the Lord
“Thank you,” she said.
Not another moment went by now before Flanders said, “Well, girl, let’s get you saved before they come to again.”
“Yes, Flanders,” said Tracey. “Right away.”
They knelt down together in his workroom, the supine Tasha to one side and the prone Trisha to the other side. And they began again the sinner’s prayer together for the soul of Tracey Chalkey: “Dear Father, Who art in Heaven,” began the maillot maker.
“Dear Father, Who art in Heaven,” began the maillot customer.
“I am a sinner who broke Your commandments,” he led her.
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“I am a sinner who broke Your commandments,” she repeated after him.
“There is nothing that I can do for myself to keep myself from going to Hell,” said Flanders.
“There is nothing that I can do for myself to keep myself from going to Hell,” said Tracey after him.
“There is nothing that I can do in myself to bring myself to Heaven,” he said for her.
“There is nothing that I can do in myself to bring myself to Heaven,” she prayed after him.
“But Jesus saves,” he said for her.
“But Jesus saves.” she said for herself.
“It was He Who died on the cross for me and Who rose again the third day,” he said the Gospel.
“It was He Who died on the cross for me and Who rose again the third day,” she confessed the Gospel.
“Please forgive this wretched sinner who comes before You now,” he said.
“Please forgive this wretched sinner who comes before You now,” she said.
“Please become now my own personal Saviour, Good Lord,” he said.
“Please become now my own personal Saviour, Good Lord,” she said.
“And save my lost soul right now,” he said.
“And save my lost soul right now,” she said.
“Thank You, Jesus,” he said.
“Thank You, Jesus,” she said.
“In Your name I pray,” he said.
“In Your name I pray,” she said.
“Amen,” he finished this sinner’s prayer.
“Amen,” she closed her sinner’s prayer.
Tracey Title Chalkey was now a born-again believer, converted to soul-changing true
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Christianity, and adopted into the family of God for forever.
Just then a faint voice spoke up to one side of the kneeling pair, saying, “What hit me?”
And right after that another feeble voice spoke up to the other side of the two who were kneeling, saying, “What happened?”
Tasha and Trisha were coming back around to their consciousness where they lay.
And Tracey taunted them, saying, “My manfriend went and knocked the lights right out of the both of you!”
And the little sisters now knew. They sat up, looked around, and remembered all the trouble that they had brought here with them. They then humbled themselves before their big sister and this man who had knocked them out. And they apologized for what they had done to his shop door and to what they had done to her cheerleader uniform and for what they might have done to her new swimsuit. And they promised to pay for a new shop door and to pay for a new cheerleader’s outfit. And then they stood up before Flanders and Tracey. And Tasha promised, “Tracey, I will never push anything again.”
And Trisha vowed, “And I will never pull anything again.”
“I forgive you,” said Tracey, taunting in gloat no more.
“And I forgive you two, too,” said Flanders.
“I am a bad sinner,” said Tasha.
“I am a real bad sinner,” said Trisha.
“We are the worst sinners,” said both Tasha and Trisha.
Seizing the moment, the maillot maker Christian asked, “Tasha, Trisha, would you like to get saved from your sins?”
“Did you do that, Big Sister?” asked Tasha.
“Did that happen for you, Tracey?” asked Trisha.
“I did do that. That happened for me, Little Sisters,” confessed Tracey her new conversion in
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Christ.
“Then I’ll do that, too,” said Tasha.
“And don’t forget me, too,” said Trisha.
And the maillot maker went ahead and led the two little sisters to Christ the same way he had their big sister, leading the two through the sinner’s prayer both at the same time. And a little revival happened this day in this maillot maker’s little shop on the beach. And right away the three new born-again believers went out spreading the Word of God to the others here at Lake Winnebago in the water and on the land.
It was a week later now. Tracey and Flanders were on a date together on this beach outside of his Maillot Boutique. She, of course, was in her Chevron-patterned slinky maillot with its strings and hooks and eyes again. And he was in his swimsuit here with her. He said, “I feel, pretty Tracey, that my days as a maillot maker may be soon ending.”
“How come, Flanders?” she asked.
“Because of the glorious rapture of the believers,” he said in spiritual discernment of these times.
“I heard about the rapture,” she said. “Is it really going to happen. Do you think?”
“I believe that the rapture is imminent,” he said to her.
“That’s a good thing for us,” she said. “Isn’t it?”
“It is a great thing for us,” he said. “Long have I wondered what my Lord and Saviour looks like in His divine regal glory.”
“I’ve been wondering about that, too, in these first days as a believer for me,” she said.
‘That’s a good thing to wonder about,” he said. “A Christian can earn a crown of righteousness if he or she keeps thinking that way.”
“A crown?” she asked.
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“The crown given in Heaven for those believers who loved the Lord’s appearing while still on the Earth,” he explained to her.
“It must itself have a divine regal glory to it,” she said in pondering. “The crown that Jesus gives.”
“I will miss my work, though,” he said.
“You will?” she asked. “You make great one-piece swimsuits, Flanders.” In indication she put her thumb and index finger to a thick black string over her shoulder and lifted it slightly and let it back down upon her shoulder.
“That one is my masterpiece, comely Tracey,” he said about her maillot.
“Maybe you can still keep making these kinds of clothes even after the rapture, Flanders,” she said.
“A maillot maker in the holy Heaven?” he asked.
“A maillot in the holy Heaven,” she said pleasing conjectures.
“Woman, you make me feel hope,” he said.
“Maybe even a maillot woman in the holy Heaven,” she said.
“What would Jesus think?” he asked.
“Does God have a problem with my maillot down here?” asked Tracey in thoughts out loud.
“He does not,” said Flanders. “You are to me this one-piece swimsuit goddess, O Tracey.”
“Well maybe the same loving God will not have a problem with my maillot Up There when my turn comes to pass down here,” she said.
“I would be so happy if I could share Heaven with you wearing that, Girlfriend,” he said in enlightenment.
“God might not mind if I could be your ‘maillot goddess’ Up There, I would think,” said Miss Chalkey
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“You excite me, Tracey Chalkey,” he said.
“You yourself most heartily approve of us women’s one-piece swimsuits down here in the world. I can tell. You have your great little store full of them here on the beach,” she told him.
“Being a maillot maker is my ministry to God,” he proclaimed.
“Then let it be your ministry to God in Heaven to come, too,” said Miss Chalkey.
“I wonder what women’s swimwear looks like Up There,” he said.
“Whatever it will look like, it will not dishonor Heaven,” she said.
“It is written,” he began, “’The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.’ Deuteronomy 29:29.”
“We on earth do not know yet the things in Heaven,” she said, understanding his reference to this verse. And she also said about this Scripture, “The Bible does not tell us all things.”
In sum, he said, “One-piece swimsuits in Glory and my Lord’s face, those are both secret things to me that belong unto the Lord my God.”
“Does a guy down here get a crown for loving his maillots to come?” she teased in good fun.
“He he he,” laughed Flanders in sweet romance of fellowship.
“That’s a, ‘No.’ Isn’t it?” she asked in mirth.
“I am sure of that, girlfriend,” he said. They paused and looked out onto the lake of this beach.
“This Lake Winnebago may be wide and long, but it sure is shallow,” she said.
“Lake Winnebago is about seven miles wide and about twenty-eight miles long,” he told her.
“Algae,” she said.
“Yes. Lots of algae,” he agreed.
“And every year for just a while, lake flies,” she said.
“Swarms,” he said.
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“More like a plague of them,” she said.
“But they never bite,” he said.
“They’re just there,” she said. “All over.”
“And then they all go away just as quickly as they had come,” he said about the lake flies.
“The secret things belong unto the Lord thy God,” she said subtly.
“Are you asking me what I think you are?” he asked in gaiety.
“Tell me my question,” she said.
And he told her her question, “Are there lake flies in Heaven?”
And she said, “But those things which are revealed—”
At once he leaned over and gave her their first kiss, and she did not go on to finish her verse.
And she leaned over and kissed him right back for their second kiss.
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