Falling into Forever (12 page)

“Bloody Mary,” the brown-haired boy answered.

“Thank you, young man,” said Callahan. “Now does anyone else know the legend of what lies beneath Bloody Mary?”

Raising her arm eagerly, Taylor bounced in place as if she stood on a trampoline to get Callahan's attention.

“Yes, the blond lady in the back,” Callahan called to her. “You don't have to jump up and down like that. I see you. What is it that you would like to share with the class?”

“Everyone says there is buried treasure,” Taylor exclaimed. Because she was pleased to be the focus of Callahan's attention, she continued, “And the bones of whoever buried it are down there, too.”

Benjamin nudged Alexandra's shoulder to get her attention and bent to whisper a question in her ear. “Bones? As in skeletons?”

“That's what they say,” she told him, nodding.

“No way! Are you serious? What kind of treasure?” Benjamin noticed Callahan watching him and pulled his lips away from her ear.

Callahan suddenly dropped to the ground and hovered there as if he were going to do push ups. He turned his ear to the ground, listening, as his arms held his body steady above the grass. Taylor swooned in awe before he sprang back to an upright position on his feet.

“I do believe I can hear something,” Callahan declared. “Who would like to listen? Are there any volunteers?”

Taylor bounded forward, while Benjamin and Alexandra each took a step backward away from the rest of their classmates. Even so, Callahan's eyes locked on Alexandra again, and he motioned her forward to join him in front of the class.

“Stay,” a voice demanded sharply in her ear. “He may be friend or foe, but that is not for you to decide.”

“Excuse me?” Alexandra asked, turning to Benjamin.

“Huh?” he shrugged, leaning closer to her, not understanding her question.

Alexandra felt a pang in her chest and her heart fluttered.
If Ben didn't say it, then who did?
Her eyes flickered over her classmates, looking for the source of the warning.

Callahan persisted. “Please come forward, young lady.”

Alexandra shook her head no. Benjamin placed his hand on the small of Alexandra's back to urge her gently ahead. “It's okay,” he whispered. “Just do what he wants, or he won't leave you alone.”

She took one step forward toward Callahan, but before she could take another, her face slammed into what felt like an impenetrable wall, blocking her way. She hit that invisible wall and crumpled to the ground.

“Alex!” Benjamin shouted.

Taylor ran back and held her friend's limp form, cradling Alexandra's head in her lap. “Alex, what's wrong? Wake up,” she asked frantically, but there was no response.

“Get some help! Please, somebody,” Benjamin yelled.

Rushing to her side, Callahan scooped Alexandra into his arms and swept her across the quad to the administration building. Taylor and Benjamin followed close on his heels. Callahan kicked open the door and strode swiftly down the hall to the nurse's station.

In his arms, Alexandra slipped in and out of consciousness. Her body felt overcome, drowned, swallowed by a river. She struggled against the current that was sweeping her down.

Callahan laid her down gently on the exam table in Nurse Connie's tiny exam room. Nurse Connie hastily rose from the table where she had been filing student vaccination records and snacking on soda crackers.

Alexandra felt a grip tugging around her waist, pulling her to the surface. She expected that next she would see her father in his sailboat, dancing above the waves.

“We were having class by the cannons,” Taylor explained to the nurse. She pointed at the open blinds of the office window that overlooked the grassy quad and its silent guns. “Then Callahan here said that he could hear voices coming from under the ground,” Taylor continued.

Nurse Connie shot a surprised glance at Callahan. But he merely looked on, without saying anything.

“He made Alexandra come to the front of the class to listen, too, and that's when she collapsed.” Taylor breathed heavily when she finished.

“Yeah,” Benjamin added, “she went down hard right next to me.”

Resting on the table with her eyes closed, Alexandra could hear them speaking. She could not open her eyes just yet. Perhaps there would be an earthquake, so that she could fall through a crack in the earth, never to be seen again.
Please
, she thought.

“Hand me a water bottle from that small refrigerator behind you,” Nurse Connie asked, looking at Benjamin.

At that point, Alexandra heard another warning: “I am here. Stay calm now. I will not let anything hurt you.”

“Who said that?” asked Alexandra, her eyes popping open at the sound of the voice in her head. “None of you heard that?” she asked, closing her eyes again. She was slowly regaining consciousness, much to everyone's relief.

“I know you all are concerned,” said Nurse Connie, “but I need you to step outside and give her some privacy. She just needs a few minutes to calm down.” Nurse Connie held the door open and shooed them outside into the hallway.

Nurse Connie smiled at her pale patient and offered her a water bottle.

“Drink this,” she insisted. “You've let yourself become dangerously dehydrated. And when was the last time you got some sleep?” she asked, looking at the dark circles under Alexandra's eyes.

Once outside, Callahan dismissed his students for the day before he sprinted back toward the administration building.

“I'm sorry,” Alexandra said, as she poured the water down her throat.

“I want you to wait here until the final dismissal bell. Finish that bottle of water and one more before you go anywhere.” She opened the refrigerator for another water bottle and placed it beside Alexandra on the exam table.

Alexandra followed the instructions while the nurse continued her filing. The final bell of the day rang just as Alexandra finished the second bottle of water.

Alexandra loosened her collar, and a knock pounded on the door.

“She's been in here long enough,” Taylor demanded. “Did you call 9-1-1 or what, lady?” Taylor swung open the door. Alexandra slid her wobbly legs from the exam table to the floor.

“No. She's only dehydrated. She'll be fine,” Nurse Connie said.

“I'll walk you to your car,” Benjamin said, looking over Taylor's shoulder. “Let me get that,” he said, grabbing Alexandra's book bag from the floor. “I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress.”

Leaning against the wall in the hallway, Callahan waited for his students as they left Nurse Connie's office.

Looking into Alexandra's eyes, he said, “There is no homework tonight, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Benjamin smirked.

“Get some rest tonight, Miss Peyton,” Callahan told her as she shuffled past him, clinging to Benjamin's steady arm. “You'll need your strength tomorrow,” he said, winking.

“'Bye,” Taylor cooed at her new teacher. She waved as she followed her friends down the hallway and into the cloud-covered quad.

In the student parking lot, Alexandra pointed Benjamin toward her old, battered Jeep parked next to Taylor's shiny silver Mercedes. “That one,” she told Benjamin, cringing as the ripped and weathered soft top blew loosely in a gust of wind.

“That's a 1985 Jeep CJ-7,” Benjamin exclaimed, rubbing his fingers over the black bumper.

“Um, yeah,” Alexandra agreed. “It used to be my dad's.”

“I like it, very retro,” he said, seeing her blush. “We could take it camping sometime.” He handed her bag over.

“Uh, sure,” she said, fumbling for her keys inside her book bag.

“Alex, are you okay to drive? Can I give you a ride, Ben?” asked Taylor, unlocking the door of her shiny Mercedes. Easing down into the black leather seat, Taylor revved the engine and found the button to retract the convertible roof.

“I'm good to go,” promised Alexandra.

“I don't need a ride, thanks,” said Benjamin. “My driver is waiting for me.” He gallantly held Alexandra's door open for her.

“Fine,” Taylor said flatly. Punching the accelerator, she squealed backward out of her parking space.

Turning the key in the ignition, Alexandra breathed a sigh of relief and took off her blazer. “Thanks, Ben,” she said. “I'll see you tomorrow.” She looked up at him as he leaned on her window. She pulled her seatbelt around her chest.

“I like your necklace,” he said, seeing her pendant.

Glancing at her neck in the rearview mirror, Alexandra smiled. “It was a gift,” she said. She waved goodbye through her open window and backed out of her parking space.

10
Daydream

Slipping her key from the door lock, Alexandra stretched her tired legs over the threshold and kicked the door closed behind her. She dropped her book bag to the floor, turned the deadbolt, and peeked through the peephole at the empty hallway outside her apartment. Jack came up and nuzzled his cold nose against the back of her knees.

“Hi, boy. I missed you,” she said, kneeling to rub his back.

The house phone startled her. “What now?” she asked Jack as she walked to the landline on the table by the sofa. She glanced at the caller ID on the screen.

“Hi, Mom,” Alexandra answered, slumping down into the leather sofa cushions with the receiver to her ear. “Calling to check how my first day went?” she asked, kicking off her shoes.

Relieved for her to be home, Jack climbed up onto the cushion beside her and stretched his back across the sofa so that she could scratch his pink-and-white belly.

“Alex! Thank goodness you're home. The school nurse called and said you fainted during class.” Her mother's voice sounded concerned, but not yet panicked.

Exhausted, Alexandra laid herself across the sofa and yawned widely along with Jack as he snuggled close to her chest.

“I'm okay now, Mom. I think I just got overheated and I'm so tired. The nurse said I was dehydrated. I didn't sleep at all last night.”

“What am I going to do with you? You need to learn to start taking better care of yourself. I worry thinking that you'll be away at college next year.”

“You're one to talk about taking care, Mom. The walls wouldn't crumble if you left work a little early sometimes.” Alexandra didn't often mention this, because she knew that her mother's workaholic schedule had in part caused the separation with her dad. Her mom threw herself into long hours at work, hoping to become a lead investigator at the Centers for Disease Control.

“Point taken, young lady,” her mom acceded. “As a matter of fact, I was planning on leaving early today. Do you want me to stop for some chicken lo mein on my way home?”

“I'd like that. See you soon, then.”

“Okay. You got it.”

“Bye, Mom. Be careful.”

“Bye . . . Oh, Alex, I almost forgot to tell you. Your Granny June has left ten messages on my cell phone that she needs to speak with you as soon as possible. You should call her, okay?”

“Yes, Mom, I will.”

“Okay, then. 'Bye, sweetheart.”

“'Bye, Mom.”

Alexandra disconnected the line and put the receiver down on the coffee table. The throbbing pain in her head had returned. But as she laid her head down on a soft, chenille pillow, she drifted into an uneasy sleep on the sofa with Jack.

But Jack abandoned her on the sofa when he saw a small visitor land on the apartment balcony. Watching through the sliding glass doors, Jack growled low while a bluebird rested on the railing.

Tossing restlessly on the couch, Alexandra's dream returned her to the cemetery wall tucked behind Collinsworth. Out there, in the dying light of a setting sun, pelting rain burned her skin like drops of liquid fire. The stacked stones beneath her feet became slippery as she navigated her path atop the cemetery's perimeter wall. Snakes waited below, ready to devour her flesh if she should take a misstep and fall. The rain pounded on her body, and the snakes hissed in her ears. She finally slipped on the stones.

She held her breath in anticipation of her bones crushing against the earth. She thought that what was coming next would be the piercing slice of fangs into her skin. Helpless, she waited for the pain that never came.

Instead, two powerful arms gripped her. A heavy cloak seemed to cover her body from the rain. She was brought close to the stranger's heaving chest. She pushed away slightly to look at her savior. What she had mistaken for a cloak was actually a pair of magnificent wings, extending from his back. She tried to gauge the incomprehensible creature in front of her eyes. Her legs slipped again from beneath her, and foggy darkness descended around her.

By this time, the bluebird perched on the balcony railing spied Jack through the glass, and she taunted him with her boldness. He barked fiercely, pounding the door with his front paws.

The noise led to Alexandra's rolling off the sofa. Groggy and disoriented, she pulled herself to her knees. “What's your problem, Jack?” she asked him, rubbing her forehead before she rose clumsily to her feet.

Noticing the tiny, blue visitor, she said wearily to Jack, “It's just a stupid bird.” Dragging herself to the glass door, she stared at the balcony. “See that? It's leaving now. You probably scared it to death.” But then she saw that the bird dropped a string from its beak before it flew hastily into the sky.

Alexandra slid open the door. A thin, black snake writhed on the cement.

“Gross,” she squealed and stepped backward while Jack sniffed the reptile. “Put that thing down, Jack!” she yelled at the dog. Grunting at her, he picked the snake up in his mouth and vigorously shook it side to side.

“Drop it!” she commanded again. Whining, he let the dead snake fall from his jaws. Sniffing at the body, Jack pushed it around with his nose until Alexandra nudged the bulldog back inside the apartment with a newspaper she had found on the coffee table.