Heart and Home (15 page)

“So, what do you say?”

Anything to keep the night
going forever, I thought. It actually took me a moment to catch my breath again
to speak. “Lead the way, Prince Charming.”
 

Troy opened the truck door
for me and then closed me inside before walking around to climb in himself.
While waiting for it to warm up, he adjusted the heating controls and the
radio. A few minutes later, we were back on the road and headed toward
Sonesville. Even in the dark the landscape of our route was more familiar than
ever as I thought about how many times one of my parents ran Erika and me back
and forth from the mall or the old movie theatre on that road. Strange how that
simple familiarity made riding home with Troy feel right.

“So,” I pulled the bulk of
my jacket closer to my body, “where is this top secret location you’re taking
me?” The heat had yet to move through the cab of the truck, but I could feel it
edging closer as it the blower tossed around a crucifix pendant hanging from
the rearview mirror.

“It wouldn’t be a secret if
I told, now would it?”

I pinched my lips and
scowled at him in the dark. “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”

The soft response of his
laughter altered my scowl to a grin, and I momentarily eyed the seat I’d
occupied snugly beside him the night before. After the amazing first kiss we’d
just shared, all I could think about was getting close enough to him to do it
again and again. I hadn’t been physically or emotionally close to anyone in so
long that underlying my mixed emotions was a deep yearning to just give in. It
was like a little voice on my shoulder whispering against everything I fought
against all week.

Get close, it said, enjoy
the moment and worry about the consequences come morning.

He took the turn just before
Sonesville and as the brittle, tan stalks of corn began to rise on both sides
of the road I realized we were heading toward his family’s farm.

“Now you gotta promise you
won’t tell a single soul where I took you tonight,” he glanced across the truck,
a mischievous grin already playing in the dark. “Not even Becky.”

“Scouts honor,” I held my
right hand up, three fingers raised in the Girl Scout promise. “Though Becky
has this way about her.”

“She does, does she?”

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a
wonderful thing, but if Becky wants to know something, I’m just saying…”

Troy chuckled and shook his
head, “You’ll have to work extra hard to keep this one from her.”

“I’ll do my best,” I
promised.

We’d been driving for about
five minutes before he finally turned left into an off-road marked by large
signs that read “Haunted Hayride.” The truck bounced over terrain clearly meant
for a tractor or some heavier machine. “It’ll probably be a little bumpy,” he
warned. “You might want to grab onto the panic handle.”

I reached up and gripped the
leather hanger handle above my door, “My dad always called that the oh-shit
bar.”

“That’s a good one,” he
laughed. “I’ll have to remember that. Now, hold on tight because this next
stretch is pretty bad.”

The truck jerked and creaked
like old box-springs as he navigated through the ruts in the path. “We’re
bringing stones out tomorrow to fill in these holes.” He said and then with a
great deal of pride he added, “We were out here nearly every night these last
few weeks trying to make this thing perfect for the kids.”

“We?”

“Oh, the guys in the fire
department asked if I’d let them use the farm, but I only agreed if they’d let
me help out with some of the exhibits.” We bounded over several ruts, and with
every leap I felt light with laughter. “We’re coming up on the first section
now. It’ll be on the right.”

I turned into my window and
watched the bare and skeletal trees scrape against the starlit sky. The silver
moon crawled out from behind a thick patch of clouds to illuminate a staged
section of the field.

“You’ll probably be able to
see it better if you roll the window down,” and before he could finish saying
something about it being too cold I rolled the window down and leaned out to
take in the spooky scene.

“Is that a band?”

“They’re hooked up to
strings, and there will be music playing, like the “Monster Mash” and
“Werewolves of London”. There’ll be lights, and it’ll actually look like
they’re playing a live show, at least to kids anyway.”

“Wow,” I sat back in my
seat, but kept the window down as he moved forward. The cold air felt good
against my face, which felt hot ever since he’d kissed me in the parking lot.
“You guys really went all out.”

“It looks much cooler in
action.”

“It’s still pretty cool!”

“Well, the next scene we’re
coming up on will have live actors. It’s supposed to be a scene from the ‘Devil
and Daniel Webster’,” he explained. “You have to imagine that there’s a
storyteller in the back setting you up for the scene.” He slowed the truck to a
stop in front of a clearing in the corn on the left side of the path and rolled
down his own window. A gust of cold air shot across the seat and I drew my
jacket closer. “Right now there’s only the set-up, but the scene is amazing.”

“Lean back,” I said,
straining to make out the scene.

Even after he leaned back in
the seat, I had a hard time taking in the scene, so I unbuckled my seatbelt and
crawled across the seat. I surprised even myself when I fell across the space
between him and the steering wheel to hang out his window. The stage was
carefully crafted, and I wondered who would be acting out the parts of Daniel
Webster and Old Scratch.

“Why didn’t anyone ever do
anything this cool when we were kids?” I drew myself back into the truck and
paused on my knees right beside him.

He searched my face in the
dashboard light. “It gets cooler,” he said.

“I can’t wait.” I settled
back into the seat, but didn’t bother with my seatbelt as he crawled toward the
next exhibit.

“At this point, we’re coming
up on the Van Tassel party just as Ichabod Crane is leaving. We have a headless
horseman that will come galloping up alongside the hayride with a flaming
pumpkin in his hands. Ichabod will start to run with the horseman following,
and just when they’re far enough for him to disappear in the shadows the
horseman drops the pumpkin and rides off, leaving Ichabod’s fate to the
imagination.”

On the right-hand side of
the path was a third clearing, this time a carefully crafted house had been
painted so that in the lights one would see a party within. “Wow,” I marveled.
“When are you giving the rides?”

“This Friday and Saturday
and the next.”

“Oh good,” I said. “I’d like
to come and see it live.”

“I’d like you to.”

He drove toward the fourth
and final featured spot in the hayride and put the truck in park. “This last
one is as silly as the first, but a lot of fun.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing right now except a
car underneath the sycamore tree, but it’s the entire Front Street Dance Group
performing the dance from
Thriller
.
They have the whole date scene planned out and everything.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh yeah,” there was
excitement in is nod. “They’re all dressed up like zombies. It’s really great.
The kids are gonna love it.”

“It sounds like it’s going
to be a lot of fun, and you can definitely see you guys put heart and soul into
the entire thing.”

A modest shrug followed my
compliment. “I always thought that the activities for kids around here could
have been better when we were growing up.”

“Definitely,” I agreed. I
looked out into the field that hunkered in on us from both sides. I couldn’t
help the leap of claustrophobia that haunted my memory when I thought about my
dream from that morning of being lost in the middle of a cornfield. There’d
been something else about that dream as well, but try as I might I couldn’t put
my finger on it.

Troy’s voice cut through the
thoughts that carried me away, and brought me back to the moment. “So you think
you’ll come out?”

“Sure, I’d like to,” I
nodded. “I’m not leaving until Sunday. Maybe I’ll come over with Becky and her
kids or something”

“Cool.”

With both of our windows
open the air in the cab of the truck was chilly, but it felt good. The sharp
smell of dried leaves, feed corn and damp earth filled me with every breath.
“So, what’s it like being back here again after all those years away?”

I returned to my side of the
truck, but was still unrestrained so I turned in the seat and crossed my legs
casually inside my skirt so I could face him. “Weird,” I admitted. “And nothing
like I remember.”

“Eight years is a long time
for a place to change.”

“Yeah, it is.” Everything
changed, I noted silently. Not just the place, but the people as well, and
sometimes it all interfered with my earlier perceptions and made my mind feel a
little foggy. “It’s like ever since my mom died I’ve been walking around in
this weird dream where nothing I remember is really how it seemed.”

He nodded, his stare
frontward and distant. “Time shifts perspective.”

“True,” I couldn’t take my
eyes off of him, the green light from the dash playing on the intense
silver-blue of his eyes. “And then what about me being here after all those
years?” I wondered. “How has that affected other people and their own
perspectives?”

“I, for one, never thought
you’d come back to this place,” he admitted, slowly turning his gaze toward
mine. “When I saw you the day after your mom passed I couldn’t believe it was
really you. If the circumstances hadn’t been so bleak, I don’t know, I’d say it
was like you walked right out of a dream I’d been trying to remember for a long
time with no luck.”

I tilted my head back and
shook it just a little. “I don’t understand.”

“Well, that part of me that
liked you in high school fell dormant after I went off to college, and then you
went off to college, and I didn’t really think about you much after that.” His
right hand curled around the curve of the steering wheel. “After I came back
here, I always made it a point to ask your mom how you were, but never seeing
you… I don’t know how to explain it.” He paused, that hand tightening as it
squeezed the smooth surface, and then relaxing again just before he lowered it
to the seat. “It was like you didn’t really exist, almost. Like maybe I’d made
you up in my head, so when I saw you again after all that time, it was like a
dream.”

God, those words crawled
inside me, melting every part of me like warm butter. “Troy, I honestly don’t
know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say
anything,” he said.

I reached over and took his
hand inside mine, my fingers tracing the back of his knuckles before turning it
palm-side up and learning every crack and crevice in his skin. “This is
probably gonna sound real sick, but even after she died, I just wanted to get
it all over with and get the hell out of here again,” I admitted. “But then
something started to change the day of her funeral. I don’t know if maybe I hit
my head when I fainted…” I stopped for a moment to try and put my thoughts into
words. “I started to see everything differently. All those people loved and
adored my mom, and I felt like they all knew her better than I did, and then
there was Becky and you.”

“I didn’t set out to try and
change your perspective.” He curled his fingers in around mine. “I just wanted
you to know you aren’t alone during what has probably been one of the hardest
times in your life.”

My eyes stung a little from
the truth of that emotion. “Thank you for that,” I said. “I mean it.”

Night air filled the cab of
the truck, and though I was grateful for how fresh and real it was, I couldn’t
help but shiver a little inside my jacket. Instinctively he moved to roll up
his window, and I did the same. As I returned to my cross-legged position
facing him, all I could think about was how much I wanted him to kiss me again
and warm me in his arms. I wondered if he would smell as wonderful as he had
while we were dancing the night before.

“Janice, I know you’re going
back to the city on Sunday,” he started. “And I know this is probably something
crazy I shouldn’t even ask, but I don’t want to even think about you leaving
right now.”

I lifted my hand against his
cheek, and while I expected the stubble to feel rough to the touch, it was
surprisingly soft. My fingers moved toward his temple and without thinking I
tucked his hair behind his ear, never taking my eyes from his face. “You could
probably ask me anything right now and I’d say yes.”

He closed his eyes and
pressed his cheek against my palm. Lifting his fingers to curl around mine, his
mouth landed a strand of gentle kisses along my fingers. “When you go back to
Pittsburgh, promise you won’t forget all about us again.”

“That’s not too much to
ask,” I said.

I closed my eyes and leaned
inward and up just enough that I was able to press my own cheek against his. I
moved in closer and kissed the sensitive skin just beside his ear before
drawing my lips in toward his. He was waiting for me, and lifted his hand into
my hair, tangling fingers in and pulling me closer with such intensity that I
felt my own desire tingling in the center of my body. I lifted my leg up over
his lap so we could move face to face. With one hand pressed firm against the
small of my back, the other still caught up in my hair, he drew my head back
while lowering his mouth down into my neck. The sigh that escaped me gave away
my weakness, inspiring him to take advantage and explore the other side.