It's Bliss (23 page)

When she was sure he’d had time to walk down the driveway and on toward his car, she crawled through the shrubbery past Billie’s window, and almost fell through the bushes, trying to get out. Getting up, she ran down the driveway, stopping only long enough to make sure Dr. Ackerman was driving off. Crossing the street, she ran up the walk a short way and stopped. Jumping up and down, she gasped, shuddered, and clawed frantically at the ants which were now inside her cut-offs and up under her T-shirt! She ran on to her car, got in, and turned the key before the door was even closed. The faithful old motor came to life. Shoving it into gear, she made a U-turn and headed toward the corner just as another car was turning the same corner. Brakes squealed, but Lora, half-blinded by tears, ignored the frightened driver, turned right, and sped toward home The car wove erratically as she wiggled, gasped, and bawled.

A police siren screamed behind her. Looking into the rear-view mirror, she saw the blue and red lights whirling in a watery blur. “Oh no! I hope it isn’t Officer Bates,” she wailed, as she pulled the car over to the side.

Arly Bates couldn’t believe his eyes. Surely, this wasn’t Miss Lora Lemmon again! Getting out of his car, he walked up to the open window and peered in and saw a woman, her hands covering her face, peeking through her fingers.

“
Not you! Oh darn!” came the muffled cry behind them.

“
Is that you, Miss Lemmon?”

“
It is!” she moaned, removing her hands, “and I have ants inside my clothes,” she gasped, “I gotta get home fast!”

“
Miss Lemmon, I almost ran into you broadside as I turned the corner!”

he exclaimed angrily.

“
That was you?”

“
That was me. Don’t tell me you sat on another anthill?”

“
No, it . . . it was the same one,” she whimpered..

The flustered young officer didn’t know what to do differently, other than what he did the last time. “Follow me, I’ll lead you home again. But we’re going to have to have a talk, Miss Lemmon.”

“
Th-thank you, Officer Bates.”

-

Ella Lemmon was feeling out of sorts with her daughter. She hardly ever saw her. Lately, she was in and out of the house acting quite mysteriously, and here it was after ten and she wasn’t home yet.

The siren she heard off in the distance was getting closer and louder. She stepped out onto the front porch and saw a police car speeding down the road. Her eyes widened in disbelief. It looked like Lora following!

“
Not again! Stupid girl.”

Sunday afternoon, Lora stood before the bathroom mirror, sniffling and talking to herself, as she examined all the new ant bites which stood out glaringly on her face and neck. She had already dabbed medicine on her arms, legs, stomach, and as many bites as she could reach on her back.

“
I should get something out of this! First, I nearly die of ant bites, and then I nearly die from embarrassment when Officer Bates stopped me again. Ohh,” she whined. Her mouth compressed and lips pulled down in sudden petulance.

“
I should get something out of this. Yes! I
should
.” What she had seen last night through Billie’s window suddenly brought her to a decision, or at least the beginning of one. She smiled at her pathetic reflection, as she thought about it.

“
Yes. I’m going to go see Billie Bliss tonight. Tonight is the night.”

She waited until 8:00 and told her mother she would be back in about an hour.

“
Are you going out in public looking like that?” her mother asked, aghast.

“
Yes, Ma. See you later.”

Lora pulled her car into Billie’s driveway and parked. No more hiding in the bushes! She sat there a moment, feeling her bravado ebb away, but one look in the mirror immediately brought it back.

She knocked confidently on Billie’s door. When Billie opened it and saw Lora’s condition, her sympathy was so sincere, Lora felt a wave of guilt.

“
Oh my, Lora, did you get stung by ants again?”

“
Yes.”

“
Come in and tell me about it.”

“
Thank you,” Lora mumbled.

“
Please have a seat. Can I get you a cold drink of juice?”

Lora sat down heavily as a lump of clay. “No thanks,” she mumbled again.

Billie sat at the table across from her. “How did it happen? Did it happen in as funny a way as last time?”

“
Funny? I almost died of humiliation!”

Billie’s eyes were wide with curiosity. “Tell me about it.”

Lora told her the whole story except
where
she got the bites. Billie reacted to every part of the story in a most satisfying way, oohing and gasping in the appropriate places. Lora found great relish in the telling of it.

“
Oh no, not Officer Bates again!” Billie exclaimed her hands over her mouth in horror.

Lora was so caught up with it, she forgot why she had come. Billie started giggling, then Lora joined in, and soon both were laughing so hard tears were running down their cheeks. When they gained control, Lora remembered something.

“
I forgot to tell you. Officer Bates gave me a good talking to. He said that he should give me a ticket for the reckless U-turn, but since I was suffering with ants still inside my clothes, he would let it go this time. He then told me that if he ever caught me getting bitten again, he’d throw me in jail just to protect me.”

Billie’s mouth dropped open, then they burst out laughing again.

When they finally settled down, Billie said, “Officer Bates sounds like such a nice man.”

“
Yes,” she sighed “and he’s so-o good-looking.”

“
But you left something out, Lora. Where did you get stung? And why did you let it happen twice?”

Lora’s heart sank. Could she go through with this? Billie was turning out to be a friend.

“
What’s the matter, Lora?”

“
Uh . . . uh, you’re going to hate me, Billie, but I just have to tell you after all I’ve gone through. I . . . I got stung by the ants in the bushes—right across from your window.”

Billie looked blank. “In the bushes outside? In my backyard?”

“
Yes. I sat on an anthill in the bushes while . . . while watching you and Dr. Ackerman hug each other Saturday night.”

Billie was so dumbfounded, she could only stare at Lora.

“
And what’s more, I’ve uh, been following you and Dr. Ackerman,” she blurted out.

Billie’s head snapped back as though Lora had struck her. “Why?”

“
Because I was in the video store when he was renting some steamy movies and I just put two and two together.”

Billie was horrified. “Oh no, Lora, that was a mistake. He doesn’t know anything about the movies today. So he unknowingly rented something inappropriate. He had no idea what he was actually getting.”

“
Well, is a professor supposed to be hugging his student like I saw Dr. Ackerman hugging you Saturday night?”

“
It wasn’t what it looked like, Lora.”

“
Uh, what do you think Dean Atwood would do if I told him?”

“
Billie struggled in sudden shock. She could see how Dodd’s actions might appear to others in their small community. A sudden protective wave swept over her. “Lora! You wouldn’t.”

“
I might, unless—”

“
Lora are you . . . blackmailing me?”

“
No. Well, I think so—sort of.”

“
What do you want from me?”

“
I . . . don’t know exactly,” she said, her face puckering up, on the verge of tears. “I just . . . just want to get out of my situation, and you, Billie, have so much.”

“
And you think this is the right way to get what you want?”

“
No, but . . .”

“
Lora, I want you to leave right now. I have to think about this. I’ll talk to you another time, and don’t you dare do anything until I talk to you again.

Do you understand, Lora?”

“
Yes,” she said in a small dismal voice. She got up, walked to the door, and went out, feeling totally despondent. This wasn’t the way she expected to feel—but then, she wasn’t used to being a criminal.

Billie walked back and forth, her feelings ricocheting from anger toward Lora, to a desire to protect Dodds at any cost. At the same time, she could not quite believe Lora could really do this kind of thing. Stopping abruptly, she ran outside across the small lawn to the bushes and looked in. Sure enough there was what was left of the anthill and ants were swarming around, trying to rebuild their home. The evidence was there, but she wondered—would Lora really do what she had hinted? She walked slowly back to the porch and sat down on the steps. For some reason, Billie didn’t believe she really would, but could she take a chance? What was she going to do?

The evening was turning into a soft, muted twilight, casting golden hues upon the bushes—Lora’s hiding place. As Billie breathed in deeply several times, the sweet-smelling air acted to calm her frazzled emotions momentarily, but soon she covered her face and muttered, “What shall I do? What shall I do? I need Dodds.” She needed his strong, protecting arms around her as they had been last night.

How she had needed those embraces and the hope that came with them—the hope that he might feel about her the way she felt about him.

It took going out with Paul Atwood to help her focus on and understand all the strange emotions she had been feeling lately when she was with her professor. All she could do those four days with Paul, was compare him to Dodds, and as nice as Paul was, he always fell short. For the first time, she acknowledged to herself the true depths of her feelings for Dodds.

And what Mr. Sheldon Dodds Ackerman didn’t know, she thought ruefully, was her tears last night were more over the fear that he might not feel as she did. When he held her again, her hopes had soared.

She sat on the steps until long after dark, thinking. At last, she realized what she needed to do, what she
had
to do. Now, any hopes she had of something growing between her and Dodds were gone, dashed by Lora Lemmon.

At 9:00 Monday morning, Billie walked into the enrollment office of Fairfield University and formally dropped out of school.

She entered the 280 class at nine-fifty to attend for the last time. Noticing a group of girls gathering around Lora, she stopped by the group momentarily and peered in. Lora, who had begun telling the story of the second set of ant bites, became tongue-tied when she glimpsed Billie’s face. Billie glared at her a moment, then turned and walked to her seat.

“
Go on, go on!” begged the girls.

Lora’s muteness soon passed. Caught up in all the attention, she told the story in dramatic detail, creating in her audience the gamut of emotions from horror to laughter.

This is how Dr. Ackerman found his class, all huddled around Lora Lemmon, but with Billie off by herself. This caused him a moment of reflection.

“
Will you please all take your seats? It’s time for class to start,” he said in a voice loud enough to be heard above the commotion.

As the group dispersed, he saw Miss Lemmon, looking flushed and excited, her face and arms covered with a new set of red bumps.

“
Miss Lemmon, will you please come up to my desk?”

“
Y-yes Dr. Ackerman.”

He studied her a moment and lowered his voice. “Don’t tell me that those are more ant bites.”

“
They are, Dr. Ackerman.”

“
Don’t tell me you sat in another anthill.”

“
No, Dr. Ackerman, not another one—the same one.”

“
The same one! Good grief girl, how come?”

Lora Lemmon, stuttered, shrugged her shoulders, and turned as red as a pie cherry.

He studied her, trying to fathom this ridiculous girl and her actions. Still smoldering over the incident in the video store, his jaw tightened. Through clenched teeth he said, “Please return to your seat.”

Turning his attention to the class, he saw Bliss gazing at him intently.

Their eyes locked. Something was wrong. He cleared his throat and began his lecture.

The minute class was over, Billie got up, the first to leave the room.

Stepping quickly over to Dr. Ackerman’s office, she shoved an envelope under the door, walked rapidly out of the building, got into her car, and headed toward her parents’ home.

Sheldon felt great consternation over Bliss leaving so quickly, not even glancing in his direction. He wanted to talk to her.

When he unlocked his office door, he noticed the envelope. He picked it up and saw his name printed on the front. Puzzled, he walked around and sat down at his desk, opened it, and looked at the signature. It was from Bliss! He began reading:

“
Dear Dr. Ackerman,” He frowned. Why the formality? he wondered. She was the one who wanted to drop the formality between them. He read on: