Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy) (6 page)

After telling her dad what they had worked out, her dad had t
ears in his eyes. “I don’t know how to thank you enough, Jeremy. You just took a burden of my chest. When my Nora gets an idea in her head, she will find a way to accomplish it even if she hammers every finger on her hand.” He put his arm around Nora fondly.

Jeremy reached over and flicked up her nose with his finger fondly.

“Jeremy!” Nora yelled.
He can be so sweet and then he acts like the old Jeremy, a moron!

He winked at her then turned to her dad who motioned him to the kitchen table to do some serious
planning for the tree house.

Nora decided she they didn
’t need her anymore so she sat down by her mom on the porch swing. “Well, what do you think?”

“
I really like your ideas and Jeremy taking the lead in building this tree house is an answer to prayer.” She touched Nora’s hand. “It is amazing how problems just seem to work out.”

“
Yeah,” Nora sighed thinking out loud. “Jeremy said he wanted Danny to help because he and his dad built a tree house when he was little and it meant so much to him.”

“
He seems like such a nice young man.”

“
Mom, he is so kind and so sweet, and then he does something that makes me want to yell at him and call him a moron. What do you do with a guy like that?”

“
Well, just what I did with your dad. It doesn’t matter what the problem is in a relationship, it always takes lots of time and patience. If you really care about him you learn to work your problems out, otherwise it doesn’t really matter and you let the relationship go.”

Jeremy felt stunned as he sat
at the kitchen table. The window was open and Nora and her mother’s voice carried just enough that Jeremy could hear what they said to one another. He realized he had offended Nora again.

Soon he and her dad had completed their list of needed supplies. Jer
emy went to the porch and asked Nora, “Will you walk with me for a ways?”

After they strolled down the sidewalk for a block, Jeremy turned to her with a serious expression, “
Nora, I’m sorry if I offended you. It seems that I’m always doing the wrong thing.”

“
Jeremy, I do like you most of the time and enjoy being around you. It’s just sometimes I don’t know how to take you. Sometimes you embarrass me like flipping my nose. I’m not two years old. I don’t like that.”

“
Thanks for being honest with me. I want us to get to know each other better. I really do care about you and I want for you to care about me.”

She smiled and put her hand out, “
Deal?”

He laughed and shook her hand, “
Deal!”

Knowing that the last time he touched her was when she was offended, he gav
e in to his impulse, “I can’t help myself, I’m going to cheat now,” he put his arms around her and gave her a hug.

“
Jeremy Littlefield, you are incorrigible,” she teased.

“
Now, you are beginning to understand me.” He patted her cheek, and as he walked away toward home he sang out, “See you Saturday morning.”

After breakfast Nora pulled on her work clothes to clean the back yard, before she got out the back door
Aunt Betty Johnson phoned to tell them that Jordan was sick. His temperature was up and she was really worried about him. Laura asked if she wanted her to come out to her house. Aunt Betty said, not unless he gets worse. She just wanted to let them know.

That put a damper on everybody
’s day.

Nora piled all she could get onto the pickup and then they
took it out of town and dumped it where it could be burned. When she got back she began raking the corner of the yard where she had cleaned. She stood back and looked at it for a minute and then she went to get her mom.

“
What do you think about another flower garden here?” Nora asked standing with one hand across her mouth and her elbow propped in her other hand as they looked at the bare ground.

“
Well, why not? It sounds like a good idea to me.”

Nora and her mom laughed conspiratorially together. “
Yes! Let’s go buy flowers!”

By the time Jeremy and the crew got there Saturday morning
, Nora and Laura almost had the flower bed finished. Marigolds, periwinkles, asters and an assortment of other annuals filled in the corner with the edge shaped as an arch. In the back corner they had placed a big pot of hibiscus displaying big beautiful orange flowers.

Jeremy complimented Nora on her flower bed. “
It’s beautiful. The flowers you selected will give you an array of color until frost.”

Puzzled, Nora frowned at him, “
Where did you learn to talk like that?”

“
Oh,” Jeremy shook his head as if to clear it. “My mother owns a flower shop. I’ve helped her more than is good for me.”

“
You surprise me with something every time I see you.”

“
I am a fascination person, aren’t I?” he clicked his heels together and blew her a kiss.

She rolled her eyes and went in the house to make lemonade.

At lunch the tree house crew went to the Dairy Mart to eat their lunch and took Danny with them. He could not have felt any more important to be treated like the rest of the workers. When they came back Nora said to her mom, “Look at Danny walk. He is strutting trying to take big steps like them.”

Aunt Betty called again saying that Jordan was worse and that she was taking him to the emergency room.

John and Laura agreed that Nora should stay home with Danny and they would go to meet Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob at the hospital. Jordan’s fever went very high so until they found out something they intended to stay and support them. It was agreed that the tree house crew wouldn’t be there much longer and it was okay for them to stay, since they trusted Jeremy.

Tears sprang to Nora
’s eyes. Here she was planting flowers and building tree houses when Jordan and her dad were both sick and she wasn’t studying or even trying to do anything for them. She felt so guilty.

This was the first time in her life that she could remember when she had loafed around and not contributed her efforts to help her family. As soon as she could she would find a way.

Before bed time for Nora and Danny, her parents came home. The diagnosis was that Jordan had double pneumonia caused from complications resulting from his polio. They had given him doses of penicillin but he would be in the hospital for a few days.

Nora again
resolved in her heart that she would find a way to go to that doctor’s school that Mrs. Jenkins told her about. She would put every effort to see that she was accepted for scholarships.

Jeremy came back with his crew the next Saturday morning to finish th
e tree house.

Nora came out to work on her flower garden she had built. “
Hi, everybody. It looks like you’ll easily finish the tree house today.”

There were nods and waves from Jeremy
’s friends. Jeremy gave a big whistle loud enough to hear for two blocks. “Hi, Sweetheart. I’m so glad you came out to see me.”

Nora gave him a sideways look and decided to ignore the blush she felt. “
Actually, I came out to work in my flower garden,” she sort of lied, because she did really want to see him again.

Jeremy came o
ver to her and put his arm around her shoulder and steered her to the flower garden. “See in the middle where you haven’t put in any flowers?”

She nodded.

“What have you decided to put in that area?”

She shrugged her shoulders, “
Nothing yet.”

“
I have an idea,” he began getting excited about his idea. “You know, sometimes people contract my mom’s flower shop to do a little landscaping. Sometimes they need to have things removed before the flowers can be planted.”

She stood there puzzled.
Where was he going with this story?

“
What I’m trying to say is that if I poured a small concrete patio in the middle of your flowerbed, I could set the bench we had given to us right there on that patio.”

He looked at her to see if she was appreciating his idea. “
It’s a decorative concrete bench that some people that we did some work for didn’t want. They asked us to take it away. It’s free. Will not cost you a dime.”

She began to think that this might be doable.

He saw a flicker of acceptance, so he proceeded to plead his case. “Remember one time you told me about how you used to sit out on a rock to think and rest?”

She nodded.

“Nora, say something to me,” he snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Do we have a deal?”

Nora smiled and held out her hand, “
Deal.”

“
Whew!” he exclaimed wiping his brow, “that was hard work.”

“
Jeremy, you may be a lawyer yet,” she smiled.

“
Oh, God forbid,” he laughed before running back to help finish the tree house.

Chapter Six

Nora and Danny rode their bikes when school started. It felt so different to sleep two hours later and leave for school when they were ready rather than rushing to meet the bus. Nora was going into her senior year and Danny was starting fourth grade. They had more new clothes for school than they ever had. Nora felt more confident that she could hold her head up and be more like the rest of her school mates this year.

After moving to town Danny made so many friends as he rode his bike up and down the street, he waved to almost every kid he s
aw as if they were his best friend. He wanted to get into junior football and baseball.

Nora, on the other hand, worked on her own little projects all summer and came to school with the purpose to study and make perfect grades.

She expected to see Jeremy pop in front her face at any moment. They had come to an understanding during the summer, she now felt comfortable around him--most of the time. At this point, well maybe, apprehensive was what she felt about him. At her house he was fairly predictable but at school, would he revert back to simply annoying her? Well, Jeremy, she knew could be a problem but she refused, she told herself, to spend that much time thinking of him.

Her morning classes filled Nora
’s thoughts as she placed her lunch tray on the table in the school cafeteria.

“
Hi,” Jeremy interrupted her thoughts, “how are your classes this semester? Do you mind if I sit with you?”

“
Hi, Jeremy, sure you can sit with me. We still have our deal? Right?”

“
Sweetheart, you are my deal!” He said with a cocky grin. “I promised not to sing ‘Elenora’. Was that our deal? I’m having a hard time remembering,” he said looking up and tapping a finger on his bottom lip.

“
Jeremy! Don’t start with me!” she chastised him as if he were Danny. She caught herself and pleaded, “Please, don’t start embarrassing me.”

“
I promise I won’t sing ‘Elenora’ and I won’t kiss you in the halls and get us sent to the Principal’s office. How’s that for good promises?”

She let out a big sigh and rolled her eyes, “
It’ll do for now. Back to your other question, I have a good lineup of classes, I think. I’m taking Trigonometry, English, World History, Chemistry, Library, and Spanish.”

“
Wow!” Jeremy exclaimed. “Those are heavy classes. Is study your middle name?”

“
I have to learn all I can, Jeremy,” she hung her head with responsibility. She looked up at him, “I need to take care of my family.”

Jeremy frowned trying to understand her why she felt this responsibility so strongly. “
I don’t understand.”

“
My dad’s heart is so weak that the doctors told him he wouldn’t live long. My little cousin Jordan has polio. He went into pneumonia so badly this summer he almost died. I have to do something.”

“
Nora,” Jeremy shook his head and held out his hands. “Why are you feeling that you are the one responsible?”

“
Who else in my family can go to the doctor’s school to learn how to help them?” she earnestly implored. “Danny’s too young, there’s nobody else, just me.”

Jeremy saw the sincerity in her eyes. He recognized the dedication and determination that sh
e had.
You know
, he thought
, I believe I now am beginning to understand what makes you tick.

“
Nora, you surprise me. You don’t have to take all this on your shoulders, yet you do. I admire and respect you. If ever you need a study partner and you feel that I can help you, please let me know.”