Tempus (18 page)

Back in my room, something suddenly occurred to me.  “My dad had him fill out an application, I think.  It will have his social security number and drivers license.  Maybe even his middle name.”

“True, true!”  Said Julie, “There will have to be something there we can use.”  

I yawned unexpectedly.  I felt totally drained, and wanted a nap so bad I hurt.  I told Julie I needed to lay down for just a little while.  At first she seemed worried, and asked if she should call my dad.  I reassured her, told her I was fine, but just felt exhausted.  I told her she didn’t have to stay, but she insisted.

“Hey, you take a nap, and I’ll get on the computer, see if I can come up with anything.”

“Yeah, sure.  Go ahead.”  I lay down on my bed, pulled one pillow over to hug, and promptly fell asleep.

“Sweetheart.”  It was Dad’s voice.  “
Sweetheart
, wake up.”

I opened my eyes and blinked.  My dad was standing in my room, and it was nearing dark.  “Am I awake?”  I asked.

Dad laughed.  “You are now, a little.  How do you feel?”

I yawned, “Sleepy.”

“Before you go back to sleep, there’s a couple of things.  I got you a hamburger if you’re hungry.”  I shook my head no, emphatically.  “You should give Steve a call, he is worried to death.”

“I can do that.  Soon as I wake up.”  I yawned again, deeply, filling my lungs.

“There’s one other thing.”  Said Dad.

Since he didn’t continue, I prompted him.  “What other thing?”

He reached down beside the bed and pulled up a small vase of flowers.  Amaryllis, anemone, and hyacinth with sprigs of heather.  “Oh, thank you, they’re beautiful!”  I exclaimed as I took them.

“They’re not from me.”  He said.

“Oh. 
Oh
!  I have to call...”

“They’re not from Steve, either.”  Dad interrupted.  I drew my eyebrows together.  “They’re from Gabriel.  He brought them by the store when I was closing and asked me to give them to you.  He said he was sorry you were ill.  There’s a card.  I didn’t read it.”  He stood up.

“Okay, well, tell him thank you next time you see him.  It was thoughtful.”  I sniffed the flowers, eyebrows still drawn together.

“If you need anything, let me know.  I’ll let you sleep.  I love you sweetheart.”

“Love you too, Dad.”  I was still sniffing the flowers, wondering what was going on.

After Dad left, I found the little envelope and pulled out the card.  It was handwritten, and there was something familiar about the writing.

Dearest Jessie,

You are in my thoughts, Recover quickly,

Your Servant,

Gabriel

The writing was beautiful, and I knew I recognized it!  I jerked the notebook from under my pillow, flipped quickly to the list, and looked at the words that had been erased. 
It was the same writing
!  I wanted to show it to Julie, but I couldn’t.  Oh yes I
could
!  I ripped the page out, stuffing the notebook back under the pillow.

My portrait!  Where had Julie put it?  I dialed her number and tried not to shout when she answered, “Julie!  Where is my portrait and I have to send you something!”

“Hey Jessie.  Um, the portrait is in the roll-top.  What are you sending where?”

“Go to your computer and keep checking your email.  I’m not sure if you’ll be able to see it.  Call me when you get it, bye!”  I hung up without waiting for an answer.

I ran to my library, placed the card on the scanner and the list on top of it, trying to position the card near the place with the erased words.  I hoped they would show up.

I pressed the scan button.  When it finished, I saved the file and opened it.  You could barely see it, but enough to see the similarities.  I opened my email, attached the file, sent it to Julie, and waited.

Less than a minute later, my phone rang.  It was Julie.  “Well?” I asked.

“I’m not sure what you were trying to show me.”

“Look at it right now and zoom up on the bottom area of the list on the right.”  When she said she had, I continued, “Can you see two words?  They’ve been erased.”  She said she could.  “What do they say?”

“Too old?”

“Yes!  Look at the writing on the card.”

“I see that.  It looks the same.”  She said.  “So what am I looking for?”

“Julie, that list was in a notebook in my bedroom.  I wrote it two days ago, and it’s never left my house!”  I exclaimed.

“Then how...”  She stopped.

“Exactly!”

We both sat in silence.  I suddenly got a feeling I should
not
be telling Julie all of this.  It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her, but I was worried.  I wasn’t anyone important, there couldn’t be some bizarre conspiracy to kidnap me for money or anything, but I had the strangest feeling I was getting her involved in something she didn’t need to be involved in.

“I have to call Steve.”  I told her.

“Are you going to tell him?”

“NO!  No, I’m not going to say a word, and neither are you!  I have to let him know I’m okay.  Dad said I scared him to death today.”  I was feeling bad for not calling him before I called Julie.

“That’s a good idea.  He looked so worried.  It was sweet.  I think he was more worried about Gabriel, though, kinda.”  Julie said.

“Why?”

“Oh
come on
, Jessie.  First, you have got to admit that Gabriel is gorgeous.”  I agreed.  “Guess Jennifer got one right.”  We both laughed a little.  “And, you
fainted
when you saw him.  Of course, now I know why, but I didn’t at the time.  It’s a good thing Steve wasn’t there when
that
happened.  The look on your face!”

“Yeah, like I’d seen a ghost.  Well, what would you have thought?”  I demanded.

“I would have probably reacted the same way.  I almost did anyway, and I’d never seen him before!  Well, you know what I mean.”

We talked a little while longer, and she described Steve’s reaction to Gabriel kissing my hand.  We wondered if Steve knew about the flowers.  We wondered again about Gabriel’s dad’s reaction in the diner.  She laughed about Steve’s ‘He’s normal’ text message.

“There is
nothing
normal about Gabriel Knight!”  Julie said.

“I agree.”

For yesterday, and for all tomorrows, we dance the best we know.

—Kate Seredy

We hung up, and I grabbed the list and the card off the scanner.  I also retrieved the portrait from the roll-top desk.  I carried everything to my room and placed them on my bed.  I scanned through my short list of contacts, found Steve's number, and pushed the button.  It never rang, but Steve’s voice was on the line in less than two seconds.

“It didn’t even ring!”  I said, after he said hello.

“It rang on my end.”  He replied.  “Are you
okay
?  I was so worried I haven’t even been able to eat!  I talked to your dad a few minutes ago, and he said you were fine and would call.  What took so long?  I was
really
worried about you.”  He was rambling.

“I’m fine.  I feel fine
now
, at least.”

“So what happened?”  He asked.

“I think I turned around too fast.  All I know is I was washing my hands, I turned around, and the next thing I knew I was sitting in a chair and my head was spinning.  My stomach was a little upset, too.  Maybe I’m coming down with a virus.”  I still felt a little odd.  It was like standing under lots of high-powered electric wires.

“I hope not!  It’s probably a bad time to ask, but at least you’ll have time to think about it.”

“Think about what?”  I asked.

“Well, that new guy is going to start Saturday.  He’ll be working all day, learning the basics, so your dad said I could have Saturday afternoon off if I wanted.  If you still feel bad, I’ll just work, or I could come stay with you.  I don’t need an afternoon off just to sit at home.  Anyway, I have Saturday off if I want, and I had thought about taking you somewhere.”

“Go on.”  I prompted.

“I know how you like abandoned houses, or used to, and there is like a whole community of them over where they’re putting in the new lake.  The water is getting close to them now, but you can still get to most of them without any problem.  You ever rode a four-wheeler?”  He asked.

“A couple of times, when I was younger.  Dad’s not much of the outdoors type, you know.  Why?”  Abandoned houses!  That would be so cool!

“I have mine, and my mom and dad have theirs.  I thought I could borrow my mom’s for you.  It’s not too big, and it’s easy to ride.  It’s up to you, though.  We could go early afternoon and spend all day if you wanted to.”  He waited for my response.

“That sounds
so awesome
!  Have you been there?  Is there any stuff left, or are they empty?  Do other people go there?  How many are there?  What do they look like?  This will be so
cool
!”  I was getting extremely excited.  I knew I was babbling, but he didn’t seem to mind.  Quite the opposite, he seemed very pleased with my reaction.  He was laughing at my giddiness.

He filled me in on what to expect.  He said most of the houses were in decent shape and not too dangerous to explore.  Nearly all of them had stuff in them, but they had been gone through by lots of people, there was nothing of material value left.  Vandals had damaged most; few of them had windows or doors left intact.  He also said there was probably not much, if anything, worth even salvaging, but if I found anything I wanted, we could bring it back on the four-wheelers.

“I gather from your reaction, we have a date then?”  He asked.

“Oh yes, we
certainly
have a date!”  Points, points, and more points, I thought to myself.  Steve was amazing.

He asked me to meet him for lunch tomorrow, told me to bring Julie again, if I wanted, and we hung up.  I went back to my library and got on the computer.  I pulled up Arial shots of the area to get an idea of where we would be going.  I remember it had been mostly a farming area with practical and functional farmhouse, but there had been a few interesting homes.  They weren’t historical, but unquestionably old.  The historical society had the better ones moved before the area was closed for good.

I printed out some pages so I would know where I wanted to go because most of the roads and driveways were gone now.  It was a mostly rural area, so it wasn’t as if the houses were all in neat rows, as they are in town.  Nearly every house had a barn or shed behind it, so those would be as interesting to explore as the houses. 

Since I was at the computer anyway, I downloaded all the photos from my camera so it would be empty for our trip.  I realized hadn’t used it much all summer, since Julie and Katie were gone, but I had taken a few here and there.  I put them in a folder I labeled ‘Summer-2010,’ and browsed through them.  There were twenty-four, and all but five were of some combination of me, Julie and Katie, before they left.  I had used my camera even less than I thought.

Until my dad said it, I hadn’t thought of it as my ‘last summer.’  Now, browsing through the all but nonexistent record of my less than memorable
final summer
, I was sad.  Until a few days ago, there was absolutely nothing worth remembering of it.  The only good thing about it was that time continued to move forward until I got
here
.  Why couldn’t all the good stuff have happened at the beginning?  

I shut down the computer, gathered the papers I’d printed, and went back to my room.  I was feeling a little guilty.  I had barely talked to Dad since Tuesday, since my new phone,
since
Steve.  I wondered if maybe I wasn’t subconsciously avoiding him.

Dad always tried to listen, and be supportive.  He also tried to be helpful, which was embarrassing for both of us.  Like the attempted birds and bees talk.  I knew he meant well, but that was one thing that I
hated
talking to Dad about.  Make that
three
things - boys, love, and the ‘S’ word. 

I should at least make an appearance downstairs, but he was acutely aware of my discomfort in most of the house.  I tried to hide it the best I could, but he knew, and I knew he knew, and he knew I knew he knew, and all that.  The only neutral ground was the kitchen, it was the only place we were completely comfortable together.  That gave me a brilliant idea!

Grabbing my phone, I dialed the house number.  Dad answered after two rings.  I could tell the caller I.D. had thrown him off by the way he said “Hel-lo?”

“Hi Dad, meet me in the kitchen.”

“Are you okay, sweetheart?  Do you need something?  I can bring you something up if you want.”

I had to cut him off.  “No, I don’t need anything, just meet me in the kitchen, okay?”