The days before she died was all the time that I really knew the real Anna Renee Joel. She was very sweet; always helpful and polite to me and that kindness made me feel threatened because whenever she talked to me my guard would come down and I was pretty much hypnotized. She could read the directions for soup from the back of a can and it would have sounded like poetry in motion.
Anna never seemed to have a dark side: everything was always sugar and rainbows—even down to her “Lisa Frank” notebook of a metallic unicorn. Perhaps it was a bit abnormal for a junior in high school to have the drive of a junior high school girl high on Skitttles and Dr. Pepper but, that’s how she was.
The following comes from what I learned about her. I tried to snip away the rumors and the damn lies that people who I will name said about her afterwards. Maybe I’ll go back and forth in time and maybe I’ll try to stay back in the past, a time that I still wish I could pause before that night occurred.
I had heard of William's sex drive. I wouldn't know by first person experience, but I heard about it as my high school was all about gossiping about everything on what passed as social media in the past: just flat out spewing out bold-face lies until one would grow legs and run. There was the clandestine powwow on the reservation which ended up with a car permanently left on the side of the river. The night at a party that had one too many ninth graders and, again, rumored, eight graders that got into a little more than a bottle or two of “Bartles and James Wild Berry”. Lastly the—supposedly desecration of the weight room. Rumor or not, I never touched any of the benches after hearing that.
The rumors died around the end of football season. We were tragically defeated by a team that no business of even being on the field with us, but William broke his ankle, putting him out of action and costing the team that chance at grid-iron glory. It was at that time when two new girls, juniors, enrolled at our school. The first girl was Susan Wilson. She only wore denim dresses and had her hair up in a ponytail almost every day. She may have been a part of some religious group or maybe she just liked to not brag about her looks.
She did have looks…the natural kind. Sure, every girl looked good, every single one of them had something going for them but, Susan was like au natural in her beauty. I assumed the words “Estee” and “Lauder” were not a part of her vocabulary. However, for as radiant as she was there was something about her attitude that ruined the beautiful mask she wore. She was very judgmental of everybody.
Yes, I understand how hypocritical I sound right now, but please allow me to elaborate. My judgement on others was decided after being treated like a dodgeball in a gym of nerds and I was given the title of king. It actually took a lot for me to mark someone down in my book of “not invited to my civil union” and Susan gave me a reason to write her name on her second day at school.
She was helping William to walk with his crutches when I walked out the door of a classroom and barely missed one of the crutches. In my defense, he was a bit too close to the right side of the hall so I could not see him. I tripped to the ground while William stumbled a little bit. Susan spun around to help William recover and then looked at me.
“Watch out, fag.”
Maybe she meant to say “hag” or “bag” or some other word but, there was a limited number of words she could have used that would have made any sense. She had said it loud enough for everyone in the immediate vicinity had heard it. I got up off of the floor and picked up book and binder that had fallen in opposite directions.
“Here, you dropped this,” a voice said as I turned my head to who was talking to me.
“Thank you,” I replied as she handed over my calculator.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, just something that happens some times.”
“I think it was pretty rude,” she muttered, her voice just a bit shy of needing heard over the din of the students around us.
“Yeah, he can be.”
“I meant her.”
“I wasn’t expecting that from her,” I replied with a sigh.
“I have heard she never wear any make up.”
“You’re up to speed on the current news, then.”
“This is nothing compared to the school I used to go to. It was three stories tall and had so many students you could only walk one-way down the hall. These waves of students take ya’ down like a riptide.”
I heard a southern twang to her voice.
“You’re new here, aren’t you.”
“Second day. My name’s Anna.”
Anna had glowing red hair but, it her smile brilliantly outshined every hair on her head along with her crystal pendant earrings.
“Welcome to Reardan.”
“Thank you. I think you’re the first person, besides m’teachers to acknowledge me. It’s the accent, isn’t? People hear me and want to deduct sixty IQ points and assume I know how to shoot a gun.”
“Do you know how to shoot a gun?”
“I wouldn’t be from Alabama if I didn’t. Do you?”
“Only a Nintendo Zapper.”
“We got a few shotguns and some pistols. Dad’s not worried about the gov’nment or zombies. He just likes guns.”
I nodded.
“You should come over, meet the family.”
“Sure. Where do you live?”
“Down the highway, right before it makes that turn into the canyon. Sorry, I’ve been talkin’ too much, umm-
“Brian, but everyone calls me Bryce.”
“Nice to meet you, Bryce. Sorry it had to be like how it did.”
“It’s no problem,” I replied with the wave of my hand as the bell rang.
“Let’s talk later on. My locker’s 245. Have a good third period.”
“You too,” I’m sure I had a stupid grin on my face.
My morning classes were like every normal day of me sitting near the back end of end of each room with my books and binders spread all over my desk. My drive was set to learn and to avoid any thoughts of anything or anybody…but, of course, who was I kidding? I played the scene over and over in mind of Anna handing me my calculator. I wanted to imagine the magic in the moment when our hands barely touched. The spark of a kindling romance. The possibility of walking together down the halls, hands entwined and not giving a care in the world. It was a dream that ran like a blurry VHS cassette on infinite repeat.
I think I internally sighed about 34.34 times a minute during Washington State History and then two to the fourth power every sixty seconds of Algrebra II class. I darted out of my math class with only thing on my mind: to find Anna. As much as is it pained me to not shower her with so much affection she’d suffocate it was best to hold back on the smothering and think about a relationship on more friendly terms. There could be time later.
I saw Anna walking with a group of students. Three girls and two guys: all juniors whose names still escape m. She was laughing along with something they said and I decided it may be best to eject said amateurish internal romance video and just pass everything off as someone being helpful. Sure, she was going to be friendly and maybe say everything like that to make me feel good. I mean, I had been tripped and fell to the floor. I couldn’t have sunk any lower than her feet. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh that would have made Charlie Brown feel better about his life.
“Hey, Bryce!” Anna’s voice rang out, forcing me to look at her. She had a huge smile as she broke away from the group and skipped over to meet me. “How ya doin?”
“I’m good, how about you?”
“I’m not a fan of my business class.”
“No one ever is,” I replied.
“Too. Much. Writin’, you know? Think I went through two pens.”
“You’ll fill three notebooks.”
“I’m just gonna bring one of those micro-recorder things.”
“Good idea.”
“Hey, about what I said about you coming out?”
“It’s fine, you don’t have to invite me.”
“But I meant it. I just thought maybe you were thinkin’ I just said that to make small talk or that I sounded like my cornbread ain’t done in the middle.”
I had no idea what she meant, and I think she noticed by my expression.
“Meaning I’m crazy or somethin’.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy.”
“You think I’m weird though?”
“Only if you think I am, then we can start our own club.”
“I’d like that. What are you doing for lunch?”
“Bagged lunch from home.”
“Me too,” she replied as I turned around to follow her. “Do you remember my locker number?”
“245.”
“Ding! You win a prize. I don’t have one right now to award you, but I’ll think of somethin’, ” she said with a laugh as she spun the dial of her combination lock and opened her locker. I took a glance inside of it and she had installed two shelves to stack her binders and books with her backpack hanging to the right of everything. Her backpack was denim with multiple keychains hanging from it. There was a peach, what looked like a unicorn, a red elephant and a pair of red lips on a black background.
She took out said backpack and I could see the other side that had what looked a tiny Gameboy, an outline of the state of Alabama and a blue and pink flag logo. I watched her unzip the backpack, take out a brown bag, and then placed the bag back on the hook.
“Let’s go get yours,” she replied as she closed her locker and adjusted her purse that was slung over her shoulder. “I almost made a big lunch for today. Almost went full out with some beans and rice along with a peach cobbler. But mama refused to do make anything like that or let me cook it because of what happened at our last house.”
“What happened?”
We walked down the nearly empty hallway to my locker. The high school had an opera campus so students could leave the building and walk down to the only store in town for a slice of pizza or a burrito. Otherwise, they could go to the lunchroom near the elementary school. I stopped going to the lunchroom after ninth grade.
“To hear her say it, I burned the house down, but I just forgot to stir some beans and they scorched real bad. Now that I’m thinkin’ about it, I’m glad I’m in a Home Economics class.”
“I took that class. Made some ice cream with a whole can of sweetened condensed milk,”
“Supposed to half it, right?”
“Yep,” I replied as I opened my locker, literally throwing my books in, and then taking a bag from the bottom.
“This is a good spot to sit,” Anna stated as she say to the right of the door as I closed it. I took a quick at her and wondered if this was a part of the dreams I had earlier in the day, and if it was, I didn’t want to wake up.
“Let’s see…what did we pack today? A stuffed portobello with sausage?”
“Really? There’s a microwave in the Home Ec room if you need to heat-”
“I wish.” Anna took out a small sandwich and carrot stickers. “Perhaps another day. How about you?”
“The same, actually,” I slid my back down to sit next to her on the floor.
“Baloney or ham?”
“Peanut butter,” I replied.
“Hey, maybe we can make something this afternoon.”
“As long as it’s not beans.”
“I hear ya,” she replied with a smile.
I met up with Anna in the parking lot. I had walked past a few car and and trucks until I came upon a small car with Alabama plates and assumed it was hers. Anna walked up to me with a young girl skipping along behind her.
“Bryce, this is my sister Wendy.”
“Hi.”
Wendy only nodded and then kid a bit behind her sister.
“I see you found my car. Well, not exactly mine.”
“It’s mama’s,” Wendy chimed in.
“You want me to bring you, or you take the bus?”
“You have to drive me anyway. That’s what you promised mama.”
Anna looked at me and rolled her eyes as she took out her keys and unlocked the doors.
Wendy opened the passenger door and moved the seat forward in order to sit in the back.
I say in the front passenger seat as Anna climbed in. The car was immaculate condition, like it had been bought the day before or they took better care of their vehicles than anyone on the face of the Earth.
“We took two cars, well a truck and this card. Piled all our stuff in like the Campletts and drove her.”
“Long trip,” I replied.
“Woo yeah. Okay, this is a manual so if I kill it a few times don’t tell..mama and pa.” Anna turned her head to the back seat towards her sister as she spoke. “You have a car?”
“No job for one. Need a job for a car but need a car for a job. Kind of a catch-22.”
“Oh well, I’ll take you home. No problem with that. Is this okay ? I mean, you have to come with us.” She turned the engine over. The car was whisper quiet.
“She likes you,” Wendy snickered.
“You wanna walk or sit on the hood of the car? Keep it up, Wendy.” Anna’s face was a mic of slight anger, fear and embarrassment. “Sorry, Bryce for that.”
“It’s fine. Oh, and Wendy?”
“Yeah?”
“I like her too,” I replied as Anna shifted into reserve and then turned onto the street.
We drove out of town, about eight miles down the Springdale highway-a straight line road that passed by several farms. There was a turn off that lead to Springdale and the Spokane Indian Reservation, but we kept going straight ahead but eventually turned off onto a well-paved driveway that winded around a hill and up to a large farmhouse.
The house had a multi-car garage and a large barn several hundred feet away. I had to wonder what her father did for a living that would make him want to move his family 2370 miles away from Alabama. In addition, who had owned the land before they did as the house looked brand new.
Anna parked the car in front of one of the garages, set the parking brake and transmission to neutral and tuned off the engine.
Wendy handed over their backpacks and they got out of the car. I tried to hide all of my questions as I closed the door and looked around.
“It was my grandpas. He left the Dixieland to come here and do whatever it was he wanted to farm.”
“What did he farm?”
“I don’t know, really. I don’t see a lot of fields for plantin’ anything. Come on in. Not a word from you, Wendy.”
Wendy shrugged her shoulders and nodded.
We walked into the front foyer or the two-story house and I was shocked at the inside. It was like I had been invited to Jay Gatsby’s farmhouse…assuming The Greta Gatsby ever lived in Washington state.
“Mama!” Anna yelled.
“We’re home,” Wendy added.
“How as your second day?”
“Anna brought a boy home!” Wendy raised her voice as she said that and then ran up the stairs to the second floor before Anna could grab her.
“A boy, huh? Anna?”
“Mama, this is Bryce.”
Mrs. Joel walked in from what appeared to be a large living room and looked at the both of us.
“Happy to meet you, Bryce. I’m Mary Anne. You may call me ma’am or Miss Joel.”
“Yes ma’am.” I replied. “I like your home.”
“It’s growing on us,” she replied.
“Bryce, go ahead and sit at couch. I’m going to take my backpack up and try to not kill my darlin’ little sibling in the process.”
“Anna Renee,” her mom warned in a low tone.
“I will try,” Anna shouted as she she ran up the stairs.
I walked into the living room to see it was connected to the kitchen and that the updates hallway could be seen from the couch. There wasn’t a television or a computer anywhere in sight but there were bookshelves everywhere.
“How did you two meet, Bryce?”
“This morning. I fell and she helped me up.”
“He didn’t fall, ma. Someone tripped him and never apologized.”
“Really?” Her mom asked as we both looked up at Anna.
“Just like in the movies, I guess,” I replied as I felt kind of embarrassed by the fact that her mom’s first impression of me would be this guy who allowed himself to fall flat on his face,
“Some people,” her mom said as she shook her head. “We’d all be better off if we weren’t so unkind. Teenagers and politicians are masters of it. One only hopes they can grow out of it.”
Anna ran down the steps and stood a few feet away from me and her mother.
“So, what’s your plan, Anna Renee?”
“No real plans…but if we’re going to make anything special, then?”
“If I make it, then it’s special; even if’s corn beef and hash.”
“She makes a great everything.”
“I’ll take out a few things. You have chores to do.”
“Can we first play a round of air hockey or pool?”
I looked at Anna and wondered—judging by the size of the house—how big these tables were going to be.
Her mom nodded but then pointed a finger at is. “Leave the den room open.”
“Yes ma’am. Hockey or pool, Bryce?”
“Pool?”
“Come on.”
“Anna has a boyfriend,” Wendy sang from behind her room door.
“Wendy!” Anna shouted and her face turned red again. “Stop listening through the door!”
The Den was a huge and recessed room with a large couch with a television on the wall. The pool table was a full-sized unit. I wondered how they got it into the house and into this room. The air hockey table was just as new looking and probably twice as heavy.
I admit I am terrible at pool. Anna went over the rules a little bit and we played one game before shifting over to air hockey.
“Pa can be a challenge with pool. But you try playing air hockey against mama. I’m lucky to get one goal past her.”
I nodded as Anna slapped the puck with her mallet and it ricocheted across the table to my side and I lightly slapped it back.
“Are you playin’ the long game?”
“Maybe,” I replied, not exactly knowing what she meant.
“Going to play it slow and steady before you fire away?”
A part of me wanted to suspect that was code talk for something, but it was best not to.
Anna fired the puck back at me and looked to the door leading out of the den. I slammed the puck back and it went went right by her.
“Too sneaky?” I asked.
“I like the strategy. Keep me on m’toes,” Anna replied as she grabbed puck and placed it on the table. “I have kind of an off the wall question to ask.”
“Okay.”
“What you said in the car, about, liking me?”
“I do.”
“Really?” She let go of the disk and lightly tapped it so it glided across the table. “That’s a relief.”
“A relief?” I asked as I tapped the puck back with a little more force.
“Yeah, otherwise, it would have been a waste to go easy on you.” She put a little spin on her return hit.
“Oh, well, I know something you don’t know. I am not left-handed,” I replied as I switched to my right hand.
“There’s something I ought to tell you. I am left-handed,” Anna stated with a Cheshire Cat grin and slammed the puck back at me. It went into the goal.
She then looked back to the door, then literally jumped in my direction and grabbed my hands. “Let me know if I’m being too forward, okay?”
I didn’t get to respond as she kissed me on the lips. I didn’t feel fireworks popping, rockets going off, or the feelings of wet clay on a potter’s wheel but I knew I didn’t want it to end.
“Too forward?”
“Not at all.”
“It is a little forward” Miss Joel stated from the door.
Anna dropped my hands and froze.
“Supper’s ready, unless you want to continue. The correct answer is to come to the table.”
“Yes ma’am.” Anna replied with her face as red as her hair.
We stepped up back into the kitchen and walked a few feet to the dining room. This room was huge with a table big enough to feed maybe twelve people. A chandelier, delved in crystals, floated above us and casted just the right tone of light. I stopped at the edge of the kitchen as I saw a man sitting at the head of the table. He was a red-haired man, kind of thin, but seemingly very young. Pounce de Leon should have gone to Alabama to look for the fountain of youth.
“You must be Bryce,” he said as he stood up, walked over to me, and held out his right hand. “Happy to me you. I’m Damien Joel.”
“Happy to meet you too, sir.” I replied as I shook his hand. He had a firm grip and his eyes appeared to be looking into my brain, most likely trying to pry the wandering thoughts I had in my mind. “I love your house.”
“It’s a great little homestead,” he said as he nodded to Anna to pull out a particular chair.
Wendy came skipping down the staircase and sat next to her mother. I sat between Anna and her father. I was pretty sure that it was his intention to learn everything about me.
“Thank you,” replied as my eyes finally noticed what was on the table. Chicken, shrimp gumbo, mashed potatoes and gravy and large glasses of iced tea. It was like they had a “Cracker Barrel” restaurant in the house instead of a simple kitchen.
“Please help yourself, Bryce.”
“Thank you,” I replied as Miss Joel passed a bowl of mashed potatoes and then everyone followed through passing dishes and bowls until everyone had something on their plate. The food looked like the photos in a cooking magazine. No burns, nothing withered, brown or under-cooked. Absolute perfection. Miss Joel must have been a five-star chef sometime in her life.
“How is everything,” Mr. Joel asked.
“Very delicious, thank you,” I replied as I looked around the room and noticed several paintings on the wall that appeared to be quite old and possibly expensive.
“I’m going to make something like this, daddy.”
“I’m sure you will, Anna.”
“I told Bryce about the beans.”
Mr. Joel choked a moment, coughed, and then laughed. “I guess you are a keeper, Bryce. You know our darkest secret.”
“I think they were still edible.”
“Even the dog refused to eat it,” Wendy chipped in.
“At least I can say I tried,” Anna replied as her father picked up his glass of tea.
“And tried you did, Anna. Now, if you has paid a little more attention to your mama—”
“Then it would have been the best ham and bean soup. Yes sir.”
“Sorry Bryce, we’re spilling all our dirty laundry at your feet.”
“It’s okay. I will not tell a soul.”
My Joel laughed at my comment and took another sip.
With each passing of the plates, it looked like there was always more food and when Miss Joel left the table for a moment, she returned with a large chocolate cream pie.
“Or would you prefer key lime?”
“Chocolate looks great to me. Thank you.” Miss Joel sliced quite a large piece and placed it on a small plate that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I summed up that my thoughts were divided on stealing looks from Anna, glancing around the room, and acknowledging the family that I never noticed it was there. Like Anna said, her mama did make a great everything.
After dinner I sat with Anna on the couch in the den—in the front of the quasi-watchful eye of Wendy.
“I want to be a chef like mama.”
“She really was one?”
“She used to work in this grand hotel when she lived in Georgia.”
“Atlanta?” I asked as I looked into her eyes.
“Mmhmm, she said it was the Winecoff Hotel and it was a beauty of a place. She met papa there.”
Wendy stuck her tongue out at her sister and then made smooching nosies.
“Why are you even in here?”
“Mama’s orders.”
“Where do you listen to her?”
“When she’s paying me,” Wendy replied with a smirk.
“Okay, fine.” Anna grabbed my hands and stood us both up. “Then this will be worth it. Kiss me, Bryce.”
I didn’t hesitate that time as I placed my lips against hers and heard an audible sigh from Anna, a screech from Wendy, and a few skipped beats from my heart.
There was the feeling of electricity flooding every single nerve. The current carried warnings that Anna’s parents could walk into the den at any second, but they were ignored as I let go of her hands and wrapped my arms around her waist in what I could only describe as euphoric. To think that earlier in the day, as I fell before William’s crutches, that I couldn’t sink any lower into the depression of being a senior in high school who never had anyone to confide in. Only to be in the arms of a beautiful redhead.
“Anna Renee’ Joel,” Mr. Joel barked.
I couldn’t turn my head to face him, but Anna did, while still keeping her hands around me as well.
“It was worth it Pa, I’m not going to deny it,” she replied.
“I reckon so. It’s a little late. Perhaps you should take Bryce home?”
She let go of me and I dropped my hands to my sides. I feared he had a pistol or maybe a double-barrel shotgun in his hands. We were kind of in the country, so he could shoot me and no one would ever find my body or worse, he would forbid me to ever look in the general direction of his daughter.
Anna backed up and then made a circle around their large driveway to go down the hill and back onto the highway.
“I think they like you.”
“I like them too, they’re nice.”
“They are…even Wendy can be tolerable but on a lot of days she’s like a going down a dry water slide in July.”
“Quite the burn,” I replied as Anna shifted gears.
“I don’t hate her, never have, even on the first day I met her, she followed me around everywhere.”
“I can imagine. I have a little brother who should have been named ‘Shadow’.”
“Always behind you?”
“Hiding in the coroner of my eye,” I replied as I pointed to my eye.
“But we gotta lead the young. The job befalls on us, old ones.”
“I don’t want to feel until I’m in my forties. How’s old is your dad?”
“He’s never told me,” Anna replied as she took a quick glance at me. “I ask and I get to hear a life story about past families, fire, and war.”
“Was he in the Gulf War?”
Anna shrugged.
“My dad was, but he doesn’t talk about it much. Maybe they could get together.”
“They’d talk the legs off all our chairs.”
Anna slowed the car as we drove into town and turned the left. She took it slow for a few seconds but then accelerated past the speed limit of thirty. I admit I looked in the mirror in hopes the sherif wasn’t hiding on one of the side streets that connected to the highway.
“You think they’d get along?”
“I think everyone will…and, well, it would allow us to get away from everyone.”
“I’m liking your idea, Bryce. We should plan it out.”
“There’s only one thing I worry about,” I replied as Anna sped up.
“What’s that?”
“When I get home, my parents are going to want to know everything about you.”
“Understandable, They gonna wonder who the southern belle is who’s stolen their son’s heart.”
“I want to think it was a mutual exchange. You take mine.”
“I take yours?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“Just so know, I usually don’t giver hearts back.”
“No exchanges or refunds.”
“We think so much alike. I’m glad we came up north.”
“So am I,” I replied.
We talked about inane subjects for the rest of the trip home, ranging from teachers, to William, Susan, and about how the junior class had to work the concession booth during the basketball games in order to help finance Prom. Anna feigned shock that she had to help people.
“Perhaps I could bring a pot of beans? I’ll get the preparation done right, eventually.”
We turned into my driveway which, like hers, overlooked the road from a small hill.
“Do you want to meet everyone today?”
“I would, but Pa would wonder where I was. I went a little fast so we could spend a second or two more with each other.”
She left the engine running but placed the car in park.
“I’m not this foreword to everyone, I’m really now.
“I think it’s great. It’s wonderful. It’s cute.”
“I’ll take all three compliments,” she replied with a blush.
She reached across the front seat and kissed my cheek. “We’ll see each other tomorrow?”
“Not ever a cattywampus could stop me.”
“They say a girl oughta marry someone like her daddy.”
I locked eyes with her and wanted to confirm that. Yes, yes, I would marry her in a second, even if I had no idea what that would entail one day. But I didn’t care, I was just lost in her gaze.
“Don’t forget your backpack,” she said as she reached behind my seat and handed it over.
“See you tomorrow, Anna.”
“Bright and early, Bryce.”
“Bye.”
“Bye…we’re gonna sit like this all right, aren’t we?”
“No, I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble. Tell your family thank you for me. Even Wendy.”
“I will, thank you.”
I walked into the house, thinking I was about to be given the fifth degree as it was late and I never called.
I thought of seven different tales I could weave to satisfy their grilling. I should have rushed into the house to face the music and inform my parents that they did not have to put my picture on a milk carton but instead I turned to see Anna’s car drive down the hill and onto the road. Only when the car was out of sight did I open the front door and awaited my Mom’s voice cut through the silence with those parent patented words: “You’re late! Where were you?”
“Hey, sorry I’m late, but I have a good reason.”
Mom looked up from her book and then at the clock. “Late? It’s only five o’clock.”
“Five?”
“Dinner will be ready in an hour. I’ll need you to set the table.”
“Yeah, sure…It’s only five?”
“Yes,” mom replied as the clock chimed five times.
“Five, PM?”
“Yes, what’s going on?”
“I thought I lost track of time.” I replied as I turned around and walked upstairs to my room
I stared at my alarm clock until I fell asleep. I tried to run through the events of the afternoon, trying to figure out how we could have talked, play a few games, dinner and then the never-ending feeling kiss. Then, the drive back home, and everything in seemingly under two hours. School got out around three-twenty, and it took at least ten minutes to get to her house and almost thirty to get to my house, if one drove the speed limit.
Sure, Jamie Morse once made record time to get to school form his house ten miles away in less than five minutes, but he was clocked in at near eighty. The sheriff let him off with a warning as he had never seen a 1972 Chevy truck go that fast without crumbing apart. Anna, however, did not break the sound barrier and STILL we arrived at my house in record time.
I was sure our game of pool took at least ten minutes and then air hockey game where I think we paid more attention to each other and not the game. Dinner was not like two slices of pizza and then done, but a table filled with food that was not there earlier, at least there was no evidence that Miss Joel had been slaving away on anything when I first walked in and neither when we all sat down. Maybe she had it delivered?
The time spent on the couch with Wendy puppy-guarding…was it all just in my head? Did everything really move at that quick of pace? Like a dream on fast forward?
Each time I added the minutes, it didn’t make any sense. I summed it all up with a “Who cares? A hot southern belle likes you and so does her family. Why are you harshing our mellow?” and fell asleep.
I woke up early in the morning to get ready for school. My normal routine would be to take a quick shower, throw on a pair of jeans, t-shirt and to not do a thing about my hair—to just let it look like I just woke up. Off course, when one leans their head back and to the side of a school bus, their hair goes everywhere anyway so I figured there was no reason to put in any effort. Except, I thought it could be a good idea to start caring about how I looked so I wouldn’t be Anna’s embarrassing shadow.
The bus ride usually took forty minutes. Forty long and restless minutes. There were multiple times when I thought I could run faster if I opted to open the side emergency exit door and take off down the highway. Clearer thoughts prevailed as I stayed in my seat and looked out the window.
We entered Reardan at seven fifty-two, with classes starting at eight after eight. I tried to look out the right-side window to see if Anna would be there and as much as I wanted her to, it was an overzealous thought.
“She’s not going to do that,” I whispered to myself as the bus lurched to a stop, the driver applied the brakes, and everyone stood up. The back of the bus, which included me, and a few other high schoolers dodged past backpacks and gym bags that were in the center aisle in order to get off the bus.
I stepped down and looked up to see Anna standing a few feet away from the sidewalk. She wore jeans with a black sweater.
“Good morning, Bryce!”
“Anna, it’s great to see you this morning.”
“You too. I see you’ve done something different with your hair.”
Anna’s hair looked the same as it did the previous day: flowing red like fire cutting across the night of her sweater.
“Yeah, I thought I’d run a comb through it a few times,” I replied as I tried to comb it with my fingers.
“I like the natural look. Kind of Huck Finn like. You’re only missing a hat.” I abruptly stopped and put my arm down. Anna reached out and mussed my hair. “Much better,” she said with a grin.
“Pa likes you,” Anna said as we walked to the building.
“So that means I’m allowed to come back?”
“Of course…I mean if he weren’t I’d still try to get you into the house. I could hide you in the barn.”
“What is in the barn anyway?”
“Pa’s office and workplace.”
“He works from home?”
Anna nodded.
“So, he knew I was there the whole time?”
“Of course,” Anna replied as I opened the front door of the school.
The hallways were crowded once again with students hustling to get their classes and there we were, taking our sweet time to get to our lockers. We stopped at mine, and I hurriedly shoved my backpack and then gathered my books for first period.
“I see William has a new nurse,” Anna mused as she looked down the hall.
I turned to see a new girl hovering next to William who was now simply hobbling on one crutch. “What a miraculous recovery.”
“He thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow. Ugh, I shouldn’t have thought that.”
I closed my locker door and we hurriedly walked down the hall past William and whoever his candy striper was.”
“I’m not supposed to talk bad about anyone,” Anna said as she spun around to look back at William again. “I will make an exception in his case. Wonder what happened to Susan.”
I shrugged as we made it to her locker as the first bell rang. Anna carefully turned the combination lock, opened the door and methodically placed her lunch bag, books and folders she took home onto the shelves before she hung her backpack up and grabbed another set of books and folders for class.
“See you break?” She asked.
“I’ll meet you here at locker 245,” I replied with a wide smile.
“Your smile’s cuter than a Georgia peach, keep it on you,”
It was my turn to become a shade of red and I wanted to take her hands and pull her close, but we were both balancing our books. “I’ll see later, Anna.”
“You sure will,” she replied as she closed her locker and then stepped towards a classroom door. “We’re living in high cotton!” She turned and shouted to me.
I didn’t feel embarrassed; I felt elated by what she said.
Although I had no idea what she meant.
Next to You
I carefully stepped out of my second period class and checked if the William express was around. It was not, so I walked down the hall in my search for Anna. I had thought about asking her to go to the last game of the regular season. Since our school was out of the running for state I had to wonder if it would only be the two of us, the pep band and the cheerleaders. It would be cold, as it it usually became that time of year…except when I was next to Anna.
I didn’t feel cold when I was around her…I chalked it up to feelings I had never felt before overriding any sense of freezing I should have felt in my fingers. The more I thought of it, the more again I had those ideas of the future. It was possible that, maybe, we wouldn’t have to work for a while and could continue to go to school after graduation. I frowned at myself for thinking that I could leech off of her family, but, if I could show that I wanted to do something with myself, that I wanted to be successful and that was only going to happen if I could see Anna.
I frowned ever more as I saw Anna talking with William. I wanted to swing my backpack and throw it David and Goliath style at his head. He only had one hand free, so if I surprised him then maybe he’d fall. I could only see his face as Anna’s back was turned to me. He motioned to Anna and she must have said something that annoyed him as he scoffed at her. I could have flung my textbook at him.
“Him, huh?” William replied to her.
“Yes, him. Why is that any of your business?”
“Because he’s a clumsy loser.”
You accidentally slam into a door, slip on spilled milk in the lunchroom, and later trip over a pair of crutches and you’re forever branded with a scarlet “L”.
“At least he doesn’t use others.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Where’s Susan, William? What happened to her?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t want to stick around,” William replied as Anna handed her books over to me.
“Well bless your heart, William. You don’t have to beat ‘em off with a stick when you can just beat them, right?”
William’s expression turned from confused to annoyed and finally to pissed.
“You best shut your mouth.”
“I don’t think I will, William. See, I know bruising and Susan had a few.”
I think my face was just as shocked as William’s.
“I’m also aware you skipped first period and now your new friend, Jenny, is now, mysteriously not standing next to you. What would she tell me?”
So that was her name.
A small crowd has gathered around us. I wondered if William—who I couldn’t imagine would ever strike a girl less than a quarter of his size—would take any aggression on someone’s locker or me.
“I think you better shut your mouth. You don’t know anything about me.”
“Oh, I know all about guys like you, Billy. You don’t have the sense God gave a goose, but you’ll prance around like a poorly-trained bird dog with a duck in his mouth.”
“Watch it, girl.”
“Don't let your bulldog mouth overload your hummingbird butt, Billy.”
“My name is William, bitch.
“And mine’s Anna Renee Joel. I can spell it out for you since you’re a tad slow.”
William threw his books and the one crutch down and moved toward Anna. She side-stepped around him and shoved him down. If I had not been there, I’d would have said that it was impossible to get around William Riffle, much less shove him down. He went down hard enough to get the attention of everyone in the hall. The silence was deafening as all eyes were now on Anna.
Anna kneeled down next to William and whispered something in his ear before standing up and walking back to me. She didn’t look nervous or flustered, and her hair was in perfect order.
The hall was still quiet, and William remained motionless for a few seconds until he moved his arms and legs into a crawling position. I looked at Anna as I handed her books back to her.
“He’s not going to get up right now,” Anna said as William’s arms gave up and he fell to the floor again. “I saw someone had a doughnut; they serve doughnuts here?”
“FBLA sells them for their parliamentary procedure debates.”
“Interesting,” Anna replied as we walked down the hall to grab said doughnuts.
It didn’t take too long before someone from the office tracked Anna down and escorted her to the principal. I wanted to come to give her some back-up, as I saw everything, and the other was to make sure William wouldn’t retaliate by coming after me. Mr. and Miss Joel arrived later along with Mr. Riffle. I was told the meeting was calm with the principal nodding a lot and Mr. Riffle shaking his head in disgrace on what had happened. William sat in the corner of the room with an ice pack on his head. The Joels, including Anna, then walked out of the room, into the hallway and gave Anna a hug before leaving the building.
I thought we were going to actually get something done in English, my fourth period class, but instead everyone’s eyes were on me. Some had expressions of disbelief and others looked like they wanted to ask a million questions and I didn’t have an answer for 999,998 of them. The only answers I could give was that I was in love with the girl and that I was quite alright with her putting William in his place. I kind of laughed to myself as I recalled the look of extreme horror on William’s face as he plummeted to the floor. Maybe I should not have felt so happy, but I had grown tired of the mighty songs and legends told in his honor.
His higher than thou attitude annoyed me for years and I thought that Susan was about to become his feminine equivalent in attitude and spite toward her fellow student. It never had occurred to me there was something else going on. I mean the rumors foretold he was a wonderful guy and the girls loved him. Perhaps they loved being around him and when he persisted, they either gave in or were forced to do whatever he wanted.
William lived a few blocks away from the school so it was possible they could leave in the middle of the day with, well, anyone I suppose. Go to his house and then come back before anyone knew they were gone. I tried to not think about it as the questions about Anna continued to the point that, now, everyone wanted to meet her. I had to force my way through the living walls in order to reach her.
Anna abruptly stopped in mid-sentence to someone and acknowledged me with a wave and a smile. The person she was talking to was Susan who was crying the entire time. I took a step back as they continued to talk.
“Thank you, I just…I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“You don’t hafta, but just don’t bottle it up and let it eat ya, right?”
“I was so stupid.”
Anna handed her books to me and then lead Susan away, down the hall, and to the restrooms. I turned back to the main hall, placed all of our books inside it and got my lunch out. I pondered sitting down and eating without her—as I had no idea how long she would be with Susan.
“Hey,buddy,” a guy tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see some one I did not really know. I knew he played football, as he had a letter jacket with multiple football insignias but exactly who he was, I had no idea.
“Can I ask you a question?” He asked with a quasi-grin on his face that was the sign of either a snarky comment or a punch was soon to follow.
“Okay.”
“Are you going out with her?” He looked to see if anyone was looking at us.
“Who are you talking about?”
“The chick who knocked William down.”
“Yes,” I replied.
“Thanks, man,” he replied and then walked away. I glanced down the hall and noticed a pack of students standing to the side of the door of the library. Three football players, two basketball guys and two girls and watching him walk back towards them. They reacted with some laughter and pointing down the hall. This caused letter-jacket guy to turn back at me and point. I hated being in the dark but I knew they wouldn’t answer any of my questions without making me kiss the floor like William had done two hours and ten minutes prior.
“I know I said a few things about her yesterday and I had thought worse two days earlier, but I felt there was a reason she was acting like that.”
I nodded.
“Fear. It makes us either wrap up in a shell or makes us fly off the handle. I’m not excusing her for what she said about you. Mama was right. Teenagers are the worst.”
“What about politicians?”
“Even worser,” Anna replied as she took a bit of a carrot stick.
“Did you want to go to the football game tonight?”
“Gonna be kind of cold, ain’t it?”
“We’ll probably freeze before the first quarter is over.’
“Oh, we could bring a blanket. Maybe two or one large one,” she said with a wink.
“It starts at seven thirty.”
“We can do that. We can take Wendy home, eat some supper amend then come back. Sound good?”
“I like it,” I replied as I took ahold of her hand. “There is one thing.”
“Hmm?”
“Someone asked me if I was going out with you.”
“And what did you tell him?”
I wondered if I had jumped the gun a bit. I mean, we were sitting together, we had kissed a few times and all and we were going to sit together with one blanket. I still felt, however, like it wasn’t official. We had feelings for one another, but I still felt there was something stopping me from completely opening up to her.
“Yes.”
“My turn to ask you something.”
“Fire away.”
“You gotta answer me, honestly.”
“Cross my heart,” I replied.
“If I was the worst cook in the world, would you still eat whatever I put in front of you?”
“Yes.”
She nodded, paused and closed her eyes before responding. “I will take that as we’re official.”
“I agree,” I said I laid my head against the locker.
“Hot damn,” Anna replied as she reached over and kissed my cheek.
Just like the day before, I walked to the parking lot and stood near Anna’s car. However, unlike the date before, I took note of the time when I walked out of the school. It was about 3:32. I took a look at the rear of the car and noticed the taillights were shattered out. I looked around to see if anyone was looking in my direction, but I couldn’t see anyone pointing or laughing. Of course, they would be long gone and would wait for the grapevine to give them the satisfaction of how Anna would feel about the damage to her car. How would she react? It was obvious the deed was either done by William or by a member of the Riffle Fan Club.
I saw Anna and Wendy walk through the grass in front of the school and up to the parking lot.
“Someone’s damaged the car.”
“Is that a record here?” Anna asked as the three of us rounded to the back of the car.
“You know who did it, right?”
“Yep.”
“Who?” Wendy inquired as she kicked at the broken plastic and glass on the ground.
“Someone who thinks they are so special,” Anna turned back to the school. “Bless your heart!”
“What will your dad say?”
“He’ll comment on how people are still snots who only think of themselves and what they want.”
“I’m sorry.’
“It’s just a car. The important thing is that we’re all okay, right?”
“Right.”
“We’re going to drive home in it, aren’t we?” Wendy asked as Anna chirped the key to unlock the doors.
“Unless you wanna walk.”
We all got in and I noted the time on the clock. It read 3:41. Anna started car and looked left and right multiple times before backing up. The car had a slight hum, but it was still quieter than any car I had ever been in.
“Susan told me she was forced to go to his house on her first day and she kind of went plum crazy about now knowing what to do.”
“Did he kidnap her and leave her in the forest to die?”
“Wendy!” Anna yelled. “Well, maybe in her head it was like that.”
I looked at Wendy’s face in the rearview mirror. She appeared sad for a moment but then sighed and then smiled as she saw my eyes.
“Mama’s not going to want to make so much again tonight.”
“I’m going to cook,” Anna replied.
“You’re going to kill him tying. Bryce, we may have a frozen pizza you can share with me,”
“I. Can. Cook.”
“Only if you want to,” I replied. “We could always get a hot dog or popcorn at the game.
“Oh, I planned to, but I still want to show you I can do it. And you’re thinking ‘she don’t have to impress me.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to. Also, if we’re in the kitchen together, mama won’t sic Wendy in on us.”
“Wanna bet?”
“What if I paid you to look the other way?”
“Not enough gold in the world would make me not want to watch you attempt to burn the house down and you know how mama feels about fires.”
“I am just ‘bout ready to drop you off on the side of the road and let you walk.”
Wendy stuck her tongue out as Anna accelerated.
We arrived at the house, and I wondered when Anna, or probably Wendy, would mention the damage to the car. The time was 3:53 when Anna switched the car off. We gathered our books and went into the house.
“Hey, mama!” Anna yelled as she walked in.
“Anna brought Bryce back. Again.”
Mrs. Joel walked in from the den and looked at the three of us.
“It’s good. I’m making dinner and then we’re going to the football game.”
“Are you asking me, Anna Renee, or are you telling me?”
“Askin’, but kind of in a reverse way.” Anna replied as she stood between her mom and I.
“You may go to the game. What’s your plan for tonight?”
“What do we we have available?” Anna asked as she walked into a door on the side wall of the kitchen. Mrs. Joel looked at me for a moment and smiled.
“Wendy, take your backpack upstairs and start your chores.”
“Why does Anna get to skip out of her chores? Again?”
“She’ll have enough work to do if she’s making dinner.”
“She just wants to look at Bryce the whole time. Are there new batteries in the smoke detectors?”
“Hey!” Anna shouted.
“It’s true,” Wendy replied.
Anna stepped out of the pantry with a bag of potatoes and two onions. “How good are you with choppin’ onions?”
“I can try,” I said as Anna tossed them to me one after the other. I was so glad I actually caught them.
“What’s your meal plan, Anna?”
“I’m thinking chicken fried steak, cream gravy, some potatoes and onions and green beans. Do we have any green beans?”
“Bottom shelf of the refrigerator.”
Anna worked extremely fast and concentrated on her work so much as I looked around the kitchen and connected dining room. It looked the same as it did the night before, except for a display case I did not recall: a case containing what looked like medals and old, tattered American flag with 48-stars. She did say her grandfather built the house, so it was probably his, left up for posterity.
“Bryce, could you come help me?”
I walked back into the kitchen to see a pan of hot cornbread sitting on a trivet upon the counter.
Anna closed the oven and took off a pair of oven mitts. I walked over and she put her arms around me.
“Don’t it look great. My second time makin’ bread. It’s done in the middle, I know, I-”
She stopped talking as I smiled at her. “What?”
“You.”
“Me?” She asked in mock surprise. “What about me?”
“Well, I-”
“The oil’s going to burn, Anna,” Mrs. Joel stated as she walked into the kitchen. “I swear you need another set of arms.”
“Mama, I got it.”
“If you burn that chicken, you’re never going to set foot in this kitchen ever again.”
In my house, I would have burned the chicken to avoid having to cook ever again. Rosa’s Pizza and Longhorn BBQ would forever be on speed dial as I could burn cereal. I had once set fire to granola while trying to make those chewy granola bars. Ten minutes of the smoke alarm blaring off, and black smoke and all I had to show for it was something that had the consistency of lava from Mount Saint Helens.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you, ma?”
“I would love it more,” Wendy sounded off from the living room.
“You’re not in this conversation, Wendy!”
“Can 911 find us when Anna starts a fire?”
“That’s enough, Wendy,” Miss Joel turned her head to the hallway and calmly replied.
Anna placed in five pieces of floured chicken. Again, I had no idea on she managed to do that.
Miss Joel stepped out of the kitchen.
“What were you going to stay, Bryce?”
“I’m glad William tripped me. If he hadn’t, then I never would have gotten to meet you.”
“Maybe.”
“That smells great.” I looked away to the counter and saw a bowl that wasn’t there before: one with steaming potatoes and onions.
“Anna?”
We both turned to see Mr. Joel walking in.
“Nice to see you again, Bryce”
“Thank you, sir.”
“What your plans for tonight?” Mr. Joel stopped in front of the bowl of potatoes and then looked into a small bowl that was next to it. Something was steaming inside of it.
“Football game, Pa,” Anna answered over the ever-growing popping of oil.
“Are you playing in the game, Bryce?”
“No sir, we’re just going to watch.”
“It will be cold tonight. Best to bring the large blanket.”
“Pa!”
“Just callin it as I see it.”
Everything was set on the table and with the few seconds we had before Anna called her family down, I took ahold of her hands and looked into her eyes.
“We could stay here if you prefer and not go to the game.”
“That is very temptin’, but I’m sure we’d have a ‘shadow’, ya know?”
I nodded and then there was a long kiss. Like before I didn’t want it to end, but-
“You were going to call evry’ one, right Anna?”
“Yes, Pa, I was going to.” Anna replied as she let go of my hands.
“M.A., Wendy, supper time! You two carry on, I’ll serve myself.”
“That’s code for getting to the table,” Anna grabbed my arm and lead me to the dining room.
Mr. Joel nodded as he walked over to the head of the table.
Miss Joel and Anna walked in after us and everyone sat down to the miraculous buffet. Miraculous because how in the heck did the fried steak, potatoes and green beans get to the table when no one ever walked into the dining room? I wanted to think it was a kind of time dilation or maybe every hormone in my body concentrating on Anna caused some form of tunnel vision. That being said, I still filled a plate, at the urging of Anna.
“What are your plans after high school, Bryce?” Mr, Joel asked between bites.
“Actually, sir, I really don’t know. There’s a lot out there but I still don’t know where I want to go.”
“College?”
“I’ve thought about taking classes, you know, to get a start on everything.”
“Just remember, Bryce,” Mr. Joel started and pointed his fork in my direction, “for everything you learn in university, there’s still a bigger world out there. Don’t miss out.”
“Yes sir,” I replied, hoping he wouldn’t me if I understood.
“When’s the game?” Miss Joel asked.
“Seven-thirty.”
“You’ll make it, even after having to clean the kitchen.”
“Can I clean it when we get back?” Anna asked and looked back and forth between her parents.
“You’re going to be at that sink for the rest of your life,” Miss Joel commented as she took a look at her husband.
“I’ll do it,” Anna replied with an almost plea in her voice.
“I’m holding ya to it,” Mr. Joel replied.
“Thank you, Pa,” Anna exclaimed as she passed a piece of apple pie with ice cream.
Wendy scrowled.
I only smiled and fought back the urge to ask where that came from.
After dinner, I sat in the living room as Anna was upstairs getting ready. I refused to give in to the desire to sneak up the stairs. Wendy would probably open her door and then yell for her parents who would already be outfitted with a gun or two. It was safer to sit by myself. The living room looked a little different from the day before. There were different paintings on the walls and the rugs looked different. They were colorful and bright, along with a vase or two which were in pastels when I remembered then to be blacks and browns.
I stood up and walked into the den. The pool and air hockey tables were still there but the couch, which was black leather the day before now had the feeling of brown suede.
“Are you up for another game?” Anna asked as she stood in the doorway earring a dark green sweater and jeans. Her hair was braided into a ponytail.
“Do we have time?”
“Do you want to go early?”
“Only if you do,” I replied as she rolled the door closed.
“I was thinking of another game. Interested in hearing ‘bout it?”
I quickly nodded even though I had no idea what said game could be. She might have thought about wrestling, fencing or a pistol duel at dusk.
Anna slowly walked over to me with a smile on her face and hypnotic look in her eyes.
I held my hands out and she twirled into them, wrapping herself between my hands and body.
“Can we do this forever?” She asked.
“Of course,” I replied as she dug herself closer to me. So many thoughts went through my head on what to do next as I laid my head on her shoulder.
“Have you ever felt you’ve met the right person?”
“Not til you,” I replied.
“You’re sweet. Sweeter than a peach”
“I was about to say that about you.”
Anna laughed for a second, let go of my hands, twirled around again, and then leaned in to hug me. I caught her first and closed my arms around her.
“Like you said, I’m glad we met. My last school, it wasn’t very friendly. I tried to be outgoing and it didn’ work very well.”
“I can’t see anything getting you down.”
“Bryce, I need to ask you a few things,” she whispered.
“Of course.”
“Do you think I’m too…strong with people?”
“I know you’re brave.”
“Do you think I’m crazy?”
“I know I’m crazy..about you.”
Anna’s expression mellowed and she smiled once again. “That’s sweet as a peach. We can be crazy together.”
I leaned in and kissed her on the lips and then heard a “click”. We turned to the door to see Wendy with an old Polaroid camera.
“Wendy!” Anna shouted but her sister was long gone from the room. “I want to make two copies and an enlargement of that!”
Anna turned back to me and we continued with our kiss. I desired to move my hands anywhere on her but just about when I was about to, Mrs. Joel cleared her throat.
We separated again so fast I’m sure I gave myself whiplash,
When does the game start?” Miss Joel asked.
“Seven thirty, ma’am.”
“You may want to get a movin’. It’s seven fifteen.”
We ran out of the house, haphazardly carrying a blanket, to the car. The sun was just about gone from the sky.
Anna threw the blanket into the backseat.
“Let’s get a move on!” Anna exclaimed as I opened the passenger side and got in.
Anna ran around the front of the car, quickly got situated in the driver’s seat and started the engine.
I turned to see the reflection of the taillights on the barn.
“Can we make it on time?”
“We’ll make it happen,” Anna replied as she shifted into drive.
The game was just about to start with the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. There were a lot more people than I expected since we were knocked out of our quest for state, but the stands were very full on both sides of the field. I carried the heavy blanket folded over in my right hand and held onto Anna’s hand with my left. Anna looked all around us in amusement and then in sadness.
“So much like Alabama, but colder.” Anna wore a heavy coat while I had my hoodie and her father’s bomber jacket that he said would keep me warm. He was right.
‘Do you prefer hot chocolate or coffee?” I asked as I lifted out hands and pointed them to a little building that sat near the “visitors” side of the stands.
“Can they mix ‘em up?”
“We can get our chocolate and caffeine fix in one cup.”
Anna nodded as we slightly changed our direction to the concessions stand and stood in line. The line was a little long, with a lot of the people staring back at the field as a whistle blasted out signaling the kick-off for the first quarter. The concession stand was populated by four juniors who were popping popcorn, giving out sodas to the ones brave enough to drink something cold in the balmy forty-five-degree weather.
As we approached the front of the line one of the students stared at Anna.
“You’re the one who sent William to the hospital.”
Anna’s eyes locked on him. “Maybe he’ll get a donor heart and brain transplant cause the boy didn’t have one.”
“Knock if off, Jeremy,” one of the girls chastised.
“He didn’t do anything to her and.”
“-Were you there, Jeremy? I don’t remember seeing you and if you were then you would know that William was able to get up, mosey to the principal’s office, and then walk himself on home.”
Jeremy glared at her and took several steps back behind the popcorn popping machine.
“Can I help you?”
“What do we want?” Anna asked. “Oh yeah. Two Coffee and chocolate mix, two hot dogs and one popcorn.”
She reached into her purse and took out a ten-dollar bill.
“I got it,” I replied.
Anna shook her head. “It’s all good. You can help me carry all of it.”
“Jeremy, I need two coffees mixed with hot chocolate. Now.”
I watched as Jeremy made the coffees with the precision of a three-year old with an open cup on a sugar high. The others gathered the hot dogs and popcorn.
“Bitch,” Jeremy muttered as he set the coffees down.
“Got your knickers in a knot, Jeremy? Step out and you’ll find how much of a bitch I can be.”
Jeremy looked everywhere except at Anna’s face.
“I’m calling you out, in front of everyone.”
Jeremy sighed, picked up the cups and handed them to me. He abruptly left the concessions booth while the ones waiting behind us in line murmured about what had just happened.
We walked around the edge of the field of the other side and found a seat close to the pep band.
Anna placed her cup and hotdog on the bleacher decking to help me with the blanket. We sat down without a word between us.
“You okay?”
“I was expecting something to happen.”
“The William Riffle fan club has a lot of members.”
“I’d say they’re more like operatives.”
I nodded as Anna snuggled closer to me. “It saddens me that people are like that. They fear what they don’t want to understand and instead of learning, decide it’s better to make fun of them or worse. Who licked the red off their candy?”
“I’m sorry,” I replied.
“Never apologize for people like that. That’s what Pa told me to do.”
I didn’t want to admit I had a lingering thought that William would appear at the game. Perhaps not sitting with the team but somewhere in the stands, watching us. I felt a cold shiver—even though I was warm under the blanket—with the realization there were sets of evil eyes looking at us. Students, parents, athletic boosters—everyone who only heard a sound bite of what happened.
“I’m still glad we came. We can sit so close to each other without someone watching over us.”
I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“You keep doin that,” Anna replied as the crowd—on the other side of the field—cheered for a touchdown.
I should not have tried to drink the entire cup of coffee as my bladder screamed out in pain, so I excused myself to go to the bathroom and Anna wrapped herself back into the blanket.
“I’ll need right back.”
Anna nodded as I walked away from our seat. I turned back to her with every other step and our locked each time I turned back. The daydreaming I had of her the other day came back as I pictured the house in the suburbs, the two—maybe more—kids with all of us getting together with our parents and other family. I wanted that future, and I was ready—even though we had only been together for two days—to talk to her about it.
Suddenly, I felt my foot strike something and I fell forward to the ground. Then, two hands grabbed my feel and pulled me from the grassy area of the sidelines, through a gate and onto the gravel parking lot. It took me a few seconds to recall what happened but at that time I felt what going to a painful evening. I was going to answer to Mr. Joel about the damage to his jacket.
A large body sat down on my back.
“Where’s your hero bitch at?”
I almost asked him why he at the game but saw several other pairs of feet…so he technically was not at the game, but in the parking lot. I kind of wanted to congratulate him on his thinking.
“I’m taking it out on you then.” William whispered as he bent my left arm back and then my right.
I struggled to try to get up, but Willian’s girth caused the sharp quartz rocks to stab into my chest and face as someone smashed my face to the ground. I flailed my legs, kicking my feet against his back, but William was not going to budge. I had forgotten he was also on the wrestling team.
“She got me nearly kicked out of school.”
“Didn’t you do that to yourself?” I asked as someone shoved my face into the rocks again.
I continued the lost cause of getting up and I was ready to scream like I was being murdered.
“Oh shit,” one of William’s lackeys said as I heard rocks shuffle under their feet. William was still on my back.
“They say I look cute when I’m angry. Best get ready, cause I’m about to be gorgeous!”
William got off of my back but took a step onto my back as he turned to face Anna.
The pain to my back felt like Gallagher had rammed his Sledge-O-Matic 200 into my spine.
“Beating up on someone ‘cause you think you can?”
William answered by charging at Anna, knocking her to the ground.
I flipped to my side, still in pain from the bad chiropractic session I had endured.
Anna pushed him off, stood back up and jumped away from his grip. However, William went in, grabbed Anna by the neck and slammed her against a car. He then picked her up and threw over the same car.
By then, a small crowd had formed but no one took a step forward to help her. I struggled to get up as Anna got up, her hair free of the ponytail and her sweater ripped enough to reveal the white shirt she had on underneath it.
“Let me tell you, something, sweetie. I’ve dealt with the likes of you.”
William and Anna played a game of ring-around-the-Plymouth until William turned back to me.
“Stay down!” William yelled as he ran towards me. I was on my hands and knees, unable to get up from that position fast enough to flee.
Anna jumped over the car, ran past William and blocked him, William’s eyes were just as surprised as mine were, but he took action and grappled Anna, lifting her over his head and then threw her to the ground.
I tired to yell for him to stop but only a gasping, wheezing sound came out.
William’s lackey took several steps back as William walked toward Anna again and picked her up the hair. “Not talking now, are you?”
Anna’s face contorted into extreme pain as William whispered something into her ear.
Anna replied to him, but I couldn’t rear over the quiet roar of the crowd that had gained the attention of several adults.
William grabbed Anna by the neck again and slammed her onto another car.
“Someone help her!” I croaked out.
He struck her against the car several times until four adults tackled him to the ground like they were on field themselves.
I sat up and then tried to get with my back in immense pain. I staggered over to Anna, with several adults racing in front of me. No one would pick her up as no one knew the extent of her injuries. The crowd behind us had swelled to a number that I was pretty sure was greater than the ones still watching the game.
“Anna!”
“Bryce,” she wheezed.
“You’re going to be okay,” I lied as I took her left hand.
“I wish that was true. Did you mean what you dreamed? Of being with me?”
“Every thought. Every thought, Anna.”
“Bryce-”
Several EMT’s pushed through and blocked me from Anna. One of them turned to me and asked if I was alright.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“I need you to sit down, okay?”
The adrenaline running laps around my veins finally threw the race and I fell into the arms of two of the EMT’s.
“It was pretty rude of him,” she said as she smiled and closed her eyes. “Meet me tomorrow, Bryce.”
The EMT’s moved her to a gurney and rushed her to an awaiting ambulance.
They wouldn’t let me leave with her.
There were tears in my eyes when the ambulance sped away. Tears from pain—for not being able to help her. She had come to save me and I couldn’t be like the heroes in the movies who were impervious to bullets and bullies and help her. I fought with the EMT’s on what to do. They wouldn’t tell me where they were took her, as they didn’t know either.
By then, the game had been suspended so everyone stood on asking questions that would become the news of Monday morning. Several teachers and students stood around me as I forced myself to hobble. No one asked is I was okay, because they could see by my bloodshot eyes, bloody mouth, nose, and chin that I wasn’t. I finally gave in to have someone drive me down to the school to call my parents.
I used the payphone in the hallway and called home as a few teachers tried to find a way to unlock the office so someone could call Anna’s parents.
It would take my parents twenty-five minutes to get to the school. Twenty-five long and stinging minutes as the office was opened and they attempted to call the Joel house, but no one could get through. I never recalled ever seeing a phone in their house, but maybe they had a cell phone and were on said phone trying to find out where their daughter was being taken to. I decided it would be best to try and go to their house and tell them what happened.
I got up from the floor where I was resting and felt a loose tooth. Another battle scar fort us to tell our children in the future when the time for such a conversation came up. I walked outside the school with a teacher yelling after me and walked across the grass in front of the building to reach the parking lot. I wanted to check on her car. I had allowed their daughter to be injured, I didn’t want to also tell them the car was damaged. I shuffled up to where the car was supposed to be parked, but it was gone.
“No! Not this too!”
The space was empty. Someone had taken her purse during the fight and decided to steal her car! “Thieving bastard!” I shouted as a pair of headlights turned the corner.
I turned to the vehicle in question, an SUV, and it screeched to a halt.
“Brian Andrew Robison! Oh my God!” Mom screamed from the driver’s seat.
“What happened? Are you okay Do the police know?”
“Long story. Yes, I am okay at the moment. Yes, they know. I need you to drive me-”
“-I need to drive you to a hospital. Where is a teacher or cop?”
“I need you to take me to someone’s house. Then we can go to a hospital. Please.”
“What address?”
“I’ll have to show you.”
I climbed into the passenger’s seat and we drove off.
“Turn left here and then right. Please hurry.”
“What happened?” Mom shrieked as she could now see my face up-close.
“A fight.”
“Why were you in a fight?” Her voice elevated every time she turned back to me.
“I wasn’t. I got caught in the middle of it.”
“Who started it?”
“Please go faster.”
“Where are we going?”
“My girlfriend’s house.”
“Girlfriend?” Mom’s voice went even higher with that revelation. “When were you going to tell us about her?”
“I just met her two days ago and I need to tell her parents something’s happened to her. Take the right fork.”
We turned onto an unfamiliar in the dark road. I looked to the left side of the road to see if I could see any lights to indicate where their house was. Everywhere I could see were rocks, trees and grass. After five minutes of searching, I leaned forward due to a headache.
“It’s not this far down the road. We need to turn around.”
Mom stopped the SUV, made a seventeen million point turn on the now narrow road and we drove back the way we came. I saw a driveway, but it looked overgrown and led to nowhere.
“Stop the car!”
The SUV slid to a stop on the rocky road. I got out and ran back to take a closer look. Nothing looked the same in the shadows and I spent every chance I could looking at Anna I never paid full attention to my surroundings.
“Brian!” Mom yelled as the car backed-up to where I stood. “Get in the car, now.”
“I have to tell her parents!”
“Not if we can’t find the house. We need to have you looked at.”
“Can I come back tomorrow?”
“Let’s see how you feel.”
I shook my head in anger, sorrow and pain at the thought of failing for the second time in a row. Defeated for the time being, I got into the car, and we drove to a hospital in Spokane.
As much as my mother professed, the entire ER department disagreed with her that I was on death’s door. Sure, I looked like the aftereffects of calling Chuck Norris a wimp, and I did have a cracked tooth, but everything else were bruising and cuts.
I had asked several times if a teenage girl had been brought to the hospital, but no one could give me an answer to my question. I waited to hear Mr. Joel’s voice trying to find out what happened to Anna so I could jump off of the bed, run to him, and apologize for what happened. However, after three hours, they sent us home with a prescription for the pain I had to my face and back. They also recommended contacting a dentist as soon as possible.
I didn’t explain anything to my parents, I just went to bed and stared at the popcorn spackled ceiling for what felt like an eternity. Why couldn’t time move fast like on the night before Christmas or when I was with Anna? My eyes wanted to sleep but my brain decided it was a great time to replay the horrific events from multiple camera angles. William’s face eclipsed my vision of Anna and I felt the kicks to my back over and over. I couldn’t acquire the prescription until later on in the morning.
At six o’clock in the morning, I drove into Reardan, and turned off onto the highway to try and find her house again as I would be able to see what little landmarks I recalled during the day. I drove with the radio off with the conversations I had with Anna replaying in my head. I also thought about how I was going to explain everything in a calm and collected manner. My grip on the steering wheel tightened as I turned onto the right fork and slowed down.
My eyes were glued to the left side of the road as I tried to remember our conversations on the way to the house as perhaps an audible memory would help. The lone driveway from the previous night came up after a thicket of trees and and I turned to drive up the slight incline. Perhaps the house was further from the road and without any lights on you couldn’t see if from the road. I rounded the small turn that led to the house and slammed on the brakes.
I got out of the car to where, about, Anna would park her car: in front of the barn and there was nothing there. No house, no barn, no cars, just a rocky field.
There was a house here. A living room, a kitchen, a grand dining room! A barn her dad used as an office!
I took a few steps away the area and then looked around. “Anna! Wendy?”
Only the wind through the trees answered me.
“This is impossible! This is from the stress of last night and the pain I feel.”
I sat down on the ground and cried for a few minutes. The kind of tears that sting your eyes and cause your throat to emit the sound of a broken heart. I slammed my hands down to my sides and saw something on the ground a few feet away. I crawled over to it with my vision streaked and picked it up. I used my shirt to wipe my face and eyes so I could see what it was: the picture Wendy had taken of Anna and I earlier last night. I stood up and I started to cry again, this time with a little happiness but still more of misery as I didn’t know what was going on.
“Hello, Bryce.”
I turned around to see what looked like a teenage boy with red hair and wearing a white sweater.
“Anna?”
“Yes, how I used to look a long time ago.”
I didn’t care if she had three heads and raging acne. I raced to her and hugged her tightly. “You’re alive!”
“I’m a memory, Bryce.”
“What do you mean?”
“A memory, we’re all memories of the past. Ma, Pa, Wendy. People who were lost and forgotten and exist only in hearts of the ones who loved us.”
“But you’re here now. Are you okay?”
“Are you okay, Bryce?”
“Now that you’re here, yes.” The nagging pain to my back and face were gone, as was my toothache.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t stay, not in the way you and I want.”
“But you can do all those things.”
“I did it for you, Bryce.”
I held her tighter and then kissed her on the lips. “Please stay with me.”
“I wanted to make your dream come true. If only I could be the girl of your dreams.”
“You are, I don’t care what you look like. I don’t care if you’re a ghost of something. Just say you’ll stay with me, Anna. Please.”
Anna took a step back from me and took my hands. “I’ll love you from here to the hereafter and five miles more.”
“Take me with you, Anna. Wherever or whenever it is, I want to go with you with.”
“Just show me you love me by being someone’s light and remember me.”
“I love you, Anna Renee.”
“And I love you, Bryce.
She gave me a wide smile and then faded away. Only our picture and my never-ending memories of her remained.