The Folds

by Clint Townsend

  “Sorry, Mr. Townsend,” Jessica said as she passed through the doorway, winded. “I had to talk to Mr. Arp about rehearsals for the musical.”

  “Well, we have a test to take today, so if you don’t mind…?” he replied, holding his hand out for her to sit down.

  Jessica passed Jamie without so much as a glance and took a seat directly next to Danny on the last row.

  “How nice of you to join us this morning!” Danny whispered as she situated her belongings. “Can I get you anything? Drink? Something to eat? A cheat sheet maybe?”

  Jessica put her head down on her desk, shaking from side to side. “Don’t tell me you didn’t study!” she said in disbelief. “Danny! You know you can’t afford to flunk another test!”

  “Ah, I don’t care none!” he boasted, slouching in the chair. “What am I gonna do with knowing what a trapezius dorsi is?”

  “All right, all right!” Mr. Townsend announced. “Your desks should be clear with the exception of a pen or pencil.”

  Danny mocked him as he handed out the tests, desk by desk. Jessica attempted to stifle her giggles as Mr. Townsend dryly commented, “I hope you all studied. This test will count for more than twenty-five percent of your semester grade!”

  Jamie slapped the arm of his friend sitting next to him and nodded in Danny and Jessica’s direction. Again holding his fingers to his temples and closing his eyes, Jamie boldly predicted, “Hmmmm! Now I see two freaks from weirdoland that aren’t gonna pass the test!”

  Once more, the brainless and heartless band of rude jocks laughed cruelly.

  Irritated, Jessica stood in her chair and revealed her own prediction. “Hmmmm! I see…I see… Oh, how exciting! Oh, hmm, wait…a little fuzzy right there!”

  Jamie’s friends looked at Jessica then back to Jamie, amazed at her audacity.

  “Oh! There it is!” Jessica continued happily. “We’re gonna lose another homecoming tonight ’cuz you can’t throw!” She opened her eyes and briefly glared at Jamie before stepping down from her desk seat.

  The other students laughed at Jamie as he panned over their faces, helpless and angered at having the tables turned. “Why don’t ya’ll just shut up!” he demanded. He turned around and glowered at Jessica with a snarled lip.

  She tilted her head and smiled tenderly, batting her eyelashes as if she didn’t have a care in the world. To add more insult to injury, she suddenly stretched across the aisle, pulled Danny to her, and kissed him on the lips before the entire class. Danny waved smugly to Jamie.

  “All right, you two!” Mr. Townsend softly reprimanded with a wink as he placed the tests on their desks. “No teasing the animals!”

  Jessica turned to Danny and mouthed the words, “I love you.”

  After the test, Jessica and Danny walked down the hall and out onto the lawn for their lunch hour. From out of nowhere, Jamie jumped between them and broke their handholding. “Oh, excuse me! I’m so sorry!” he apologized sarcastically with a bow. The rest of the football players slowly passed between the split couple. Before walking away, Jamie taunted Danny, saying, “Look out for that bus, Dad! Bam!”

  “You know you’re a real jerk, Jamie!” Jessica yelled.

  “Don’t worry about him!” Danny commented. She threw her books down and started after Jamie. “Don’t worry about him!” he repeated, pulling her back. “I don’t care.”

  “Well, I do!” she grunted. “Ugh! I can’t believe people sometimes!”

  Danny smiled proudly, drawing his lifelong love close to him. “So…what do ya wanna do for lunch?” he asked before kissing her softly.

  “Oh, baby!” she lamented, looking at her watch. “I gotta go to Mr. Arp’s class for lunch! You know, the musical.”

  “Okay…then what time do you want me to pick you up tonight?”

  She pondered as he squatted and gathered up her spilled books. “Mmmm…how ’bout six? That way we can go eat ’fore the game. Okay?”

  “Sure. Love you!” he said, sealing the date with another kiss.

  “Love you!” she replied, returned his kiss, and darted across the courtyard. “See you tonight!” she yelled happily, spinning in a circle as she scurried off to her rehearsal.

  The frigid rain came down in sheets. Puddles of water riddled the football field. Deep ruts of mud and upturned grass scarred the turf from lack of movement of the line of scrimmage. The spectators cowered under their slickers, umbrellas, and tarps on the cold aluminum benches. Danny and Jessica hunkered under a blanket on the uppermost level of the bleachers. With under two and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, it appeared the Fighting Mustangs, led by senior quarterback Jamie Shipman, could win their homecoming by at least three points.

  “You wanna Dr. Pepper?” Jessica asked.

  “Sure,” Danny answered. “You want me to get it?”

  “Nah,” she replied with a quick smooch. “I’ll be right back.”

  Jamie stepped backward out of the huddle to catch the signals from the sideline for the next play. Just above the coaches’ heads he spied Jessica walking down the steps of the bleachers. The two momentarily made eye contact. She placed one of her fingers to her temples, stuck out her tongue, contorted her face, and imitated an awkward throw. He quickly grew irritated as he watched her charade, then stomped back into the huddle. The players exited the huddle and took their positions. Jamie took his place behind the center, received the snap, and put the play into motion. Surprisingly, he threw a short pass completion, giving the Mustangs another first down as they drew closer to the end zone. Jamie strutted back to the huddle and held out his hands to Jessica, as if to say, “How’d ya like that?”

  Jessica returned from the concession stand with the large DP and crawled under the blanket with Danny.

  With only seconds left on the play clock and a few more remaining in the game, Jamie took a short huddle with his teammates. The young men quickly took their positions, anxious to bury the hatchet. Jamie looked to his right and left, called the play, and took the snap. He faded back, looked down the field, then to his right. He was momentarily distracted by Danny and Jessica standing at the top of the risers, mocking a pass. The two clowns jumped up and down, missing each other’s high fives, all the while shouting to each other “Duuuuhhhh! Gimme de bawl!” With his attention focused on the circus in the stands, Jamie got blindsided by four defensive linemen. One of them hit Jamie’s arm with his helmet and forced a fumble. Lying on his back with seven hundred pounds of seniors on top of him, he watched the ball get scooped up and ran back for a touchdown. The Fighting Mustangs were now down by three. Jamie wearily stood himself upright and looked into the rapidly emptying stands. The coach screamed at him as he approached the sideline and grabbed him by the facemask. There was no win and no applause.

  Later, parked on the shoulder of a lonely farm road, Danny and Jessica were in the back seat, working themselves into a hot lather. Still in their wet clothes, she straddled his lap and kissed him deeply and passionately. “Whoo! Hold on!” he exclaimed, pushing her back. “Man! What’s gotten into you tonight?”

  “What? You don’t like it?” she inquired seductively. “Well, I’ll just…” and started to climb off.

  “Hey! Who said anything about not liking it?” he protested, pulling her back on top of him. “That’s the problem. I like it too much!” he admitted. The two love birds smiled at each other. “Hey, I got something,” he said excitedly as he reached down under the front passenger seat. “You ever had this?” he asked her as he pulled out a half-full bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon.

  “Danny Lee Albright!” she snapped with a devilish grin as she grabbed the bottle. “Wild Turkey, huh? You plan on being a wild turkey tonight?”

  He watched in amazement as Jessica slowly placed the bottle to her lips and took a large swig, allowing a bit of bourbon to run down her chin.

  “Hey! Not so much!” Danny advised, yanking the bottle out of her hand. “You gonna get sick! This ain’t your daddy’s Schlitz
!”

  She reached down and held his hands, then kissed his fingers as she looked him in the eye. Without breaking eye contact, Jessica released Danny’s fingers, leaned back against the driver seat, and started to unbutton her blouse. Danny stopped smiling and pulled her shirt back together. “We don’t have to do this, you know,” he told her as purple flashes of lightning illuminated their faces and rumbles of distant thunder shook the car. “We can wait.”

  Jessica leaned against Danny with her right elbow on the back seat headrest. “I knew…deep in my heart…” she began, lightly running the fingers of her left hand across his face, “…since the first day I saw you…that you’re the one I’m gonna spend eternity with…and you’re the one I wanna experience everything with.”

  Danny sat quietly, mesmerized by Jessica’s words.

  “I love you more than I can ever say.”

  They unabashedly lunged into one another, kissing heavily, passionately.

  He leaned back and said with a chuckle, “I shoulda been giving ya Wild Turkey years ago!”

  Jessica sat up straight and giggled as she again started to unbutton her blouse.

  Danny was horrified to see a thin, bright strip of red glowing light suddenly appear above her right shoulder. “Whoa!” he hollered in shock, then turned away with his eyes closed.

  “Well, don’t let this frighten you,” she said. “I’m not saying we’re gonna get married right now.”

  He opened his eyes and looked again at the fold of bright light. Images of his father lying on the ground in the frozen rain with a bullet in his head flashed through his mind. “Oh my God! Oh my God!” he repeated anxiously as he wriggled his way from under Jessica.

  “I don’t think that marriage is the kind of thing someone needs to get so upset over!” she commented sarcastically as Danny climbed over the seat. He sat with his hands over his face, gasping for air. “Baby, are you all right?” she asked tenderly, wrapping her arms around him from the back seat.

  He looked in the rearview mirror to see the sliver of red light still above her shoulder.

  As Jessica started to pull herself over the seat back, Danny panicked. “Oh my God! No! No!” He started the car and tore down the road, throwing Jessica backward. “Gotta’ git you outta here!” he mumbled, sitting close to the steering wheel and slapping at the dashboard. “No! No! No!”

  Jessica regained her balance and climbed over the seat to join Danny. “Will you slow down, please? Geez, what is wrong with you?” she asked, buttoning the rest of her blouse. “You’re acting like…like…” she started to say, but stopped and leaned her head against the window.

  “Like what?” he asked defensively. “What am I acting like!?”

  “You’re acting crazy again!” Jessica accused. “What’s wrong with you? We’re talking and having fun, then next thing you’re driving like there’s no tomorrow!”

  “Well, if you had seen what I just saw then you’d understand why I feel this way!”

  “Oh…my…gosh, Danny! Again?” she complained.

  Danny listened but kept his eyes on the road.

  “You don’t say anything for seven years and just when I decide to really open up my feelings for you, you pull out this old crap! Geez! My dad was right!” she exclaimed, shaking her head in disgust.

  “Whoa! Hold on!” he replied with a squint. “What do ya mean your dad was right?”

  “Nothing, Danny. Just forget about it!”

  “No, no! C’mon!” he persisted. “Let’s hear it! What was ‘Mr. Perfect-been-around-your-whole-life-daddy’ so right about? Huh?”

  She paused then turned to face him. After contemplating her words, she admitted, “He said that I was wasting my time with you!”

  The words pierced Danny’s heart.

  “And that you were crazy, you would always be crazy, and would never recover from what happened with Bobby, Jimmy, and the others, and your dad…and you would always find some way of not committing to anything!” She turned away with tears running down her face, then finished with a quiet and painful realization. “Mainly, he said, you would never commit to me.”

  He didn’t answer or look at Jessica, but concentrated instead on driving, keeping his eyes glued to the wet and muddy road.

  After a good while of silence, Jessica asked, “Where are we going?” She raised her head away from the window.

  “I gotta get you outta here…somewhere safe,” Danny answered.

  “Oh, Danny, no!” she pleaded and clutched at his right arm. “Just pull over and we can talk this out.”

  Silence.

  She scooted over close to his side and whispered “Danny? Don’t you love me?”

  He glanced down to his left, away from Jessica.

  “Don’t you wanna be with me?” she asked as she touched his face.

  “Yes, I do,” he admitted quietly. “That’s why for right now I need to take you somewhere away from me.” He gently pushed her hand away.

  Feeling jilted, she leaned against the door, curled her knees up, and wept.

  Danny pulled up in front of a local diner-gas station and parked next to a utility pole with an illuminated spinning sign. He stepped out into the pouring rain and sloshed through several deep puddles to a pay phone to call Jessica’s father.

  Jessica called out from the car and slapped at the window. “Danny! Please!” she begged. “I’m sorry! Just talk to me! I love you!”

  Danny finished his phone call, turned to face Jessica, then sat at the base of the phone pole. As they held each other’s gaze, one prayed to be to be loved, the other prayed for life.

  Mr. Holder arrived minutes later. He came to a screeching halt directly in front of Danny’s car, climbed out, and walked toward the front passenger side. He yelled at Danny as he stood under the telephone light. “What did you do to her!?”

  Danny didn’t respond to Mr. Holder as he opened the door to help Jessica out of the car.

  “You’re not gonna ruin my daughter’s life, too! You stay away! Ya hear me, boy? You stay away from her, you freak!”

  Jessica nearly fell headlong into the culvert ditch from the force of her father yanking her out of the car.

  “Danny? Talk to me!” Jessica pleaded as she tried to break the grip of Mr. Holder. “Danny! Please? I love you!”

  Danny watched as Mr. Holder forcefully placed Jessica in the front seat of his car.

  “Stay away, Danny!” Jessica’s dad yelled once more.

  Danny could see Jessica in the front seat, rocking back and forth, wailing uncontrollably.

  He watched the car pull away into the driving rain and felt his heart breaking. He was confused about what he had seen and done and how he hurt Jessica, but convinced himself that sending her away was probably the only thing he could do to save her life.

  “It’s okay! It’s okay…we’re going home,” Mr. Holder consoled his angel, handing her a towel. “Here, wrap this around you. You’re shivering.”

  Jessica grabbed the towel out of her father’s hand.

  “He’s gone now, you’re all right!”

  “I don’t want to go home!” she said, throwing the towel against the dashboard. “I wanted to stay with Danny! I didn’t need for you to come get me!”

  “Jess, I know how you feel!” Mr. Holder persisted. “You’re just confused right now and—”

  “You have no idea how I feel!” she said defiantly. “You don’t know what he’s been through and what he’s said to me! You know nothing about—Dad! Look out!” she shouted, startling her father.

  He had momentarily taken his eyes off the road and inadvertently wandered into the other lane. Mr. Holder overcorrected while heading into a curve and fishtailed into the path of an oncoming truck and trailer. Danny watched the incident from only a few hundred yards away. Mr. Holder’s car narrowly escaped a collision with the truck, but went up and over the shoulder, down the culvert ditch, and slammed into a utility pole. The truck jackknifed for a few yards, but the driver
managed to regain control and steered the vehicle to the shoulder.

  Jessica was ejected through the windshield and landed several yards away, facedown in a shallow puddle of dirty water. Mr. Holder was knocked unconscious as his head and chest struck the windshield and steering column. The utility pole then crashed down over Mr. Holder’s side door, crumpling the frame and door together. Live electrical lines began to dance and crackle wildly around the car in brilliant flashes of orange, purple, and green as they came in contact with the vehicle. Danny hopped in his car and drove to the scene.

  Besides the driver of the truck and trailer, Danny was first to arrive at the crash site. He ran through the rain and down the embankment to the wrecked vehicle. He looked in the passenger window to find Jessica not in her seat. “Jess!” he called out in panic, looking all about. “Jess!”

  “Hey…hey,” Mr. Holder mumbled as he slowly regained consciousness. He looked at the seat next to him, but Jessica wasn’t there. Still disoriented, he tried opening his door and hollered, “Hey! Somebody get me outta’ here!” Flashes of light from the downed lines popped in front of his face. “Jessica! Help me!” he called out anxiously.

  “Jess!” Danny cried, spying her body yards away across the water-filled depression. He waded into the knee-deep water, calling her name. “Jess! Jess!” Jessica, barely alive, suffered from a broken back, cracked skull, and a punctured lung. She was spitting up blood. He knelt down and gingerly laid her head on his lap. “It’s okay. I’m here, baby!” he said, trying to comfort his love, wiping the hair, grass, and blood away from her face. “I’m right here!” he repeated, trying to remain calm. He switched hands to support her neck and saw his fingers covered in blood. “Oh! Oh my God! Oh, baby! Okay, we’re gonna git you outta here! You’re gonna be great!” he said and attempted to lift Jessica.

  “Ow! Ow! Danny!” she screamed. “Don’t! Don’t move me!”

  He looked down at her and began to weep. Even when trying to protect her, he couldn’t help.

  Mr. Holder began yelling, “Somebody! Get me out! Help!” Fear and panic was consuming him.