Desire of the Soul

by Stephen Nielsen

on the way here and he said it is OK if we stop by so he can look at it.”

  “And you don’t want to go to the doctor’s office or hospital?”

  “I don’t know where mom keeps the documents and I don’t know if I have to get a parent or guardian’s signature and all that stuff.”

  “Are you sure you need all of that stuff?”

  “Just get in the car Seth.” Jimmy turned to Jessica, “Sorry to take you away from the party, but thanks for the help. I hope I didn’t dirty any of your interior.”

  “It’s OK, and you didn’t, you were very careful,” Jessica said. They gazed into each other’s eyes. Jessica had a small twinkle in her eye that seemed to hide her feelings deep within.

  ____________

  Jessica felt Jimmy’s arms moving closer to her. A honk from Seth startled them both as they turned. They looked at each other once more and Jimmy walked backwards towards the car. Jessica smiled and waved as the boys took off and got into her car and hit the road.

  As Jessica walked from the parking lot she passed the place where Jimmy was almost hit. She noticed a helmet lying on the spot where he fell and she assumed that it was his. When the traffic dispersed she retrieved the helmet. To her surprise most of the plastic on the top was shattered and appeared to be peeling off. The left side had a huge crack in it from the impact it made with the ground.

  She clutched it tight. Jessica didn’t know whether Jimmy had suffered a concussion, it was very likely; however, he seemed to be able to stand upright and he did not mention anything about it.

  Jessica found where Mark was sitting and plopped down next to him in the beige, soft sand.

  “Where did you run off to, Jessica?” Mark asked as Jessica sat down on a towel.

  “Did you not see what happened to Jimmy?”

  “Jim the guy who hit the semi right here?”

  “Yeah that Jimmy. Did you see how he was bleeding?”

  “Don’t be so concerned, babe. It was a real good cover up.”

  “Don’t call me babe—”

  “What’s the problem, babe?”

  “—and a good cover up of what?”

  “Never mind, it doesn’t matter anymore since he isn’t here.”

  After a moment’s silence Jessica rested her head on Mark’s shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist. Mark responded by swinging one arm over her and held her close. Emotions were whizzing around in Jessica. She couldn’t take her mind off Jimmy; how had he been able to stop so quickly? Surely he was going too fast to be able to stop by the time he noticed. And by the look of his helmet how had his head survived the contact with the road? She even heard a noise. A thought popped into her mind; could it have been this God that he spoke about?

  The time seemed to go by fast as the sun dipped over the horizon filling the sky with a warm orange color. Jessica felt no comfort in Mark’s embrace and withdrew from his grasp. His hand lingered by her side as he broke the silence. “Do you want something to eat? I saved you something.”

  “No. I can’t eat,” Jessica said, still shaken by Jimmy’s near death experience that she witnessed. The emotions were overcoming Jessica and she needed out.

  “How about a cold beer?” Mark offered opening a cooler behind her and reaching for a bottle.

  “Yes,” Jessica said wearily. Mark opened two bottles, one for each of them. They chinked bottles and Jessica went bottoms up. She tossed the empty bottle and reached for another one. That too, she guzzled. As she reached for a third bottle she stole a glance at Mark. He was wide eyed and surprised. Jessica took the bottle anyways and opened it.

  “Whoa there girl, that’s your third in a minute and you haven’t even eaten anything since lunch I presume,” Mark said and laid a hand on her bottle.

  “Don’t tell me what to do, Mark.” Then tore the bottle away from his hands. She thought about downing the third as she had the other two, but decided against it. Jessica drank it more modestly and that seemed to settle Mark.

  THIRTEEN

  Jimmy’s wounds were cleaned out once more, more thoroughly this time, by Mr. Berry. The room, which was in the basement, reminded Jimmy of a doctor’s office or a hospital room. It was all white. Mr. Berry worked on Jimmy with clean latex gloves.

  “I’m glad you came to me Jimmy, this could have been infected; then you would have gone to the hospital with more than a scrape,” Mr. Berry said applying the last bit of bandage to Jimmy’s leg.

  “That would not have been good. Thanks for doing this Mr. Berry.”

  “No problem, if anything happens to it that doesn’t look right you should come back or go to your doctor. It will leave a big scar on your leg and arm.”

  Jimmy’s face twisted at the sound of it. He didn’t want to imagine what it would look like. He thanked Mr. Berry once more and hobbled up the steps trying not to bend his leg. Before Jimmy was out of range he heard Mr. Berry call his name. Jimmy turned to see him poke his head out and say, “Say hi to your mom, will you?”

  “Sure thing,” Jimmy replied and continued to work his way up the steps which led to the living room where Seth was waiting. He was on his phone but looked up to see who was coming up the steps. Jimmy motioned to the door and Seth understood.

  Getting into the black SUV was easier for Jimmy than getting into Jessica’s low riding Camaro. Neither Seth nor Jimmy spoke to each other for a few minutes. Finally Seth broke the silence, “So what were you doing with Jessica before we left home?”

  “What do you think we were going to do?” Jimmy replied harshly trying to make it obvious he didn’t want to talk about it.

  “You two were going to kiss, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah, but you ruined the moment.”

  Seth pursed his lips and kissed the air mockingly. Jimmy punched him and stared out the front window.

  “Are you two dating or something?” Seth asked with a tone of seriousness.

  “No, still debating it; and now it seems that Mark is also interested in her. I don’t know who she is going to go with. Mark and I were supposed to have at it today before I fell.”

  “Is she a Christian?”

  “Who? Jessica? No.”

  “Then what’s the debate? You know the answer, don’t you?”

  “What? Have you talked to Fred?”

  “Fred? No. I didn’t know that you did. I guess that means you know what the Bible says then. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, ‘Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?’ What do you think that means?”

  “Look Seth, I’ve heard that enough for one day, let’s just forget about it, OK?”

  “No Jimmy, you can’t just ‘forget’ about it. You have to think about it, what impact do you think it has on your decision?”

  Jimmy sighed, he hated when he had to explain himself, especially to his brother who thought he was so educated in every subject. “That verse just talks about marrying an unbeliever. And you know Jessica; do you think she is ‘wicked’? And what a better way to share the love of Christ with your girlfriend? At least she will listen this time.”

  “It does talk about marrying them, but it also works for relationships. Let’s say that you two do date each other. Then what happens? What if you fall so madly in love with each other that you just can’t help but propose? Or she pressures you into proposing? When will you know when to draw the line, Jimmy?”

  Jimmy was surprised at Seth’s answer. “Fred is real smart for using this opportunity to get you to try to convince me.”

  “Honestly, I have no clue what your deal with Fred is. I saw you and Jessica going a little too far for me and mom and dad. All I’m doing is trying to find out what you are going to do next and help you,” Seth said and sounded confused.

  “So you weren’t texting or on the phone with Fred?”

  “The last time we had contact was last week.”

  “Then who did you call? And who were you
texting when I came up?”

  “Oh, that was Kelsey.”

  “Kelsey?! The one that goes to our youth group? Both times?”

  “Yeah her, and both times.”

  “Are you, er…”

  “Interested in her? Yeah, she’s cute too,” Seth said with a smile as they pulled up into the driveway. Jimmy was glad that his room was on the ground floor so he did not need to climb any stairs.

  He disrobed and plopped into bed, but could not sleep after many tries. He got out of bed and put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Then made his way to his studio to work on music. He and Jessica had an appointment the next morning and he needed to get some work done.

  ____________

  Jessica woke up with an immense headache and covered in sand. It was everywhere, in her hair, down her shirt, and every imaginable place. When she finally came all the way to, she noticed Mark nodding off then shooting back awake. He rubbed his eyes in an attempt to stay awake as Jessica got up. The sun was just peeking over the hills flooding the beach with light. It was very early in the morning.

  Suddenly Jessica felt her stomach roll over. She knew what was coming; it had happened many times before. She groped around for a bucket or bag, but found none. She felt the liquid coming up her esophagus with a burning sensation following it. Jessica dug in the sand rapidly as she gaged and it all came out.

  Mark held a plastic bag right under her mouth as Jessica discharged all of the alcohol from the previous night. Jessica lay back on the sand weary. It was the worst day to have a hangover. She had an appointment with Jimmy and meetings between the Diamond Records staff and