Persuaded

by Alicia J. Chumney

  “We should go back there,” he softly suggested.

  “Derek! Anne!” Isa called out to them from three shops away. “What are you looking at?”

  “An art supply store!” Anne called back, not looking away from the window.

  Leaning forward he suggested, “We could go inside. I doubt they’ll follow us.”

  “They could leave us,” she pointed out.

  “We brought your car with us, remember. Since all seven of us couldn’t fit in Charles’ SUV.”

  “I can’t believe that James has been coming with us everywhere.”

  “I can,” Derek stated. “It gets him out of the Harville’s house. Apparently, last summer, he came down with Francine to announce her pregnancy.”

  “Oh,” she sighed. “He’s lost so much.”

  “And staying with Bee and Frank’s children isn’t as easy on him as he’ll admit.”

  “Then why does he stay?”

  “He doesn’t have any more family. Frank and Bee are it.”

  Glancing down towards Isa, Anne noticed that James was keeping her company. “That is something I never would have expected to see.”

  “What were you talking about last night?”

  “Books,” Anne sighed sadly. “He found out that one of my minors is English and he was asking me a million questions about my student teaching placement and the books that I’ve read and taught and…” she trailed off, rolling her eyes. “He kept talking about gothic and other dark stories. Your friend is terrified that he is going to die alone.”

  “Aren’t we all,” Derek jokingly nudged Anne in the side where the others wouldn’t notice. “We can disappear right now. We have your car keys so we won’t get stranded. I know you want to go in here.”

  “It’s been six years,” she sighed. “I wonder if the old owners still run the place.”

  “Only one way to find out.” With a hand on her lower back, Derek guided her into the store.

  Looking up from where she was doodling on some paper, the owner looked up and started grinning. “I remember you two!”

  Pulled back, Anne’s brow furrowed. “How? It’s been six years.”

  “Sweetheart,” the owner cooed, “I’d remember that mop of hair anywhere. And those blue eyes,” she sighed, looking at Derek. “He kept playing with your hair when you were outside the window before stealing your ponytail holder.”

  Turning to look at Derek, Anne laughed, “You still owe me like forty ponytail holders.”

  “You never wear them anymore,” he protested.

  “I do when I’m creating.”

  Sighing, the owner grinned. “I hoped you two lasted. I told my husband, ‘If they don’t make it, there is something wrong in the world.”

  “Actually,” Anne cleared her throat. “We broke up five years ago.”

  “I proposed and she said no.”

  “I was eighteen,” Anne protested, giving him a slight shove.

  The owner’s face had fallen as soon as Anne told her about the breakup, started grinning again as she watched them. She made a prediction right then and there. “That is a bit young,” she conceded. “But you are both here now. What can I do for you?”

  Derek watched as Anne’s gaze wandered over to the back of the room where the sketchbooks were still displayed. He hadn’t seen her with a sketchbook in her hands ever since the trip started. “You left your sketchbook at home, didn’t you?”

  “Derek,” Anne sighed. “You should have noticed that I haven’t draw anything outside of class assignments for a long time.” Looking over at the owner, she explained. “When I first got on campus, I’d sit outside and people watch, sketching what I saw between classes. But once my classwork started getting busier, I had to prioritize my time.”

  Looking at her, it began to make sense why he’d never seen her sketching out her nephews. Granted, he allowed, she was usually busy taking care of her nephews. It would be difficult to do both things at once. But he felt sad that those boys would never have a sketch from their aunt of their younger years.

  “But you have plenty of time this week,” Derek pointed out.

  Lips pursed in thought, Anne nodded her head. Heading towards the pencils, she started to browse her options. There was plenty in her bank account to allow a small splurge that would not be connected to her school supply budget.

  These pencils were too good to be taken to the high school. She had no doubt that they would likely end up in her supervising teacher’s pencil mug and there would be nothing she could do about it.

  Derek, nodding his head in satisfaction, went to the back wall where the sketchbooks were kept. Glancing around, he hoped for a book similar to the blue one he had bought her six years ago. Instead, there were only black books on display.

  “They are on backorder,” the owner whispered to him. “This black one is similar to that blue one you had bought.”

  “You really do remember us!” he quietly exclaimed.

  “Of course I do.” Handing him a black book to examine, she made certain to open it. “Feel.”

  Glancing over at Anne, he checked to see that she was still distracted before he ran his fingers over the page. The texture took him back to the memory of when Anne was explaining to him why she liked her pages a little less than perfectly smooth. “I’ll take it,” he whispered.

  Heading towards the cashier stand, he waited for Anne to join him.

  Isa, her timing perfect as always, burst into the store, James in tow, and shouted, “Derek! Anne! There you are! Hurry up! Mary got tired and Charles already left with her and Etta. We’re gonna go swimming at the pool since the beach has been so crowded and then go to dinner.”

  “I just need to pay for these pencils,” Anne stated.

  “We’ll meet you at the car,” Derek added, mostly looking at James.

  Nodding his head, James nudged her towards the door as she started to pout. “Come on. It’ll only take a moment.”

  “Can we stop for ice cream?” Isa asked him as they started out the door.

  “No ice cream in my car!” Anne called out after them, placing her pencils on the counter and taking a few steps in their direction.

  While Anne was distracted by the threat of melted ice cream in her car, Derek handed over his card. Once she turned back around, Anne scowled at him. “I can pay for my own art supplies,” she hissed at him. “I’m not as bad off financially as my father.”

  “I know,” he answered her. “I’ve been watching you and you have a good head on your shoulders. Better than your sisters, at least.” Handing over the bag with the book and pencils inside, he waited.

  “I take after my mother,” she whispered, feeling the weight of the bag in her hands. “What did you do?” Opening the bag, she noticed the book. “Oh, Derek,” she sighed softly. “Another one?”

  “Of course,” he whispered. “As soon as this trip is over with, we are going public.” Forcing her to make eye contact, instead of looking into the bag like she really wanted to, Derek noted the jumbled emotions in her eyes. “I can’t keep quiet for the sake of Charles and Isa any longer.”

  “I can go along with that plan,” she whispered back.

  The owner, shamelessly listening to them with her elbows propped on the counter and her face in her hands, sighed. “I knew it.”

  Turning towards her, they laughed.

  “But why wait?” she asked them.

  “We have a twelve-hour car ride back home,” Derek explained as Anne went back to smiling at the black sketchbook in her bag.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  After several days dealing with the crowded beaches, James suggested that they head over to Limestone Lake and take advantage of the little-known getaway.

  “Limestone Lake?” Anne asked. “I’ve never heard of it and I’ve been here with my aunt for years.” She glanced over at Derek, aware that each time she returned she hoped that she would run into him.

  She had no way of knowing he was torturi
ng himself by doing the same thing in her hometown.

  “Visiting,” James pointedly stated.

  Bee rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to him,” she interjected. “He wouldn’t have known about Limestone if he wasn’t here when we took the kids there one-day last summer.”

  James went still when he remembered the purpose of that visit.

  “Now,” Frank added, “Remember not to jump off of the diving pier. We’ve had an unusually dry season and the water levels are lower than usual. So, no diving.”

  “You aren’t coming with us?” Isa asked, dismissing his warnings.

  “Unfortunately, I have to go to work,” Bee answered. “Somebody had to take off half of her shift for an appointment and I volunteered to cover for her.”

  “And somebody has to watch this zoo,” Frank gestured towards where the neighborhood children had already gathered in his backyard. “I feel horrible on the days that I have to lock the gates. Most of these kids don’t have any place else safe to play and it takes a load off of their parents' minds.”

  Leaning forward, Bee pretended to whisper, “They bring food and beer to pay for his unofficial child care services. One time a parent had four pizzas delivered for lunch as a surprise during summer vacation.”

  The first time Isa called out to Derek to catch her from where she was standing on the deck, he was able to act quickly. “Isa!” he scolded her. “If I didn’t catch you in time anything could have happened.”

  “I trust that you’ll catch me,” Isa said, snuggling in his arms.

  Anne, sitting nearby at one of the picnic tables with her sketchbook in hand, glared at Isa’s back. A moment later, she started shaking her head and went back to sketching out the tire swing that was being ignored because of the low water level warning signs plastered all over the place.

  It had taken every single one of them to stop Isa from climbing on the swing and jumping out over the lake. But, jumping off the diving pier and forcing Derek to catch her appeared to be fair game in the nineteen-year-old’s head.

  “But it isn’t safe,” he protested, dropping her out of his arms and into the water. Instead of dealing with Isa, he climbed out of the lake and joined Anne at the table, keeping a safe distance from her book.

  “Derek!” Isa called out. “Come back.”

  “I’m not going back in that water until you stop making me catch you.”

  “I only did it once!”

  Drawing in a deep breath, Derek shook his head.

  “You make him catch you all over campus,” Etta helpfully added.

  “And on the stairs at home,” Charles agreed.

  Mary, rolling her eyes, added nothing. Instead, she flitted around from table to table, chair to chair, looking for a more comfortable place to sit.

  “Seriously, guys!” Isa protested, her eyes cutting in James’ direction. “I’m not that bad.”

  “Yes, you are,” Charles and Etta voiced.

  Thirty minutes later, Derek had forgotten his promise and returned to the lake to cool down. Anne, snapping her book shut, shortly followed him. They were floating near the diving pier, treading water while holding onto the floating platform, strategizing about what they were going to do in a few days.

  Without any warning, they heard the sound of running feet and felt the dock rocking. “Derek! Catch me!” Isa called out.

  Swimming backward, he struggled to get back to where he needed to be.

  “Isa! Stop!” Anne cried. “It isn’t safe!”

  “Isa!” Etta shouted. “No!”

  “Catch me!” Isa repeated.

  The floating dock wasn’t stable enough for Isa’s mad dash across it, causing her to stumble. When she landed, her head hit the edge of the dock and Isa ended up rolling off the dock and into the water five feet away from Anne.

  Anne, diving quickly, struggled to pull Isa out of the water until Derek reached them and helped by getting on Isa’s other side.

  Emerging from the water, gasping for breath, they tried to pull Isa towards the shore until Derek could scoop her up and carry her to land.

  Mary, having witnessed nothing about what was happening, started screaming and sobbing out her distress.

  Etta, having witnessed everything from the lake, had gone pale and silent.

  Charles, having not witnessed what was going on since he was with his wife, started pacing as he watched them carrying Isa’s body out of the lake. He’d start towards them and then walk back to Mary, before taking several more steps back towards them.

  “Over there!” Anne directed Derek to where somebody - James - had spread out a beach towel.

  Mary’s screeching did nothing to help the situation, but it seemed to echo throughout the area. In fact, after Derek placed Isa where Anne had directed him to, Mary’s panic seemed to impact Derek as he started rambling, asking is Isa was okay, if Isa was alive.

  “Oh, do be quiet, Mary!” Anne snapped. “You aren’t injured!” Anne turned to James. “Calm Derek down. Charles, take care of your wife.” Shaking her head, she started to mumble, “James, call 911.”

  “I’ll do it,” Derek replied, looking pale and shaky, but his color was considerably better than Isa’s.

  He’d told her not to jump off the pier!

  “There’s no bleeding,” Anne mumbled to herself.

  “I’ll do CPR if you can do the compressions,” James volunteered. “I was an EMT before I signed up.”

  “911. What’s your emergency?” came over the speakerphone of Derek’s cell.

  “We’re at the pier…”

  “The diving pier at Limestone Lake,” Anne supplied. “I know how,” she commented to James. “I’m better at compressions than with the breathing anyway.”

  “When one of us jumped off, she hit her head on the landing and fell into the water,” Derek finished.

  “There’s no bleeding,” Anne added loudly, continuing the chest compressions to the rhythm of the Bee Gee’s Staying Alive. It had been her mother’s favorite and she knew it by heart. “And she’s not breathing on her own.”

  “It somebody doing CPR?”

  “Yes!” Anne replied. “Mary, calm down,” she commanded her sister as Mary’s wails increased in volume. “Charles, take her over to the picnic tables. I can barely hear the 911 operator.”

  “And ambulance is on the way. Make sure you stop when she starts breathing on her again.”

  “I told her not to jump,” Derek worriedly said to Anne. “The signs are everywhere that the water levels are down.”

  “Isa is a very determined girl,” Anne pointed out. “You did once say you liked a girl who knew her own mind,” she distractedly reminded him. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t the time or place to remind him of his own words; Anne’s filter had been dropped.

  “She’s breathing! It doesn’t sound like she swallowed any water,” James interrupted, pulling back from breathing into Louisa’s mouth.

  “That’s good,” the 911 operator stated. “Stop CPR unless she stops.”

  Derek sat in the waiting room alone while Charles and Etta visited with their sister. James had disappeared and Anne had managed to convince Mary to go downstairs to the snack machines.

  “This is all my fault,” he said to the empty room.

  Charles joined him later, leaving Etta with her sister for a while.

  “How is she?”

  “Still out,” Charles answered him. “Somebody needs to take Etta home and tell my parents.” Shaking his head, he added, “We don’t want to tell them over the phone.”

  “I can do that,” Anne answered. “We both know Mary will pitch a fit if she’s asked to leave.”

  “Why would I be asked to leave?” Mary asked, her hands full of chips and candy.

  “I thought you were going to stay downstairs?” Anne tried to redirect her sister’s attention.

  “I got bored. And lonely.” Pulling a bottle out of her purse, she passed the soda to Charles. “Drink?” she asked Derek.
>
  “Water?”

  Wrinkling her nose, she pulled a bottle out. “Anne told me to get some.” Turning back to Charles. “Now, why would anybody ask me to leave?”

  “Well,” he drawled, “waiting hours will be ending soon and only two people are allowed to stay, and only one of them in the room.”

  “Who is staying?”

  “Me and Derek.”

  “Why Derek? Who is he to Isa?” Mary sneered. “Certainly not a family member.”

  “He’s her boyfriend,” Charles stated as if it was fact.

  Derek blanched at the words. He’d certainly never made things official with her. Everybody else saw what they wanted to see. And, he glanced at Anne, didn’t see what negated their agendas.

  “Derek can’t be anymore more useful than Anne is,” Mary dismissed her sister as well, forgetting that Anne had helped save Isa’s life not five hours before.

  “Hey!”

  “Hey!” Glaring at his wife, he added, “Anne had enough presence of mind to calmly know what to do. She remembered to call 911 and those CPR classes she took after we learned about Charles Jr.”

  “Whatever,” Mary dismissed. “She can’t do anything now.”

  Closing her eyes, Anne handed a bag of Skittles to Derek, concerned about his blood sugar levels once she’d noticed how pale he’d gotten.

  “I’ll take Etta and Derek home,” she sighed, “and tell your parents.”

  “I can drive,” Derek protested, handing the bag back to her.

  “Not until you eat something and the food court is closed.”

  “We’ll stop by and get some fast food on the way.”

  Pushing the candy at him again, Anne gave him a look. “I’m driving until you look better.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Anne leaned back in the passenger seat of her car while Derek took his shift during the long drive home. She had checked on Etta, passed out in the back seat, before speaking up.

  “Do you ever feel as if you are a character in a book?”

  Derek didn’t even glance at her, thinking his own thoughts when he asked, “Antagonist or protagonist?”