by Nicki Elson
“Hey,” D said softly, turning her face toward his with a gentle hand. She looked straight into his blue eyes. “I think that’s great. I really do. I like to take it slow when I’m with someone special. Not everyone understands that.”
Jen continued staring into the steely blue. She found herself once again wondering if he was real.
“A lot of girls get, like, insulted if I don’t rip their clothes off within the first couple of weeks.” His mouth turned up at one corner. “I knew you were different. I could just tell. I’m so glad you told me.”
Jen giggled and laid her face against his broad shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her and squeezed her to him. “Don’t ever let me do anything you’re not ready for, okay?”
“Okay.”
After a few moments of comfortable silence, D asked, “Have you ever been in love?”
“No, never.” She lifted her chin and rested it on his chest, looking at him.
D peered down at her with the most tender of expressions. “Do you think you could love me?”
“I’m on my way.”
He brushed his fingertips down the side of her throat as if it were made of fine, breakable china. He kissed her as if her tongue were made of delicate glass. She’d just told him she wouldn’t sleep with someone unless she was in love with him, and then she’d said she’d never been in love. By the way he held her like a fragile heirloom, Jen had a good suspicion he’d taken that to mean she was still a virgin.
No way would she ruin their perfect moment by explaining her lessons with David. She didn’t want to know about D’s past experience, either. None of that mattered. They were together now, and they were taking it slow.
***
Jen, Marcy, and Joe had been working on a group project for U.S. Government and History for the past few weeks. Their report was about Springfield, the capital of Illinois, during the years Abraham Lincoln had lived there. They decided to add color to their research by taking selfies at actual places where Lincoln had once stood. Their two-hour road trip to Springfield was set for the second Saturday in December.
Despite having a class with David, it seemed Jen saw him less often than ever before. He made a rare appearance in class during the week of the trip. By design, Jen exited through the doorway at the same time he did. “Hi,” she said.
“Hey.” He kept walking and Jen fell in step beside him.
“What’s your topic for your end-of-term project?” she asked, wanting more than just a hey.
“Illinois governmental structure and politics today versus 1850.”
“Sounds thrilling. Who’re you working on it with?”
“I work alone,” David answered, starting down the stairs at the end of the hall. Jen needed to go in a different direction, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a small detour. She didn’t want to give up without eking a decent conversation out of him.
“Maybe you could make your report more interesting with an onsite visit to the Illinois State Capitol Building.”
“I was thinking about that.”
At the bottom of the stairs, Jen swung in front of him, stopping his forward motion. “My group’s going to Springfield this Saturday. You should come with us.”
“If I go, I’ll drive myself.” He sidestepped to get past her.
She blocked him. “No offense, but your car’s never going to make it that far. You said yourself it’s a local car. It doesn’t even have a passenger door.”
“I got one put on.”
“How?”
“Junkyard dot com.”
“Fine. So you have a door, but that’s not going to help your car make it all the way to Springfield.”
“Then I won’t go.” This time he took a bigger side step and got around her.
When he was a few feet down the hall, Jen called after him, “Are you mad at me?” The quaver in her voice surprised her.
David stopped and turned around, looking at her with his dark eyebrows pulled together in question.
“Why don’t you want to go on the road trip with me? Why won’t you even stand here and talk to me?” It sucked to feel shut out by him. She blinked back the stinging at the corners of her eyes.
He let out a slow exhale. “I’m sorry. I’m just in a hurry for class. I’m not mad at you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“You’ll come to Springfield, then?”
David broke into a smile and shook his head. “You’re relentless.”
“So there’s no point in trying to resist.” The hurt she’d felt moments ago subsided now that he was smiling. “Text me your address and we’ll pick you up Saturday at eight AM.”
***
Marcy’s parents had bought her a new Honda Accord as an early graduation gift. They reasoned that it made more sense for her to get a reliable car now so she could drive herself to job interviews. Jen and Joe completely agreed with that rationale and wished their own parents had been so logical. Marcy picked Jen up first and then Joe, who hopped into the back.
As they drove to David’s house on the sunny, snowless day, Joe announced, “FYI, I’m not sitting back here with another dude while there are two perfectly doable females in the car.”
Marcy squinted at his reflection in the rearview mirror. “You’re not going to do either one of us, Joe.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he replied.
Jen and Marcy rolled their eyes at each other, and when they stopped in front of David’s little white house, Jen got out and switched places with Joe. As they drove, Marcy told Joe she hadn’t figured out how to use the car’s GPS yet and handed him printed directions, asking him to tell her when they got close to the turnoff for Springfield.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“Heading toward Decatur on one-twenty-one, north,” Marcy said.
“Huh,” Joe grunted, flipping to the second page and turning it around to look at the blank back page before flipping it again and running his fingers down the list of instructions.
“We should be right around… “Marcy glanced from the road to the papers. “Joe! What did you do? It’s all yellow.”
“I’ve been eating Cheetos since we left campus; what did you expect?”
“God, Joe!” Marcy grabbed the yellow-splotched papers and thrust them back to Jen and David. “Can you guys find it?”
Jen grabbed the papers and looked, but was repulsed by the gooey, yellow residue covering it. “Joe!”
“You’re so disgusting,” Marcy grumbled.
“Thanks, Marce. That makes me feel real good about myself.” Joe crunched on another Cheeto.
“Why do we even hang out with him?” Jen said to Marcy and then looked at David, who seemed to be holding back a laugh. “Glad you think this is funny, but I’m not touching that stuff.” She shoved the papers onto his lap.
“I could use a little breakfast, anyway,” David said.
“Ew,” the girls moaned in unison. Joe turned around to give David a crusty high five.
While Jen and David bent over the directions and called out instructions to Marcy, Jen noticed the skin on David’s fingers was dry to the point that his cuticles were cracked. “You could use a serious manicure,” she told him.
David ran his thumb along the base of his fingernails. “I guess it’s from working with all of those chemicals.”
“Don’t you wear gloves or anything?”
“I do, but they suck the moisture right out.”
“I’ve got lotion in my purse. After we get Marcy rolling on seventy-two, you’re getting a treatment.”
During the last leg of the trip, the four of them were quiet, zoning out with their own thoughts and listening to a random selection of Marcy’s music. As promised, Jen massaged lotion into David’s rough, dry hands. While she worked the cream into each finger and cuticle, she thought about the way these hands had once touched her. The way they’d known exactly where to go and what to do.
Tiny pinpricks rushed
up her arms in tickling goose bumps. She flicked her gaze toward David and caught him staring at her. Something in his eyes told her his mind had traveled in the same direction. They exchanged small, shy smiles, and then Jen jerked her attention back to David’s calloused skin, shifting her thoughts to unsexy things like eczema.
Chapter 4
David took pictures of Jen, Marcy, and Joe in front of the Lincoln family home, the Lincoln-Herndon Law offices, and the Old State Capitol building in Springfield. At the Great Western Depot, from where Lincoln had departed Springfield for the White House in 1861, Jen scribbled a quote from his farewell address. It would make an excellent ending to their report: To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.
Jen had thought of the road trip as a corny joke, but as she stood in these places where the great Abraham Lincoln had himself once been, she felt an awed respect for history. Their last stop was for David’s project at the new Illinois State Capitol building. Its magnificent silver dome was the centerpiece of the town.
The CIU crew took a free tour to see the House Chamber and the Senate Gallery where Illinois law was made. They also got a peek at the governor’s office. After the tour, Joe, Marcy, and Jen collapsed onto a bench in a long hallway, facing a mural featuring Marquette and Joliet. David stood farther down the hall, examining a different painting. When he caught up with the others, he said, “I want to run back upstairs to check out a couple of things. I won’t be long.”
“I’ll go with you.” Jen pulled herself off the bench, feeling like she ought to at least keep him company since she’d dragged him along on the excursion.
On the second floor, they read the captions beneath each former governor’s portrait. Then they trotted up to the third floor for a closer look at the stained glass dome and the bronzed frieze. David snapped a few more pictures. As they headed back down the staircase to rejoin their friends, David said, “Oh, wow. Look up.”
Jen tilted her head to see a crisp beam of sunlight piercing the dome just below its stained glass peak. The brilliant flash of white absorbed and softened the colors of the glass above, reaching out from the sky to inject its mystical force into this manmade structure—as if to prove that no matter how much beauty man could create by his own hands, that beauty would always be trumped by something bigger.
Jen gaped at the beam, transfixed by its magic. Distracted as she continued down the stairs, she stepped too close to the edge of the bottom step. Her foot gave out under her, snapping to the side, and she toppled, landing with a smack onto the marble floor.
“Are you okay?” David rushed to her, unsuccessfully stifling a laugh.
“Just humiliated.” She felt a sharp pain in her leg and winced. “I’m such a dork.”
David held out his hands to help her up. Jen grabbed onto them, but as soon as she put weight on her right foot, a jolt of hot pain shot up her leg. She gasped, lowering herself back to the floor. Involuntary tears sprang to her eyes. “That really hurt.”
David’s smile vanished. He knelt on the floor next to her and gently pushed up the hem of her jeans, pressing his hand along her skin. Her foot and ankle throbbed. She felt nauseated and sweaty, like she might throw up or pass out. David’s gaze flicked to her face. “You’re so pale. I think you might’ve broken something.” He moved behind her and let her lean on him.
“I’ll get some ice on it. It’ll be fine.” Jen heard the weakness in her voice.
“We need to get you to a hospital.”
“Let me try again,” Jen insisted, shifting her position to put weight onto her left leg. The tiny movement sent a new jolt of pain through her.
“Don’t move,” David warned. “If something’s broken, you could make it worse.”
“Go tell Joe and Marcy what happened. I’ll wait here.”
David started to pull away, but then he was back, with his arm around her shoulders. “I’m not leaving you.” Someone stepped into the circle and David called out, “Excuse me! Sir! We need help.”
The man looked over and David described Marcy and Joe and asked him to tell them to come. The man disappeared. A few minutes later, Marcy and Joe ran toward them.
“What happened?” Marcy sounded panicked.
“She tripped on the stairs. I think she broke something,” David said.
“You’re such a spaz.” Joe shook his head.
“Should we call an ambulance?” Marcy asked.
“No!” Jen pictured a SWAT team of paramedics storming the capitol building and drawing more attention to her clumsiness. “I’ll just…maybe with one of you on either side, it won’t hurt so bad.”
“We’ll try,” said David. “But if it feels like we’re doing more damage, you better tell us.”
Jen nodded.
“Marcy, why don’t you pull the car up to the entrance, and Joe and I’ll walk her there.”
“Got it.” Marcy dashed away.
David and Joe crouched next to Jen, and she wrapped an arm over each of their shoulders. The guys gingerly lifted Jen to standing position. With her right leg bent to keep pressure off her foot, the pain was manageable. They made their way to the entrance, and against Jen’s protests, Marcy drove them to the emergency room at the closest hospital.
After filling out paperwork in the waiting room, Jen was taken to a small room where a lanky doctor examined her and ordered X-rays. An orderly navigated her wheelchair down a busy hallway to radiation and then back to the stark examination room. While she waited for results, her friends were allowed to join her.
“I’m so sorry, you guys,” Jen said.
“It’s not like you planned it.” Marcy cupped her hand over Jen’s shoulder.
“I shouldn’t have told you to look up while we were walking down stairs,” David said.
“Look. I’m Mickey Mouse.” Joe held inflated examination gloves to the cuffs of his sleeves and waved them up and down. In a high-pitched voice, he sang, “M-I-C-K—“
The ER doctor entered, holding translucent images of Jen’s bones. “You’ve broken your ankle. Most of the time, we can treat that with a simple splint, but this wasn’t a clean break.” He paused, giving Jen a sober look. “I can’t reset it here. You’re going to need an operation.”
“Operation?” Jen gasped.
“I’m afraid so,” the doctor said. “I understand you’re from out of town, so you have a few options. We can, of course, perform the surgery at this hospital or you can elect to make arrangements to go somewhere closer to home. I highly recommend you have the surgery as soon as possible, before the bones start to heal incorrectly.”
“I’ll need to talk with my parents.” She suddenly felt like a small child, lost and alone.
“Certainly.” He handed her a form and a business card. “Sign this to give me permission to go over the details with them. They can reach me at the number on the card.”
“Okay.” Jen nodded.
Jen’s mom was home when she called and naturally became concerned after Jen had delivered the news. Mrs. Whitney said she’d talk to Jen’s dad and they’d speak with the doctor. A nurse shoed David, Marcy, and Joe out of the crowded exam room. They went to the waiting room to pull out their book bags and work on their projects while waiting to see what happened with Jen, taking turns checking in with her.
After a couple of hours, Jen reported that her father had arranged for her to have surgery the next day in Springfield. An orthopedic surgeon had been highly recommended by a doctor friend of Mr. Whitney’s. Her mother wanted to head down to Springfield right away, but since Mr. Whitney had an important client dinner that night, Jen convinced her mother to wait and drive down with her dad the next morning.
She’d meant every word, but after her mother had agreed and they’d hung up, Jen felt like an orphan. Next it was time to convince her friends, who’d gathered around her again, that they should also abandon her. “You guys should get back to campus. My parents will be here tomorrow, and they’ll take it from there.”
“I don’t know…” Marcy said.
“It’s not like they’re going to give me a room with four beds, so what would you do—sleep in the waiting room? I’ve already wasted enough of your time. Please don’t make me feel worse by sticking around any longer. Go!” Jen fought to keep her voice from breaking. She hated the thought of being left alone with a bunch of strangers.
Marcy still looked doubtful, and even Joe seemed reluctant.
“You guys should definitely go,” David said. “Like she said, the hospital can’t accommodate all of us. I’m the one who made her fall, so I’ll stay. I’m sure there’ll be a comfortable chair or something I can sleep in.”
“No way, David. You go, too,” Jen said.
He turned his penetrating, dark eyes on her. “I’m not leaving you.” It wasn’t an offer. It was a non-negotiable statement. Jen couldn’t stop the grateful tear that rolled down her cheek when she smiled at him.
After several hugs and multiple inquiries of, “Are you sure?” from Marcy and a “Good luck, dudette. You’re still gonna have to write your part of the paper when you get back,” from Joe, they left. Soon after Jen was transferred to a regular room, happy to see the warm décor and a sofa bed for David.
The surgeon Jen’s father had spoken to came in to introduce himself and give Jen the rundown of what would happen the next day. David asked a few questions about pain and recovery, and Jen listened, still not absorbing that all of this was about her. The doctor left the nurse with a prescription for pain medication, which Jen gladly swallowed. The throbbing in her leg calmed, and she became drowsy.
“I need to tell my roommates and D where I am,” she murmured in a thick, sleepy voice.
“I’ll call.” David rubbed his thumb across her forehead, looking down at her.
“Thanks,” Jen said, settling back on her pillow and telling him to use her phone.