Immortal Secrets

by Jerry Moore

  Jenny put her hand out. “Just calm down, Lisa. That’s not true. In fact, that is sort of what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Why? Did you find some reason why I can’t see Jeff now?”

  “Listen, I don’t know what you and your friends did last night. The problem is that it is much harder to keep you safe while you are running all over Lubbock and we have no idea where you are going.”

  “Is that why I was able to spot the marshals following me last night?”

  “They were surprised by you leaving the hospital. There was no easy way for them to keep up. That’s why I am asking you to stay home more.”

  “And give up any sort of social life? I am not going to let you or the Demarco’s dictate how I live my life.”

  “Slow down. I was going to say that I don’t know what was going on with your friends. Whatever it was, you could have done it here. You are the key witness in a major mob trial. I am prepared to look the other way for almost anything.”

  “What are you talking about? What do you think we were doing?”

  “Here’s the bottom line. I need you safe. If that means letting you do drugs in this house, throw wild drunken parties, or sleep with the entire football team, then so be it. If you don’t want me here when your friends are here, then I will leave and sit down the street in my car.”

  “What brought all of this on?”

  “When I first realized that you weren’t going to come home last night, I was furious. If you really were my niece, you would be so grounded right now. But you’re not my niece. I realized that it’s not my job to judge you or tell you how to behave. I only have one job and that is to keep you alive until you can testify.”

  I hated that she was being nice to me. “Alright, I’m sorry I said you didn’t want me to have any friends. If it’s any consolation, I didn’t do any drugs, drink any alcohol, or sleep with half the football team or anyone else, for that matter. I was just really pumped up that Brenda was doing better and wanted to celebrate with everyone.”

  “So, we’re okay?”

  “Yeah, but it sucks that I can’t go visit Brenda.”

  “I tell you what; I’m not supposed to talk to the local cops. But I do have a friend in Dallas who could ask them about Brenda’s situation and keep me updated. I’m sure there is an active investigation into her assault. My friend can probably make up some reason why the Justice Department is interested.”

  I tried to smile. “You know, for a cop, you’re actually pretty nice.”

  For the second day in a row, I had missed school. I promised myself that I would make it to school tomorrow. Besides, it was going to be a Friday. That meant History class with Jeff and Allison. It was also taught by my new favorite professor, although Dr. Greene really hadn’t had that much to say to me.

  He seemed like one of those quiet types. The ones neighbors always talk about after they do something horrible. I could just see one of his neighbors talking about how they never would have thought Dr. Greene was capable of killing a bus load of cheerleaders.

  The day wasn’t a total loss. About seven o’clock Jeff called and said he was coming over. I made sure that Jenny knew he was coming. It was time to find out if she was really serious about my friends being welcome. Jenny agreed to being conveniently gone by the time Jeff arrived. I was finally going to have a rare chance to get Jeff alone.

  I heard a knock at the door a little after seven thirty. I looked through the peephole in the door and saw Jeff standing there with another bouquet of flowers. A girl could get used to getting flowers all the time. Of course, there were plenty of things about Jeff that I could get used to. I opened the door and invited Jeff in. I took him by the hand and led him into the living room. He sat on the couch while I found some water for my beautiful flowers.

  Having put my flowers in a vase, I came and sat down next to Jeff. “So, how is everything now? Anything exciting happen to you today?”

  Jeff took my hand. “Not up until right now. Seeing you is the highlight of my day.”

  I moved in closer to him. “You’re the highlight of my day and hopefully, my night.”

  Jeff started to kiss me but stopped. “Where is Jenny, and how is she going to take it if she walks in on us?”

  I put a finger on his lips. “It’s okay, she’s not here. We have an understanding.”

  “What sort of understanding?”

  I started unbuttoning his shirt. “She understands that she may need to stay gone all night.”

  Jeff gently pushed me away. “I’m not going to spend the night, unless it is on this couch. I’m not going to sleep with you, Lisa.”

  “You don’t want me?”

  “It isn’t like that. Of course I want you. You are an incredibly desirable woman.”

  “Is it because of my past? I’m not that girl anymore. I swear that you are the only man I want to be with.”

  “Lisa, I don’t question your sincerity or your faithfulness.”

  “Is this about your wife?”

  “No, it’s about right and wrong. We’re not married. It would be a sin for us to make love.”

  I could feel the tears forming. “I have feelings for you. Isn’t that enough?”

  “It is enough for me as a man. But I answer to a higher calling. Oh, I am tempted and it would be so easy to give in.”

  I wiped a tear from my face. “I’ve never had a guy tell me no before. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should be thankful that I am with a guy that isn’t try to pressure me into sleeping with him.”

  Jeff wiped another tear from my face. “If what we have is real and the kind of love that lasts, then we will wind up in bed together. I just can’t sleep with you until we are husband and wife.”

  “One last question. Did you sleep with your wife before you were married?”

  He tried to give me a smile. “No, I didn’t. But tonight was the most tempting offer I have ever received.”

  “I promise, I’ll try to be good. I just realized how selfish I am being. You may not be ready for a physical relationship yet. I never even asked how long ago you lost your wife. I know that is kind of personal and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  He put his arms around me. “I will tell you anything you want to know. When you say my wife, I assume you mean my last wife.”

  I snuggled up to him. “How many times have you been married?”

  “I have been married eleven times.”

  “Wow, ever been divorced?”

  “No, I don’t believe in divorce. It’s ‘til death do us part.”

  “Have you ever cheated on any of your wife’s?”

  “No, I can’t say that I have never been tempted. You have to understand that where the two of us are right now is the easy part. We look like we are the same age. It got more difficult as the years go by in most of my marriages. My wives got older while I stayed the same.”

  “I never even thought about that part of it. When I’m forty, you’ll still look like you’re twenty one. I’ll be able to pass for your mother.”

  We were just getting into a good conversation when there was a knock on the door and Jenny walked in. “Hope everyone is decent.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “Unfortunately, we are.”

  She looked down at the floor. “I have some news and I didn’t want you to hear about it somewhere else and be surprised.”

  I looked up at her. “What sort of news?”

  “Well, it’s about Brenda. She dropping all the charges against her husband and refusing to cooperate with the police,” Jenny said.

  It took me a second to realize what she was saying. “So, her husband just gets to go free?”

  Jenny nodded her head. “My buddy in Dallas says that there is just not enough evidence without Brenda’s testimony. He is also hearing that Brenda may have been paid off by her soon to be former in-laws.”

  I couldn’t believe it. “Why would she take their money?”

&n
bsp; “My buddy thinks it is because she knew that when she divorces him, she will be out on the street without a dime to her name. The Robison family is kind of a big deal here in Lubbock. They are into real estate on a bigger scale than anyone else in town. There has even been talk of Brenda’s father-in-law running for mayor”, Jenny said.

  I felt disgusted. “So, this is all boils down to politics?”

  “Of course it comes down to politics. It always does”, Jeff said.

  With Jenny’s entrance and subsequent bombshell, the mood was broken. The three of us sat around and talked about Brenda’s reasons for not pressing charges against her husband. I liked to think it was because a part of her still loved him and didn’t want him to go to jail. I can’t really say for sure that I wouldn’t do the same thing in her place. Even if her husband went to jail, Brenda would probably be penniless and out on the street.

  It would be nice to think that Brenda could take her husband to court and get half of everything he owned. The problem was that families with money usually had a pre-nuptial agreement in place before any of their children get married. There was little doubt that Brenda would never get her fair share in a divorce.

  Jeff stayed until about ten o’clock. We were at a little bit of an impasse. Jeff was determined to be a perfect gentleman and I was having a hard time keeping my hands off of him. Why wasn’t anything in my life ever easy?

  Once Jeff was gone, I went back to my room and pretended to study. I’m not sure why I even bothered; I hadn’t been to school in two days and was now behind in all my classes. Of course, school didn’t exactly seem like it was a pressing issue with everything else I had going on right then.

  Jenny came into my room for yet another talk. This seemed to happening a lot lately. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry if I interrupted anything between you and Jeff. I just thought you would want to know about Brenda.”

  I looked up from my history book. “It’s no problem. You didn’t interrupt anything except Jeff telling me that he had no intention of spending the night.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Wow, I’m a little surprised by that. In the couple of weeks since we’ve been in Lubbock, I haven’t seen a single young lady that could hold a candle to you. I thought he would jump at the chance to sleep with you.”

  “Yeah well, Jeff has a character flaw that I really haven’t seen in other men. He actually has morals. Apparently, he feels that sex is only allowed between a husband and a wife.”

  “I guess that makes you a very lucky girl.”

  “How do you figure I am lucky, when I’m sleeping alone tonight?”

  “You have known Jeff for like two weeks. You’re a beautiful woman that made sure he knew he was welcome to spend the night. He said no and went home because he thought it was the right thing to do.”

  “So how does that make me lucky?”

  “You have a man that you can trust. If he’ll turn you down, you can bet he’s not going to cheat on you when you’re not around. I wish I could say that about most of the men I’ve dated.”

  I smiled. “That’s right; I have a man I can trust. Maybe you’re right about being lucky. I guess I’ve just never been with a good man before.”

  Chapter Ten

  I finally made it back to school on Friday. It seemed like everything was sorting itself out. Well, everything except for Brenda and her situation. I understood why Brenda was taking the money and letting her soon to be ex-husband off the hook. Still, my understanding it and liking it were two different things. I wanted her husband to have to pay for what he did to her.

  I walked into Holden Hall and headed for my History class. As I approached the classroom, I spotted Jeff and Allison standing outside the class. They appeared to be on the lookout for someone. I wasn’t surprised when that someone turned out to be me. As I walked up to them, Jeff took me by the arm.

  Jeff walked me around the corner. “Hey, we wanted to talk to you before class.”

  I frowned. “I don’t even get a hug or a kiss? I haven’t seen you in over eight hours.”

  Jeff kissed me. “Now can we talk?”

  I asked, “Well, since you asked so nicely. What’s up?”

  Allison seemed too impatient to wait for us to stop flirting. “Okay, here’s the deal. I can communicate with Jeff and Dr. Greene to some degree through my inspiration abilities. I can’t however, communicate with you.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, I know. I was going to ask about learning to do that.”

  Jeff squeezed my hand. “There is going to be a pop quiz in History over the reading assignment that was handed out on Wednesday when the three of us weren’t here. Have you read any of it?”

  I shook my head. “I tried, but they were just words on the page. I am so going to bomb this quiz.”

  “That’s the point. I don’t want you to even try to figure out the answer. Just wait for the answer to magically appear in your mind. Try to get a feel for how those thoughts are different than ones you usually have”, Allison said.

  I was still confused. “Different? How will they be different?”

  Allison put her hand on my shoulder. “I will send the answers to you. But Jeff and Dr. Greene swear that my suggestions feel a little bit different than thoughts that they naturally have.”

  “You wouldn’t notice it unless you were looking for it. After a while, you can just tell when Allison’s in your head. Most people would never even notice since they would never suspect anyone could do what Allison does”, Jeff said.

  The three of us went to history class, although Allison waiting for a minute or so before she headed for class. I guess she didn’t want to make it obvious that we were pals. We she did walk in, she was back to walking and acting like the snooty cheerleader she pretended to be. She even gave me that same dirty look that she usually gives me in History class.

  Sure enough, Dr. Greene announced a pop quiz over our reading assignment. He passed out the quizzes and told us that we could begin. I looked down at the questions and had absolutely no idea what the answers to any of the questions were. Suddenly I knew the answer to the first questions. A few seconds later I got a funny feeling in my head for a split second and then I knew the answer to the second question. I felt that feeling again and knew the answer to the third question.

  What did it feel like? It was that same feeling I get when I walk into a room to get something and then all of a sudden can’t remember what it was I wanted to get. There were ten questions on the quiz and one by one the answers popped into my mind. Each answer was preceded by that feeling in my brain. I finished my quiz and turned it in to Dr. Greene.

  Once I sat back down at my seat to wait for everyone else to finish, that feeling surfaced again. This time I felt like I should cough if I understood what had just happened and could tell when Allison was speaking to me. Of course, that thought was Allison speaking to me. I coughed. I looked over at Allison and she smiled. I realized that this was the first time I had ever cheated in school. Maybe Allison was a bad influence.

  As soon as class was over, I leaned over toward Jeff. “That was amazing.”

  He nodded. “She doesn’t always have to move her lips to say a lot.”

  I got out of History pretty fast due to the long walk to the English building. I arrived just in time for class. I hadn’t seen Carl in a few days. His eyes lit up when he saw me walk through the door and take my seat beside him. About half way through class he handed me a folder. I looked inside and found a copy of his notes from the class I had missed.

  I caught Carl after class. “Hey, thanks for the notes. I really appreciate it. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, just say the word.”

  He grinned. “Well, you could let me buy you lunch today.”

  I held up my hand. “Carl, I have a boyfriend.”

  He nodded his head. “I see. So this boyfriend has a thing about you not eating?”

  “I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’m good with you buying me l
unch.”

  “Lisa, I’m not blind and I’m not stupid.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean to make it sound like you were.”

  “Let me finish. I know I kind of look like a geek and everyone at this school can see that you are way out of my league. I get it. I wasn’t planning on trying to put the moves on you. Really, it’s just lunch.”

  “In that case, I accept your invitation.”

  Carl and I walked to the food court together. We made conversation as we went. Mostly Carl was filling me in on what I had missed in English. As it turns out, I really hadn’t missed that much. There was an essay due on Monday that I hadn’t even started but since this was Friday, I had all weekend to get it done.

  Once we made it to the food court, Carl transformed into the perfect gentleman. He opened all the doors for me. Carried both our trays of food to the table, and held my chair for me, while I sat down. It was obvious that Carl was trying to make a good impression.

  It felt good to just hang out with Carl. Everything had gotten so intense lately. My best friend was nearly beaten to death by her husband and now refuses to press charges. My boyfriend is an immortal hunk, my newest friend is also an immortal with the ability to mess with people’s minds, and of course there were still people out there trying to kill me. My home life really wasn’t that much better since it consisted of living with a federal marshal.

  I realized that I was thinking too much about myself. Was I completely self-centered or what? “So Carl, tell me something about yourself, what are you majoring in?”

  Carl sat up a little straighter. “I’m majoring in computer science.”

  Now why wasn’t I surprised that Carl was a computer geek? “Oh, so does Tech have a good computer department?”

  Carl shrugged. “It’s okay, nothing special.”

  “Well, I imagine the better programs are harder to get into.”

  “Well, in my case, they are just more expensive.”

  “I thought you really liked going to school here.”

  “Oh, I do like going to school here. It’s just that my parents are a long way from being wealthy or even middle class, for that matter. I am grateful for all the sacrifices they have made to even get me into school here.”