by Joy Elbel
Just as Shelly finished shredding what was a dreadful song to begin with, the radio went silent as my dad pulled the vehicle off to the right and cut the engine. Painted in a gaudy pastel pink and blue color scheme, there in front of us stood the All American Diner. Their food better have more taste than their decorators. I tucked a sleeping Mimi into her carrier without waking her and got out of the car. I walked up to the door slowly behind Dad and Shelly, all the while wanting to push them aside to get my hands on even a single soggy piece of toast. Hunger, like horizontal stripes, was something that did not look good on me.
The inside of the diner was just as garish as the outside—all done in a pastel pink and blue with an in-your-face 1950’s style. A jukebox sat to the right of the front doors, pulsating in a rainbow palette of liquid color while an old be-bop tune pumped through the speakers. The booths alternated between pink and blue and the floor was a classic black and white checkerboard. Various bits of nostalgia littered nearly every inch of the pale blue walls—fake gold records, old movie posters, and ads for obscure products everywhere. The waitresses were all dressed in poodle skirts and ponytails, the waiters in cuffed jeans and slicked back hair. I felt instant sympathy for any poor soul stuck working there.
A hostess dressed like Lucille Ball showed us to an empty booth in the back corner, people waving and calling my dad’s name as we walked. My dad was outgoing and one of those people who made instant friends. He was someone everyone else liked. I, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. I always did my best to hide, to not make eye contact with anyone. For some twisted reason, I had this theory that if I didn’t look at someone they wouldn’t be able to see me either. Weird, I know, but the honest truth. Oddly enough, it even seemed to work. I was a ghost, really, but happy that way.
As soon as I knew where we were sitting, I asked where the restrooms were. ‘Lucy’ pointed to the opposite side of the restaurant and I nearly ran into ‘Elvis’ in my haste for a toilet. As hungry as I was, my bladder required immediate attention. If there was even the slightest chance of me fitting in here, peeing my pants in the middle of a restaurant would squash that hope for sure.
“Wait for me,” called Shelly from behind me. I pretended not to hear her and just kept going. I’m seventeen—I can go potty all by myself, thanks. I survived thirteen years without a mother, what made her think I needed one now?
After expelling about a gallon of urine—I should not have had two cans of diet soda before leaving Trinity—I emerged from the stall and took a good look at myself in the mirror. And trust me—there really wasn’t anything good about it.
My hair was a total wreck. I tied it into a ponytail that morning because I was tired and I wasn’t thinking straight. You know how some girls look so awesome in ponytails? Yeah, well I wasn’t one of those girls. I took the tie out of my hair and went about the task of combing it out straight. My hair was naturally curly. I mean, really curly, so straightening was a daily ritual for me. But without my flat iron and only a comb and some anti-frizz cream—which I never went anywhere without—I had my work cut out for me. I analyzed the rest of the damage in the mirror as I worked on my hair.
My hazel eyes were bloodshot and rimmed in red from all of the tears I cried in the cemetery that morning. My usual fair yet creamy complexion was blotched and puffy, my lips dry. Not that there was any reason to care. I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend—ever—and there probably weren’t any boys worth dating within a three county radius. In a town like this, they were all probably dumb jocks anyway. Like Mr. Tight Pants himself, Number 7. But I knew that Shelly would notice if I looked as pathetic as I felt and I certainly didn’t need another sit-down with her and my dad about how worried they were about me. They really needed to stop watching every episode of Intervention in late night reruns. Maybe they needed an intervention on intervening.
I finished my hair, paying extra attention to the one lock of deep ruby red that stood out brightly against the rest of my raven black hair. The red was fakebut the black was natural. My dad was a curly, sandy blond—I got my hair color from my mother. I would probably be the only girl in this town with unnatural highlights but I was used to being different by now. With a light dusting of blush and some extreme shine lip gloss, I actually looked half human by the time I was done. Bladder, hair, and face in check, it was time to go take care of my stomach. I just might order something other than scrambled eggs and bacon. Yes, it was time for a little change. And Shelly thought she knew me so well.
I left the restroom wondering how I got lucky enough to dodge her for more than five minutes when she seemed so intent on following me. As soon as I saw our table, I had my answer. A tall thin man wearing khakis and a green polo shirt was having an animated conversation with my dad. From the looks of it, they knew each other well. I tried to slide into my seat without being noticed. No such luck.
“Ruby, I want to introduce you to someone. This is Andy Bash, my best friend from high school.” We’d only been in Charlotte’s Grove for fifteen minutes but I could already see how happy Dad was to be back here. I got the feeling that he actually enjoyed high school. He must have been popular back then, too. How did someone so likeable end up with a daughter like me?
“Nice to meet you, Ruby. You can call me Andy but I’m still Dr. Bash to you, Jason. You really think I only went to veterinary school because I was afraid you might make a better doctor than I would, don’t you?” he said with a devilish grin.
Andy’s charm wasn’t lost even on someone as gloomy as I was. I usually didn’t pay any attention to men my father’s age but there was something so lovable about that guy. While his clothing said ‘I play golf on my days off’ his personality told a much different story. He had a playful smile and he was simply oozing with fun. And though they were both the same age and their hair beginning to grow silver at the temples, Andy seemed so much younger than my dad. My love of animals, coupled with the fact that he was a veterinarian, sealed the deal. I liked very few people in this world but Andy was now included in that elite group.
A waitress named Laverne interrupted momentarily to deliver our drinks and scuttled away with a wink and a smile after I caught her taking a lingering glance at Andy’s backside. Seeing old people doing stuff like that was gross but for some reason I smiled back anyway. I glanced down to see what she placed in front of me. Orange juice. My favorite. Shelly must have ordered it for me thinking she could score some points with me just for knowing my favorite breakfast beverage. Whatever. It was closer to lunchtime anyway and I was in the mood for milk.
Dad and Andy continued to exchange a few good natured insults but I blocked out the conversation with my thoughts. Dad seemed so happy here. Why couldn’t I be happy again, too? But I already knew the answer to that question. True love. True love was why I would never be happy again. He couldn’t have loved my mom as much as I loved Lee or he never would have even dated Shelly let alone marry her. Yes, true love was the source of my misery and I was going to embrace it by remembering every last moment with Lee. Over and over again.
“Ruby is a big animal lover, Andy, so I’m sure she’ll agree with you that your profession is even nobler than mine.”
The sound of my name startled me out of my trance and I nearly knocked my glass of unwanted orange juice over as I returned to reality. Cold. Hard. Reality. The reality that it was a year later and I was in a new town and distance wasn’t the only thing separating me from my true love.
A sly smile slid across Dr. Bash’s face as he lounged casually against the booth beside my dad. “Well Ruby, if you love animals you should come volunteer at the shelter. We’ve had tremendous success since we expanded a few months ago but we’re always short on helping hands. We could really use you. We have a couple of kids your age who are there on a regular basis every summer. You could make some friends now so that you’re not totally alone when school goes back in session. What do you think—are you game?”
While the thought of scooping poop
for three months for free wasn’t the most appealing way to spend the summer before my senior year, it would at least give me something to do until fall. Something besides milking cows, that is.
As new chief of staff at Baker Regional Medical Center, my father already warned us that he would be working a lot for the first few months. And as much as I hated spending time with Shelly, she was going to be pretty busy, too. She was working on her final novel in the Cinnamon Jones Mystery Series and had a strict writing schedule so she could be sure to meet her deadline. And let’s face it—this wasn’t Trinity. I wouldn’t be able to take a bus into the city to hang out at a museum or a mall if I got bored. It would be nice to at least know a few people before the semester started. There had to be misfits in this town and popular kids didn’t spend their summers volunteering, they spent them partying. At the very least, I would make some animal friends—cats don’t judge you the way people do. Getting out of the house would get Dad and Shelly off of my back—and, well, that would be freakin’ priceless.
“I’ll do it!” I told Andy once I realized it really was a good idea. “When do you want me to start?” I could tell by the look on his face that my dad was shocked that I said yes so quickly. I’d always been shy around new people and had a hard time making new friends. Actually, Lee was really my only friend for years so I spent the last year completely alone. It was hard to break free from the mold the other kids put me in so many years ago. Weirdo, loser, freak—I was all of those and more. At least here I had a chance to be something different. Someone different. Charlotte’s Grove was a clean slate—no preconceived notions of who I was.
“Well, you’ll need a few days to settle in here I imagine, so how does Monday sound? 10 am?” Andy asked. Then he decided to pour on the charm. “But you can drive on over today if you want!” he said with a wink.
Drive. I didn’t have my driver’s license yet. I even let my learner’s permit expire. How depressing! How was I going to get around here? Things would be fine if we lived in town, but what if we lived out in the woods somewhere? Shelly must have read my mind—sometimes I swore she could—because she posed an interesting question.
“Is the shelter near our place?” Yeah, exactly where was our place, anyway? “Ruby doesn’t have her license yet.”
“Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem. Rachel drives past there on her way to the shelter every day. I’ll talk to her about picking you up. I’m sure she’ll say yes and everyone in town knows where Ro….”
Dad cut Andy off abruptly with a loud fake cough, the kind you give when someone is about to say something you don’t want them to say. When they are about to blab a huge secret. Andy, though, looked thoroughly confused.
“Ruby doesn’t know yet. It’s kind of part of her birthday surprise,” my dad explained. My dad was just the kind of guy to think living on a farm would be an awesome birthday surprise. Great. There was probably a red milking stool with my name stenciled on it stashed somewhere in the barn for me to find. He would expect me to smile and get excited—not realizing it was like hunting for rotten Easter eggs in July.
“I see. And quite a surprise it’s going to be!” exclaimed Andy. “Well, I really need to head out. Shelly, nice to meet you and Jason, we’ll have to get together soon, talk about old times and stuff. Ruby, I’ll see you on Monday.” We said our goodbyes as Laverne took one more look at Andy and then took our orders. Everything on the menu looked so good but I went with the usual scrambled eggs and bacon. On a whim, I also ordered some toast—betcha Shelly didn’t see that one coming.
Once Andy was gone, I slowly felt the focus shift to me and I got that usual uncomfortable feeling of being ganged up on. Dad looked at me and asked, “So what do you want for your birthday, Ruby? You didn’t throw out hints months in advance like you used to. After we get settled, we can go shopping if you want.”
“I don’t know,” I said taking a sip of orange juice and wishing it was milk. Dad’s face fell. He wanted me to be happy and perfect all the time and when I wasn’t, he seemed to take it personally. Dad and I used to get along great. Sure, we would argue about how much time I spent with Lee sometimes but for the most part, our relationship was good. For some reason, though, things changed between us after the accident. None of it made sense to me. I don’t know why but everything he said to me felt forced and he made me angry at the drop of a hat. Sometimes, I got the feeling that he didn’t even want to look at me. It wasn’t a good feeling.
Shelly hurriedly changed the subject. “Once we get settled, we need to get you another learner’s permit. Every girl your age needs her driver’s license. I remember the day I got mine like it was yesterday,” she reminisced wistfully.
I almost cracked a joke insinuating that it actually was yesterday but I thought better of it and took another sip of juice instead. Shelly was 10 years younger than my dad and when they first started dating, I made quite a few not so nice references to the age difference between them. Now that I was fully awake, I was ready for a little conflict. It was going to take a bottomless glass to stop me from eventually commenting. Just as I was about to let her have it, our meals arrived and my need for food overrode my desire to make snide comments. She was lucky. For now.
After the meal, I moved sluggishly to the door—a full five steps behind my dad and stepmother. My burst of wakefulness was completely gone and now that I was full, I felt like taking a nap of post-Thanksgiving meal proportions. I just wanted to get the whole day over with. I would take a minute to scrutinize the new house, point out why my childhood home was better. In our old place, I had my own bathroom and an awesome window seat where I spent countless hours reading and daydreaming. I missed that window seat already. Would there be a place like that for me in the new house? A place I could call my own? My heart sank as I realized there would be a place for me there—and it was called a hay loft.
I was so distracted by thoughts of whether or not it would be possible to redecorate a hay loft to an acceptable condition that I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt a light tap on my left shoulder. But this was definitely no ordinary tap—a pulse of current moved straight through my shoulder and into my chest and I felt like I‘d just been struck by the sweetest lightning Thor had to offer. A warm tingling sensation spread into my body and I felt—alive. What just happened? If that’s what it felt like to be electrocuted, I was adding ‘electric chair’ to the list of things I would need for the hay loft. Do they make them in any color other than black?
Then, a soft, husky voice drifted into my ear, “Wait, I have the key to your heart.”
Something froze inside of me instantly, mid-tingle. Lee was the only person who knew what affect that phrase would have on me and for a split second, I thought maybe it was him. But it couldn’t be Lee. Lee was gone forever and this stinging reminder made me furious. How dare he get my hopes up like this! Whoever was behind me, he had me confused with someone else. I turned around angrily to let him know that.
I don’t know what I expected to see when I turned around, but I was not prepared for what I actually saw. A thousand years wouldn’t have been enough time to prepare for him. The mere sight of him knocked the harsh words I had in mind right off of my lips. He was gorgeous—a beautiful, blond Norse god. He was quite a bit taller than me—about 5’ 10”—with a broad, muscular chest that fit just perfectly into his black tee shirt. His eyes were a brilliant ice blue that flooded straight into my soul. From his body, you would have thought he was easily into his twenties but his face was that of a teen, still soft and slightly rounded. A light scar showed across the bridge of his nose where it looked as if it once was broken. There was something about this one imperfection, though, that somehow made him even more perfect—if that were even possible. He smiled down at me and I thought I was going to melt straight through the cracks in the tile floor.
“I have the key to your heart,” he repeated quietly.
The words burned into me with a fire I never felt before. It was
like the universe came to a halt around us. Like everyone in the world were holding their breath so as not to miss my reply. I could feel my face getting hotter by the second and I knew from experience that it was probably a deep shade of scarlet by now. He held out his fist and slowly opened his fingers. A small silver charm in the shape of a key lay in the center of his palm. That charm was from my bracelet, the one Lee gave me for my birthday one year ago exactly. On the day he died.
I wasn’t the kind of girl who went weak in the knees over just anyone but this beautiful stranger had me mesmerized. I wanted to thank him for returning my charm but I was afraid to open my mouth for fear that something really dorky would come out. Or worse yet, nothing at all. I could see myself standing there, mouth wide open like a dummy without a ventriloquist. I averted my eyes from his steady gaze thinking it might be easier to talk if I wasn’t looking directly at him.
Once I lowered my eyes, I felt even more self-conscious at the realization that I was still wearing Shelly’s ugly flip flops, and said, “Hey, thanks.” I tried my best to sound calm and uninterested but it came out much too fast. Anyone with a pulse would have seen how nervous I was. But someone as gorgeous as he was had to be used to this kind of reaction, right? I couldn’t be the only girl who ever embarrassed herself in front of him, probably not even the first one today. Yet that thought did nothing to comfort me.
He lowered his head and leaned forward, looked straight into my eyes and said, “You’re welcome. I was walking behind you and saw it fall off of your bracelet. My sister has one just like it. Her boyfriend gave it to her for Christmas and it means a lot to her. I figured your boyfriend gave you that one and you wouldn’t want to lose it.” His foot began to tap quickly against the tile floor. “It was, wasn’t it…from your boyfriend, I mean?”