Life, Liberty, and Pursuit

by Susan Kaye Quinn

  Dearest David,

  I’ve missed you so much it makes my heart cry every time I go to sleep.

  Ack! True, but completely ridiculous. She crumpled it up, tossed it on the floor, and got out another sheet.

  Hi!

  How are you? I’m fine. Hope things are going well there! Good luck in Basic!

  Ugh! Pathetic—another one for the floor. She put her head in her hands, wondering how she could be so fantastically bad at this. Leaning her head back against the headboard, she slid her lifesaver ring back and forth on its chain. She thought of their time in the library, when they sat reading for hours that felt like minutes. She picked up her pen again.

  Dear David,

  I foolishly forgot to give you my address before. I don’t know if you’ll have any time to write, but I would love to hear about Basic Training. I know you’ve prepared well for it, and will be brilliant at it.

  Take Care,

  Eliza

  p.s. My address is Eliza Stanton, 432 Avalon Dr., Albuquerque NM 87107

  She hastily folded the letter up, sealed it into the envelope, and addressed it. She stared at it for a long time, sitting next to Tea’s letter. She sighed and took the two envelopes downstairs, placing them in the mailbox for the next day’s mail.

  Sending the letter, knowing he might respond, set her heart alight with hope. The next day came sooner than she would have thought. It helped that Monday was her first day with the summer campers, providing an excellent distraction. Instead of being depressed, she could be terrified about her lack of camp counselor skills. Eliza decided she preferred the terror to the gloominess.

  Addison kept reassuring her it would be easy, maybe even fun. At least they would be working together, running an all-day camp called Fairies and Fairytales. The brilliant sun blazed down, the temperature already well over ninety, as they pulled up to the YMCA. She was thankful their camp was going to be indoors. The program was for six- to ten-year-olds, but the campers were entirely seven-year-old girls, plus one boy. There was one girl, Lily, who attached herself to Eliza right away. Her blond curls bounced as she looked up at Eliza with pale blue eyes and practically begged her to read Garden Fairies, a slim book that she waved in front of her. Lily tugged on Eliza’s hand, pulling her to the carpet in the center of the room, and like gravity they attracted the other milling campers to sit and read. Addison threw her a smile as she scurried around getting supplies ready for an art project. As Eliza took in the circle of eager faces, she noticed one of the girls had very dark hair, almost the same color as David’s, only long and sleek. Eliza pushed away that thought and dove into the book, dramatically reading the various fairy voices. The campers listened, rapt. She silently thanked Lily for instinctively knowing what to do.

  “Miss Eliza!” Lily said when they were done. “Another one!”

  “I think Miss Addison is ready for our project.” Eliza rose up and guided them to the project stations that Addison had prepared. Eliza was certain the girls would be better crafters than her. Thank God, Addison was on top of this.

  The day went well, thanks to Addison’s preparations. When she saw Eliza had neglected to bring a lunch, Lily insisted on sharing her Teddy Grahams. The golden haired moppet was her constant companion throughout the day, and by the afternoon, Eliza was thinking of some things to bring the next day, just for her. Lily’s excitement was infectious.

  Eliza managed to survive the day, which surprised no one more than her. Even more of a surprise was how much she had enjoyed it. At the end of the day, she was assigned pickup-line duty. Waiting for the parents to arrive, clipboard and walkie-talkie in hand, she was sure she could handle this final task. Addison had talked her into going out for pizza later with some other camp counselors, and she was actually looking forward to it.

  The first car, a small red sports sedan that probably cost more than a year of tuition at Princeton, pulled up to the check-out spot. Pulling her eyes away from the car, she glanced at her clipboard and asked, “Name and class?”

  “Lily Hampton in Fairies and Fairytales,” said a deep, resonant voice that chilled her. She slowly looked up into the light blue eyes of the driver. Carter. What was he doing here? He smiled at her with a knowing look that rendered her speechless and angry at the same time. She felt the blood rising up in her face. She shook her head, looked away from him, and called into the microphone, “Lily Hampton—Fairies and Fairytales.” She just now pieced together that Lily, her Lily, must be Carter’s little sister.

  Carter’s smile had faded, apparently registering the anger in her face.

  “She’ll be here in a minute,” Eliza said, feeling frozen.

  “Eliza …” He stopped at the look on her face. There was nothing she wanted to hear from him. “How have you been?” he asked, his voice sounding more timid.

  “Fine.” Talking to him didn’t interest her either. Where was Lily?

  “Miss Eliza! Miss Eliza!” Lily called, breaking the tension and running around the car to throw her small arms around Eliza for a good-bye hug.

  “Lily, honey, be careful! You can’t run out in the parking lot like that!” Eliza admonished her gently. She couldn’t help who her big brother was.

  “But I wanted to give you a hug good-bye!”

  “Next time we’ll have our good-bye hugs before pickup, okay?”

  “Okay!” she sang. Eliza opened the back door for her and helped her climb in. Lily buckled herself up. Carter was watching them, and Eliza tried to ignore his stare, closing the door and stepping away.

  “It looks like you’ve made a new friend,” he said to her. Before she could respond, he added, “See you tomorrow, Miss Eliza!” A brilliant smile sprung on his face.

  “Bye, Miss Eliza!” Lily stuck her small hand out the window to wave as they drove away. A tight knot formed in Eliza’s stomach. Tomorrow?

  Later, she and Addison met up with the other counselors at Lorenzo’s for pizza. Addison could tell something was wrong, but the reserved Addison had come to dinner, bringing their friend Nicolas with her. She was surprised she hadn’t seen him before, having been home almost a week and a half. She wondered if Addison had said anything to keep him away. Probably not. His familiar brown tousled hair and warm brown eyes were comforting, and he seemed joyously happy to see her, as usual. She tried hard to muster a smile for him, and failed. He noticed.

  “What’s wrong?” Concern etched his sweet-natured face, bronzed darker than usual with the summer sun. Nicolas so obviously cared for her, and it was like tiny pinpricks in her heart. She thought wryly about what David had said, “Some poor guy Nicolas is out of the running …” If she had ever had any small doubts about her feelings for Nicolas, they were gone now that David had stepped into her life, thrilling and devastating her. Addison looked at her with arched eyebrows, no doubt curious if she would talk about David with Nicolas. She would dodge that at all costs.

  “Oh, I’m fine. I just saw Carter today in the pickup line.” Both Addison and Nicolas looked alarmed at that.

  “Is he harassing you? Just say the word, Eliza, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t.” The fierce chivalry in Nicolas’s eyes would have been funny if it wasn’t so terribly sweet—and she knew that he would do anything that she asked. She sighed.

  “No, no, it was fine. He just caught me off guard, is all. I haven’t seen him since … well, in a long time. He was nice, really.” She wanted to convince Nicolas that he didn’t need to go hunt Carter down or do anything crazy with that temper of his. Addison looked skeptically at her, and Nicolas looked like she shot his puppy. She added, “Addison, maybe you could work the pickup line tomorrow for me?”

  “Can do,” Addison said, and that seemed to satisfy them both, Addison more than Nicolas. At least that avoided the prospect of seeing Carter again tomorrow.

  * * *

 
David was back at the pier, vaguely aware that this must be the dream again. But it felt so real. He scanned the faces of the crowd, afraid he was too late. Where was she? First he saw the luggage, flying in different directions. Then he saw her, stumbling, looking like she might fall. He flew to her side, catching her arm to keep her from falling. Eliza grabbed him and hugged him, pulling all the breath out of him. He held onto her like he would never let her go. When she finally loosened her hold on him, he kissed her. There was so much pain mixed with passion in that kiss that he couldn’t speak. He had meant to say good-bye, but he couldn’t open his mouth without having all the torment spill out of him. He turned and walked away, feeling ripped in half.

  A shrieking whistle startled him awake. He bolted out of bed, barely missing the top bunk with his head and only grazing the top of his hair, which was short enough to stick straight out from his head. Only three days in, and at least he had gotten the hang of getting out of bed. He still had bruises from the first two days.

  “You have two minutes to strip your rack in accordance with RDC instructions!” Recruit Division Commander McMillan yelled at them as his fellow recruits scrambled to get dressed. RDC McMillan was short, loud, and not someone you wanted upset with you. In no time, David had his smurfs on—the gray sweat suit he had to wear that branded him a new recruit—in spite of his muscles screaming at him to lay back down on his rack and end the agony. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the 0600 sunlight leaking through the half-shuttered windows high above them. At least he was faring better than his bunkmate, who had spent a good part of last night throwing up in the infirmary. He didn’t look much better this morning, as he practically fell out of the top bunk. David felt sorry for him and mentally thanked Tomasz for the hundredth time since he arrived for the workouts. He had stopped thinking of them as brutal—more like gentle exercises with encouragements of brotherly love—unlike the brand of physical training he would continue to receive today from his RDC.

  He had the sheets off, rolled up with his pillow and blanket and stowed at the end of the bed. Their two minutes were up, and his bunkmate was still working on getting his smurfs on. David felt badly for him, but had no time to dwell on it.

  “You have fifteen minutes to make your rack in accordance with RDC instructions!” shouted McMillan, pausing to chastise his bunkmate with a flurry of colorful words. He was receiving instruction in how to “swear like a sailor” today. David tried not to smile and concentrated on making his rack so that he could avoid receiving his own cursing instructions.

  He had dreamed about Eliza again. The days were a blur of PT, orders, marching, classroom study, more PT, and finally falling into his bunk, completely exhausted for lights out at 2200. It was hard to think about anything other than the task at hand during the day, but somehow Eliza kept slipping into his thoughts—and she completely ruled his nights. Each night was a different dream, last night returning to that final agonizing kiss.

  His rack was in order, remade hopefully in acceptable fashion for his RDC. If it wasn’t, he’d be late to breakfast again—which meant no breakfast at all—and that day had not gone very well. Then again, his bunkmate had lost his breakfast during the first round of PT, so maybe missing breakfast the first day wasn’t such a bad thing. Tomasz would be laughing his head off if he were here. He had driven David down from Green Bay, reassuring their mom that he would stick around Chicago for the first couple of weeks of Basic. Tomasz had some old friends who had moved to the city, and he was no doubt getting into some kind of trouble. David didn’t appreciate the lack of confidence, but the first two weeks was when most recruits washed out. He could manage Basic without a backup babysitter, but he knew Tomasz was doing it for their mother, not him. She and their father had already left for a two week medical conference in Hawaii, and she would feel better if Tomasz was close by, just in case. With Tea in Europe with her friends, it was a good thing his dad had taken his mom away from Green Bay. It would be hard enough for her once Tea left at the end of the summer—she didn’t need to face an empty house right away.

  “Height line!” RDC McMillan shouted. Their fifteen minutes were up, and his rack must have passed inspection because he didn’t attract any unwanted attention. His bunkmate wasn’t so lucky. They started to fall out, exiting their “ship” as they affectionately called their massive thousand-person dormitory. His division had classroom duty after their brief trip to the mess hall, so he was looking forward to more recovery time for his muscles before PT. Hopefully, they would have Petty Officer Reynolds for classroom duty today. She made learning Navy regulations slightly less tedious, giving him a small chance of not falling asleep in class—or of daydreaming about white sand beaches in the Bahamas and gathering unwanted attention. Garnering attention here was never a good thing.

  They fell back into ranks after breakfast and marched to the classroom building across the outdoor training grounds. The sun was blazing hot—unlike the more reasonable summer days in Green Bay—and he gave thanks that most of their training, including PT, was inside in the relatively cooler, air-conditioned environment of the station buildings. As they marched, the hot, damp breeze coming off the lake reminded him of the top deck of the Liberty. He had sheltered Eliza from the wind and had tried not to embarrass her, too much, with his kisses. He took another deep breath of that watery smell before they marched indoors, something to hold onto and carry him through the class.

  “Ready, seats!” yelled Recruit Petty Officer Simpson, who was in charge of getting their division where they needed to go. They all attempted to sit in unison, and for the third day in a row, had to repeat it two more times before they got it right. Once they did, Petty Officer Reynolds walked in and started class, an endless stream of PowerPoint lessons on a Navy-blue background. Unfortunately, even her animated lecturing on Navy ranks couldn’t keep his mind from wandering today …

  Those first few days back in Green Bay he thought his mom would expire from worry. He must have been in a world-class dark mood, because she kept trying to talk to him. That only made him want to flee the house, and he couldn’t do that to her, having only a couple of days left. He couldn’t explain it to her—he couldn’t put it into words for Eliza, much less his family

  Tea had buzzed around but kept her distance. When it was time for him to leave, she made a mushy scene, which he tolerated as best he could. He would miss her while he was at Basic, but at least he would see her eventually in Monterey Bay. Surprisingly, Tomasz was the most emotional of them all. On the ride down, Tomasz kept talking about how everyone was going to miss him. When Tomasz dropped him off at the NSGL front gate, with his spare amount of civilian clothing stashed in his seabag, Tomasz had practically cried. The surreal moment had passed quickly when he patted him on the back, telling Tomasz he’d call first telephone privilege he had. When he had called, after that first week of processing, Tomasz was in some kind of bar and could barely hear him. David had laughed for a solid minute after that call—Tomasz had clearly recovered from his bout with sappiness. That was the first time he’d laughed in a while. Mostly he carried around a dull ache in his heart, in the place where Eliza should have been.

  He roused himself from his thoughts, looking up at Petty Officer Reynolds and noticing for the first time that her hair had golden highlights, brought out by the sunlight streaming in the window. It reminded him of Eliza’s hair on the beach. He forced himself to pay attention to Petty Officer Reynolds’ words, not her hair. If he didn’t learn the regs and ranks, he wouldn’t pass the written test at the end of the week, and he certainly didn’t want to find out what happened then. He would save his Eliza musings for later, when he had time to think. Once the lights were out, the night was his.

  * * *

  The second day of camp went almost as smoothly as the first, and Lily was now permanently attached to her side. Eliza had brought an old book of poetry for her, called The Faerie Queene, and they share
d it with all the campers. The poetry was far too complicated for their seven-year-old patience, but it had fantastic pictures and intricate paintings of medieval fairies that they all loved. She told Lily she could take it home as long as she promised to bring it back. That earned her an extra hug and a kiss on the cheek that warmed her tired, leaden heart for the first time since David had left her on the pier. She sighed. It seemed she could never get far from thinking about him.

  Addison kept her word, taking her place on pickup-line duty, and even arranged with the head camp counselor to keep her off pickup duty the rest of the week. She begged off another round of pizza with the counselors. Eliza just wanted to go home and mope. And check her mailbox. She knew it was completely irrational. There was no possibility that David could have written her back in one day. Still, she looked.

  The next day, thunderstorms kept the campers inside, adding to the general mayhem. Eliza and Addison did double duty at lunch, watching the campers as they ran around the gym, resembling a swarm of bees more than children. Lily had brought back Eliza’s Faerie book, and Eliza saw there was a note tucked inside. She didn’t have time to read it right away.

  She was doing better at not thinking about David all the time, distracted by the frenetic pace of the camp, but the anticipation of hearing back from him was starting to eat away at her. He must be in Basic Training by now, and she tried to envision what that would be like. Every time, though, her thoughts became snapshots from the cruise: kissing him the very first time; walking hand-in-hand along the beach; his hand gently rubbing hers under the table at dinner. And each time, it was like a fresh stab to her heart. She really needed some kind of serious distraction to keep her mind from wandering.

  At the end of the day, she was stationed at the Fairies and Fairytales camper pickup table awaiting the parents. One by one, each of their names were called, until only Lily was left. When it was well past pickup time, Eliza collected Lily’s things and started walking her to the front office. She only figured out what had happened when she saw him. He leaned casually against the chain-link fence, his trim body at ease and his shaggy blond hair shining in the afternoon sun and falling across his face. She briefly remembered why she had been attracted to Carter in the first place. He had that same charming look of casual innocence that Lily did, only all grown up. And he was obviously waiting for them.