The Rescue

by Izzy Daniels

  I’ve been home and sitting on my couch for the last half hour, staring blankly at my text book. I fall back and hang my feet over the arm of my faux-leather, black couch. With a glance over at the flower sitting on my coffee table in a glass of water, I sigh. My nerves are going crazy and this waiting just isn’t helping. I roll myself off the couch and decide to go check on my makeup and triple check my outfit: a black, thigh-length dress with a white peter pan collar and short sleeves. I debated wearing thigh highs, but decided I’d rather Emma get a full view of the tattoos on my legs so she knows what she’s getting into. My black boots complete the outfit and I try not to think about it much more. I’m just flicking off the bathroom light when I hear my phone ringing. I run down the hallway and swipe it from the coffee table, barely registering that it reads ‘Emma’.

  “Hello?” I answer, taking a deep breath.

  “Hey, Brooke, it’s Emma. I’m getting off work early, it was super slow today. So I thought maybe you’d want to meet somewhere or something?”

  “Oh, hey. That’s great,” I say. “You live a few streets from Jack right? Why don’t you send me your address and I’ll pick you up from your house?”

  “Umm. Okay, that’s fine. I’ll meet you outside in…?” She trails off and I realize she’s asking me.

  “Oh, how about ten minutes?” I venture.

  “Perfect, see you then. Bye,” she says before hanging up.

  “Bye,” I mimic, heart racing. I’m going to pick her up for our first date! I look around for my keys and my bag and grab them off the floor by the front door. I’m just opening the door when I rush back over and grab the flower. As I get to my car, I hear my phone get a text, so I open it and put her address into my gps.

  When I turn down her street I keep my eyes to the right side of the road, looking at the even numbered houses. I lose the ability to breathe when I spot her leaning against her trunk at the end of a cement driveway. She waves to me and I steer the jeep up next to her.

  “Hey!” I say as I hop out of the car and move toward her.

  “Hi,” she says in return and steps into my open arms for a hug. She lays her head on my shoulder for a second and I can feel my heart swell as it does each time she’s near.

  “Are you aware it’s customary for the dater to open the car door for the datee?” I ask as I hold her tightly, soaking in her warmth and the fresh scent of her hair.

  “I was not aware. Please proceed.” She steps out of the hug waves a hand at the car. I walk around to the passenger side and open the door for her with a bow. She grins at me and climbs into the seat. When I get back on my side, I notice she’s holding the flower I left on the console. She brings it closes and inhales. “For me?” She asks me, her big blue eyes searching my face.

  “Yes, another custom. Look at you, getting the hang of this dating thing.” I pause. “And it’s just as I thought,” I say as she sits before me. The blue of the flower is a perfect match for her eyes.

  “What is?” She asks me in a whisper.

  “You’re more beautiful than any flower,” I say with real wonder in my voice. Her mouth falls open the tiniest bit and blush steals over her face. Her eyes drop to her black pants, so I give her time to recover by putting the jeep in reverse and making my way toward our first destination. She’s still quiet at the first red light so I peak over, hoping the gesture wasn’t too much. But she’s still holding the flower carefully in her hands close to her nose, strands of her waves escaping her ponytail and a tiny smile playing on her lips. She doesn’t appear to be freaking out.

  “So, how was work today?” I ask her, mostly just to hear her voice again.

  “It was pretty normal apart from being abnormally quiet. How was your day?”

  “Good. Finished up a project for a client,” I say. I give her a brief recap of Barbara and the work I did for her.

  “Wow, that sounds amazing. I’ll have to visit the site later to check out your talents,” she says with genuine interest.

  “That isn’t my only talent…” I retort, waggling my eyebrows in exaggerated flirtation.

  “Ahem. Noted. So what are we doing for our date?” She asks through another blush. I waggle my eyebrows suggestively again in response and she laughs.

  “Nah. I can’t tell you yet. But we’re almost to our first secret destination.”

  After a few more lights, I finally pull into the parking lot of Mystic Mini Golf and peek over at her. Her lips are parted and she’s leaning forward in her seat to take in the giant red dragon atop a mountain and a waterfall. Her face lights up with excitement and she turns to me.

  “Mini golf?” She says with childish excitement. Adorable.

  “Yes. Have you never been here before?” She shakes her head and leaps out of her door. When I come around to her side of the car she’s bouncing on her toes, her hair swinging behind her. Her eyes are glittering and I’m silently high-fiving myself for my excellent idea. I grab her hand into mine and start pulling her toward the building. As I pay for our game, I send her over to pick out a club and golf ball. There’s a rainbow of colors to choose from and I’m curious to see what color she’ll pick. She surprises me when she grabs a yellow set. I grab a black set, of course. She sticks a score card and a tiny pencil in her back pocket before we push out of the doors.

  We follow the signs for Hole 1 through a narrow walkway with an overhanging canopy of trees. The sun is shining through the leaves as they rustle in the wind, creating moving patterns of light all over Emma and the dirt path. The trail winds around and opens up in front of a stone well.

  “This is so freaking cool,” she exclaims, looking around taking in the dense trees. She follows the green around the well and finds the small hill that leads to the actual hole.

  “Yeah, it is. Have you ever played before?”

  “Nope. Can you tell me what to do?”

  “Better, I can show you. Watch the master.” I drop my bag on the ground, place my ball on the thick rubber square, line up the club, and swing. The ball ricochets off the side of the well and back towards me and I have to dive out of the way before it hits me. Emma squeals with laughter while I try to recover. “Holy shit, did you see that.. I almost died. Fucking rogue ball.”

  “Oh man, are you okay, Golfmaster?” She asks through tears. She uses one of her palms to wipe her cheeks and tries to control her laughter.

  “Hilarious. Never better!” I walk off in search of my ball. I find it among the leaves at the end of the walkway. “Aha! Got it.” When I turn back around, Emma is watching me… dare I say, checking me out? Her eyes were on my legs and I got the feeling she wanted to see more of them. I grin at her and hold up the demon ball.

  “So… uh.” She clears her throat. “I like your dress.”

  “Thank you,” I reply, beaming at her compliment.

  “Redo?”

  “Nah, I think I’ve instructed you well, Grasshopper. You’re up.” I indicate the rubber pad.

  “Ah yes, the Art of Showing-Me-What-Not-To-Do. A popular and well-reputed instructional method.” She places her ball, sets her feet apart and swings her club. A lot gentler than I did, to be honest. Her ball goes around the well, hits the low brick wall that outlines the area and bounces off. It rolls gently down the slope before coming to a stop about a foot to the left of the hole. She whoops in delight and turns to me. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Master.” Then she puts her palms together and bows deeply.

  “Well done, young Grasshopper.” I bow back at her. She skips off down the hill to her ball and waits for me to go. I set up again and this time I make it passed the well and down the hill where it stops inches from the hole. She takes her turn and makes it and I do the same. Then we come to a beautiful wooden bridge, about ten feet across, with a crystal clear stream crossing gently below it. The trees here are thin but lofty.

  “It’s so pretty,” Emma breathes. She starts across and I’m walking just behind her.

  “Very. So, is yellow
your favorite color?” She turns her head over her shoulder.

  “Yes. Good observation. Is black yours?”

  “It’s one of them. Cornflower blue is really growing on me though. When’s your birthday?”

  “December 1st, yours?”

  “April 9th. So you’ll be twenty in just under three months?” She nods and steps off the bridge.

  “And you’re twenty-two? Jack mentioned.”

  “Yeah. Good ole Jack.” We follow another dirt trail toward Hole 2. The trail turns into a garden with a wide array of colorful wildflowers with a plethora of garden gnomes peeking through. The hole is below a large, jolly gnome that has it’s hands on it’s hips. I pull my phone from my bag and make Emma stand by the big gnome so I can get a picture. I’m kicking myself for not bringing my real camera, but the phone will do. I get a shot of her hugging the gnome and a few other candid ones. We each take our turns and get it in three shots.

  “So, do you have any siblings?” she asks me as we trek up a steep hill to the next hole.

  “I do. I have an older brother and sister. I’m the baby.”

  “And you haven’t talked to them in a few years?”

  “No. I was close with my brother before going out on my own, but he hasn’t reached out to me. My sister sent me an email after I came out. She blamed me for my parents’ grief and told me that her church would help me work through my issues.” The church was always a big part of my mom and my sister’s bond. They went every Sunday together. “I tried to clarify in my response that I didn't have some sinful affliction that she could pray away, that I never had a choice in the way I am, that I was still a good, moral person. I think it fell on deaf ears though, she never responded.”

  “That sounds awful, Brooke. I wish it had happened differently. Maybe in time, they’ll understand… or accept you for who you are.” Emma wraps an arm around my waist as we go to the next part, walking side by side.

  “They might, but I’ve accepted who they are and I’ve accepted myself. Which means, I am pretty content. And at this very moment my life is pretty amazing.” I give her a meaningful look as we step up to Hole 3, which is an elaborate fairy glen. There are more colorful flowers and a large tree that has tiny homes attached to it. Fairy statues line the U shape and there is a small waterhole in the middle. Naturally, I hit my ball in it. Emma and I manage to fish it out with our golf clubs after ten minutes of planning, strategy, improvised chopsticking and much laughter.

  Over the next thirteen holes, we share a lot more about ourselves with each other. I take a lot of pictures of Emma. She managed to climb up on a huge stone unicorn and I made her put her hair down. When I started to shout out expressions at her, she played along and nailed all of them. We were sad to leave it at Hole 6. We got some pictures together when we got to the hole with gargoyles, trying to mimic their whole “horrifying visage” thing. I even got some of us sitting inside the large witch’s cauldron at Hole 10.

  “So, he just took you outside and threw you in the pool?” I ask with amazement. We’ve been swapping stories and she just told me one about Jack.

  “Yup. It was the first time I realized he was a sore loser, at least with board games. I couldn’t help it if it was the sixth time in a row that he landed on Park Place and I had just put a hotel on it. We were mad at each other for four days. It was the longest we’ve ever gone without talking. Of course, he didn’t know at the time that I had no idea how to swim. To apologize, he showed up on the sidewalk with a bathing suit and coupon he made with markers that said Free Swimming Lessons.”

  “I can’t believe you’re still friends with him. So he taught you to swim when you were thirteen? How come you didn’t already know how?”

  “Well, it was just me and my mom. She worked a lot and we never got around to it before… before she passed.”

  “So, you don’t have any other family except your uncle?”

  “No, my mom’s mom was still alive when I was a kid, but I never got to meet her.”

  “How come?”

  “I don’t know really. My mom just kept telling me anytime I asked, that they didn’t get along. She never said more. But when you never know someone, you don’t really miss them. Do you have grandparents?”

  “No, both sets are long gone. My folks were in their late forties when they had me, only one grandma was still alive when I was born but she died when I was five and I don’t remember her much.”

  “So, do you like to swim?” Emma asks as she makes her ball into the hole on her fourth swing.

  “I love it and I love the beach. I haven’t made the drive from here to the Atlantic yet. I’ve gone in the Gulf of Mexico and too many lakes to name.”

  “Oh wow, I’ve never been to the beach. I’m beginning to realize just how much there is to the world. And how much I want to see of it.” She looks a bit poleaxed by that thought, as if she never before considered the possibility of seeing the world for herself.

  “Well, hey, now we can cross mini golf off the list, right?” I give her a little push with my shoulder.

  “Definitely,” she says with a toothy grin and little push back.

  As we come around a wall of trees we are greeted by a waterfall and the mountain where the fierce-looking dragon sits. At the bottom of the mountain rests a large wooden treasure chest filled to the brim with fake jewels and gold coins. The waterfall is creating a misty breeze with a slightly chlorinated scent. Emma leans over the ropes to see the water falling into a small pool with more glittering treasures at the bottom. The hole requires getting the ball into the bottom of the treasure chest where it will disappear, but you have to navigate a assortment of the mythical creatures from the other holes first. Sadly, It takes us at least ten puts each to finish because we keep making ridiculous jokes just as the other goes to swing. Which turns into fits of laughter and wild accusations about moral integrity. It’s awesome.

  I hold her hand as we walk back to the jeep and I marvel at how her hand fits so naturally, perfectly into my own. For the last two hours I have had so much fun with her. I can’t remember ever laughing that hard. Honestly, all I can really think about is how I’ve never wanted to kiss someone so much in my life. But with a few near-kisses and misses, I’m waiting for the right moment. It will be our first kiss and it should be perfect, even if I have to fight every cell in my body waiting for it.

  As I open the door for her, she pauses and steps closer and, for a second, I wonder if I accidently just said that out loud. Instead of kissing me though, she wraps her arms around me and hugs me tightly. “Thank you so much. That was amazing. My favorite first date ever.”

  “I agree. It was amazing, but it’s not over yet. Are you hungry?”

  “Really? Yes, I’m hungry,” she says with interest.

  “Me too.” She has no idea.

  ...

  “Holy crap! Teppanyaki! Are you serious?” Emma exclaims as we park in front of the Japanese steakhouse, Kohan Teppanyaki. “I have always wanted to eat here!” She’s doing that adorable bouncing in excitement thing again.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” I tell her.

  Sunday nights at six o’clock don’t seem to be too busy so we are seated right away. Emma’s eyes widen as she takes in the indoor koi pond, the authentic decor, and the large flat surface of the grill. She’s scoots into the center of the rectangular booth with a big grin.

  “You are officially the best.” She picks up the menu and starts reading it intently. Her excitement is contagious and my cheeks are starting to go numb with all the smiling. This is the best date I’ve been on, ever. I wanted to see her silly side with the miniature golf. I haven’t known her for long, but I can already tell that she works too hard. I’ve witnessed little bits of her playfulness with Jack and since I heard her laugh, I’ve been craving it. More than that, I wanted to be the one that made it happen. With her seated next to me, all excitement and bubbling joy, I want more than anything to keep her this happy. Then we started
talking about places we want to see some, and I realized how much I wanted to be the one to take her around the whole world, to show her all of it. I mentally pictured it, photographing her beautiful face in every country. Whoa girl. I’m planning our entire future and this is just her first date… ever. I quickly pick up my menu and start trying to concentrate on what to order.

  “Man, how am I going to pick just one thing?” Emma asks, mostly to herself. Her bottom lips is between her teeth as she debates internally. Does she have to do everything so adorably?

  “How about we share a few things?” I suggest.

  “Really? You don’t mind?” She asks with raised eyebrows.

  “Of course not. Which ones sound good to you?” She points out over ten things she really wants, which makes me chuckle. She really, really likes food. Eventually, we decide to try the vegetable tempura, miso soup, teppan shrimp and strip, fried rice, and teriyaki chicken. Our chef ends up being very impressive, as we watch him flip shrimp into his pocket and his hat, halve an egg in midair, and conjure flame from a onion volcano. When he realizes it’s Emma’s first time here, he brings out his A-game to make it really fun for her. He even attempted to fling shrimp into her mouth, which she tried to take seriously but she giggled too hard to actually catch any. I kept finding myself more and more captivated by her easy laugh and her bright eyes. We both ate off each other’s plates until near bursting. Everything was so, so good. Watching Emma taste and appreciate the food added to the experience. We had to help each other out of the booth.

  It’s dark outside as we step out of the warm restaurant into the cool night air. I peer up at the stars twinkling overhead and when I see Emma looking at me, I smile down at her. She wraps her fingers in mine as we walk quietly to the passenger side. She has to walk in front of me to get between the car parked next to mine so I let go of her hand and wrap my arms around her from behind. “Hang on. Will you wish on a star with me?” I ask her in a whisper in her ear. She nods. She rests the back of her head against my chest and gazes at the stars. Holding her close to me, I look up again and study as many as I can see. All of them are beautiful and mesmerizing, but I find the one I want to wish upon. I wish...I wish to keep her. For as long as I can. Minutes pass before she turns around to face me. I want to ask her what she wished for but I won’t. Instead, I bring my palm to her cheek and ask her what I need to know.