Adaptation of the Chameleon

by Douglas A. Schmitt

  That night, Luke was finding it extremely difficult to stay in slumber. He stayed up for several hours, consumed in school work to try to keep Anna off of his mind. He would break from studying and would lean back in his chair and admire the room he put together. There were pictures of the two from the many adventures they took together wrapping the walls of the space. He soon found himself in a place of reminiscence focusing his mind on a particular photo of the two on their first date.

  The next day came too soon for Luke. He sat up on his bed and reached out for his cell phone. He selected Anna’s number and sent her his usual morning greeting. He placed the phone down on the dresser and entered the bathroom to relieve himself. After washing his hands, he walked out to see that Anna had not responded. Luke figured she had been up late, working on her project and just continued preparing for his day.

  He walked into the kitchen and selected the box of his favorite cereal and a bowl. He poured the milk to his desire and sat in the living room to watch the news. His first class didn’t start for another hour, and he used the time till then to fill his mind with current events.

  On his way to school, he found himself constantly being reminded of the old traditions he had shared with Anna. On any other day he would feel comfort and security in his short travel to school, but today he felt lonely. It was only four months till Anna was to come home on Christmas break, and Luke was counting down every moment.

  Luke finally pulled into the parking lot behind the theatre building and slowly walked to his class. He looked around and saw so many new people filling the area around the beautiful campus. He then began thinking about the times he and Anna would take evening strolls around the grounds to get away from school work.

  Luke left his first class and began walking back to his vehicle with intentions on driving through the closest fast food restaurant for a quick lunch. Approaching his driver’s side door, he heard an all too familiar voice call his name.

  “Luke! Hey, Luke!”

  Luke turned around to see two of his former co-workers walking towards him. He began to smile as he responded, “Hey, Charlie and Dan! What are you guys up to?”

  “Not much, my man,” Charlie replied. “Dan and I are about to grab some grub from the cafeteria. Do want to go with us, man?”

  “You know what, guys?” Luke answered. “I would love to. It’s been so long since I ate there, and I really haven’t seen you guys since I started at the hospital. Let’s eat.”

  Shortly after lunch ended, Charlie and Dan began discussing their plans for later that evening. They told Luke about karaoke night at a favorite local tavern called, “The Library.” The conversation peaked Luke’s interest, drawing him into becoming a part of the adventure. Noticing Luke’s interest, Charlie said, “Dude, seriously, the ‘strange’ is epic at this place. You won’t regret going, my friend.”

  Luke continues, “I’m not worried about meeting a woman or anything. It would just be great to get out of the apartment for a night. Ever since Alan moved in, there has been like non-stop random people coming through the place. Don’t get me wrong, Alan is a great guy and all, but you work with him, that guy can get weird.”

  “You ain’t lying, dude,’ Dan laughed. We will see you tonight.”

  Charlie and Dan continued laughing hysterically. They both turned towards the opposite direction of Luke and walked away.

  The rest of the day passed with ease, and Luke had just finished his last class. He got into his car and headed back to his apartment. He pulled in and once again tried to call Anna. She answered but seemed preoccupied. Luke tried to make small talk with her in an effort to not seem so distant. “So, how did the project go?”

  “Oh, it went great! Even made an ‘A’ on it!”

  The excitement in her voice kept Luke from bringing up concerns he had about that male voice the day before. Instead, Luke continued going further from the thought.

  “Did you tell your step sisters about being engaged yet? What did they say?”

  “Yes and no,” Anna chuckled. “I told them that I found the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I just didn’t say whether I was engaged to him or not.”

  Luke grinned, feeling better about not being such a secret anymore. He took the phone into his opposite hand and leaned into his seat for a more comfortable position and said, “Okay, baby girl, I’m going out tonight with some guy friends, but if you want to talk to me, I will have my phone with me the entire time.”

  “Okay, honey. I love you. Have fun tonight.”

  Luke had planned on meeting up with the guys around eight o’clock. He still had four hours before he needed to be up there, so he decided to take a nap. He was exhausted from school and from the thick southern humidity.

  He pulled back the comforter from the head of his bed when he heard a knock on his front door. He put his clothes on and walked back down the hall to the solid white metal door. He opened to see a young woman with visibly strong Italian traits. She stood in the opening of the portal with a desperate look on her face and said, “Hello, my name is Audrey Ferrarotti. I just moved into the apartment upstairs. I locked my keys in my car, and my roommate won’t be home for another hour or so. Do you have, like, a coat hanger or something I can use to unlock my door?”

  Luke stood for a moment then excuses himself to go to the hallway closet. He returned with a wire hanger and began to unfold it. He walked with Audrey back to her car and attempted to assist her.

  “I’m sorry,” Luke said while struggling to unlock the door, “I’ve never really done this before.”

  Audrey giggled before insisting that he give her a chance. She took the hanger and pulled it out of the panel. She folded the tip at a steeper angle and inserted it back into the door. She shook it in every direction before they heard the lock click. She pulled the hanger back out and said, “Ta da! That’s how you do it!”

  She handed the hanger back to Luke, with a silly smile on her face. Luke took the hanger and played with it with his fingers while sharing small talk with the lovely Italian woman.

  “So, are you new here?”

  “Yeah, I just transferred here from Tuscaloosa. My mom and dad just moved to this area and highly advised that I transfer. I don’t really know anybody here, not even my roommate. She replied to an ad I had at school. She was the only one, actually.”

  The two continued talking and sharing similar backgrounds. Audrey was seeing someone that was still living in Tuscaloosa, and expressed almost the same emotions as Luke on the idea of long distance relationships.

  The two spent over an hour and a half talking about how great their significant others were and how they hoped for bigger futures with them. Luke felt a certain comfort with Audrey. He appreciated the female point of view on the situation.

  The two were discussing more personal affairs when Luke looked down at his watch to see that it was getting time to meet up with Charlie and Dan. Not wanting to be rude, he decided to invite Audrey to accompany him to the bar that night.

  She thought for a moment before responding in a bubbly way, “Yes, I would love to! I haven’t really been out in Hattiesburg yet.”

  Like a lady, she excused herself from the conversation and agreed to meet up in one hour to accompany Luke to the bar in downtown. Luke shook her hand and walked back to his apartment. He decided to sit in the living room and process the information on his new friend. The whole time, he couldn’t get past the fact of how beautifully attractive she was. He then started feeling awkward that he wasn’t more physically attracted to her.

  It was ten minutes before Luke was to meet at the bar with the guys. He reached for a long sleeve button down shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He put them on and headed for the door. Before he was able to open the white portal, his phone began to ring. He saw that it was Anna calling him, and quickly answered. He heard Anna breathing as she responded with a slight slur, “Hey, honey, how is your night going?”

  “It’s going fine,
just about to head out to the bar to meet up with Charlie and Dan. How is your night going, sweetie?”

  Silence remained in place of Anna’s response for over a minute before Luke began hearing her cry. With caution, he asked, “What’s wrong, babe? Is everything okay?”

  Anna remained silent for a moment or two more. “I don’t want you to meet other women. It scares me to death that you are going out without me. I’m so afraid that you are going to meet someone that you like more than me!”

  Anna continued on, not noticing that her speech was becoming more garbled. Luke could only think that she had been drinking so much that she had reached the point that she was falsely paranoid. He humored her for a minute or two until she had to get back to her party.

  After Luke got off of the phone, he looked down at his watch and realized that he was late for meeting Audrey in the parking lot. He stepped outside and walked to the back parking area behind the building. There, he saw a woman standing and wearing a short white dress, with strap top shoes. Her long auburn hair rested just under her shoulders with each tip carefully curled.

  Luke walked up to her and while fumbling his keys between his fingers, he said, “My God, Audrey. You look amazing.”

  “Well, thank you Luke. I like that shirt on you. It looks like it fits you perfectly.”

  Luke blushed slightly, bringing more attention to his attire. He took hold of the bottom of the shirt. “Thank you. This is actually my favorite shirt. Anna didn’t like it, though, so I haven’t really worn it in a while. Are you ready to follow me to the bar? I’m parked on the other side. I can drive to this side so you could….”

  Audrey interrupted, “Well, wait, I thought I would just ride with you. I mean, there is no point in taking two cars, is there?”

  Luke squirmed slightly, feeling warmth from the friction of his keys. After being tardy, he knew he should make up for it, he hesitated, “Uh… okay, yeah, I guess that would be okay.”

  Luke escorted the young lady to the other side of the building where he was parked. They got in and headed to the local tavern.

  On the way there, they talked more about each other’s better half. Luke opened up to her about Anna and his current concerns. He told her that the two were engaged to get married once they completed college. Audrey sat there quietly listening. When she spoke, she talked about how her boyfriend, Ben, was the sweetest person when they started dating. But when she told him that she was moving to Mississippi, he became a nasty person towards her.

  Luke took in all that Audrey was saying and felt relieved when he realized that his relationship with Anna was much stronger in that same situation. He sympathized with Audrey and affectionately responded to her taunt, “If things don’t work out between you and Ben, I know a couple of good guys that would love a chance to be with a beautiful woman like you.”

  Audrey laughed, taking out her lip gloss. She touched up her lips with a thin, highly reflective coat and responded, “Well, I hope I could just find a better guy. Ben is great and all, but he is so primitive. He is the type that would threaten a guy if he was just looking at me. It’s not really healthy, but I care for the guy, so I stick around.”

  They arrived at the bar fifteen minutes late. They walked inside to see Charlie and Dan sitting at the end of an empty bar top. Luke walked up to greet them. He then introduced Audrey and they sat down for a drink. Luke turned towards the bartender and ordered a whiskey and coke. Audrey took out her wallet and while looking at the bartender, she declared, “I will take the heaviest stout beer you have here, and keep them coming.”

  “Wow,” Dan said, ‘I’m impressed. Here I am drinking a light beer and you are ordering the hardcore shit. That’s pretty cool.”

  Audrey looked at him, sipping her heavy stout, and responded, “Well, I guess the women in this area don’t know how we do it in ‘T-Town.”

  As the night continues, Luke realized that the time had gone by too fast. He found it very relaxing and comfortable hanging out with his friends. Each one of them had something different to talk about, and all three of them were completely down to earth and inviting.

  The ride home proved to be longer than the ride there. Luke drove as Audrey slurred through further conversation about Ben.

  “That son of a bitch, he is lucky I gave him my virginity or else I would just dump his ass! That piece of shit hasn’t called me in over three days! What a mother fucker!”

  Luke laughed at the rambling, cheering her on. It was entertaining to him to see a woman who presented herself with such visual class, to have such a dirty mouth. It wasn’t enough that she could open car doors with wire hangers, or that she could out drink him, but that she didn’t take nonsense from anybody. She was a real woman.

  Luke pulled into his usual parking spot and is reminded of how much he misses Anna. He looked down at his phone as he had done the entire night, hoping that she would call him or at least text message him. But to his surprise, she hadn’t presented any communication since the bazaar phone call earlier.

  Luke shut his car off and looked over at Audrey, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out, and carefully shook her. She jumped up with eyes opened wide. She looked over at Luke and while smiling, she says, “Thanks for the great night, I had fun. That was fun. We should do that again sometime soon.”

  Luke responded, with a less than eager tone, “I agree… the guys seemed to like hanging out with you. We should go out again with them sometime in the future.”

  Luke bent forward to retrieve his phone from the cup holder; Audrey grabbed his face and pulled it towards her. She kissed him, and then let herself out. Luke remained seated in the car, filled with disbelief. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Feeling extremely guilty, he decided to call Anna and inform her of the mishap.

  Luke picked his phone up and dialed her number: no answer. He put his phone in his pocket and walked back to his apartment. He got in and locked the door. He stumbled to his bedroom, thinking more about Audrey’s drunken kiss. After taking over twenty seven minutes trying to rationalize the mishap, the tired young man decided not to mention it to Anna.

  The next morning, Luke decided to lay low. He slept in late, and then prepared some lunch. He discovered that the only items he has are bread and cheese. He grilled a couple of cheese sandwiches and sat down on his couch to watch television. He knew the odds of running into Audrey on the way to his car were not in his favor, and decided to stay in until it was time to get ready for work.

  The day dragged by and time neared for departure. Luke decided to call Anna. In his heart, he felt as though he hadn’t talked to her in weeks. He knew the adjustment was hard, but had to be steady in his communication. There was a learning curve to the whole experience, and Luke was determined to break it.

  He picked up his phone and scanned for Anna’s number. Luke then sat on the couch, kicked his feet up, and relaxed as a sweet voice picks up just after two rings.

  “Hey, honey! What are you doing?”

  Luke smiled as he heard Anna’s sweet and innocent voice. He felt his face burn red as he responded, “Hey, baby girl. I miss you!”

  “I miss you too, sweetheart. How is your day going?”

  “Not bad. I’m about to get ready for work and wanted to talk to you to see how your day is going. I know you must be busy and all, but I just wanted to say hello, and I love you.”

  Luke heard Anna sigh and his smile deepened. He felt his body shake with anticipation as Anna responded, “Oh, honey, I love you, too. I miss you so much! I wish I could talk longer right now… but April and Emma are taking me to some play on campus tonight, so I have to get ready. Can I call you later tonight when you get off of work?”

  “Of course you can, sweetheart. I look forward to it. Have fun at the play!”

  Luke ended the call and continued his embrace of bliss feeling his heart beat faster and his peace of mind returning.

  The entire drive to work, Luke held onto the goofy look that had taken ov
er his face. To hear Anna’s voice after all the debacle of the past few days, had made his evening better. He knew everything was going to be okay. He knew that Anna loved him as much as he loved her. He started thinking about their promise together and knew that it was the glue that would keep them together.

  Luke arrived at work and clocks in. He walked to his post in the emergency room and sat. He waited patiently as new and exciting people walked through the automatic sliding glass doors and approach him, requesting his help. He would then happily take their name and basic information and try to assist them as best he could.

  His routine was always the same, night in and night out. He would be positioned in triage and check new patients into the hospital. After an hour or so, the rotation would switch and he would be able to see the same patients once more, only then he would request their insurance information and make copies for hospital records.

  It seemed as though from the beginning, that he fit right in with his coworkers. They were either in college, or were the same age as Luke. It helped him to relate with people for eight hours a day. After Enzo graduated and moved back to the coast, and his other friends were either moving on with their lives or just lost touch with Luke, he had felt the burden of silence.

  It was late, and Luke had finished his shift. He wished his co-workers well and stepped out of the hospital. Still feeling positive from his earlier conversation with Anna, he took his phone out of his front left pocket and begins dialing Anna’s cell phone. The phone continued to ring and Luke became fully aware of the time and accepted that Anna must be sleeping.

  Luke pulls the phone from his ear and places his finger on the button to end the call. Just as he applies pressure with his index finger, he hears a voice answer. It was the same male voice that answered before. With great annoyance and anger, the voice answered, “Hello, who the fuck is this?”