“This is Kahl,” the voice answered, giving her the number.
Michelle just couldn’t believe her luck. “Thank you, Kahl,” she said before hanging up the phone. Afterwards, she sat at the desk unable to do much of anything but fantasize about seeing Elliot again. This was her chance; she mustn’t blow it.
Michelle was so thrilled and excited that she could feel the physical manifestations radiating warmth throughout her body. When she got home she couldn’t remember anything that had happened before or after the phone call. At dinnertime, she had no appetite at all, and she escaped to her room as soon as she could. She now had in her hand a piece of paper with Elliot’s home phone number written on it. She held the piece of paper up against her heart, as if hugging it was somehow hugging him. She couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard she tried, and eventually she was forced to call Samantha to get a word or two of support. At first, Samantha had no idea what Michelle was talking about, because not only had she omitted certain details about her meeting with Elliot behind the school wall, but Samantha hadn’t even seen Elliot to be able to judge if Michelle’s excitement was warranted.
Michelle spent her whole weekend trying to come up with a good reason to give her boss as to why she needed to ride along on Tuesday’s afternoon deliveries. The best she could come up with was a white lie about some school report. She knew that that might get her in trouble, but in her mind everything was justified. She wanted, she needed, to see him again. When Tuesday finally rolled around, Michelle was worn out because she had expended way too much energy in planning what to wear and what to say to Elliot when and if she saw him. She had fallen asleep extra late, and woken up extra early. By the time she left for school she had tried on three different outfits that didn’t make the cut. She eventually settled on a jumper type black cotton dress with a black and beige fine lace long sleeve tunic underneath, black tights and knee high taupe leather boots. When Samantha pulled up in front of Michelle’s driveway she whistled at her. “Wow!” Samantha exclaimed, “Look at you. I hope he’s worth it.”
“He is,” Michelle replied, and then secretly crossed her fingers.
After helping Mr. Meyers pack the groceries into cardboard boxes, Michelle hopped into the passenger seat of the delivery van, closed the door, and immediately reached for her compact mirror. She was putting on an extra layer of lip-gloss when Mr. Meyers climbed in next to her and asked if she was ready. “You look perfectly pretty,” he said to her, smiling. Mr. Meyers was the markets’ owner’s son. He was a nice man in his 50s who had just gotten his first grandchild, and had pictures of the baby hanging from every possible space in the van. He told Michelle that he enjoyed having someone ride along with him. Otherwise he would be listening to talk radio and getting upset over the politics of the country. Michelle made an effort to look interested in the conversation, but her mind was racing 200 miles per hour and it wasn’t about politics.
They made the smaller deliveries first, because the one at #84 Argos Vela was going to take some time to unload. Michelle met many of the clients that she had gotten to know on the phone, and when they stopped by Mrs. Bianchetti’s quaint little cottage, Michelle was surprised to see the elder lady that she had met at the Christmas party at the mayor’s house. Francesca recognized her immediately, and complimented her manners on the telephone. She tried to invite both Michelle and Mr. Meyers in for afternoon tea and cookies, but Mr. Meyers told her how busy they were, and that they would have to pass on that great opportunity. Before they left, Francesca held Michelle’s hands and asked her to come back again. Michelle promised that she would.
The drive to #84 Argos Vela Way was one of the longest that Michelle had ever been on in her life. When they pulled up in front of the giant iron gates she just about panicked. Mr. Meyers looked at her and asked if she was all right. “Just a chill,” she answered. The massive gate opened automatically and they drove in and parked. Mr. Meyers got out of the van and headed to the front patio and up to the large beautifully carved wooden door. Michelle was still seated in the van, unable to decide whether she should step out and join him or stay put. She decided to step out, and was surprised to learn that she was trembling from excitement. She must stop that right away; how embarrassing, she thought. By the time she shut the van door, Mr. Meyers was talking to someone at the front door of the school. She heard more voices coming from the right side around the building, and she leaned over to see a group of young men playing basketball. She tried to focus in on their faces to see if Elliot was there, but she didn’t see him. She turned her attention back to Mr. Meyers. He was walking back towards her with the guy from the front door. On closer inspection, she recognized him from the mall. He had been there with Xander, she was sure of it.
“Hi, I’m Kahl,” he said, stretching out his hand. “We spoke on Friday, right?”
“Yes, we did. I am Michelle,” she said, shaking his hand. Kahl had a smile that could melt the heart of an ice queen. His white teeth lay perfectly in the middle of his dimpled cheeks. He had dark skin, but of a shade that Michelle had never seen before. His features were delicate and tranquil, his eyes were a shade of gray, and they sparkled in the sunlight, a sparkle similar to that of a freshly sharpened lead pencil.
Kahl led them through the front door of the school to show them where the kitchen and pantry were located. They walked down a long hallway. To the left, there was a door that opened up to a large office where a heavyset table dominated most of the room. But that was all that Michelle could see while walking. They continued on, and the hallway led to a spacious room with great high ceilings and exposed wood beams. The place didn’t look like a school at all, Michelle thought. It was a huge living room with three leather couches, two coffee-style tables and several armchairs, including the one that was similar to the one she saw in her dream. There were also many paintings hanging on the walls; they looked like the real stuff but Michelle was no expert, so they could have been reproductions. Other curious items were displayed here and there. Some were obviously wall sculptures, but the others, she couldn’t even begin to guess. Everything felt expensive, museum expensive. Michelle wanted to ask Kahl where did they get all these things, and why did they have such a living room at a school to begin with? But she was there as a professional; she had to represent.
There were double doors at the far end of the living room that opened up to a classroom. The room was also large and it had a blackboard. They didn’t even use that at her school, Michelle thought. Instead of regular school desks, there was a humongously long dark wooden table surrounded by at least 12 chairs. The walls parallel to the length of the table were covered in beautiful frescos. Michelle wished her classrooms looked like that, not the hospital/jail design that seemed to be the preferable fashion at most schools these days.
Kahl led them back to the kitchen and pantry. The kitchen was very large and warm in design, typical of California wine-country style. It had a Tuscan ‘old-world’ feel to it, and it looked like someone was already working on dinner. On the right, there was a seating area with double glass doors that led to an outdoors patio. The doors were wide open, and Michelle could still hear the guys playing basketball outside. It smelled so good in there. Michelle savored the scent of whatever was cooking and couldn’t help but ask, “What is that?”
Kahl laughed. “Oh, that’s a goat stew I have been working on. It’s not ready yet, it’s for tomorrow.” Michelle was used to good cooking since her mother was an avid foody, but she wondered where one went to get goat meat, and the spices were ones that she could not recognize.
Kahl and Mr. Meyers headed back to the van to stack up the boxes on the dolly while Michelle excused herself to use the restroom. Kahl pointed to the bathroom door just outside the kitchen, to the left under the stairs that led to the second story rooms and balcony.
Michelle already felt wrong. She knew that what she was about to do was called ‘snooping’, and she was ashamed of even thinking about it. She had a couple o
f minutes because there were plenty of boxes in the van, and they were going to have to be stacked up carefully with the produce on top. As soon as she heard Kahl and Mr. Meyers step outside, she stepped out of the bathroom and began scanning the fascinating bits and pieces that made up the living room decor. But Michelle made a couple of mistakes in her assessment of the situation. Since she hadn’t seen Xander's Thunderbird parked outside, she had assumed that Xander was out, and since Elliot was nowhere to be seen, much to her disappointment of course, he must be out with him. She also mistook the quietness in the house to mean that she was the only one there.
Michelle circulated the living room, picking up books from the coffee tables. Some were in English, others were in Italian, and some were in other languages that she had never even seen before. She then began inspecting some of the artwork hanging on the walls. Those were definitely oil paints, she realized after carefully touching them. They were not those cheap laser printed reproductions on canvases that were found everywhere. So they liked old things, Michelle thought. Nothing wrong with that, and considering that this was a private school, it should come as no surprise if it happens to be a private school for the wealthy. But what were they studying? Who were these so-called students? Michelle knew that if she could find out something about the students, it would answer a lot of questions that she had about Elliot. They must have their files here, she thought, maybe in the office? Michelle looked down the hallway in that direction but she could already hear the straining wheels of the dollies rolling on the asphalt driveway. She didn't have enough time.
Just then, her eyes settled on a small arched niche with a beautiful vase displayed prominently. It couldn’t be, she thought, as she moved closer to the niche. But it was. The bottle was made out of the exact same blue green glass as the small oval disk that she had kept from the broken ornament. It was about three inches tall, beautiful and unusually shaped, with a small base, long slender-body, tall neck, and a flared rim. Next to it was an object that looked like a glass dropper of some sort. It had a rounded midsection that looked like a bead, and was wrapped with what seemed to be a thin gold wire.
Michelle wanted to compare it to the glass disk she had at home, but how would she ever get it here? That would be next to impossible. What were the chances that they would ever let her in here again? She had a great idea. She took out her cell phone from her pocket and focused the camera on the vase. She looked back down the hall and saw daylight coming in as the front door swung open. They were on their way.
Michelle had three seconds at most to snap the photo and return to the bathroom area. Her index finger had barely touched the button to snap the shutter when she instantly felt a sharp pain in her wrist and saw her cell phone flying out of her hand through the air and crashing on the tile floor, shattering the viewscreen. She turned to look at her aching wrist, only to see Elliot, his eyes blazing in anger, practically burning a hole through her. He was gripping her wrist tightly. Michelle let out a scream.
“What do you think you're doing?” Elliot yelled straight in her face. Realizing he was still holding her by the wrist, he let go and Michelle stumbled backwards. She was terrified, not only because of the anger that Elliot displayed, but also because she never even saw him coming towards her. It was like he came out of thin air, materialized out of nothingness.
Michelle couldn't decide what was more important; to tell Elliot that she was just taking an innocent photo, or to ask him where the heck did he show up from. So she just stood there in shock, unable to get one word out of her mouth. She was clearly losing her mind. Elliot yelled again, “How dare you come here and start snooping around?” Michelle tried to mutter that she wasn't snooping and that she was there because of work, but he interrupted her again, only this time it was to ask if her wrist was okay because he saw that she was still clutching it.
“What?” Michelle said in complete disbelief. She was beyond confused. One moment he was hurting her and screaming in her face, and in the next he was asking her if she was all right. She looked at him completely bewildered. Then there was that smell again, the one she had sensed when she passed him by at the mall, and when he helped her get back over the school wall. She was finally able to recognize it. It was the smell of the sea, of fresh sea mist, just like in her dream. All Michelle could do was look at Elliot, her mouth wide open with awe.
It was obvious that Elliot didn’t feel comfortable with the way she was looking at him, because he started shifting his body and tried to look elsewhere, anywhere, just not at Michelle.
Just then, Kahl and Mr. Meyers rushed into the living room to see what all the commotion was about. When Elliot saw Kahl he gave him a quick look, indicating the seriousness of the situation. Kahl looked at Michelle with an expression that read somewhere between inquiry and disappointment. Mr. Meyers immediately asked Michelle if she was all right.
“No she's not all right,” Elliot said accusingly. “She was snooping around, and...”
Michelle didn't let him finish his sentence, and countered in a voice that ended up being a little too loud, “I wasn't trying to do anything bad. I swear. I was just…” Michelle looked at her cell phone lying on the floor.
“She was picking up things that don't belong to her, and then had the nerve to try and photograph that vase over there,” Elliot said, pointing towards the niche.
“I'm sorry,” Michelle said, her voice shaking. “I just wanted to compare it to something I have at home.”
Elliot laughed out loud. “You, have something like that at home?”
Michelle felt her cheeks burning. “Yes, no, it’s this little thing,” she said while illustrating the shape of the glass disk with her fingers. Elliot looked at Michelle quizzing, but Michelle read his expression to mean disbelief, so she gave up on the disk and tried to save whatever face she still had. “It’s not like I was going to touch it or steal it, and that’s the absolute truth. I’m telling the truth,” she said, pleading at Mr. Meyers. She then mumbled quietly but still loud enough so they could all hear, “unlike some people around here.”
“What are you talking about?” Elliot asked, “Are you trying to suggest that I’m lying about something?”
“No, yes, I mean, you haven’t been totally honest either,” Michelle answered, too fearful to look at his face. Elliot looked disappointed. He shook his head.
Kahl looked the most confused out of any of them. He looked at Elliot, then back to Michelle. “Do you two, know one another?” he asked. Both Elliot and Michelle answered at one time, Michelle answering ‘yes’ and Elliot saying ‘no’. Then they each backtracked their answers, with Michelle saying ‘no’ and Elliot answering ‘yes’.
After that, nobody said anything for quite some time. It was so quiet that Michelle felt that she would suffocate under the sheer weight of the atmosphere unless somebody broke the silence. Just then, they all heard the front door shut and the four of them turned to watch as Xander appeared coming down the hallway. The expression on his face did nothing to hide his alarm and confusion at seeing all of them quietly staring back at him. Mr. Meyers knew who Xander was, and realized that he had to take control and salvage the situation. Michelle was his employee, and she was representing his business. She was behaving erratically and unprofessionally. He walked over to Michelle, put his hands on her shoulders and quietly asked her to go wait for him in the van. Michelle fought to hold back her tears. She felt so embarrassed, belittled, ashamed. How could things have gotten so out of control so quickly? How could she be so stupid to do the things she does? Michelle bent down to pick up her broken cell phone. She glanced up at Elliot, but he looked away. He hated her, she thought. She was hopeless, and most likely fired from her first job as well.
Xander didn't say anything as Michelle headed down the hall towards the door, he just quietly stepped out of the way to let her pass by. He wondered if he should feel sorry for the girl and maybe walk her out, but then decided to focus his attention on Elliot, who’s eyes were
glowing like blue fire, his thoughts millions of miles away.
Michelle walked down the long hallway and considered that she might be having a nightmare, a horrible dream. If only she would wake up and have none of this be true. She was obviously fired she thought, she had nothing left to lose. And with that thought in mind her naturally stubborn streak refused to let her walk away quietly in defeat. She knew her intentions, and she knew she was telling the truth. “I’m not lying! And he knows it!” she shouted back at them, realizing that if by some miracle she hadn’t lost her job already, she surely would after that. With a shred of dignity salvaged, she pulled the door shut behind her.
Michelle felt as crushed as her cell phone. When she got home that evening she ran upstairs to her room and locked the door behind her. She had held herself together even after being told that she was dismissed from her position. She apologized profusely, and told Mr. Meyers that she completely understood, and would do the same if she were in his shoes. Mr. Meyers looked at her sympathetically and said that she needed to learn not to let her personal relationships influence the way she conducted herself at work. Michelle tried to explain that she didn't have a relationship with Elliot, but he just smiled and told her that at his age he was an expert in relationships. After all, he had been married for 37 years. He even offered to give her another chance; perhaps she could come back in the summer. Michelle thanked him, and in a very discreet manner asked him not to tell her father. The last thing she wanted her parents to know was that she had any involvement with the students at the new school. They would be upset and her mom would freak out, guaranteed.
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