by Tifani Clark
*****
I watched the happy couple for a moment before Peter grabbed my hand and gently pulled me away.
“Let’s leave them alone for a while,” he said.
I thought he would let go of my hand once he got my attention, but he held it all the way to the bleachers and my heart fluttered the entire way. I hoped that my palms wouldn’t start sweating again. We walked up the stairs and sat at the top of the stadium, watching Nick and Sophia below us.
“Do you think that reuniting them was enough? If this was their way of extrication, how long before they disappear? Do they just vanish?” Peter asked.
“I have no idea.” I hesitated. “This might sound stupid, but I feel like this is just the beginning. I felt drawn to both of them, and they felt drawn to me, but I don’t feel like it’s ended yet. I still have this burning desire to help them, but now that they’re together I’m scared that one of them is going to finish their business and leave while the other one is still here. I don’t want them to be hurt even more by having to leave each other again.”
We were interrupted by the beeping of my cell phone alerting me that I had a new text. It was Camille, of course, wondering if we’d found Nick yet.
“Do you two ever do anything without each other?” Peter asked.
I thought about it for a second. “Not really.”
He chuckled. “What’s going to happen when you end up going to different colleges or one of you gets married before the other one?”
It was my turn to laugh. “Actually, we both plan on going to Newton University since my dad works there . . . and maybe we’ll marry twins. Don’t worry, though, both of those things are a loooong way off. Cam and I can think about it later.”
“How exactly did you two meet?”
“In first grade—long before you even moved here. We were assigned to sit next to each other on the first day of Mrs. Novak’s class.”
“Girls become closer to each other than boys ever do.”
“Cam is almost like a sister to me, I think. I wouldn’t really know since I don’t actually have any siblings.”
“I don’t have any siblings either, but you don’t find me constantly attached to any of my friends.”
“Does it bother you that we’re so close?”
He looked away. “No. I’ve just noticed that it’s hard for anyone to ever talk to you without Camille being there. She talks a lot more than you do and sometimes it’s just nice to hear what you have to say.”
“Thanks—I think. Camille’s not here now, what do you want to talk about?”
“Hmm . . . good question.” We sat in silence for a moment while Peter contemplated his subject matter.
I thought of all the classes we’d shared, all the field trips we’d gone on together, and all the childhood memories that were ingrained in my mind. For some reason, I kept thinking of all the comedic moments. Apparently Peter did, too.
“Remember that time in sixth grade when Mrs. Anderson had toilet paper trailing from beneath her skirt all through class?” he asked.
I laughed. “How could I forget? No one had the guts to tell her. I don’t think anyone learned anything all day because we were so preoccupied with the TP dangling from her backside.”
“Do you think it eventually fell out on its own or did she find it when she went home that night and put her pajamas on? She was probably humiliated.”
“Probably. I would’ve been mortified for sure. If it had happened to me, I would have tried to convince my dad that we needed to move—to another state.”
“I’m sure we all had our fair share of embarrassing moments growing up.”
“Oh come on, I had more than my fair share.”
“What did you ever do that was embarrassing?”
“Uh-uh. You first.”
“Okay. Let me think.” He tapped his fingers on the bleacher. “I know. One time I was at the park with a bunch of friends. We hadn’t been there in a while and I decided to go down the slide. I climbed to the top and announced to everyone down below that I would be going down the slide head first. I got down on my stomach and pushed myself forward—only my shorts got caught on the handrail and they came off. I went all the way down the slide without pants . . . and everyone watching.”
I laughed so hard I could barely sit upright. It was a good thing I didn’t have to pee.
“When was this?” I managed to ask between giggles.
Peter looked a little sheepish. “I wish I could say it was when I was young, but I’ll be honest—it was last summer.”
I laughed even harder. “I think that’s the greatest story I’ve ever heard.”
“What about you? It’s your turn to tell me something embarrassing.”
I turned red. I’d hoped we could skip over my embarrassing moments. “Okay. One time in fifth grade I went to a fall carnival up in Boston with Camille’s family. We pigged out on all the fried foods they have at those kinds of places and then rode a bunch of rides. I was starting to feel kind of crappy, but we went on the Gravitron anyway. I totally puked when we got off.”
“Come on. You’ve got to have something more embarrassing than that. Everyone pukes at carnivals.”
“Yeah, well, I puked all over Camille’s dad.”
“Eww. Okay, that’s pretty bad. I can just see the look on Mr. Spencer’s face. He’s such a serious guy.”
Peter and I spent the next half hour talking about school and memories of growing up in Marion. Every once in a while we glanced down at the field where the young lovers sat and talked. I saw them kiss a couple of times, but I didn’t say anything about it to Peter. That was a subject I did not want to bring up with him.
“Where’d they go?” Peter asked a while later, looking down at the field where Nick and Sophia had been sitting.
I looked down to see that they were no longer on the overgrown fifty yard line. Had something happened to them? What if they’d finished their business and they were gone forever? I didn’t get to say good-bye. I stood up in a panic just as they both reappeared right in front of Peter and me, holding each other’s hand tightly.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “So?”
“We’re good,” Sophia said, looking up into Nick’s eyes.
“Jamie, I can’t believe this has happened. I’m so glad I met you yesterday.” Nick turned to Peter and stuck out his hand, introducing himself. “Hi. I’m Nick Trenton.”
“Peter Ashby. I’m a friend of Jamie’s.”
“So what do we do now? How do we know if you guys have finished your business?” I asked.
“I’ve never actually seen it happen before, but Nick says he was with someone once when they extricated. They described a pulling sensation and then they only had a few moments before they disappeared. He said their aura disappeared with them,” Sophia answered.
“Do either of you feel a pulling sensation?” I was scared to ask.
“Nope,” Nick responded.
“Good. I mean, I wouldn’t want you to have to leave each other already. What do we do now?”
Sophia and Nick exchanged glances again. “We’re going to take a couple of days and go down to Haiti together. I want to see the wreckage of the Mary Celeste.”
“That’s probably a good idea. I can keep looking into things here while you’re gone. Maybe I’ll uncover something that will help us—if you come back.”
We all knew that the “if” was the most loaded word of that sentence.
“When will you leave? What kind of travel arrangements do you need to make first?” Peter asked.
Sophia laughed in her tinkling way. “We’re ghosts, remember. All we have to do is pick a flight and hop on. Customs can’t hold us back. I really don’t think we’ll be gone for more than a couple of days, but we thought we should leave as soon as possible, before the Goodwins find either of us.”
“I understand.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll drop you off at home first,” Nick teased. I was thankful
that our relationship felt so natural already.
On the drive back to our neighborhood Peter sat in the back with me while Nick took his new place in the front. He kept his hand on Sophia’s knee as if she would disappear again if he wasn’t touching her. My hand lay on the seat next to me and Peter reached over and covered it with his own, giving it a little squeeze. I turned in surprise and he smiled and winked. Neither of us moved our hands and we sat in silence, no words needing to be exchanged, all the way to Peter’s house.
When we arrived at my home, Sophia and Nick both got out. I hugged each of them tightly, not sure if that was our final goodbye.
“Keep me posted, will you?” I said.
“Of course. Don’t have too much fun without us, either,” Nick said.
He opened the passenger side car door for Sophia and helped her climb in before walking around and getting in the driver’s seat. He was backing out of the driveway when Sophia rolled down her window and called to me.
“Hey, Jamie, text Camille and tell her to meet me in her tree house in about ten minutes. She’ll kill me again if I don’t let her meet Nick before we leave.”