Carpe Diem (11 page)

Although I tried to talk myself out of it, I still find myself pulling into the large parking lot I have come to know. Without thinking, I turn off the car and start heading for the door. I nod to the woman leaving as I hold the door for her. The same ugly gray and blue carpet greets me as I walk toward the elevator.

I know I should turn around and leave, this is not right. If I can’t tell Abby or Casey what I have been doing then, I shouldn’t be doing it. I no more think Casey’s name and I hear her voice.

“Piper!”

I turn to see Casey is walking toward me. Shit, what do I tell her, how can I explain why I am here… why is she here?

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I ask in the peppiest voice I can muster.

“Some jerk tripped at a house I was showing him and his wife was threatening to sue the sellers, so I brought him in for an x-ray to prove there was nothing wrong with him other than a scraped palm. Asshole,” she explains.

“Wow, some people are out for only themselves.”

“I know it is freaking sad. So what are you doing here…wait. How was today?” she asks with excitement.

Here is my chance, my chance to distract her with the details of my recent skydive. I quickly start talking and slowly start walking us to the door. She is so mesmerized by the story she has all but forgotten I didn’t tell her why I was at the hospital.

In what seems like forever, I have spilled every last drop of detail I can think in time for us to approach my car. I have my keys in hand ready to make my escape.

“It was so amazing. I wish you could have been there with us, you would have loved it.”

“Oh hell no, you are not getting me to jump out of a plane unless it is on fire and I have no other choice.” She laughs.

I smile and use my key fob to unlock my door in the hopes she will let me leave without coming back around to why I am here.

“I’m gonna get going. I’m getting hungry and dinner won’t cook itself.” I joke.

“Sure thing and I have to stop at the office to fill out some paperwork on this asshole. Call me later if you want to chat some more,” she adds and walks away.

Thank God. I can’t believe that worked. I can’t believe I almost got caught. All the more reason why I should stop doing this to myself. Casey would have ripped me a new one if she had found out. Abby would have lectured me on how damaging it is. Then there is Flynn, he might actually understand. Granted he would think I was still a little batshit crazy for doing it, but he would understand my need.

Pulling back into my driveway, I am relieved that I am finally home. I’m still no closer to my answers about the cup, but I’m not exposed either.

Walking back into my kitchen, I open the fridge to weigh my options for dinner. I haven’t been grocery shopping yet so my options are a little limited. My eyes glance at the pieces on the counter again. I let out a loud “UUUUHHHH” and slam the refrigerator door. I grab my phone and pull up my contacts.

“Thank you for calling Pizza Hut, this is Adam. What can we make fresh for you today?”

“Hey, Adam, it’s Piper. Can I get my usual?”

“Oh for sure, anything for you, doll. It will be about thirty minutes.”

“Thanks, Adam.”

I hang up and toss my phone gently onto the center island. While I wait for my dinner, I decide it is a good time for wine. Wine makes everything clearer, that is until the next morning, and you realize one bottle turned into three and your head is yelling at you. Luckily, Abby is not here or it would turn into one of those nights.

I pour myself a glass of Moscato then retrieve my small velvet box from the hutch. Taking a seat at the dining room table, I slowly open the box, take a sip of wine, then retrieve the folded paper from inside. Scanning the list carefully, I find what I am looking for and cross it off.

Skydive

Scanning the list again, I pay closer attention to the ones that were already crossed off.

Fall in love

Do a polar plunge

Win a contest

Volunteer my time

Take a walk with my mom

Go fishing with my dad

I remember each of them as if they were yesterday. The polar plunge Jack, Flynn, and I did barely a week after I made the list. Being the first week of March in the Midwest, we froze our respective asses off. I immediately regretted showing Jack my list at that point. He saw polar plunge and immediately signed us up for the senior plunge. I swear, whoever thought jumping into a lake in freezing temperatures was absolutely, positively insane, and the fact that we have kept this tradition for so many years makes the rest of us positively as insane as they were.

The funny part was that to make it fun and goofy we dressed up as Alvin and the chipmunks. Okay, it wasn’t originally our idea to dress up—it was also part of the tradition to dress up or something equally as funny. Most guys came in some form of drag and most girls wore anything that let them have on as much clothing as possible. After we made our jump, we swore we would never in a million years, even if our lives depended on it, would we ever and I mean ever do it again. To this day, we never have.

Again, why is this still a tradition? Has no one come up with a better idea, or do we think that this is a good idea. Okay, so it did seem like a good idea at the time. However, afterward it seemed like it took us a month to thaw out, plus I ended up getting the flu and missing a few days of school. Half the senior class and me.

I did win a contest ironically. Even though it was pretty silly, I still count it as a win. That May, the local radio station was giving tickets for a special viewing of Jurassic Park in June. It was a VIP pass that included four tickets, free popcorn, pop, a candy choice, and a tee shirt.

All you had to do was call in and answer three questions. I ran to my phone and dialed the station’s number repeatedly until I got ringing instead of a busy signal.

“Hi, you’re caller number ten. What’s your name,” the DJ said when he answered the line.

“Oh my God, really?” I scream into the phone.

“Yes, you are. What’s your name, hon.”

“Piper, my name is Piper. This is so cool.”

“All right, Piper, here is your first question. True or false, the name dinosaur means ‘terrible lizard’?”

“Oh man, um, geez, I will go with true.”

“DING DING DING, you are cooooorrect.”

“I had no idea. That was totally a guess.”

“It was a good guess. Okay, for your second question, a person who studies fossils and prehistoric life such as dinosaurs is known as a what?”

“Oh, oh I know this one. It is a paleontologist.”

“DING DING DING, you are cooooorrect again. One more and you win the prize pack. All right for your third and final question, which came first, the Jurassic or Triassic period?”

“Oh, I think this is a trick question. You totally want me to say Jurassic since that is the movie so I’m going with Triassic period.”

“DING DING DING, you got it!! You are our winner!”

Winning that contest was the best. Jack, Flynn, Casey, and I all got to see the best movie of the summer. Actually, it was the first and last movie we saw that summer. After the pregnancy test came up positive, we didn’t do a whole lot that cost money.

Most of the summer was spent doing the little things that would become harder to do after the baby came. Therefore, taking a walk with my mom and going fishing with my dad were easy things to cross off. Then there was the day that Jack said he loved me. Yes, we thought we were in love with each other long before, but we had agreed not to be one of those high school couples who went around kissing and declaring their love and then a week later they had broken up and were off declaring their love to someone new.

No, we were not going to be that kind of couple. We agreed that we would not say those words until we knew we were actually going to mean it.

I remember it was October and I was about five months pregnant. We went for a walk to look at the leaves changing color before they fall to the ground and the snow comes. We stopped at a large oak tree and Jack pulled out a disposable camera from his jacket pocket.

“Stop right there,” he said.

“Jack, stop I look like a house,” I joked.

“No you don’t. You look amazing, and I want to remember this day for the rest of my life,” he told me.

I leaned against the tree, held my belly, looked at the camera, and smiled. He snapped a picture and wound the film as a jogger was passing by.

“Excuse me, could you please take our picture?” he asked the man.

The man agreed and Jack ran to me, knelt down, kissed my belly, and pulled a small box from his other pocket.

“I may not be the man you dreamed of, but you are the woman of my dreams. This may not be the life you expected to live, but I am glad I am in it. I know we are young and I know we are scared of what comes next, but today I make you this promise. Through the good times and bad, I will love you forever. I promise to do my best to make you the happiest woman in the world if you will make me the happiest man and say yes.”

The world seemed to disappear. The jogger that was once standing in front of us was a blur. Jack opened the small box and in it was a ring. It was small but breathtaking, in my eyes.

In that moment, I knew that I was truly in love with him and that I would always be in love with him.

“YES, YES, YES!” I screamed and knelt down to kiss him over and over.

We start laughing and giggling as we fell to the ground and I kept kissing him. The jogger kept snapping pictures until there was one picture left. Jack and I finally stood up and posed next to the tree for the final picture.

That night I got home and crossed fall in love off my list, folded it back up, and put in back in its drawer. That was the last time I saw the list. The last four months of my pregnancy flew by and the next thing I knew I had little baby Bryna to look after.

The doorbell interrupts my stroll down memory lane. After paying the delivery guy, I bring dinner back to the table and once again look at my list. I see many things on the list that I have actually already done over the years. I decide I should update my list and see how much is actually left. The first is take a picture in the same spot for each season. I did that with Bryna the year she turned five. But as I start to cross it off my list, I realize that Jack left them untouched for a reason. I know he knows some of these were done, I mean hello, marry my best friend is right there below fall in love, which is crossed off.

“Hmm, maybe I should wait until Jack’s little adventure is done,” I say to myself.

“It’s not like the list is going anywhere,” I continue.

I fold the list back up and place the pen and paper back in the velvet box. I go into the kitchen and grab a sandwich bag and the broken pieces of Jack’s mug to put them carefully into the baggie and zip it closed.

“I will see you next month,” I say as I place the box and the baggie back on the hutch.

N
ow that I am
finally back to volunteering at the shelter, my days have flown by faster and faster. They offered me a paid position, but with the life insurance sitting in the bank and the shelter struggling to raise money all the time, I declined their offer to pay me. I would still do the extra work and instead I wrote them a check for more money than they have ever seen. Why I waited so long to make a donation was beyond me. However, it is better late than never.

I’m finishing my shift when I get a text.

FLYNN: What time will you get off work?

ME: I will be done in about twenty minutes, why?

FLYNN: Are you coming right home?

ME: Not like I have a hugely active social life.

FLYNN: So that is a yes then

ME: That would be a yes, are you going to tell me why?

FLYNN: You will see.

ME: Jack?

FLYNN: Guess you will find out…

ME: Jerk

FLYNN: Thank you

ME: that wasn’t a compliment

FLYNN: I think it was

I laugh at our banter and get excited to finish cleaning the rest of the cat litter boxes so I can get home and find out what is next on Jack’s list. It has to be a Carpe Diem adventure otherwise why else would Flynn need to know what time I would be home.