Just a Little Series (Parts 1 - 4) (23 page)

Why would he leave it? What did he want
me
to do with it? I didn’t want his memories.

I pulled the lid off the box and caught a
sob in my throat… because all I found was a pile of ashes; he’d
burned everything that he’d collected over the years. The pictures,
the newspaper clippings, the suicide note his mother left… it was
nothing but gray ash lining the bottom of the box.

My heart ached as I stared at what was left
of Derek’s room; there was nothing but four walls, a single window,
and a box and envelope on the floor.

It felt foolish to mourn after someone who’d
intentionally left me behind, but somehow I found the strength to
smile. He was doing what he had to do. He finally trusted himself
to be the person he needed to be.

Derek had done many great things in the
short time that I’d known him, but walking away was probably the
most admirable thing of all.

He was starting over.

I picked up the box, the letter, and the
envelope and carried them out of the room. I walked slowly through
the house, taking the time to reminisce. As I stood at the front
door, one foot already on the porch, I looked back in the house and
nodded.

“Thanks for the memories,” I whispered,
finally stepping out and closing the door behind me.

I kept the key; it didn’t belong in the
ground. I wanted to keep it with me, just in case I ever needed it.
Just in case I ever did run into Derek again… so I could give it
back to him… and so he would always know that he could come back
home.

There would always be a place for him in
Oakland, and he would always have a place in my heart.

CHAPTER FIVE

Saturday, December 22

I spent the better part of the week focusing
on nothing but the parade. Without Derek, I found myself drowning.
I thought I could do it without him, and I probably
could
have if I still had Grace on my side. But I hadn’t heard from her
since the day I confronted Lonnie at the diner, and I honestly
wasn’t too surprised. Why would she want to have any kind of
contact after all the horrible things I’d said to (and about) her
husband?

I’d promised the Oakland Celebration
Committee that I could handle the finer details alone, and I wanted
to stay true to my word. But there was always this little voice in
the back of my head that criticized every move I made. The voice,
strangely enough, always sounded like Charlie’s.

“Kara,” I motioned for her to climb aboard
the float. “Can you take your position for just a second? I need to
get an idea of where we’re at.”

Kara, Matt’s new girlfriend, was the
sweetest girl I’d ever met. She was Oakland High School’s Junior
Class President, dance committee chair member, and a diplomatic
representative in the Model UN. I still don’t know how their
relationship sparked, but there’s no secret why she’d caught Matt’s
eye. She was beautiful—5’6”, brunette hair, amber eyes, and a smile
that could knock any guy off his feet. Furthermore, her amazing
personality added to her charm. Just last spring she was voted the
Oakland City Festival Queen. That, I’m sure, came with its own set
of duties and obligations, which included being a participant in
the holiday parades.

Kara climbed aboard her float and sat down
on the throne. Bundled in her coat, scarves, gloves, and hat, she
waved at the imaginary audience.

“How’s it look?” she called down.

“Perfect,” I gave her a thumbs up.

Grace stood on the float next to Kara’s
throne, strategically placing flowers on either side.

Grace and I had been at the parade line-up
since seven. It was now eight, and neither of us had spoken a word
to the other.

Twenty minutes after I’d given Kara’s float
the green light, the marching band stepped into place. The
flautists were adjusting their mouth pieces to tune their
instruments in the cold wind. The drummers were goofing off,
shoving each other in the back of the line. The rest of the band
warmed up their instruments with a melodic scale.

I glanced to the front of the line where the
Grand Marshal float sat, and I watched as Luke climbed aboard. I
finished giving instructions to the last of the group around me,
and rushed over to greet him.

“Hey,” I said, calling up to Luke, “lookin’
great!”

“The float or me?” he jiggled his eyebrows.
He offered his hand to help pull me up. I accepted his gesture,
cupping his hand in mine, and jumped up on the wagon-turned-parade
float. Standing next to him, he draped his arm over my shoulders
and glanced back at the long line of cars and floats. “You’ve done
an amazing job, kid.”

“Thanks,” I tried to tune out the marching
band directly behind us. “I can’t stay. I have so much to do at the
end of the line. Derek was supposed to….” I dropped my head and
shrugged. “It’s chaotic; no one knows what’s going on.” Luke nodded
as though he understood. “But I wanted to stop by real quick and
say
hi
and
thanks
.”

“For what?”

“Doing this,” I said. “It means a lot to me…
and… well, everyone else. You really deserved this—”

“Hey,” he spoke louder as the band behind us
warmed up in unison. He watched as my stare lingered behind him,
and he could obviously see that my mind wasn’t where it needed to
be. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, “Just stressed.”

“About the parade, or Derek?”

I shrugged again for a second time. I didn’t
know how Luke had found out that Derek was gone. I’d never told
him. But in a town as small as Oakland, news traveled fast. I could
only imagine the whole town knew he was gone within 24-hours of him
pulling out.

He wrapped his arms around me, pulled me
close, and brushed our noses together.

“Julie,” he nearly yelled, still trying to
talk over the band. “Don’t worry about him. He’ll be fine—”

“I know,” I matched his volume. As much as I
wanted to stay and talk about how much pain I harbored at Derek’s
sudden disappearance, I couldn’t neglect my duties as a member of
the Oakland Celebration Committee. There were things that needed
doing, and they wouldn’t get done without me. “I have to go now.
They need me at the back of the line—”

“Go,” he said, letting me slip away. But
before I could jump off the float, his hand wrapped gently around
my wrist, and he twirled me back to him. Our chests pressed
together, and I found myself breathing far too heavily. I didn’t
know if it was Luke’s warm body against mine, or the freezing cold
wind, but something left me numb and frazzled.

He leaned down and whispered something, but
I couldn’t make out the words. Even that close, the band was far
too loud to make out Luke’s whispers.

“What?” I yelled. He smiled, shook his head,
and whispered again. “Luke,” I yelled again, pointing to my ears,
“I can’t hear you, it’s too loud—”

“I love you!” he yelled, and this time
everyone
heard him. The band had stopped at the most
inopportune moment, and everyone in the line-up—and even a few
members of the gathering crowd—watched us with wide eyes and stupid
grins.

I took a long, deep breath as I looked
around, failing to meet his gaze.

“Julie,” Luke said, his voice much quieter
now. He lifted his hands to cup my face. “Did you hear me?”

I couldn’t help but smile. Of course I’d
heard him.
The whole town had heard him.

“Julie!” Grace yelled from two floats over.
“The 4-H float is overcrowded. They want help arranging their
second unit—”

“I’m on it,” I nodded, but never looked at
her. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Luke’s. “I’ll be right
there.”

“Jules—”

“Can you just… hold that thought? I have
to—”

“Go,” he smiled. “Do what you have to do.
I’ll see you after the parade.”

With a quick and unexpected kiss, I took a
step away from him and jumped to the ground. The warmth from his
lips still tingled on my skin as I stumbled back to the end of the
line.

It felt like a dream. I almost couldn’t
catch my breath. My heart pounded inside my chest, louder with each
passing second.

Luke… just… said… he… loved… me….

“Eh, Romeo!”

Charlie’s voice snapped me out of my trance.
I whipped around to find him pushing through the crowd toward the
Grand Marshal float.

“No,” I said under my breath, fighting to
get back to Luke before my uncle made it there.

But Grace intercepted.

“Chief,” I barely heard her say, “glad you
made it on time.” Charlie tried to push by Grace to reach the front
of line, but she kept a firm grasp on his arm. “You’re representing
the Oakland PD, sixth in line. Please get back to your patrol
car.”

Charlie’s face was as red as I’d ever seen
it, but he seemed to know better than to mess with Grace. He
pointed up to Luke, not saying a word, but communicating a pretty
clear message. Luke had crossed a line. But, minding Grace’s
authority, Charlie turned on his heel and marched back to his
car.

Grace turned and nodded to me with a slight
grin. “Go get the 4-H kids squared away, sweetheart. I’ve got this
end covered.”

Saturday, December 22|11:20 a.m.

The event went off without a hitch, and the
parade was over by eleven. Most of the participants stuck around to
disassemble their floats before heading over to the diner—the site
of my emotional breakdown and confrontation with Lonnie—for a
celebratory lunch. By the time the band was out of uniform and
loading their instruments on the bus, most of the crowd had cleared
out.

“Hey,” I said to Grace, who was now clearing
flowers from Luke’s float, “thank you… for… earlier.”

“Charlie’s a stubborn ole mule,” she said,
shaking her head. “I wasn’t about to let him lay a hand on
Lucas.”

She looked at me for a moment and then
straightened up. “About what happened at the diner—”

“I’m sorry, Grace,” I said, genuinely
remorseful. When I’d attacked Lonnie, I had every intention of
hurting him, but I had never wanted to hurt Grace. Hearing me say
those things—no matter how true they were—couldn’t have been easy
for a wife to hear about her loving husband. “I let my anger get
the best of me; I hope you can forgive me—”

“No need for apologies, Julie,” she waved
her hand. “This fight isn’t between us, sweetheart. It’s between
Lucas and his father. No one blames you for what happened back
there.”

“Thanks,” I nodded, “you have no idea how
much it’s been weighing on me—”

“How’re your shoulders?” she asked, brushing
my hair aside. “Did he hurt you?”

“I’m okay,” I tried to pull away, but she
took a firm hold on me—just like she’d done to Charlie when he went
after Luke—and pulled the neckline of my sweater back to look at my
arms. I took a deep breath because I knew exactly what she would
find. When Lonnie had grabbed me, he hadn’t done so gently. The
large bruises on my shoulders were proof enough.

“My God,” she whispered, running her fingers
across the fading marks. “Honey, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Grace,” I lowered my head. “He snapped
because of me. It was
my
fault—”

“But he hurt you—”

“Who hurt you?” Luke stepped up on the float
and gently pushed Grace away. He pulled the back of my shirt away
to see what Grace had discovered, and then looked back to me. The
softer gleam he’d worn earlier quickly faded, and it was suddenly
replaced with a protective rage.

“Charlie?” he asked, bending to meet my
stare, but I kept from looking at him. “
Julie
!”

“Let it go, Luke. It doesn’t matter. What’s
done is done—”

“Did Charlie do this to you?” he ignored
me.

“No,” I knew, as well as he
should
have, that Charlie would never lay a finger on me, “it wasn’t
Charlie.”

“Derek?” He stopped for a moment and took a
deep breath. “I’ll kill that sonofa—”

“Calm down, Lucas,” Grace put her hand on
his back.

“I’m not going to calm down until she tells
me what happened,” he said, looking down at me. His face was
growing redder by the second. “Julie?”

“This is why I didn’t tell you, Luke,” I
said. “I knew you would overreact.”

“
Overreact
?” he yelled. “Someone hurt
you. That’s
not
okay.”

Luke was chivalrous, yes. Even in that
moment, all he wanted was justice. But then something happened; his
demeanor changed far too quickly. What was once anger and rage
suddenly became sorrow.

“Why do you trust Grace and not me?”

“I didn’t tell Grace,” I looked at my feet.
“I didn’t tell anyone. And I’d never planned to. She only knows
because she was there when it happened.”

And then I didn’t have to say another word.
The realization hit him in a nanosecond. Another wave of anger
swept across his face as he whipped around to look at his
step-mother.

“I’ll kill him,” he said, less to her and
more to himself. “I’ll kill the bastard.”

He turned away and jumped off the float
without another word, no doubt on an unstoppable mission to find
his father.

Grace and I shared a mutual look of worry,
but there was nothing we could do.

Luke was gone.

CHAPTER SIX

Sunday, December 23

“Sorry, Julie,” Grace flipped the sign
hanging on the door of her small floral shop to close for the day,
“I haven’t seen him since yesterday, sweetheart.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” I rubbed my temples
to fight off another migraine. Ever since Luke had stormed away,
leaving me and Grace alone on the float, no one had seen or spoken
to him. I’d called Detective Bruno earlier that day to see if Luke
had come into the station, but he wasn’t scheduled for a shift.
Luke’s hours had been hit and miss ever since the shooting. I knew
my chances of catching him at work were slim, but I was desperate
to get in touch with him by any means possible.