Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy) (21 page)

I am used to studying through all kinds of circumstances
. I can do it
now she told herself. This time though it was her body that wasn’t cooperating. She had trouble sleeping. Her eyes were getting hollow with dark circles around them.

After the first month, her calculus professor, Mrs. Timmons asked her to stay after class. Nora picked up her books, which seemed twice as heavy as usual, and went to Mr
s. Timmons desk.

“
Nora,” Mrs. Timmons began, “Are you ill?”

“
No,” was Nora’s first response because she never was sick. Then she shook her head after she thought about it, “I-I-I don’t know,” she stammered. She hadn’t thought about being sick. The only thing she had thought about was missing Jeremy.

“
You don’t look well. You missed three problems on your quiz. You don’t usually miss any.” Mrs. Timmons apologized, “I’m sorry. I don’t intend to probe, but I am concerned. If you want to talk, make an appointment and I will help you if I can.” She smiled at Nora in dismissal.

Nora walked out in a daze. It hadn
’t occurred to her she might be sick. She snickered to herself.
I sure am love sick.

She pushed the incident out of
her mind until she fell in bed that night feeling as heavy as a log, she was so tired. She lay there wishing Jeremy was there. She had written him a letter tonight as she had each night, and included the incident with Mrs. Timmons. She had dismissed the idea because she didn’t have any sniffles or sore throat. What else could it be?

She sat up straight in bed, “
Oh! My God! Jeremy!”

She lay back down slowly. Jeremy had insisted on using condoms. After
a while they seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. They definitely weren’t staying in place and containing the semen which they were designed to do.
Well
, she thought
now I have something else to worry about
.

Okay, think about the last period. God!
She thought
I’m not used to worrying about things like this.

She remembered finally that she had just gotten off her period the day before they went on vacation. Calculating one year forward, three months back. That should put me somewhere in the middle of May or so, gi
ve or take.

No way, I
’m not having a baby during finals week. I’ll flunk every class I’m in and lose my scholarship.
She pictured herself waddling in swollen and barely able to sit in one of the chairs to take her tests.
I don’t think so. No, way.

By calc
ulating up her last period, she knew that she was two weeks late. “Oh, My God!” she muttered. She pulled the covers over her head and curled up in a fetal ball. She knew when Jeremy read her letter; he would come to the same conclusion.

Finally, she slept
the sleep of exhaustion.

She dragged herself out of the bed when the alarm rang. She went into the bathroom to shower and get ready for school. She pulled the gown over her head and stood looking at her stomach in the mirror. She turned sideways and imagin
ed her belly already swelling with a bump.

She thought of her mother, wondering what she would say.
Would she scold or jump up and down for joy?

She thought of Jeremy
’s parents. They were predictable. Samantha would be happy where Donald would get angry and say, “I told you so.”

Knowing she didn
’t have to get up early on Saturday morning, Nora took two aspirin and went to bed. When she woke up she took too more aspirin and went back to bed. She was tired of being tired.

When she woke up in the afternoon, sh
e felt more rested than she had in days. She went to the bathroom and she had gotten her period.

She got dressed and went to find some food.

Monday she wrote a quick note to go out in the morning mail to let Jeremy know that he could stop worrying.

She rec
eived a letter from Jeremy that he would be moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma to attend Oklahoma State University for the Spring semester.

She was so happy that he wouldn
’t have to go back to Harvard. Stillwater would be only two hours away from OKC but so would Tulsa. They could be together on weekends. Would that make it harder or easier? She puzzled on it for a while before she made up her mind.

Nora went to the Dean
’s office the next day to ask how would it affect her circumstances if she transferred to Tulsa for the Spring semester rather than wait until Fall semester. They told her basically it wouldn’t affect her in any way as long as her paperwork was filed in sufficient time for them to send her transfer over to the other office. She immediately started the process.

She was so excited but she wasn
’t going to tell Jeremy, yet. By moving to Tulsa, she would be between Pryor and Stillwater and be closer to home.

Nora had kept herself busy studying and the semester was finally over
.

She finished her last final for the Fall semester this morning.
In January she would start classes at the Tulsa campus. Change can be scary but also a challenge. She accepted challenges as a game to conquer, most of the time she had been successful. She hoped Jeremy would be as excited as she was about the early move.

Nora pulled into the driveway anxious to see her mom and Danny. Jeremy would be home tomorrow. She could hardly wait.

Danny wasn’t home from school for the day, and apparently Laura was at work or just out somewhere. She hadn’t sent a note to tell them when she would be home. It felt strange to come home to an empty house.

Funny
she thought.
It doesn’t feel like home as much as it used to. Sort of like coming to Mom’s house.

She set her bags down and looked at the Christmas tree that her mom and Danny put up. She remembered the first Christmas
after they had moved in town where Jeremy had brought all those beautiful decorations for them to put on the tree and around the house. It was their first real Christmas with all the trimming.
Jeremy is so good to us
she thought. Her heart filled with gratitude that she could be fortunate to love someone so kindhearted.

She remembered how she used to push him away and ignore him. Well
, she excused herself
he was just plain annoying
. His advances embarrassed her. She smiled remembering how they had made that deal, totally out of her comfort level, to go on that first date.
How it changed my life!

She unpacked her bags then looked around fo
r something to do. In the refrigerator she found a cut-up chicken. She peeled and sliced up potatoes to fry. Soon aromas floated from the kitchen of frying chicken and potatoes. Next she stirred up some biscuit’s for the oven.

She stood looking
at what she had cooking. Some salad sounds good, so she pulled out the lettuce, tomatoes, a green pepper, and green onions. Next she put her mind on what should be for dessert. She found some fresh apples in a bowl on the cabinet. She opened a can of fruit cocktail. She chopped an apple, poured the fruit cocktail over the apple and sprinkled pecans and marshmallows over it and stirred.
There
she thought
now all we need is some good cream gravy for the mashed potatoes.

She placed the chicken and potatoes in the warmer drawer of the oven and placed the salad and fruit salad in the refrigerator to rest until Laura and Danny came home.

She called her friend Jamie to see if she was home from college. Jamie’s mother answered. She told Nora that she would have Jamie call her when she got home.

Nora found a book that apparently Laura was reading.
It had been a while since she had time to read for the enjoyment of reading. She sat down in her Dad’s big comfortable chair to read.

An hour later, Danny burst in the door and threw himself on her to give her a hug. Soon Laura came in sniffing the air, “
I can’t remember when someone prepared the evening meal for me.”

Nora laughed,
“Today is your lucky day.”

Later Jamie returned her cal
l, after a chatting for a while, Nora asked, “When is the Christmas party at the hospital? I think I would like to go and help out.”

Jamie replied, “
I don’t work there now but I heard that they don’t have a Santa this year. If Jeremy would like to fill in for them, they would really appreciate it. They had so much fun when he played Santa for them. It is usually the Monday night before Christmas.”

“
He won’t be home for a couple of days. I definitely will ask him. It sounds like fun to me. I’ll call them to be sure on the day,” Nora declared.

Chapter Nineteen

Jeremy arrived late Friday night so Nora didn
’t think she would see him until Saturday morning. She had gone to bed to finish her book. She glanced at the clock at eleven thirty thinking she should go to sleep but she only had a few pages to finish so she decided to keep reading.

She heard a scratching on the screen and opened the curtains and there stood Jeremy motioning for her to open the back door. She tiptoed to the back door hoping that Danny o
r her mother wouldn’t wake up. She quietly let him in and they went back to her bedroom. As soon as the door was closed Jeremy swept her up and kissed her with all the pent-up emotion he felt.

“
Jeremy,” she teased. “I think you missed me.”

“
You got that right, Baby.”

Soon they fell on the bed. After they both were spent and panting,
she lay on her side toward him with her leg over his thighs and smoothed his hair back from his brow. She slowly kissed him, and explored his neck and chest. She caressed his face with small kisses, as she told him of her choice to move to Tulsa campus for the Spring semester.

He was so relaxed that it was hard for him to comprehend what she said at first. Finally, it began to register what she was saying.

He quickly sat up in bed and said, “You did what? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Offended by his abrupt manner, she said defensively, “
Shh, you’ll wake everybody up. I wanted to keep it for a Christmas surprise for you, but I couldn’t wait. I thought you would be happy.”

Jeremy
’s mind was racing thinking of all the possibilities, the things he needed to accomplish in a very short time.

“
Jeremy, I wanted to be closer just like you. Are you upset?” she felt apprehensive about his response.
Did he not want her to change locations?

“
Let’s get dressed and go sit in my car so we can talk,” he suggested in a whisper.

By the time they got in the car Nora was almost in tears. If Jeremy didn
’t want her close by, what did that mean?

Nora sat in the car with her arms folded around her and a tear
slipped down her cheek.

“
Hey, Baby, I’m sorry if I upset you. I just wanted to come out here where we didn’t have to whisper.” He tilted her chin to where he could kiss her. She didn’t kiss him back. “Nora, talk to me, Sweetheart. What have I done?”

“
Do you not want me in Tulsa this semester? If not, why?”She asked looking straight ahead out the front windshield.

“
Nora, I’m so sorry. Of course, I’m happy you will be closer to home. You have to understand, there are a lot of things I need to think about and details to work out.”

“
Jeremy, I have a full scholarship that takes care of everything for me. Why do you feel that you have to think about so much?”

“
Have you thought about my angle on this? All you seem to be thinking is that we will be able to see each other often. You’re right, we will.”

“
So, isn’t that a good thing?” she said turning her face away again. “I thought you would be as happy as I am or was.”

“
Nora, Sweetheart, look at me.”

She turned toward him reluctantly.

“I love you. Do you think I could stand it if I couldn’t come to you every weekend if you lived that close to me?”

“
I I hoped you would,” she said uncertainly.

“
Where would I sleep? In the YMCA? In my car? Excuse me! If I’m with you, I will sleep with you. Do you think I would be allowed to sleep in the dorm with you?”

“
Oh. I guess I didn’t think that far ahead.”

“
Well,” Jeremy said, “This is too much to figure out tonight. I’m going to go home and sleep on this. We will come up with an answer, Nora. You can be sure, I am like a bee, where you are my honey.” He smiled and kissed her.

“
Come on. I’ll walk with you around to the back door.”

Before he let her go in, he held her in his arms,
“You never need to doubt my love for you. I fell head over tea kettle for you back in our Junior year in high school. I still am crazy about you.”