Tempus (17 page)

“Curiouser and curiouser!”  I exclaimed.

“You are so right,
Alice
.”  Said Julie.

We tried not to walk too fast, but it was somewhat comical, each of us quickening our pace, yet trying to appear normal.  I was enjoying Steve playing along.  I wasn’t sure if it was entirely for our benefit, or if he was as nosey as we were.  Either way, I gave him points for it.

Once we reached the store, I got nervous.  If he looked like Wooly Wally, I would not be able to keep a straight face, and I would absolutely die if I laughed, because
he
would know why.  He would know it was because of his looks.

“Stop!”  I shouted.  “Steve, you have to go in first.  Take a look.  Come back and tell us something, or send me a text.  Tell my dad we stopped somewhere a second. 
Something
.”

He started laughing.  “So you want
me
to be the one to laugh first.  Okay, I see how it is.  If I lose my job, just remember it’s all
your
fault.”  He gave me a quick kiss, wiggled his eyebrows at us, and went inside.

Julie and I hid around the corner.  We were just dying to know, and it seemed to take forever.  I already had my phone in my hand, waiting.  The instant I got the message, I opened it.  It said, “He’s normal.  Come in.”

I showed it to Julie.  I didn’t know if I was happy, or disappointed.  After hyping it all up in our minds, this was a bit of a letdown.  I was hoping at least for a giant mole, or a big nose.  Oh well, I could work with normal, and I wouldn’t have to feel bad about thinking he was goofy-looking every time I saw him.  It was for the best overall, but not for today.

Julie and I exchanged a glance and a sigh, and entered the front of the store.  Steve was standing in the open door to the back, watching for us.  “It’s just Jessie and Julie,” he said into the room.  He waved us over and pointed to the back room.  When I got beside him, he whispered, “I think your dad’s testing his knowledge.  Shhh.”

The bell on the front door jangled.  “Can you get that, Steve?”  My dad called after a few seconds.

“Yes, sir!”  Said Steve, he brushed my hand lightly as he walked by me, approaching the customer.  “How can I help you today, Mr. Shelton?”

Julie and I turned back to the room while Steve followed Mr. Shelton outside.  I was dying to go in, but didn’t want to draw any attention to myself.  It sounded like my dad and the new guy were all the way in the back where some of the bigger, recently restored items waited for space on the showroom.  

I heard my dad ask, “And what type of wood?”

“Flame mahogany.”  The voice was deep, and smooth.  It sounded familiar, but I knew I had never heard it before.

“And this?”  My dad’s slightly higher voice.

“Tiger oak.”  The smooth, deep voice again.

Julie and I tried to sneak in the room.  We made it to my work area.  I stood on my tiptoes, and I peeked through the shelves.  I could see my dad on the left
—
to the right was a male, about the same height as my dad, with coal black hair.  It fell slightly over the top of a crisp, white collar.

I ducked down a little, then up, trying to get a look at his build.  The best I could tell, he was muscular, but not as bulked as Steve was.  One dip gave me a view of a very nice butt.  Julie was copying me, trying to get a look as well.  “Did you see the
butt
?”  She whispered.

I nodded, trying not to laugh.  When I looked back, they were heading to the side of the shelves, and our direction.  I grabbed Julie and said loudly, “Okay, just let me wash my hands real quick and say bye to Dad.”  We both went to the sink, Julie was watching, I turned my back and ‘washed’ my hands.

“Jessie!”  I heard my dad call.  “I didn’t know you were still here.  I want you to meet someone.”

I glanced at Julie; her expression was hard to read, as if she were purposely trying to keep her face blank.  I could hear footsteps behind me, so I quickly dried my hands and turned to face them with a smile.

All I managed to say was, “
Oh, my god
!”

The day is of infinite length for him who knows how to appreciate and use it.

—Goethe

The next thing I was aware of was being placed in a chair.  Julie was asking if she should call an ambulance, Steve was having a fit and asking my dad if I was okay, Dad was telling Steve I was fine and to go take care of Mr. Shelton, and a not-quite unfamiliar voice was near my ear saying that I would be fine, and for everyone to give me some air.

I had no idea what had happened.  I tried to open my eyes, but I felt dizzy, as if the room were spinning.  For some reason, I was
afraid
to open my eyes.

“Miss, are you all right?”  That voice.  I had heard it somewhere.  Not here, somewhere
else
, but I didn’t know who it belonged to.

“I’m okay, I think.”  I answered.  “I don’t know what happened.  I think I turned around too fast.”

I still didn’t want to open my eyes, but I knew I had to or Dad would panic.  I opened them just enough to peek through, then opened them wider.  When they focused, I was looking into the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen, and I knew I
had
seen them.  I
knew
who they belonged to.  A fresh bout of vertigo overtook me, and I grabbed the edges of the chair.

Pictures of people, decorations, like a party, hit me in waves.  I could hear music, and people were dancing all in front of me.  The view was from a chair, from someone
seated
in a chair, and I was watching what he or she saw.  The music was so loud!  I let go to grab my head—and it stopped.

“Are you all right, Miss?”  I
knew
that voice.  I remembered where I had heard it before, but it
couldn’t
be.  “Miss, you fainted.  You will be fine, just breathe slowly and deeply.”  My eyes had closed again, and I felt a cool hand touch my forehead, my skin tingled where it rested.  It reminded me a little of the sensation of sticking your tongue to a battery, but it wasn’t unpleasant.  To someone in the room, probably my dad, the voice said, “Fetch her a cool glass of water.  She’ll come right around momentarily.”

She’ll come right around momentarily.
  What was that?  Why was he talking so weird?  He had an accent, but it didn’t sound foreign.  It sounded too
proper
.  Like someone in one of those British movies, but without the British sound.

“Here, miss, sip slowly, and not too much.”  My eyes opened enough to see the glass, and I sipped very slowly.  His hand was behind my head now, and it tingled there.  Why wasn’t Dad the one taking care of me, or Julie?  “Much better?”

I wasn’t sure how cold water could help, but it seemed to have made a difference.  I concentrated on breathing slowing, in through my nose, out through my mouth.  I opened my eyes, and
he
was still there, with an anxious look on his face.  I looked around the room and saw Dad and Julie, standing back a little.  I could hear Steve's voice in the front of the store.  I had an overwhelming urge to call out, “Auntie Em?”

“Are you better now, Miss?”  He asked again.

“Jessie,” I corrected.  My eyes opened and focused on his.

“Miss Jessie?”

“
Jessie
.  Just plain
Jessie
.”  My brain wouldn’t function.

“Jessie, perhaps, but
not
plain.”  He smiled, and those blue eyes sparkled, as if there were light shining from the inside out.

That was the moment Steve walked in.  I heard him, but I couldn’t turn my eyes away, as if they were held by a magnetic pull.  I closed them, turned them in the general direction of Steve, and then opened them again.  He had stopped at the door.

The moment our eyes met, he rushed over to me.  “Your dad made me go out there.  I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Steve, I’m fine.  What happened?”  I asked.  Steve looked at my dad.

“I’m not sure Jessie, you turned around, your face turned white, and you fell forward.  Gabriel here caught you.”  He gestured toward
Gabriel
, who had quietly stepped back when Steve came in.  Gabriel smiled, and then looked down.  I’m glad he looked down; I might not have been able to turn my head otherwise.  Dad finished with, “He said you fainted.”

“
Fainted
?”  I exclaimed.

Steve did not seem pleased with the revelation, but if it was worry for me, or something else, I couldn’t tell.  He glanced at Gabriel with a look that could not have been described as happy.  Then he seemed to regain composure.  “Thank you,” he said to Gabriel.

“My pleasure.”  Gabriel replied.  I’m sure he meant to be polite.  Steve didn’t appear to take it that way

I started to stand, but my knees felt weak.  Steve put an arm around me and assisted me to my feet.  He kept his arm firmly there.  I felt so odd, and unsteady.

“Julie, can you take her home?”  My dad asked.

“Sure Mr. McLeod.”  Julie came to stand by me.

“Do you want me to go too, Roger?”  Asked Steve.  He still had not released me.

“No, Steve, I need you here.  Thank you, though.  I know you’re worried.”  He looked at Steve, almost in apology.  I thought he might have said yes, if not for the house.  “Julie can go in and stay with her until I get home, if that’s okay.”  He looked at Julie.

“Yes, I’ll stay.  No problem at all.”

Everyone began to move with those words.  Steve helped me to Julie’s car, with Julie, Dad, and Gabriel close behind.  Steve kissed me on the check after he got me seated, and asked me to call him later.  Dad kissed me bye, and told Julie to call if I didn’t feel better.  Gabriel approached and leaned down.

“It was nice to meet you.”  I said, for lack of a better thing to say.

He took my hand, kissed the back of it, and said, “The pleasure was all mine, mis-
Jessie
.”  His eyes did not release mine until my dad cleared his throat.  Gabriel closed the door and Julie started the car.

As we backed out, Julie said, “
What
was
that
?”

“Which thing?”  I asked, still feeling somewhat dazed.

“All if it!  You have never fainted in your life!  You looked like you saw a ghost!”  Her voice sounded on the verge of hysterics, though she had seemed mostly calm after she found out I didn’t need an ambulance.

I thought to myself maybe I had, maybe I
had
seen a ghost.  But which was the ghost?  The first one obviously, because the second was real and everyone else saw him too.  No, that wouldn’t make sense.  I couldn’t see the ghost of someone who is still alive.

“Jessie!  Are you with me?”  It was Julie, sounding concerned.

“I’m here.  Just confused about something.”  I mumbled.

“Well, that makes of two of us.”  She sounded annoyed.

“I have something to show you, and something to tell you, when we get to my house.  You’ll understand more.  Maybe you can help me figure it out.”  I had to tell her something.  If I ever told her later, she wouldn’t believe me.  This way, at least I could prove I wasn’t crazy.

When we got to my house, she followed me upstairs.  She didn’t say a word about the house, but the first thing she noticed in my room was the new mirror.  She gushed over it, and then remembered what I said in the car.  “So, what is this ‘thing’ you have to show me?”

I reached under my pillow, found the portrait with my fingers, pulled it out, and handed it to her.  Her face went pale and she sat on the floor, staring at it.  I had no idea what she would say when she snapped out of the shock.

In true Julie style she simply said, “Tell me
everything
!”

I told her mostly the truth.  I told her I had a dream, and he was in it, under the trees at the park.  Suddenly I realized what the other letter was!  G!  J+G!  It was only a dream, so I told her about it, too.  I told her about drawing the portrait, I just didn’t tell her
why
, other than the obvious.  He was gorgeous.

“No wonder you fainted!”  She said when I was done.  “Hey, remember how his dad was staring at you at the café?”  I nodded.  “When did he start staring?”

“Right after Jennifer said my name.”  That
was
odd, not just the staring, but all of it.

“There is something weird going on.  We have to get to the bottom of it!”  Julie seemed excited.  I didn’t know what I had expected her reaction to be, but for some reason, this was
not
it.  She had stood up, pacing with the portrait in her hand, and then she suddenly stopped.  “
He kissed your hand
!”

“I know.”  I touched the back of my hand.  I could still feel the exact spot his lips had touched.  It still tingled.

We had at least six hours before Dad got home.  Julie suggested we drive out by the house my dad said they had bought.  I didn’t like that idea, because I didn’t want to get caught, and he,
and his Dad
, knew who I was.

We tossed around ideas for over an hour, but in the end, none of them seemed possible.  We tried the internet, some of those genealogy sites, but we didn’t have enough information to find anything worthwhile.  We didn’t know anybody who would be of help, unless we had more information.  We tried to figure out a way to talk to him, today, or tomorrow, to ask questions.  General stuff, like ‘Where are you from?  What’s your middle name?  When’s your birthday?  Are you a ghost?’