The Emerald Talisman (7 page)

“I don’t think John minds if you come over
every once in a while and spend time with them. He understood when
he married her you and your brother are practically her
children.”

“I mind,” I muttered under my breath so he
couldn’t hear me.

After the
let’s analyze Julia
session,
I refused to let John know anything further about my life. But what
bothered me the most was Jo seemed oblivious to the intrusiveness
of John’s inappropriate questions. On top of that, it hurt that she
hadn’t come to find out why I’d distanced myself or even seemed to
miss me. It felt good to know she actually did.

“Okay. I’ll try to make it over there this
weekend,” I said, figuring it was time to at least make an
appearance.

Dinner came and went and I’d completely lost
track of time until I noticed it was a little after eight. My heart
sank when I realized Nicholas was unlikely to show up tonight.
Where was he? Did I misunderstand? Maybe he was running late?

I needed to find something to do. There was a
slim possibility he may come within the next few minutes but I
couldn’t wait and watch the clock.

I limped into Dad’s office and sat behind his
large desk, moving the mouse to activate the screen. From the
desktop, I opened the browser and typed in ‘mountain lion’ and
clicked ‘search’. A few menacing images of lions popped up with
over a million links to choose from.

I scanned the list and then clicked
“
mountain lion attacks on people in the US and Canada.
” On
that page, I clicked, “
statistics of attacks,
”. The new page
loaded and I looked for the details in California. To my surprise,
there had only been one attack last year and no deaths.

Interesting.

I clicked another link and jumped as the
sound of a cougar cry came through the speakers.

“Geez!” I exclaimed.

“What’s that?” Dad asked, calling from the
other room.

“Oh, nothing. I’m just researching something
for school,” I said and quickly turned down the sound.

On the screen was a list of Do’s and
Don’ts.

Do’s and Don’ts… Never turn your back on a
lion. Never ever run from a lion. Do look at them in the eyes.
Don’t go out in lion territory alone.
Don’t go out from dusk
to dawn. Act aggressively towards the lion. Make menacing noises.
Smile and show your teeth. Use a stick and thrust it towards its
face….

Then I scrolled to the bottom and my eye
caught a peculiar sentence.

It’s important to keep in mind that lion
attacks are still extremely rare in California and nationally.

Rare?

I clicked to read some first hand stories and
noticed a common thread. All of the attacks happened during the day
and most of the victims survived. Still the stories were creepy and
I shivered.

Maybe it was another cat
? I looked up
“bobcat”.

Though the Bobcat prefers
rabbits
and
hares
, it will hunt
anything from
insects
and small
rodents
to
deer
.

Nope, it wasn’t that.

Extremely rare?

Something just didn’t fit.

Suddenly Aladdin jumped up onto my lap and
startled me. She looked right up at me and meowed loudly, begging
for some affection.

“Laudie, you brat,” I said as I gave her my
meanest glare.

It didn’t faze her as she rubbed her head
against my outstretched arm, meowing repeatedly. Reluctant, I
scratched her neck.

She gently purred and started kneading my leg
as if it were dough. I continued to pet her when it donned on me;
she belonged to the cat family.

I mentally reached out to see if I could
sense her emotions. I would think I’d be able to feel her happiness
and contentment as she purred softly on my lap, but I felt
nothing.

So, it had to be something other than an
animal or was it only extreme emotions I felt.

I thought about startling her to be mean, but
decided against it as I casually glanced at the time. It was 9:32
p.m.

Where did the time go?

I felt all hope drain from my body like a
deflated balloon as the reality sunk in. He didn’t come and I would
have to start the wait all over again tomorrow. I sulked as I
limped upstairs and got ready for bed, fighting my
disappointment.

Why did I make such a big deal about it at
school today? If it wasn’t for Luke actually meeting him, I would
be sure people would think I’d made the whole story up. I started
to think that I did. But my healing cuts and aching bruises were a
constant reminder that it happened.

Oh, this is so embarrassing.

I climbed into bed and turned off the light.
I looked out the window again at the night sky wanting the stars to
guide me, maybe give me answers.

But what could have kept him? I didn’t know
his last name, where he lived, or anything about him to find him. I
worried my earlier gut reaction was right and I’d never see him
again.

The letdown was overwhelming. I had such
hopes that maybe he was different. That he cared. Not knowing made
me furious. I started to wish he’d just left me there. I’m sure I
would have survived the fall. At least being laid up in the
hospital with pain medication would feel better than the complete
embarrassment I felt right now.

Why would he promise to come see me and not
come? I wanted to feel sorry for myself, but my frustration
overpowered me. He wasn’t going to have this type of pull on me any
longer.

I refuse to get upset over some boy I just
met! Get a hold of yourself, Julia!

Angrily, I grabbed the dirty shirt I slept
with the night before and threw it in the corner. His scent had no
business lingering on my bed, even though it had faded to just a
whisper. I balled up my pillows before throwing my head down on
them and shut my eyes tight. I was going to go to sleep if it
killed me.

It didn’t matter though. As soon as I closed
my eyes, I saw his face; his beautiful eyes shining radiantly down
at me and felt the pull that melted my heart. I knew, no matter
what I did, he was going to haunt me forever.

. . .

5
– FRUSTRATION

My eyes slowly opened and I strained to focus
on the blurry surroundings. I recognized the place at once – I
stood alone in the dark forest. What was I doing here again? I knew
the creature was going to return and eat me like it wanted to and I
had to get out of there but my legs wouldn’t move. I turned before
I heard the angry snarl. The noise came from just beyond the trees.
Frozen in fear, I waited and watched. Evil green eyes appeared and
stared out at me with lips curled up to reveal teeth ready to rip
me to shreds. I shied away but knew I couldn’t defend myself. I
gasped when I recognized the face that bore daggers into me. It was
Nicholas.

I found myself sitting up in bed, drenched in
sweat and screaming. I looked around the dimly lit room for the
thing I feared, but the dark images floated away like a fine mist
and suddenly, I couldn’t remember what it was I searched for. I
flopped back onto my pillows and I rolled over shivering, afraid to
close my eyes. The clock read 2:20 a.m. like it did the night
before.

The soft light of the full moon gently shined
into my room and helped bring me to reality. My heart finally
slowed as sleepiness clouded my mind.

I’ll just close my eyes for a second.

Something made a horrible buzzing noise.
Feeling groggy, I opened my eyes to find the sun’s happy rays
glaring throughout my room. Annoyed, I reached over, hit my alarm,
and groaned. My body ached all over.

Keeping very still, I wondered how I would
make it to school today. Staying home seemed like a more logical
choice, but I knew I’d go stir crazy waiting around at home all
day.

Once I got to school, I wished I’d gone with
my first instinct. Even though only two days had past since the
accident, life at school returned to normal. My rescue story was
already yesterday’s news and everyone stopped living vicariously
through me. Actually, they were starting to get annoyed at my
disability and so was I.

The girls played volleyball again while I sat
on the bleachers and watched during P.E. class. I tried to listen
and take notes in History, but found myself daydreaming and tuned
out Mr. Marshall’s monotone voice. When the bell rang to let us out
of Chemistry, I packed up my things and gasped when I looked at my
notes. I unconsciously doodled Nicholas’ name all over my paper.
Quickly, I crumpled the evidence into a ball before Sam could see
it.

There goes turning over a new leaf.

We waited until the crowd subsided before
leaving the room – less people for me to accidentally run into. She
took one look at my pathetic heavyhearted expression and furrowed
her brow.

“You’re not doing any better, are you?” she
asked.

I pouted up my lips and nodded my head.

“I’m trying, but I can’t stop thinking about
him,” I said, completely despondent.

We headed across the lawn towards the
cafeteria and Sam kept a slower pace. Since the accident, my
appetite diminished to practically nothing and the thought of food
made my stomach lurch.

“I know, let’s go do something tonight,” Sam
suggested cheerfully.

“I can’t do much with these,” I said while
lifting up my crutches.

She sighed. “When do you get rid of
them?”

“The doctor said, depending on how I’m
healing, I could try moving around without them on Monday, but he
warned me not to overdo it.”

“How does your ankle feel?”

“Still tender,” I said not wanting to reveal
my heart felt a hundred times worse in comparison.

“I can’t wait until you can walk again. It’s
hard to cheer you up when you can’t go anywhere.”

“Tell me about it,” I said with a sigh.

“Hey, I know what we can do.”

A mischievous smile spread across her
face.

“Oh no. What?”

“How about going to the Boardwalk?” she said
while raising her right eyebrow. “We could get you a wheel chair so
you don’t have to wait in line.”

I imagined how stupid I would look and rolled
my eyes.

“No,” I said, wrinkling my nose.

Everyone knew the only reason locals hung out
at the Boardwalk was to show off their current infatuations, which
I didn’t have. And even if all the rides happened to be free, I did
not want to be subjected to unbridled displays of affection.

“There’s always the beach,” she
suggested.

“How am I going to use crutches on the sand?”
I said, completely annoyed my injury prevented me from enjoying
everything.

Her sudden embarrassment made me realize my
harsh tone hurt her feelings.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like that. I
know you’re just trying to help.”

“It was a stupid suggestion.”

“No, you know I love the beach. I’m just…” I
searched to pinpoint my actual problem. “…being stupid.”

Sam laughed.

“No, you’re not. It’s Nicholas’ fault. He’s
the one being stupid.”

“You’re right. I’ll stop being so difficult,”
I said with a smile.

We joined Cameron, Dena and Morgan at our
regular table.

“Do you want anything?” Sam asked me as I sat
down as lithely as I could.

“Just a Luna bar, if they have one.
Thanks.”

“I’ll come with you,” Dena said as she got up
and followed Sam to the cafeteria line.

Prompted by Morgan’s longing, I decided to
take advantage of my window of opportunity.

“Hey, Morgan,” I said.

His eyes flickered quickly to mine after
realizing I’d caught him checking out Dena as she left the table.
He looked away, his cheeks turning red.

“Oh, hey, Julia,” he said while drinking his
soda to hide his embarrassment.

“I was wondering…Who are you taking to
homecoming?” I asked with a smile.

He took one short breath, appearing calm, his
anxiety known only to me.

“No one. Why?”

His eyes darted back and forth between me and
Cameron.

“I think you should ask Dena to go with you,”
I said softly.

I watched as panic spread across his
face.

“Dena?” his voice cracked.

“Yeah.”

“I think she wants to go with someone else,”
he said sheepishly, glancing over at her as she stood with Sam at
the cash register.

“I think she wants to go with you.”

His eyes came back to mine. I sensed his
disbelief.

“Me?”

“Yeah and you better ask her soon, before
someone else does and she has to say yes because she doesn’t want
to go alone.”

Cameron cleared his throat rather loudly. We
looked up just in time to see Sam and Dena’s return to the
table.

“What are you guys talking about?” Dena
asked.

Morgan stiffened.

“Just football stuff. Hey, where’s Katie?” I
asked.

Dena’s powder blue eyes studied my expression
as I feigned innocence. She paused for a moment then glanced at the
tables around us.

“Off trying to get Tyler alone I think,” she
finally said.

“She’s persistent,” I muttered followed by a
chuckle.

“Yeah, it seems sorta hopeless,” Sam
said.

Hopeless
.

That’s what I was. Why was I torturing myself
hoping Nicholas would show up?

The bell rang and I got a pit in my stomach;
time to endure another torture session in Algebra. My only saving
grace would be going out with Sam later. I almost hoped Nicholas
would show up and find I wasn’t at home. I could imagine his face
when he found out I was out having a glorious time without him.

It would serve him right for standing me up.
I do have a life after all.

“Are you coming?” Sam asked.

I snapped out of my fog and realized she was
talking to me. As we headed over to our classroom, Cameron nudged
me.