The Gravity of Love (5 page)

But now, here she was. Staring down at
stacks of bills with heavy sighs and too little money in her bank account.

And her life was going nowhere way too quickly.
She was twenty eight, at the top of her job. She wasn't going up anymore. Yet
she didn't have enough money to get a better place a real home instead of a
little apartment. Had no money for a better car that was starting to drag on
the road. And she was still hung up on the same guy that she loved since her
fifth birthday party, when he gave her a kiss over the candle blown cake.

Harrison Redford. The blindest man to ever
walk the earth. He had faults, well, many faults. But his pros vastly outweighed
any cons. She loved him and wished to high heaven that she didn't. Putting down
her silver pen that she had been using to write out all the checks, she sat up
a little straighter. It was time. Time to start changing her life for the
better. She didn't know how she'd do it, or even where to start, but she knew
she had to make it somehow. Or live with the heavy regret, knowing that she
never did make any of her dreams that once made her proud. Shutting of the
little desk lamp that she was using, she pushed away her chair and crossed the
room, entering her bedroom. Flopping on her bed, she slowly drifted off to
sleep, thinking about these new plans.

_______________________________________________________________________

"What do you call a clock that's big
hand pointed at the six...and it's noon?" Harrison asked as he came in to
her apartment, where she was comfortably seated on her sofa with her laptop
resting on top of her lap.

"Hmm?" She replied, barely
listening.

" A broken clock." He replied,
pointing to her main clock. It was a charming little cookoo clock, one that she
valued greatly and had brought from her Vermont home an heirloom of her
father's. But it was true it no longer worked. Well, at least the hands
didn't. On each hour the cookoo bird still popped out of its little nest inside
of the clock to greet whoever was there for him to announce the hour to.

But even though it was old and the odd
piece stuck out like a sore thumb, Molly still loved it. And Harrison
continued, as he always would, to tease her and make fun of it.

"Leave Daddy's clock alone." She
said with a grin.

"You know, it wouldn't be so bad if
you had a clock besides this one. The only other is in your bedroom to wake you
up and the one on the microwave but even that one is the wrong time! Get a
decent clock."

"I was doing bills yesterday. I can't
afford anything let alone stupid things like clocks it's what my watch is
for."

"You mean the watch you had since you
were sixteen?" He asked with a smirk.

"It's a nice watch!"

"It's going to die at any
moment."

Molly covered her watch with her hand, as
if being protective of it. "Unless you're willing to refurbish my home
with the little money you have yourself, I don't think you should be insulting
my stuff." She replied, her watch covered wrist laying close to her heart.

He let out a soft chuckle. "Always the
Daddy's girl and never to grow out of it."

She frowned. "So? What's wrong with
that?"

He shook his head. "Nothing.
Absolutely nothing. It's actually kind of cute."

She wrinkled her nose, squinting at him
with that look she always gave him when he was teasing her but didn't know what
to say to it.

He started to say something but was
interrupted by a knock on the door. Molly rolled her eyes at Harrison.
"Come in." She yelled.

The door opened to reveal Marty and Josiah
standing there with drinks and movies in their hands.

Harrison cocked an eyebrow. "What, do
you have movie night here every night or something?" He asked her.

She shook her head with a light laughter.
"No, just twice a week. Come on in guys and we'll get it all ready.
Harrison, you staying?"

His head was tilted, staring at her with an
awkward facial expression. "Why was I not invited to this?"

Marty and Josiah looked at them in
surprise. "You didn't invite Harrison?" They echoed.

She shook her head and grabbed the movie
from Marty's hands. "There are reasons for it. Good reasons. Harry, why
don't you sit and tell our lovely friends some stories while I cook up some
snacks?" But he shook his head. "No, why wasn't I invited?"

Grinning, she put the video in the kitchen,
then walked back out to him, leaning on the arm of the sofa that he was sitting
beside. "Tell them about the year you went to college just for Buckeye
Joe. It'll lead to the reason why you weren't invited. Come on, buy me some
time here."

Harrison, still wary of her reasons, just
shook his head lightly, then waited until the two eagerly took seats before
telling his story.

"Uh...okay. Well, the whole reason why
I went to a year of college was all because of my horse."

Molly, from the kitchen, intercepted here.
"This boy wanted a buckskin like a little girl wants a pony." She
giggled.

Growling from the interruption, Harrison
started again. "I was seventeen and I was bored. Molly had started taking
dance lessons during the afternoons, and my other few friends were doing stupid
things I didn't like...like bowling. I hate bowling, but it was the rage at
that time."

"Now for any normal person, the lack
of friends because they're doing something productive would make something
click inside their heads and say 'hey, maybe I should join something too.' Not
Harrison.

Harrison decided he wanted a horse to train
no baseball for him." Molly said.

"Who's telling the story here,
Radcliffe?" He asked over his shoulder.

She looked at Marty and Josiah, their eyes
on the two of them. "Uh...well, I think we are."

He blinked at her for a moment, shaking his
head and muttering something under his breath before going on with his part of
the story.

"Okay...so anyway, I asked my mom if I
could get a horse. I worked part time at the grocery store as a bagger, but my
mom said that money was strictly to save up for school, so I couldn't use my
own money. So she had me call my father he had a good deal of money himself.
He said I could have a Buckskin, and he'd support it, if I went to college for
Education for at least a year and aced all my classes.

I didn't want Education never did want to
work in a school, but if it was going to get me a horse? Well, I put in an
application for the community college the next day. Acing the classes were easy
as pie I managed to do that and keep up with Molls in high school as well. And
still managed to beat her well over half the time." He informed, looking
back at her in the kitchen, with a wink. "And as soon as those classes
were over and I got my average, I faxed it to my father and he wired me a few
thousand. I only needed three hundred."

"You got a Buckskin for only three
hundred dollars?" Marty asked in doubt.

Molly laughed, wiping her wet hands on a
towel before walking back to the room where they all were. "You don't
understand this was no 'glistening with beauty' horse. This thing was a
mangy, messed up horse that looked like it crawled out of the darkest gutters.
It was in perfect condition and one hell of a fast runner, but this
thing...his one eye was like bulging, which made him look worse than insane.
And his coat, no matter how much you washed and brushed it, always looked mangy
and dirty. Not to mention his mane only grew a few inches it was stubble that
never grew in. Such a nasty looking horse at first sight. But of course, you
grew to know him and love him. He was a very sweet horse...though he was wild
and untrained when we got him..."

"My horse!" Harrison growled.
"I'm telling the story about my horse. Now, yes, that's all true. But I
bought that one for a very good, smart reason."

"And what was that?" Josiah asked.

"Because I quit school the next day,
never to go back. I knew my father would get furious and sell my horse."

"But that thing was unsellable."
Molly put in with a bright grin.

"He was for sale for months but one look
at him and it sent people running. Not to mention, Molly and I had trained him
to act naughty when strangers came about. So not only did he look bad, but he
also was 'untrainable, sorry sir. Can't help an untrainable horse'."
Harrison mimicked.

"We did spend a long time on that
thing." Molly remembered.

"What happened to it?" Marty
asked.

Molly and Harrison's gaze met for a moment
before he answered. "When my brother got sick, my mother couldn't afford
to keep him anymore. As it turned out, someone wanted him."

Molly swallowed, knowing the unfair fate
that had become of ol' Buckeye Joe.

"Really, I don't know why you wouldn't
just get a simple animal like I did. Buckeye Joe was such a hassle." She
said, knowing what his response would be and that it would get his mind off of
things quickly.

"And Sam Swayze was anything
better?" Harrison exclaimed.

"Sam Swayze?" Josiah and Marty
asked in unison.

"My beautiful, great black cat."
Molly said proudly. "I was seventeen too and wanted a pet. So I asked
Momma if I could get a cat. She asked my mother and she said"

"Wait, your mother asked your
mother?" Josiah asked, squinting in misunderstanding.

"No, no no. Momma is what I always
called Harrison's mom. My mother is what I call my mother. But since I spent
more time with Momma, I asked her because it only seemed natural, you know? My
mother gave Momma money to watch me and allowance to me so I wanted to spend
my allowance on a cat, if Momma would only let me keep in at her house, because
my mother was allergic to cats. I didn't have to go to school to get my
pet."

"But that thing was the worst!"
Harrison groaned just from the memory.

"He was a great cat!" Molly
countered. "But Harrison hated him because he said my black cat was completely
unlucky this, coming from a no superstitious man."

"Superstition had nothing to do with
it it was fact. Even Buckeye Joe hated that cat."

"He brought nothing but luck to me.
Whenever I had him around, I was having a great day."

"It tripped me! That damn cat would
run out from nowhere and run under me so I went sprawling on my face!
That...that...thing tripped me down the stairs and put my wrist in a brace for
two months!" Molly rolled her eyes. "It was two stairs and you were
wearing those stupid new riding boots that were as messed up as your horse. My
cat was just busy chasing mice out of the house that came from the horse
barn!"

"I don't care what you say it hated
me."

"Where did the name come from?"
Marty asked.

"Sam Swayze? Oh, well I got him when
the movie Ghost first came out, staring Patrick Swayze."

"She became obsessed with that movie!
And that actor!"

"It's true." Molly blushed.
"I wanted my own Sam Wheat to follow me around and protect me. So I would
pretend that it was in the form of a black cat. But instead of Sam Wheat, I
thought Sam Swayze went together better. And it was cute. But it scarred
Harrison forever."

"It really did." Harrison said
with a far off look.

"He hates Patrick Swayze and refuses
to watch any of his movies. And if Harrison does watch them, he growls every
time Patrick Swayze comes on. Really, it's hell to watch Dirty Dancing with
that man. But oh...watching Ghost with him is the worse. He has this weird
twitch that he develops when it comes on tv. I mean really, when you know him
this well, you realize that Buckeye Joe and him actually went together very
well. I suppose his current pet fits him well too. That old Australian blue
fur, one blue eye one green eyed Cattle dog named Jake is pretty fitting too. "
Harrison threw a pillow at her, but she managed to catch it and throw it back,
hitting him on his unexpecting head.

"And this, my dearest of dear friend,
is why I didn't invite you to this movie meeting." Molly said, taking a
movie case that had been hidden behind her back and putting it just inches away
from his face, showing him the tape for Ghost. "Not just that." She
said after his face registered in horror. She held up the rest of the stack.
Dirty Dancing, Roadhouse, Red Dawn, and for the grand finale, seasons one and
two of North and South.

Harrison shuffled away from the movies in
her arms, walking backwards towards the door, his eyes locked on the movies
with a frightened face, until he disappeared out the door.

"And that, lady and gentleman, is how
we get Harrison to leave it's fool proof. I've been doing it my whole life
whenever I wanted privacy. Still is a charm. That cat was the best thing I ever
invested in." Molly laughed, then popped one of the movies in the DVD
player and grabbed the food for a relaxing night of Patrick Swayze.

"Ya know, no one told me this was
going to be a chick flick night." Josiah said with his arms crossed,
feeling like a pansy.

Rolling her eyes, Molly took away the Dirty
Dancing movie.

"There the rest of them are more for
guys than women anyway. Now sit and eat."

Satisfied with that, Josiah shoved a
handful of popcorn in his mouth and crossed his ankles.

_______________________________________________________________________

Molly sank in to her wooden chair as much
as possible, trying to relax for a moment before taking the drive home. But
once again, her little rest was interrupted by a knock. "Go away."
She groaned, hoping it was Harrison or Marty because those two would actually
listen and she wouldn't get in trouble saying that to.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't
intrude. You must be resting before you go and do...whatever your kind of
people do."

Candice. Everything inside Molly groaned
with annoyance.

"Are you here for something?" She
asked instead of making her annoyance public.

"Yes, actually. Advice."

"On art class? Sorry, I have little
experience with that. That would be, well, I believe that would be your
field."

"Oh, no silly. Not art class. On
Harrison."

Her stomach flip flopped against her
sinking heart. "What would you need my advice for? That's not my field
either you're the one dating him."