Chapter 18


Los Angeles International Airport wasn't the nightmare that it would someday come to be, but it was still hectic enough. Any international airport, really, would be bound to be big and complicated.

And, of course, flights have always had delays. This one was no exception; the flight had stopped over at JFK International Airport in New York, and was running about forty-five minutes behind schedule.

I sat and waited, pulling out the book I had brought. It would be about the tenth time I had read it, but Jane Eyre was one of my favorites. Jane was about to meet Adele for the first time when passengers started filing into the waiting room. I stood up and looked around, and found my passenger with little trouble.

"George!" I called out, waving my arm high above my head. "Over here!"

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"So where are you staying this time?" I asked as I pulled onto the freeway. "Blue Jay Way again?"

"God, no. Too many people know where that is now! Besides, I think there's a family living there now."

"Any family that could afford to live there has another place they can relocate to -- an apartment in New York's upper east side, a bungalow in Hawaii, a condo in Miami, something like that," I joked. "They can certainly step aside for you to rest your weary bones for awhile!"

"Cor! You make me sound like an old Scrooge!"

"Well, from my young perspective, you know, you're pretty ancient..."

"Ungrateful..."

"Have I mentioned it's great to see you again?"

"You, too. You seem to be doing well. Getting along in school? Did your dad make you go after all?"

I winced a little as he said that. So he didn't know.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Ah... I'll tell you later, okay?"

He raised an eyebrow and looked at me suspiciously. "Alright, then. You sure?"

I nodded. "I went back to school. The semester's almost over. There's just another week before finals." We sat for the next few minutes in the relative silence of a roaring engine and wind rushing by. It was sunny out; it hadn't started raining for the winter yet. I was sure it would start any day now. As I spared some concentration from the road for the man next to me, I knew that he knew I wasn't saying something, and he felt more concern for me than the curiosity about me that I felt from so many of the other people I interacted with.

With a sigh, I let down my barrier as much as I could and still drive safely, and I told him about my parents.

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The Santa Monica Bay was sparkling in the afternoon sun, and even in the brisk weather, the white sand felt warm under my bare feet. I think what disconcerted me the most about the death of my parents was what I wasn't feeling. I was deeply saddened, but my world wasn't falling apart. I wasn't depressed. I didn't feel like crawling into a hole and pulling the hole in after me. I would miss them, but I would move on. Alex's death had affected me more than my parents'. And that made me feel worse than anything else.

That was also a thought I'd left unspoken, but that George had picked up on, anyway.

"You know, why I bother trying to leave things unsaid around you is beyond me. I could say nothing, but to you it would look like I was holding up an enormous banner," I told him.

"I'll just make like that was a compliment."

"I think it was. If it wasn't, feel free to take it as such. At worst, it was just a jaded observation."

"How can you be jaded already? You're so young yet."

"Do you mean to tell me you were looking through rose-colored glasses at nineteen?"

George sighed and looked out at the ocean. "Of course not," he finally said. "But I think my excuse was more legitimate than yours."

I shrugged at this. "I was born old, you know. I was always ahead of other kids in reading -- I read For Whom the Bell Tolls for a book report in fifth grade -- and worlds apart from most of them in thinking. That was why I had so few friends, and why I stayed with them so loyally. No one else could understand me."

"Being born old doesn't necessarily mean being born jaded. There are people who've been everywhere and done everything and still see life as a miracle. Men and women with a dozen kids running around, and each one is as precious as the last."

I shrugged and said nothing. I wasn't especially down, and hadn't been especially happy for days. But this argument was going nowhere. I think he knew what I was getting at, but was playing devil's advocate, trying to get me to look at things from another perspective. I just didn't have the energy right then. I stood up and brushed the sand off the seat of my jeans, and George followed suit. "I probably best get you back before they start thinking that you've been kidnapped and they need to raise a ransom."

He nodded and we began trekking back through the sand to the car. "What are you going to do now, anyway?" he asked as we got in.

I sat in silence with my hand poised to turn the key for a moment before answering. "I have two weeks left at school. I might as well finish the classes I've got. And then, I was planning on going back to England." I started the car.

"If you want to put the trip off a few days, what say we go back together?"

"I'd like that," I said with a smile as I pulled into traffic and headed east.

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"Jan... hey, Jan..." I heard a deep voice from somewhere far away. I began to involuntarily move toward it, even though I was loathe to do so. "Jan, c'mon, wake up."

"Wha?" I managed to say, my tongue still heavy with sleep, and slightly bitter to be cheated from my afternoon nap.

"You've got company," Jackson said as he handed me a Coke. Maybe he knew I needed the caffeine.

"Company? Who?"

"Tall. Blonde."

"Name?"

"Didn't catch it."

"Men," I sighed, trying to sound exasperated, but grinning nonethless. It must be Cara, the girl from my Calc class. She'd mentioned studying together, and I'd given her Jackson's address. Of course, I didn't think she'd actually show up.

"Hey, how's it going?" I greeted her with a smile."

"Same old, same old," she replied. "I thought it might do us both some good to go over some stuff for an hour or two tonight, then rest well for the test tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're probably right." I led her into the kitchen, which was thankfully as clean as I'd left it. Of course, that meant that Jackson hadn't eaten dinner yet... or if he had, he'd eaten out. But it was still early, so...

"Hey, Jan," I heard him call.

"Kitchen!" I responded.

He appeared a moment later in the doorway. "Scott and the guys are playing again tonight. They were asking about you, too. Want to come?"

"I'll pass tonight, thanks. Give them my regards and find out if they're playing again in the next few days."

"Sure thing," he said, and retreated again.

Cara raised her eyebrows. "Gee, you sure pick 'em," she said.

"Huh?"

"Your boyfriend. He's cute!"

With a grin, I told her, "Yes, he is, but he's not my boyfriend. We're just friends."

"Mm-hm. And you're living together?"

"Sort of... my folks just died, and I didn't want to stay in that big house all alone. It gets depressing."

"Yeah, I guess." She sat down at the table then, and got out her notebook. "Well, shall we talk about integrals and imaginary numbers?"

I grimmaced and followed suit. "You're going to be a teacher, aren't you?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Normal people don't sound so enthusiastic about studying!"


Chapter 17 - - - - Chapter 18

Dream Away