Chapter Seven

For a while after graduation, Kelleigh was lost. She had always had Andrew, the entire time while growing up he was her constant, Now with him gone, she felt untethered.

Then suddenly she had Steve, they began dating after graduation and he helped fill the void. They had met over the summer while cruising "downtown," which entailed traveling Main Street over and over and over. Sometimes they would park in an empty parking lot so that others could gather and talk. Kelleigh loved cruising, it combined her two favorite activities: cars and her friends.

Steven and Kelleigh married six months after high school, a not uncommon occurrence in Riverside. Kelleigh always sensed disappointment from her friends and for a short while, she was unsure why. As time passed, it became evident: Steve was a jerk. But the stars in her teen-aged eyes had previously blinded her to that fact. Having always been "different" Kelleigh was thankful, relieved even; to have the attention that Steve gave her, not recognizing that it was controlling and not caring.

Not one to quit, Kelleigh persevered. Months became years, years began to add up with little notice from her. But as time passed, she found herself increasingly assert herself to Steve, much to Steve's dismay. He married a scared, injured eighteen year old girl. He wasn't ready - or willing - to deal with a strong nearly forty year old woman.

As much as he resented her growing strength, he did, however, enjoy having Kelleigh's mechanical ability at hand. He also enjoyed the attention that it drew to him, at least for a while. People often commented to him how cool it was to have a wife who was a mechanic. He enjoyed this attention until the ribbing came about his own ability. This ribbing gave Kelleigh and Steve quite a bit of fodder for arguments. He hated to be second fiddle to anyone, especially a girl. And he hated his ability questioned. For the most part, Kelleigh just ignored the comments. What other people thought rarely bothered her.

Together they managed to put together a racecar. It began as just an old junker that Steve had towed home. At first, Kelleigh was horrified at this piece of junk sitting in her garage. But to Steve's credit, it slowly began to take shape.

Along the way, Kelleigh listened to Steve and his friends talking about the car, absorbing every new piece of information. She also secretly read his car magazines when he was gone. Secretly - as he had seen her once reading an article about engine building. He began to mock her. "What do you know about engine building? I bet you can't name all the parts in the picture." Kelleigh, challenged, stared at the picture for a moment then patiently began to name each part as she pointed to it. "Cam, Piston, Ring, Rod, Rocker, Crank…" She continued until she had named every part there. Nonplussed, Steve had just shaken his head and walked away. Kelleigh smiled in triumph and continued to read; only now she was more careful.

It didn't help that when Steve tested for his certified mechanic certificate, Kelleigh studied too. She made the mistake once of helping when a question on the mock test stumped him. Embarrassed, he had yelled at her to stay out his schoolwork, "You're going to mess it up. You don't know anything!' He stormed out afterward, physically pushing past her and nearly knocking her over. She caught herself on the kitchen counter before she fell.

It was the first time that he had become physical with her. She was sure that if questioned, he would just call it an accident. Kelleigh knew that it wasn't an accident. She also knew that it was just the beginning of something worse. She considered herself warned.

Sitting there with Steve's books and homework after his outburst, Kelleigh realized that she loved the car and the magazines more than Steve. She no longer enjoyed his company, just the cars and most of the friends that they had brought. Especially with this last temper tantrum. It showed her a glimpse of their future and it didn't seem happy, or even safe. Kelleigh sat for over an hour, contemplating what she should do next. She felt strange that in one moment, such clarity had been gained. It was time to move on, she had to keep herself safe. With this revelation, she called Delly.

Chapter Six

"Well, start somewhere. Anywhere. Talk to me." Andrew continued to brush her bangs away from her eyes. It was alternately soothing and distracting.

"Andrew, why are you here? Why now? What do you want?"

His hand stilled at the back of her head. Kelleigh drew herself up and leaned against the headboard, breaking all contact with him. Andrew looked hurt for a moment then tried to make his expression casual. "It was just time I came back. I just had a feeling that I was needed here. Seems like I am." He shrugged and smiled.

Kelleigh pulled her knees up to her chest and laid her cheek on them. He was needed here, she contemplated his words. Where was he twenty years ago? Or six months ago?

She felt the bed shift again and her heart jumped in her chest but this time Andrew stood. She raised her head and watched him. She thought he was going to walk out but saw him grab a chair from the dressing table, turn it around and sit down next to the bed.

"If I continue to sit there and you continue to look so forlorn, I'm afraid something is going to happen that we'll both end up regretting. Now I'm here, a safe distance away and I'm asking for the final time: What's going on?"

Kelleigh leaned her head back, sighed and tried to begin, tried to detach herself from the story. "After you disappeared the night of graduation, I was lost. I didn't understand, at the time, why you left. Left me here alone. But I picked myself up and continued on. You were gone and nothing was going to change that."

She couldn't look at Andrew. She didn't want to see what emotions were playing across his face, in his eyes. She began to tell him a story. A story that just happened to be true.

Chapter Five

An hour. Just when she didn't need to have an extra hour in her day, she did.

Kelleigh contemplated what to do. Hiding out at work would be obvious to her staff that something was afoot. She could stop at the grocery store, or even the liquor store, but she didn't really need anything. She couldn't call Delly, she still wasn't speaking to her.

Finally deciding that she was being ridiculous, she went home. She parked the truck in the garage, Eddie still had the car, and trudged upstairs. With no energy left to contemplate anything else, she free fell across her bed. She laid there, face down and allowed herself a moment of freaking out. What is Andrew doing back? What does he want from me? What else could possibly happen at this point? A litany of what's, who's, and why's ran through her head untended.

Before she even realized it was happening, she drifted off asleep. She awoke a few minutes later to a pounding on the door, the sound of her name being called, and then footsteps on the stairs. Knowing it was Andrew and having no will to resist, she continued to lay there. She didn't think about the intimacy of the setting, just that she didn't have the energy to get up.

"So,what are we doing?" She heard Andrew's voice in the doorway.

Kelleigh didn't even lift her head, "Nothing, Andrew, we're doing nothing."

"Where's your truck? It's not outside and I thought maybe you ditched me."

"Not that you don't deserve it. It's parked in the garage."

"In the Garage? How did you manage that? When your grandma lived here, you couldn't fit a playing card in that garage."

Kelleigh turned over on the bed, away from him. "I cleaned it out when grandma died, the racecar is at Eddies and I parked in the garage."

She heard Andrew come closer and felt the bed dip down when he sat gently next to her. She could smell him and had to willfully resist the urge not to curl herself around her. Twenty years ago, this would be fine. But not now. Not today.

"What's going on Kel? I know I've been gone a long time but even I can tell something's wrong. Tell me."

He reached over and smoothed her hair away from her face with a gentle hand. Finally, she opened her eyes to look at him. "Andrew, the list of what's Not Wrong would be shorter."

Chapter Four

She stood quietly for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts beyond a scroll of "Oh My God". When she began her day, it never occurred to her that a mere hour later she would be standing next to Andrew. It was inconceivable; he had been gone for so long. He had become an apparition, someone she perhaps knew once. Not an actual person.

His voice brought her back “Kelleigh, when can I see you? Where?”

“Home” she answered without thinking. “You can come to my house. Tonight. After work. I have to go now.” She began to walk away.

“Kelleigh?”

She whirled on Andrew “God Bless America! Andrew! What!?!!”

Andrew broke out into laughter. “What the hell was that?”

Kelleigh couldn’t help but laugh in response. “I’m trying not to curse, especially right now.”

Andrew could only laugh and shake his head.

“Andrew, I swear to God if you don’t stop laughing…”

He threw up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I give up. You swear however you want to.” She raised her eyebrows in warning and he continued “I just need to know where ‘home’ is.”

She rubbed her forehead in frustration. “I live in my grandma’s house. Where I practically lived as a kid. You remember where it is, don’t you?”

“I can’t believe you still live there. “

“Well, some things change, some things remain the same, Andrew. You weren’t here. Now, I’m going to work and I will see you later. “ She turned on her heel and resisted the urge to run away from him. Methodically, she put her key in the door, opened it and slid inside. Overwhelmed now that she was out of his sight, she leaned against the door for a moment and tried to gain control of her emotions. Taking a few deep breaths, she straightened up, took a breath and went to work.

Mercifully she had meetings scheduled all day. She was working on grants and contracts for the library with her board of directors. This didn’t allow for swooning over Andrew’s return beyond a pang in her chest when she thought of him. She ignored it as much as she could, burying herself in budgets and paperwork.

She finished her meetings, returned telephone calls and finished up her daily tasks single-mindedly. With all of her concerted efforts, she found herself finished with her day early. An hour early.

Chapter Three

The statement rocked him, metaphorically and literally. He physically rocked back on his heels. She cringed, regretting the delivery as much as the words. She continued as quickly as she could. “We got into a fight, we were splitting up. He got angry, left in his truck in a tantrum. He hit a power pole a few miles from the house, died instantly.”

“I’m sorry I was so abrupt. You didn’t deserve that.” She continued. “I’m still a little angry about it. And you, appearing out of the mist like a ghost…”

“I’m sorry” He interrupted her stream of explanation and apology. “I am sorry for a million things: big and little.”

She just couldn’t take the caring tone in his voice. She’d made it through his disappearing, she made it through Steve, she made it through the past six months. She didn’t think, however, that she could make it through the concerned tone of his voice and the compassionate expression on his face.

Kelleigh stepped around him, determined to make it the last twenty feet to the door. The library held her salvation. It always had. It will again.

Andrew wasn’t to be stopped or avoided that easily. He touched her again, his hand on her shoulder and this time she didn’t resist. He gently turned her around, his hand sliding up to her chin. He tipped her head up. “Stop it. Just stop. Answer me.”

The tears welling in her eyes undid him. It undid her. She hadn’t cried in six months. Before that, she hadn’t cried in nearly twenty years.

One single tear rolled down her cheek before she turned her head away and swiped at it impatiently with her hand. “Answer you what? You didn’t ask a question.”

Andrew paled for a minute and she watched the muscle in his jaw move. She watched his internal fight for control and knew exactly how he was feeling. “Look, I have to go to work. People are expecting me. How about we get together later today?”

Chapter Two

Kelleigh shrugged, at a loss for words. Her mind was reeling at the sight of him, the nearness of him after such a long absence. She felt as if twenty years had never passed. She was seventeen again.

He tipped his head down to look at her again. She looked opposite of him and swallowed her heart back down into her chest. As if that were possible.

“Hmm, twenty years. What isn’t new is a better question, isn’t it?” She finally managed to get out.

“Okay. Let’s try it your way.” He looked down the cobble-stoned alley. “Your job is still the same.”

“Let’s just say it’s the same place. Not the same. And if I want it to be, it can be different.”

He raised his eyebrows at her and didn’t comment. “And you drive the same truck. It looks exactly the same.”

“Wrong again, same truck. New paint. Rolling it over will require that.”

His easy-going gait came to a halt. “What?” He held out a hand, touched her arm and stopped her. “What happened?”

Ignoring the tingle where his hand touched her arm and desperately ignoring the expression of concern on his face, she shrugged. “I didn’t have it in four-wheel drive. I hit a ridge of snow and it tossed me over.”

“Are you okay? Were you hurt? When was this?” He peppered her with questions so quickly she began to laugh. It was that or burst into tears. ‘Yes. Kind of. February.”

He stepped in front of her, predicting correctly that she was going to begin walking again.
He blocked her path. She looked past him again at the rear entrance to the library, thinking “if I could just get to the door…” He was relentless “Were you hurt?”

Kelleigh jutted out her chin, gritted her teeth and looked up. “Not permanently. A bump on the head, a dislocated shoulder and hip. No stitches, no broken bones. Just a broken truck.”

His expression changed to relief and then curiosity. “What did Steve have to say?”

“Nothing” she said without thinking then caught herself. Andrew saw her hesitation and jumped. “Nothing? That’s not possible. He always has something to say.”

Feeling a little mean but relishing a little in the meanness. She looked directly in the eye and said “Steve’s dead. He died in a car accident six months before that.”

Chapter One

Kelleigh walked toward him, not knowing quite else to do. She’d known all along that he would reappear someday. Someday loosely defined as twenty years from then, or twenty months, or twenty days. She didn’t know in which increment, just that he would eventually reappear.

It had been over twenty years, not months, not weeks, since she’d last seen him.

His posture was the same as she remembered: rocked back on his heels and his hands in his pockets. His gaze was direct, not letting her look away, as much as she wished to. For years she’d waited to see him and now that he was actually standing in front of her, she wasn’t sure she was wise in that want.

“Your hair is turning gray” was the first thing she found herself saying.

His smile was quick, “Yes, it is. Does that surprise you? We’re forty now.” His eyebrows raised in humor.

“Yes, it does surprise me and thanks for the reminder about our birthday”

He cocked his head toward her, allowing him to look at her through his eyelashes. He did this when trying to be endearing. Damn it, if it didn’t still work. “Why does it surprise you?”

Steeling her spine, she looked directly into his eyes “I would have never imagined you would allow it. With your Peter Pan personality.”

His eyes darkened for a minute and then he smiled in response. She blew out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

Changing tact, he swung on his heel and began walking with her. “So, what’s new with you?”

Sunday Fiction - The Beginning

Hello! Welcome! Thanks for wandering over!

I started posting chapters of a novelette that I was plunking away at as a page-filler on my regular blog Just A Bunch of Silliness Really. I've relocated said chapters over here in hopes of making it a little easier for everyone.

This began as a NaNoWriMo project that I never finished. What I was thinking starting NaNoWriMo at that time, we'll never understand. But I am persevering all the same.

So, welcome!

Enjoy!