The Lighthouse

by Melanie Wilber

  I decided not to say anything about meeting Jonathan. I had thought of him several times after he left to return to his room, and I knew I was doing what I had told myself I wouldn’t do here: obsess over a guy I had one brief encounter with or simply saw on a daily basis but never actually spoke to. I didn’t want this to be like high school: four long years of wishing for something with one guy after another who never gave me the time of day. I had ignored the guys I’d seen today in the cafeteria and passed in the walkways, but Jonathan invaded my space without warning and I hadn’t had time to react in any other way than with admiration.

  “I’m sure I’ll have more interesting details later in the week,” I said to Jodi. “So far I’ve unpacked, eaten in the cafeteria, and met my roommate. Would you really expect anything else from me on the first day? Come on, Jodi. You know me better than anyone.”

  “Okay, okay,” she said. “Like I should talk. I worked today and spent the rest of my time online. I think we both need to get a life.”

  “Maybe I’ll find mine here. You never know.”

  “Without your lighthouse view? You said that was impossible.”

  “What do I know? I didn’t have much of a life there either.”

  “What! With me as your best friend? How can you say that?”

  I laughed.

  “You are going to forget about me. I know it.”

  “Now that’s impossible,” I assured her. “I’ll call you on Wednesday, and I’m sure it will be the highlight of my week, but I’ll try and have a few interesting details to share.”

  “You better, or I’m coming to rescue you from the conformity of the masses.”

  Chapter Three

  I saw Jonathan again on Monday evening. Marissa and I spent the day attending freshman orientation meetings and having some free time to explore the campus, make appointments with academic counselors, look through the class schedule, and go shopping for anything we had forgotten to bring from home or couldn’t purchase until we got here.

  We decided to pool our money and buy a mini fridge for our room, along with some snacks and drinks to keep on hand. We had just returned from the store and were unpacking everything when Marissa’s phone rang. She answered it and said, ‘Hi, Jonny,’ making my heart skip a beat.

  Marissa listened to her brother and then said something else. “Sure, I’ll ask.”

  Lowering the phone, she said Jonathan and some of his friends were going out for pizza and were inviting us to join them. I felt apprehensive about being around a bunch of people I didn’t know, especially if they were all guys, but I thought I’d be okay if Marissa was there, and I really wanted to see Jonathan again.

  “Sure, if you want to,” I said.

  Marissa told her brother we would come. After she hung up, Marissa said he would be here in fifteen minutes. He still had some others to call. Her words confirmed what I already knew about Jonathan: he was a social person who had a lot of friends and liked to include everyone. That’s why he had helped me yesterday and been so friendly. I knew my chances of getting his attention as anyone more than his sister’s roommate were slim, even nonexistent, but I felt anxious to see him, and my heart warmed when we met him out front.

  His car sat five people. His roommates Adam and Jeremy were in the back, and Marissa joined them. Jonathan and Adam had been friends since they were ten and had come here together as roommates their freshman year. They were now in a quad suite with Jeremy and another guy who was driving his own car and would be meeting them there along with some others.

  So the front seat was left, and I slipped inside as Jonathan held the door open. Once he had taken his place behind the steering wheel and pulled out of the parking space, he asked how my day had been, and I said it was good.

  “What did you do?” he wanted to know.

  I started to give him a run-down of the day, but Adam interrupted before I got past the orientation meeting we’d had first thing this morning.

  “Hey, Jon. Did you call Ashley?”

  “I tried, but she didn’t pick up. I left a message.”

  “I heard she has a new roommate this year. Have you met her yet?”

  “No,” he said simply.

  Adam didn’t say anything else, and I didn’t know if I should continue sharing about my day or if Jonathan had already forgotten he was speaking to me. I hated it when people interrupted. I felt a familiar wave of insecurity and obscurity come over me--something I had fully expected to experience here but really hadn’t until now.

  “I’m sorry,” Jonathan said. “You were saying?”

  His courtesy touched me deeply and gave me courage to continue. I told him everything I could remember up until the time he had called to invite us tonight. Adam tried to interrupt once, but Jonathan held up his hand to silence him, and when I ran out of things to say, Jonathan asked me something else rather than taking a moment to acknowledge Adam’s desire to speak.

  “Have you decided on a major yet?”

  “Biology,” I said. “Pre-med.”

  “Wow, you sound pretty sure about that.”

  “Yes,” I admitted. “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor--since fifth grade.”

  “I’m pre-med too,” he said. “Biochemistry though.”

  “How is it?” I asked. “As tough as everyone says?”

  “It’s intense. The professors move fast, so the biggest challenge is keeping up, doing the reading especially. There’s a lot they don’t cover in class or the labs.”

  I didn’t tell him I thrived on overachievement, and I didn’t want to assume I wouldn’t have trouble keeping up, because I hadn’t been challenged much in high school.

  “But if you like that sort of thing--all the science, I mean, you should do well. I just wish I didn’t have to take all the other stuff. History, literature, writing. It’s the reading and homework for those classes that slow me down.”

  I enjoyed science classes because I found them particularly interesting and challenging, but history and the other things came easy to me too. We reached the pizza place and got out of the car. I walked beside Marissa as we went inside, and there were others already there waiting for us. It was about an equal mix of girls and guys, but they were obviously older, not freshman, and many of them were anxious to meet Marissa and welcomed me easily also. After everyone had decided on what kinds of pizzas to get, Jonathan and Adam stayed behind to do the ordering, and Marissa followed the others to find some open tables, so I went with her.

  The group was talkative but not too wild. Everyone seemed nice and close-knit. I wondered how they all knew each other, but I didn’t ask. I supposed that could come with going to school together here for two years, but as the evening wore on I discovered they weren’t all juniors, represented a variety of majors, and were involved in various activities. Two of the girls were on the volleyball team and the others were talking about attending the match they had this Friday.

  I tried to determine if Jonathan had a girlfriend and if she was here tonight, but there was nothing obvious to tell me so. It was evident he was well-liked by everyone, and I could see some of the girls likely wished he was their boyfriend. Jeremy had a girlfriend, and that was no secret. And Adam seemed to have a particular interest in Ashley when she showed up with her new roommate, but they didn’t appear to be officially together.

  One of Jonathan’s friends was paying special attention to Marissa, and Jonathan teased Michael about it in a good-natured, protective big-brother way that made Marissa blush and Michael laugh, but it didn’t deter him too much. Strangely, I didn’t feel invisible like I often did in this kind of setting where my close friends had their attention directed elsewhere as I sat there not talking to anyone. I knew it was partly because of Jonathan. He was sitting beside me, and he was often the center of a conversation, so I could listen and feel like I was a part of it.

  But my inclusion was also because of the group as a whole. They didn’t seem to have a bunch of cliques, and they treate
d each other as equals--even me and Marissa and Ashley’s roommate, whom they were all meeting for the first time tonight. I could see it being that way for Marissa because she was Jonathan’s sister, but for quiet me, it struck me as out of the ordinary.

  The pizza was really good, and I had several slices, including one left on the tray closest to us after we had been there for more than an hour. “Do you all come here a lot?” I asked Jonathan when he took a leftover slice also and wasn’t involved in a conversation at the moment.

  “Yes,” he replied. “Best pizza in Corvallis, and it’s close to the lighthouse, so it’s convenient too.”

  “The lighthouse?”

  “It’s a few blocks down,” he replied. “We all go there. That’s mostly how we know each other.”

  I didn’t understand why there would be a lighthouse in the middle of a valley town, unless they needed one along the river. But even then, why would they all go there on a regular basis?

  “How big is it?” I asked.

  “Umm...there’s about 500 on an average Sunday, and college students make up a third of it.”

  “You don’t mean a lighthouse, lighthouse,” I realized, knowing one would be talked about in terms of its height and light-bearing capacity, not the amount of people who could fit inside of it.

  “No,” he laughed. “It’s a church. They call it The Lighthouse.”

  “Sorry, I’m a coastal native,” I laughed. “When I think of a lighthouse, I think of a lighthouse.”

  “I can see that,” he replied. “Don’t worry, you’ll get to know this town well soon enough. It’s not that big. You’ll have the lingo down in no time.”

  We kept talking then, just the two of us without being interrupted. He asked me about the town I was from, and I told him about the lighthouse I could see from my window. His family lived in Portland but had a nice view of the Willamette River and Ross Island. They lived on the hill where the medical school was, and his dad was a doctor--a surgeon at the children’s hospital.

  “Is that why you want to be a doctor?” I asked.

  “Yes and no. My dad has instilled in us the importance of helping people as much as we are able to, but I’ve thought about a lot of ways I can do that, not just medically-speaking. I decided to go this route and see if I had the aptitude for it and then choose something else if I found out I didn’t, or felt led to go in another direction.”

  I didn’t respond but could see the logic in that.

  “Is one of your parents in the medical field?” he asked.

  I hadn’t told him about my dad yet, or any of my family, just that we had always lived in Bandon by the sea.

  “No,” I replied. “No one in my family is, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who’s ever been interested--in medicine or science,” I laughed.

  He smiled. “And what makes you so interested, Jennifer?”

  “I’m not sure,” I replied honestly. “And who knows, maybe it’s just a crazy dream.”

  “Or, maybe not,” he said.

  Chapter Four

  When we returned to the room at eight-thirty, I decided to call home. Other than when I had arrived yesterday, I hadn’t talked to my mom, and she had a lot of questions I felt comfortable answering even with Marissa in the room. Marissa was chatting with someone online, but if she was like me, she could easily be doing that and listening to my end of the conversation too.

  I talked about my room, what it was like and what I had done to make it feel like home, and I also told her about the day and what I had seen of the campus so far, but I didn’t go into great detail. I didn’t say anything about going out for pizza with a bunch of people I didn’t know, but I said the food I’d had so far was pretty good.

  “How is your roommate?” Mama asked.

  “We’re getting along fine so far,” I said, glancing at Marissa. She turned her head and smiled at me. “She’s very nice, and I’m not just saying that because she’s sitting across the room.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear. I always say, you don’t need to have a lot of friends, just as long as the ones you have are good ones.”

  Yes, I had heard her say that many times, and I’d found it to be true. We didn’t talk long, and after I hung up I knew I should check my online messages and see what my friends had sent me. I had several comments on the photo I had posted of the view from my window, but the thing that caught my attention first was a new friend request from Jonathan. Marissa and I had added each other last night, but I hadn’t expected her brother to notice and want to be friends with me too.

  I accepted, of course, and then spent some time checking out his profile and reading what others had posted on his wall. He had a lot of friends, which wasn’t surprising. But I did learn several things about him, most of which I hadn’t been wondering about: when his birthday was, what movies and books he liked, and some different jobs he’d had over the last few years.

  The most interesting thing was he had spent this past summer in Brazil with a mission team, and he had a lot of pictures from his time there. It didn’t surprise me he had done such a humanitarian thing with his summer vacation, but it did surprise me he hadn’t mentioned anything about it tonight when we were talking.

  One of my friends from high school had gone into the Peace Corps this summer, and when she’d returned home for a visit, all she could talk about was all the human injustice she had seen and how we all needed to do something about it. She’d organized a big fundraiser and collected money and donations from all over town. I admired her tenacity and concern for the needs of others in our community, but something about the way she had gone about it rubbed me the wrong way. She had suggested I join up with the Peace Corps too, saying if I saw the needs for medical care on a global scale I’d never consider staying in America once I graduated from med school.

  But I didn’t think that was for me, at least not now. To see the needs and not be able to do anything about it would be difficult, I knew, and leaving for a year or more now would only delay my education, and it was going to be a long enough road as it was. Gabby had left again shortly after Labor Day, and I hadn’t thought about it since, but it came to mind as I scanned Jonathan’s info and photos, and I wondered if he would talk about it sometime, assuming I saw him on a semi-regular basis.

  I sent him a short message, saying I was looking forward to getting to know him more, hoping it didn’t sound too cliché, and then read what my friends from back home had to say before uploading some more pictures I had taken of the campus today, including some pictures of Marissa she had posed for.

  “Hey,” she said over her shoulder. “I did not give you permission to post pictures of me!”

  I laughed. “What? They’re great pictures. You’re very photogenic.”

  “Thank you,” she replied. “And you’re a good photographer. Have you taken classes?”

  “Yes, during my senior year. But I’ve always loved taking pictures.”

  “You have a lot on here of the beach,” she said. “Are they from where you live?”

  “Most of them. We took a trip up to Newport this summer, and some are from that, but you can’t beat Bandon in terms of beauty. The pictures mostly take themselves. All I do is point the camera.”

  “I’d love to go there sometime,” she said. “I love the beach, but we’ve mostly only been up north and down to Lincoln City and Newport a few times.”

  “And I’ve never been much farther north than Newport,” I laughed.

  “Have you ever been to California? I hear they have nice beaches down there.”

  “Yes,” I replied. “We’ve been as far south as Monterey. And there are some nice beaches, but I think Oregon is way better. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but that’s my opinion.”

  Jodi came online then, and we chatted for a long time. Another friend was waiting to chat too, but I didn’t check to see who it was. I didn’t like to carry on more than one conversation at a time. She’d had her first day of classes
today, and it sounded like they had gone okay. Jodi was smart but she didn’t always apply herself. I told her what Jonathan had said to me about not getting behind in her reading, but I wasn’t too optimistic she would listen.

  I didn’t mention him specifically, but before we signed off, she had gone to my profile to see my latest pictures, and she saw him on my friend list.

  Jonathan? Who is that?

  My roommate’s brother.

  Cute.

  Yes, he is.

  Have you talked to him much?

  Not much. He helped me carry some of my stuff yesterday and we had dinner with him and some of his friends tonight.

  Can I invite him to be one of my friends?

  Sure, if you want.

  No, I won’t. That would be weird. I’ll wait for him to invite

  me!

  Knowing how beautiful Jodi was, I wouldn’t put that out of the realm of possibility, and for all I knew, Jonathan tried to make new friends anytime he saw a new face.

  I wrote something else:

  I’ve met a lot of nice people so far. And that surprises me.

  I didn’t meet anyone significant today. It reminded me of the first day of high school, except none of my friends were there. Although I did see Valerie, Grant, Cami, and Chrissa--oh and Alex. But just in passing.

  How many classes do you have tomorrow?

  Just two...biology and history.

  Sounds like fun.

  Yeah, for you!

  I won’t know my schedule until Friday. I should get the classes and times I request, but there’s no guarantee. I have tomorrow to try and figure it out.

  Jodi didn’t respond, and I knew she was either chatting with someone else or had gotten interrupted by one of her family members. I decided to see who else had tried to message me, and it was Jonathan. I sat there staring at the chat window with the simple greeting from him, wondering if I should respond. I knew I could say good-bye to Jodi at this point, but did I want to talk to him? Jodi finally typed something, saying she had to go.