Salvaged: A Love Story

by Stefne Miller

  He also used the word “intercede.” I would have to look that one up when I got home because I had no idea what it meant, but it sounded good when he said it. He asked for the Holy Spirit to “intercede on Attie’s behalf.”

  Nicole also prayed. Her words were sweet, and she was very emotional. She expressed thankfulness that God had revealed himself to me in such a sweet yet powerful way. She even thanked him for bringing me into their lives. That was neat. All in all, the prayers could have won an award if there was an award for such a talent. The only thing I knew for sure was that when prayers were that beautiful, God would surely have to answer them. I believed the odds were in my favor and the nightmares would be over soon.

  “I wish I could talk to Jesus the way you do,” I exclaimed when they finished.

  “And I wish I could talk to him like you do,” Joshua replied back.

  “Me too,” Nicole added.

  “Maybe we can all rub off on each other,” I suggested.

  “I truly hope so.” Joshua gave me a hug. “I truly hope so.”

  There was a honk from outside, which meant my ride was there.

  “One of my many chauffeurs.” I rolled my eyes and made my way to the door.

  “We’ll work on the driving thing on Thursday, okay? It’s my new goal in life to have you driving by the end of summer.”

  Saying my good-byes, I ran to join Mrs. Bennett in her Suburban. As I opened the door, Bon Jovi poured out of the speakers. She yelled a thank you to Joshua and Nicole, who were standing on their patio, and then pulled away.

  “Okay, I’ve had a very hard time, but I think I finally came up with your new name,” I said.

  “Oh goody. Let’s hear it.”

  “It’s from Little Women. I might as well stick with the whole names-from-literature theme.”

  “All right.”

  “How about Marme?”

  “Oooh, I like that! That’s a good name. I love that book.”

  “Good. So, Marme, do you happen to have any big plans tonight?”

  She laughed. “Attie, I’m old and have no life. No, I have no plans tonight and hardly ever do.”

  “Well, would you be at all interested in going shopping with me? I need an outfit for the pool party Friday night.”

  She glowed. “Oh, I would love to, Attie! I would just love to!”

  During the rest of the drive she talked nonstop about the stores that she wanted to take me to and the type of clothes she would wear if she had my “cute and dainty” figure.

  She pulled in front of the vet clinic. “I’ll pick you up after work and we can get busy shopping.”

  “Great, Marme. Thanks.”

  She let out another squeal and drove away. I’d made her day, but I was slightly disappointed that it wouldn’t be Riley who was picking me up after work. He’d gone to the gym before I woke up, so I wouldn’t get to see him until late in the evening. I looked forward to telling him all about my counseling session.

  The reception area already had three dogs and their humans waiting for the doctor to see them, so I immediately got to work behind the desk checking in each “patient.”

  “Everybody’s checked in, Gramps,” I announced as I made my way to the back.

  “Well, Atticus, I didn’t know you arrived already,” he said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “So how was it?”

  “Good. Maybe we can talk about it over lunch?”

  “Not today. Riley has already requested that you go to lunch with him.”

  My heart almost exploded. “Really?”

  “He’s anxious to know how it went.”

  “Oh, okay.” I tried to act normal, but the look I got from Gramps made me believe that he wasn’t falling for it. I changed the subject. “So how’s Baby?”

  “She’s waiting for you.”

  I grabbed the homemade sling, put it on, and went to retrieve Baby from her temporary home.

  “Hello, Baby. It’s me, Attie. I’m back.”

  After placing her in the sling, she quickly fell asleep.

  “She didn’t sleep well last night,” Gramps informed me. “She whined quite a bit. I hope her leg isn’t hurtin’ her.”

  “Oh, poor Baby.” I rubbed her head. “Don’t tell me that you have nightmares too. Are you thinking of the mean man who threw you away? That would certainly give me nightmares.”

  “Can you call ‘Theo’ back please, Atticus?”

  “Yes, sir, I’m on it.”

  I spent the majority of the morning at the desk answering the phone and setting appointments. Baby slept quietly and never whimpered.

  The phone rang again. “Reed Clinic, may I help you?”

  “Is this Attie?” a male voice asked.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Attie, this is Cooper Truman.”

  I slightly gagged.

  “We met yesterday at my ranch.”

  “Yes, I remember you. How can I help you?”

  “Well, actually this is a personal call. I was wondering if you might want to join me for lunch today?”

  I silently gagged again. “Oh, that’s so nice of you, but I already have plans.”

  “Disappointing.”

  “Yes,” I lied.

  “I’m going out of town for the rest of the week and won’t be back until the party.” He was thinking out loud. “You will be at the party, won’t you?”

  “Yes.” Although now I wished I wouldn’t be.

  “Then I guess I’ll just have to wait to see you then.” He sounded disappointed.

  “Unfortunately,” I lied again.

  “Well,”—I could tell he didn’t want to hang up—“I’d better let you get back to work.”

  “Okay, Cooper. Thanks for calling and I’ll see you Friday.” I hung up the phone. I think I heard him trying to say something just as I was about to set the handset down. I felt a slight satisfaction from sort of hanging up on him.

  I noticed Baby start to whimper. “I know, Baby, that gross boy is freaky, isn’t he?” She looked up at me and then laid her head back down.

  At 11:50 Riley came strolling into the clinic with a movie star grin spread across his face and wearing khaki shorts with a purple polo shirt. The purple enhanced his tan skin, and his green eyes sparkled under his hair, which was lying in disarray on his head.

  “Hey, Charlie.”

  “Hi, Riley.”

  He pointed to the bundle draped across my midsection. “Is that Baby?”

  “Yes, do you want to meet her?”

  He walked toward me. “Of course.”

  Slowly and gently I removed her from the sling and handed her to him.

  “Holy moly, she’s adorable.” He held her up in front of his face so that he could get a good look at her. “I can’t believe some jerk threw something this precious away.”

  “I know.”

  “Look at how fragile she is.”

  “She won’t be fragile for long now that I’m looking after her.”

  “Do you take her everywhere in that thing?”

  “Yes. She sleeps better when she’s close to me.”

  His jaw dropped slightly before a small laugh escaped his throat. “Sounds familiar.”

  “Yes, I guess it does.”

  He carefully handed Baby back to me. “Well, don’t get any ideas. I’m not gonna start carrying you around in one of those harness things.”

  “Har, har,” I said, punching him in the shoulder. “It’s a sling.”

  “Whatever.”

  “While I put her back in her cage, why don’t you go say hello to Gramps?”

  I placed Baby back in her prison, an
d she whimpered for a few moments before making her way to the back of the cage. “I don’t know why she’s always in that corner. She looks so sad and lonely back there.”

  Riley walked up behind me and peeked into the cage. “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Oh come on, you haven’t seen Dirty Dancing?”

  “Gross, I don’t watch those kinds of movies.”

  “It’s not ‘that kind of movie.’” He laughed. “It’s rated R at the most. You know, it’s a Patrick Swayze movie.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t know who he was talking about.

  “Patrick Swayze? Roadhouse?”

  I still had no idea whom he meant, so I shook my head again.

  “He was the dead guy in Ghost.”

  “Oh, Ghost, I love that movie.” Finally, a movie I recognized.

  “Of course you do, it’s a chick flick. You’re completely hopeless.”

  “As are you.”

  “True. Are you hungry?”

  “Famished.”

  “Let’s get out of here then.”

  I started toward the exit. “Be back in a bit, Gramps.”

  “Can we get you anything, Dr. Reed?”

  “No thanks, I’ve got my lunch in the fridge just waiting on me.”

  We made our way to the car, and as Riley opened my car door, he grabbed my arm and grinned at me. “For the record, I don’t watch ‘those kind of movies’ either.”

  “Good to know.”

  “I can’t even believe you would think I did. I’m a little hurt quite honestly.”

  “I’m sorry. You just never know what people are in to.”

  “Not even me?”

  “I’m just getting to know you, Riley. Give me some time. I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

  “Just don’t let it happen again,” he teased.

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  “So I figured we’d pick something up and sit in the car. That way we don’t need to worry about anyone overhearing the details of your counseling session.”

  “What makes you think I’m divulging any information about my counseling?” I taunted.

  “You better, or you’re buying your own lunch.”

  “All right, all right.”

  “Wanna get the old standby?”

  “Sonic?”

  “Of course, what else?”

  “Sounds good to me. You know what I want.”

  “Grilled chicken sandwich with mayo but no tomato. Tator tots and a diet cherry Coke?”

  “You got it.”

  After getting our food, he drove us to the park, where we made ourselves comfortable and unpacked our lunch.

  “So what did you think of Joshua?” he asked as he removed the wrapping from his burger.

  “Oooh, that looks good.”

  “Do you want a bite?”

  “No thanks.” As I unwrapped my grilled chicken sandwich, I coveted Riley’s juicy burger and wished I’d gotten one for myself. “So Joshua was great, and his wife was very nice too.”

  “Yeah, Nicole’s great,” he said quickly. “Okay, you’re killing me here, Smalls. Enough chitter chatter, get to the good stuff.” As he took a bite of his burger, mayonnaise dripped down his chin, so I reached over and wiped it off. “Ank ou,” he said with his mouth full.

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “Spill it already. I’ve been waiting to hear about it all morning.”

  “Well, this will be no shock to you, but basically I verbal diarreha’d all over them.”

  “You’re right.” He sipped his soda. “No shock there. Was there crying involved? They usually go hand-in-hand.”

  “No. No crying this time.”

  “At all?”

  “Nope.” I shook my head and held out the French fries so that he could help himself. He grabbed a few and put them on his lap.

  “Wow. So what’s their diagnosis? Is it loony bin time?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Not quite yet, but they did suggest strapping me down at night,” I teased.

  “Oooh, sounds very interesting,” he said with a mischievous grin.

  “Mind out of the gutter, Riley Bennett.”

  “Was that the gutter? Sounded more like heaven to me.”

  “You’re sick and twisted.”

  “I know.” He laughed some more before taking another bite from his burger. “So continue.”

  “Oddly enough, they don’t think I’m mentally unstable at all.”

  “I don’t either.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t know all the scoop.”

  “Why? Don’t you trust me?”

  “Of course I trust you.”

  He looked at me with concerned eyes. “So then what’s the full scoop?”

  “I talk to Jesus every night,” I blurted.

  “That’s not strange, Charlie; I do that too.”

  “When you talk to him, is he standing in your room in a t-shirt and jeans?”

  “Uh—”

  “And does he talk back to you?”

  “Well, I can’t say that, no.”

  “I don’t know if I believe he’s literally standing in the room, but I do know that I see him there. As I’ve told you before, I have an active imagination.”

  “Well who knows, maybe he is there. He rose from the dead, so I guess if he wanted to show up in your room every night it wouldn’t be that difficult.”

  “I never thought about it like that.”

  “So how long have you been able to see him?”

  “Since the accident. More fries?”

  “No thanks. So he doesn’t tell you to drown puppies or anything, does he?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Well then, I don’t see the problem.”

  “Really?”

  “I wish Jesus appeared like that to me. It sure would make life easier.”

  “That’s kind of what Joshua and Nicole said.”

  “So what’s he like? When you talk to him?”

  “It depends on his mood.”

  “His mood? He has moods?”

  “He’s human, you know,” I reminded. “Well, sort of. Well, you know what I mean.”

  He nodded.

  “He has a great sense of humor. He’s charming and caring and gentle, but sometimes he can get kind of stern. He gives good advice, and he helps me work through my problems.”

  “Sounds good to me.” He took the last bite of burger and shoved it in his mouth.

  “Yes, it’s nice.”

  “Has he said anything about me?”

  “Yes.”

  His eyes grew large, and he sat straight up in his seat. “He has? What?”

  “I don’t know if I’m supposed to divulge that kind of stuff,” I teased. “Our conversations are very private.”

  “I call crap on that. You better enlighten me right now.”

  “Do you share everything with me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh. All right, he said that he thought you were good for me, that we were good for each other.”

  “I knew I liked him!” he joked. “Maybe you should spend more time with him and see what else he has to say about us.”

  “I’ll see what I can do, but he doesn’t tell me my future or anything. Everything is day-to-day. Except for that one time … ”

  “He told you your future?”

  “One small thing.”

  “What?” he asked while leaning toward me in anticipation of the news.

  “He told me I wasn’t going
to be a nun.”

  “Well that’s a relief; otherwise, I’ve wasted a lot of time and words when I’m talking to him.”

  “You talk to him about us?”

  He shrugged. “Of course. You’re a major part of my life, Charlie. It’s not like I’m not gonna talk to him about you.”

  “Well, what does he say?”

  “To keep my hands to myself.”

  “Yes,” I added. “That sounds exactly like something he would say.”

  chapter 14

  Between the two of us, there’d been over 730 days since Marme and I enjoyed a girls shopping extravaganza. She called it “well-needed retail therapy,” and I agreed wholeheartedly.

  The drive into “the city” (as she called it) was a lot of fun. We listened to the Footloose soundtrack and sang along to the songs. I only knew portions of the songs, but Marme, of course, knew them word for word.

  The term “the city” sounded ridiculous because in this particular situation she was referring to Oklahoma City. In New York when you referred to “the city” you meant the city, the Big Apple. Now that was a city! Mom took me there on several mother/daughter trips before she died. She loved Broadway shows, but my dad wasn’t interested in seeing them, so I became her “date.”

  I loved the entire experience and always looked forward to going back. For me, coming out of the subway and into the main terminal of Grand Central Station was like a scene out of a movie. There were people everywhere, and the quickness of their movements could almost put you into a catatonic state if you watched them long enough. Sadly, it didn’t seem as if anyone stopped to enjoy the beauty of the massive room. I used to try to imagine what it was like in the olden days, when people’s lives weren’t so hurried. I bet they appreciated its grandeur. I know that I certainly loved to stand and take it all in.

  In New York City nobody stood still, and if you made the mistake of remaining in one spot for any amount of time, you would be trampled.

  “Moving with the crowd is a necessity, Attie,” my mother told me. “Otherwise, you’ll get yourself hurt or lost somewhere.”

  She stayed in a constant state of panic as she ensured that I was close by her side. Mom carefully watched over me due to my tendency to wander off while walking mesmerized through the city streets or buildings. There was a seductiveness to the town, and I enjoyed it as much as my mother.