by Jerry Moore
Immortal Secrets
By
Jerry Moore
About the Author
Jerry Moore graduated from Texas Tech University in 2004 with a BA in English/Technical Communications. He is best known for his regular contributions to examiner.com, where he regularly writes about Texas Tech sports and political issues. Jerry is a ten year veteran of the United States Air Force, where he served as a Security Policeman in Texas, Turkey, Greece, and The Netherlands. He currently lives in Lubbock, Texas with his wife Betty and their three daughters. Immortal Secrets is Jerry’s first novel.
Acknowledgements
There are a number of people who have made this book possible. I would like to thank Dr. Angela Eaton, my college mentor, and Dr. Jill Patterson who taught me so much about creative writing. I would also like to thank my chief editor for this book, my daughter Samantha. She put a lot of time and effort into finding my mistakes. Similarly, I would like to thank her associate editor, my daughter Ashley. She also put a lot time into checking this book for errors. Their input, as well the input of my older daughter, Tiffany, was invaluable since this book is told from the viewpoint of a young woman. Any errors contained in the finished product are my mistakes and not theirs. They did an awesome job. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Betty, who was a part-time editor and full time supporter. Without her support, this book would still just be an idea that I might get around to some day.
I would like to send a special thanks to Mark Uptergrove for designing the art on the cover of the book. Mark did an awesome job.
Visit us online at immortal-secrets.com.
Chapter One
I looked up the steps toward the entrance to Holden Hall. I took a deep breath and asked myself what I was waiting for. Isn’t this what I told them I wanted? Here I was in college. Classes for Texas Tech started tomorrow. All I had to do was meet with my advisor, get registered for my classes, and buy some textbooks.
Actually, my “Aunt Jenny” would be buying my books for me. Nothing was truly mine, anymore. I do not have my old name, my old friends, and I could never again have my old life back. Even my hair wasn’t my real color. A natural red head, now my hair was dyed blonde. I reached into the pocket of my skirt and pulled out a piece of paper with the name and room number of my advisor on it. I was supposed to meet with a Mrs. Paulson.
I finally made it into Holden Hall, which houses classrooms and academic advisors for the college of Arts and Sciences. It is also where they send you if you have an undeclared major like I do. I eventually found my way to Mrs. Paulson’s office. She was a middle aged black woman with a friendly face.
Her face lit up when she saw me walk into her office. “Why, you must be Lisa Wilson.”
I managed a weak and timid smile. “That would be me.”
She gestured for me to sit down in front of her desk. “I have your folder right here. Let’s see what we have on you. I see that you graduated high school two years ago. That was in Tampa, right?”
I nodded. “That’s right.”
“You know, I would love to visit Florida someday.”
So would I. “It really is quite lovely.”
“Anyway child, I just wanted to mention that since you are still twenty and not twenty one that you are not allowed to buy or consume any adult beverages on the Texas Tech campus. I know it can be tempting. I just like to warn all the kids that the university has a zero tolerance policy about those things.”
“Hey, I completely get it. You won’t have any of those problems out of me, Mrs. Paulson.”
“Well in that case, let me be the first one to welcome you to Texas Tech University and the great city of Lubbock, Texas.”
I was not sure what was so great about Lubbock just yet. “Thank you.”
Thirty minutes later, I was the proud owner of a schedule of classes that included English, History, Political Science, and Chemistry. Oh boy, was this going to be a fun semester or what?
Once I made my way back outside, I found Aunt Jenny sitting on a bench waiting for me. She wasn’t really my aunt and her name might or might not be Jenny Mull. I really didn’t know if that was her real name or not. Aunt Jenny was a Deputy U.S. Marshal whose only purpose in life is to keep me alive. Actually, she seemed to have two purposes in life. The first priority was to keep me alive and the second seemed to revolve around making my life as difficult as possible.
I walked toward the thirtyish blonde, “All finished, Aunt Jenny.”
She stood up and gave me that fake I-am-only-pretending-to-like-you smile, “Excellent, then we should be getting home.”
“Well, I was thinking that maybe we could get something to eat. There is an okay looking pizza place just across the street from the campus.”
She frowned the same frown my mother used to, right before she told me no about something. “Look Lisa, I haven’t had a chance to check some of those places out. I would feel a lot better about just making sandwiches at home. ”
All I could do was roll my eyes. “Fine, whatever.”
It was a short ride in Jenny’s red Ford Escort to the house she had rented for us to stay in. We lived in a two bedroom house in an area of town known as “Tech Terrace”. The white house with the green trim was okay for a house that was older than I was, but definitely a huge step down from the standard of living I had enjoyed in New York. We rode in silence. I really didn’t like her and I was pretty sure the feeling was mutual.
Once we got home, I went straight to my room. I took off the pendant I wore around my neck but concealed from view. The marshal service didn’t want its witnesses keeping anything from their previous life. I knew they would never let me keep my pendant if I told them about it. So, it was my little secret.
I knew I was supposed to give up all my stuff, but the pendant was special. My mother had given it to me not long before the traffic accident that had killed both my parents. It was all I had to remember them by and I didn’t see any harm in holding on to it.
Classes were scheduled to start on Monday morning. That left me with the whole weekend to mope around the house and annoy Aunt Jenny. It was the longest weekend I can ever remember. The lines were pretty well drawn. I thought of Jenny as the wicked witch of the west and she thought of me as a spoiled brat that needed to be permanently grounded. It didn’t really upset me that she thought I was a bad person. The problem was that she was right and I knew it.
***
The first day of college had finally arrived. I was now a college woman. I showed up bright and early for my first day of college, not that Aunt Jenny would have it any other way. I had History and English on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings and Political Science and Chemistry on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Aunt Jenny had arranged for me to have a job working at the campus library on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, as well as all day Saturdays.
I found myself back in Holden Hall for History 1301. I was early for my eight o’clock class and took my seat. I watched as the other students started to trickle in. One guy really caught my eye as he walked in wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt with the word “Anarchy” written across the front of it. He still had his sunglasses on, even though the sun was barely up yet. He had a slow walk and was really going for the whole bad boy image. I was briefly mesmerized by his perfectly tanned skin and short brown hair.
I giggled to myself. This guy was trying to look like a bad boy with his sun glasses and anti-establishment t-shirt. Meanwhile I wasn’t wearing any makeup and had dressed in some loose fitting jeans and a very conservative blouse. I wasn’t even wearing any jewelry except my golden pendant, that no one else could see, and my charm bracelet. He wanted to look like a bad boy while I was trying to look like a good girl. I wondered if he was
pretending as much as I was.
I was a little disappointed that he didn’t notice me more than any other student around him. Usually guys look at me for an extra half second, checking me out. The bad boy paid no more attention to me than he did the empty desk in front of me. I should have been happy; my goal was to blend in and apparently I had.
I was so mesmerized by the bad boy that I didn’t even realize that our professor had entered the room. He introduced himself as Dr. Greene. He looked like he was in his mid-forties with a receding hairline of short, light brown hair that was starting to turn gray around his temples. Dr. Greene was the stereotype of a college professor. He was exactly what I thought my professors would look like.
Dr. Greene passed out our syllabus and went over it but I had a hard time concentrating. I kept watching the bad boy out of the corner of my eye. I really tried not to think about how pathetic it was for me to be so interested in some stranger. It was especially pathetic because my only motivation was that he didn’t notice me. Sure, he was cute but the world was full of cute guys.
I suddenly realized that Dr. Greene was speaking to me. What was he saying?
“If it is not too much trouble could you tell us your name and where you’re from? I do hope we aren’t interrupting any vital day dreams.” The sarcasm was dripping from his words.
“Oh, right. I am Kath…I mean my name is Lisa Wilson and I’m from Tampa, Florida.”
Dr. Greene cut his eyes at me. “Having trouble remembering your own name? You will need to remember a name or two in this class, young lady.”
I cringed inwardly. “Oh, I thought you wanted to know what religion we were too. I was just going to say that I was Catholic. I should listen more closely.”
“I see.” That was his only response.
Everyone in the class now knew that I was either a terrible liar or a complete moron. Actually, I figured that most of them probably thought I was both. I tried to pay attention for the rest of the class period. I especially paid attention when it was bad boy’s turn to tell everyone his name. I could tell I wasn’t the only one. Several of the other girls seemed to be looking in his direction.
When Dr. Greene called on him he did much better than I had done. “I’m Jeff Campbell. I’m originally from Ohio but my parents moved around a lot when I was younger. Most recently I served in the Army and was stationed in the Persian Gulf.”
Dr. Green nodded his head. “In that case, thank you for your service Mister Campbell.”
That was the last thing that Mr. Jeff Campbell would have to say during History class. The class seemed to take forever. Of course, I still wanted to crawl under a rock after my horrible first impression. My very first act as a college student was to come off like a babbling idiot.
We were finally dismissed after what had seemed like an eternity. I grabbed my syllabus and backpack and tried to sneak out of the room. That is when I heard a voice behind me.
“Hey, don’t worry about the whole introduction thing.”
I turned around and saw a thin brunette that looked like she was in her mid twenties. She was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a diamond wedding ring. “Hi, I’m Lisa. Thanks for the moral support but I sounded like a complete idiot.”
“I’m Brenda, I didn’t know if you caught my name during the whole introduction thing. I might have been distracted myself if I was that close to our Mr. Campbell. Is he a total hottie or what?”
“Definitely.”
“Just don’t tell my hubby that I think so.”
“My lips are sealed.” We shared a brief laugh as I headed out the door. I had found at least one friendly face in History.
I was feeling a little better about myself as I headed to my English class. It felt good to be able to walk by myself. It had been a while since I could go anywhere without Jenny tagging along. I was really tired of having a watchdog tag along everywhere I went. It was actually quite a walk to the English building. Of course, even after I made it to the English building, I had to climb the stairs. Much to my chagrin, my English class was on the second floor and there were no elevators in sight.
There was only a ten minute gap between the end of my History class and the start time for my English class. Even with a fairly long walk and having to climb the stairs, I made it to English in plenty of time. I found a seat near the back, sitting next to a smart looking white guy with glasses. Smart looking with glasses is really another way of saying that I was sitting next to a guy that looked like a nerd.
As soon as he looked over at me, I wished that I was still being ignored. He was really checking me out and making no attempt to hide it either. It was really kind of creepy. I told myself that it was okay. Judging from his looks, it wasn’t hard to imagine that he had next to no experience with women.
A younger looking woman with blonde hair came in and introduced herself as Dr. Sloane. She didn’t do the whole thing where the students all had to say there name and where they were from. She did pass out our syllabus and tell us all how much she was looking forward to teaching us for the next semester. She briefly discussed some of the assignments we would be working on.
After that she moved onto expectations she had of us as students. She also talked about what we could expect from her. The woman was one of those goody-goody people. She reminded me of a dessert that I would get at a restaurant. It would look good but turned out to be so sweet that I couldn’t finish more than half of it. I could already tell that I would not be able to stand Dr. Sloane for extended periods of time.
Dr. Sloane actually cut class a little short and dismissed us early. I started to gather my things up and leave. I guess I didn’t leave fast enough though.
The nerd leaned over and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Carl. So, I guess we’ll be sitting next to each other this semester.”
“Oh hi, I’m Lisa. I guess we will be sitting next to each other.”
“So where is your next class?”
“Oh, I’m done for the day. I think I will just head over to the library and check it out.”
“Wow, what a coincidence. I was just heading there myself. I can walk you over there, if you like.”
There really wasn’t a polite way of saying no. “Okay, that sounds good.”
I let Carl walk me over to the library. He was trying to tell me about the little town he grew up in and how much he liked being at Texas Tech. I pretended to listen while I beat myself up for telling him I was headed to the library. I just assumed that he would have another class he needed to get to. I hoped this wasn’t going to be a sign of things to come. The cutest guy I had seen ignored me. The geekiest guy I had seen was all about trying to talk to me.
As soon as we got to the library, I asked at the front desk if Bart Tucker was in. The lady I talked to said he wasn’t in at the moment but that I could leave a message for him. I didn’t want to leave him a message. Bart Tucker was the man I was supposed to report to tomorrow. That was my first scheduled day to work in the library.
Since Jenny had set up my job in the library, I had never actually been inside the campus library. Carl was more than happy to take me on a tour of the library and even walk me across to the student union building and gave me a tour of it as well. Thankfully, it was getting close to being noon at that point. I finally ditched Carl by telling him my Aunt was coming to pick me up any minute.
Aunt Jenny picked me up at lunch time and we headed home in silence again. Maybe I could call the mob and they could come put me out of Jenny’s misery. We were definitely not hitting it off. As soon as we got home, I headed for the kitchen to find some lunch.
Jenny followed me. “So, how was your first day of college?”
I glared. “Look, you can drop the whole concerned aunt thing, okay? I mean I get it. You don’t like me and you think I am bad person.”
“I don’t think that at all. I admit that I don’t care for your attitude sometimes and I do have a problem with some of the choices you’ve made. I do think you’re tr
ying to be a good person. Truce?”
“Okay, I’ll try to have less attitude. I promise to be a good little girl.”
“You know, this isn’t a permanent arrangement. I am only going to stay with you until after the trial.”
“That is like two or three more months away.”
“Look, I will try to lighten up. Sometimes I forget that you are an adult and can make your own decisions about stuff. I am just trying to keep you safe. I promise to be a little nicer about it, okay?”
I held my hand out with my pinkie finger extended. “Pinkie promise?”
Jenny did the same and locked pinkies. “Pinkie promise.”
Chapter Two
Day two of my college life started on Tuesday morning. I found my Political Science class easy enough. However, I was totally unprepared for the size of the class. My class was in Holden Hall, but it was not in an ordinary classroom. It was a huge auditorium looking room and there were at least 300 students. I used the situation to remain very anonymous. I sat in the back of the room and did not speak to or look at anyone else. Many of the other students looked content to do the same.
Our professor introduced himself as Dr. Rush. He looked like an older gentleman with gray hair. Of course, it was hard to tell a lot from as far away as I was. All he did was pass out our syllabus and then launch directly into a lecture about the constitution. It was easy to see that this class would be perfect if I wanted to sleep in and skip class here and there. Who would even notice?
After Political Science, I made my way over to my Chemistry class in the Natural Sciences building. This class was even bigger than my Political Science class had been. I was all set to fade in to the woodwork again when I saw Brenda from my History class. She was sitting near the front of the auditorium that passed for our classroom. She was waving for me to come sit next to her.
We had a female professor named Doctor Barnes for Chemistry. She didn’t waste a lot of time going over our syllabus and pretty much went straight into her first lecture of the semester. I had now been to all of my classes once. The only unknown left was working in the library and that was coming up after lunch.
