A Kiss for Emily (Emily Stokes Series)

by J. P. Galuska

  “First time in the country?” He leaned against the truck, crossed his arms, and rested them on the wooden bed railing.

  I copied his movement. “Yes.”

  “Has anyone warned you of varmints?” He seemed serious.

  “Varmints? Like what?” Was there a real danger?

  “Well, you know, the usual type: rattlesnakes, coyotes.” His grin returned. “And bobcats.”

  I could tell he was amused by my expression that grew more alarmed with each animal listed. “Sam! You’re teasing me!” I liked the way his name rolled off my tongue.

  He chuckled out loud, shaking his head, “No, ma’am, I am not. In fact, they love this area. All this green grass draws a lot of rabbits and other little critters. It’s a perfect food chain.”

  I wondered if something ate the frog and that’s why it had stopped croaking. “Well then, I’m appointing you to keep me safe—from varmints.”

  Seriousness replaced his smile. “I’d be obliged,” he said, gazing deeply in my eyes before turning his attention to the dirt he was scuffing with his boot. Finally, he stood up straight and took a deep breath of fresh air. His chest went from massive to mammoth, and I noted he must be a good six inches taller than me.

  “So, you probably moved here with your family?” he asked before turning and walking into the open field. I followed his lead.

  “Yes, my parents and an annoying little sister.”

  “Sisters aren’t so bad.”

  “I guess not really.”

  As we strolled across the grassy field, I spoke about my love for drama. He truly seemed fascinated about the silly details of my school-age adventures on stage. His curiosity made me feel important and I liked it.

  “What was the last play you were in?” Sam asked.

  “Prelude to a Kiss.”

  “I’ll be!”

  “You know this play?”

  His voice softened. “Do you reckon there’s any truth to souls switching bodies?”

  “I don’t know about that,” I said, shrugging my shoulders, “but my grandpa claimed to have had an out of body experience while having surgery. He said that he was floating in the corner of the operating room…able to watch everything that was happening. Doctors say that he nearly died on the table.” I watched Sam’s face for a reaction, and then continued. “Grandpa said that it was fascinating, yet upsetting. I was really little when this happened, but I remember he didn’t want my mother to say anything to anybody else because he worried that people would have him committed.”

  “I believe it.” Sam responded with interest.

  “So you think it’s possible?” My question seemed to carry a tone of unnatural creepiness.

  “Yes, Miss Emily, I s’pose it could be possible. Getting back to soul swapping, take your grandfather’s case. If a wandering soul would have been traveling through the operating room at that particular time, I reckon that other soul could have taken over your grandpa’s body.”

  “You really believe that?”

  “Yes, yes I do. But I don’t think it could really happen as the play portrays. Completely trading souls with just a kiss is a bit hard to fathom,” he said.

  “Any circumstance that includes taking over another person’s body is hard to fathom.”

  “Why? It’s even in the dictionary.”

  “What is?”

  “Body snatching.”

  “Seriously? That’s gross.” A prickly tingle shot down my spine.

  “The official term is transmigration,” Sam rattled off. “The act of passing the soul to another body at the time of death.”

  “Isn’t that reincarnation?”

  “Not at all. The original body has a different soul, just like the play you were in.”

  “You are kidding.”

  “No, Miss Emily, I am not. Look it up if you don’t believe me.” Sam looked down at me and smiled, showing off his pearly white teeth.

  Wow, he is good looking. “You really can’t believe everything you read, you know.”

  Sam laughed. “I take you for the type that needs to see things with her own eyes.”

  As I looked back up at him, I couldn’t believe what I was actually thinking: love at first sight. Was it truly possible? My eyes certainly did not object to this reasoning. Of course Dad always said that he knew he’d marry Mom from the first moment she walked into his shop. And he did.

  “What else do you like to do?” Sam asked, leaning forward anticipating my answer.

  “I like sports.”

  Sam nodded as he gave me a look over.

  “But just for fun. I leave the competitiveness to the real jocks. I really love history. Actually old buildings and stuff like that. Like Topeka High. Have you ever seen it?”

  “Heck, everyone from these parts remembers when the first million dollar school was built,” Sam replied. “That was big news.”

  “1931,” we both said in unison.

  “Although I can’t say I remember it being built,” I laughed, expecting him to laugh, too. He didn’t. “What about music? I bet you’re into Toby Keith.”

  “I looove music, but I tend to favor jazz.”

  “Really?” I couldn’t quite calculate how a farm-type boy ended up liking jazz, not that I had anything against jazz in the first place. “I’ve played a few jazz pieces for school band concerts.”

  “What instruments do you play? Let me guess…the flute?”

  “Not even close. I play the oboe and the bassoon, with hopes of my new band teacher letting me try the contra bassoon this year. That’s assuming Silver Lake even has a band program…you know, with all the budget cuts and all. But guitar is my most favorite.”

  “Well I’ll be. All that talent, and you haven’t been discovered yet. My folks were into music, don’t you know. I always wished I had inherited some of their musical talents.”

  “Were they famous?”

  “In a way, I reckon. But enough of me. I s’pose you play your guitar often?”

  “Yeah, it fills up my day. I’m kind of bored out here.”

  Sam stopped short. “Bored? In the country? You just said the wrong words, little lady.” His grin turned sly and his eyes lit up like stars. “I wasn’t going to sow the land this year, but you just volunteered yourself as an unpaid hired hand.”

  “What?” My eyes widened at the comment my ears heard but my mind had difficulty comprehending. “Oh….no. No, no, I can’t.” I backed away, scanning the grassy field that suddenly appeared much larger.

  Once again he found humor in my reactions. “Relax, it can be a little garden, for personal use. A man’s got to eat, you know,” he said, rubbing his hand over his stomach.

  “That might be fun.” I envisioned a little garden of radishes, beans and lettuce.

  “You can take some home, too,” he offered, still smiling.

  I smiled back. Looking at him, I think I would have agreed to eat beets. I loathed beets.

  Time became irrelevant as we continued wandering through the field. I told Sam about my dad’s great escape from city life, and how unfair it felt to me. I shared my jealousy of my little sister because she really could be free out here and up until today, I’d been struggling.

  “Life is what you make it, Miss Emily.” Sam’s words were kind, not judgmental.

  “Actually, my new thing is adventure.”

  He looked confused.

  “It’s a long story,” I said, shifting my eyes so he wouldn’t think I was staring at him. Which I was, of course, because he was so darned good-looking.

  “Maybe someday you can tell me about it, but in case you haven’t noticed, it’s getting late.”

  I followed Sam’s gaze to the west and saw the beginnings of a spectacular sunset with beautiful hues of deep pink and orange fanning wide into the sky. “I didn’t realize how late it was. I gotta get back before they start missing me.”

  Sam arched an eyebrow. “You mean no one knows where you are?”

  Cha
pter Eleven

  ENDORPHINS

  MOM’S FIRST RULE, Don’t talk to strangers was quickly followed by her second rule, Leave a note. But what would I write? “Went for walk”? Like that would help. I would have to be attached to a GPS out here.

  “I reckon you ought to be more careful, Miss Emily. You never know where you might meet up with danger.” His voice was smooth and cool.

  My heart lurched. Was he referring to wild animals, or an event like my slip on the rocks? Or was he the bad guy my mother warned me about? Would my first real attempt at adventure end with me getting axed by some stranger in the woods?

  “Stop it,” I snapped, hoping to appear unafraid just in case he had evil intentions. “I took Tae Kwon Do.”

  Sam smirked and shook his head. “So you’re just gonna karate-chop a snake?”

  An awkward moment of silence passed. I felt like an idiot for thinking terrible things about him. “Yes,” I said as confidently as I could, like I was a woman in charge of things.

  “Just remember, you have about five minutes to get the venom sucked out before you die.”

  I looked at him, mouth open.

  “Kidding. Plus they advise against the sucking part nowadays.”

  My face flushed. Even my ears turned warm. “Since you are the expert, I guess that makes me all the more glad to have you as my defender against evil and perils. Now if you would be so kind as to assist me with another problem.”

  We were still standing in a field… a body of water was up ahead. A line of trees stood behind me. And to the left... I chewed my lip.

  “Do you even know how to get home?” he asked; muted laughter rolled off his lips.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to speak the word that would humiliate me completely. A very tiny “No,” slipped from my lips.

  “City girls!” He turned abruptly and headed off toward the tree line. “I can tell that you’re going to be a full-time job.”

  “I thought it was that way!” I shouted in a missed triumphant moment, running to catch up with his long strides. After about five more of his steps, and seven of mine, it occurred to me, “Hey! How do you know where I live?”

  He stopped sharp and paused before answering, “You pointed behind you when you first showed up, remember? I happen to know there is a house or two on the other side of the creek.” He seemed a bit defensive, his muscles tense. Maybe I’d offended him with the Tae Kwon Do comment and he’d had enough of random accusations.

  “Well, actually, our house is the only one in the area.” I looked up at him, smiling to let him know I meant no offense by my question. “How about you? Do you have neighbors on this side?”

  “Not for a few miles. Jedd is my closest neighbor and actually he’s on your side of the creek as well. He lives under an old stump.”

  “Who’s Jedd?” I asked as we ducked into the trees.

  “A badger.”

  A long leafy branch nearly smacked me in the face as I concentrated more on what a badger looked like than where I was going.

  “An’ you better watch out, ‘cause he’s a mean one.” Sam’s voice became deeper still. “You’re lucky he didn’t come out and chew your foot off at the ankle when you crossed the water.”

  “He lives by the crossing?” I imagined myself viciously attacked by yet another animal.

  “Yes, ma’am. He’s supposed to scare people away.”

  “Oh, stop it, you and your…dangerous varmints. How gullible do you think I am?”

  “I’ll admit he’s not as scary as the Grim Reaper,” Sam said, leading the way across the creek. “But he does exist. And honestly, badgers can be mighty ornery if they feel threatened.”

  Badgers. Hearing about all these animals out here filled me with awe. I felt like I lived in my own personal zoo.

  “Hush now, while I try and fetch him out.” He knelt down beside a hole in a rotting tree stump, barely visible in the tall grass, just about a yard from the stone bridge. I crouched beside him.

  “Seriously?” I whispered. I could hardly believe that I was going to see a real live wild animal.

  Sam made some sort of an animal calling noise to lure the animal out. “Jedd…. Jedd, come out and meet Miss Emily.”

  I leaned in for a closer look, peering into the dark opening. I half expected Sam to be playing some sort of unfunny trick on me. Then two black shiny eyes appeared from the darkness. I gasped in delight as the larger than anticipated animal emerged from its den.

  “Oh! Look at it.” I glanced from Sam to the badger, in mild disbelief.

  He remained calm, careful not to spook it. “Come here, sleepy head.” Sam held his hand out in a welcoming gesture. The badger sniffed it.

  “Hello, Jedd.” Sam scratched his head. “I’d like you to meet my new friend.”

  After a stretch and a yawn, the badger looked my way, like he understood. He lifted his head and sniffed the air. I didn’t offer my hand, afraid of being bitten. Then, without prompting, the animal turned around and went back into his den.

  Sam beamed in delight at how well the introduction went.

  “That was so cool,” I marveled as we both stood up.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. He took a wide, comfortable stance, crossing his thick arms across his mighty chest and looked directly at me. “The creatures you find in the country can be quite amazing.”

  I blushed. My heart began to beat a little faster as I looked away from the most handsome, brawny, beautiful boy I’d ever laid eyes on. The word boy seemed too young for the large figure standing in front of me. Still, I didn’t want to use the word man because that sounded too old. How about guy? A really, really hot guy. Whatever he was, he made me weak in the knees. Even without a kiss.

  “Do you know which direction to go from here?” Sam’s question interrupted my silent ogling.

  Pretending not to be caught in my fixation, I responded with great articulation, “Um, I need to go this way?” I pointed to the left, fairly confident.

  He arched his eyebrow in approval. “Do you have any idea how far?” He glanced up at the sun, which was casting deeper shadows of pink across the sky.

  “I stacked a pile of rocks at the water’s edge to give myself a marker,” I proudly informed him.

  “Good thinking. But if we make it quick, I’d like to tag along, just in case.”

  “That’s probably for the best. You have obviously picked up on my poor navigational skills. Even my dad pokes fun at me, stating that I could get lost in my own back yard.”

  “It’s lucky that Lewis and Clark didn’t have to depend on you to lead them through the wilderness,” Sam teased.

  My jaw dropped. “I can’t believe you just said that.” Yet I was compelled to tell more. “But that’s so true. I hate to admit it, but I got mixed up trying to find the creek.”

  The sound of Sam bursting into laughter burned my cheeks.

  “I’m not really surprised,” he said, pulling himself together. “To tell you the truth, this creek has many twists and turns. Unless you’re familiar with it…”

  Just when I was about to go into a female pouting routine, his grin ended abruptly.

  “You know something?” he asked.

  “Could you be more specific?”I asked back.

  “You are a special young lady, Miss Emily, and I am sincere when I say that.”

  I looked up to study his face. His words sounded so genuine. “Thanks.”

  His eyes twinkled just a little bit more. “You’re welcome.”

  Together, we chatted our way down the riverbank when my attention was drawn toward the abundant wildflowers. There were far more colors and varieties than I remembered.

  “This is a pawpaw flower.” Sam handed me an unusual small red flower that looked more like a bud than a full bloom. “In the fall, the bush will produce fruit that can be made into some pretty delicious jelly.”

  I held the flower in my fingertips, spinning it from right to left as I inhaled deeply. “It does
n’t have much of a scent, but it sure is lovely.” I slipped the flower into my blouse pocket and returned my attention to the dense splashes of color. “I still can’t get over all the flowers!”

  “They must be blooming just for you.”

  “This is incredible!”

  A wide grin spread over Sam’s face. “That’s the magic of spring time in the country.”

  His enthusiasm grew as he told me about other native berries that could be turned into jelly. I was fascinated, listening to a walking encyclopedia.

  “How do you know all this stuff? I always thought farmers knew about corn, and that was about it.”

  He looked at me sideways. “And you were offended by my comment? At least I was joking.”

  “That’s not what I meant at all. I keep sticking my foot in my mouth, don’t I?”

  “It must come with the color,” he said, pointing to my head.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I love to learn,” Sam stated, still laughing, tapping his finger near his temple. “I know all sorts of facts.”

  The more I thought about him, the more I didn’t know what to make of him. Aside from his preference of jazz, and his overwhelming knowledge, I still knew very little.

  I was trying to come up with a noninvasive question to ask him when he began to fidget.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I’m figurin’ we passed your house.”

  I looked about the shoreline. “We haven’t come to my pile of rocks, yet.”

  “That’s right, Sacagawea, but you mentioned that you lived by the railroad tracks. I’m telling you they’re closest to the water from back there.” He pointed behind us with his thumb.

  I wasn’t sure if Sam saw me stick my tongue out at him before he turned around, but from the way he hacked out a laugh, I thought it possible. Trailing behind him, I couldn’t remember telling him where I lived, but I didn’t remember not telling him, either.

  Within a few yards, Sam moved in closer to the edge of the forest, bobbing up and down, looking in between the trees. Finally, he stopped, straightened up and smiled. I knew he had found my house. Sappy as it may be, my heart beat in admiration. He had saved the damsel in distress, otherwise lost in the woods only to be eaten by coyotes, bobcats, or who knows what other kind of hungry varmint.