by S. E. Akers
“I’m working tonight, but rest assured, you won’t see me out on that ridge again,” I vowed with a sharp nod.
“Why not?” Professor Grey quizzed. “It’s quite peaceful out there and views of the mountains are spectacular, especially this time of year. The fall foliage is at its peak, and the sunsets are nothing less than amazing,” he added.
“True,” I agreed. But then again, “he” wasn’t the one being chased by the big, black cloud of death on the ridge while “he” was collecting samples, and as “he” was gazing at picturesque sunsets.
Still skeptical, I decided to ask him again, “Are you sure you didn’t see or hear anything while you were out there yesterday?”
“I told you…nothing except a frightened little girl, but today she looks more worried than frightened. What should I have seen?” Professor Grey leaned in and whispered, almost as if he knew my answer required discretion.
His closer proximity made me uneasy. I was afraid I would start blushing again, so I straightened myself up and pulled back as far as my leather booth seat would allow.
“Nothing…Nothing at all,” I reassured him. He leaned back slowly, appearing to process my answer. “But I do have a question for you,” I added.
“You’re in luck,” he said with a sharp point of his finger. “I’m a professor, and I love questions. But I have to say, the only thing I love more than questions are answers. Specifically correct ones…that are expressed and articulated to perfection.”
My cheeks began to flush — again. I cleared my throat, in an attempt to stifle my unexpected, increased blood-flow. “How did you know my name?”
Professor Grey grinned slyly. “It’s possible that I had a conversation with Kristine…Oh, excuse me — Ms. Fitzpatrick. Like I said, I’m always on the lookout for recruits. She may have dropped your name to me this morning…and I may have spied your last name on the mailbox outside your house last night. I just put 2 and 2 together. That’s what us college professors do — Ya know?” he posed, attempting to imitate our local dialect with his last crack.
“I guess I haven’t had enough fancy book learnin’ to figure that out. Thank ya for the tip!” I vocalized in my best hick accent and flashed a slick grin of my own.
I could tell by his smile, he was definitely amused.
“So, have you picked a college yet?” A hush fell over the table. “You are planning to go to college, aren’t you?” Professor Grey questioned. I was surprised to see he had a serious side and not all smart-assy.
I grimaced. “I’ve picked plenty. I just haven’t heard from any of them yet.” Anyone could tell I was frustrated by that fact.
“I’m sure you will,” Professor Grey stated confidently. “Have you applied to Yardley?”
My mouth fell open. “Are you serious?”
“Why not? You have the grades and the SAT score,” Professor Grey added casually.
Crap, I thought. He’s seen my grades and my SAT score, too? Is there no confidentiality at that school? For a second, I felt like I was having lunch with a stalker.
“Yes, I do…but unfortunately, I don’t have the money for it. Isn’t Yardley like the top Ivy League school for sciences — with a pretty $95,000 a year price-tag?”
“You have plenty of options,” Professor Grey insisted. “Financial aid…student loans…scholarships…grants. Take your pick.”
This guy seems to have an answer for everything, I thought as shook my head and took another bite of my stromboli.
Shelia stopped by our table and took his order. She seemed just as smitten with Professor Grey as every other female who had laid eyes on him. I’d never seen her act like this before. You’d think she was having a seizure by the way she was flipping her head around and batting her eyes. Professor Grey acted very nonchalant about the attention — which made her flirt even more.
The sun started shining through the window. He wasn’t wearing a tie, and his cornflower blue shirt was unbuttoned at the top. The intense rays beaming from the midday sun were reflecting off a gold chain that lay around his neck. I’d never seen light dance so beautifully before. His necklace trailed down his chest into a point under his shirt instead of circling it. Without realizing, I reached for my little gold locket and started twisting it, back and forth. His stare deepened when he noticed me staring at his chest.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted, embarrassed by his observation. “I was watching the light reflect off your gold chain. It’s almost hypnotic.”
“Oh, is it?” Professor Grey asked.
“Mine has never sparkled like that.” I lifted my necklace to show him what I meant.
The charming professor’s eyes narrowed as he leaned in for a closer look, studying my locket meticulously. I thought he was going to touch it at first, but he didn’t.
“Tell me what’s in it,” Professor Tanner Grey insisted in a soft-spoken, yet adamant tone.
His order surprised me, but I passed it off as general curiosity. “Um…There’s a picture of my mom on one side and my dad on the other.” I let out a laugh and added, “I think.”
“What do you mean, ‘you think’?” he countered.
“My sister has one like it. We got them at the same time. The lock on mine is broken, but I saw the pictures in hers. My dad wanted me to get a new one, but I didn’t see the need. It was something both of us shared. Anyway…it’s just one of the few special things my mom has ever done for me…out of the blue.”
Immediately I thought to myself, Uh, ramble much? You shouldn’t have said all that. It’s one thing to talk about family problems with Katie, but you don’t know this guy. And you certainly don’t need to discuss any of your “mommy issues” with him.
“Is there something on the end of yours?” I asked, changing the subject.
He was in deep thought about something, but he finally acknowledged my question.
“Oh, yes…Yes, there is. It’s kind of my…good luck charm.” Professor Grey started to pull the chain out from under his shirt, but he paused. “Would you like to see it?” he teased.
I squinted my eyes and gave him a nod. Professor Grey continued to tug on the glistening chain until a striking, tumbled stone appeared that featured a medley of rich browns and lustrous golds. Each swirly streak faded into the next, blending the various hues perfectly. My eyes were drawn to the depth of the golden tones, which seemed to pop out in the sunlight. For some reason it reminded me of eating chocolate fudge-marble ice cream drizzled with caramel when I was a little. Without a doubt, my attention had been captured. The stone was absolutely bewitching.
“What is it?” I asked, full of suspense.
“It’s a tiger’s-eye…Well, not literally,” Professor Grey remarked with a grin.
I felt myself wanting to hold it, almost craving to touch it. But how rude would that be? To reach over and just grab it? I really didn’t know him at all. However, he sure did know a lot about me.
“Where did you get it?” I inquired.
“It was given to me by a dear friend…years ago. I’ve had it longer than I can remember.” He held it up in the air and swayed it back and forth. “Legend has it that a tiger’s-eye can conceal you from harm…by protecting your psyche.”
I could sure use one of those.
Strangely, it wasn’t fastened to a traditional setting. The gold simply outlined the edge of the stone and wrapped around its top.
“Does it work?” I asked.
Professor Grey glanced down at his tiger’s-eye and then up at me. “Well…I wasn’t the one running scared through the woods last night…Was I?”
That was blunt, I thought. Truthful, but blunt.
“You can touch it. I can tell you want to.” Apparently my desire to hold his tiger’s-eye was more evident than I’d realized. “It doesn’t bite,” Professor Grey insisted in a frisky tone. “I promise.”
My curiosity overcame any of my doubts as I leaned across the table. Professor Grey moved closer, dangling the mysterious st
one in front of me like a hypnotist. In a delicate manner, I reached for the gold chain that secured it.
“No. The stone needs to make a connection to you. Touch it,” he advised in a tempting tone. “You have to draw its energy into your own.”
I sat there thinking how kooky his words were, but in light of recent events, I found myself wanting them to be true.
“That’s how the legend goes, of course,” he added, taking my skepticism into account.
I carefully stroked my index finger across the face of the stone. Though part of me still thought it was a bunch of hocus-pocus, the tiger’s-eye was surprisingly warm to the touch. I secretly reasoned it was because it had been lying against his chest. I caressed it gently, and for a second, I could have sworn I felt the tips of my fingers tingling a bit.
I do feel a little more secure and somewhat safe with it in my hands — but it’s all psychological, I rationalized.
I looked up at Professor Tanner Grey and found myself instantly dumbfounded. The pair of wide hazel eyes that I’d been staring at merely seconds ago were now a deep shade of violet. They didn’t have just a “fleck” of purple — this time — they were saturated in the regal hue.
“Do your eyes always change color like that?” I blurted suspiciously.
Straightaway, Professor Grey shied his head down towards the table. “Like what?” he asked abruptly as he jerked away from me, pulling the tiger’s-eye out of my grasp, and then tucked the mysterious stone back inside his shirt.
“Last night…I saw a little purple in them,” I began to probe as I watched him lift his head, “And now, they’re…” My mouth fell open. “Back to HAZEL?!? But they were completely VIOLET a second ago,” I insisted.
“You must be mistaken,” Professor Grey challenged.
“NO. I know what I saw,” I argued. “Your hazel eyes turned purple. I’m not crazy.”
“Maybe you saw something being reflected off them?” Professor Grey posed. “My eyes are kind of light.”
I decided to cross-examine his cockamamie claim. “Okay…Then where did the purple come from?”
His hazel eyes remained locked with mine as he lifted up Anthony’s dessert menu and waved it in the air.
Disappointed, I thought, Crap…It’s purple.
At the rate I was going with strange occurrences, I’d need a straight jacket — not a dress — by tomorrow night. Another quick change of subject was what my humiliation demanded.
Happily the universe provided one. A black SUV was pulling up across the street. Once it had parked, the driver hopped out and opened the rear passenger-door. There was the mystery man himself, Lazarus Xcavare.
I pointed out the window. “What’s his deal? Is he businessman making a purchase or a philanthropist who’s here to save the town?”
While Professor Tanner Grey secured his necklace under his shirt, he glanced over at his boss, who was now strolling pompously down the street.
“Oh, Lazarus is all business. He’s extremely ambitious and…very persistent.” I didn’t get the impression that Professor Grey genuinely liked him. “I think he’d buy up the whole planet to get what he wants,” he added.
His statement stumped me. “So he wants one more mine to…add to his collection?”
“Something like that,” he stated while his eyes remained fixed on Lazarus Xcavare. Professor Tanner Grey finally redirected his gaze back to me. “I think his attempt to revitalize Welch is really just—”
“To look good for his shareholders?” I quickly interrupted.
Professor Grey grinned. “See, Kristine was right. The smartest one in the class.” He glanced back over to Lazarus Xcavare, who was now talking to one of Welch’s local residents. “Who’s that man Lazarus is talking to? Do you know him?” he questioned.
I knew exactly who it was. “That’s Kyle Parsons. He works in the County Clerk’s office.”
Professor Grey’s eyes widened slightly. It was subtle, but it was still obvious that he was in deep thought about something concerning the meeting transpiring on the street.
I looked down at my watch. “Well, I should be going.”
“So soon?” Professor Grey asked.
“I have to get to work,” I stated with a pandering smile as I rose out of the booth. I quickly threw down a tip, slung my purse over my shoulder, and grabbed the basket of goodies for Charlotte. Shelia promptly arrived with his calzone and placed it in front him. She practically shoved her breasts in his face as she leaned across the table and threw him a suggestive wink before she headed back to the kitchen.
That was obvious, I thought as I shook my head.
Professor Grey rose from the booth. “Don’t be a stranger, Ms. Wallace,” he chuckled. “Maybe I’ll see you around town again?”
“Well, it is small,” I answered as I strolled towards the door.
“Oh, if you do run into me again…Not so hard next time. Okay?” he called out, loud enough to turn more than a few customers’ heads.
Slightly embarrassed, I turned to see him grinning as he lowered himself back into the booth. I shook my head and rushed out of the restaurant, giving the glass door a gruff push. As I walked to my car, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I would be seeing him again — somewhere and somehow.
I puttered off down the road, headed straight for the Sterling Drive-In. I arrived at the 50’s & 60’s themed eatery just as the lunch-rush was starting to wind down. Charlie didn’t mind a bit that I’d punched in early. And as usual, he was beaming a jubilant smile that matched his casual, happy-go-lucky air like a pair of shoes. Though this was the only job I’d ever laid claim to, in my book, he was the “perfect boss”. I spied Charlie’s favorite Grateful Dead jersey underneath his formerly-white, grease stained apron. I wasn’t surprised to see it. He was just an old lovable hippie at heart. His long brown hair (which was becoming more laden with gray) was always braided in one strand that cascaded down from the nape of his neck like a rope. I gave it a playful tug as I rounded up some salads. I couldn’t resist. It was like seeing someone dressed in suspenders that you just had to “snap”.
“Easy now,” Charlie teased and swatted my hip with a dishrag. He straightened the colorful tie-dyed bandana he was using for a hairnet. “I need to keep all the strands I’ve got.”
I eyed the length of his braid, which stopped just above the tag of his Levi’s. “Trust me. You’ve got plenty,” I laughed and swung my modest dark blonde ponytail at him. “WAY MORE than me.”
Charlie flipped his head like a silly flirt. “Jealous,” he teased.
The rest of the afternoon went by relatively fast. The dinner shift was extremely light, but that was to be expected. Pretty much everyone in town was at the game. Charlie kept the doors open until midnight on game nights, mainly to make up for the lost dinner sales.
We knew exactly when the game was over. People began flooding into the parking lot and all the bays were full. The Welch Golden Knights were victorious and held on to their undefeated season by shutting down the Princeton Tigers. The final score was 42 to 14. Everyone was talking about “what an exciting game it was”, and how “Mike Riverside dominated the Tiger’s defense”. They also couldn’t stop chatting about a fight that had broken out between the two teams after the game. The Chief of Police and several officers had to break it up.
As I’d figured, Kara Leighton was crowned our Homecoming Queen. Apparently, Lazarus Xcavare performed the opening coin toss. I heard a few people raving about the speech he gave at halftime, especially the part where he referred to Welch as being his new, “home away from home”, and his “big plans” for the town.
What a load of crap! I’m still not buyin’ what he’s sellin’ to everyone around town.
Chloe showed up with Mike around 11 o’clock. She looked really pretty, but she didn’t appear to be in good spirits — not while Kara Leighton flirted up a storm with Mike.
If she’s that brazen with Chloe just two-feet away, how in the heck is she going
to act tomorrow night at the dance?
A wave of disappointment rippled through me once I’d realized that it was fifteen minutes until closing time and Ty hadn’t shown up yet. Then my overly-paranoid brain offered up a thought of its own. All the other guys on the team were here celebrating, so I casually asked Kara if he’d gotten hurt during the game. She claimed he hadn’t, but by the way the Homecoming Queen was bouncing around from player to player, shamelessly on her “slut-spree”, she obviously didn’t care.
There weren’t too many people left dawdling around after midnight, so we managed to close up pretty much on time. I raced home and crawled into bed. I made sure to set my alarm for 6:30 AM. I wanted to be at Ms. Sutherland’s house bright and early. Of course, I wanted to help her, but I wanted something else too. Something inside me kept questioning her so-called “disability”. Just thinking she might be “faking” sounded crazy, but then again, so did telepathy. I still couldn’t shake the feeling I had from yesterday. Tomorrow would be the perfect time to put any of my doubts to rest. I didn’t see the harm in doing a little “covert probing”. At least this was one of my burning questions I could get a definitive answer to.
As I lay in bed, I had to admit my day was a little more “normal” than the previous one. For someone who had longed for something other than the same mundane routine that comes with being a teenager in a small coalmining community, surprisingly, I needed that. With one notable exception — Professor Tanner Grey.
I drifted off to sleep thinking, What’s his deal? Looks and charm aside, I didn’t know what it was about him, but he sure did leave a lasting impression.
I dreamed about him. It was just a random dream, nothing special. However in my dream, Yes — His eyes were violet.
Chapter 6 — Private Eye
As I’d figured, 6:30 AM came awfully quick. When I rolled over to give the blaring alarm clock a good whack, I accidentally fell right out of bed. I lay there for a minute, trying to will my sluggish body off the floor. Once I’d acknowledged the long day ahead of me, I thought, Well now that I’m out…I reckon I might as well “get up”.
