by LK Kelley
Sighing with resignation, Gem entered the library as usual, quoting under her breath that it was the – “same Bat Time, same Bat Channel” from the old Batman TV series. Man! What she wouldn't give for something exciting that didn't have to do with storms!
“Nothing ever changes!” she muttered, as she went to the desk and clocked in, before taking her new purse, and its contents to the file cabinet, and putting them inside. She realized just what she had said, and amended to herself – “I mean without the storms, fire, and losing everything!” She really didn't want to tempt the fates, even though she didn't believe in them.
Earlier, she had gone shopping at Wal-Mart that was close to Taylor’s home – the really fancy one – for some new clothes. Gem was wearing all new everything. Luckily, she found some “short” jeans, and several long sleeve t-shirts. Other things she bought were underwear, of course, four bras, a couple of lounge pajamas, a belt, two pairs of tennis shoes, and a pair of boots. She also purchased a couple of fleece tops, two sweaters, and a coat. She’d have to get another, heavier one later, but this would do for now. A purse and a billfold she added into the mix, even though she didn’t lose those things. Next, Gem had to stop by the bank to get a new bank card. If they hadn’t known her, it would have been a long time, before she got one since she would have to prove who she was without any documentation! All of it had been destroyed in the fire. Tonight, she’d apply for a replacement social security card online at the library, and tomorrow she would have to get her driver’s license replaced. She didn't use credit cards, but it surprised her how much there was to do! You never really think about those things until something happened, and they were gone. But, first things first. Right now, she was about finished cataloging the books in the CCR! She never thought she would finish! Taylor floated into the library, and nodded at Gem, so Gem grabbed the key, and entered the room with the equipment she needed to catalog the rest of the books. Like always, when she entered it, she wondered about the odd woman who had donated to the town. As far as anyone knew, she had no contacts, relatives, or connection at all with anyone in Colorado, let alone anywhere else! No one around here knew her, or who she was. It was a true mystery to everyone.
The sight before her never ceased to amaze her, as she looked around at the books. The room was small and oval in shape with bookshelves, which rose to the thirty-foot ceiling on all walls except the door. There were scrolls, documents, and books, and most were old – very old, and in some cases, extremely ancient. The entire library had been donated fifteen years ago by a woman – a Mrs. – who lived somewhere in Italy. And, that was about it. They didn't know much about her, or anything else. However, from the small information they did have, it was assumed that perhaps she had a relative in this town to whom she actually left them. And, even that was just a guess. It was rumored that she had been a very, very old, and extremely eccentric woman, as well as a total recluse. Immediately after she had donated the building to the small town, she had disappeared with her only living relative being a great-grandson. The house, or mansion and property, was sold to a wealthy land baron, whose property was adjacent to the Sinclairs. And, then, they just disappeared from existence.
“Well, I guess stranger things have happened!” Gem giggled as a thought came to her. “She’s probably pushing up daisies by now!”
OK. Technically, she really shouldn't laugh about it, but hey! It just struck her giggle box as funny! So funny, tears began to run down her face.
Trying to actually work at the moment was going to be impossible as she gasped for air, and even then, she found herself giggling off and on for a while. It took her almost an hour, before she was able to control herself.
Gem looked around. After her laughter, there was no way that she would have have any time to finish cataloging the CCR. She just had too much to do, so, she locked up the room, and walked to the desk, promptly propping her butt onto the stool behind the desk, and opened the computer. Taylor was feeling sick, and Gem just waved her away, and told her to go home.
It didn’t take her long to fill out a replacement application for her social security card, so she checked her e-mail. She found no less than fifteen e-mails from her publisher. He was having a fit by the time she opened the eleventh e-mail. After last night, she’d just not had time to worry about contacting him. OK. Truth. She never even thought about it! A virtual numbness had set in over the entire incident, and she still wasn’t quite over it, and she doubted that she ever would.
Gem shot off an e-mail telling him, briefly, what happened, pressed send, and shut the computer back down as her first evening customer walked into the building.
At 8:30 pm, one of the young students came in to take over from her, and Gem left for her shift at the grocery store. Prompt, as he always was, Simmons closed the doors at eleven, and then, became chatty. Simmons was never talkative. He was a quiet man, and not prone to chattering. But, whatever the reason, he sure was yakkity yaking tonight! He wanted to know all about the truck, her house, and Lola. When Gem escaped after ten minutes, she knew that she had a thirty minute walk back to Taylor’s house, and it was already late. Earlier, Gem had left Rick's car at the house, before she walked to work. She continued walking to the back of the store, forcing Simmons to follow her. She answered a few of his questions, then told him she had to get back to Lola, because she was traumatized. Good thing Simmons was a dog lover, so he waved her out the door, because he understood that dogs need consistency. And, Gem began the long walk to Taylor's house.
~ 4 ~
“Didn’t I say I wanted a hunky, gorgeous, drool worthy man of my own? Why, yes...yes, I did!” ~ Gem
Gem had class two days later. Since all of her books had been destroyed in the fire, she had nothing to take with her. She was almost finished with school. Just two weeks left to go. She knew her Professors would understand, and probably lend her the books for anything she needed for her finals. She took what she had picked up at Simmon’s Grocery the night before, such as pens, pencils, and a notebook, then headed out the door. Her novel would just have to wait until she was back on her feet, again. She had sent off, yet, another e-mail to her ‘perfectly, panicky publisher” last night. She laughed aloud at her description!
Gem rounded to the front of the house, where she met Rick walking to her. He caught up with her, and threw something at her. Usually, she couldn’t catch anything, nor could she hit the side of a barn if she threw something at it, but her hand automatically caught the jingling item that he had tossed. Surprised at catching it, she opened her hand to find the keys to his vintage Mustang! His fully, restored, antique 1965 Mustang?
“Drive it until we can help you find another car,” he told her.
She looked way up into his dark brown eyes in shock, while the keys dangled with a cheerful jingle from her hands. He was so good-looking, it startled Gem sometimes. With that big, goofy grin on this massive man, who looked like a wrestler with dark brown, cropped hair and dark skin, he was devastatingly handsome! She shook her head, though.
“Uh-uh! No way, Rick! If something happened to it, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself!” she told him. She was hyperventilating at the mere thought of driving it!
“Come on, Gem! You can’t hurt it. Don’t you remember the way it looked when I bought it? It was as if it had gone to hell and back! Besides, I have the best body man in the business!”
Well, that was true. Rick had Stanley Ryker who lived in town. And, that was just another drool worthy man! Well, over six-foot three, Stan sported dirty blonde hair, an incredibly dark tan, which he never seemed to lose, and eyes the color of teal, he was just another man that made her want one of her own! Like that was going to happen anywhere but in her dreams! But, Gem did remember how the car had looked when Stan had brought the Mustang home. Rick had picked it up about eight years prior, and it had been in horrendous condition. Neither she nor Taylor had ever thought it could be salvaged. But, if you have enough money, and Rick and Taylor had
plenty of it, Gem figured one could get just about anything done!
“I don’t care, Rick! The answer is nope, nope, and, did I say...no frickin' way? There's no way in hell I’m going to drive it, so you’d better just shut it right now!”
Laughing at Gem, Rick whined.
“You are far too independent, Gem!”
Gem just grinned at him, and began walking to her classes. She stopped, and looked back at him when she heard the keys jingle, again.
“Rick, it’s barely a ten minute walk! For goodness sakes!”
Rick just waved at her, and went back inside the house.
Gem kept walking. It was true. It wasn’t all that far, but for some reason, it seemed longer that morning. Her first class was English Lit with Ms. Know-it-all Patterson, who was appropriately nicknamed by the students. She was one of those people who thought she was smarter than anyone else, and believed she never made a mistake. Really believed it! Unfortunately, Patterson made them all the time, but refused to acknowledge that she was fallible. To her knowledge, she had never apologized when she made a mistake. But, then, that's the way of egocentric human beings! Following her Lit class, was World History. Henry Rollins was her Professor. The man had her on tenterhooks all the time with his unending barrage of questions to his students. So studying, and learning was a necessity if you wanted to pass it.
“OK. So. His class is really interesting,” she grudgingly muttered.
But, he had also enlisted her as his assistant two years ago, and it did give her some extra money. Not a lot, but combined with her job at Simmons, and sales of her books gave her enough money to live on, and what little she had left, she was able to save. Well, that was until the fire, of course. Now, she was going to have to figure out a way to pay rent somewhere! She was seriously beginning to believe she would have to rely on Rick and Taylor’s generosity longer than she had wanted. Gem straightened her shoulders when she arrived at the campus, and walked into the building that housed her first class. Something would have to give, and whatever that something was, she definitely wasn't looking forward to it.
Walking into class, Gem came to a dead stand-still. Professor Hawkins was sitting at Professor Rollins desk! What in the hell was he doing here? He looked up as she came in, meeting her eyes with a smirk. She had no problem letting him see that she was angry, and practically stomped to take her seat with the other students. She flopped her backpack down with a loud thud drawing looks from some of the others, dug out her notebook, while everyone else had their computers, and was ready to hand-write her notes as he began to speak.
“Welcome, students. Professor Rollins has had a family emergency, so I have offered to take his class for the next few days. Today, our subject will be Ancient gods and goddesses, and why the people of the day were so devoted to them. The god of the day is Poseidon. Now, can anyone tell me which god he was, and what you do know about him?” No one raised their hands, and Hawking stared at Gem, who glared, daring him to call on her! So, Hawkins decided on someone himself. With a mischevious grin at her, he said, “Jacob Lawrence? Tell me about Poseidon.”
Four o’clock, on the dot as always, Gem entered the library. She had grudgingly admitted that Hawkins was really great at history! Especially the Poseidon thing! She had found herself rapped up in the story of Poseidon, and his great love, Cleito, who gave him five sets of twin sons. She was so interested, she wasn’t paying attention to the wind beginning to blow hard just like it had the day before the fire. Luckily, she, again, made it into the building, before the heavy downpour. She really hoped it wasn’t going to be a repeat of the other day! She really felt blessed, because all her Professors and teachers were kind to her when they found out about her plight, and had loaned her the books she needed. She knew they would, but still she was wary, before finals and graduation. Even Ms. Patterson had relented, and told her that she was sorry about Gem’s loss. Gem had tried, very, very hard, not to roll her eyes when Patterson had told her she knew exactly how she felt, because she had lost a toy when she was a kid .
Gem had a bit of a struggle carrying all the books that her teachers had loaned to her, but even without her backpack, she managed to do it! She reached the desk, and plopped them down on the floor. Now, all she needed was a computer! Luckily, the night of the fire, she had saved what she needed onto her flash drive, and hadn’t realized that she had shoved it into her pocket when she and Lola went to the Sip ‘n’ Stop. So, she had all of her school papers, and her books. That was a true miracle. But, she still needed a computer to access them. She hated it, but she would have to ask Taylor if she could borrow hers. She knew Taylor wouldn’t mind at all, but it was the fact that she had to borrow it that bothered her. She had always been self-sufficient, and hated to ask others for help.
As much as Gem wanted to dive into the CCR, Taylor was still under the weather, so Gem was by herself tonight. She had to close, too, and this was her closing night at Simmon's as well. The library closed at 8 pm, and she had to be on duty at Simmons at 8:30. I was rare that her hours changed, but she had asked Simmons for a little less time over the next couple of weeks, and he had kindly gave it to her. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be many people in tonight because of the storm. She turned to the computer terminal, and got ready for business.
Gem closed and locked the library door behind her at exactly 8:45 pm. Hell and damnation! Where had everyone come from tonight? She hadn’t stopped for two seconds, since she took over for Marie who was there from 8 to 4 pm! Even finding time to use the bathroom was almost impossible! At least the storm had passed, She juggled her books from one side to the other, and wobbled into Simmons’ Grocery, at 9:01 pm. Simmons was patting his foot when he saw her.
“You’re almost thirty minutes late, you know,” he muttered, a twinkle in his eye.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m late. Suck it up!” she muttered back to him.
It was a game they played every single night. The customers didn’t get it, but the two of them had a great time putting up a front, well, in front of them! Simmons and Gem were convinced that their acting skills were superb!
Gem put her books in the break room, and her purse in one of the six lockers. She grabbed her apron, and went to register number one, relieving Larissa, who was very happy to leave! The store was just as busy as the library had been. Gem could only conclude that after everyone visited the library, they came next door to do all their shopping. Gem didn’t draw breath until Simmons locked the door.
“What the hell was all that?” she asked him.
“I have no idea, but after the recent storms, people seem to be getting paranoid.”
“Why?”
“Well, some of them believe that they are out to get the town from the way the lightning has been striking us!” Simmons told her.
“Well, that’s just about the silliest thing I have ever heard!” Gem told him, as she untied her apron, and put it on the hook in the break room. She retrieved her books, juggling them back and forth along with her purse.
“Gem, Gem, Gem,” Simmons said shaking his head. He turned, and pulled out a small, squared Rubbermaid cart on wheels. “Here. This should help. I know you’re walking.”
Tears misted her eyes at the generous gesture.
“Thank you,” she sniffed.
He helped load her books into it, and she said goodnight to Simmons. Gem walked toward the library parking lot, tooling the cart behind her. She knew Simmons would take her home, but she just wouldn’t hear of it. His wife hadn't been feeling well, and he needed to get home to her.
Just as she rounded the corner of the library, she came to a dead stop as her eyes beheld a sleek, red truck sitting in the parking lot. Under the few bright lights that still worked, an extremely well-built man was leaning against said brightly painted red truck. It looked so much like her Dad’s truck when it was new, she gulped back tears. It was beautiful, and looked newly restored.
She turned her attention to the man leaning against it. His arms
were muscular as they crossed against his massive, strong chest. His waist and hips were lean, and his skin was heavily suntanned. A black, ornate tattoo began somewhere under his charcoal gray t-shirt, winding its way down his left arm, ending at his wrist where a black leather bracelet with a watch in it rested. His stance exuded power, even though his ankles were crossed in a relaxed pose. His head was tilted down, and she noticed his shoulder-length hair was the color of midnight black, slicked back, and tied in a ponytail with a leather cord. He wore a pair of what looked like designer jeans. and a dark gray t-shirt that stretched tightly over his chest, and his arms. She had a sudden urge to yank his t-shirt over his head so she could see the rest of that tattoo! He was sex on stick, and she felt every bit of that draw!
Hells bells! She wasn’t exactly “scared”, but walking home at night in the dark always gave her the creeps! Her instinct told her to go around him by walking behind the library. It was obvious that whoever he was waiting for had yet to show. She turned to pull her cart as silently as possible across the grass, and took two steps before….
“Is there some reason you are walking in the dark alley behind the library, Ms. Elwood?”
