“I’m not sure. It just came with the bod…” he rethought his words, “It just started happening one day.”
Julie could tell there was more to this secret than he was willing to reveal to her. She had kicked off her shoes in the cell. Her feet were cold. Her hands were chilled. Charlie felt warm and she noticed his skin was soft, even his hands (with the exception of the new scrapes), as if he never worked a day in his life.
“So what do you think about all day? I mean if I had the ability to make things happen instantly with my thoughts people would be dropping dead all over the place.”
“That is why I spend most of my time alone. I cannot get upset at anything. It was much easier before…” Charlie refrained again from what he was about to tell her.
“Before what?” she insisted.
“It’s getting late. We should get a hotel for the night when we get out of here. I mean separately,” he nervously added, “and if you want, I can help you find your mother tomorrow.”
“Actually, I lied to you," she sighed. Charlie looked up with a surprised look upon his face, although he was not surprised. He knew she was keeping things from him as he kept secrets from her. "I haven’t seen my mother in a long time. I did hear she was here in the city, but I don’t really care to find her. She left my father and me when I was young. My father died a few years ago. There’s nothing in that redneck town for me anymore so I just left. I didn’t even pack. I thought I’d just come out here for a few days, do some shopping and get my feet wet so to speak; see if I could live in a big city. You’re going to think this is silly but I want to be an actress,” she said, a bit embarrassed. All Charlie noticed was the sweetness of her smile. “I know it’s crazy, but don’t you feel like just jumping off that bridge sometimes just to see where you’ll land? Oh,” she paused, realizing he did just jump off a building. “You know, take a big risk so you don’t wake up in a small town twenty years from now wondering what it would have been like if you had taken that chance? I don’t want to regret anything.”
Charlie did know that feeling, but it was not like her quest to escape the possible regrets of a dull life in a redneck town. His quest revolved around a simple human feeling that most people took for granted.
“What is so silly about being an actress? I think it’s an excellent idea,” he said. “And yeah, I’ve had those feelings before.”
“Well it’s just that every girl dreams of being an actress. I’m just another ordinary girl hoping something big will happen for her. Worse for me, I have no training.”
The officer opened the cell and presented them with the release papers.
“You’re free to go, Mr. Daniels.”
However, the uniformed man blocked their way out as they stood up.
“Do you know just how lucky you are, sir? I called the mattress factory and asked why they were hauling mattresses in an open truck while it was snowing. Seemed like an odd thing. They said they had an emergency order and the one delivery truck was already out and the other wouldn’t start. So they piled the mattresses up in that truck and placed a tarp over them. If that other truck had started, you would have hit metal. If there wasn’t that icy spot on the road from the hydrant leaking earlier that day, you would have hit concrete. Guess you got someone looking out for you.”
Charlie said nothing as if he was neither grateful for his luck nor disturbed by his near demise. Julie put her shoes and the officer stepped out of the way.
“These are for you,” Julie said as she exited the cell and handed the officer the broken stemmed flowers, stripped of their petals, and wilted from the cold.
He took them, studied them like he was looking for evidence from a murder scene, then threw them in the garbage.
Charlie and Julie stepped out of the police station onto the cold, snow-covered sidewalk. She looked up, staring at the snowflakes fluttering down under the streetlights then at Charlie. She noticed the wound on his forehead appeared as if it was already a few days old.
“Hey, your wound looks a lot better.”
“I had a good nurse,” he chuckled. Then he stood there looking like his nerves were getting the best of him as she reached out to touch his face.
“They’re not even scabbed,” she added.
He noticed the coarseness of her fingertips. They were slightly worn from days of labor, but softened again with lotions.
She drew back her hand.
“Well this has been an interesting night, Charlie Daniels. It’s getting too cold and too late to be out here on the street. I should go. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
Charlie nodded without uttering a word. She turned away and started walking. For a moment he felt the twitching in his stomach trying to form words, the right words to call out to her. They rose to the tip of his tongue then sunk back down into his stomach as he swallowed the lump in his throat. She purposely ignored his request to get separate rooms, together. Perhaps it was best to let her walk away.
Chapter 6
Charlie had found the nearest motel to stay in, stayed up most of the night, then checked out early the next morning. He walked the streets with images of Julie lingering in the back of his mind, popping to the surface like bubbles in boiling water. With each of these thoughts came a feeling of strange joy, but the busyness of the city made him uncomfortable to say the least. He felt his nerves twitch with every honking horn. Claustrophobia engulfed him on the crowded sidewalk. Even the pale, worn-out mannequins that stared at him from every storefront window brought about paranoia. The cold, crisp air was his only refuge, but the fumes of endless automobiles clustered between the crowded buildings took that tranquility away.
Charlie stopped for a moment and turned to face the window in order to avoid the swarm of people rushing by. Through the window he saw Julie standing in the storefront, trying on a jacket. Out of the corner of her eye she felt someone leering at her and turned to see Charlie. She walked over to the window looking at the mannequins beside her and struck a pose like them, remaining perfectly still, trying not to laugh in the process.
Charlie walked into the store and was greeted by an aged woman, dressed to the nines with gaudy earrings that accented her overly painted face. “May I help you? Are you looking for something for your girlfriend?” the sales assistant asked after glancing at his ring finger and finding it bare. Julie remained lifeless in the window.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I was interested in that lovely leather jacket in the window,” he answered.
“Ah, yes,” the woman said in her high, sophisticated voice and walked over to Julie, still poised like a mannequin. As she attempted to remove the coat, Julie turned her head and laughed. The woman let out a loud, sophisticated scream, nearly fainting in the process.
Julie quickly took off the coat and handed it to the woman, “I’m not interested.”
Charlie looked back and forth at the woman and Julie leaving the store.
“Ah, me either. I have to go.”
Julie stepped back in and dragged him out the door laughing.
The sales assistant turned to the other mannequins to see if any of them were real also.
“That was hilarious! I hope we didn’t scare her too much,” Julie said.
“I think she’ll be alright.”
Charlie was unaware that his paranoia and claustrophobia were gone, vanquished by the presence of a beautiful young lady.
“Hey, the wound on your forehead is completely healed,” she remarked stopping on the sidewalk to look at it. She went to touch his face where the red mark once was. She could feel his nervousness. “Are you afraid of me Charlie?”
“Why do say that?”
They started walking down the busy street again.
“Because you are obviously attracted to me, but you’re the type that would avoid me like the plague,” she answered very directly, not ‘beating around the bush,’ as they used to say in her redneck town. “You did call me beautiful.”
“I was nervous t
o talk to you but I was never afraid of you. I just focus on your imperfections now and I’m not even nervous anymore,” he answered honestly, perhaps too honestly.
“Oh thanks. Every girl wants to hear about those. No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend,” she replied. “I shouldn’t even ask but alright, what are they Charlie?”
“What?” he answered as they entered another clothing store. Charlie held the door for her, sensing he was in a no-win situation.
“My imperfections! What are they?”
They entered the store and began rummaging through the clothes.
“I told you if I don’t watch my thoughts bad things can happen,” he explained. “Looking at your imperfections helps me to ignore the feelings that go along with this body,” the volume of his voice faded. Even as he was saying the words he knew he was throwing more heat on an already burnt breakfast.
“So what are my imperfections? Is my nose too big? My butt too big? My boobs not big enough?”
“No, nothing like that. Just that you’re vulnerable. You’ve been hurt before and you could be hurt again,” he replied. “You’re,” he hesitated but continued in the least threatening voice he could muster, “fragile.”
“Ah huh,” Julie grunted, uncertain if he was just being nice and avoiding what he really thought. “What do you think of these?” she asked, picking out the ugliest set of clothes in the store: a hideous puke green shirt with pink, yellow, white, and black polka-dots and a faded pair of oversized yellow corduroy pants, as if to also mock his taste for corduroy jackets. “If this won’t make you feel sorry for me, I don’t know what will.”
“Very nice,” Charlie nodded as he added a pale burgundy stocking cap to the ensemble. “Now all you need is an umbrella to carry around on sunny days,” he laughed.
Charlie looked at the clock on the wall, “Well I have to get going. It was nice to see you again,” he suddenly said, and quite to her surprise.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to meet my friends at the cafe up the street.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about your friends.” She was curious to see what kind of people they would be. “I could sure go for a coffee,” she hinted for the invite.
“Would you like to come?”
“I wouldn’t want to impose, besides I have a lot of stuff to do,” she said.
“Well okay, maybe I’ll see you around again,” he said, then began to walk toward the door again.
“Hey,” Julie shouted, “that was rude. You’re supposed to say ‘you wouldn’t be imposing. I would love for you to come.’”
Charlie looked at her in confusion, thinking, I thought she had a lot of stuff to do, but then thought, that might not be the best thing to say now. “I would love for you to come, but I wouldn’t want to impose on the stuff you have to do.”
He was hoping that was the right thing to say.
“Well, okay. Since you insist,” she agreed, passing him on her way to the door.
Chapter 7
They sat down in a small booth next to the fireplace. The flames were real. It was not one of those fake fireplaces that simply gave off heat from under fake logs and red glowing paper. Julie listened to the crackling fire. The sound reminded her of the days when her father would light a fire in their living room fireplace. They would lie on the floor and watch movies. She could smell the memory of burning marshmallows flooding the room and the laughter of her father echoing over the television. Those were happy times. She missed him as if she had just lost him yesterday.
Julie pulled her awareness back into the café. She noticed the crooked painting hanging on the wall, perhaps carelessly hung by a low-paid employee. She looked at the busboy as if he were the guilty one. He was obviously from a well-to-do family with his expensive jeans, name brand shirt, and sparkling white teeth. His curly, long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail suggested that he might be a local musician, waiting for his big break. But it didn’t look like he struggled that much.
She turned her attention back to Charlie who ordered a large glass of pineapple juice and a café mocha from the waitress. It was the first café she had been to where they had actual waitresses. Stranger still was the combination of drinks Charlie ordered. She wondered for a moment if one of them was hers.
“What will you have, Juliet?” Charlie asked, then she knew the strange combination was all his.
“I’ll have a café mocha also, please.”
“I’ll bring those right out,” the waitress said with a smile as warm as the fire.
“So when we were at the jail the other night, how did you put the money for your bail in my purse? You never touched my purse; I know you didn’t physically put it there. You didn’t even know you would need it until the moment the officer asked for it. So how did it get there?”
“Juliet, I’m not sure we should discuss these things,” he uttered like a warning against a danger she was unaware of.
“Tell me. I know your last name so you have to tell me now, Mr. Daniels!”
She seemed to be threatening him with humor.
“Yes, how do I explain?” he thought out loud then continued, “As I was saying before, thoughts are not bound by time and time is flexible. Time does not go from past to present to future. Things in the present can affect the past and the future can affect the present. I only learned that I needed $200.00 when the officer asked me for it. I made a wish that I needed you to have $200.00 for me. It had to be you because the police already checked my pockets when they arrested me. So my present need for the money affected something in the past. Maybe you found $200.00 a couple weeks ago and put it in your purse and forgot about it.”
“If I put $200.00 in my purse a couple weeks ago I would have known it was in there,” she interrupted, “and I would have spent it.”
“Not necessarily. Because my present wish caused you to put it in your purse a couple weeks ago, you may have put it in and forgot about it until the moment I needed it. Even though it was right before your eyes over the past couple weeks you could not even see it until the moment I needed it.”
Julie squint her eyes and cocked head to the side as most people do when they feel their being fed a spoonful of bull…
“Melted chocolate,” the waitress said. “I think it my favorite smell ever!”
She set their drinks before them and offered her services for anything else they might want.
“Thank you,” Charlie politely nodded. Then he continued after she walked away, “Or maybe a relative slipped it in your purse before you left and you could not see it until I asked for it. I don’t know what happened. All I know is that my present wish affected something in the past and you ended up with $200.00 in your purse, which you could not find until the moment I brought it to your awareness.”
“That’s deep,” Julie commented. “If what you say is true, then isn’t it thrilling to know you can have anything you want?”
She looked up toward the spinning fan high above pondering the endless possibilities. The point of her vision fell like two led balloons and fixed on the strange young man across from her as he continued.
“Everyone can have whatever they want, it just happens to me faster. All of us create our reality all the time. You can make a wish and it will come true for you no matter what it is. But if you don’t really believe it will come true, then you will never see it, even when it is right before your eyes. You don’t see it until you’re ready for it, until you really believe it is there for you. Your thoughts create the wish out of your sincere emotions and your faith, or confidence, gives you the ability to recognize it.”
“Yeah,” Julie sighed. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this. It’s too confusing. I mean I understand what you’re saying, it’s just a little hard to accept.”
Charlie paused then carefully added, “The only difference between you and me is that I know what I wish for will be there. I don’t hope or pray that it will be there, I know it will be there. Imagination is like
a map showing the possibilities of your life and faith is your transportation from one end to the other. You can accomplish anything you imagine with a confident faith.”
“You sound like a preacher now.”
“It’s not a religious thing. It’s how the world works. It’s the same with true love,” he added with a quieter, almost melancholy voice as if mumbling to himself. “If people don’t know what true love is and do not believe it can happen for them, then they can never find it, even when it’s right before their eyes. They simply settle for what they believe is the best alternative, or whatever they believe can come true for them. People don’t dream of true love and create it for themselves because they don’t have the confidence in true love’s veracity.”
Julie found his philosophy very interesting, but she could not simply accept that what he said was true. It simply broke all the laws of physics or some conventional science as she understood it. She thought to herself, Even if it was true, how could anyone know such a thing? She scanned his face more carefully than before and continued her thought, …especially at a young age.
“Here they are,” Charlie suddenly whispered as he stared at an older couple walking into the café—her, perhaps late 40’s, and him, mid 50’s in age.
“Those are the friends you came to meet?” she suddenly remembered the reason they were sitting in the homely café.
“Yes,” he quietly responded, glancing at them from out of the corner of his eye as they chose a seat close by. Julie wondered why Charlie was whispering as if he did not want the couple to notice him.
“Well aren’t you going to say hello? They haven’t seemed to notice you’re here.” She also noticed that they didn’t even look around the room for him.
“Oh no, I never say anything to them.”
“What? You took a bus all the way to New York City to meet them for lunch and you’re not even going to say hello?”
“Nope,” he shook his head. He continued to stare intently at them from the corner of his eye.
A New York Romance Page 4
