Kenny reemerged from the back and stood behind the desk.
“So, this is going to be your job.”
He pointed to a chair behind a computer immediately adjacent to a large wooden box that was no doubt the book return.
“It’s really a lot of scanning books into the computer and putting them back on the shelves.” He spoke as kindly and as professionally as he could. It was almost like someone had trained him to sound like that; it was almost robotic.
Walking around the back of the desk, she saw her computer and a scanning gun. Kenny punched some keys and picked up the gun to demonstrate how the computer interfaced with the scanner. It was a simple process that didn’t really require the twenty or so examples Kenny made of the books sitting on a cart behind them, but Lucy let him do his job. As he scanned, she would catch him glancing at her. Every time she caught him he would quickly go back to what he was doing. When he was done, Kenny stood up and placed the books he had scanned back onto the rolling cart.
“When you finish, all you have to do is put the books back where they belong on the shelves.”
Lucy acknowledged him with a nod.
“Any questions?”
“No,” she said with a tight smile.
“Okay. I’ll be in there then.” Kenny pointed toward his office and Lucy just smiled and nodded.
The remaining stack of books took Lucy only a few minutes to scan, and as she prepared to reshelf them, Kenny came out of the office holding an American flag under one arm and two rolls of toilet paper and a package of paper towels in the other. Lucy jumped at the opportunity to help. Wanting to make a good impression, she hopped up from her perch and walked swiftly over to where Kenny was having a difficult time holding everything in his arms.
“Can I do anything to help?”
“Uh, sure. Can you do the flag? This other stuff is for the, uh, Men’s Room so, uh …”
He looked a little embarrassed to be on the subject of the men’s bathroom, so Lucy grabbed the flag from his pile.
“I’ll get this one,” she said with a weak smile as she headed for the door.
Behind her, she heard Kenny call out, “You’ll need my keys to get back in.”
In his pale, bony fingers he held a set of brass colored keys.
“It’s the big square one.”
With the keys in her pocket, Lucy headed outside. Looking to her left as she exited, she noticed the same guy still sitting on the bench. He didn’t look up, nor did he say anything as she walked by.
Approaching the flagpole, she realized she had no idea what to do, having never raised a flag in her life. Surveying the pole and line, she saw that it was a rope wrapped around a cleat, but she didn’t see where the flag attached. On the line going up the pole, she saw two clips like one might see on a construction worker’s keys. She looked at the flag that was tightly folded into a triangle. There was no sign of any place to clip onto. She decided to untuck the edge and let the flag unravel like a bed sheet onto the ground.
“It isn’t supposed to touch the ground,” came a voice from near the library entrance. Lucy cringed as she recognized immediately who it was.
“I’m sorry?” she replied to him, not wanting to be completely rude.
“The flag isn’t supposed to touch the ground.”
First he embarrassed her and now he was giving her a lesson in flag etiquette.
“Well, how else am I supposed to do this?”
He laughed as he spoke, “You’ve already defeated that method. Would you like a hand?”
Embarrassment had turned to frustration with her new friend and she glared at him as he approached her.
“Sure. Show me what you’ve got, Captain America.”
He chuckled. “You don’t think it’s important to know the rules of your country’s flag?”
Lucy didn’t want to answer. What kind of American would she be if she said no or expressed her true feelings of total apathy?
“I suppose. But, I think if I break the rules this once, who’s going to know?”
“God,” the boy said, matter-of-factly.
Lucy jerked her head as the word smacked her in the face. “I beg your pardon?”
“Well, it’s just that the founders of this country held their god in such high esteem that were it not for him, they wouldn’t have been able to establish themselves. So, to them, if you disrespect the flag, you are disrespecting God. And since the Christian god is considered omniscient, God will know if you let it touch the ground.”
Lucy was perplexed by his response. She tried to hide her contorted face of curiosity.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Lucy said, surprised. “I just …” she looked down at the flag in her hands. “Why don’t you save me from God’s wrath and show me how this is done.”
He smiled and picked up the end from the ground, then told Lucy to hold tight to her end. Pulling the flag taut, he folded it in half once and then again like folding a table cloth. This seemed easy enough, so Lucy followed suit with her end.
“Now, you just stand there and hold on tightly to your end.”
His instructions were simple and Lucy lightly scoffed at what she took as condescension; but she held on to her end as instructed.
He folded a ten to twelve inch section of the flag toward Lucy, followed by a ten to twelve inch diagonal fold. He followed this pattern until he reached her hands. As he went to take the resulting triangularly folded flag, he accidentally grasped Lucy’s hand.
She convulsed slightly as his touch sent a somewhat electrifying current up through her arm. It wasn’t an uncomfortable sensation, but it did take her by surprise. He didn’t jump or react to it, but as she looked at him, she noticed that he had frozen for a moment and was looking directly into her eyes. She stared back at his electric green eyes; they were beautiful and brilliant, and for a few seconds she was mesmerized by their penetrating glow.
Returning his attention to the flag, he took the triangle in his hands, and tucked the blue flap covered in stars into the pocket created by the folds. Lucy looked back to what he was doing so as not to seem like anything had happened. She didn’t want to let on that she had felt something, thinking that would just come across as weird, and weird is not what she wanted to portray.
She watched as he unwound the rope from the cleat and let the slack hang down. He maintained his focus on the task at hand and didn’t say a word. Holding the flag in his hands, palms up, he untucked the flap, making sure that Lucy noticed the eyelet on the blue corner of the flag. Pulling the top clip of the rope, he fastened it into the eyelet. Then, holding the flag in one hand, he pulled down on the other end of the rope which scaled the top of the flag upward and brought the second clip to waist level. She could see that the flag was starting to unravel as he clipped it onto the other eyelet at the bottom. Having secured it, he began rapidly pulling down on the rope which sent the unraveling flag toward the sky; and as the wind caught it, Lucy saw how the method was all part of respecting the flag. It gradually unfolded in a crescendo of visual majesty until it waved gallantly in the wind.
Lucy looked back at her instructor, who was admiring the brilliance of his task. He turned and caught her gaze. She smiled and nodded appreciatively. He returned the nod and walked back to his bench. She slowly followed him, veering slightly to the door where she put the key into the lock. As she pulled the door open, she looked to where he was once again sitting and reading. Something about his touch made Lucy curious. For some reason, she felt like she had known him all her life; she felt close to him, but she didn’t even know his name.
“Thanks for showing me that, about the flag. I’m Lucy,” she said.
Looking up at her, he smiled entrancingly.
“I’m Benjamin; and it was my pleasure.”
As they momentarily locked gazes, he winked, causing her heart to race a little, and she felt a tightness in her gut that was something she had never felt before; it was like bein
g anxious about something. It was like waiting to go on a roller-coaster: all anxiety and anticipation.
Before walking through the door, she stopped and turned in his direction again.
“How did you know that, anyway? That’s not something they teach in school.”
Benjamin looked up from his book. “I’ve been around,” he said with another wink and a smile.
Looking back into the library, Lucy caught Kenny’s eyes staring through the front windows; he seemed to be glaring at Benjamin. When he noticed Lucy, he disappeared. With one last look at Benjamin, she went in to start her first day of work.
***
“You need to get a boyfriend this year, Luce. For three months you’ve done nothing but work at that library. C’mon. Live a little.”
Kat’s voice radiated so much excitement about the upcoming school year that Lucy visualized satellites ducking out of the way as her signal spastically approached them.
“Would you just let it go, already? I’m not getting a boyfriend this year. It’ll be just like every other year.”
“You know, Steph said she heard someone talking about you the other day at Cranberry Sweets. And she couldn’t be sure, but she thinks it was Mark.”
Lucy’s eyes lit up as though Kat could see her through the phone.
“Really? She thinks Mark Thompson was talking about me? Wow,” Lucy said in a stunned daze.
“Why is that so amazing to you? I’ve told you since the seventh grade that he’s got a thing for you. I think he’s just too chicken to ask you out.”
“More like he’s too chicken to go out with the nerdy girl.” Lucy’s tone had become disdainful.
“You can’t be serious. Have you looked in a mirror lately? Lucy, you’ve always been gorgeous, but now you’re totally hot. How could he not want to go out with you? He’s so sweet, too.”
Lucy practically melted at Kat’s suggestion that she and Mark could ever be an item. If Steph’s information was true, maybe all Lucy had to do this year was be patient.
“So are you coming on Saturday?” Kat pulled Lucy back to earth by changing the subject.
“What’s on Saturday?”
“You haven’t heard? Chad’s folks are letting him throw an end-of-summer party. They’ll be there, so your dad should let you go, right? It’s not like there’s going to be booze or drugs or stuff. So, how about it?”
Kat was, in almost every way, the opposite of Lucy. She was a socialite and was never really without a boyfriend. The list of physical differences between the two girls started at the top and went all the way to the bottom, beginning with Kat’s dark brown hair; it was full and thick and it had a natural wave to it that made her look like a super model. She had skin so rich with color and so clear of blemishes that she never had to wear make-up. Her eyes danced like brown sequins in the sunlight and she had a smile that went on for days. She stood five-foot-six in the 7th grade and had gained an inch every year since. Being a long distance runner—one of the best Marshfield High School had ever seen—she had the stamina of a cheetah and the legs of a gazelle. To top it all off, she had had curves in all the right places since she was twelve. Kat was all the things you might find in a Greek Goddess.
“Yeah, it sounds like fun. I’ll ask my dad. What time?”
“I think it starts at six, but we should be fashionably late, you know?”
“I’ll take your word for it. Should I pick you up?”
“Yeah. You should come right after work so we can get ready at my place.”
“You got it. I’ll let you know what my dad says.” The two girls said their farewells and hung up.
Walking into the library, Lucy saw Mrs. Breen behind the checkout desk. Her glasses were perched at the tip of her nose and their silver braided chain swung gently around her neck. She was typing away at the computer while talking on the phone.
“Good Morning, Sandi,” Lucy whispered loudly to Mrs. Breen, who flashed a sunshiny smile full of perfect, white dentures.
Mrs. Breen raised her hand and wiggled her fingers in jovial greeting, despite the business being conducted over the phone.
“Any sign?” Lucy then whispered with a distorted look of improbable hope.
Mrs. Breen shook her head. “I’m sorry dear,” she mouthed apologetically.
Mrs. Breen was the only person privy to the one little secret she hadn’t shared with anyone. Lucy had been obsessed with Benjamin Raven all summer, in spite of the fact that she hadn’t seen him since the flag incident. It was such a trivial thing to think about and she had told Kat about him, but she had never told her that he was almost the only thing that occupied her thoughts constantly.
Lucy smiled and shrugged her shoulders as she sat down at her computer. Sliding her keyboard toward her, she noticed a small dark object lying just under the computer monitor. It looked like a moth and as she looked closer, she couldn’t be absolutely positive, but it appeared to be dead. Grabbing a tissue from the box in front of her, she nudged the little creature. It didn’t move and it felt quite stiff. As she stared at it, she started to feel a little sad that it was dead. She even felt a little bit of that throat choking sensation of crying and had to pull herself together.
Having moved the keyboard away from the computer, she gently stroked the top wing of the moth with her index finger. It was soft and barely noticeable to the touch. She carefully scooted the small, lifeless body to the edge of the desk and brushed it into her other hand. Cradling her hands under the creature she headed for the front doors.
“I know you’re dead, little guy, but the flower bed is probably better than the garbage can.”
Lucy approached the doors of the library, and before pushing them open she could hear the whistling sound of the heavy winds that mark the coming of fall to the Oregon coast. Protecting the moth from being blown out into further insult in death, she cupped both hands around it like a shelter.
Gusts enveloped Lucy’s body in staggered wisps of warm air. Her hair whipped her in the face as she hunched her shoulders in order to hold her hands close to her stomach. In spite of the somber occasion, Lucy noticed that the sun was bright and warm and the sky was a perfect azure with scattered puffs of white clouds. As she made her way to the nearest flower bed, she noticed how the walls of the building created a cove of sorts—a shelter from the intermittent gusts.
Safely guarded, Lucy gently opened her cupped hands to take one more look at the moth.
As it came into view, Lucy gasped. “What the—?”
To her surprise, starring up at her on all six of its legs was the moth, and it was clearly alive. Confusion washed over her. She was absolutely certain that the small creature had been dead; in fact, there wasn’t a single doubt in her mind that it was dead. Yet, there it stood, as alive as any living thing could be.
“I thought you were dead.”
With a bewildered head shake, she opened her hands wide and the moth flew away as though nothing had happened. Lucy walked back inside feeling somewhat embarrassed that she almost buried something that was clearly not dead. If she hadn’t known any better, she’d have thought she had magically brought it back to life.
Chapter 2
Lucy sped north on Highway 101 in the drenching rain.
“He’s going to absolutely lose it,” she said to the steering wheel as she peered through a windshield that seemed to be made of rushing water, in spite of the cyclonic speed of the wipers.
Her hand tapped nervously, but she couldn’t go any faster in such thick weather. The clock on the stereo told her that she was nearly fifteen minutes past curfew, and that wasn’t good at all. She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. She didn’t even have to take it all the way out to see that she had missed a call or two. The LED was already blinking like an emergency vehicle. Her heart began to race a little bit as she speed-dialed her father’s number.
He picked up the phone after one ring.
“Where are you, Lucy?”
“Hi, Daddy. I’m actually on my way home right—”
“You know you were supposed to be through that door nearly fifteen minutes ago?” he said, cutting her off in a stern tone.
“I know; I totally lost track of time. I’m so sorry.”
She tried to keep the panic out of her voice. She was in the middle of failing her first real test with her car privileges, but she felt honesty was probably the best policy if she wanted to keep her keys.
There was a long pause. Lucy was sure there was no way he was going to let her drive again anytime soon. His silence was deafening and Lucy’s anxiety was getting worse.
“Dad?” she prompted as innocently and submissively as she could manage over the phone.
“Lucy, you need to call before your curfew. How do I know you’re okay when you don’t answer your phone?”
“I know; I turned the sound off and—”
She couldn’t finish the sentence. She wanted to make up some lame excuse to make it all better but she couldn’t do it.
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she said dejectedly. “It won’t happen again.”
While the situation seemed hopeless, she maintained the smallest spark of hope. Her father had been lenient before; she just hoped that she hadn’t used up all of her luck.
A long nasally sigh was breathed into the receiver on the other end.
“Okay,” he said, sounding relieved. “You know I worry about you, Goosey. You’re all your mother and I have. You have to be responsible for yourself. We won’t always be there to catch you when you fall.”
“I know.”
She made the final turn onto her street and slowly pulled the car into the driveway. There was silence on the other end and she could hear the sound of her car pull into the driveway on her father’s side. She needed only to look to the corner of the house to see him leaning next to the giant oak tree. They just stared at each other for a minute. Lucy felt horrible, but her father looked calm.
Immortal Light: Wide Awake Page 2
