“Wait,” I said.
“Elliott, I already told you, I have to contact them.”
“I know, but please, let me tell them? In person?”
I looked at my parents and they kindly agreed it would be the best plan.
“Danny?” My mom asked. “Can you take him?”
That was my mom’s way of making sure I was safe and that I wouldn’t take a much wanted detour to the Thomas house.
“Sure Shelby, of course I will,” he said.
We got to Jules’ house and I willed my heavy body up her mountainous front porch steps. I knocked on her door with a deafening thud.
The door opened and an exuberant Jules jumped in my arms. “Elliott?” She asked in slow motion.
“Jules,” I said peeling her off of me, “I need to tell you something.”
The terror that was in her eyes was enough for me to die inside a million times over. Her smile faded into sheer terror. Her lips were shaking as she’d ask questions. I stood to support Jules while she relayed everything to her including everything that had happened before then.
Jules’ mother had to be supported and taken to her couch. All their lovely family from Pennsylvania stood motionless, aghast at what they’d heard.
“We’ll have to send her to Mauch Chunk with you Isabel,” Jules’ dad finally said.
His words panicked my heart. It began to beat irregularly. I felt empty and she hadn’t even left yet.
“No,” Jules said calmly.
“It’s not permanent Julia,” her mom said. “It’s just until we resolve whatever it is that’s going on here.” The tears began to fall softly down her cheeks.
Jules held my hand and the weight of our predicament began to melt off. This immediate medicine was going to be leaving me when I probably needed it most, but this was the price I would pay to keep her safe and I wanted nothing more than her safety.
“It’s only a matter of time,” I whispered. “I’ll get you back here before you know it love.”
“If you think this is best,” she said to the room. “I’ll pack tonight.”
I’ll pack tonight. Three words. Three daggers into my thumping chest. I could go with her, I told myself, I could go with Jules. I’m sure Isabel wouldn’t mind.......but your Jesse’s target, I reminded myself. Could he follow me? Would he do that? Yes. He would. I would have to wait until I could expose him for what he was and that would clear the path for Jules to come home. The sooner, the better.
“Danny?” I asked my uncle under my breath.
Everyone shifted uncomfortably in their own skin as they buzzed about the house getting themselves ready to leave earlier than they’d planned.
“Hmm?” He asked.
“What do you have in the way of video surveillance?” I asked not expecting much.
“We’re one hundred and nineteen people in this tiny town Elliott. I hadn’t even had to dust for prints in over five years. We have nothing,” he said, confirming my suspicions.
“I’m gonna’ go to Charleston then,” I said.
“Wouldn’t hurt to try,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. He didn’t look hopeful.
“Mr. Jacobs?” Danny said and began a private conversation.
I snuck into Jules’ room to visit while she packed. When I walked into the room she was alone, it was against the rules, but under the circumstances no one would care. She stood fearlessly at her window. The very one Jesse uses to invade her home and stared darkly through the hundred year old glass. I rested my shoulder against the jamb of the door and gazed upon her.
She was no longer a girl anymore. She had thinned out so much lately and although Jesse was definitely to blame I couldn’t help but think she was also shedding her youth a little bit. In contrast though, her hips were a bit rounder, her neck and face no longer, her bones had matured.
She was a young woman and that made me wonder if I had matured alongside her, unaware, as she most likely was, of the invisible progression. I hoped I looked every bit the man I felt like right then because I knew, just by looking at her, that we would be married and shortly after graduation. I felt it in my rapidly matured bones.
“My dad said they’re leaving the day after tomorrow, early,” she said, having seen my reflection in the glass.
She turned her face toward mine and I could see the tears sink into her blouse.
“Oh Jules,” I said and with two strides I had her in my arms. “It’s not forever Jules.” Though it will feel like it to me, I thought.
“It will feel like it to me,” she said, speaking my thoughts aloud.
I sighed. I couldn’t argue with her but I could at least try to make her feel better.
“It just feels like it might,” I lied, “because there’s not a definite time frame.”
“Maybe,” she said, trying to appease me.
It was pathetic trying to keep up appearances with a person who knew your every thought.
“This is stupid,” I laughed. “It’s gonna’ suck, big time, but it’s beyond us right now Jules and it’s something we have to do.”
I stopped because I knew I’d just end up begging her to stay if I continued. I couldn’t help but be selfish sometimes. I changed the subject to save myself.
“Let’s spend the day tomorrow, just you and me and get our absolute fill of each other.”
We knew that was impossible but we could try.
“Of course babe. I need a lot of you to tide me over. You know? It’s funny but the more I touch, and kiss, and just be with you the greater my need for you is. We’re a catch twenty two. I’m damned if I do indulge myself in you and damned if I don’t. You’re the very worst kind of addiction, the most dangerous,” she said.
“Would you go back? Change it? If you could?”