Nickels (15 page)

Not once in the first five years of Alana’s life had he
talked to her.  Nor had he sent her a gift or a letter.  He had no contact. 
Other than the large line item on his pay stub, he barely remembered he had a
child.

After the accident and after he became a Christian, he faced
up to his responsibility.  He decided he needed to be a father to his
daughter.  He felt so convicted that he almost moved to Colorado Springs to be
close to her.  As it was, he visited at least once a month.  It wasn’t much,
but it was a start.

“I think it’s clean now.”

Chad’s voice broke through his thoughts.  Kyle looked down
at the grill and set the wire brush down.

“Guess it is.”

“Wanna talk about what’s eating at you?”

Kyle looked through the sliding glass doors and spotted
Niki.  She emptied serving dishes and loaded them in the dishwasher.

“Woman woes?”  Chad asked.

He tore his eyes away and changed the subject.  “Looks like
the cleaning is under control.  Think I’ll take off.”

He walked back inside and picked up his bag from the counter
without a word.  Then he headed for home where he could mull over his life with
fewer intrusions.

Sometime long after dark in the stillness of her bedroom,
Niki lay wide awake staring at her clock.  When she went to bed she found
Jack’s letters where she left them that morning.  She picked them up and moved
them to her desk drawer.  And she thought about them for hours in the dark. 
She would not get a lick of sleep until she read them.  She couldn’t help it. 
She had to.  It’s just what she did on Memorial Day.

Slipping from under the sheet, she turned on the lamp on her
night stand.  She put on her glasses and walked over to her desk.  Her hand
hovered on the handle of the drawer.  Hesitating only a few seconds, she yanked
the drawer open and grabbed the letters.  Fluffing the pillows against the
headboard, she climbed back into bed.  She went to the last one in the
stack—the one he wrote the morning before his vehicle was blown to bits by an
IED.  The one she got two weeks after his funeral.

May 10, 2002

Nickels,

I’ve been dying to write you for days.  Finally have the
chance.  I was hoping to tell you this in person, but it looks like we’ll be
here for a long time and it’s too important to wait.

I have finally found what I’ve been looking for.  I always felt
a hole inside.  I used to think it was cause we moved around a lot and that I
never had any friends.  Then I made friends in the Air Force.  You can’t bunk
with a bunch of guys scared senseless and not.

Then, that guy I told you about—the Christian—he told me this
hole was because I was missing Jesus.  We’d been talking for months.  He
explained everything to me.  Nickels, I found Jesus.  He was everything I had
been looking for.  No matter what happens with this war or after, I know what
the future holds—and it’s amazing!

I wish you could see the change in me.  I’m not that same
fearful older brother that left you back in September.  I’m confident that God
has a plan for me, and even for you, Nickels.

They’re calling for lights out so I gotta go.  I pray that one
day you will understand this for yourself.  It will rock your world.

Jack

Niki wiped the tears from her eyes. 
I don’t understand
it, Jack
.  She didn’t understand any of it.  How could God’s plan have been
to take Jack’s life that afternoon?  If he was supposed to make this big
difference in Jack’s life, why wouldn’t he let Jack come home safely.

And if God had a plan for her life, you’d think he’d show up
sometime and start working it out. 
This
could not be it.  If it was,
then he was even lamer than she thought.

What if she was wrong?  Was that what she was
missing—Jesus?  How could Jesus fill the emptiness in her?

She thought about Marcy.  Marcy claimed to know Jesus.  Said
she became a Christian when she was twelve and that Jesus changed her life. 
Niki didn’t know Marcy before then.  But she knew her a long time.  Marcy
seemed to have an unexplained inner strength whenever she faced something
tough.  She was still afraid, but tended to rise above things.  She always
talked about how she thanked God for this thing or that thing that happened in
her life.

Could Jesus rock her world as Jack said?

She didn’t know.  All she knew was that she could use
something different.

Chapter 14

The next morning, Niki woke to the sound of Marcy’s voice.

“Niki!  Get up!”

“What time is it?”  Why hadn’t she heard her alarm?

“It’s after seven!”

“Shoot!”  She bolted from the bed.  She was usually pulling
into work by now.  She had a presentation at ten.

Marcy knelt down and picked up the stack of Jack’s letters
from the floor.  “Were you reading this last night?  How late did you stay up?”

“I don’t know.”  She rushed into her closet and grabbed a
blouse and a skirt.  She had to look good for this meeting.  “Four maybe?”

“Niki!”

“Scold me later.  I’ve got to fly.”

She shut the bathroom door and ran through her morning
routine with amazing speed.  She plopped a contact in each eye.  Makeup brushes
breezed across her skin.  She kept her hair simple, opting for a low ponytail. 
No time to primp like she wanted to for this meeting.  Clasping on her
treasured bracelet, she reached for a pair of earrings and ran down the hall,
heels and all.

“Here.”  Marcy shoved a travel mug of coffee in her hand. 
“I already put your laptop and purse in the car.  Here’s your keys and phone.”

“Thanks, Marcy.  You’re the best.”

Marcy followed her into the garage to leave for work
herself.  Thankfully she let Niki pull out first.

She pointed her car towards the freeway ramp, getting up to
speed quickly.  Pulling into the far left carpool lane, she set her phone in
its cradle and blasted her music.

Her phone rang at about halfway.  Doug.

“Where are you?”

“I’m on my way.  Just running a little late.”

“A little?  It’s almost nine.  That’s like two hours.”

A pop noise sounded and then her car started shaking.

“What the…  Gotta go.”

She hung up the phone as her car continued to vibrate.  She
shut off the music and pulled to the left median.  Leaving the car running, she
got out and looked around.  Her front passenger tire was blown—completely
shredded.

It was already a hundred degrees out.  She broke a sweat
just from the quick look.  This day was going from bad to worse real quick.

Niki popped open her trunk and bent over trying to get to
the spare.  A car honked its horn as it drove by, startling her.  She hit her
head on the inside of the trunk.  Wouldn’t it be great if someone would stop
instead of honking?  How rude!

She tried to get the spare out of the back but couldn’t
manage it.  By now she was sticky from sweating and frustrated.  Sitting in the
driver’s seat, she turned the AC up full blast.

She dialed Marcy’s number.  “Come on.  Pick up.”

“Niki?”

“I’ve got a flat tire.  Can you help?  I’m stuck just north
of Camelback on the 101 off left.”

“I can’t.  I’m headed into a meeting.”

Great.  What now?

“Let me call someone.  Don’t worry.”

“Thanks.  Just send me a text to let me know someone’s
coming for sure.”

She sat in the cool air trying to keep from completely
ruining her appearance.  She looked at the clock on the dash.  A quarter after
nine.  She was going to be late.

A text message blinked on her phone.

Someone there in ten. M.

Niki breathed a sigh of relief.  Maybe she could still be on
time for her meeting.

She walked back around to the trunk and tried to get the
spare out.  She felt stupid when she realized it was held in place with a wing
nut.  Loosening it, she was able to free the tire, though she did not have as
much luck lifting it out.

She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead.  Even if
she did make it to that meeting, she was going to look awful.  A new model
pickup truck pulled to a stop behind her.  She straightened, hoping it was her
rescuer.  The driver turned on his hazards then stepped from his truck.

Kyle.

Of all the people, Marcy thought to send, she had to send
him?

“I heard there was a damsel in distress.”  He cracked a
grin.

“Funny.  Just get me out of here.”

“I don’t think damsels are supposed to get testy.”

Niki glared.  “It’s the front passenger tire.  It’s toast.”

He walked around to the front then came back to the trunk to
get the jack.  He positioned it on the frame just behind the bad tire.  Ten
minutes later he had the old tire off and the spare on.  As he lowered the
jack, he let out an exasperated sigh.

“What is it?”

“You’re spare is flat,” he said as he raised the vehicle
up.  He pulled the spare off and rolled it over to his truck.  He tossed it in
the back with her shredded tire.

“Now what?”  She bit her lip.  It was a quarter till ten. 
She needed to get to that meeting.

“You’ll have to ride with me.”

She felt silly that she missed the obvious answer.  She
grabbed all her stuff from the front seat of her car then armed it.  She
climbed into the passenger seat of his truck.  As he pulled into traffic, she
flipped down his visor to see how bad the damage was.

“Eek!” she squealed.  The heat made her eyes even puffier
than they had been this morning.  Her hair was a nightmare.  She had a streak
of something black on her cheek.  And her face was shiny from perspiring.

“What?”

“Have you seen me?” she shrieked as she dug through her
purse, hoping she still had some powder in there.  She licked her fingers to
wet them and nearly gagged when she remembered how dirty they were.  No time to
worry about that now.  She worked at the black spot.  Finally it came off.  She
re-powdered her face satisfied when it took the sheen away.  There wasn’t
enough space for her to try to fix her hair.  So she waited.

Once they pulled into the parking lot of Helitronics, she
waited just long enough for Kyle to put the truck in park.  She jumped out,
undid her ponytail, and bent over.  After shaking out her hair, she combed it
with her fingers pulling it back into the long ponytail again.  She gathered
her things from his truck, hoping she looked better than she felt.

“Thanks,” she shot over her shoulder, running in her heels
towards the front entrance.  Two minutes.  Not enough time to get through
security and still make it on time.

“Relax,” Kyle said coming up behind her. “I told Todd you
were stranded.  They are expecting us to be late.”

She went through the security drill, impatient for it to be
over.  When she was cleared, she picked up her items and listened as Kyle set
off the metal detector.

“Go ahead.  I’ll be in shortly.”

She left him there, half running to the conference room.

When she opened the door she stopped short at the sight. 
There were far more people here than she remembered seeing on the meeting
invite.

“Niki,” Todd said.  “Can you set up?  A few of us have another
meeting right after this one.”

She nodded as she unpacked her laptop.  As it powered up,
she poured herself a cup of water.  Being in the heat sapped her energy and she
was super thirsty.  She poured a second cup and downed it.  When her laptop finished
booting up, she navigated to her PowerPoint presentation and connected it to
the projector.

As Kyle entered the room, Todd made the introductions. 
Several of the uniformed men were introduced as representing the Air Force.

She was livid.  Todd ambushed her.  He never told her the
Air Force would be here.  Oh well.  It was Todd who would look like an idiot
once she finished delivering her bad news.