The Fourth Sunrise (7 page)

“‘
What is?’ I asked.

“‘
My leap.’

“‘
What leap?’

“‘
My leap in thinking that you are a really great guy.’

“‘
It’s a leap?’

“‘
Of course it is.’

“‘
But you think I’m a great guy?’

“‘
So far I do,’ Christine stated.

“‘
Only my mom talks that way about me.’

“‘
I doubt that. You seem like a real sweet guy.’

“‘
Maybe my grandma thinks that highly of me, but you three are rare,’ I teased.

“‘
What are your parents like?’ Christine asked, staring intently at me.

“‘
Well, my mom is probably the most caring woman I have ever known.’

“‘
How so?’

“‘
She loves all children as God’s children. I mean there are people who say that, but my mom lives it. She runs youth camps and her one mission is for each kid who comes into contact with her is for them to know they are loved.’

“‘
You really love her,’ Christine said with a giant smile across her face.

“‘
Of course I do. She is my mom.’

“‘
It’s more than that. You love her for who she is as a person. Not just because she gave birth to you.’

“
I thought about it and said, ‘My mom is the most amazing person I know.’

“‘
I hope someday my kids feel that way about me. Your mom is very lucky that you recognize that and don’t take it for granted.’

“
I stared at Christine and was impressed with her insight. I liked what she had to say… a lot.

“‘
What about your dad?’ Christine asked.

“‘
He is tougher nut to crack.’

“‘
Why is that?’

“
Raising seven kids takes a lot out of man in the sense of how hard he works to put food on the table. He’s a janitor at the local elementary school. He puts in a lot of double shifts.’

“‘
Is he a good man, too?’

“
I thought about my dad and a tear started to roll from my left eye.

“‘
I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?’ Christine asked, seeing that a question about my dad obviously made me more emotional than a question about my mom.

“‘
No, you said nothing wrong. My dad is a good man. He’s the best kind of man there is. He is there for his family. He might not be the happiest guy in the world, but he is faithful to his wife and children.’

“
It was time to throw some of these highly emotional questions in her direction.

“‘
What about your parents? What are they like?’

“‘
They’re old.’

“‘
Old? All parents are old.’ I laughed.

“‘
Mine are really old. My mom had me when she was 42 and my dad was 50.’

“‘
Wow. They
are
old.’

“‘
It was like being raised by grandparents.’

“‘
That isn’t such a bad thing.’

“‘
No, it isn’t. My parents are fantastic people in their own right.’

“‘
They must be.’

“‘
Why?’

“‘
They produced you. Better late than never.’

“‘
You’re cute,’ Christine said to me.

“‘
I’m not aiming for cute.’

“‘
What are you aiming for?’

“‘
I don’t know… maybe…knight in shining armor status.’

“‘
Oh, you are a long way from that.’

“‘
Even after I was the only person in two hours to knock down all those bowling pins with a softball? I did it twice. And I did it completely on the spot.’

“‘
That
was
extraordinary. Don’t get me wrong. That was one of niftiest things I have ever witnessed. But a knight in shining armor status is even out of your reach.’

“‘
Why?’ I asked pretending to be hurt.

“‘
Unless the Queen knighted you recently, it’s an impossible feat.’

“‘
I’m speaking in the hypothetical sense.’

“‘
Well, if you are going to aim for knight in shining armor then I’m aiming for the mysterious, small town girl who has a secret past.’

“‘
A secret past? I like that. What is it?’

“‘
Maybe I’m a gypsy who made her way to the States and was adopted by a couple of small town folks from Delta, Colorado.’ Christine stared at me and just started to bust out laughing. Then Christine just suddenly stopped laughing.

“‘
What’s wrong?’ I asked.

“‘
I was just thinking how unlucky I am,’ Christine said quietly.

“‘
How so?’ I asked.

“‘
I know how this ends.’

“‘
How what ends?’

“‘
You and I,’ Christine stated.

“‘
What’s ending?’ I asked. ‘The way I see it, it is just the beginning. We just met a couple hours ago, and I think we are really hitting it off.’

“‘
Are we?’ Christine asked.

“‘
We are still in the beginning stages,’ I pronounced.

“‘
The beginning stages of what?’ Christine asked.

“‘
Of whatever is happening here.’

“‘
What
is
happening here?”

“‘
Well, if you can’t see it, then maybe I am a bit delusional.’

“
Christine looked across the table and reached out her hand and held mine. I thought my heart stopped. This was her town. She was making a public display of affection. Her ex-boyfriend had just gone to war. I was probably not the most popular guys at this fair. But here I was, on a night when my team bus broke down, holding the hand of the most amazing woman I had ever met.

“
As I held her hand, I looked into her eyes and smiled. This was as natural as anything I had ever felt in my life. Still, I didn’t want to be the scumbag baseball player who slipped into town and put the moves on the prettiest girl and was never to be seen again.

“
I tried to look around us nonchalantly to see who was watching. No one was. Everyone was more concerned about having their own good time and certainly weren’t worried about us. Once I realized that, I was able to really enjoy my time with Christine.

“
A girl like Christine was able to play by her own rules, call her own shots. She was about to get very real and honest. ‘I’m afraid for it, Joel.’

“‘
Why?’

“‘
Because I see something here and I know you’re going to be gone tomorrow and the odds of you writing and keeping in touch are slim. I’ve been dealing with this reality for a while. I meet a cool-enough guy and then inside of a couple days, he’s gone.’

“‘
I’m just a cool-enough guy?’

“‘
You are more than that. At least, I hope. I just met you, but you seem like a fantastic person.’

“
I was quiet. I tried to say something, but nothing came out of my mouth.

“‘
What’s the matter, Joel? Things just got a little too real for you?’

“‘
I know you’re trying to scare me away, trying to see how far I run, because that is your defense mechanism. I don’t scare that easy. I’m just trying to process your blatant honesty that is coming my way.’

“‘
Am I wrong? Isn’t this what you ball players do?’

“‘
Some guys might, but I march to the beat of my own drum.’

“‘
Do you?’ Now Christine was looking deep into my soul. We were definitely having a connection, a connection far greater than anything I had ever encountered.

“‘
I do. I don’t run from girl to girl in each city. The truth of the matter is, I’m actually pretty shy when I like someone.’

“‘
You haven’t been too shy with me.’

“‘
I know.’ I paused. ‘Maybe we should try to start over. Don’t look at me as a ball player whose bus broke down. Look at me as a guy who met...’ I stopped what I was saying, out of my fear of revealing too much.

“
But it didn’t matter, she would get it out of me.

“‘
Who met who?’ she asked.

“‘
I’m a guy who just met the love of his life.’”

Chapter Seven

Present Day – Delta, Colorado - Coffee Shop, Midnight

“
Wait a second. You really said that phrase, ‘The love of my life?’”

“
It just came out of my mouth. It was as if the words had a life of their own. I never said those words before; I didn’t even know I had them in my repertoire.”

“
Repertoire?” Sharee asked.

“
Meaning… I’ve never spoken like that before. As a matter of fact, there many things I have only said to Christine and that I never said to another woman.”

“
Why do suppose that is?” Sharee asked.

“
Christine was different. She saw though me. There were no games, no preconceptions. It was as if she could already read my mind. I thought someone that deep in my head would scare me. Instead, it got me more excited.”

“
Excited?” Sharee seemed a bit confused. “How so?”

“
I knew I had just met a woman who was about to change the rest of my life. I also knew I better slow things down or my brain wouldn’t be able to process my present situation. So I decided to slow it down a tad.”

“
That seems virtually impossible in the face of saying statements like ‘love of my life’ and ‘chance of a lifetime.’”

“
You’re probably right. But I tried.”

July, 1968 – Delta, Colorado - Deltarado Days, 1:40 a.m.

“Christine seemed to be taken aback by my statement. The last thing I wanted to do was to scare her. ‘Love of your life? Do you believe that to be true?‘

“‘
I don’t know. I don’t do this. I don’t meet girls. I don’t break curfew and eat pizza at 2:00 in the morning.’ I stared at Christine and her eyes were so spectacular.

“‘
How does one not get lost in your eyes?’ Christine said to me.

“‘
I was just thinking the same thing about you.’

“‘
Be quiet for a second. It’s my turn to talk,’ Christine said, teasing me about my enthusiasm.

“‘
Sorry, I’ll let you speak,’ I said.

“‘
You have amazingly expressive eyes, Joel. I’ve never seen eyes like yours before.’

“‘
Seriously? What do you see?’

“‘
I see a boy who is not sure how he is going to make it as a man, but is loving every minute of it.’

“‘
At this moment I am,’ I answered.

“‘
Joel. Let’s go somewhere. Away from here,’ Christine said excitedly.

“‘
Permanently?’

“‘
No, silly. Away from the fair. I want to take you somewhere. My special place.’

“‘
Sound good to me.’”

Present Day – Delta, Colorado - Coffee Shop, 12:10 a.m.

“Where did she take you?” Sharee asked.

I looked over and smiled at Sharee.

“Where was it?” Sharee insisted on knowing.

“
Right here.”

“
Right here? At this coffee shop?” Sharee asked.

“
It wasn’t a coffee shop then.”

“
What was it?”

“
One of her many jobs, It was a library. A rundown, beaten-up library. Just about where we are sitting, I had one of the most amazing conversations.”

Sharee smiled and said, “This story just gets better and better.

“In the middle of the night, the library looked like a castle. As we left the fair, I could see it from down the street. I thought it was just another abandoned business that went bankrupt. It wasn’t. It was an active library, but not at that time of night. Christine had a key to the place. The librarian who ran the library gave Christine keys to come into the library and do cleaning once a week.”