The Gingerbread Boy (21 page)

“So why do you have
that
?” Catherine gasped. “And why do you want me to have it?”

Daniel chuckled. “For symbolic reasons. I haven’t gone completely over the edge. I want you to have this to use against me, in a way. To remind me that any time I start to get big-headed and think only of myself, I can be brought back down to size. That I’m not infallible. That I’m human. I don’t ever want to swell up so much in myself that I neglect you. If I do, remind me with this dummy. Stick it in my face, throw it at me, put it on my driver’s seat, whatever.”

The mention of a driver’s seat brought something back to Catherine. Daniel’s car. Where was it? She leaned back to try to peer around the corner of the house deeper into the driveway. She could make out a big blob of turquoise. Bruiser.

“Where’s the Corvette?” she asked as Daniel handed her the head. She accepted it with a shudder, quickly turning the face down into her palm so it couldn’t stare at her through its stitched-shut eyelids.

“I decided to sell it, but that’s a long story and it’s not important,” he sighed, then leaned in closer and added earnestly, “Please Catherine, please bring me back down to size if I ever start becoming a jerk again.”

Catherine gritted her teeth. This was important to Daniel. He was trying to make sure she’d never allow him to be an inconsiderate, irresponsible twit again…at least not with her.

That was all she needed She allowed herself a smile. “Okay. I’ll take the head, and I won’t let you ever become inconsiderate and irresponsible again.”

He sighed. “Good. I don’t ever want to be where I was several days ago, either.” He reached to cup his hands around her face, and then kissed her mouth. The kiss made Catherine forget all about asking where the Corvette was and if he knew it’d been wrecked. She even forgot about the grisly round object tucked in her hand. The kiss was so warm, so gentle, and so very
there
… at last. It went on and on until Catherine thought she might tip breathlessly over the porch rail and tumble into the bushes from the wonder of it.

When Daniel pulled away, his eyes were shining. He wrapped his arms snugly around Catherine’s waist and picked her up off her feet. Leaning back, he spun her around and around until her feet whirled through the air like rags in the breeze. Around went the glistening new leaves, the damp grass, the paint-scarred porch rail and Joanne and Penny’s faces still pressed against the window. Around and around she went, Daniel’s hair tickling her nose while she breathed in the aroma of spring. She smiled broadly, she laughed. Another sound of laughter came to her too… she recognized it as Daniel’s voice in her ear. Then his laughter died down, and he whispered, “I love you.”

Around they went again, Catherine’s eyes tearing, not certain she’d heard what she’d heard. Finally Daniel slowed, her feet skimmed the floor, and then they were back firmly on the porch, resting back against the rail. Then came a splintering sound. The rail shattered, and Catherine and Daniel fell backward through empty air. The four-foot tumble was broken by bushes, and the branches clawed at their backs as they broke through to the soggy earth.

“Are you all right?” Daniel gasped beneath Catherine’s back, his leg still tangled in the branches, the other propped high against the wood slats beneath the porch.

Daniel felt warm as she lay with her back flat against him, her hand still fiercely clenched around the shrunken head. Catherine stared at the pointed, cream-colored gables of the house above, at the milky blue sky beyond. Suddenly she laughed, thinking of how ridiculous she and Daniel would look to passers-by on the sidewalk. She flicked a chunk of broken rail off of her arm, feeling Daniel’s chest vibrate beneath her from his growing chuckles.

“I guess that means you’re okay,” he said in her ear, raising an arm to wrap lovingly around her neck.

Catherine giggled. “You’re the one who took the brunt of the fall.”

“I rather
enjoy
this position.”

Catherine’s laughter subsided into a delicious relishing of the moment.
Oh, if time could only stand still.

“My hair is in your face…isn’t it?” Catherine asked, scarcely daring to move, praying Joanne and Penny would realize she and Daniel were okay and not come out of the house and break the mood.

“It tastes good.” Daniel whispered. He paused. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Catherine raised the shrunken head in the air. “I’m fine! Kept my head during the whole thing.”

Daniel moaned at the joke. Suddenly Catherine felt him twist, felt his arms tightening around her. In a whirl she was the one pressed against the ground. He gazed mischievously into her face, his hair lapping his shoulders. She giggled, reaching to pick some twigs out of the curls. It reminded her of when she’d stayed overnight at his house and had the nightmare, and he’d raced into the room wielding a knife, his shorts on backward, lint and down clinging to his hair. She would have never dared to touch him back then.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “I wish I could take you to some magical place where things could never go wrong and problems could never find us. If I could just shrink you down and keep you in my pocket every minute of the day, I’d never have to worry about anything again.”

Catherine thought of making some cute comment about the Indians being able to accommodate Daniel on the shrinking down notion, but she was silenced as Daniel’s mouth came down on hers.

A subtle clicking in the back of Catherine’s mind warned her to fight this euphoria, this meandering bliss which was spreading across her soul, anesthetizing her against all reason. As Daniel continued to kiss her, she forgot all about the confusion and anguish of the past few weeks. She forgot about the pain she felt over Daniel’s disappearance, the shock of Cave Pig’s attack, the sorrow over Hazel VanHoofstryver’s stroke, the misery of lackluster grades.

Daniel was
back
…and that was all she needed for the time.

She loved him.

Eventually the sound of embarrassed laughter and murmuring voices filtered through the air. Daniel lifted his head to see several students clustered on the sidewalk about ten yards away, pointing. He raised a hand and sheepishly waved. A few students waved back.

“I think it’s about time to step back into reality,” Daniel said, carefully rolling off her. Catherine nodded her agreement, smiling, her eyes still closed.

Daniel pulled himself into a sitting position and lifted Catherine up to rest against him.

“You’re probably going to miss the campus bus because of me,” he said, watching the crowd of students break apart and continue on their way.

“I’ll be fine,” Catherine assured him. “I was early, anyway.” She checked her watch. “I still have half an hour.”

“That’s good, because I have something else to show you. I don’t want you to think all I gave you for a peace offering was a shrunken head.”

Catherine stared curiously as Daniel stretched enough to reach into his back pocket, pulled out a blue and white envelope and placed it in Catherine’s free hand.

“What is this for…?” Catherine began, and then noticed the graphic logo across the front. Leighi Travel. Her hands began to tremble.

“Open it.” Daniel encouraged.

Catherine lifted the flap and out slid two airline tickets. She peered closely at the destination. Baltimore, Maryland. The date of departure was Saturday. Five days away.

She lifted flabbergasted eyes and stared at Daniel,

“It’s as close as I could get to your home town.” Daniel offered. “I knew you’d give anything to go see Hazel, but that it was financially difficult for you to go right now. He paused. “I hoped that maybe, just maybe, we could get away this weekend.”

Catherine gazed at Daniel in wonder. Had he sold his car for these tickets? What else had he done while he was away?

He must have mistaken her expression for shocked objection, for he said “Don’t worry, we can always cancel the flight and make it for later, any time you choose.”

“We?” Catherine muttered. “You really want to come along?”

Daniel nodded. “I want to do something right for a change. I’d like to come with you for moral support. That is, if you’d like me to.”

“What about your gigs? Joey said they’ve had to cancel some while you were gone.”

“We’ve worked it all out.”

Catherine shook her head. “These tickets had to have cost hundreds of dollars. I can’t let you do this!”

“You’d like to see Hazel, wouldn’t you?”

Catherine took several moments to reply. “I’d give anything to see her. She needs me.”

“And I was hoping that you’d need
me
.”

Catherine crushed her arms around Daniel’s neck. “Thank you! I don’t even know what to say!”

Daniel put his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Just say that one day you might be able to forgive me for what I’ve done.”

“I can manage to forgive you right now.”

Daniel’s eyes grew misty. “Thank you.” Then he hugged her tenderly, whispering in her ear. “All I can hope and pray is that I’ll never do anything stupid enough to need your forgiveness again.”

****

Across the street, two houses down, a luxurious black car sat nestled against a hedge in a church parking lot. A scowl marred the driver’s beautiful face. She peered intently out the tinted window, craning her neck to see through a gap in the shrubbery at the young lovers embracing in front of the house she’d recently vacated.

She banged her fist on the steering wheel, tears blinding her eyes. “That should be
me
with Daniel,” she sobbed to no one in particular. “He’s too good for some skinny little bookworm who slugs like a boy!”

She folded her arms, the insides of her cheeks growing hot with humiliation. This wouldn’t go on. No one had ever been able to embarrass Beth Shaker this badly and get away with it! Catherine wouldn’t have Daniel to herself much longer. Beth’s insinuations about herself and Daniel would be truth before long. Daniel
would
be hers one day soon. And she now knew just how to make it happen.

****

Catherine stepped back through the door just in time to see Joanne and Penny scurry back into the kitchen like cockroaches hiding from light.

“I know you were watching us,” Catherine called, “I saw your nosy little faces pressed against the window.”

Both roommates slunk from the kitchen, their heads hung with sheepish guilt, but there were excited smiles on their faces.

“Thanks for not coming out when we fell through the rail a few minutes ago.” Catherine said.

Joanne’s eyes widened, she lifted her head. “We
almost
did…then we heard you two laughing. How long has Daniel been back? Where had he been? Does Joey know he’s in town, yet?”

“Yeah,” Penny interrupted, “And why on Earth did he give you a Mr. Potato Head?”

Chapter Twenty-One

The two nurses’ aides peered nervously through room number sixty-seven’s open door.

“
You
take her blood pressure today,” the curly haired brunette said to her associate, “I did it yesterday.”

Her friend, a pale blonde, barely eighteen years old, tensed. “Okay… but you have to feed her lunch, then. I can’t stand how she
looks
at me!”

“Oh come on, the doctors say she can’t see.”

“I don’t care. She gives me the creeps. I wish she had never come to this nursing home.”

“I know. But they say she’s harmless. The stroke left her with about as much sense as a three year old.”

“Yeah, but a three-year old
what
?”

“Relax. She’s just an old lady.”

“She’s a witch. Witch Hazel.”

“That’s just little kids’ stories.”

“Have you ever heard her say her name? She sounds like an android. Her voice squeaks when she says ‘Hoof’stryver. She’s not normal.

“She never
was
normal. She always talked like that.”

“I still wish she wasn’t here. She gives me the creeps.”

The brunette sighed, shaking her head, handing over the blood pressure instruments. Her voice was ominous.

“Don’t worry. If what they say is correct, she doesn’t have much time anyway. It’s only a matter of days now.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Daniel ran his fingers across the smooth mother-of-pearl inlay on his acoustic guitar, the cherished, Roger McGuinn twelve-string Rickenbacker he’d had since he was a teenager. Sadness squeezed his heart.

Years ago he’d played “Puff the Magic Dragon” on this guitar for Julia.

With a deep breath, he tucked the instrument under his arm, straightened, and began to finger pick. He
tried
to finger pick.

He grimaced. His weakened fingers would not do what muscle memory demanded they do. The notes were coming out all wrong, ghastly to his trained ear. He pressed his eyes shut and concentrated. Strained to manipulate the strings. Concentrated until it hurt, played a few notes, then tried again. And again.

Please God
,
he
had
to make this work. He had to record one last song. For Catherine. The doctors warned he couldn’t fight the atrophy in his fingers. But with a lot of luck, he might pull through one more song, in essence, fake it. That’s how they’d put it. He would do better than that. He would practice until his fingertips bled if he had to. He would not give up.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The air was heady with the scent of lilacs as Catherine and Daniel strolled casually down the silent, streetlight-dappled sidewalk where they had first met. They said little. It was not necessary.

Turning a corner, Daniel pointed out the tree Catherine had once hidden behind. “Remember that?”

Catherine laughed. “I can still feel the cold spot where I fell in the snow when I tried to run from you. Thank goodness I slipped.”

“I slipped, too.” Daniel laughed, rubbing his rear from the memory. “And I can still feel those snowballs you hurled at me like some furious Cy Young reincarnation.”