Dreams Adrift (A River Dream Novel) (7 page)

Maeve had shown me the glowing recommendation
Miss Preston, her student teaching coach, wrote when Maeve applied
for the position at Laney.

“
Miss Preston doesn’t hand out
praise lightly, and she thinks you’ve got what it takes.” I smiled,
remembering my days in Miss Preston’s class. “I can't believe she’s
still teaching.”

Maeve looked at me, and I was surprised to see
tears in her eyes. “Do you really think I'll do okay?”

I got up from my desk and pulled her to me.
“You will be the best thing that ever happened to those kids,” I
promised her as I took her in a bear hug.

She clung to me tightly for a moment, and then
relaxed. “Thanks,” she said. “I needed that.”

Her moment of crisis passed, and the confident
Maeve returned.

“
You still haven't answered my
question,” she reminded me.

“
What question was that?” I
replied innocently, sitting back down at my desk.

Maeve lowered her head and looked at me with
raised eyebrows.

“
Oh, that question,” I snickered.
“Tomorrow I'll go by the campus bookstore to get my textbooks and
other assorted stuff for classes. The next day I figured I would go
fishing.”

Her expression left no doubt she didn't like
that idea.

“
Or I could come to school with
you and help you get your room ready.”

Her smile left no doubt she thought that was
the better plan.

Why seeing Derrick in the college book store
the next morning surprised me, I don’t know. He’d called a few days
before to let me know he was home from Parris Island, having
survived Marine Corps basic training. We’d planned on meeting for
lunch at the Seahawks’ Nest later that same day.

Maybe it wasn’t seeing him that surprised me.
Rather, it was seeing the change in him. Derrick was always fit and
trim from his martial arts training, but now his muscles bulged
under the red Marine Corps t-shirt he was wearing. And this new
Derrick had no hair to speak of. He’d always worn it short. Now
there was nothing but stubble.

Derrick noticed me staring at his nearly bald
scalp. “It’ll grow back,” he said as he reached up to rub his head.
“But not much. Gotta keep it short now.”

“
You look good,” I said, reaching
out to shake his hand. “Marine training must agree with
you.”

“
I’m not so sure it agreed with
me, but it didn’t kill me,” Derrick said, with a dry chuckle. “It
wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it was no day at the
beach.”

We finished up our business at the book store
and headed to the Nest where we swapped training stories over an
early lunch.

As we finished up our lunch, I invited Derrick
to the house for dinner.

“
I’m sure Maeve would love to see
you,” I said. Actually, inviting Derrick over had been her
idea.

“
Ah, man,” Derrick said, shaking
his head sadly. “That sounds good, but I already have plans. Do you
remember Vanessa?”

“
Isn’t she the girl whose dad owns
Del Mar out in Nags Head?”

“
That’s her. She’s in town
visiting her cousin from Durham who’s going to school here.
Tomorrow she heads back to State for the fall semester. We’re all
going out tonight.”

“
Sounds cool,” I said. “Another
time then.”

“
You know it,” Derrick said,
clapping me on the back. “I’ll see ya, Mike.”

He jogged off toward his car. I walked back to
mine, admiring how nice the GTO still looked for a twenty-year-old
car.

I’d been home about an hour, organizing my
materials and schedules for the classes that’d be starting in a
couple days, when Maeve arrived fresh from her teacher work day.
She had her arms full of books and binders.

“
How was your first work day?” I
asked as I took a stack of books from her.

Her chest heaved with a big sigh, but a smile
curled her lips. “It was busy, busy, busy,” she said. “There’s so
much that has to be done before Open House. And all us Initially
Licensed Teachers have an ILT meeting tomorrow at Central Office
all day. I don’t know when I’m going to get all this
done.”

I set her books down at
her
end of the
table in our office-slash-study. My stuff was still spread out all
over the other end.

Picking up and looking at what must have been
a grammar book, I asked, “How soon is Open House?”

She dropped the rest of her burden on the
table and pushed back a few locks of strawberry blond hair that had
fallen in her eyes. “It’s the day after tomorrow.”

“
And you have to spend all day
tomorrow in a meeting?” I asked, eyes wide. “That sure doesn’t
leave you much time to get ready.”

Maeve shook her head, causing those errant
locks of hair to fall into her eyes again.

“
No, it doesn’t. That’s why I
brought all this home. Looks like I’m in for a late
night.”

“
I guess it’s a good thing I’ve
already taken care of supper,” I told her. “So you get organized
while I set the table.”

Maeve’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “You
cooked?”

A sheepish grin crossed my face. “Uh, to be
honest, no, I didn’t. Actually, I ordered calzones from Dupree’s.
They should be here any minute.”

“
I should have known,” Maeve said,
shaking her head, but she was smiling.

Over supper, Maeve looked at me, pointing her
knife and fork at the half a calzone left on her plate. “Why did
you order two? We never finish them.”

“
Leftovers,” I replied. “Now we
don’t have to worry about what to have tomorrow night.”

Maeve rolled her eyes and took a final bite.
After washing it down with the last of her iced tea, she looked up
and said, “Did I tell you the first football game was this
Friday?”

“
Do you want to go?” I asked. “We
can leave for River Dream first thing Saturday morning.”

“
Nah, it’s an away game. The next
week is at home; we’ll go to that one.”

“
All right,” I said. “We’ll plan
on that then.”

I got up and went to the cabinet to find
containers for our leftovers.

“
Did I mention that I saw Derrick
at the book store this morning?”

Maeve took the containers from me. “I knew you
were supposed to have lunch with him today. It makes sense that he
was at the book store, too. How’s he doing?”

“
He looked good. Basic training
didn’t hurt him any.”

Maeve laughed. “I didn’t think it would. Did
you tell him I’m still mad at him about missing our
wedding?”

“
I told him that’s why I couldn’t
invite him to supper tonight,” I said, trying hard to keep a
straight face.

Maeve slammed the refrigerator door and turned
to me. “Michael J. Lanier, you did not.”

I turned to the sink so she couldn’t see the
grin on my face. “Well, of course I did.”

She moved up behind me and I felt a sudden
pain as she pinched my neck. “You better be kidding,
mister.”

Spinning around, I grabbed her in a bear hug.
“Of course I’m kidding.”

I bent forward and kissed the frown off her
lips.

“
I asked him to come for dinner,
but he had plans. Vanessa’s in town visiting her cousin, and they
were going out tonight.”

Maeve pressed her hands against my chest and
looked up at me, her heather blue eyes sparkling with mischief.
“Well, okay then. I suppose you can have dessert.”

Nine

The rest of the week went by in a blur as
Maeve and I got busy with our new academic years. Before we knew
it, Friday afternoon arrived.

We’d barely gotten the Cessna tied down before
Maeve was ready to head to the stable to see Raven.

“
Don't you think we should stop by
the house first?” I inquired reasonably.

Maeve gave me a glare. “I'll drop you off if
you want; I'm going to see my horse.”

I didn't feel like going to the stable, so I
let her drop me off. Thus, a routine was born. Saturdays became
Maeve's riding days.

During football season, if Laney had a home
game, we would go to the game and wait to fly home Saturday
morning. Otherwise, we’d fly up on Friday evening. Early Saturday,
Maeve would rise, cook us breakfast, and head to the stables for
her lessons. The joy she took in learning to ride and getting to
know Raven made me happy for her.

We still sailed. One weekend a month Raven
would have to settle for a Friday night visit so that Maeve and I
could spend the weekend on the water. If the wind and the weather
were right, we would sail to Ocracoke and spend the night. Less
favorable conditions might see us sail and motor to Morehead City
for dinner at the Sanitary Fish Market. Other times we might sail
upriver to New Bern, tie up at Union Point Park and walk to dinner
at one of the restaurants downtown. Eventually the shorter days and
colder weather limited our sailing to the waters close to
home.

The shorter days and longer nights also meant
the semester was coming to an end. Maeve had a good first semester
and was, for the most part, happy being a teacher. My semester went
well, too. Only taking four classes meant less homework and less
stress. Maeve was against my doing that at first, until I reminded
her I really didn’t need to hurry and finish my degree.

Semester’s end also meant the arrival of the
holiday season. With Christmas coming up, Maeve told me Mr. McHale
had polled the faculty about where they would like to have the
staff luncheon.

“
Mr. McHale told us at the staff
meeting that some kind soul had offered to pick up the check so we
could eat out at a nice place instead of having a pot luck buffet
in the cafeteria,” Maeve said. “You wouldn’t know anything about
that, would you, Michael?”

I gave her my best
aw shucks
grin.
“Well, I might have mentioned something to Mr. McHale about y’all
having a nice party off campus. Where’d you decide to
go?”

“
The overwhelming favorite was
Primavera’s, the new Italian restaurant that opened up on Market
Street last spring.”

“
Primavera’s, huh? I don’t know
about an Italian restaurant that doesn’t serve pizza,” I said.
“What is it Mr. DeLuca says, ‘Primavera’s serves fine Italian
cuisine which, in my opinion, does not include pizza.’ His prices
certainly reflect how fine he thinks his Italian cuisine
is.”

Maeve wrinkled her brow. “Having second
thoughts about your offer?”

I shook my head. “No, a deal’s a deal. And
when we ate there, the food was pretty good.”

“
Yeah,” Maeve said. “I remember
you weren’t very impressed. Didn’t you say you’d rather have a
pizza at Dupree’s?”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Babe, I’d
rather have Dupree’s pizza than just about anything
else.”

Her eyes narrowed, and I added, “Except your
cooking, of course. Still, the staff voted for Primavera’s, so
Primavera’s it’ll be.”

According to the story Maeve related to me
later, on the last teacher work day before Christmas, the staff
left campus on an activity bus and made their way to Primavera’s.
Upon arriving, they were welcomed by the maitre d' who informed Mr.
McHale that the bus would have to park behind the building as it
was an eyesore. Somewhat taken aback, Mr. McHale had the driver
move the bus once all the teachers had gotten off.

That taken care of, they approached the front
door only to be told that they would have to wait outside until the
room was ready for them. As it was twelve-thirty, the time they
were supposed to be there, this did not sit well with Mr. McHale.
The maitre d' did not seem too concerned, so Mr. McHale asked to
speak to the manager or to Mr. DeLuca. The maitre d' sniffed
imperiously and told them that perhaps the room was ready and they
should follow him.

Primavera’s had an ample banquet room, but it
didn’t appear much effort had gone into setting it up for their
luncheon. After moving some of the chairs and tables themselves,
the staff sat down and waited for their waiters and waitresses to
arrive and begin taking orders. Twenty minutes later, they were
still waiting. Mr. McHale went and found the maitre d' and inquired
politely if they might expect service soon.

“
We will get to you teachers when
we get to you,” the maitre d' informed Mr. McHale before sticking
his nose in the air and turning his back on the
principal.

Mr. McHale again asked to speak to Mr. DeLuca,
at which point the maitre d' walked away from him and directed one
of the waitresses who had been standing by the wait station to go
see what those teachers wanted to drink. Mr. McHale returned to the
banquet room.

I later learned from talking to Mr. DeLuca
that, unbeknownst to Mr. McHale, the maitre d' went to Mr. DeLuca’s
office and told him those teachers were in the banquet room and
demanding to be served.