Something Had to Give (4 page)

“Well there you are, we were about to send out a search party,” joked Daddy.

Shanna saw me and immediately turned up her nose remarking that I smelled like I had been playing with skunks all day. On any other day this type of comment would have bothered me, but not that day. Nothing was going to ruin my mood. Even mommy looked at me like she wanted to suggest that maybe I bathe first, but didn’t say anything. Therefore, I took the initiative on my own to go get cleaned up for dinner. This gave me the time to get rid of all my giddiness before sitting down with my family. I wanted to tell them all about my new best friend. I was hoping I could get it all out without seeming too mushy. I didn’t need to give Shanna any fuel to get on my case.

When I got back to the table everyone was already eating and my plate was there waiting on me. Mommy had fixed Salisbury steak and rice. It was probably a meal I liked the least, but, I wasn’t going to complain. Shanna was staring at me the whole time as I sat down and began to eat. Even when I opened my eyes from saying grace, I could feel the heat from her eyes on the top of my head. It was as if she knew I had the best day of my life and was determined to ruin it. I refused to feed into it. So when she remarked that I still smelled and it was making it hard for her to eat, I just ignored her. Daddy and Mommy ignored her as well until finally she had no choice but to stop and finish her dinner.

“So what did you do all day Cheryl? Your mom says you were gone since lunch time.” I was thrilled that Daddy asked and that I could share my news with everyone. Well not everyone. I knew Daddy and Mommy would be happy for me even if Shanna wasn’t.

“I met a new friend Daddy! His name is Jacob and his family just moved in down the street. They moved from Atlanta and his daddy works for a bank. His mom is a nurse, but she hasn’t found”

“What a loser! You know his whole life story after just meeting him five minutes ago?” I knew Shanna wouldn’t let me tell too much about him before chiming in. How dare I have a better day than her? I chose to once again ignore her.

“We went to the creek Daddy and can you believe it? I actually touched a frog!” I exclaimed.

“You smell like one too.” Shanna mumbled under her breath. I swear that Mommy giggled at this comment, but when I looked at her she quickly looked down at her plate. “Aren’t you afraid of the creek? I told you there are snakes over there.” She continued.

“There’s nothing wrong with getting a little dirty” Daddy said. “I can’t believe you touched a frog though. You are making me one proud papa.”

Daddy and I fist bumped as I grinned ear to ear. I went on to tell Daddy all about Jacob. He was as thrilled to learn that he loved baseball as much we did. When Shanna realized that she couldn’t get to me she finally stopped with the comments. However, that did not stop her from shooting me dirty looks from time to time. I just kept telling myself that she was jealous.

At the end of dinner as we were cleaning up, Mommy came up to me and said to me, “I’m happy you met a new friend.” My mommy who never commented on anything expressed happiness for me.

“Thank you, Mommy.”

The next day I couldn’t concentrate to save my life in church. There was no children’s church that day so we had to go to the worship service with Mommy and Daddy, which made time seem to crawl by. I tuned out the preacher and watched the clock until I felt Mommy nudge me several times in an attempt to bring my focus back to the service. I wondered if Jacob was at church with his parent as well and if he was having as hard a time as me getting through service. My mind was a hundred different places. I wondered if I would see Jacob, if he would be happy to see me, and what we would do. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn’t notice that it was time to stand for the benediction. Once again Mommy had to nudge me and even though she wouldn’t say, I knew she was upset with my behavior.

Service was finally over and I was that much closer to seeing Jacob. It was one Sunday I had wanted for us to go straight to the car and head home. No such luck though. By the time Daddy and Mommy stopped the third time to talk to someone I could swear I felt smoke coming out of my ears. Apparently Shanna caught on to irritation and giggled.

“What’s wrong? You worried that you won’t get to see your new boyfriend?”

She just didn’t know she was messing with the wrong person that day. I had to remind myself that one, I was at church and two; she was a lot larger than I was. Hitting her would not be a good idea.

“Shut up Shanna!” I barked. “It’s better than sitting in my room all day, staring at the television wishing I had a boy to talk to.”

The look on Shanna’s face was priceless. She was so stunned that she couldn’t even respond. I felt like I had hit a nerve and I had even surprised myself. I felt a little bad afterwards when Shanna remained silent the whole car ride home. Sometimes though, she just needed to mind her own business!

I had been anxious the whole time during church to get home, change and head over to Jacob. However, once I got home I wondered if I was being too eager. I didn’t know if Jacob went to church and if he did what time they got out. I also didn’t know if Sundays were reserved for family time like Aunt Michelle did with her family. While Mommy made us lunch, I wanted to ask for her advice, but I figured she wouldn’t have an opinion either way and Shanna wouldn’t have anything positive to say about the situation. That left Daddy. So while we both ate our lunch, I casually mentioned that after I finished I would probably ride my bike over to Jacob’s house.

“Well I may have to head over there with you to check this Jacob kid out. Not everyone is good enough for my daughter you know.” Daddy was such a jokester. I was glad to have his support behind my decision. “You kids have fun and if you catch another frog, bring it home for me. We need a pet around here.”

Even with Daddy’s reassurance, I felt a little uneasy leaving the house. I was nervous all over again. Jacob and I had hit it off so well the day before so I wasn’t sure why, I just was. Mommy was cleaning the kitchen as I was leaving so I didn’t want to ask her to make us sandwiches. Instead I put two bags of chips and two juice boxes in my lunchbox before I headed out the door. It was another warm day out and as I walked to the garage to get my bike, I took several deep breaths and gave myself a pep talk, “Relax Cheryl, just relax.” It seemed silly to have to talk to myself, but it did help. When I reached my bike, my legs didn’t quite feel like Jell-O and my breathing had somewhat returned to normal. All I needed was for Jacob to be excited to see me. I imagined that it would be a replay of the day before, with Jacob sitting in front of the television playing a video game. I wondered if I would meet his dad since it was Sunday and he would be off work. I wondered if he would be just as friendly as Jacob’s mom.

As I rounded the corner to Jacob’s house I began to feel nervous once again. Those feelings didn’t last long as I began to see the top of a navy blue cap with brown curls sticking out. There he was! Jacob was sitting at the end of his driveway on his bike waiting on me. I was so excited; I didn’t even bother to hide my grin. He grinned back.

“Wow, your church must get out late. I’ve been waiting a long time.”

“No, we’ve been out.”

“Oh, well I had my mom make us peanut butter sandwiches” he said as he tapped a plastic grocery bag that was hanging on his handle bar.

“I brought chips and juice boxes,” I replied as I pointed to my lunchbox that was in the basket in the front of my bike.

“Cool, I guess we’re good. I’ll race you to the creek!” Jacob smiled showing that he was pleased that we were on the same page. With that, he took off on his bike with that squeaky wheel of his, screeching with every turn. I took off on my bike just moments after him but it was clear that I wouldn’t catch him. He could fly on that bike.

“Wait, you don’t even know where you are going!”

I yelled after him. It was my best attempt to get him to slow down and give me somewhat of a chance to catch up. I heard him yell back something over his shoulder that sounded like he remembered where to go, but I couldn’t hear him over the wheel. To my surprise he did remember the way. When I got to the creek, Jacob was pretending to be asleep leaning over his handlebars.

“It took you so long to get here that I decided to take a nap.”

“You cheated you know. You took off before you told me you were racing. I guess that squeaky wheel gives you more power.”

“I didn’t cheat. You’re just slow” Jacob answered as he laughed.

He was different, seeming so much more relaxed. I was getting to see the real Jacob. He knew how to joke and have fun. I liked it. I got off my bike and walked over to stand by Jacob. He was already staring down at the water looking for something to catch.

“You think there are any snakes in there?” He asked.

“My sister says there are but I think she was trying to scare me” I nervously replied. Just the thought gave me chills. I had sucked it up and touched the frog but I drew the line at snakes.

Jacob didn’t seem to catch on to the nervousness in my voice. He kept right on scanning the water. “I doubt there are though. If I did see one I’d leave and never come back here.”

This caught Jacob’s attention finally as he turned and looked at me with a look of confusion. “Oh! I thought you weren’t scared of this place.”

“Well I’m not really, but I don’t like snakes at all.”

“Ok,” he answered. We could finally move past the snake search.

Instead of searching for snakes, Jacob and I did a lot of other fun stuff that day. We had contests to see who could throw rocks the furthest down the creek and laughed at each other trying to catch the swimming fish in our hands. When we once again heard Jacob’s stomach start to growl, we decided to sit on the large rock by the creek and have our sandwiches and chips. The sandwiches Jacob’s mom made were delicious. He had even remembered to ask her to put strawberry jelly on mine. When I spilled my bag of chips, he shared his bag with me. It reminded me of something Daddy would do. I figured Daddy was like him as a little boy.

Jacob and I were inseparable that spring. I didn’t get to see him much at school since our classes were on different halls. Afterschool we would do our homework together mostly at my house since on many days both of his parents worked late. Daddy and Mommy grew quite fond of Jacob and luckily Shanna didn’t give him too much grief. She actually seemed to be nicer to me when he was around. On a couple of occasions our families had dinner together and it seemed like we all meshed together. I could never convince Jacob to attend one of my tea parties. He was convinced that it was something that boys should never do. I had similar feelings about his video games, but on one or two occasions, I did try to play and once Jacob let me win.

Jacob told me that he wanted to be a firefighter and help people in trouble. It all seemed so perfect. I would be a teacher, he would be a firefighter, and in the evenings after work we would watch baseball games while eating peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. I had never asked Jacob if he wanted to be a dad when he got older, but I could tell he would be great at it one day. The creek, where we spent so much time seemed like a good wedding spot for us I thought. The area was small, but it would be just enough space for our parents, our grandparents, and Shanna if she wanted to come. As much as I wanted to tell Jacob of my plans for our future wedding, I decided to keep them to myself. I didn’t know how he would take it.

∞∞∞

Spring seemed to go by in a blink. School let out and it was time for the annual trip to Michigan. I initially asked if Jacob could come with Shanna and me, but Daddy refused to ask his parents if he could come. Grandpa’s health was failing and Daddy felt it would be too much for Grandma to handle. He also assumed that Jacob’s family probably had vacations lined up anyway. The days leading up to my departure were bittersweet for me. I was excited as always to see my grandparents, but I hated the thought of not having my friend with me. Jacob seemed indifferent. I figured he would miss me as well, but as Daddy had guessed, they had a trip to Disney World planned. The day before we were to leave for Michigan, I pulled out my paper and markers and drew Jacob a picture of the wedding I had planned for us. In the picture we were holding hands with huge smiles and the creek was behind us. Our flight would be leaving early afternoon and I decided I would take it to Jacob before we left.

I could hardly sleep that night due to a combination of excitement around seeing my grandparents and anxiety around taking the picture to Jacob. The next morning was such a blur. I was exhausted from tossing and turning all night and I also felt sad. It would be two months that I wouldn’t see Jacob and I wondered if he would meet someone while I was gone and have a new best friend by the time I got back. On the way to the airport Daddy agreed to stop by their house so that I could give Jacob the picture I drew. However, when we got to their house there were no cars in the driveway and Jacob was not home. I was devastated and the fact that Shanna was beside me snickering didn’t help. I opted to leave the picture in their mailbox and silently hoped that he would like it. As we drove off, I kept looking back hoping that he would come out the house or that their car would pull up so that I could say goodbye; it didn’t happen.

The flight to Michigan was a rare occasion that I wasn’t nervous for the takeoff. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep before the plane left the ground. When I woke up I was leaning on Shanna’s shoulder as she read a magazine and listened to her music. I was surprised that she didn’t make me move; maybe she knew how much I needed that sleep. When we got off the plane to an awaiting grandpa and grandma it was instantly noticeable how sick Grandpa was. I almost didn’t recognize him with how much weight he had lost and how gray his hair had turned. His hugs weren’t as tight and he seemed to be in a lot of pain. Grandma looked visibly exhausted. Her smile to greet us was more forced than normal. We had to stop several time for him to catch his breath as Grandma assisted him to the car. It was such a gut punch for Shanna and I as we both watched in shock at how frail he was. He had always been in great physical shape and had always been so tough. I never thought I would see him like that. Grandma drove us home from the airport, which also was a first. Grandpa leaned his head on the window and rested. The ride home was silent.