Omniscient Leaps (14 page)

When I flashed out of the forest I expected to find myself back home in the comfort of my living room, instead I was standing in front of the church. I could hardly contain my excitement. I hadn’t talked to Luke in days, and definitely not since I’d come up with my strategy to catch Fred. My dreams had been lonely and I had been feeling slightly abandoned. Now that I was here, all my repressed frustration towards Luke dissolved.

I ran up the steps, swung the door to the church open, and began shouting his name. I found the door to his study open and made my way in. When he finally appeared I paused momentarily. His blond hair was glistening with dampness and he was sporting a pair of shorts. Too energized to care if my untimely appearance would upset him, I rushed towards him at full speed. Without realizing my strength I knocked him to the ground.

Momentarily frozen, I laid there on top of him and stared into his eyes. I slowed my breathing so it matched his while we both waited for the other to speak first. Finally I apologized.

“I have some good news and I couldn’t wait to tell you. Sorry for knocking you down.” I whispered.

A sly smile crept onto his face. “I can’t even think right now, Kara.”

“Right. Sorry,” I said, quickly rolling off of him to scramble to my feet. I suddenly felt embarrassed; fortunately Luke continued to appear amused.

“I need to change and then you will have my undivided attention.” He gave me a wink and then disappeared behind a closed door.

Nice Kara.
I began to pace as I waited for my heart rate to return to normal. My body was always in some kind of altered state around Luke, but this was ridiculous. He reappeared within minutes, greeting me in jeans and a t-shirt.

In a last attempt to look presentable, he continued to towel dry his hair. I closed my mouth so the visual drool I was feeling didn’t become a reality.
Ugg. Stop staring, Kara.

“I am all about good news when it comes to your situation,” Luke announced. He took a seat on the nearby couch and slapped the spot next to him. “Let’s hear what you’ve come up with.”

“I haven’t just come up with it,” I replied. Luke cocked an eyebrow. He hadn’t missed the enthusiasm behind my statement. “I’ve almost fully executed the entire plan.”

I paused while I thought about just where to begin.

“Well don’t keep me in suspense here. This entire situation with you has me tossing and turning at night. I haven’t slept in almost a week.” I suddenly became aware of the deep circles under his eyes. I couldn’t believe I’d been so inattentive when I first glanced into them earlier.

“So you’re not avoiding me?” I suddenly asked, changing the subject. “I haven’t seen you in any of my dreams and I just thought you didn’t want to—”

He grabbed my hand and turned my face towards his. “I wasn’t avoiding you. I told you I don’t have any control over that. Now just tell me what’s going on. Please.”

“I’ve been videotaping all of Fred’s offenses and illicit behavior,” I blurted out. “I am going to send all the tapes to the appropriate authority as soon as I figure out whom to trust. I need to hurry though. You wouldn’t believe the number of people I’ve heard him threaten lately.”

Luke stared at me with a blank expression. “I don’t understand. How did you do all this?”

“During one of my earliest flashes I borrowed my mom’s video camera and some money. I buried a safe in the woods behind my parent’s house and I dig it up whenever I flash back in time. So far everything is holding up.”

Luke stood up and ruffled his hair. A smile was tugging at his lips. “This plan of yours still doesn’t seem very safe. However, considering you’ve pretty much executed the entire operation without getting caught, I have to give you credit. This is incredible work for your first mission.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

“So tell me ALL the details,” Luke finally voiced. “Don’t leave anything out.”

I sat with Luke for over an hour going through each flash and what I had captured. He was making sure I had been safe and I hoped I hadn’t disappointed him. There were a lot of smiles, nods and even a few animated inhales as I filled him in on the particulars. He was definitely impressed and I couldn’t help but feel a little satisfaction.

“And the most amazing part of the past few days was talking to my dad.” My face flushed briefly as I took in Luke’s stunned expression.

“Your Father died when you were three, right?” Luke asked. He’d obviously paid attention the day we talked about it. “Why did you flash back so far?”

“I think I was meant to talk to him,” I explained. “I was there with him as he died. He didn’t die alone like my mom always thought. And he recognized me too.”

“He recognized the older version of you without trepidation?” I nodded and Luke scratched his head. “This is definitely something new for me. I guess when you are that close to death anything is possible.”

“It’s more than
that
, he knew I was a leaper too. He confided in me that he’d been serving God as a leaper for years before he got sick. Can you believe that? Does it run in the family?”

Luke glanced away and I suddenly felt a sickening guilt creep in. He had lost his parents over a hundred years ago. After all his time serving God, I was sure he’d never been given the chance to speak to either of them. Here I was throwing my experience in his face.

“Gosh Luke. I’m so sorry. That was really insensitive,” I whispered.

He turned to face me. “You’re special, Kara. I’ve never heard of someone getting to speak to someone they’ve lost and I’ve definitely never heard about this calling being inherent. Maybe your father prayed for this?”

“Maybe…” I stopped briefly to ponder the suggestion. What an awesome prayer and humbling answer if it were true. “You’re special too, Luke,” I said, grabbing his hands. “I think God has big plans for you. Plans that haven’t even been realized yet.”

His eyes sparkled as he thought about what I said. “You know just what to say, don’t you?”

My heart skipped. “It’s easy around you.” He smiled and kissed my head. “So I’m not flashing out and it looks like you’re not being called away. Do you want to hang out?”

“Hang out?” Luke tried to mask his confusion with a chuckle.

“You know, talk or play a game or something. Do you have any games?”

“How about this one?” Luke pulled a dusty box off the shelf and revealed an old Scrabble game.

“Oh, I am so going to kick your butt,” I teased as I pulled it out of the box. “My mom and I used to play this all the time. How about you? Have you ever played?”

Luke grinned but answered honestly. “No. Games are not too much fun when you play them by yourself.”

“Right,” I said, realizing the stupidity of my question. “Well, it is obviously here for a reason.”

After I explained the rules of the game, Luke seemed to catch on in no time. He was a humble player, beating me like I was an elementary grade student, several times. His vocabulary was phenomenal and I had to remind myself of the fact that he’d been reading books continuously over the last century.

“So now that I’ve humiliated myself completely and I haven’t flashed out, what do you suggest?” I raised an eyebrow as we cleaned the game up in silence.

The quiet times with Luke were not uncomfortable, but they definitely provided an inescapable opportunity for my emotions to surface. My feelings for Luke intensified with each stolen glance and passing moment of silence. Sometimes I felt like I would burst if I didn’t just announce how I felt.

I was thankful for the self-control I was able to maintain—even if he could see right through me. Whenever an unexpected grin would surface on his face, I knew he’d caught a fleeting thought here and there.
Mortifying.

“How about some Bible trivia?” Luke finally announced. I didn’t mean to, but I groaned. “Kara, you’ve said you enjoy your Young Life meetings and I promise to make this as painless as possible. You might even find it fun. I’d think you’d want to spend time getting to know God.”

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful,” I replied. “I
do
want to know Him. I just feel like I’ve hit a brick wall when I open up
His
book. I understand Physics, Calculus and Anatomy, but the Bible is like a foreign language and I’ve never been good at those.”

“Really?” Luke worked to suppress a grin. “You seem like you’re good at everything. What languages have you tried?”

“Spanish,” I laughed. “Hola mi nombre es Kara. That’s about as much as I can remember. Pathetic if you ask me.”

“Es la mujer más hermosa en que yo jamás he colocado ojos
.”

I couldn’t believe the way the words rolled off his tongue. “I have no idea what you just said and I took two years of Spanish.”

“Ich würde irgendetwas geben, einen Tag mit Ihnen in der wirklichen Welt zu verbringen.” Luke winked when he finished this time. He knew I didn’t understand a word of what he said.

“Now that definitely wasn’t Spanish,” I insisted. “Was that German?”

“Yes. See you are catching on to this language thing already.” He reached on the shelf and pulled off a very large and old book.

“Alright. We can do bible study, but no more showing off, Luke. I really wish you would tell me what you said.” I licked my lips and kissed the air.

“Don’t tease me, Kara. You have no idea what a distraction you can be.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Once he opened them he revealed a more serious side of Luke. He was definitely ready to get down to business.

We spent what seemed like hours going over different bible verses and their meanings. I didn’t find the material to be dry like I had expected. Luke was an animated storehouse of knowledge and he explained the meanings of every passage in question. He really knew God and had truly formed a powerful relationship with Him. I now understood why he was in the position he was in and I felt selfish for wanting him to be just a normal man in my life. Why couldn’t I have it both ways?

“Wow, this has been an amazing day and I still have so much to do,” I sighed.

“I’m sorry, am I boring you or keeping you from something important?” Luke seemed disappointed and I hated to leave him.

“This has been one of my favorite days of all time,” I announced. Luke’s face immediately lifted as it took on a scarlet hue. I’d never seen him blush so intensely. “But I have a stack of college acceptance letters waiting for me and I have to decide where I am going. My mom has been so patient with me.”

“I’m sure you’ve gotten accepted at some reputable schools. You must have somewhere you prefer over the others. How about a small college with a good reputation right near a lake? It’s fitting, if you ask me.” Luke seemed to know me better than I did. “Just say a prayer and God will guide you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied with a sigh. “How about you? What did you do during the five years you were leaping?”

Luke tousled his hair, something he always seemed to do when he was nervous. “I completed a few years of college before getting a job at a bank. That part of my life seems like such a haze to me. I was trying to figure out who I was and I was less concerned about what was going on around me.”

“Did you date?” I blurted out. I really wanted to know. Actually I wanted to know more than that, but it would have been impolite to ask.

“Kara.” He said my name like a parent scolding a child, like I had crossed some boundary that wasn’t supposed to be crossed.

“Come on, Luke. I will be eighteen next Friday. It’s not like I’m some helpless school kid. We’re friends. Didn’t we just spend the day together? I think that qualifies us as being able to share a little more of ourselves with each other.”

Luke closed his eyes and shook his head. “Yes. I dated… but it was probably very different than you think of dating. Everything was very formal and involved. That kind of thing really didn’t interest me much.” He paused and glanced at me briefly. “Or maybe I just never found anyone worth spending time with. I have to say that today was the most time I’ve ever spent with a woman besides my mom.”

“And?” I held my breath as I waited for his response.

“And it was most definitely the most enjoyable day I have had in the last century,” he admitted.

I stood up and immediately embraced him. My stomach flipped and my body temperature rose several degrees. I wanted to stay, but I knew I couldn’t. Sadly, I wanted so much more than he could give.

 “You’re definitely special, Luke. I only wish I had been around a hundred years ago so I could have gotten your attention.”

“Me too,” he whispered.

In the flash of a second our day together was over. I found myself caught in the same moment I had been experiencing right before I had vanished. Holding the stack of acceptance letters in my hand I groaned. This day was going to last indefinitely. I took a break to get a large glass of water and a sandwich and then set to work. If there was a college by a lake I was going to find it. Learning and living fulltime in my happy place, what could be better than that?

After several prayers and only an hour of searching, I found what I was looking for. Rosewood, a small private college located on a large lake in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, was the only school to offer me a full scholarship. Keeping my mom from having to pay for college had been a top priority and it appeared as if fate had interceded—or more likely God.

Mom and I spent the rest of the weekend celebrating my decision. She took Sunday off so we could window shop for all the possible supplies I would need to sustain living in a dorm. Although I thought it was too early in the year to get anything, she insisted on looking anyway.

 When Monday rolled around, I found myself dreading the bustle of the dance week ahead. Ditching school was not an option, so I squelched my anxiety and forced myself to partake in the inevitable. 

“How are the formal dance lessons going during gym?” I teased Jer when I passed him in the hall.

“Why don’t you skip your study hall and come experience it for yourself?” he offered. “On second thought… you might change your mind if you see how bad I am.”