The Universe is a Very Big Place (29 page)

She was tempted to get out, run with the children through the sprinklers, splash the women with their overdone hairstyles, reclaim her childhood, and scream to the Universe that although it had taken her one true love from her, she wasn’t going to give up. She was going to fight.
 

You’re not going to lick me!

She wanted to challenge whoever the hell was in charge. She would be goddamned Scarlett O’Hara. Adversity bubbling out the bazoonga, and she a cool-headed shot that would as soon kill someone who tried to take from her as look at him.

But she was not Scarlett. Scarlett’s strength came from caring for herself. The cruel, heartbreaking truth was that nice girls were not heroines. Nice girls sacrificed their lives for other people, allowing someone else be the protagonist in their story.

Spring thrust the car into reverse and headed back to the office to face Kimberly.

Spring had not seen Kimberly since the Monday following Sarah’s accident at the parade. She had called in several times the previous week and mercifully, on the days she had come in, Kimberly had been away at a training workshop. But Spring could not delay the meeting forever. The day of reckoning had come.

Kimberly, of course, was livid. Her hair, though not attached directly to her head, had the good manners to stand on end for her. "What have you done to Casey?" Kimberly held up the costume for Sarah and Spring to inspect, and Sarah had to stifle a laugh. "That was an eight hundred dollar puppet you blew!" With that Sarah could hold it in no longer and burst out laughing while Kimberly scathed in response.

"We tried our best to fix it,” Spring said. "What did you want us to do?"

Kimberly snarled and Spring watched the woman’s entire scalp crawl. "You get to explain this to Jane," she said, snapping her fingers at the women. "I’m not."

Sarah, finally calmed enough to respond, crossed her arms and gave Kimberly a flippant look. "No, Kimberly. You explain this to Jane. I’m done with this whole nutty place." She grabbed her purse, as casually as if she had announced that she were going on her lunch break, and left the room, leaving Spring and Kimberly to stare at one another, open-mouthed.

"Did she just quit on me?" Kimberly asked, and Spring shrugged, her eyes following her friend as she disappeared down the hallway. "Nobody quits on me." Kimberly moved quickly to follow Sarah, leaving Spring in the office alone.
 

Kimberly reappeared a few minutes later. "She quit. I can’t believe she quit." Kimberly walked over to her desk and stared at the monitor that was not turned on. "I guess you get to play Casey from now on. Lucky you."

You don’t have to go." Spring tried to convince Sarah as she packed all of her belongings into a box. "...You could transfer. Or appeal directly to Jane." Spring couldn’t lose Sarah. They had become close over the last few weeks.

Sarah tossed a photo of her and her husband into a garbage pail by the desk and stopped to look at Spring. "You know, for someone as smart as you, sometimes you just don’t get it, do you?"

Spring shook her head. "What don’t I get?"

Sarah took Spring's hands and shook them. "Sometimes we have to stand up for ourselves even when we think we might lose everything." Sarah looked out over Spring’s shoulders to where the sun had cast a loose beam on the floor, illuminating a spot on the dirty carpet. "I need a change, and I need to make it now before I’m one of those women who watch the shopping channel twenty-four hours a day to compensate for all the emptiness." Sarah released her hands and looked out the door, down the empty corridor. "Besides, it’s not just for me anymore." Sarah’s face softened and she patted her tummy.

"You’re going to have a baby!" The truth registered in Spring’s brain and she felt stupid for having missed the signs. "Albert’s?"

"Unfortunately. Call me anytime. I love you."

Sarah gave her a quick hug and Spring trembled as she realized this would be the last time they would be together at
Teens in Trouble.
 

Then Sarah gathered her half-empty box and walked out of the office, leaving Spring feeling very, very alone.

Spring left the office early, claiming stomach pains. Kimberly, still speechless from Sarah’s departure, didn’t try and stop her. Spring drove randomly around the city, zigging and zagging across lanes, no destination in mind. It wasn’t until she was actually in the parking lot that she realized that she had been heading here all along. She looked up at where she guessed his window was and thought about her last meeting with Trevor
.
A pang of sadness shot through her
.
Without thinking she got out of the car and raced up to the third floor, her clunky heels tripping her on every other step. Taking a deep breath, she knocked, three times.

"God, I’m happy to see you," she said, falling into his arms. His hair smelled like cheap shampoo and his breath like beer. He caressed her shoulders as he kissed her cheek.

"I’m happy to see you too. Thank you for giving me another chance."

Twenty-Two

John’s first reaction was of disbelief. But when she fell onto him, letting her warm tears soak through the thin fabric of his Wal-Mart T-shirt, he put his arms around her and held her. All his misgivings about his feelings for her vanished the second she melted into his arms.

"I’m so sorry," she said at last. Her nose was running and her eyes were small and red. He led her into his apartment and closed the door behind her, offering her a tissue.

"You don’t see many bachelor guys who have a box of tissue handy," Spring laughed, blowing her nose. "You must be used to rescuing damsels in distress."

John said something about her being the only damsel he wished to share his tissue with and she smiled. He directed her to sit down at his table. He had been painting chess pieces and he cleared them away for her.

"You play?" she asked, picking up and examining some of the finished pieces. He normally did not like anyone touching his things. Even his brothers had called him 'Stingy Johnny' as a child when he refused to let them play with this toys, but he didn’t flinch as she looked over one figurine after another. The revelation pleasantly surprised him. He could share anything with her, he thought, and happily.

"Yes. I’m not good, but I enjoy it."

John watched as Spring fingered a knight, painted gold and purple, and twisted it around in her fingers. "I love the little horsies," she said. "The way they move about the board in their own unique way." Spring twisted the end of her hair and nibbled on it, staring at the board. For a moment she was Alice, lost in the looking glass.

"Not me," said John, removing a castle from the board. "I like the straightforward manner of the rook. No scenic routes. No hidden agendas. Always knows where he is going."

He handed the rook to Spring and watched as she rolled it over in her palm. Then she placed the two pieces side by side and smiled. "And yet, they both have the same goal. Good metaphor for life I suppose."

Usurp the King
, John thought, and decided not to share that thought with Spring. "Indeed."

"I‘m sorry about coming here and disturbing you," she said. "I didn’t know where else to go."

John pulled up a chair next to her and took one of her small hands. It took every ounce of strength he could muster not to press them to his lips, but he wasn’t about to do anything that might make her dash out. "I‘m just surprised. I kinda thought you hated me."

Spring laughed. "Me? Hate you? I‘m sorry I gave you that impression." She tilted her head and her large blue eyes looked at him with such incredulousness John wondered if he had imagined their last few meetings. He might learn to love a woman but he doubted he would ever understand them.

He continued watching her as she sat quietly, waiting for her to speak again. He watched as she looked away at an image that flitted outside of his window, and he took the opportunity to take her in completely. She was curvy and strong and for a brief moment he wondered if he could lift her up and carry her to his bed. He had never done that to a woman before.

She caught him staring and he moved his eyes back up towards her face. "What are you thinking?"

"I’m thinking I should probably work out." He smiled and she laughed. God, what a laugh.

"This is going to sound really strange, but John, is there someplace I can lie down? I really need to sleep right now. It’s been that kind of life."

John placed one hand on her back and the other on her hand and helped her up, leading her to his bedroom. Wishing he had picked his clothing up from the floor, he managed to kick his underwear beneath the bed before she noticed them. "You can rest here. I won’t let anyone, or anything, bother you. I promise."

He watched her stumble to the bed and crawl in, like a little girl who had been kept up too late. She lay curled up on her side and he pulled the sheets and blanket up to her chin. Kissing her forehead he whispered, "I will be right out here if you need me."

She nodded and he left as quietly as he could, leaving the door cracked open in case he needed to go to her.

He sat on his recliner and muted the volume on the television. He could hear her breathing, strong and steady, slowly replaced by a quiet snoring. He had never known that girls snored and the thought made him smile.

No one had to tell John Smith that he was in love. Though he had never been in love before, he was as certain of the feeling as he was his own name. As he leaned back in his recliner he thought his life might be perfect if she stayed tucked into his bed for the rest of her life. Even if she never left the bed, and he was never allowed to go to her in the way he ached for, life would still be pretty damned good. He looked back over at the knight and the rook and smiled before falling into a hazy sleep.