Veiled (40 page)

“
I like it?” she answered,
and that’s all the explanation Katie had to give.

“
OK. We’ll be right
there,” Alex promised, and we were off again—to play matchmakers
this time.

“
Will you get in trouble
for coming with me? I mean, I want you to come…” Alex
asked.

I shrugged. “My pendant is
not glowing,” I said, ignoring the tinge of guilt I felt over it.
Truth was, if I was needed I would be called
there…right?

I felt complete validation
for my rationale the moment we landed on campus. Katie was there
already, gliding next to Dane, who looked hilarious with longish
hair parted down the middle, tight bell-bottoms, and extra pointy
cowboy boots.

“
I have an idea, but it’ll
take some finagling,” Katie yelled as she made her way through the
crowds of mortals and spirits.

We listened as Katie put
forth this elaborate plan where animals and other creatures would
be involved in bringing them together.

“
Great plan, but we won’t
need to use it,” I said to her.

Katie looked at me,
puzzled. “Why not?”

“
Look.” I pointed to a
bench where Valerie was sitting, looking at her portfolio. Dane was
walking straight toward the bench as he wrestled with the campus
map and some other brochures.

“
Oh good!” Katie exclaimed
with delight. But her smile faded as she saw that both were looking
down at their papers and that Dane would walk right past Valerie,
and miss her altogether. Right then, Katie threw her hands up in
the air and rushed to the side of a seeing-eye dog, and whispered
something in its ear.

Upon hearing Katie’s
instructions, the dog stood up and left his master’s side at full
speed toward an unsuspecting Dane. Katie was flying right next to
the dog shouting more commands in hopes that the dog would hear her
and ignore his master, who was calling the runaway dog
back.

Dane was oblivious to all
the commotion that the dog—or the unseen Katie—was creating.
Valerie, however, lifted her head and watched as the dog stopped at
Dane’s fast moving feet tripping him to the ground, pamphlets
flying in all directions and most of them landing at Valerie’s own
feet. Dane’s nose was also at Valerie’s feet as he let out a
groan.

Alex was laughing out loud
and so was I. Meanwhile Katie was whispering something into the
dog’s ear, and the blind man groped the air in front of him as he
made his way to the scene.

“
I’m so sorry,” the man
kept exclaiming to Dane. “He’s never done this before. I don’t know
what came over him!”

“
Katie came over him!”
Alex laughed.

Katie now went to Dane’s
side and whispered, “Tell the man not to be mad at the
dog.”

“
I’m OK, don’t worry,”
Dane told the blind man. “This type of thing actually happens to me
quite often; the animal kingdom converges on me all the
time.”

“
Katie he could have
gotten hurt!” Alex reproached, but he quickly realized that Katie
and I were not paying any attention to him. We were happily gazing
at Valerie—who at Dane’s comment burst out laughing. On hearing
her, Dane looked up and saw Valerie for the first time in his
mortal life.

The blind man kept
apologizing to Dane, who was no longer listening to him. All he
could see was Valerie, and all she could do was laugh, as she
picked up her fallen portfolio drawings.

“
Dane, snap out of it!”
Katie demanded as she snapped her fingers together. “Say
something!”

Dane obeyed her quick
command and blinked a few times, then furrowed his brow. “Do I know
you?” he stammered.

Valerie raised one
suspicious eyebrow. “I don’t think so.”

Dane looked at the
scattered paintings, and helped her gather them. “Are these yours?
They are really good.”

“
Thanks.”

As Valerie tried to get up,
Dane hurried to his feet and offered her his hand and she took it.
They exchanged pamphlets for drawings.

“
Pretty chivalrous for
bell-bottoms,” Alex teased.

“
Dane listens to you very
well,” I said to Katie.

“
Yeah, most times. He is
very sensitive, he puts everyone’s feelings before his own. But he
has finally stood up to his father. That’s why he is here. He is
putting some distance between himself and his parents.”

By now, both Valerie and
Dane were sitting on the bench, pretending to arrange their papers,
but they were no longer talking to each other.

“
Oh! You are bleeding!”
Valerie exclaimed, breaking the silence.

Dane examined his hands and
found the inside of his palms to be slightly scratched from the
fall. “I’ll survive.” He shrugged. “I’ve had worse.” He then
inspected his pant legs. “See, I didn’t even rip my jeans!” Dane
turned to face Valerie whose gaze was intently fixed on his face
and not his jeans.

They stared at each other
for a long moment. Katie and I exchanged sappy smiles and then
looked back at them.

Valerie broke the long
silence between them. “Do you want a Band-Aid?” she
stammered.

“
No, I’ll be fine. So…you
are an art major?”

“
What gave it away?” She
bit her lip nervously.

Dane chuckled. “They are
very good, they are so detailed…I like them.”

“
Thank you,” Valerie said
and turned pink. “I love to paint flowering landscapes for the most
part, although I have some other paintings, my early stuff is
more…out of this world.”

Dane smiled. “Would you
like to have lunch with me… right now?” he ventured as he checked
his watch to make sure it was lunch time.

Valerie checked her watch
as well. “Sure, but my next class starts in one hour.”

Dane swallowed the lump
that was obviously in his throat. “Then we’ll just eat right here
on campus if you don’t mind. I am new here and I don’t know my way
around at all,” he said as he consulted the pamphlet with the
campus map.

“
I know the way…I’m
Valerie,” she said extending her hand.

“
Dane.” He stretched out
his right hand to shake hers.

“
Are you a transfer
student?” Valerie asked.

“
Well, sort of, I’m about
to graduate and I would like to come here for Graduate School.” He
didn’t mention that this school was but one of the many choices he
had for graduate school—Valerie was making a strong case for Baylor
at this point.

“
Where are you graduating
from?”

Dane blushed. “Harvard,” he
said almost in a whisper.

“
You say that like it’s a
bad thing. Are you ashamed of Harvard?”

“
No.” Dane smiled
sheepishly “Some people think it’s a big deal, but I
don’t.”

“
That’s because it is a
big deal.”

Dane shrugged and Valerie
was bewildered by his modesty. Most guys would brag about the fact
that they were graduating from Harvard.

“
So, what are you going to
study in Grad School?”

“
Psychiatry.” Now Dane
squared his shoulders. He was proud of this choice, and felt very
passionate about it, in spite of his father’s disappointment in it.
His father, Senator Preston, wanted his son to follow in his
footsteps and be a politician.

Valerie, however, cringed
at the word “Psychiatry” and looked rather crestfallen. Luckily
Dane didn’t notice and he continued talking about his career
choice.

“
You see, I’ve always been
fascinated by the workings of the mind. I don’t care for the title
of Doctor. I just want to help people. I believe that people with
mental problems are heroes.”

Valerie turned her piercing
eyes to him, interested in this last comment. “Heroes, how?” she
demanded.

Dane, needing little
encouragement on the subject, explained in great details all the
reasons he had for his theory. Valerie could not deny that he felt
very passionately about this career choice but felt rather sad by
the fact that he was now out of the question for her.

Holding their trays of
cafeteria food they scanned the packed eating area for a place to
sit and found none.

“
Go outside!” Katie
commanded in Dane’s ear.

“
Let’s go outside, maybe
we can find a shady spot,” Dane suggested.

“
I’ll go find them a good
spot,” Alex suggested, and was off.

As Dane and Valerie made
their way outdoors again, Katie and I spotted Alex waving at us
from underneath a secluded spot, perfect for a romantic
picnic.

“
There, under that tree on
the east side of the brick building,” Katie instructed in Dane’s
ear.

Dane looked at the spot,
and quickly suggested it to Valerie.

“
Sure,” she said and her
voice sounded sad.

“
Uh oh,” I warned. “She is
feeling sad about something. I bet is the whole psychiatrist
thing.” I explained to Katie.

“
Well, she’ll just have to
get over that. These two need to get married or they’ll never be
truly happy with anyone else.”

I agreed with
her.

Valerie and Dane ate in
silence for a while. Dane couldn’t help stealing glances at
Valerie’s eyes, which were a beautiful shade of violet. She tried
not to look up at him, but found herself doing the same
thing.

“
Your eyes are so
beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like them. They are a deep
tanzanite color.”

Valerie looked up at him,
surprised once more at how observant he really was. She had been
told that her eyes were the color of blue topaz before, but topaz
was deep blue. Her eyes had indeed a tinge of purple to them, but
she never imagined that anyone would ever look close enough to
notice.

“
My dad bought me a
tanzanite stone for my birthday last year. I had it turned into a
necklace.”

Dane didn’t respond, he
still looked at her eyes and could not look away. She allowed
herself a long look too—now that he was so shamelessly staring at
her. As she did so she realized that she had seen him before, but
she couldn’t remember when or where.

“
Turn your head,” she said
as she touched his chin with the tips of her fingers. He obeyed and
held this pose for a moment.

Valerie squinted and
studied his profile. “Mmm,” she murmured.

Dane turned his head. “So,
would I make a worthy picture?” he grinned.

“
Yes you would.” She
smiled, but a chill ran through her frame in spite of the heat of
the day. She had seen him before, in fact, she had drawn him before
too. His profile lay on a pile of canvas in her room.

* * * * *

Chapter 35

Lunch went by too quickly
for Dane, so he secured a dinner date with Valerie and walked her
to class. He then headed straight to the admissions office and
enrolled for the next fall.

Valerie could not
concentrate for the rest of the day. She didn’t feel as sure as
Dane did about this relationship. She could tell he liked her, but
knew that that would be temporary. As soon as he figured out what
she was, he would drop her like a hot potato.

Still, she couldn’t deny
the greedy curiosity she felt for him, and then there was the
sketch. As soon as she got home, she rushed to her room and dug out
the profile of the man she had seen in that dream or vision she had
had four years ago at the mental hospital.

Alex, Katie, and I
clustered together to get a good look at it, and it was Dane! We
were a little confused, because I had given her Alex’s image, but
that sketch was unmistakably Dane, as he used to be of course. In
heaven we all look about twenty something, the same age as he was
now, but he had short hair and…transparent skin.

“
Wow!” Katie exclaimed.
“How did she manage to do that?”

“
The dream,” both Alex and
I answered.

“
What dream?”

Alex and I explained the
whole story to Katie. She listened attentively. “No wonder she is
freaked out! She thinks she’s a nut job and that Dane will dump her
as soon as he finds out.”

Both Alex and I nodded.
Katie crossed one arm and rested her elbow on it, then started
tapping her finger against her forehead.

“
Uh oh, she is
thinking…this could only mean more animals,” Alex whispered in my
ear, and I sniggered.

“
I wonder how Nancy feels
about having a heard of hippos running through her living room,” I
whispered teasingly back and Katie grimaced.

“
Very funny, Tess, but
this is serious. Valerie needs to understand how wrong she is. Dane
would worship her! He was made to love her!”

“
We know,” Alex and I said
in unison once more.

Valerie slouched back on
her chair as she examined the sketch. She wondered why that
particular face had stuck in her mind. She had seen an Angel and
talked to him, but this face was the one she remembered. A soft
knock on the door brought her out of her trance. “Come in,” she
called.