GROUNDHOGS AT TERABITHIA
or
KING OF TERABITHIA'S ROW
by
Mad Tom
CHAPTER 3
The nightmare was back on again! He kicked and pumped, his heart and lungs bursting as he slowly narrowed the gap. He'd closed to about five feet as they reached the end of the road and started across the cow pasture, and then started losing ground again. His body was going at full capacity and failing him. Once they were in the woods, he was a little more sure-footed than she was and started gaining again.
Then he saw the rope dangling from the tree branch ahead of them and heard the rushing waters of the stream, and the horror of that spectre gave him one last burst of adrenalin. He made one final leap, screaming "Dammit, Leslie! You're gonna die!" as she stretched her hands forward toward the rope.
"What?" she gasped, faltering just enough for Jesse to fly past her and snatch the rope as her fingertips came within three inches of it.
He held the rope firmly and placed himself between it and her. He was numb, and now that they had stopped, was starting to hyperventilate, and she was staring at him as if he was a total stranger. Neither spoke for nearly a minute, until their breathing started returning to normal.
"Congratulations, Aarons!" Leslie spoke first. "You finally beat me! Had to use a cheap trick, but you finally beat me! Okay, I'll admit I cheated a little too..."
"It wasn't a trick, Leslie!"
"Telling me I'm gonna die? That is so not funny! And when did you start swearing?"
"Leslie, if you try to swing across, the rope's gonna break, and you're gonna hit your head and drown!"
"Check the soles of your sneakers, Jess! 'Cause we just ran through a cattle pasture, and something sure smells like BS to me!" She stepped toward him and started reaching for the rope. "And since you're the bigger cheater, I think I should still get to go first!"
"No!" He kept his grip on the rope with his left hand and slapped her knuckles with his right. She stepped back in shock and disbelief.
"I'm sorry if I hurt you, Leslie," he said with tears in his eyes and his voice, "but I love you and I don't want you to die again! I got you back this morning and I can't lose you again!"
"Huh?"
Jesse tugged on the rope with both hands. It went taut with no give. He yanked harder a couple of more times with the same results while Leslie stared at him, obviously convinced he was crazy. Then with a loud grunt, he jumped up and grabbed the rope about three feet above the upper knot and pulled his feet up to that knot.
The rope broke with a resounding THWUP! exactly where it had the first time. As Leslie squealed, Jesse landed on his butt and slid a couple of feet down the embankment while the frayed other end of the rope snapped back and downward toward him. It glanced off the underbrush just below where his feet had stopped, then slid into the rushing water. Jesse kicked the underbrush aside to see what had stopped him; he had an idea but wanted to be sure and to show Leslie: it was a large rock, the exposed portion of which was about the size of a manhole cover.
"Oh, my gosh!" Leslie breathed. "Jesse, how did you know?"
Jesse slid himself up off the embankment, then rolled over onto his hands and knees and started to push himself back up on his feet, but his arms and legs turned to rubber. He collapsed, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. Leslie sat on the ground next to him.
"Jesse, what is going on?"
"You died, Leslie!" he sobbed. "I did go with Miss Edmonds to the museum without you, and when I got home, the rope had broken and you had drowned."
She stroked his hair and neck. "What are you talking about? I'm alive and I'm right here, and I've been with you and Miss Edmonds all day..." Her eyebrows raised. "Is... Is this the alien abduction thing?"
He nodded tearfully. "Actually, more like Eliza Dushku in that TV show Tru Calling. Except that I rewound a whole week instead of one day."
"No TV in my house, remember?" she managed to smile.
He thought for a second. "Like Groundhog Day!" She saw that movie, just a month ago in school when all the students took the state literacy test in the morning for a week and then relaxed by watching DVDs the rest of the day. "Groundhog Day, except that I've backed up a whole week instead of one day, and so far this is the first day of the first repeat..." That jogged another memory. "Leslie, let's move down the stream a little. That other tree over there's gonna fall over sometime in the next three days, and I don't know when any more exactly than that."
Leslie looked at the rock, at the rope half in the water and swirling around in the current, and the frayed remainder hanging from the overhead branch. "Okay," she nodded.
She helped him stand, and they started walking along the bank downstream. She put her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder. He was still shaking and sobbing.
"It's okay, it's over," she said softly. After they took a few more steps, she asked, "Are we far enough away now?"
He nodded.
She stopped, then stepped in front of him and hugged him tight. He felt her trembling as well. "You just saved my life, Jess! Thank you!"
He squeezed her, blotting his tears in her hair for several seconds. She started sniffling, and he felt her tears warm and wet on the side of his neck. Then Leslie moved her head back and looked into his eyes, and then they kissed. It was warm and soft, and sweeter than Jesse ever thought possible.
He kissed her a couple of more times. Then he took her hand and led her further along the stream to another fallen tree where they sat on the trunk. They kissed one more time, continuing to hold hands. Then he sniffled and said, "I love you, Leslie. I'm sorry I never said it before today! The first time around I never got a chance to say it. I love you."
"It doesn't matter now that you didn't say it the first time. I'm here and you've told me. And I love you, too, Jesse. You knew that, didn't you?"
"Kinda," he nodded. "Your dad told me."
Leslie screwed up her face. "He did? When?"
"At your wake."
Leslie shuddered. "Now that is creepy! I did tell Dad once that I love you, that you're the only real friend I've ever had, but I never expected him..."
"How do you think I feel? You don't remember it, I guess even your dad doesn't remember it, but it was real to me!"
"My wake, huh?" she grimaced. "Was I there, laid out in a coffin?"
"They cremated you. I think right after they did the autopsy, so I never actually saw you dead. Then your folks took your ashes to your family's plot up north, then they came back and moved out. A week from now. And then I went to sleep, and when I woke up it was this morning again."
"So that's why you hugged me so tight this morning."
He nodded. "You may have just seen me ten hours earlier, but to me, you'd been dead and gone a week, turned to ashes, and I thought I'd never see you again ever!"
"Well, I'm here, and you've saved my life, and I'm not planning on going anywhere." She smiled at him. "Let me be the one to tell you this time around: I... love... you,... Jesse Aarons!"
They kissed again and then they hugged tight.
Author's Notes:
Thanks for the reviews so far. Keep 'em coming! Getting lots of hits but not as much feedback.