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After Paris left Rory went to her room, sat down at her computer and started searching for different interpretations of the Yeats' poem Jess had alluded to. Almost all search results seemed to agree with Paris' interpretation. She smiles to herself. He wanted her to come.
A flash of uncertainty comes over her. He did, didn't he? She looks around her room, somewhere she must have a book about interpreting poems, or about Yeats.
She sighs. All of her books and stuff are still at the apartment she's shared with Logan. But she needs to make sure that she, or rather Paris, hasn't misinterpreted Jess' intentions; she needs to go to the library. She needs to read more about Yeats, about analyzing poems, about analyzing this specific Yeats' poem. Her entire future happiness depends on Paris' interpretation of the poem and although she doesn't doubt Paris' knowledge about the subject she needs to see it for herself. She needs the comfort of a book, of printed words in a book telling her what she already knows.
She takes a quick look in the mirror before leaving her room, heading for the hallway. She grabs a coat and before leaving she pops her head in the living room where her mother and Luke are sitting.
"I'm just going to the library. I need to…do some reading." The smile that has been plastered on her face ever since Paris made the discovery, the wonderful, joyful discovery about the poem, gives her a set of very confused looks from her mother and Luke.
"Hold it!" Her mother gets up from her seat in the couch and walks up to her. "You've been in a deep depression for the last week. Hardly speaking, hardly eating, hardly moving, hardly breathing. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're happy, but you have to understand I'm a bit confused here and would like to know what originated this sudden change of mood. Yesterday morning you wouldn't even leave your room, and now your eyes are sparkling and your mouth can't seem to stop smiling." She hesitates and takes a deep look at Rory. "Did Paris bring happy pills?"
"Happy pills is one way of putting it."
"And what would be the other way of putting it?"
"Love."
Lorelai looks confused.
"You're in love with Paris?"
Rory giggles.
"No, silly. With Jess. I'm in love with Jess and he wants me to come."
"I thought the letter…you said he…" Lorelai stops herself. "Care to explain?" She asks instead.
"Well, you see, I told Paris that I'd been trying to find hidden meanings in Jess' letter, because it felt so wrong, I couldn't accept that he moved on. And then Paris, whose judgment wasn't clouded by emotions, saw that he spelled gray with an 'e', just like Yeats does. And Yeats has written this poem called 'When you are old', and the common interpretation is that the narrator wants the woman in the poem to act upon the true love he feels for her before it's too late – and Jess made an allusion to that poem in his letter, meaning he wants me to come, because he still loves me!" Rory takes a deep breath. "You see? He wants me to act upon his love."
"Wow, honey, that's…that's amazing." Lorelai says.
Rory nods energetic.
"Yeah, it is…it's so amazing – his book it's like the Yeats poem."
Lorelai looks confused again.
"Okay, please let your mother, who is not a Yale-graduate, in on this intellectual love gesture here."
"The poem, Yeats' poem, he writes about how this woman he loves will look back on the one man who loved her deep and true but she never acted on it and therefore she is all alone at her old age."
"Chipper guy that Yeats." Lorelai smirks.
"And in Jess' book he describes himself as this old man who looks back on the one girl he ever loved, and it's not mentioned in the book, but I think what he means is that if I don't act on his love for me, he will be this old man who is all alone at his old age, and I will be the old woman in the poem."
"So that means…he wrote the book to get you back? To make you realize you both have this horrible lonesome future ahead of you if you aren't together, if you don't act upon his love?"
Rory nods, and holds the book up in front of her.
"He wrote this book – to me. To make me realize what I should've already known."
"May I?" Luke holds his hand out towards the book. "I'm not gonna read it or anything, I just…want to see it."
She smiles and hands him the book.
Lorelai's still looking at Rory.
"He wrote that book to get you back." She points at the book in Luke's hand, looking like she can't quite grasp the situation, staring at Rory with her mouth open. "He sat down, put pen to paper and wrote that book. To get you back." She shakes her head in astonishment.
Luke examines the book in his hand, a proud smile lingers on his lips.
"He probably used a computer." Rory corrected her mother. "But otherwise, yeah he did."
"I…well, he…you" Lorelai shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know what to say."
Rory smiles
"That says a lot."
Lorelai steps closer and wraps her arms around Rory and hugs her.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
After spending the entire day at the library Rory has finally grasped that Paris' interpretation most probably was the right interpretation and that Jess wants her to come. She takes a look around her room. What should she bring with her to Philadelphia? How long is she staying for?
Searching through her wardrobe she settles for two changes of clothes, a toothbrush and some make-up. Philadelphia isn't really that far away and she doesn't want to shock Jess by bringing too much baggage. Anyways, if she needs more clothes or other stuff they probably had stores in Philadelphia.
She takes a glance at her watch, 10 PM. 8 hours 'til take off. Her mother and Luke had convinced her that since she insisted on not calling Jess before going there she should wait until the morning before going; that way saving her from having to sleep in the car if Jess wouldn't be at home when she got there. Also, if she got there during day, he would most probably be at work, which made it easier for her to find him.
She picks up Jess' book from the nightstand and holds in her hands, pondering. After a few seconds she nods to herself and with the book in her hands she heads for the living room. When reaching the kitchen she hears her mother and Luke talking in the living room, she stops and eavesdrops for a moment, sensing that they're talking about her and Jess.
"So he wants to be with her. Why didn't he just say so?" Luke's voice sounds confused.
"Ah, it's the mysteries of romance." Her mother answers in an explanatory voice.
"Some mystery, making the girl you want to be with fall into an apathetic state for almost a week." He mutters in response.
"We'll have plenty of time to bash at him for that later." Rory can almost hear the smile in her mother's voice. "But did you see how happy she was?"
She takes a deep breath and clears her throat, announcing her arrival, as she starts walking into the living room.
"Hey hon." Lorelai looks up.
"Hey. I think I'm gonna try and get some sleep." She smiles. "I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow."
They both smile at her.
"Of course honey, we'll have breakfast together before you leave tomorrow. There'll probably be a lot of crazy romance stuff going on at lunch-time tomorrow, so who knows when you'll get a chance to eat, better get yourself a steady breakfast." Lorelai says and smiles at her.
Rory blushes and decides to quickly change the subject. She holds Jess' book out towards her mother.
"I want you to read it."
"You sure?" Lorelai hesitates and looks at the book.
"Yeah, I am. I want you to read it and maybe you'll see at least a hint of what I see in him."
"Rory, I…"
"I know, I remember your speech yesterday." Rory interrupts her. "But still, there are so many sides of Jess that you never saw. I want you to read his book."
Lorelai nods and takes the book with a serious look on her face.
"I will."
"Good." Rory nods. "So…goodnight then."
"Goodnight honey." Her mother says while standing up and hugging her.
"Goodnight Rory." Luke says and nods at her from the couch.
I know you were all probably hoping that Rory would leave for Philadelphi and Jess right away, but I figured she should tell Luke and Lorelai about what Paris found in the letter first, and as SarcasticBitchCurls pointed out - Lorelai should get a chance to read Jess' book (you'll read about her reactions to the book in a future chapter)