Un-Crossing Jordan CHAPTER 5----final Chapter…
We woke up around the same time and just laid in each others arms for a while. I felt Jordan smile against my chest after a while.
"What?" I asked groggily and Jordan lifted her
head.
"I forgot to put something on the list." She said and I rolled my
eyes.
"Uh-oh…and what might that be?" I asked tentatively and my answer was a rather violent thump over the head with a pillow. I sat up quickly in surprise as Jordan leapt off of the bed and ran out of the room. I smiled and shook my head, trying to make the little stars and birdies go away, then grabbed a pillow myself and took off after Jordan. Later that morning, we sat on the porch, me at the table, Jordan in the hammock and threw grapes back and forth at each other trying to feed each other the long distance way.
"You know this would be a lot more fun if you came over and fed them to me from the vine." Jordan said raising an eyebrow at me.
"Uhhhhh…I don't THINK so your highness…" I said chucking a grape her way and watching it land on her lap. Jordan just chuckled and stretched her arms above her.
"We're crazy to be leaving this place Wood." Jordan said sadly and shook her head at the ocean. I nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, you're probably right…but we're also crazy if we think that just because we're here all of our problems are solved back there." I said flipping my head out to sea, as if Boston were just over the horizon. Jordan sighed.
"I really could never go back, Woody. I mean that. I would miss everyone, sure, but all I really need is here." She said turning her head charmingly towards me. I nodded and tried not to smile.
"Do you know how often in the time we have been here you have said, 'Oh, Nigel would have thought that was hilarious!' or 'Bug would love the insect life here!', or 'Garrett would totally dig this little jazz club!' ?" I asked and Jordan looked off in the distance.
"They're always on your mind Jordan. They're your family. You can't just abandon them. It wouldn't be fair." I said and stood creeping over to lay with Jordan. I wrapped her in my arms.
"You're my family too Woody." She said kissing the inside of my bicep. Hearing her say that evoked warmth in the pit of my stomach that spread like a wildfire to the rest of my body. I snuggled deeper within the hammock and wrapped my arms more tightly around Jordan. She called me her family. I kissed her temple gently and sighed, a nagging thought suddenly being thrust to the front of my mind.
"Jordan, I'm not gonna have to drag you onto the plane kicking and screaming am I?" I asked and Jordan was silent. I sat up a little.
"Jordan, sweetie, aren't your legs tired yet?" I asked and she sighed apparently catching my drift. "I think we both learned in these past two weeks that running from your problems isn't the way to go."
"But it is the easy way to go." She said honestly.
"You're right. You're exactly 100% right. You ran from things for so many years. It broke their hearts Jordan. It broke your father's heart. I ran from Annie, and she'll probably never be able to fully forgive me in her heart. You ran from me for the past almost two years. And now we're together…we missed out on what could have been two really great years, Jordan. Running has done us a hell of a lot of good." I said sarcastically. "Problems don't just go away Jordan. They stay with you until you make them right. Staying here we would just be hiding out from those problems. But just like you can't forget you're friends back home, you can't forget you're problems either." I said quietly and I got the distinct impression I was giving myself this lecture as well. "You're mom died when you were a little girl, you got dealt a crappy hand. But the beauty of the game is, you can change you're luck. So change your luck Jordan. Go with me back to Boston and start over with a NEW hand. Because the house DOESN'T always win, sometimes you get dealt that unexpected Ace." I said and Jordan smiled.
"Thanks Ace." She said leaning forward and gently taking my lips with hers. I lay back in the hammock with Jordan on top of me and we kissed. When she pulled back, there was a quiet resolve in her eyes.
"So this is kinda like…having someone hold your hand at the doctor's while you're getting a shot?" She asked smiling and I nodded my head.
"This is exactly like that." I said smiling back.
"So do I get a lollipop afterwards?" She asked raising her eyebrows. I leaned forward recapturing her lips.
"Something like that." I said smiling and pulling her bottom lip between my teeth as she chuckled and pushed me back into the hammock.
Jordan napped in the hammock an hour or so later and I decided that I wasn't going to get a better chance to do what I was about to do. I slipped quietly out from under her and snuck into the house. When Jordan woke up a little later, I was sitting in the sand by the water fishing. She trudged through the sand and came to sit next to me. I smiled and she kissed me a hello. I tipped the reel towards her when she asked if I had caught anything. I shook my head.
"You give it a shot, you have the magic touch." I said and waited to set it in her hands when the waves were rolling in. She took the reel proudly. I smiled and sat back, waiting for the under toe to tug on the heavy line. When it did, Jordan sat up quickly.
"I got something!" She cheered proudly and stood up in the sand. I stood with her and told her to reel it in. She smiled and patted my shoulder supportively before returning her attention to the catch. She pulled it in and when the end of the line popped out of the water, Jordan looked at it curiously, her perceptive mind already deducing that what was on the line could not possibly have been caught with a hook.
"What's this?" She asked curiously and looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders and pulled the line in. Jordan held up the catch.
"A beer bottle? Wow! Good catch Jordan." I said playfully as she handled the glass bottle. I waited a beat until she realized that there was something inside.
"What's this?" she asked popping off the cap and jabbing a slender finger down into the bottle. I remained silent and let Jordan pull out the curled slip of paper. She uncurled the paper and regarded it quietly. Without any reaction from her, I began to sweat it out a little.
"Jordan?" I asked tentatively and she startled a little and then turned her eyes shamefully to me.
"You wrote this?" She asked, her eyes willing me to say 'no' as she turned the written side of the paper towards me to read. I looked at the handwritten calligraphy briefly enough to be able to assure Jordan that I had indeed written 'Marry Me?' across the paper.
I nodded and Jordan let her arm drop to her side. I tried to lighten the mood by grabbing the bottle and popping the plastic yellow ring around the cap off.
"Here! I don't have a real ring yet cause…well…we're here but this'll do right?" I asked placing the plastic loop on her finger. Jordan looked down at the sand and shook her head.
"You don't have to propose just cause we're sleeping together Woody." Jordan said effectively killing the moment. I sighed helplessly and looked out over the water.
"Jordan…you…you said that you knew my heart." I said taking her hand and placing it against my chest over my heart. "And if that's true…then you know I am not doing this JUST because we're sleeping together…hell…I think I would have done it this week even if we weren't…I just don't wanna miss anymore time with you." I said and Jordan just shook her head again and smiled sadly.
"I…I need some time to think about this." She said bringing my hand up to her lips and kissing my palm. Then she turned and walked away back to the house…but she didn't take the plastic ring off and she still carried the paper and bottle. This was a good sign to me. Hell, her not socking me in the mouth was a good sign to me. I tried to be cool about it and let her think things out. Hopefully, she would listen to her heart.
Later, we packed up our stuff in suitcases we had to buy and even had to buy an extra suitcase for the souvenirs. Jordan sighed and moped uncomfortably around as we packed. It wasn't until I got dressed into a pair of khaki shorts and a polo shirt that Jordan finally surrendered to the fact that we were definitely going home. She went to her room and put on a very tropical, very form fitting blue/green sundress that reached all the way to her ankles but had a slit up nearly to her hip. I had picked out the dress. I smiled when she passed me on her way to the kitchen and she threw a shy smile over her shoulder at me. Her long hair was curly from 2 weeks of sea air and she flipped it over her shoulders. I carried the bags out to the cycle and managed to get the one bag that wouldn't fit in the saddlebags tied right behind Jordan's seat where she could hold it on a little better. When I had finished I wandered back into the house calling her name.
I found her out back in the hammock. I smiled and slowly approached her, all the while watching her watch the ocean waves. I leaned against the palm tree and sighed.
"You ready?" I asked and Jordan smiled weakly without turning her head to me.
"You really want an answer to that?" She asked and then turned her eyes toward me. I flipped my bangs out of my eyes and squinted out at the reflection of the sun off of the clear waves.
"No." I said and put out my hand to Jordan just like I had the second time we danced in Max's bar. She looked at my hand for a long, contemplative moment then gently placed her smaller one inside of it.
I pulled her to her feet and flipped the table radio on. I didn't recognize the song right away, but Jordan did. She sang along with it softly as we danced in each other's arms.
"There's a saying old, says that love is blind,
still we're often told, seek and ye shall find.
So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had, in mind.
Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet,
He's the big affair, I cannot forget.
Only man I ever think of with regret.
I'd like to add his initial to my monogram,
Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?
There's a somebody I'm longing to see,
I hope that he, turns out to be,
Someone who'll watch over me.
I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood,
I know I could, always be good,
To one who'll watch over me.
Although he may not be the man some girls think of
As handsome, to my heart he carries the key,
Won't you tell him please to put on some speed,
Follow my lead, oh how I need,
Someone to watch over me.
Won't you tell him please to put on some speed,
Follow my lead, oh how I need,
Someone to watch over me,
Someone to watch, over me. "
When the song was finished I pulled back and looked down at Jordan wit a smile.
She smirked back at me and there was a gleam of tears in her eyes. This song
must be important to her. I leaned forward and kissed her lips softly. When I
pulled back, she smiled and took my hand.
"I'm ready to go now." She said and headed slowly towards the door still holding my hand.
An hour and a half we were sitting quietly together on the plane. I sat to Jordan's left and about ten minutes into the flight, I took her hand. I ran my thumb gently over the plastic ring and Jordan turned her head to me.
"You don't wanna marry someone like me, Woody." She said finishing a conversation started hours ago. I sighed and looked down at the little plastic ring again.
"Actually, I think that I do…" I said with a nervous chuckle. Jordan shook her head and looked out her window.
"You…you were going to marry this girl back home and…and she's nothing like me…probably an angel. Never stayed out late, in by curfew every night, went to Sunday school every week, joined the girl scouts by kindergarten. I spent half my elementary school years in the office at school for beating up boys, I used to sneak through the window well to my basement as the sun was coming up, I…I failed CCD 7 times! And they kicked me out of the Girl Scouts after a month!" She said and I had to look the other way to keep from laughing.
When I had regained my composure, I turned back to Jordan who was staring at me, waiting for me to say that she was right, and she wasn't the woman for me. I just shook my head.
"And I love you and all of your juvenile
delinquencies…" I said and leaned forward and kissed her quickly before
returning to my magazine.
"Why in the world would you lay this on me now? Why when we were JUST getting
ready to go on a plane!?" She lowered her voice. "Where a lot of
innocent people could fall victim to my desperation!?" she said looking
menacingly at me. I just flipped the next page of my magazine and smiled.
"Because I knew that there was no way for you to get away from me on a plane." I said proudly and Jordan raised her eyebrows.
"Oh yeah?" she said and grabbed the arm of the next flight attendant that walked by.
"Do you need something ma'am?" She asked and Jordan got right up into her face.
"Get me a parachute and I'll make it worth your while!" Jordan whispered urgently and I pulled her arms from the attendant.
"Will you STOP it!?" I whispered through my
teeth and then turned sweetly to the flight attendant. "She…haha…not so
good with flying…Time to take your medicine, Sweetie!" I said pretending
to dig pills out of my pocket as the flight attendant walked away shaking her
head. Before I could say anything else, Jordan requested the attention of the
elderly woman across the aisle from me.
"Excuse me Ma'am are you married?" She whispered across the aisle as
I turned about eight shades of red while covering my face with the magazine.
The woman didn't seem surprised or offended by the question and I assumed she
had been listening in on the conversation.
"Why yes, dear for 42 years now." She said proudly and patted the hand of her husband who was dozing next to her.
"And would you consider yourself an ideal wife for your husband? Would you say that you two have a lot in common?" Jordan asked as I continued to pretend reading my magazine. The woman considered the question for a moment.
"Who, William and I?" She asked with a chuckle. "No…we didn't have much in common…but we made it work…it takes a little patience…"her husband snorted in his sleep next to her, "And sometimes…a lot of cotton balls." She whispered with a chuckle. Jordan and I both smiled at each other teasingly, neither quite sure who the snoring joke was on.
"But see, the two of us…we have nothing in common!" Jordan said
jabbing me in the chest. The woman sat back a little to look at us together.
"Nothing?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
Jordan nodded. "He's from Wisconsin, I'm from South Boston.! He was gonna marry this girl back home, prom queen, probably would have been the dutiful little wife, dinner on the table at 6:30 every night, kids washed and in bed by 7:30, sheets on the bed hung outside on a line to dry and then ironed afterwards! I'm lucky if I eat an actual meal twice a week, I can't even take care of a…a…a…goldfish much less rear the life of another human being…and…and…I don't even own an iron and I smell clothes off of my floor to judge whether I can wear them again! I'm practically a guy!" she said and I was suddenly freaked out on a level I hadn't been earlier. Then, before the woman could respond, I turned to Jordan.
"I don't care if I have to cook dinner or if we have takeout every night. And…and most visions of any kids I might have involve the two of us chasing naked little wild childs around the house at midnight trying to keep them still enough to give a bath…and…and…I have an iron…but I don't use it on BED SHEETS! And as for clothes smelling….well…I could stand to teach you the finer points of weekly wash days…" I said holding Jordan's chin. The woman across the aisle 'ahemed'.
We both turned to look at her.
"You love her?" She asked looking me dead in the eye. I nodded soberly.
"Yes, I do." I said smiling shyly. The woman pointed to Jordan.
"You love him?" She asked and Jordan looked from me to the woman as a smile spread across her face. She nodded.
"Yeah?" she almost asked. The lady clapped her hands together and looked up at the ceiling of the plane.
"Hallelujah, a common thread!" she said and smiled at us. We smiled at each other. "All you need is love." The woman said patting her husband's hand again. "John Lennon and Paul McCartney, very smart men." She said and Jordan and I chuckled, taking each other's hands. I rolled the plastic ring on her finger.
"Oh, and actual engagement jewelry is nice too." The woman said smiling as she laid back her head and closed her eyes. I looked to Jordan for an answer and she nodded with tears in her eyes.
She didn't need to say the words out loud. I trusted that she was telling the truth; after all…I know her heart. And in those past two weeks, she had learned how to listen to it.
THE END