Chapter Two: Notes and Papers
The days passed at the pace of continental drift and there was every chance we'd be in a new geologic period before the week was out. Each minute felt like a year. Each hour felt like a decade. But finally, it was Thursday once more.
I made my exit from school in what could be viewed as indecent haste. I'd never previously left before five o'clock and now here I was, lining up to get out of the parking lot with the other students. I'd rushed past Bill Greene, the Principal with the excuse that I had a Doctor's appointment. Why I needed to explain myself when I was perfectly entitled to leave, I had no idea. It was all part of the scrambled egg that was my brain right now.
Once home, I fixed myself some coffee before settling down to do my preparation for tomorrow. That out of the way, I graded some papers and as I worked, I urged the clock to move faster. Lyra came and helped, in that special way cats have, of sitting on your work. But tonight her little foibles could not irritate me; I was excited about seeing Daniel again.
On the stroke of six I stopped work and threw some leftovers into the oven to heat whilst I took a shower. I dried my hair and left it to hang loose. I rarely wore it down, my default was to pin it up in a simple twist anchored with a large barrette. My straight chestnut-brown hair had been the same style forever; shoulder length, with bangs cut in and a centre parting. In California this summer it had picked up some red tones, which I liked. I thought I might get some red highlights put through for the winter and I wondered what Daniel would think of that and then smacked my brush down on the dressing table. I rested my elbows on the table and cupped my forehead in my hands. What the hell was I doing?
"Stop it," I chastised myself. I looked in the mirror; my cheeks were red from the hot shower and my eyes were bright with the excitement of what was to come. This wasn't good for me, I needed time to get the other bits of my life working right before I let a guy back in. I'd email him and tell him I was quitting; I could do astronomy another time. I clicked my email and composed a brief message to Daniel. My cell phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Stephanie? Hi, it's Daniel Mitchell." He even had a voice like heaven.
"Oh!" I said, too brightly and then made it a whole heap worse. "We're still on for tonight aren't we?" I smacked my palm against my forehead. I might just as well have said 'come round, we'll skip the star-gazing and go straight to bed.' Worse, Daniel picked up on it, I distinctly heard him chuckle.
"Yes, although I was calling because there's rain forecast and I wondered if you could make it a half hour earlier?"
This time I reined it in. "That's fine." I replied. I was cool, I was nonchalant; I was the Ice Queen.
"I'll see you later then. Don't forget to wrap up warm."
"I won't. See you later."
I hung up and pressed delete on the email I'd been about to send. I cringed, I'd been an idiot. Oh well, that would cement my year off men. He'd avoid me like the plague now.
I pulled into the parking lot ahead of a gleaming black Jaguar. It pulled up beside me and Daniel got out of it. It was a beautiful car for a beautiful man and as I watched him walk to the trunk, I thought his choice of car was appropriate because there was something very cat-like about him. Adrenaline flooded my system and my heart thumped in my chest. I shoved my hat on my head, pulled my gloves on and got out of the car.
I went over to help; he was pulling telescopes and stands out of the trunk. This close to him, my body alternated between desire and fear, never settling on one and confused by the presence of the other. He glanced up, said hello and smiled at me. My system responded by settling on fear. What was up with me?
Other cars pulled up and from them came Anthony, Marie, Seth, Will and Jane. I picked up one of the telescopes and walked over to the viewpoint; Marie fell into step beside me. She'd barely said a word last Thursday so I thought perhaps things with Anthony weren't great this week, but that turned out to be wrong. She made all the conversation tonight, so I guessed that she was just a little less confident than Anthony was. Marie asked the usual questions: What I did, about my family and so on. I'd never really given it much thought; but now, telling a complete stranger that my life was essentially grading papers and clearing up cat vomit; it really didn't sound so good. I should invent a life that didn't bore meto death, let alone anyone else. She told me that she and Anthony had graduated last year but they hadn't decided what they were going to do yet.
"Did you always want to be a teacher?" She asked.
"No," I replied. "I ended up doing it because of a guy." Scott had been the reason I'd stayed on to get my teaching qualification. Of course, he'd promptly bailed and went to do something different. I should've known right there how things would end up. I scoffed and looked at her. "Make sure you never end up doing something just because a guy does; they're not worth it."
"I'll try and remember that. I take it you and him aren't together anymore?"
"Not since the summer, when he decided that work was more important than me." I opened up the support frame of the telescope and cut my knuckle on a sharp bit of metal. "Ow!" I yelped. Blood pooled instantly and I put the bleeding finger into my mouth. Anthony appeared in front of me.
"I have a first aid kit in the car if you'd like a Band Aid for that?" I nodded and followed him.
We passed Daniel overseeing Will setting up his telescope. I decided I should tell him where I was going. I pulled the bleeding finger out of my mouth. "I'm just getting something for my finger. I cut it."
He looked alarmed and Anthony said something to him that I couldn't quite hear. I tried to reassure him so I pulled my finger out of my mouth again and waved it at him. "I'm fine!" I said, beaming. His expression went from alarmed to horrified. By his side Will shared his expression. Did everyone around here have a fear of blood? I looked at my finger. They could have a point though; it was almost gushing. I put my knuckle back in my mouth and followed Anthony to his car. I hoped this didn't mean that I'd need to go to the hospital.
From the glove box Anthony pulled a large first aid kit and donned a pair of plastic gloves.
"My father's a Doctor." He explained. That would explain the Volvo, no kid his age would be seen dead driving one of these. Thankfully for me some of his Dad's medical training had rubbed off. He got me to press on the wound with a gauze pad until it stopped bleeding.
I sat on the passenger seat of the car. It was a top of the range model with a black leather interior and from the smell, still very new. Anthony was calm in a way that reminded me of how Dad had been when I fell and cut my knees. He said very little, glancing back over to the group as they were working. Overhead, the bad weather was starting to roll in from the west. It would in time obscure our view, but before that I was hoping to focus on the constellation of Taurus.
I was curious why Anthony had chosen to join this group. He didn't come across as your typical teen. I couldn't see any of my seniors doing this. The only stars they'd ever want to look at were the kind you saw on TV or in the movies.
"What made you come here?" I asked.
He took my hand and removed the gauze swab. It wasn't quite done bleeding yet, so he had me put the pressure back on.
"Marie wanted to come; she's been watching too much 'Wonders of the Universe'." He laughed. "But I find it interesting too. I haven't looked down a telescope in a very long time, so it's nice to reacquaint myself with it. You?"
"Much the same. Too much TV and I used to do this with Dad. It reminds me of him."
"I heard you telling Marie that you're a teacher?"
"Yes. At Forks High. I've been there a year."
"You like it?"
"Yes, but wish there wasn't so much of it. So you've just graduated and you don't know what you want to do yet?"
"We're taking time out. There's plenty of time to go to College."
"All the time in the world?"
He smiled gently. "Something like that."
I laughed. "Young people, I love how they think they're immortal."
"You're hardly old, Stephanie."
"I'm older than you." He gave an enigmatic smile. "I like being older." I continued. "I want to be as old as my Mom; she's at that 'I could care less,' age.
"What age is that?"
"Fifty."
"Marie's Dad's right there."
"So he spends a lot of time shouting at the TV and slobbing around in his pyjamas?"
"The first one yes, I think he's working on the second. Let's have a look at this again." He removed the gauze. "It's stopped."
Anthony cleaned and dressed my knuckle and we walked back to join the others. He went immediately to Marie and they welded themselves back together. Daniel was still discussing things with Will, so I went over to my telescope and using some pointers in the sky picked out Taurus, focussing on the star Aldebaran. My knuckle started to throb and that wasn't the only thing that was sore. My ego was bruised, because Daniel wasn't coming anywhere near me. My earlier indiscretion on the phone, had been a warning that he'd taken seriously. During the evening he barely acknowledged me, managing only a cursory check on what I was doing, followed at the end by a perfunctory 'thank you', 'see you next week' and 'goodbye'.
As his Jaguar swung out of the parking lot, I sat alone in the pitch dark. I shouldn't feel like this, but I did. I didn't want a guy this year, but perhaps it wasn't for me to decide what the stars had in store? Life is what happens when you've made other plans, right? That's how the saying went. But this was ruined before it even had a chance. He was out of my league for one thing. Angels didn't date mortals and certainly not High School teachers. I didn't have a hope in hell.
In the morning I felt as if I'd been run over by a truck. I hadn't slept well and it was all Lyra's fault. At around two thirty, she'd started yowling and hissing. I got up, scoured the apartment but found nothing. I managed to get back to sleep at around four but that was a bad move. I woke an hour later with my alarm feeling so bad that I was almost tempted to call in sick. But I had a full day of classes, so I dosed myself up on strong coffee and got moving.
The day was relentless. My energy levels were on the floor and I was sure that if I closed my eyes I'd fall asleep right where I stood. I walked back to my room towards the end of lunch and picked up a note on my desk. There would be no falling asleep today. Not even perhaps tonight.
Stay away from Daniel Mitchell.
The message was written in blue ink on a piece of lined paper torn from a spiral bound notebook. There was nothing else on the paper, not even my name.
Three things came to mind. The first was 'why?' It was customary to give a person a reason for doing or not doing something. To not give me the reason was maddening. Secondly, there was absolutely no need for them to give me this message, as I'd already dealt with it in my own spectacularly crass way. Daniel Mitchell wouldn't be coming anywhere near me apart from during astronomy sessions. Thirdly, how did someone here know that knew Daniel Mitchell? I'd told no one. The only people who were aware that I knew him, were the five other people in my astronomy group. None of them lived in Forks as far as I knew and I hadn't seen Jane here; she looked a little young to be at this school. My eyes darted around the room, suddenly worried that I was being spied on.
I went back out into the hallway but it was empty. I stuck my head into Jim's room next door. He wasn't back yet. It was highly unlikely he'd have seen anything; Jim Sidari wasn't in his room a second longer than he needed to be on any given day. I looked again at the note and tried to work out who the handwriting belonged to. A woman and it could be a girlfriend, an ex-girlfriend, a wife or an ex-wife warning me off. A man and it could be a boyfriend or perhaps… Perhaps Daniel wasn't good news? Perhaps I should check the FBI's most wanted list and keep a keener eye on the local news reports.
I was pursuing this line of thought when there was a knock at my door. I looked up to see Jess Taylor and Ness Masen.
"Yes?"
"We're playing at The Shed in Port Angeles tomorrow night," said Jess, handing me a flyer. "We wondered if you'd like to come along?"
I looked at the details; it'd be a great excuse to go out and wasn't too far from me. But then reality hit. Who would I go with?
"Thanks, but I don't have anybody to go with." I admitted.
"I'll go with you." Mike Newton was standing in the doorway, the same flyer in his hand. "I was coming over to see if you'd be interested in going." He smiled at the girls. "I missed you at the Civic Anniversary; I hear you're really good."
"Yes, we are." Said Jess, although she didn't sound entirely convinced about that. She looked at Ness for support.
"So, how about it?" Mike pressed. "Do you want to go?"
It was a night out, Mike was a nice guy and we got on well. He was no Daniel, but Daniel wasn't an option for many reasons.
"Yes." I said. "Why not?"
Ness gave a squeak and coughed. "Sorry, allergies." She said and turned away coughing as Jess patted her back.
I turned back to Mike as the bell sounded for the end of lunch. "I'll speak to you about it later. OK?" He nodded and walked out of the room. I turned back to the girls. Jess was looking at me with a deeply furrowed brow. "Is something the matter?" I asked.
"Mr Newton? Oh come on, you can do better than that."
I was instantly defensive, this was twice today that someone had expressed their opinion about men that I liked and frankly, I didn't care for it.
"I don't see that my private life is any of your business, Miss Taylor."
Ness took Jess's arm. "Come on." She said softly, pulling her friend away.
Jess looked sad. "I'm sorry." She said, very genuinely. "You're right. It's none of my business." Jess allowed herself to be guided out of the room. As they got to the door, Ness turned back to me, her expression was one of pleading. Oh no… what had I done?
At the end of last semester, Jess had been attacked and raped. She'd spent several weeks in a clinic being treated for post-traumatic stress and I had just trampled all over her with my size eights, forgetting that she might not be emotionally ready for people being harsh with her. I rushed out into the hallway and ran after the two of them. They were stood up against the wall; Jess was resting her head on Ness's shoulder.
I spoke hesitantly. "Jess?" She looked at me, her face full of anxiety. "I'm so sorry for snapping at you, I forgot. Forgive me?"
Jess looked momentarily confused. "No, it's fine, really. I shouldn't have passed comment on your choice of bloke. You're right; it's none of my business who you go out with. This is… other stuff."
"I'm sorry anyway. I shouldn't have said that. It's been an odd day. I'm looking forward to coming and seeing you play."
"Yeah? You must come, we're really good!" She seemed more confident this time. "Ness has got a brilliant voice." She hugged her friend.
"You should get to class." I sighed. "I have the joy of tenth grade."
"Lucky you." Jess grinned. "We have English."
"Swap?" I laughed.
"No, I'm crap at the Civil War, remember?"
I shook my head. "Not any more. Your last paper was excellent, almost like being there." Jess had done very well in a few short weeks, to close the gaps in her knowledge of American history, which arose from being brought up on the other side of the Atlantic.
"Was it?" She blushed and then the two of them started sniggering.
I took a guess. "You didn't copy and paste it off the internet?" I narrowed my eyes at them.
"No, but I did have help." Her eyes sparkled with mirth at not sharing the secret with me.
"You do know that the school has a zero tolerance policy to plagiarism?"
"I didn't copy anything," she said seriously. "That's the truth. I just talked to a couple of people who are really knowledgeable about the Civil War."
Jess's paper was completely original. The books she'd used had been cited, but the colour and detail she'd added had really brought it alive. It was the best thing she'd ever produced for me, the best thing anybody had ever produced for me. It was way beyond high school level. "As long as that's all it was. Anything else and I'll have to re-grade it."
"There wasn't." Jess fixed me with a steady look.
These weren't girls who had ever spun me a yarn, so I had no reason to doubt either of them. "OK. Well, you'd better go." The pair darted off down the hall. I walked back to my class and into the searing joy of teaching a group of tenth graders stuff they didn't want to know. I kicked my door closed, screwed up the warning note and dumped it into the trash.
That evening I smoothed the crumpled piece of paper back out. Since lunchtime my thoughts had coalesced into two main concerns. Why did I need to keep away from Daniel and who out there knew that I was attracted to him anyway? I hadn't told anyone about him and that, more than anything concerned me deeply. Was somebody around here reading minds?
I slept fitfully that night, churning over scenarios in my head. By the small hours of the morning, Daniel Mitchell was America's Most Wanted; with an ex-wife and a brood of blond-haired kids chasing after him. They starved whilst he rode around in a fancy car and taught Astronomy. Let's face it; he was a teacher and he was driving around in a Jaguar XF? There were questions right there and lying awake wasn't going to get them answered. This was the twenty first century and pretty much every question could be answered and every person found from an internet search engine.
I got out of bed and booted up my laptop while I made coffee for myself and fed Lyra. She was still skittish after whatever had spooked her on Thursday night. I glanced at my calendar open on the desk and noticed, with misgivings that I was due to meet a realtor this morning to view some houses in Port Angeles. I wasn't in any shape to be making decisions about houses after two broken nights. Still, I needed to start somewhere.
Into the search box I typed "Daniel Mitchell" and back came forty nine million results. I saw academics, actors, economists, models, theologians, comedians, photographers, doctors and every profession under the sun; but no astronomers. I clicked the images tab and scanned those. There was nobody like Daniel; although there were some beautifully honed male torsos on display, which at this hour of the morning was a little much, even for me. I narrowed my search and put in "Daniel Mitchell Port Angeles". That yielded absolutely nothing. I tried other places on the peninsula: Bremerton, Forks, Sequim, Port Townsend; but whatever I put in gave nothing back. There were plenty of men called Daniel, but not the one I was looking for.
Of course, this was only one line of enquiry and I was starting from the assumption that he was from around here. There was every chance he wasn't. Perhaps he'd just moved here, fleeing the ex-wife and four kids. In that case, using a search engine to try and find him would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
I kept at the search for a while longer; going through the major cities of the Pacific Northwest. I checked the FBI's most wanted, but he wasn't on there. I didn't in all honesty expect him to be. I checked Police Department after Police Department list, but I found nothing. In the end I sat back and laughed at my idiocy.
"Why don't you just ask him about it?" I said to no one in particular. Even Lyra didn't raise her head to that. All this trawling through web pages was lazy, I should talk to him, start with something innocuous like 'away from teaching astronomy, what do you do?' Of course, with the implications of the note, I might not get a true answer. That was the fear.
But I couldn't stay here all morning I had an appointment to keep. I breakfasted, jumped in the shower, got dressed, grabbed my purse and headed out, stopping by my favourite coffee place on the way.
It was quiet for this early on a Saturday, just a smattering of people in here reading papers. I glanced around as I walked up to the counter and my heart stopped. My feet nearly did too. There in the corner, with a tiny cup of espresso and reading a newspaper, was Daniel. My heart re-started and did back-flips.
He wasn't looking my way, so I pretended I hadn't seen him and placed my order. My head wouldn't settle: I wanted to speak to him and I didn't want to speak to him. I was afraid of him and I was attracted to him. I was intrigued by him and part of me wanted to run the hell away! I decided I wouldn't speak and focused instead on the new winter specials board behind the counter.
The Barista took forever to get my coffee, but finally I got it, turned deliberately to the right (away from Daniel), and walked towards the door. But he was suddenly there holding it open for me. He had a beautiful smile on his face and dammit, even his teeth were awesome. I couldn't avoid him now.
"Good morning!" He said cheerily. His smile made me want to both melt into his arms and run away screaming. How very odd.
"Hi!" I replied. My rabbit-in-the-headlights reaction glued me to the floor in the doorway, blocking the exit. Someone cleared their throat behind me and as I took a step towards Daniel to get out of their way, I reeled. My goodness what cologne was he wearing? It was incredible! I felt my knees go and he cupped my elbow, steadying me.
"Are you OK?" He asked, concerned. "Here, sit down." He guided me into the nearest chair and sat down at an adjacent table. I was breathing heavily, my heart was racing and as much as I thought this was to do with how stunningly gorgeous he was, another feeling took over; panic. This was a panic attack! "Have you eaten this morning?" He asked. I nodded, not able to speak and fearful of looking him in the eye. "Do you want me to see you home?" He asked.
"No!" I almost shouted. I didn't want him to know where I lived and then I remembered my manners. "I have an appointment." I added.
"You don't look well. Perhaps you should call and re-arrange it?"
I shook my head. "No, I'm fine." Well, I had been fine, up until the moment I had taken that step towards him. Now I was panicking. Where was this coming from? I wasn't an anxious or nervous person, but Daniel made me both for some reason. I got up and grabbed my coffee. "I have to be going." I muttered and bolted out of the door into the grey misty morning.
As I walked the couple of blocks to the realtor's office, I turned over the escapade in my head, weighing up the confusion between attraction and anxiety. I came back to the note and decided that I wouldn't view it as someone warning me off but as someone looking out for me. I would take their advice and stay away.