The Understorey
“Oh,” she laughed, clicking the buckle of her seat belt, “sorry.”
I helped her from the truck and carried her basket for her.
It had snowed the night before and had laid an even thicker blanket for us to trudge through. I didn’t mind because it added to the experience. The snowy carpet shone like hidden diamonds in the moonlight. The perfect backdrop for what was to be a lovely night.
It was around ten at night and our parents gave us both permission to stay “at the rock bridge only” until at least two-thirty in the morning. That was pretty generous of them and we happily agreed to keep to the confines of our marble slab. I guess they figured it’d be too cold for clothing to be removed and they trusted us when we said we would stay put.
Jules’ dad had talked to me, last year before Thanksgiving, go figure, about the importance of his daughter staying as she was and I could, in all honesty, look him straight in the eye and agree to keep it that way.
He told me that he might end up liking me after all if I could be man enough to endure the conversation and still look him in the eye afterwards. Though I honestly meant what I said when I agreed to keep her that way, it didn’t change the fact that I was still shivering in my boots when I left that night back to my own home.
The talk sure did make coming around Jules’ house a lot easier. He even trusted us to be alone in their house as long as we promised to stay away from the bedrooms. It wasn’t unheard of for them to come home and find us sprawled out on the living room floor doing homework, or sitting and watching television alone.
When we watched TV, we snuggled pretty closely together but when we heard that key jingle it was our cue to sit up and slightly far apart. That was about as bad as we got, not because I promised her father but because I loved her, so completely and so whole-heartedly. I couldn’t bear to think of taking something that didn’t truly belong to me yet.
Our boots crushed through the knee deep snow and we listened quietly to the rhythm of our own feet. The air still smelled like winter and the sky was a deep, dark blue and freckled with sparkling diamond-like stars.
Occasionally, we heard a few animals here and there scratching, already awake from their winter’s nap. It had been over two months since we had been to the rock bridge and it was surely the sweetest sight for the sorest eyes. I peeked over at Jules with the largest grin on my face and saw her eyes glistening with happiness and a smile that melted my heart into a puddle at my feet.
“You’re so beautiful,” I blurted out.
Her eyes widened and then narrowed at the unexpected compliment. I had, for once, caught Julia Jacobs off guard. I laughed at her and she kissed my cheek before I took her by the waist and set her on the rock.
She spread out the thick blanket and sat down next to the basket. She wriggled herself closer and began to remove everything she’d brought. In several porcelain dishes sat fried chicken, creamed corn, mashed potatoes and biscuits the size of my hand.
“What? Is that what I think it is?”
“Yes it is. My mom went to Babe’s for me in Roanoke and Mary Beth had everything ready to go. She got home right before you picked me up, just in the nick of time. I was afraid we’d have to wait for her to get home and my surprise would have been ruined.”
“You know me so well.”
“The way to your heart Elliott Gray is through your stomach,” she laughed.
“Speaking of surprises, sweetheart,” I said, taking the plate she made for me. “I got you something.”
“Got me something?”
“Well, I had something made for you.”
I pulled a blue velvet bag from my coat pocket and handed it to her.
“I can tell by your facial expression that I’ve caught you off guard. That’s twice in one night missus, you’re losing your touch.”
Jules stuck her hand in the bag and pulled out a white gold three dimensional clasp bangle.
“I had the jewelry maker place raised ranunculus around the top of the cuff. Do you like it?”
Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
“They’re my favorite flower,” she said.
“I know.”
“This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen Elliott. It’s just so....so....”
“You?”
“Yes,” she giggled, through watery eyes. “Very me. Thank you my love.”
She reached for me and hugged my neck tightly.
“Thank you,” she said in a gasp of air, trying to control her emotions.
“But there’s more,” I whispered into her hair. “Yes. Here, let me put it on you.”
I grabbed her small wrist and clasped the bangle together and a sharp intake of breath passed through her lips.
“I discovered something while you were in Mauch Chunk Jules. I was researching surveillance cameras online and needed a pen to write down the models. Anyway, I reached for a pen, the same pen you used to finish your homework a few day before you left, and felt you. A miniature blast of Julia shot up my arm and thrummed through my heart.
“Apparently we can store our current. That pen was a gift from my grandfather to my father and was pure gold. We never noticed it before because I think it can only be stored within gold. So I experimented. I had this made for you and slept with it in my hands for several days. The current can only survive for a few days but it can be recharged.”
“That’s amazing,” she said. “Can we get you one?”
“Ranunculus aren’t a good look for me.”
“Shut up,” she laughed. “You know what I mean.”
“Already done.”
I raised my arm and showed her a leather cuff wrapped around my right wrist. I removed the cuff and showed her that I had a small plate of gold sewed on the inside of the cuff right over the pulse point. Also, I never showed her this, but I had the initials JG, for Julia Gray, etched underneath that plate out of sight on the cuff side. It was a few months premature but I didn’t care. I handed her the cuff and she instinctively tucked it into the hem of her jeans, the gold against the skin of her hip so it could ‘charge’.
I grabbed her face in my hands and kissed her puckered lips.
“I love you Julia Jacobs.”
“And I love you Elliott Gray.”
“I need to tell you something Jules.”
“What’s that sweets?”
“You know that I love you but I don’t think I’ve ever really told you how I love you.”
“Go on.”
I kept her face in my palms, so she could feel my words.
“Did you know that my heart beats from my chest every single time I am close to you? Every time I am in the same vicinity? That each time I witness your chest rise and fall with breath I am grateful beyond belief? That you are everything a person, a woman, should be and that your heart and soul are as pristine as the clean bright glow of your eyes? And that I have never wanted to protect someone so much in my entire life?
“You’ve struck me in ways I didn’t know possible Jules.” I grinned from ear to ear. “I’m happy that you are blind to my faults and even happier that you love me as much as I love you. I can say with absolute certainty that you are the only person in this world that deserves the moon, the ocean and the stars. You are the only exception. You deserve them and if it takes me our entire lives to give them to you I won’t settle until they are yours.”
Then I kissed her softly.
Tears welled in her eyes and she spoke softly into my ear, “When we were small, I remember playing on this very rock bridge. It seems funny now, looking back, I can see just how steeped we were in our destiny even then, unaware of the dormant gift that lay beneath our own skin.
“The first few months we were re-discovering who we were to one another and I often wondered what God had been waiting for when I could have known you as this Elliott all those years, saddened by all the missed love, but as I’d gotten to know you all over again, I uncovered why.
“Time. Time was what He needed to design us as individuals, to sketch us to compliment the other Elliott, as a perfect combination of souls and only time will tell what we are fated to do with it. We are destined for greatness Elliott Gray.
“I can feel it.”
My watch unexpectedly chimed midnight.
There was a single, rapturous kiss.
And a pair of eyes watching us from the cold shadows