“Fine,” I lied.
I pointed to her rib.
“I’m perfectly fine,” she lied. “I know your arm hurts but I think the cold is helping the bleeding.”
She removed all my wet clothes except for my boxers and laid them flat on the stone next to the fire so they could dry enough to get us out of there. She removed her jacket and laid it across my torso, yanked up her sweater and tore massive strips of her camisole off before lowering it back down.
“This is going to be painful my love,” she whispered. “Put your hand on my exposed skin and hopefully our current will dull the pain.”
I smiled crookedly at her and did as she asked. She began to wrap my bleeding wound. She was right, touching her helped tremendously or maybe it was that I was just so glad we were alive and together.
“I. Will. Never. Let. You. Out. Of. My. Sight. Again.” I managed to fight out through wires and a throbbing, shivering jaw.
“Don’t worry,” she said while working, “I won’t ever let you out of my sight again either. You’re not allowed more than a few feet from me at all times, you understand?” She asked, teary eyed.
She worked quietly.
After half an hour, when she felt my clothes were dry enough to walk through the snow, she carefully helped me dress. She had been uncomfortably quiet through that time, periodically checking on my wound. I gave her some space to let her grieve over the awful things that must have happened to her while I laid in that ridiculous hospital bed.
“I love you so much Elliott and when you were shot.......I..........,” she couldn’t finish.
I squeezed her arm with my good hand and gave her a reassuring smile. I reached for her face and delicately brushed my hand underneath her jaw. I started to bring her mouth to mine but she refused.
“Just a second,” she said. “I have to wash Jesse out of my mouth.”
I began to protest but she didn’t care. I knew if she could handle what she must have gone through with Jesse, the temperature of the water would be no challenge at all, so I let her do it.
She cupped her hands underneath a trickling stream of water leaking from a crack in the rock above, washed out her mouth and cleaned off her face. She leaned back over my body and I began where I left off.
I had never kissed Jules this way before. It was a kiss with a multitude of layers. Through that simple kiss I told her everything I wasn’t able to voice. I told her how much I loved her, how thankful I was for her, how thankful I was to her, and what she truly meant to me. I let her know the need I had for her, that my life was meaningless without her, the future that we were destined to have together and the overwhelming requisite to make her my wife.....as soon as possible.
She sat up in surprise.“Of course Elliott,” she smiled through watery eyes.
I smiled and waited for her to explain.
“Of course we’ll marry after graduation.”
My eyes began to match hers and I kissed her softly once more.
“But before we do that, we need to get out of here,” she winked.
She helped me put my coat back on and tied my boots for me and we edged our way up the embankment and followed the same line of trees up to Jesse’s parents’ cabin.
When it came into view Jules was too terrified to continue. I assured her they would find Jesse’s body soon. I guided her toward my truck and kissed her cheek in reassurance. She sighed in relief when she saw it. We brushed at least two feet of snow from the windshield and scraped the little amount of ice there was.
She wouldn’t let me drive, afraid I’d pass out from the loss of blood. She buckled me in and then herself and started the engine. I was glad she insisted on driving as I was already blacking in and out of consciousness. When it purred to life she sighed in relief and threw it in reverse, desperate to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible from anything remotely related to Jesse Thomas.
As we sped down the highway, Jules looked for the nearest hospital. She said she saw a sign on the way up here not too far away for a Davis Memorial Hospital. She said she took note of it, wanting to prepare herself for all possibilities.
We pulled into the snow blanketed parking lot and parked at the covered ambulance entrance to the emergency room before the truck’s heater even had a chance to kick in. The sun was just starting to rise behind us in the brightest red and orange colors.
“I refuse to leave your side,” she said.
I nodded and smirked as if to say I wasn’t going to let her even if she tried.
When the officer, sitting at the small security desk next to a sign that read ‘ER Admittance’, eyes bulged from his head I knew we must have looked something frightful. I couldn’t imagine what we looked like to him, both of us smothered in a sheet of dried blood.
“What happened to you two!” He screamed. His eyes went to my arm. “Hyacinth! Hyacinth! Get a gurney in here! We’ve got a gunshot wound! Smithy get me a wheelchair too!”
A nurse ran to us and asked if there was anything else wrong that we weren’t able to see and I shook my head.
“Yesterday he had his jaw broken by the guy who did this to us and can barely speak,” she said through tears.
“Oh my God,” the nurse said, crossing himself.
Hyacinth helped me onto a gurney and the nurse I assume was named Smithy helped Jules into the wheelchair.
“I can’t leave his side,” she said looking up at Smithy.
“I’m sorry sweetheart but he needs to be examined quickly and will probably be heading to surgery soon. You can’t go with him.”
She stood and firmly, but calmly repeated what she had said, “I told you, I can’t leave his side. You don’t know what we’ve been through,” her voice cracked.
He looked down at us and didn’t argue with her. Jules grabbed my hand and I felt our current’s relief. It made me feel sleepy it was so soothing and thrummed through my muscles and bones. The loss of blood just exacerbated the sensation.
As they examined my wound, I saw two doctors look at Jules’ head. They suspected a mild concussion but nothing major. They asked her to stand but she said she didn’t think she’d be able to. When they asked her why, she said that he had sliced the bottom of her feet so she couldn’t run and I almost lost my cool wishing I had gone ahead and hit him with the bat and cracked open his skull.
I felt awful. I noticed her limping in the snow on the way to my truck but I thought it was in attempt to help me. It made me feel like I was the worst person in the world. I had nothing but a small bullet wound in some muscle. I didn’t have to walk on my wounds. I almost got sick imagining the pain she must have felt with every step she took and my heavy body leaning against hers.
The doctor pulled Jules’ shirt back slightly to look at the ‘E’ carved into her chest and murmured to the nurse beside him that he’d need to put several stitches there as well. When the nurse named Hyacinth, saw the ‘E’ she forced a gasp back into her throat. I saw the doctor’s eyes widen at the extent of cruelty once he left the room, probably to regain the composure that was leaking from his expression while examining her.
Paying attention to Jules was infuriating the doctor examining me and he threatened to separate us. I settled down but never kept my eyes from Jules’. My poor Jules.
Eventually, they insisted we had to separate, so Jules could get a CT scan and have her head bandaged and her feet and chest could be stitched.
I was being prepared for surgery and got the distinct impression I’d wake, from my second surgery in two days, to the hysterical faces of my family lingering above me but what I really wanted when I woke, was Jules in my arms. I didn’t want her to be away from my touch ever again. She was mine to protect and admittedly I hadn’t done a very good job thus far, but that was all going to end. I promised myself.
I woke to the sound of beeps and soft murmurs.
I barely had to lift my lids before Jules said, “He’s awake!”
She leaned towards me, barely r
eaching my face since she was in a wheelchair.
She brushed hair from my face, tears in her eyes, “Hello my love.”
“Hello.Jules.,” I said, kissing her hand.
We were at a loss for words, just stared at each other in total awe of the other.
My mom broke the silence, “Elliott, honey....,” but she couldn’t finish.
“Mom.it’s.okay.”
“No, it’s not okay sweetheart but it will be. We love you baby. We are all so happy to see the two of you alive.”
I scanned the room and piled high to the rafters were our families. I could hear talking in the hall and recognized more family members.
“It’s not allowed but we didn’t care and they didn’t really put up much of a fight considering.....” my dad said.
He stood at the foot of the bed and squeezed my leg. We understood each other so well, no words were necessary. I nodded at him.
Jules’ mom and dad were sitting in the corner, red eyed, looking more tired than even Jules and I did.
Gerry and Ann Jacobs stood and walked to the side of my bed.
“Thank you,” Gerry told me. “Thank you.”
I signaled for a pad and pen.
I confidently wrote, Of course Mr. Jacobs. It’s my destiny to protect Julia, my calling.
“We can see that,” Ann said softly. “We can see that,” a single tear reaching the hand she held so tightly in her own.
Epilogue
A Single, Rapturous Kiss
Eight weeks after surgery and I was almost back to normal. I still had the sling around my shoulder but it was healing nicely. My jaw was no longer wired shut and it was still very difficult to eat but unlike most invalids I’d known, for example, Andy Frasier one of my team’s lineman, my broken jaw hadn’t made me lose weight and I had Jules to thank for that. She kept me well nourished, bringing a hearty soup for lunch every day and a nutritional shake for breakfast.
She picked me up every day before school, except the first couple of weeks, when our parents had to drive us because Jules had to stroll around in a wheelchair. You should have seen her rolling around beside me with my ridiculous jaw and shoulder. We looked insane together.
When things had died out a little bit, my mom insisted we take a picture together to remember our ‘cuteness’ but insisted that ‘as cute as y’all are’ that it better never happen again. I say ‘when things died down’ because our real concerns had only begun to dissipate, at a turtle’s pace I might add, just after the first several weeks.
After an extensive search for Jesse, his body never turned up and Jules would practically beg me not to leave her for the night in fear that he’d return and finish what he started. She was especially fearful when she wasn’t able to stand on her own. She knew that if she ever saw him again that he or she would have to die and she worried that, without me, it would be her.
When my shoulder healed well enough to maneuver how I’d need to in order to sneak into her window at night I would sleep on her floor. Despite the fact it was cold and I was really uncomfortable on her wood floor, the weeks I slept next to Jules were the best because she would drape her hand off the side of the bed and keep it against my arm. It was pure bliss.
Taylor Williams and Marisa Hartford cooperated fully with the police once they knew the extent of Jesse’s damage and escaped with probation and lots of community service. Both, when they saw us for the first time in our battered states, pleaded for our forgiveness, insisting they had no clue what Jesse had really planned. We believed them. We thought them stupid, but we believed them.
According to Danny, Jesse never contacted either of them or his family since disappearing into the water. Taylor kept a very clear distance from us and barely looked in Jules’ eyes. Marisa, on the other hand, offered apologies often. Eventually, I had to tell her that she was forgiven and forbidden to apologize again or I’d yell at her. She laughed and said she would never ask again but that she was going to make it up to us. I didn’t even want to know what she meant by that but nodded anyway just to get her off our case.
Jules and I thought about visiting Jesse’s mom and dad but knew that it would be inappropriate, causing them additional pain they really didn’t need but we still wanted them to know that we didn’t blame them, not in the slightest. They were good people who just happened to have a messed up son. We saw them at the grocery store once, together, and nodded with a solemn smile. They returned the favor but with tears in their eyes.
Danny told us to move on.
“Jesse drowned in that water boy. Stop creating problems for yourself. Live your life. Enjoy your girl,” he finally demanded of me after weeks of me hounding for details on the open case. I knew he was working hard to find him and just wanted us to try getting some peace from the whole ordeal.
I knew that, more than likely, Jesse had drowned in the freezing water that day but it haunted me that they couldn’t find his body. I tried really hard to focus on living life but it was difficult with the hole in my shoulder staring back at me in the mirror every day.
After two months, though, and Jesse never showing, Jules and I started to become a lot more comfortable and eventually we thought about him less and less.
While I was recovering in the hospital, Jules and I had to spend New Year’s Eve with our families inside my hospital room. Let’s just say, it wasn’t the most romantic night of our lives. So, Jules and I had decided that once we were well enough, we would go to the rock bridge and celebrate the New Year on our own.
“We’ll just pretend,” she grinned as I drove, for the first time since our injuries, toward the creek. “I have a surprise for you too.”
“Surprising me again at the rock bridge Jules?”
“I guess so,” she mused.
Jules had her picnic basket full to the brim and I couldn’t wait for our little party to start.
“That basket better be full of food honey. I’ve been deprived of some awesome stuff and I’m tired of waiting,” I teased.
“No worries!” She said patting the side of the basket, “I have you covered Elliott. Trust me. It’s all warm too. It was a lot of work but worth it. It’s a late Christmas gift as well.”
I brought a gift for you too, I smirked to myself before my thoughts turned one hundred and eighty degrees to answer.
“You’re surviving was gift enough for the rest of our lives,” I shuddered. “How’s the scar?” I whispered.
“Healing.”
Jules didn’t like talking about the night at Blackwater Falls. I didn’t blame her and didn’t want to push her, but I wanted to make sure she was moving on in a healthy way so I would periodically bring it up to her. ‘Healing’ was a better answer than the shrug she had given me last time. It was progress so I dropped it at that.
“Jules?” I asked
“Hmm?” she answered, her eyes staring at the trees along the road, distracted by her thoughts.
“We’re here, love.”
“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 co
uld 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.”