Being Jim Ch. 08: Lightning Strikes

I mean I had told her that I would be available to talk or listen if she needed it but how was she to get a hold of me for that? I shouldn't have worried though as I felt her hand squeeze mine and then she stood up from the bench. I took that as my cue to stand as well and we walked back to the car still holding hands the whole way.

As we approached the car, I started to go around to the passenger side to open the door for her again, but she stopped me by just pulling my hand a little and stopped walking. I halted and turned to her.

"Jim. This was nice. Could we... could we maybe do it again sometime?" Kathie said with a bit of a nervous smile on her face but some bit of worry in her eyes.

"I would like that..." I began but she boldly raised her right hand up and touched her fingers to my lips to silence me.

"I'm not looking for promises or setting a date or anything so relax. Let's get you back to your truck, I need to get home anyway. Duty calls. We can talk more tomorrow or whenever." She said smiling. I handed her the keys to the car and opened the driver side door for her, then went around and got in the passenger side.

I played navigator for Kathie directing her to turn north on Richmond road back to town and on down to Chinoe Road then onto Cooper Drive and finally back to the Stadium parking lot. There weren't a lot of cars in the parking lot now that night had fallen so it was easy to spot my truck. I gathered my book bag from the floorboard of the big Ford and went to open my door. I paused for a moment and turned to look at Kathie.

"Kathie... I... Thank you... for..." I stumbled not knowing how to put it into words really.

"I know... I feel the same way." She said smiling with understanding. I smiled and nodded and then climbed out of her car. I turned and before closing the door I said that I would see her soon instead of goodbye. If anything, her smile brightened even more as she waved and drove away. I opened the door to my tuck and climbed in tossing my book bag on the passenger side of the bench seat. I buckled my seat belt and started my truck. I took a long deep breath and smiled at the sensation of my chest swelling with... what was that... hope? What a wonderful feeling I thought as I drove out of the parking lot and headed home to the farm for the evening.

The next day after I got out of my English comp class, I went to the University Library and looked up ALS. The more I learned about it the worse I felt for Kathie and her mom. Frankly, it was depressing. I was finding myself admiring Kathie more and more as a person and not just a beautiful young woman. I just couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity between the two of us whenever I was near her. As I sat there in the library that day, I came to the realization that I wanted more. I wanted to know this girl I wanted to learn everything I could about her... and I felt something that I hadn't felt in literally years... butterflies.

I had been scheduled for dinner rush at Dom's that day but as my store was unusually slow and the campus store was equally unusually busy, the call went out for help. My manager asked if anyone wanted to go help out. I and one other driver from our store opted to go. Again, it was one of those miserable drizzly wet rainy nights that no matter how hard you tried if you were going in and out of it for very long you were going to get wet.

The towel I kept in my truck was almost sodden by the time the rush started to slow down, and my windshield seemed to stay almost constantly fogged up from the steam from the pizzas. After dark that gets aggravating while you're trying to drive in neighborhood streets... especially the darker older neighborhoods where I found myself delivering this last pizza of the rush. I found the house number I was looking for on an older two-story Victorian house with a huge wrap around front porch. I was thankful for the covered porch and for the light on the porch by the front door even if it was dim and yellow.

I hopped out of my truck and grabbed the pizza bag and trotted up to the porch. I took off my hat and shook off the rain, again, and replaced it before pushing the button for the doorbell beside the door. I stepped back and waited patiently for the customer to come to the door. When the door opened, I felt my stomach do a flip as all those reborn butterflies fluttered and took flight. Standing on the other side of the screen door was none other than Kathie... with an eye ee.

"Oh! Jim... I... h... hi..." Kathie stammered when she realized it was me and not some stranger delivering the pizza she ordered. The uncertainty and then the welcoming smile that blossomed on her face was beautiful surprise for me as well.

"Hi yourself... wow! How... how are you?" I stammered in return. I'm sure my face had to look ridiculous with the goofy half confused grin on my face and the adoration and wonder in my eyes.

"A lot warmer and dryer than you are I would think... come in, come in." She said as she held the screen door open with one hand and stepped clear to let me into the house. The Foyer was almost as big as entire dorm rooms and some apartments that I often delivered to. The huge staircase to the left leading upstairs to a landing before turning back on itself to continue up to the second floor was broad and a dark polished hardwood of some sort. The banister was equally huge and ornate with the end post almost as big around as a telephone pole.

There was a small settee along one wall facing a coat rack bench with a mirror in it. The old-style sconce light fixtures would have looked perfectly natural if they had flickered with gas light, but they were electric and lit the foyer warmly. It was the smell that first grabbed my attention however. It overwhelmed the pizza aroma coming from the hot pizza in the bag I was holding. I couldn't quite put my finger on it though, it was familiar but something from my memory... Potpourri maybe? There was definitely a floral scent and something spicy like cinnamon and cloves. There was also a faint but very nice scent coming from Kathie as well... maybe perfume, maybe hair product or something, whatever it was it was clean and floral and very nice.

"Wow! Nice house!" I stammered a bit in awe as I was still taking in the classical stylings of the inside of this older home. "They sure don't build them like this anymore." I added with a touch of admiration.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool huh? I wish we owned it but..." Kathie trailed off as if she were censoring her own words. "Come on this way, I have my purse in the kitchen." Kathie said motioning me to follow her... so I did. Down the hallway that was the foyer to a doorway that led into an equally old-fashioned kitchen. There were white tiles on the floor with a big fleur de lis in blue in the middle of the floor. The back splash along the counters were also in the white tile. The classic white cabinets contrasted a little with the more modern appliances however but overall, it was still quite beautiful. There was an open doorway on the far end of the kitchen from the door we had just come through that appeared to be a darkened den with a TV playing. Kathie had me set the pizza box on the table as she got the money from her purse.

"All this house for just you and your mother?" I asked a little awed by the size and splendor of the old house.

"Well, me, Mom and my Aunt Grace." She said smiling a little. "Come with me, you can meet them right now if you like, they're both just here in the den." She said taking my hand, my left hand as I held the empty pizza bag under my right arm. My whole left arm tingled at her touch and those damned butterflies were whipping up a hell of a storm in my stomach yet. I followed somewhat in a dreamlike state the dozen or so steps into the darkened den.

My eyes adjusted fairly quickly however, and I saw that there were two older women within. One a slightly pudgy but pleasant looking gal with curly blonde hair and a big happy smile sitting in a high-backed wing chair off to the right near a closed off and covered fireplace with a side table and a lamp. She appeared to be working some sort of word puzzle book, a pair of half framed reading glasses perched on her smallish, little nose. To the left of the TV in blanket covered and padded wheelchair was a frail and almost emaciated looking woman that could have been no one else than Kathie's mother. She had the same eyes and dazzling smile and though the hair was fading into grey and silver it was the same untamable long ringlet curly hair as her daughter's.

"Mom, Grace... this is Jim, that boy I told you about who helped me with my car the other night." Kathie announced me by way of introduction... still holding my hand almost possessively. For some reason it just seemed natural and... right. I tucked my empty pizza bag between my legs and extended my right hand first to her mom who reached up with a frail hand and lightly gripped my fingers as she smiled and studied me intently with those intelligent determining eyes that were so like her daughter's.

"Pleased to meet you Jim... thank you so much for helping out my darling Kathie." She said in a surprisingly firm voice for one so apparently frail looking. From my right I heard Grace speak.

"Boy? This is no boy, this is a handsome young man if I've ever seen one." She said as she set her puzzle book aside and stood to greet me properly first with her extended hand that I took to shake cordially, then on a whim or impulse from my past I brought her hand to my lips and kissed the back of her fingers lightly before releasing her hand.

"Oh My!" Grace exhaled slightly taken aback but pleasantly so as she smiled radiantly and looked at Kathie and winked. "Yes, I think he is a keeper dear..." She said as she looked back at me and let one eyebrow rise speculatively before winking at me as well.

"Oh Grace... stop it!" Mom said trying but not successfully hiding a smile of her own. Even in the dim light of the den I could see that Kathie was blushing and I already knew I was blushing I could feel the heat in my face.

"Both of you behave." Said Kathie as she tugged my hand breaking the spell that had been cast somehow. "I just wanted you to meet him, to know that I hadn't made it all up. Jim is working right now, and I had no idea that he would be the one to deliver our pizza... but since he was, I wanted you to meet him." She declared. I suddenly came back to the present realizing that indeed I was still on the clock and I needed to get back to the campus store even if the business had slowed down once more.

"It's been a pleasure to meet you ladies..." I said as Kathie gently pulled me along back into the kitchen and then down the foyer hallway. Stopping once more by the massive staircase by the front door, Kathie released my hand, and I had a sudden sad feeling of loss pass through my arm and those butterflies did somersaults in my belly. Now holding the empty pizza bag with both hands in front of me mostly because it was something to keep my hands occupied with, I was suddenly... well... as usual perhaps, at a loss for words... again.

"That was sweet of you Romeo... kissing Grace's hand like that. Who even does that anymore?" She asked with a quirky grin and a single raised eyebrow as she held onto the banister knewl post with her right hand leaning on it. Her left hand was behind her back as if she didn't know what to do with it after she released my hand from hers.

"I don't know, stuff like that just comes to me sometimes... I hope I didn't embarrass you or anything..." I said sheepishly.

"Oh, not at all, not embarrassed anyway... intrigued maybe, but not embarrassed." She said softly almost as if she had slipped a little with too much information. She tilted her head a bit to her left shoulder then and went on. "Hey, it's still early..." she stated checking her wristwatch. "I'm going to run over to campus after dinner and work on a project for a while. Are you working late or..." she trailed off as her face took on a decidedly pink hue even in the soft lighting of the foyer. I realized that she was asking if I might join her on campus if I could but just couldn't finish the question.

"Actually, I was on loan to this campus store from my store since they were busy, and we weren't. No, I don't have to close tonight so after I get checked out at the campus store, I'm off for the night. I was going to library again myself for a while... but I hear the B&E building has some killer snack machines on the third floor... After I get done with my research I could come over and have a snack with you if you like." I offered knowing I had made the correct assumption when Kathie's eyes lit up and her smile just beamed with happiness.

"Great... Maybe I'll see you on "Phone" before then." She said happily as I took that as my cue to get going and pulled open the front door to leave.

"Okay. I'll log onto "Phone" before I come over to the B&E building then. Catch you later girl... Take care and be careful." I said as I left the house pulling the door closed behind me. I almost skipped back to my truck before returning to the campus Dom's store I was working at.

Indeed, the rush had passed, and it was almost as slow now at the campus store as it had been at my home store location earlier in the evening. Being borrowed help I was thanked of course but one of the first to get checked out and clocked out. I didn't mind at all. I did take a moment to write down the address from the last delivery I had made, to Kathie's house.

I tucked that away in my wallet for safe keeping on the same piece of notepad paper that she had written her phone number on for me not too long ago. As I went to put it back in my wallet, I saw the old tattered plain white business card with the phone number for my former tutors, Maggie and Penny. I had almost forgotten it was even in there. I swallowed a lump in my throat and smiled sadly as I tucked Kathie's information in safely next to it before closing my wallet and returning it to my back pocket.

I changed in the back room of the Campus store of Dom's before going back out in the wet and cold to my truck and driving a couple of blocks over to the big library and finding an after-hours parking spot close to the building. I grabbed my book bag and walked around to the front entrance and began the hunt for the research material that I needed for my paper.

Ordinarily I would happily be lost for hours in the stacks of the library but tonight I was a little hurried as I had plans for later... well... if you can call just raiding a vending machine for some crackers or chips and a couple of sodas and eating them with a pretty and fascinating girl "plans" that is. Still the thought of that almost made me giddy if not a little more impatient with my search for material. I did find what I was looking for and after reading through several references and taking notes and dutifully writing down reference information as instructed, I eagerly closed up my books and put them on the returns cart. I then made my way down the hall to one of the computer terminal rooms to find a machine to use for a few minutes.

Out of habit I scanned all the terminals and even the floor under them for discarded ID/password slips to use but I didn't find any that night. Instead, I had to retrieve one of my collection from my book bag after I had sat down at an unused terminal. I powered up the hardware and then when prompted I typed in the class from the slip and the ID, then when prompted again I entered the password on the slip and there it was... I was logged on to a Spanish 101 lesson module... Now for step two... breaking out of the lesson module and onto the mainframe. I closed my eyes and pushed my right index finger down firmly on a random key, this time it turned out to be the "k" key.

As I held the key down the screen began to fill up slowly from left to right, line after line after line of the letter "k" when the screen was nearly full from top to bottom I released the key and hit the enter button. Of course, this had overloaded the buffer and the routine freaked out with the error and dumped me unceremoniously out onto the main frame with a command prompt patiently waiting for further instructions. I smiled and entered the command to initiate "Phone" and then logged on when prompted. Soon my screen began to fill with chaos.

Chaos as in maybe twenty different conversations going on simultaneously between the various members in the know about "Phone". I saw all the usual suspects. I was assailed with a flurry of greetings from them all.

"Fro!" from Fluffy

"Hi ya Frodov!" From Ozz

"There he is! Hey Fro. Any pizza tonight man?" from Jinx

"No pizza tonight guys." I typed as I tried to pick up and follow the different conversations. Seeing no mention of Kat, I typed in a question. "Has anyone seen Kat on tonight?" That got a flurry of responses from most of the guys of course but no one had seen her on tonight. I thought to myself I must have beaten her online. I lost myself for a while in the inanities and antics of the others in this small little group of misfits and frankly had a pretty good time of it. That old saying about birds of a feather seemed to fit tonight.

Eventually however Kat did log on and of course most of the attention, at least from the guys suddenly focused on her. I sat back and watched with amusement for the most part as they all hinted and openly hit on her flirting and typing innuendoes that Kat deftly fended off, dissuaded or simply ignored, all done with grace and style and class. I really liked this girl, she had substance.

There was a round of cat calls and more innuendo when Kat specifically asked me if I were still going to join her for snacks. I'm sure some imaginations ran wild with that and someone even blatantly asked what kind of "snacks" we were going to "have". I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when before I could even respond Kat typed in "Cracker's and Noneyas" by way of response. Of course, the questioner had to ask what the hell "Noneyas" were. Kat immediately responded with "None of your business." That had the rest of the crowd howling with laughter and ooohs and aaahs. I typed to Kat that I was on my way and then logged off and shut down my terminal. I grabbed my book bag and headed out to the B&E building halfway across campus.

Thankfully, the drizzling rain that had plagued me earlier in the evening had stopped so I stayed dry during my walk across campus. I entered the building and rode the elevator up to the second floor. As the doors opened on the second floor, I was greeted by the sight of Kathie standing before me with her own book bag over her shoulder and smiling happily at me.

"Going up?" She asked playfully. I smiled and nodded, stepping aside so that she could enter the elevator with me. I punched the button for the third floor as the doors began to close behind her. We stood in silence for the few moments it took for the elevator to climb to the next floor but when the door opened, and we stepped out into the hallway Kathie excused herself and said she'd join me in the vending machine room in a moment she had to use the bathroom first. I told her I'd wait for her to make the selections out of the machines.

I was standing in front of one of the machines contemplating my choices between salty potato chips and a seemingly healthier choice of whole wheat crackers when Kathie joined me. She stood beside me at the machine and put her left hand on her hip and cocked her head to her left shoulder while bringing her right hand up and touching her index finger to her bottom lip as if deep in the decision-making process as well.

"Hmmmm... not a lot to choose from is there?" She stated matter-of-factly, then giggled a bit. I couldn't help but to snort a short laugh myself.