Melinda’s Story

It was about ten minutes to curfew, as we were driving back to campus, when Pat’s phone started honking. When he passed it to me, I read the address aloud.

Pat shook his head. “Put it in maps. I have no idea where that is.”

I did as he asked, securing the phone to the dash mount before pulling out my own.

He sent me a curious look. “Who are you calling?”

I didn’t answer. The phone was already ringing.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Clarissa. We were on our way back to campus and we just got a text for a pickup.” The DMH phone beeped again. “And, oh! There’s a second one.”

“Okay. Please be careful and call me in thirty minutes, okay?”

“We will.”

Pat turned to me as I put my phone away. “What was that about?”

“Clarissa wanted me to check in at curfew.”

I saw his eyes turn to the clock. He swore. “We need to pick up Mrs. Lindgren. Can you call her? Put it on speaker. The number’s in my phone.”

I dialed the number for the community service director and it rang through the car’s speakers. A moment later, she answered.

“Hello, Pat. How’d it go tonight?”

“It was eerily quiet. Now that we’re heading back to campus, we got two calls.”

Mrs. Lindgren sighed. “Where are you now?”

Pat told her our location, mentioning we were driving away from campus.

“Okay. Call me when you return.”

“Will do.”

“Do you need to call your advisor?” I asked as he ended the call.

“Probably, but I don’t have his number. It shouldn’t be too big a deal, though. He knows I’m out and I’ll check in when I get back.”

The two texts had come from the same address. It turned out to be a fairly isolated house set back from the road. We could barely see it as we pulled into the long driveway lined with cars.

When we reached the house, I saw two girls in short skirts and skimpy tops with no jackets, both shivering on the front stoop. I rolled down my window as Pat pulled into the grass to turn around.

“Did one of you call for a ride?”

“I did,” answered both girls in unison.

I nodded my head towards the back. “Hop in.” I turned up the heat in the rear as Pat, his watch cap low so as not to be recognized, came around to open the door for them.

The first girl, with bouncy golden curls that reminded me of Goldilocks, thanked Pat as she climbed into the car. She was followed by a petite girl with hair green enough to make a leprechaun envious. Goldilocks began talking before Pat had even closed the door.

“Marty Kember is having a rager tonight.”

Leprechaun nodded. “My boyfriend brought me.”

“I came with my friend Lydia.”

I got a mental image of the Lydia in my CCD class who had dyed her hair blue right before Thanksgiving.

Leprechaun rolled her eyes. “So, my boyfriend was all over this girl with blue hair.”

“Lydia!”

“So, they’re up in a bedroom and I don’t wanna go home with him.”

“And I’m mad at Lydia for ditching me.”

Pat smiled at me from the driver’s seat without turning around. “Um, where am I going?”

The girls both recited their addresses, which I plugged into the map app. We dropped off Leprechaun and were almost at Goldilocks’s house when Pat’s phone signaled another incoming text.

I added the new stop to the GPS, glad it was only a couple of miles from Goldilocks’s home. We found a scared middle schooler standing in front of the garage at the end of a long driveway. She climbed into the car cautiously before Pat could get out to open it for her.

“Thanks for picking me up. My parents aren’t home. My mom said to text you guys if I had to.”

“Where should I take you?” Pat asked gently without turning around.

The girl gave her address as I typed it into the map app. I turned to face her.

“So, what’re you doing out so late?”

“I was babysitting. My parents’ friends have a five-year-old girl, Charlotte? She’s so sweet. But when they got home, Mr. McHatton smelled like he’d been drinking. My mom told me I should never get in someone’s car if I think they’d been drinking.”

I nodded. “That’s why we’re here.”

The girl spent most of the time telling me about what she had done to entertain her charge until bedtime. Finally, we pulled up to her house. I smiled at her.

 “Are you going to be able to get in?”

“Yeah. I have the garage code. Thanks so much!”

I waved and Pat waited for the girl to close the garage door behind her before pulling out of the driveway and heading back to campus. I waited a couple of blocks before breaking the silence.

“Hey, Pat?”

“Hmm?” His eyes never left the road. Was he uncomfortable driving so late at night? Or was he just uncomfortable being with me?

“Since we’re already late, can we pull over somewhere?”

He didn’t smile, but he found a grocery store parking lot to pull over. The store was closed, but a handful of cars scattered the lot. He turned off the car and finally faced me.

“Are we okay?”

I nodded. “We are. Are you?”

“I’m scared to touch you.”

“I know. And my ankle is in my way, or I’d be trying to get closer to you right now. Please hold me.”

He put his arm around me so gingerly, I felt more distant than when he wasn’t holding me. I did my best to inch closer to him, resting my hands on his chest and looking into his eyes.

“I love you.” I brought my lips to his. He pulled me slightly closer, and I fingered his hair. But we didn’t stay that way for very long. He rested his forehead against mine.

“I love you, too, Daphne.”

I played with his hair absently. “See? You can kiss me and not lose control.”

“Thank you.” He squeezed me one last time before starting the car.

“For what?”

“For knowing I needed that last kiss tonight.” He pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards home.

---

It was way past curfew when we finally returned to campus. Pat dropped me off in front of my dorm before parking near his. I did my best to tiptoe into my room, but the crutches made it nearly impossible. Even though it was after midnight, which was technically lights out, Sarah seemed to have been waiting up for me.

She sat up, turning on her bedside lamp as she spoke in a loud whisper. “There you are! Melissa did bed checks, and I had no idea where you were. She said she had already spoken to Clarissa. Oh, I hope you don’t get a Sunday D.”

“It’s okay. I called Clarissa an hour ago when I knew I’d be late. I just checked in with her when I got back. I don’t have detention.”

“That’s good.” Sarah sighed, turning so her back was against the wall as I changed for bed. “So, where were you?”

“Long story. I’d rather hear about the dance.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Sarah crossed her arms across her chest.

“Ohh-kaay.” I was certain Sarah did want to talk, but I decided to humor her. “So Pat and I went out to eat.”

“We broke up!”

“Huh? You and Larry? Why?”

“He doesn’t love me!”

“I’m confused.” I sat on my bed. “Start at the beginning.”

Sarah sighed. “I told Larry how I took an online quiz that said I loved him. He said he didn’t know if he loved me back. I suggested he take the quiz, and he got all upset. Said something like a stupid online quiz can’t tell you anything about love. He started saying other things, like we’re too young to be in love. What else? I dunno. He just seemed to get really upset by the idea and after a lot more stuff I really didn’t understand because I was crying, he walked away. Left me right by the punch dispensers. I had to walk back to the dorm alone.”

“I’m so sorry! Come here. I can’t get up. I wanna give you a hug.”

Sarah smiled as she came to sit beside me. I held her, stroking her hair gently while she cried.

A few minutes later, she sat up with a sniffle. “Thanks. I’ll be okay. Tell me about your night. Where were you?”

“So, Walter found this volunteer taxi program. Like, there’s this girl we picked up tonight who had been babysitting and the dad came home and she didn’t want him driving her home because she was sure he had been drinking. She couldn’t call her parents because they weren’t home. So, she called us and we brought her home. Couple of other girls, too, whose dates stranded them. The calls came around curfew, so I called Clarissa to let her know I would be late.”

Sarah sent me a confused look. “How’re you giving people rides home? And I thought Walter was at the dance.”

“What? No. Walter found the program for Pat. Pat’s uncle dropped off his car last week. I volunteered, too. We went out last Saturday, too.”

“So, you basically spent your night in your boyfriend’s car?”

“Well, yeah,”

Sarah just shook her head. “And? You said you didn’t have to pick anyone up until curfew. What’d you do the rest of the night?”

“We grabbed subs at Barneys. Ate them in the car. Played cards.”

Sarah smirked. “So, you and your boyfriend spent the night in his car and you didn’t even make out?”

“Well, maybe a little.”

Sarah yawned, and I glanced at the clock. “I gotta get up for church in the morning.”

Sarah nodded, returning to her own bed and turning off her light. “Maybe we can hang out tomorrow. No boys.”

“Works for me. But not until after breakfast. Pat needs to drive me to church and Walter needs to tell me about his date.”

“Zayne was so gorgeous in that dress. They looked so cute together.”

“I’m sorry about you and Larry.”

Sarah didn’t respond, but I didn’t think she had fallen asleep.

Pat’s Story

We played several games, including some new ones she taught me, before I decided we should head back. We were on the edge of campus when my phone honked several times. I passed it to Melinda, and she read me the address.

“Put it in maps. I have no idea where that is.”

She did, returning my phone to the mount before pulling out her own phone.

“Who are you calling?”

She didn’t answer me. Was she still mad about before? Had she suddenly started giving me the silent treatment?

I overheard enough to realize she had called her advisor. As they spoke, my phone honked again, but I couldn’t check the address while I was driving. I waited for Melinda to hang up.

“What was that about?”

“Clarissa wanted me to check in at curfew.”

I glanced at the clock. It was about five minutes to curfew. I swore. “We need to pick up Mrs. Lindgren. Can you call her? Put it on speaker. The number’s in my phone.”

Melinda found the number on my phone and pressed send. The phone was connected to the car’s bluetooth system. Mrs. Lindgren picked up on the second ring.

“Hello, Pat. How’d it go tonight?”

“It was eerily quiet. Now that we’re heading back to campus, we got two calls.”

Mrs. Lindgren sighed. “Where are you now?”

“Meadow Street? We’re heading away from campus.”

“Okay. Call me when you return.”

“Will do.”

When I hung up, Melinda turned to me. “Do you need to call your advisor?”

“Probably, but I don’t have his number. It shouldn’t be too big a deal, though. He knows I’m out and I’ll check in when I get back.”

The two texts had come from the same address, a house set back from the road. When I got to the house, there were two girls in short skirts and skimpy tops with no jackets, both shivering on the front stoop. Melinda rolled down her window as I turned around in the grass.

“Did one of you call for a ride?”

“I did,” answered both girls in unison.

“Hop in.”

As Melinda closed her window, I jumped out of the car, pulling my ski cap low so the girls wouldn’t recognize me as I held the door for them. Both girls slid in.

“Marty Kember is having a rager tonight,” said the girl in the black skirt, who was almost falling out of her top.

The other girl, whose skirt was so short, I could see her thong, interrupted. “My boyfriend brought me.”

“I came with my friend Lydia.”

Short Skirt rolled her eyes. “So, my boyfriend was all over this girl with blue hair.”

“Lydia!”

“So, they’re up in a bedroom and I don’t wanna go home with him.”

“And I’m mad at Lydia for ditching me.”

These girls were a riot. I smiled at Melinda. “Um, where am I going?”

The girls both recited their addresses, which Melinda plugged into the map app. We had dropped off Short Skirt and were almost at Small Top’s house when the phone signaled another incoming text.

Melinda added the new stop to the map. It wasn’t far. When we got there, we saw a scared girl about the same age as my younger cousins standing in front of the garage at the end of a long driveway. She climbed in before I could open the door for her.

“Thanks for picking me up. My parents aren’t home. My mom said to text you guys if I had to.”

I didn’t turn around, but watched her in my mirror. I tried to keep my voice gentle. She was obviously nervous. “Where should I take you?”

Melinda typed the address into my phone as the girl recited it, then turned to face the backseat.

“So, what’re you doing out so late?”

“I was babysitting. My parents’ friends have a five-year-old girl, Charlotte? She’s so sweet. But when they got home, Mr. McHatton smelled like he’d been drinking. My mom told me I should never get in someone’s car if I think they’ve been drinking.”

“That’s why we’re here.”

The girl spent most of the time telling Melinda about what she had done to entertain her charge until bedtime. When we arrived at the house, I waited for the girl to close the garage door behind her before pulling out of the driveway. We were about halfway back to campus when Melinda touched my arm.

“Hey, Pat?”

“Hmm?” I didn’t look at her. What if she wanted to break up with me?

“Since we’re already late, can we pull over somewhere?”

I passed a grocery store and pulled into the parking lot. A dozen or so cars were scattered around, even though the store’s interior lights were off. It wasn’t the best place for us to break up, but at least it was more secluded than being on campus. I parked under a streetlamp and turned to her.

“Are we okay?”

I was surprised when she nodded. “We are. Are you?”

“I’m scared to touch you.”

“I know. And my ankle is in my way, or I’d be trying to get closer to you right now. Please hold me.”

I put my arm around her carefully, as if she would break with the slightest touch. She inched closer, resting her hands on my chest and looking into my eyes.

“I love you.” She kissed me and I pulled her closer. Her fingers were in my hair, but I couldn’t touch her. I was too scared.

I was also aware of the time. I rested my forehead against hers. “I love you, too, Daphne.”

“See? You can kiss me and not lose control.”

“Thank you.” I squeezed her one last time before starting the car.

“For what?”

“For knowing I needed that last kiss tonight.”

Attention Hammerheads

Melinda is always trying to build her vocabulary. What were some words in this episode that were new to you? She will add them to her vocabulary journal.