Timeless

CHAPTER 24

1958

D iana sat on the bench, wearing another skirt that she hated. She only had four of them, not even one for each day of the school week, but they couldn’t afford much. They’d been here for over a year, and her dad had promised that things would be different here. He’d saved enough money to buy his own shop instead of working for someone else, and when he’d gotten a great deal on the one he now owned, he’d snatched it up and moved Diana away from their last town. Of course, they’d only been here for a year, so it wasn’t really home. Nowhere had felt like home since her mom had died. Five years she’d been without her now. Five years that her dad had been wandering aimless through life. He tried his best. She knew that. He’d always wanted a son and thought they’d have another child after he’d found out that Diana was a girl, but when that hadn’t happened, he’d let her be. When her mom passed away, though, he had no clue how to raise a teenage girl, so he’d bought her a few skirts from the local thrift store and, at the same time, started teaching her auto repair. She didn’t like repairing cars, specifically, but she did like fixing things. Once, right after they’d moved here, she’d told him that she wanted to be a doctor, and he’d laughed at her. He’d caught himself and stopped, but then, the lecture had started.

“Diana, you’ll be lucky if you can make it through secretary school the way you keep records at the new shop. You don’t type fast enough and struggle to file right, and you want to operate on a person?”

“I didn’t say that I wanted to operate,” she’d challenged. “Just be a doctor.”

“Honey, we can barely afford to put food on the table until the shop starts making money. How are you affording going to college and medical school? You’re not an athlete getting money for that. Your grades are fine, I guess, but no one’s giving us any handouts.”

“Right, Dad,” she’d said.

“You could go into nursing, maybe. They always need nurses. And you know that’s better for someone like you. All those male doctors need lady nurses. It’s cheaper, I think, and you might be able to get some help for that. I don’t know.”

“May I be excused? I’ve finished my supper.”

“Sure,” he’d said. “I’m going back to the shop, anyway, so take care of the dishes and then, do your homework.”

“Okay,” she’d agreed.

He wasn’t a mean man. He was just a man raised by one, and he wanted to have a son to carry on his name. Since her mother’s death, though, he hadn’t even dated anyone who might be able to give him that dream. She’d known all along how in love her parents had been, so she tried to be a little kinder to her father because he was still grieving, too.

“Hi.”

Diana looked up and saw Cheryl standing there in front of the bench, wearing a skirt that she hadn’t bought from the thrift shop.

“Hi,” Diana greeted with a smile.

“How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long,” she lied.

Diana had been sitting there for about thirty minutes. She hadn’t wanted to miss Cheryl maybe waiting for her, but she also wouldn’t be missed at home, with her dad leaving before she even woke up, so she’d woken up early and had walked to school as quickly as she could to sit and wait.

When Cheryl sat down next to her, she said, “So, how was your ice cream?”

“Great. It turns out, I like blackberry ice cream.”

“Me too,” Cheryl told her with a little giggle. “Can I ask you something else?”

“Okay. ”

“Why do you always sit in the back of the classroom whenever you can?”

“Oh,” she let out, having not expected that question. “I suppose because there’s not much of a point in me sitting anywhere else. It’s easier just to blend into the background until I leave or graduate this time, I guess.”

“This time?”

“My dad and I have moved a lot since my mom died. He didn’t want to stay in our old house, so we moved to a new town, and after a few months there, we moved again. He went wherever he was able to find the best job and make the most money so that he could buy his own shop, which he did when we got here. I’ve been to six high schools just like this one. This is number seven, I suppose.”

“You’ve been to seven high schools in four years?”

Diana nodded and said, “It’s not so bad.”

“Of course, it is,” Cheryl replied.

Diana met her eyes then and swallowed. Cheryl was the most beautiful girl she’d ever seen, which meant she had to be extra careful not to say or do anything to give herself away. She was only about seven months from graduating and five months away from turning eighteen.

“That had to be hard. You don’t get to make any friends, do you?” Cheryl continued.

“Not many, no. I tried in the beginning, but then, I’d leave, so there wasn’t much of a point. I started sitting in the back of the room and alone at lunch then.”

“I’m sorry, Diana. Do you want to sit with me today?”

Diana almost said yes right away but stopped herself.

“You sit with all your friends, but thanks.”

“You can sit with us , I mean. I’ll introduce you around. Your dad just bought the shop. You’re not leaving now, are you?”

“I don’t think so, no. He had to take out a loan, and it’s not making money yet, so I think we’re here for a while.”

“Then, sit with us.”

“Would your friends even like me? ”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Cheryl asked.

“I don’t know. I’m quiet, still the newest person here, and I don’t participate in things.”

“Do you want to?”

“What?”

“Participate in things.”

“Oh. I suppose so. I’d like to join the science club, but Mr.Rose said it was full this year when I asked.”

“I can get you in. I’m not in that club, but Mr.Rose is also in charge of the school paper, and I’m his best features writer, so I’ll ask him for you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to. If you’re only here for the rest of this year, you should get to do something you like, right? I know you have to work for your dad sometimes, but do you ever get to do anything fun after school?”

“It depends on how busy he is. Today, there’s just one car he’s working on so far, so I might be able to get done early or start late. Why?”

“Can you come with me after school, then?”

“To the soda shoppe? I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know any of the other people who’ll be there.”

“Okay. Well, we don’t have to go there, specifically. We can go someplace else.”

“Like where?”

“There’s someplace I like to go. I usually go alone, but I can take you. You might like it.”

“I can’t be long. My dad will want me to be there to answer the phone.”

“Okay. It won’t be long. Can we?”

“Cheryl, can I ask you something now?”

“Of course.”

“Why are you being so nice to me? You never have been before?”

“I know. And I’m sorry about that.”

“So, this is a pity thing for the new girl in school? ”

“What? No,” Cheryl replied. “I… I want to spend time with you. Is that all right?”

Diana smiled softly and said, “Yeah, it’s all right.”

“So, I’ll see you in biology and then, we can meet here after school?”

“All right,” she agreed.

Diana didn’t remember much from that school day nor the one that preceded it. She only remembered Cheryl, who, before the previous day, was only a girl in her class, but after one moment of dizziness that had caused Diana to fall down on the sidewalk and skin her knee, Cheryl was suddenly all she could see. She was just so pretty and looked like she actually liked wearing the skirts all the girls wore, while Diana preferred the jumpsuits from work, even though they didn’t have any in her size.

By the end of the day, she had no idea how she’d done in any of her classes. Biology had been the worst. Normally, she paid attention with ease, but today, she could only think about Cheryl sitting behind her, wishing that she could turn to look at her. Maybe Cheryl would be looking at her, too.

“No, she wouldn’t,” she muttered to herself on her way to the bench. “Why would she?”

“Hi.” Cheryl came up to her, practically bouncing on her heels. “You ready?”

“Hi. And I guess I am.” She smiled and gave her a little laugh because Cheryl’s enthusiasm was infectious. “Where are we going?”

“Not far. It’s just through my neighborhood. You’ll see,” Cheryl replied as she looped her arm through Diana’s.

Diana did her best to pretend like it was totally normal for her to have a girl’s arm through her own, even though it wasn’t and she wanted to hold Cheryl’s hand like the boys got to hold girls’ hands in school. She wanted to kiss her like the boys got to kiss girls, too. As a kid, she’d been told in church that those kinds of thoughts were wrong, but after years of trying to get rid of them, Diana had given up. She didn’t know what that meant for her future, but for right now, it meant that she could just enjoy walking with Cheryl, pretending that Cheryl was her girl and that they were going off necking somewhere.

“It’s through here,” Cheryl said, pointing between two houses. “You’ll really like this, I think. It’s peaceful. That shop is loud, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” she asked.

When they stepped into the grass, Diana looked down at her shoes, worried they’d be stained with green or brown from the wet grass. They were the only shoes she had that were appropriate for school, so she couldn’t get them dirty.

“You all right?” Cheryl asked, and noticing what Diana was staring at, she quickly moved them to a set of decorative concrete stones. “Here. You can walk barefoot from here. It’s safe,” she added. “I’ll take mine off, too.”

Diana felt instantly better and removed her shoes and knee socks, leaving her barefoot. She then watched Cheryl do the same before Cheryl’s arm was back through hers, and their free hands were carrying their shoes, with their socks tucked inside.

“So, the shop’s loud, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s really loud. Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess I thought that if you’re in school all day, where the teachers and other students are loud, and then you go to a shop that’s also loud, maybe you’d want some peace and quiet.”

Diana would love some peace, but quiet wasn’t something she was seeking. In her house, after supper, her dad always went back to the shop, and she was left alone most nights until he got back long after she’d gone to bed. She had the small two-bedroom house to herself for hours at a time, and while she would watch something on their used black-and-white television, she wasn’t much of a television watcher, and she didn’t want meaningless noise. Diana wanted someone to talk to like she used to have when her mom had been alive. She’d had her. She’d had her friends from school. Now, she had nothing but her thoughts .

“Am I wrong?”

“What? No, not about the peace part, anyway.”

They walked to the back of someone’s yard, and Cheryl pointed to a group of shrubs that lined the property.

“Are you ready?” she asked with a smile.

“Sure.”

Cheryl took her hand then, entwining their fingers, and pulled her through a small gap in the bushes until they were on the other side. And there it was.

“Wow!”

“See? I told you so,” Cheryl said.

It was a massive field of sunflowers that were probably ready to be harvested; they were so tall. As far as her eyes could see, it was only a clear blue sky and a field of sunflowers.

“We can hide out here. No one can find us.”

Diana looked at her and asked, “Who’s field is this?”

“My uncle’s. My dad didn’t want the farm his daddy left, so my uncle took it over a few years ago from my granddad. My dad’s a writer for the local paper. He’s going to be editor someday.”

“You write for the school paper.”

“I do, yeah. I love it, too. He’s been teaching me how to be a good reporter. Do you want to sit? There’s space over here. For whatever reason, this spot never grows flowers. Year after year, they’ve tried everything, but it’s like the soil just does not want to let them grow.”

“I can’t get my skirt dirty,” she said. “I don’t have that many.”

“You’ve got a petticoat under it, right?”

“If that’s the thing that’s under it, then, yeah.”

Cheryl laughed and said, “Take off this part.” She pulled on the skirt a bit. “And you can hang it on the bushes behind us. I’ll do it, too.”

“Do you like these skirts?”

“Some of them, not all. I like when I can wear just one and not layers, especially when it’s hot outside like in summer, but in the winter, it’s nice to have them. ”

Diana watched as Cheryl undid her belt and hung it on the bushes behind them. Then, she watched and swallowed as Cheryl removed the outer layer of her red skirt, hanging it up, too, and revealing a white petticoat undergarment.

“Come on. You too,” Cheryl encouraged.

“Oh, right,” she replied.

Then, Diana saw something she had no explanation for. She was standing in front of a tub of soapy water, bent over, with one of those old washing boards her grandmother used to use because she didn’t like the newer washing machines. She was scrubbing something, maybe a shirt or a dress, with her hands.

“They’ve run off to hunt,” someone said.

She looked up and saw her. Shoulders, which had been up to her ears, lowered, and all her stress was gone in that moment because the woman she loved was here. Their husbands, whom they both hated and who were in the way of them being truly happy, had gone on a hunting trip early that morning to help them get through winter. Now, they had a few days together, at least, before the men would return.

“Put the wash away for later, and let’s go inside,” the woman she loved told her before she hurried over, picking up her dress to avoid it getting dirty, and kissed her square on the mouth.

“I missed you,” she said.

“I missed you, too.”

“Diana?”

Diana saw Cheryl then, but it was her Cheryl, not the other woman in the vision that had just played in her mind.

“Elizabeth,” she whispered, knowing that that version of Cheryl had been named Elizabeth and her own name had been Bess, a derivative of the same name, because her mother had loved the name that everyone else had been giving their daughters, too.

“What?” Cheryl asked.

“Nothing,” she replied and went to remove her own belt but had a hard time getting it undone.

“Here. Let me help you,” Cheryl offered and moved to stand inches away from Diana. She worked until the belt was undone and in her hands. “There,” she whispered. “Can you…”

“I can get it the rest of the way,” Diana confirmed softly.

“Right. Well, good,” Cheryl replied and turned to move away. “Bess, did you–” She stopped.

Cheryl was turned toward the bushes, so Diana couldn’t see her face anymore, but she could hear her and that name clear as day.

“You saw it, too?” she asked quietly, just in case she’d been wrong.

When Cheryl’s head whipped around, Diana knew she hadn’t been wrong.