CHAPTER 24: Playing House
Some personality types could not function in a crisis, and either froze in silent panic, or ran around in a screaming frenzy. Others calmly and methodically made it through each minute, as if it were an everyday occurrence, and then fell apart, or went into shock afterward. But the shock always came, whether it was during, or after.
Dakota was one of the latter. Weak kneed, she leaned against Evan, and felt the burning of tears in her eyes. Cass and Bretni were climbing the stairs onto the wet porch, and Lana was still standing dumbfounded, watching Curt disappear from view.
“Ms. D. Your hair!”
Self-consciously, Dakota raised trembling fingers to the defect, and Evan gently steered her toward the dorm, taking control of the tense moment. “Let’s get her inside where she can sit. Who has the key?”
The door had swung automatically shut behind her and Curt, and now Cass popped her card in and out, then held it open for Evan and Dakota. How had Curt gained entry? This was just one of the many questions swimming through her mind.
Evan sat her down on the couch, relating that he had broken all speed limits getting here after their phone call. He had indeed understood her danger code. Parking the truck in the main lot, he had made his way to the side of the dorm, some instinct telling him not to go directly for the front door. The girls had arrived directly, and he had called them from the porch, to keep them from walking in, and to inquire about the back entry. As the girls were explaining to him that the key cards did not work in the rear door, the front door had swung open and Curt had emerged with Dakota behind him.
In a shaky monologue, Dakota described the last hour as she had lived it, and Evan's story came in between bits and pieces of hers. Within ten minutes, they were done talking. The silence settled as the girls gaped from their perch on the opposite couch.
"Why did he do that? To your hair?" Lana was the first of the three to speak.
"Because he's a--" Dakota bit her tongue on the word psycho as she took in the confusion and hurt that marred the girl's features. With the intensity of one of the earlier lightening bolts, she empathized the relationship. 'Lana has beautiful hair. I tell her all of the time.' Was Curt a control freak or a troubled teen? "He's a dangerous mixed up kid. As you know yourself. He is a danger, Lana." Stressing this, she paused, wanting to make sure that if Curt made contact, Lana would be smart. "To himself and anyone around him. And no matter how much you want to, you can't help him. He needs professional help, and even that is useless, until he is ready to help himself."
Evan, jabbing at his phone, diverted her attention, and Dakota whirled on him. “Wait. Are you dialing the Sheriff?” At Evan’s nod, she reached for her own phone. “Call Steve first. Let him handle it. He’ll know what to do.”
Worse than any thundercloud that had blown over the skies that day, Evans face darkened. “Steve?! The Coach?!”
Dakota had to stifle a giggle, which she knew would be unappreciated. Hysterics on her part again?! Calmly she appeased, “Coach Steve is Curt’s dorm councilor.” Bearing Curt’s father’s status in mind, Dakota knew that it was imperative that the situation be handled properly. “He will know what to do.”
“Dakota, he committed a crime...”
“Trust me on this, okay.” Punching in the phone number, she stared into his eyes, beseeching his understanding. Explanations couldn’t be made in front of the girls.
As it turned out, Curt’s father, who had already returned to Austin, flew into the local airstrip, that evening, by private plane. He retrieved his son, who had gone back to the hotel that he had been checked into for the weekend, and took him to the Sheriffs office the next morning. Within hours, bail was set, and made, and Curt was on the plane back to Austin with his father. All of this was relayed to her by Lora, as the events unfolded and were told to her by Steve. Olivia had called, within minutes of Dakota’s first call to Steve, expressing her horror and concern, and told Dakota that she was arranging for someone else to oversee the dorm for the weekend.
When Dakota assured her that it wasn’t necessary, Olivia stood firm. “Pack up.”
Where Dakota ended up, of course, was Evan’s guest room, with Ranger asleep on her feet. Strangely enough, she felt the same comfort and security, of her miles away childhood room. Also, strangely enough, she slept soundly, for nine straight hours, waking only when the aroma of bacon wafted into her nostrils. Apparently, Ranger had already caught the scent, because his spot on the bed was vacant.
Evan pulled her a chair from the table, and dished up an enormous country breakfast. As she picked up her fork, he put his hands together, saying a quick prayer of thanks, for the food and her safety. Dakota gaped, too shocked to even close her eyes, during the six or seven second span of the prayer, and when he opened his, he shot her a quick grin, then picked up his own fork. Dropping her eyes to her plate, she forked up a bite of eggs, letting the moment pass with only a pleased smile.
Close and comfortable, like many times before, they systematically cleared the table and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher. Ranger, who had disposed of the leftovers in two gobbles, began a bark of greeting from the deck outside. Evan went to the den, prying apart the vertical blinds, just as Mark came through the door, his arms laden with baby paraphernalia.
After greeting Evan and Dakota, he apologized for barging in on their time. “Jolee insisted, you know how she is.”
“Mark!” Jolee, coming up behind him, protested the slur, and Dakota’s gaze went to the bundle in her arms.
“Oh my! He is getting big isn’t he!” Dakota’s maternal instincts kicked in full force, and of their own accord, her arms reached out for the little guy. Dark, innocent eyes fixed expectantly on her face, and Dakota fell instantly in love.
Jolee went on for a few minutes about Dakota’s experience, asking questions, and making shocked sounds, while unpacking the baby gear, then strapped her child in an infant holder with colorful shapes swinging from it.
Noticing that Jolee was eying her hair, Dakota, for the umpteenth time, put a self-conscious and still disbelieving hand to it. Last night, before she had retired to her bed, she had taken a pair of scissors, and crudely cropped the remaining length.
“Wow.” Jolee reached, dragging the sides to Dakota’s face. The shortest layer hit the bottom of her chin. “That’s not a bad length on you. I like it. I know the girl that cuts my hair will fit you in today if I call her.”
And so it was done. The beautician trimmed her hair into a classic style, framing her face, and Dakota even took the opportunity to shade a warmer color through it. Upon leaving the stylist, everything with a reflection, pulled her eyes. She wasn’t sure that she would ever get used to, or like the new style.
Inferior, insecure and fascinated; she had felt so many things when the beautician had turned her chair to the mirror to view the final result. Lightheaded, from the new weight of her hair, and from seeing the old weight of hair on the floor, she had silently stared in shock. From kindergarten to high school, until now, long hair had been her trademark. Always it was layered, or cut into a current style, but always it was long. As she climbed into the car, she pulled a grin for Jolee, and pulled at the short strands, willing them to grow fast.
Since Mark was watching the baby, they went directly back to Evan’s, their only stop being at a local restaurant, where they picked up some takeout that the guys had called in.
Later that night, after Jolee and Mark had loaded their truck and headed home, Dakota and Evan sprawled in loungers on the deck. The chairs were side by side, but arranged so that they were facing each other. In the shadows of the moon, they talked, and in a lapse of silence, she caught his eyes running softly over her face.
“I forgot to tell you earlier, your hair looks alright like that.”
“Alright?” Dakota couldn’t help but jokingly pick on his semantics.
“Beautiful.” And the look in his eye made her breath catch when he reworded.
The feelings coursing through her were overwhelming, and to defend herself from her own emotions, she made light of the moment. “I know, you’re a long hair type of guy.” Those words, he had said to her long ago, when they had first begun their friendship. If she remembered correctly, she had been teasing him about some actress in the movie they had streamed.
His chin raised a notch, acknowledging her impeccable memory, and a slow grin spread his lips. Locking his eyes onto hers, he returned, “Depends on who’s wearing the hair, I guess.”
If she hadn’t loved him before, she would have fallen in love with him, in that instant, with the cool spring breeze rustling the trees, and ruffling her new hair, the wispy clouds blanketing the stars, and Ranger snoring on the deck beside them.
Again, she slept hard that night, and awoke the next morning to Evan’s voice. “Hey lazy bones.” Focusing her eyes, she found him standing in the doorway to her room, dressed a notch above his usual casual. Having never seen him wear slacks, instead of jeans or sweats, she could only stare. The color, of his polo style shirt, complimented his eyes and skin, and the overall effect, down to his leather dress shoes, was wowing. “You better get a move on. You’re going to be late to church.”
Dazed, she grabbed for her watch from the dresser, which butted up to the bed, and consulted it, trying to readjust her still scratchy eyes to read the face.
“Erm, it’s an hour later. Daylight savings time begins today.” Imparting that information, he then surprising her even further, asking if she would attend with him, the church his mother regularly attended, the church that Jolee had told her that he and Mark had grown up in. After biting her lip to make sure she wasn’t still asleep dreaming, she immediately agreed. He drove her by the dorm, where she swiftly dressed. Back in the truck, she ran a comb through her hair, and carefully, amidst the bumps and curves on the highway, applied makeup, as he drove back to his neck of the Piney Woods.
During and after the service, she became aware, from the way the friendly congregation greeted and spoke with him, that this was not his first Sunday in recent time. Once in the truck, she questioned him, and he divulged that he had attended for the last two weeks also. Silently, she stared out the windshield, wanting to ask so many questions, or at least the big question, ‘Had he found his peace with God?’ But she refrained.
It didn't really matter, because he was trying. Whether he was trying for his own reasons, or for spiritual reasons, well that didn't matter either. It had been judgemental of her to try and speculate a difference before. While she knew in her heart that it would have been wrong, all those weeks ago, for him to make a deal with her to go to church, that was between him and God, and had not been for her to decide. In hindsight, she knew that she should have taken him at his word that night, then cautiously walked that righteous path holding his hand.
Becoming aware that they were not en route to his house, she asked him about their destination, instead of asking him the musings in her head, and he only smiled. “Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies.”
Dakota smiled herself, because that was a phrase her mother had always used, and when she said so, he replied the same. Turning off of the rural highway, they drove onto a winding road that jogged her memory in some way, but all of these county roads, in this part of Texas, always looked the same to her.
The driveway he coasted into, and the tiny house, she had no problems recognizing. Sporting a new, deep green, metal roof to match its trim, the tan cabin was inviting and homey. As if reading her mind, he said, “Amazing what a new roof and a paint job can do, huh?”
Agreeing wholeheartedly, she walked with him to the steps, leading up the deck. Leaning onto the rail, she watched a boat ripple the glassy water. Assuming he was here to check on his work, or make an adjustment, she eyed him when he continued to rest on the rail beside her.
Though his look seemed to parallel hers, his eyes were distant. “You were right that night. I have some things to work out. Spiritually. In my heart. And it’s not happening over night, even though I wish it would. But I know...I know from being around you, that if I stay on the right track, if I do what I am called to do, that my peace will come to me.” Straightening up, he turned to her. “I just thought you should know that. Because of what I am going to say next.”
Readjusting, so that his back was to the rail, he crossed his arms to his chest, and directed a casual finger toward the house. “What do you think of the colors?”
Taking a second scrutiny, Dakota again felt the charm of the small, but restful, cabin. “I love it. Someone has good taste.”
“Jolee picked out the combination.” Walking a few steps toward the glass doors, he jammed a hand in the pocket of his jeans, “The new owners admitted to being color deficient, and deferred to her judgment.” A key, dangling from some sort of ring, was in his hand, and he fit it into the deadbolt. “Want to see inside?”
Jumping at the opportunity, she entered as he held the door. The interior was rustic, and a bit run down. Most of the inside area was dedicated to the main room. Two small bedrooms, with tiny adjoining bathrooms, jutted off either side of the main area. A galley kitchen, and dining area were directly behind the main room, two steps up. The height allowed a view of the lake easily from the kitchen and dinette even across the den area. The walls and floor were wood planked. In the bedrooms, worn carpet went wall to wall.
“Its got a lot of potential.” Dakota remarked, impressed with the overall feel of the place.
“There was carpet here too.” Evan tapped the rough planks of the den floor with his shoe. “But me and Mark pulled it up. We were thinking a few coats of thick varnish over the wood, instead of carpet or flooring.”
“Whose house is this?” Dakota frowned. Her earlier assumption, that he was just here about the roof, had dissipated somewhere in the tour of the inside. Her thinking that he knew the owners in someway, seemed off when she noticed his excitement. His face had lit, like a child with a new toy, when he talked about 'discovering' the hardwood floor.
Laying his hands on her shoulders, he stared dead into her eyes, emphasizing his next words. “You are sworn to secrecy. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” She had never liked the kind of promise that came without knowing the secret first, but she was too intrigued to argue.
“Mark and I bought it. As a family getaway. It is an anniversary present for Jolee. Their fifth is next month.”
“You tricked her into picking the colors!” Dakota exclaimed, loving it. Jolee would be ecstatic.
“And... It is a wedding present for you.”
Her heart actually stopped, and she had to remind herself to breath. Before she could fully soak in the revelation, his hands slid to her fingers grasping them lightly. “Will you marry me, Dakota?”
The floor seemed to drop from beneath her feet, as her eyes flew to the face she had begun to love so much. What she saw did not help her equilibrium. Looking into her eyes, beyond her eyes, to her heart and soul, was a gaze, heated with so much love, that it warmed her to the core. That same gaze held a spark that made her feel desired, as well as cherished.
Of course she affirmed. Wrapped in his arms, she found the peace she had prayed for. She knew he had found part of his, and was well on his way to the rest.
Dakota helped with the decisions on the sprucing up of the interior of the lake home, sneaking preferences and ideas out of Jolee, for her and Mark’s room and bath, on one pretense or another, through out the next few weeks. When the floor was varnished, and the bedrooms repainted and carpeted, to each individual taste, time had run out, so the kitchen was saved for Dakota and Jolee to decide together. The surprise of the house was unveiled to Jolee on the afternoon of their fifth anniversary. The surprise, of Dakota and Evan’s impending marriage, was spilled also at that time to both Mark and Jolee.
Graduation Day at Mirabeau was during the same week. It was a beautiful day for an outside ceremony. In the time beforehand, Dakota was milling around talking with students and staff, and waiting for Evan who had promised to attend.
Olivia stopped her briefly, to again congratulate her on her engagement, and to tease her about the hard time that they were going to have, finding another teacher insane enough to be the keeper of Freshman girls. Dakota had signed her renewal contract, the day she had returned to school following Evan’s proposal, but had opted out of the Residence Director title. As she and Olivia laughed together, Lana approached. Olivia moved on, and Lana handed Dakota a letter.
Curt, who had received shock probation, was not allowed to write his victim, her, so in a letter to Lana, he had asked that she tell Dakota how sorry he was. Lana told Dakota that she had spoken with Curt on the phone a couple of times, that he was in the County Jail, awaiting transfer to a facility. She said that she was thinking of visiting him that evening, before her parents came to get her the next day, to take her home for the summer, then expounded that Curt seemed to have undergone a change. He had told her that he was reading the Bible daily. The news was heartening, and Dakota expressed that she hoped it was a permanent change. She advised Lana that he was going to need a friend through the next few months, but to never let him pull her back from her values and beliefs again, should he not stick to his new convictions.
Evan emerged from a rift in the crowd, and Dakota led him to their seats, next to Lora and Steve, and Kelli. Kelli was on Cloud Nine, because her husband was returning to the states in four weeks. Dakota watched proudly as the seniors she had come to know, and maybe had influenced in some way (they had certainly influenced her) accepted their diplomas.
A few times, her thoughts wandered to the cookout at the lake house with Jolee, Mark, the baby, and the dogs, waiting for her and Evan after the seniors induction. Much later that same night, they would catch a 'puddle jumper' from Tyler to Dallas. Just the name dubbed to the tiny aircraft, made Dakota nervous of flying in it. Then from DFW Airport, they would fly to Pensacola, where they would pick up their rental car, ending up in Long Pass, to deliver the news of their engagement to Dakota’s family. Keeping the secret from Shanna, during their regular phone calls, had been extremely difficult, but it would be well worth the effort to see her families' happy reception to the news in person.
The Graduation Ceremony was the Seniors' official induction into adulthood. This summer they would begin the next phase of their life. And this summer, Dakota and Evan would begin the next phase of theirs.
~END CHAPTER 24~
~~ENDWITH NO WARNING~