The Article - Jackie Zufall (a court of thorns and roses ebook free .txt) 📗

her and promising as he gave it to her that someday he would ask her to marry him. Suddenly uncomfortable again, he jumped up to begin clearing the dishes from the table. “What’s the matter Paul”, asked Abby, as she noticed his discomfort, “What did I say now”? “Nothing”, he replied, “ I’m just clearing the table, I’ll start a pot of coffee and do the dishes right quick since you did the cooking, be right back”, he said as he hurried from the room. “Not before you tell me what is wrong Paul”, replied Abby as she followed him into the kitchen. “I told you it was nothing”, he answered back as he began loading the dishwasher. “Alright if you don’t want to talk about it fine, but don’t act like I’m too flighty to notice you got suddenly quiet again on me”, she answered right back. She went back to the dining room table to wait while he finished getting the dishwasher loaded and making the coffee. Paul was back shortly with two cups of coffee and a couple slices of the chocolate cake Abby had brought for dessert. “So Ab, what do you do to keep yourself busy besides taking care of your kids”, asked Paul trying to steer the conversation into a neutral topic. “Well, I help dad in the store while the kids are in school, then go home and be with the kids after school”. “Other than an occasional school function or community function, still not much else to do in this town”, answered Abby.

“How bout you Paul”, “did you ever marry, have kids”, what’s been going on with you”? Abby inquired. “No I basically married my career I guess you could say, never had time for dating and that whole scene”, answered Paul. The evening wore on with more small talk, when finally Abby said, “Well it is getting late, guess I should head home so we can both get some rest for tomorrow, you know Jay, he is gonna work us all to a frazzle just to get this all done”. “He really wants us all to go camping up at the lake; he called me at home earlier before I headed back out here and asked if I could order some more tents through the store for the campout”. “Yeah, that’s Jay for you”, Paul commented. “I’ll see you out”, he said rising from the couch where he had been sitting with her for the past hour, noticing the heat raising from his collar the whole time she sat so close.

Shutting her car door for her, he thanked her again for dinner and waved as she drove off. Turning toward the house, he thought to himself, “man on man, I have got to stop having these thoughts”, knowing he would be leaving in a few weeks, he refused to allow himself to think of her anymore. Fat chance of that however, as he drifted off to another restless night he had dreams of the past again, to a time just after their prom when they had lost their virginity together on the beach up by the lake, and woke in a chill drenched in sweat as he recalled their fear when they had thought she might be pregnant. “Come on Zimmerman”, he yelled at himself, “get a grip”, forget the past, Abby is nothing but a great memory of your past, it is over”, and then realizing that once again he was talking to himself, responded back to himself, “yeah but it is so hard to forget the past, when she looks just a great as she did on that beach years ago”. And he laid back down and forced himself to go back to sleep and forget about the dream and Abby and the wonderful way he felt whenever she used to walk into the room, used to hell, how bout still to this day.


Chapter Seven


The next morning as Paul waited for the gang to arrive he began the task of looking around in the house to see what all needed to be done to make the inside look as good as the outside was beginning to look.

Since his return, he had yet to enter neither his mother’s room nor his old room, as he had been trying to avoid more flashbacks like the one he had on the first day here. Finally, standing in front of the door to his old room, he took a deep breath and stepped into the room, unfortunately for him, he did feel like he flashbacked again, as the moment he stepped in, he realized with sudden distress that nothing had changed; it was exactly as he had left it, right down to his unmade bed. Feeling another rush of guilt at having left his mother behind, and the sudden realization that from the looks of the room, his mother had never given up hope that he would someday come home, wanting to leave it waiting for his return, almost as if he had never gone anywhere.

Moving slowly around the perimeter of the room, he reached out and touched one of his old football trophies, moving on to his bookshelves, where all his high school yearbooks rested along with copies of the school newspaper to which he had been the senior editor. Smiling, he remembered how he had always wanted to be a reporter and still longing to someday own his own newspaper, he remembered how excited he had been each week, seeing his articles in this school paper. And how when the day came he wrote his first real article for the Dallas paper he still works for today, it was like a fabulous high. Shaking his head to clear the memories, he looked over toward his bed and his eyes rested upon the pictures located there, one was of him and Abby at the prom, the one where later that night they had lain in each other’s arms and made love. Although it was the only time they had, Paul was struck with the realization that he could still remember it and almost feel the whole experience as though it had just happened. Talking to himself again, he said, “Well damn Paul, can’t you even inspect a house for repairs without letting yourself think about Abby”? Thank you, he thought to himself as he heard the first of the gang pulling into the driveway, what better way to get the past off his mind than good hard labor. Taking one last look around the room, thinking that something did not quite look right, he shrugged his shoulders and walked across the room and out the door.

“So”, said Paul moments later as he stepped off the front porch, “the slaves have returned”, smiling he waved to his friends, and suddenly he realized with another smile, he really had missed these guys, until now, he had forgotten just how much he loved and admired these guys, all his “brothers” as they had always called themselves.

“Hey, who you calling slaves”? ,came another familiar voice that Paul had not heard in fifteen years, the voice of Allen’s then girlfriend and now wife, Michelle. “Michelle”, exclaimed Paul as he rushed out to greet her with a hug. “You look great for a mother of four”. “I would never have guessed you had any kids at all by the looks of you”. Blushing, but highly pleased with the compliment, Michelle reached out to return the embrace with her old friend. Just then, another voice broke in, “And what am I, chopped liver”? Asked Nicole, Michelle’s sister and the wife of Don. “Well, of course not Nicole, you’re ground chuck”, Paul teased as he walked towards her to also give her a hug, “and I would never have guessed that you are the mother of three kids yourself”. To which Nicole replied, “You’re a liar, a good liar, but a liar nevertheless”. Smiling broadly, she reached out and as she hugged Paul said, “It’s about time you came home”. Prompting Paul to point out hurriedly, “now don’t read too much into it, I am only here temporarily to get this house and the grounds ready for sale”. “Yeah right”, answered back Nicole, “We’ll see about that”. Winking at Paul as she turned around and looked at the house, she continued, “boy you guys really accomplished a lot yesterday huh”? “It’s looking pretty good”, “who knows maybe there’s a wedding and a great family in this house’s future”. Paul feeling slightly uneasy at those words said, “Well gang, how bout we get things delegated out by the pair and get this show on the road”?


Chapter Eight


While the guys began the task of scraping the old cracked, peeling paint off of the house, the girls began working inside the house, they started with taking all the curtains down in each room, placing them in the washer to be cleaned, planning to look them over for repairs that might be needed. They discussed which room to begin with and decided that they would begin in the attic and work their way downward.

As the last of the four girls stepped into the attic, they looked around in awe, surprised by their surroundings, knowing that the house had been built by Paul’s great-great grandfather on his fathers’ side they were amazed at the types of things that were there. They wondered among themselves if Paul was even aware of the things that the attic held, and each was also wondering why Paul would even consider selling the house that had never been lived in by anyone who was not a Zimmerman. Until his stepfather of course. There were a lot of fabulous old antique dressers, armoires, lamps, chairs, a roll-top desk and a vanity that with a little refinishing, would turn out to a beautiful piece of furniture. Also among the antiques, there were boxes of things that upon inspection, the girls concluded had probably belonged to Paul’s real dad. Abby, making a mental note to tell Paul, remembered vaguely the night that Paul’s father had been killed in an automobile accident when Paul was twelve years old. She remembered that she and the rest of the people who were all here today had been swimming in town at the community swimming pool that day, having a great time, they were enjoying what was going to be their last chance to hang out for three weeks with Paul, as he and his parents were preparing to leave for a three week vacation the next day. Paul’s father, James, being a truck driver, was gone a lot of the time on the road, and so each summer, the family enjoyed their summer vacations together. Unfortunately, that day James never made it home, he was killed less than fifteen miles from home, in what police finally decided was just a terrible single vehicle accident, it was ruled that James had probably either fallen asleep at the wheel or maybe tried to swerve to miss hitting an animal or something, because there were no skid marks there had always been real speculation that he had indeed fallen asleep behind the wheel, after driving non-stop for several days in an attempt to deliver the last load and get home in time to head off with the family. Abby further remembered her father coming to the pool and telling her and Paul to come with him, that Paul was needed at home, waiting till they were in the car for privacy to tell Paul what had happened and that he, Mr. Miller was taking Paul to his mother, and that he and his wife would be there for them and take care of all the big details over the next few days. He told Paul that he was sorry about his father