Night Road

Lexi sighed. “I guess community college isn’t so bad. I can go to the UW in two years. ”

Mrs. Morford nodded. “It’s a great way to save money. Two years will go by fast. In no time you’ll be back with your friends. ”

Not the ones who mattered.

Lexi thanked the counselor and walked down to her bus stop. All the way home, she worked and reworked the numbers, trying to magically refashion it all into a plan she could make work.

But there was no making it work. Short of borrowing a ton of money, she was not going to a four-year school.

By the time she was home, she was thoroughly depressed. Never had she felt as much of an outsider on Pine Island as she did now. She would have given almost anything for the choices most island kids took for granted.

At home, she went straight into her room and flopped onto the bed.

The phone rang.

She answered. “Hello?”

“Lexi! Zach and I got into USC. Both of us. And Tyler got into UCLA. Isn’t that awesome? Can you come out to dinner with us tonight? We’re celebrating!”

“That’s great. ” Lexi banged her head against the headboard. She should just drown herself. Tears stung her eyes. She wasn’t one to feel sorry for herself, but why couldn’t life go her way JUST ONCE? “Of course I’ll celebrate with you. ”

Mia launched into another college story and Lexi couldn’t take it anymore. She mumbled some excuse and hung up on her best friend.

A few minutes later, a knock at her bedroom door surprised Lexi. “C-come in,” she said, sitting up in bed.

Eva walked into the small, cramped room. The walls were covered with photographs: there were pictures of Zach playing football, of Mia waterskiing, of the three of them at the homecoming dance. “These walls are paper thin. I heard you crying. ”

Lexi wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry. ”

Eva sat down on the side of the bed. “You want to tell me what’s wrong?”

Lexi knew she looked awful. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying. “Zach and Mia got into USC. ”

“You didn’t want them to get in?”

“No. ” Just saying it made her feel miserable and small. “I’m afraid that when he leaves…”

“You know, I met my Oscar when I was sixteen and he was twenty-eight. Ooh-ee, was it a mess, I can tell you. A sixteen-year-old girl isn’t supposed to know what she wants, and a man that age ain’t supposed to want her at all. ” She sighed, smiling. “My daddy woulda shot Oscar if he’d showed his face at our place, so we waited. Oscar was in the service, and he went away for a few years. We wrote letters back and forth. Then on the day I turned eighteen, I married him. During Vietnam, we were apart again. ”

“How did you make it through all that?”

“It isn’t about being at the same school or the same town or even the same room, Lexi. It’s about being together. Love is a choice you make. And I know you’re young, but that don’t mean a thing. Do you believe in how you feel? That’s what matters. ”

“I want to believe in it. ”

“Is that the same thing? You might think on that. ” Eva patted her hand and stood up. “Well. If I don’t head out now, I’ll be late for the night shift. Do you have plans for tonight?”

“The Farradays want to celebrate tonight. They invited me to dinner. ”

“That isn’t the most sensitive thing I’ve ever heard. You okay with it?”

“I have to be,” Lexi said. When her aunt got to the door, Lexi said, “Thanks, Eva. ”

Eva waved a gnarled hand as if to say, humpf!, and left the room.

Alone again, Lexi looked at the pictures and clippings on her wall. Then, with a last tired sigh, she got up, made her bed, and headed down the hall.

Forty-five minutes later—right on time—she was sitting in the living room, waiting. She had put on her best dress and taken extra time with her hair and makeup. When she was done, no evidence of her emotional meltdown remained.