Forsaken Love

Chapter 15

A knock on the door woke Jim. He flew his covers off the bed and hurried to put on decent clothes. As he waddled to the door, he caught sight of the clock in the kitchen microwave, annoyed to discover someone had woken him at 6am on a day he intended to sleep in. He stumbled near the door, still tired from packing the night before.  In his rush, he put on his shirt inside out and backwards. He still struggled with the second pant leg as he reached the door. He looked out the peephole, finding only darkness. He turned the porch light on, and peeked through the peephole again, revealing the face of his guest he recognized all too well. When he opened the door slowly, he saw her not alone. “Evelyn? What are you doing here? Do you realize how early it is?”

She smiled back. “Hi, Jim. Long time no see. And I do, but after visiting my parents last night, I didn’t have time to check in on you. I wanted you to meet my boyfriend before you left.” She nodded toward her companion. “This is Bruce.”

“Hey, Bruce.” Jim shook his hand. “Come on in.”

“I heard your parents were out of town this weekend,” Evelyn said. 

“Yeah, they had a high school reunion to go to. Reunions are kind of a big thing for them. I’m not complaining though, I have the whole place to myself. For the night at least.” Jim pointed to the couch. “Make yourselves comfortable.”

Evelyn looked around the room, bemused. “And you didn’t host a party? I’m impressed, Jim.” Then she shook her head. “We’re fine.” She and Bruce remained standing in the archway between the living room and the small entry room. 

Jim scoffed, “Yeah, yeah. I used to always joke around that I would, didn’t I? I probably would have if I wasn’t leaving the country in 6 hours.” 

“That’s also why I’m here now. To say goodbye. But we also haven’t seen each other in quite some time, with me off at college and everything. I was hoping we could do one last thing before you leave.”

“What did you have in mind?” 

Evelyn smiled.

Beyond Burger looked just the same as Jim remembered. The list of names scratched on its paneled wooden walls remained, Evelyn’s and Jim’s near the bottom. The ceramic mascot had the same chipped chin from their last visit more than 10 years ago. The mascot, shaped as a giant burger, had a lower bun to represent a chin, with two patties to represent the face, slices of cheese to represent eyebrows, lettuce for the hair, and an upper bun for a hat. Eyes were carved into the burger’s patties. Ketchup spilled down the lower half of the mascot to represent its mouth.  

“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?” Evelyn leaned back, relaxing. “Don’t you sometimes wish we could have stayed children forever?” 

“Not really,” Jim answered quickly. “Don’t get me wrong, we had loads of fun together. But life is like a story, and the best part of any story is the adventure. I look forward to growing up and witnessing my story develop. Plus, it’s not like we need to stop having fun. We might just need to change how we have fun a little bit. There are still some crazy things we can enjoy.”

Bruce looks back and forth between the two, who are just glaring at each other with wide grins on their faces. Jim saw him take a bite of their shared appetizer, Jim and Evelyn’s favorite. Called Disco Fries, it consisted of thick french fries covered in excessive cheese and bacon. Jim himself grabbed a quick handful before continuing his conversation with Evelyn. 

“I like what you are thinking, Jim.” She looked over at the mascot. “Do you remember how that happened?” 

Jim laughed. “Of course! That was one of the best days of our high school years.

I wonder if Jeff ever realized it was us. Jim quickly peeked behind him and looked around the room to make sure no one overheard him. “Not sure he’d let us eat here again if he had.”

Bruce leaned forward to interrupt the conversation. “I’m sorry. What happened here?” 

Evelyn instantly wrapped an arm around him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot you have no idea what we are talking about.” She nodded toward the mascot. “We tried to steal that.” 

Bruce laughed with a hint of disbelief. “Just the two of you? That thing has to weigh more than both of you combined, surely. How did you do it? And why?”

“It was heavier than we expected for sure,” Jim admitted. “But it’s actually hollow on the inside. Still, we were just kids, and not strong. We only barely got it out the door before giving up and deciding to carry it back inside.”

“That’s when we dropped it,” Evelyn continued. “We weren’t strong enough to lift it all the back up to its display, so we left it sitting on the ground and ran away.”

“But why did you try to steal to it?” Bruce asked. “You both seem like the innocent type.”

“We were friends with the owner and his son,” Evelyn explained. “The two of them played a prank on us a couple days before. A series of pranks technically. So we thought we’d try to pay them back.”

“If I remember correctly, we always intended to put it back,” Jim said. “I don’t think I actually remember why we wanted to steal it though.”

Evelyn smiled. “We were going to roll it around in the mud.” 

Jim laughed. “That’s right! It had rained that day.” 

“So what did you do instead to pay them back for their pranks?” Bruce questioned.

Evelyn looked at Jim. “Well we didn’t want to attempt another prank the same night we failed one, so we waited a month to TP their house. Because our first prank miserably failed, we kept our second simple.”

Jim frowned. “But of course I was a bit too giddy about the whole thing. Jeff overheard me and caught us in the act. We ended up having to clean up our own mess. We never even attempted another prank again.”

Jim lost focus of the conversation. His thoughts returned him to age 13. He imagined the reaction of Jeff and John had they succeeded in pranking them. He saw the mud on the ceramic mascot, and Jeff spraying it down with a displeased look on his face. In this vision, Jim and Evelyn sat at the exact same booth they occupied now. Then Jim transported to Jeff’s front lawn. The toilet paper already covered the leaves on the trees. Jeff shouted Jim’s name out the front door. 

“Jim and I have something else we want to show you, Bruce.” Evelyn asked before Jim returned to the present. He noticed Evelyn looking in his direction, but did not know why. “Don’t we?”

“What?” Jim responded. 

“One last thing we used to do to finish the summer nights off.” 

“This is the river that runs all the way through the town, Bruce,” Evelyn explained. “Dividing it in half, we call it Secarus River.” Trees surrounded them. Rocks bordered part of the river, which flowed a couple feet below the surface. Small dirt edges formed on the other parts. “Jim and I used to float paper boats down it. It’s long, so we didn’t race down the whole river, but there is a short fall just on the other side of that wooden bridge we used as a finish line.” 

As she spoke, Jim visioned the boats floating down the river. “The boats would get stuck sometimes on the bridge’s foundation, but at least then we didn’t have to chase them,” Jim continued. He looked over at Evelyn. “I almost forgot how much fun we had as kids,” he lied. “What happened?”

“‘There are still some crazy things we can enjoy,’” Evelyn repeated, reaching into her bag and pulling out three sheets of paper. “Shall we?” 

Jim smiled wide, rushing over to her and grabbing one of the sheets. “Of course.”

“So how does this work?” Bruce asked. “Fold the fastest boat?”

“Pretty much,” Evelyn answered. She looked out toward the bridge. “Whoever’s boat reaches the drop first, wins. But I must warn you, Bruce. I am quite good at this. Jim rarely beat me.”

Jim glared at her. “Now hold on a minute! You always cheated, watching me build my boat and then adjusting your own to take advantage of its weaknesses. The only time I ever won was when I retreated behind a tree to build my boat in privacy.” 

Evelyn chuckled, but quickly transitioned into a full laugh. “Jim, you still think that? I never cheated, I only tricked you into thinking I did. When you kept your boat hidden from me, I played along, purposely creating an ineffective boat.” She laughed again. “That’s hilarious.”

“What? You mean to say I’ve never beaten you?” Jim asked furiously. “Fine. We’ll just have to change that today then, won’t we?” 

“Good luck,” Evelyn beamed. 

Bruce had already abandoned the conversation to construct his boat, rejoining the others only after his completion. “You said the fastest wins, yeah?” Bruce asked, holding up his model. “Because mine is done already.” 

Both Jim and Evelyn chuckled. “Nice try,” Jim spoke. 

Evelyn wandered off to the edge of the river, Bruce following closely behind. “Hurry up, slowpoke! There is no point in spending so much time on your boat when it is going to lose anyway!”

“That’s you think!” Jim retorted. Though he talked tough, he hadn’t mastered paper boat making even after all these years. He spent considerable time carefully folding his paper, but he didn’t know how if at all each of his folds benefited him. “Don’t get too comfortable over there!”

“Then hurry up!” Bruce shouted back.

He never felt ready, but when Jim felt incapable of improving his product anymore, he joined the others by the river. “I hope you both are prepared to lose.” 

“Why?” Evelyn taunted. “I don’t need to be.”

Evelyn pulled a stopwatch out of her bag and approached the river first. She counted to three before clicking the watch and releasing her boat. Her race proved uneventful, save the enjoyment of healthy competition and childhood memories. Her boat avoided every collision with the small pebbles scattered across the river. She ran alongside the river at a slightly faster pace than her boat, waiting for it at the drop. Once it did, she clicked the watch again. “34.7 seconds!” she notified her opponents. 

Jim volunteered second, grabbing the watch from Evelyn, before taking his own position alongside the river. “Watch closely,” he taunted. He carefully rested his boat on the river, holding it in place. After a few seconds, he simultaneously let go and started the clock. Jim’s boat successfully passed the first group of rocks and made good time during the gap before the next. His boat bumped between a pair of rocks before crossing into the last leg. Right before the fall, it crashed into one of the bridge’s foundations. Luckily, the river did not flow straight, and it eventually pushed the boat free, allowing it to reach the finish. “42.4 seconds,” Jim announced softly. 

“What was that?” Evelyn teased. “I didn’t hear you.”

“42.4 seconds!” Jim repeated.

“Guess that makes it my turn,” Bruce said. Jim handed him the watch and stood next to Jim. “Here goes nothing.” Bruce knelt at the river’s edge. But instead of watching, Jim felt an urge to question Evelyn.

“Do you like him?” Jim asked her. 

“Pardon?” she replied.

“Bruce, do you like him?”

“Of course.” 

“And is he good to you?”

Eyelyn eyed Jim. She did not respond immediately, as Bruce had launched his boat. His also managed to avoid the first obstacle. During the second stretch, it appeared to move toward obstruction, but shifted out of the way at the last second. His boat breezed through the next set of rocks, and kept a very safe distance from the bridge’s foundations as it floated under it.  “29.6 seconds,” Bruce notified.

“Is that a record?” Jim asked, loud enough for Bruce to hear.

Evelyn smiled. “I think it is.”

“Do I get a trophy then or something?” Bruce inquired.

Evelyn embraced him and pecked him on the cheek. “There’s your prize.”

Bruce gazed into her eyes. “I’ll take it.”

“Congratulations, Bruce,” Jim shook his hand. “You have bested me.” 

“It wasn’t that hard,” Bruce replied.

“Alright, there’s no need for that kind of talk now,” Jim said. Bruce and Evelyn chuckled.

“Bruce, can you grab our things?” Evelyn asked. 

Bruce returned her a kiss. “Sure,” he answered, leaving Evelyn and Jim alone.

Evelyn turned toward Jim, planting her hands firmly on both of his shoulders. She stared intently into his eyes, removing the smile from her face for the first time all day. “He’s not going to be another Ben. I promise.”