"As Fate Would Have It": Chapter 5

It was like a dam had broken in my heart

But that’s just a lot of water … Underneath a bridge I burned

= Monday 06 March 2000 =

"How’re you feeling this morning? Any better?" Hayley asked Laurel at eight-thirty, about five hours after Isaac had finally fallen asleep. "Any interesting e-mail?"

"I’m feeling much better, thanks." Laurel looked up from Hayley’s computer, and took a deep breath. Here goes, she thought. Hayley’s not the only actress around here; you can do this. "Hayley, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to bail. I just found out that something has come up back home. Something kinda urgent. I have to get home as soon as I can."

"Is everything okay?" Hayley was immediately concerned. Laurel’s act had been convincing. "What happened?"

"Nothing’s wrong. Well, not dangerously wrong. It’s just something I have to be at home to take care of. And it can’t really wait until the end of the week. I have to take care of it as soon as possible. If I could afford to go out there and then come back here, I would. But I don’t know how long it’s going to take, plus the whole expense issue… Well, you know…"

"Don’t worry, Laurel. I understand that you’re needed at home. So we’ll make sure you get there as soon as possible. I’m sorry you can’t stay, though."

"So am I." Laurel said with genuine regret as she headed for the guestroom. "I wish there was some other way that things could be handled so that I could stay."

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Several miles away, one could hear an opposition to leaving Tulsa of a different kind. "Dad, you can’t be serious. We’re supposed to have the next five days off. This is so unfair!"

"Ditto," Zac muttered. He was too tired to be argumentative. Isaac, on the other hand, was livid. Or as livid as he could be for only having had four hours of sleep. And that four hours’ sleep had been fitful; he couldn’t get her face out of his mind’s eye.

Taylor stepped into his mind-numbingly customary role of the intervening peacekeeper. However, he was not used to keeping peace between Ike and their father. "Ike, calm down. If anyone should be upset about being deprived of rest, it would be Zac and me after how long you kept us up last night. Now why do we have to go to New York, Dad? You know it’s completely against what we want; we were supposed to have a break the next few days."

"I know, and I’m sorry. But it’s out of my hands; Chris scheduled this gig at the last minute and called this morning. I’ve only known about two hours longer than you have, and that’s only because I wanted to let you sleep in this morning. We leave tonight on a flight that will arrive at six a.m. tomorrow, so you can sleep on the plane a few hours."

"Well, how much of our break do we have left?" Zac asked resignedly.

"About fourteen hours or so, depends on how fast you can pack. Our flight leaves at 10:30 tonight."

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"I was able to get you on a flight that leaves at 10:30 tonight. You don’t mind an overnight, do you?" Hayley popped her head into the den, where Laurel was sitting with a textbook.

"That’s fine. I really appreciate your helpfulness and understanding about this, Hayley. I’m so sorry that I can’t stay. I wish I could." Laurel turned her large blue-green eyes to Hayley apologetically.

"It’s alright. Just take care of what you’re needed at home for. You and I will regroup at school on Sunday when break’s over. But for today, we do whatever you want. I’m only disappointed that you don’t get to see this great city. There’s so much awesome stuff to see and do here."

"Like what? What is there to do?"

"How about a carnival?" Laurel looked interested when Hayley made this suggestion. "There’s one going on today in Oakhurst; that’s not too far from here. We could do that and still get home in time to get you to the airport tonight."

"Sounds great. Let’s get going." Laurel shifted her enthusiasm from the concept of going home to the concept of going to the Oakhurst carnival. There’s no way he will be there; he wouldn’t dare go out in a public place like a carnival. I can safely have a good time without having to worry all day. And then tonight I’ll be leaving for New York; I’ll hide out in my dorm room all week. I’ll get some extra mid-term exam studying in, too.

All day, the two girls had a grand time at Oakhurst. Laurel seemed more relaxed than she had been all weekend. With reckless abandon they tore through the carnival, riding every ride they could find, including the kiddie rides, eating all the customary carnival foods, and trying all the games until they both were bogged down with stuffed animals. But like all good times, the day came to an end.

"I’m so glad my mom offered to drop us off and pick us up. I don’t think I’d have the energy to hike across the parking lot with all these animals. I had no idea you were such a good shot with all those tossing games. How do you do it?" Hayley was awe-inspired by Laurel’s skill.

"Lots of practice. And pretending that the bullseye or whatever is my ex-best-friend from high school. It’s a good way of channeling anger," Laurel confessed with a slight chuckle. As Hayley’s mother drove up in her light blue Jeep Cherokee, she thought of something else. "How are we going to get all these back to the dorm?"

Hayley’s eyes grew wide; Laurel burst out laughing. "We should have thought of that earlier! What are we going to do with them?" Hayley asked.

"You can keep them," Laurel offered, "as an apology for me not being able to stay and a thank-you for understanding and showing me a good time." By now the two girls had shoved the multitude of stuffed animals in the front seat beside a startled Mrs. Mitchell and climbed into the back seat.

"I can’t keep all of them," Hayley insisted. "Especially since you won most of them." She reached over the seat back and grabbed a large stuffed frog. "Here," she said, handing the frog to Laurel, "Follow the thirteenth commandment."

"Which is?" Laurel raised her eyebrows. There was absolutely no way of guessing what Hayley wanted her to do with that frog.

Hayley’s grin was a mixture of triumph and mischief. "Thou shalt have a frog in thy bathroom." Laurel erupted into a fit of giggles at Hayley’s serious delivery of the instruction.

"Where in the world did you come up with that?" Hayley’s mother asked as she chuckled.

Laurel sobered as she remembered who the originator of the comical quote was. Thinking quickly to cover the sudden change of her attitude from festive to glum, she said, "Hayley, I’m gonna miss you for the next couple days. I wish there was some way I could stay." There are a few other things I wish, but they won’t come true, either.

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Three hours later, Laurel was hugging Hayley and her mother goodbye at the airport. "I’ll see you in a couple days, Hayley. Thanks again for your hospitality, Mrs. Mitchell. And thank Mr. Mitchell again for the tickets and backstage passes from last night."

"No problem at all, Dear. Thanks for coming. You’re welcome here anytime; you know our door is always open to you."

"See you Sunday morning, Laurel. Good luck getting everything sorted out at home. I’m sorry you couldn’t stay," Hayley said.

"I’m sorry too." Laurel said as the boarding call boomed above them. She turned and showed her boarding pass at the door behind which she disappeared moments later. She was on her way away.

At the earliest opportunity, she pulled out her CD player and put the headphones on. Not knowing what she wanted to listen to, Laurel picked a disc at random. She recognized it to be Trisha Yearwood’s greatest hits collection "Songbook". Knowing that there was a song that fit exactly what she had been feeling since the previous night, she skipped to the second track.

Although the skip also started the song on the third line, Laurel didn’t care; that’s where the song began to apply to her situation: "…When I heard that old familiar music start / It was like a lighted match / Had been tossed into my soul / It was like a dam had broken in my heart / After takin’ every detour / Gettin’ lost and losing track / So that even if I wanted / I could not find my way back / After drivin’ out the memory / Of the way things might have been / After I’d forgotten all about us / The song remembers when…" Laurel was lost in her thoughts. She’d been doing so well at forgetting, until the moment she heard the opening notes to "More Than Anything", when she seemed to have slipped into the Twilight Zone. I don’t know what it was that made me believe that he meant what he was singing; maybe because it sounded like he did. I wonder who it was really meant for. Certainly not me; I’ve never met him. "…And it seemed to fit the moment / And the moment seemed to freeze…" Although for those few minutes, it felt like I’d known him all my life, felt like I loved him. No, Laurel thought as she shook her head. The person I loved isn’t real. The person who is real doesn’t love me. Heck, he doesn’t even know me!

Meanwhile, Trisha crooned on. "…Well, for all the miles between us / And for all the time that’s passed / You would think I haven’t gotten very far / And I hope my hasty heart / Will forgive me just this once / If I stop to wonder how on earth you are / But that’s just a lot of water / Underneath a bridge I burned / And there’s no use in backtracking / Around corners I have turned / Still I guess some things we bury / Are just bound to rise again / For even if the whole world has forgotten / The song remembers when / Yeah, even if the whole world has forgotten / The song remembers when…"

The song came to an end, and Laurel decided to skip to a song with a lighter mood and forget everything that had happened over the past few days. She realized as the CD player quivered in her hands that she was tense. Relax, girl. You’re safe from any encounter that could have happened. For starters, you’re high above the ground and on your way to the East Coast. He is back in Tulsa. You’ll never have to look him in the eye again. You’ll never have to hear that song again.