Page 34 of Immortal By Morning
Crispin nodded.
“Of course, I couldn’t take the money home. If my parents had found it that would’ve been the end of any opportunity to escape. So, I left the money with Mrs. Thompson. She promised to keep it safe for me. My birthday was on a Sunday. So, my last day of school was the Friday before. That afternoon, after school, I went to Mrs. Thompson’s and she gave me all the money I had made that month. It was nearly three hundred dollars. I suspect Mrs. Thompson topped it up, because I was only expecting half that.” Her mouth twisted with cynical amusement as she said, “I thought I was rich.”
Sighing, Abril closed her eyes and said, “After givingme the money, she gave me a file folder with copies of my school records in it. She said I’d need them to finish high school. I nearly burst into tears when she gave them to me. I hadn’t even thought about school records, and I knew she wasn’t supposed to do that. That she’d get in trouble if she got caught, but she took the risk for me anyway. I took the records with gratitude, but then she offered to drive me wherever I wanted to go. I knew she knew when my birthday was, knew what I was doing, and I knew she wanted to help. Mrs. Thompson probably would’ve taken me to the city if I’d asked. But I didn’t want to get her into trouble. So, I said no thank you, left her home, and walked to the bus station.”
“I knew my parents would come looking for me when I did not return home at the usual time. Once they realized I’d run away, they’d search. Agustin’s father held a lot of power in our community. They would be desperate to keep him happy,” Abril said grimly. After a pause, she shrugged and went on, “I knew the farther away I could get, the better it would be for me. My ultimate destination was Toronto. But that was several provinces and almost 1,700 miles away. My money wouldn’t take me that far.”
Crispin wondered where she was born and raised that was so far away, but before he could ask, she continued. “So, I kept twenty dollars back for food and bought a ticket for as far away in the direction of Toronto as I could get, then I hoped for the best.” She paused and pursed her lips briefly before saying, “I don’t even remember the name of the small town my ticket was supposed to take me to. I never got there whatever it was.”
Crispin’s eyes widened with alarm. “Your parents caught up to you?”
“No,” she assured him. “I just got lucky. About ten hours later in the next province over, I had to switch buses. I grabbed my stuff and got off the one I’d arrived on, then looked around a bit. I had half an hour before the next bus I was supposed to take was leaving, and was pacing around when the girl at the counter told me there was a restaurant next door if I wanted to get something to eat or drink while I waited. I was hungry, so decided to go over and see if they had anything real cheap on the menu.
“As I approached the restaurant, though, I saw a big help wanted sign in the window. I sat down at a table, but found myself looking at that sign over and over. Finally, when a waitress came up to ask me what I’d like, I asked her about it. She said it was for a waitressing position and then asked me if I was interested. I said I might be. She got this shrewd look on her face as she looked me over and then she said, ‘You aren’t from around here.’ I said, ‘No, I just came in on the bus.’ Then she asked me about my work experience. Of course, I only had the chores and tasks that I’d carried out for Mrs. Thompson and her friends to offer up. But she asked me where I was going, what my plans were. I told her I wanted to go to Toronto eventually, but needed to make money to get there. Then she asked me a couple more questions, more personal ones.”
Abril shook her head. “Her name was Barb. And she should have been a psychologist. I don’t know how she did it, but she got me to tell her all about my troubles. The community I’d grown up in. Their values. That Iwas running away from a forced marriage and only sixteen. It turned out that she and her husband were the owners of the little restaurant.” She gave him a crooked smile and said, “Five minutes before my bus would’ve left, she said I could have the job.”
Crispin smiled in return, but remained silent, allowing her to continue.
“It was a lucky day when I met her. Barb didn’t just give me a job, she let me stay with her and her husband, Bob, until I made enough money to get my own little place. Bob was the main cook in the restaurant, but he was also a pilot who flew locally, crop dusting for farmers and such in the summer. They both became like parents to me, and insisted I didn’t have to move out until I’d saved enough money to go to university. But I was determined not to be a burden to them.
“My apartment when I finally moved out was a little hole in the wall place in a dumpy area, but it was all mine,” Abril said, sounding proud, and then she continued, “Barb also made sure I finished high school. She said if I didn’t, she’d fire my ass, so I went to school during the day, and then waited tables after school until closing, went back to my little apartment to do my homework and fell exhausted into bed every night.” She smiled faintly. “Then I worked double shifts on the weekends to save up money to get to Toronto. I think Barb did all that as much to keep me out of trouble as anything else. Between school and work I was too exhausted to date or get into trouble,” she explained with faint amusement.
“She became like a surrogate mother, or a grumpy old grandma. She was family. I still call and write to her and Bob a lot.
“Anyway, I ended up staying long past when I’d made enough money to go to Toronto. I stayed until I graduated high school. As I mentioned, I wanted to be a vet, so I applied to every university that offered veterinary training. Getting into one is almost impossible. There are only three hundred spots open a year and they say that for every student who is accepted, there are seven hundred to a thousand who are rejected. It’s one of the hardest programs to get into in Canada. I was determined that I would be one of the ones accepted, and I was,” she said with a bright smile that quickly faded. “Only the grants, bursaries, and scholarships I managed to get wouldn’t have covered even half of my tuition a year. I would have had to pay the rest myself with the cost of the dorm and food on top of that. I hadn’t saved nearly enough for that.
“Fortunately, my guidance counselor helped me with the applications, and insisted I apply to other programs at other universities too in case I wasn’t accepted into the veterinary programs. It annoyed me at the time, but in the end, she did me a favor. The grants and such I’d earned with my grades were enough to cover everything in other universities and different programs. So I changed direction and studied business.”
She paused and then turned her face toward him to give him a self-deprecating smile. “Geez, poor guy. Ask me one question and I vomit my whole life story on you.”
“It was more than one question,” he said solemnly. “And I am honored you are sharing your past with me.”
“You should be,” she assured him. “I don’t share it with many people.”
Crispin smiled and then hesitated for a momentabout what to say next. Part of him wanted to carry out his plan to seduce and ravish her, right here on the couch. But another part needed to know—“Your sister was forced to marry Agustin in your place?”
“Yes, she...” Her voice died as she glanced toward the phone, and confusion covered her face. “That happened years ago. But I was just talking to her on the phone like it was happening today.”
Her gaze slid around the large office with its cool gray walls, black desk, bookshelves, and couch. “This is the office I’m supposed to have when the addition is done. The one I use now was a bedroom. It’s much smaller and the walls are lavender. I—” She sat up abruptly in his lap, and then turned to tell him, “I think this is a dream.”
Crispin managed to suppress his amusement and nodded. “I believe you may be right.”
“Wow. I never remember my dreams. I wonder if I always figure out I’m dreaming in the middle of them?”
Rather than address that Crispin merely said, “You will remember this dream.”
“You think so?” she asked.
“I know so,” he assured her and finally did what he’d wanted since entering her office and kissed her.
Fourteen
Kissing Abril in the dream was the polar opposite to kissing her in reality. They were not immediately overwhelmed with passion. Crispin wasn’t experiencing her pleasure alongside his own and desperate to reach the end of the journey. He was experiencing only his own pleasure as he slid his fingers into her hair, tilted her head to the angle he wanted, and thrust his tongue into her mouth.
Abril sighed into his mouth and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he made a meal of her mouth. When she then pressed instinctively closer and kissed him back, he almost smiled. This was what he wanted. With this slow burn, he could do so much more with her before their passion overwhelmed them and tossed them into unconsciousness. In fact, in their shared dream they wouldn’t lose consciousness at the end, but could start again. With that in mind, he let the hand not presently wrapped in her hair begin to exploreher body. He caressed her breasts through the blouse she was wearing, and then, since it was a dream, he wished the blouse away so that she sat in his lap in just a bra and her skirt.
“Yes,” Abril breathed as he broke their kiss to shift his attention to her breasts. She watched him caress her through the lace of her bra and then moaned when he wished that away as well, and he was able to touch her without the impediment. When he found himself suddenly without his shirt on, Crispin supposed she must’ve wished it away. He hadn’t even thought to do it himself, but he was glad she had when her hands began to move over his chest, even as he caressed her.
