Page 91 of The Genius
“I’m sorry,” Shelly repeated for the third time since we’d gotten the result. I’d taken her to one of my favorite places outside the city and we were sitting on a large rock with our feet dangling. The lush meadow was full of wildflowers and the calming sound of water running in the small creek below us. We’d taken off our shoes and walked upstream to sit on the rock, so far tiptoeing around the inevitable subject of the child growing inside her.
I didn’t comment on her apology; instead I was trying to digest that I was going to be a father. This could be the best thing that ever happened to me or it could be the worst – it all depended on whether or not I could convince her to let me be part of the child’s life.
This place was tranquil, and sudden visions of seeing my kid play with the water like I had as a child made my heart race faster.
“I used to come here a lot as a boy.” I threw a small stone into the stream and pointed to the right. “My school was less than a mile that way.”
“I’ll bet you were a cute kid.”
“Who knows? As I remember it, I was a troublemaker.”
“Why?”
“Too curious for my own good and convinced that I was smarter than our mentors.” I smiled a little. “I was the master of pranks. That skill has served me well, though. I’m always a step ahead of my students when they try to pull a prank on me.”
Shelly smiled. “Remember that time you told me to check my bed before crawling into it?”
“No.”
“We had the night shift and you told me that the boys had acted funny and that you suspected they were up to something.” Pulling her legs up, Shelly wrapped her arms around her knees. “You offered to check my room for me, but we’d been bantering that day and I was too proud to let you. I wanted you to see me as an equal.”
Vague memories came back. “What happened again?”
“I found a snake in my bed and I freaked out.”
“Why didn’t you ask me to remove it?”
“Because I didn’t want to look weak or childish. For a long time, I stood in the corner of the room, terrified that the snake would move, but it stayed curled up in the middle of the bed. After I overcame the worst of the fear, I found a way to move the snake without touching it or getting too close by gathering the four corners of the sheet.” Shelly demonstrated with her hands. “I twisted the sheet until the snake was trapped. After that it was easy to hold it out of the window and release it from a safe distance.”
“You could have just picked up the snake and thrown it out the window. Or better yet, put it in one of the boys’ beds for revenge. You know they did it, right?”
“To be honest, I wondered if it might be you.”
“Me?” I pointed a finger to my chest. “You just said that I was the one who warned you to check your bed.”
“And if I’d said yes and you’d found the snake, I would have been indebted to you, wouldn’t I? Could have been an easy plot on your part.”
That had me laughing. “Lady, you have trust issues.”
“Look me in the eye and tell me it wasn’t you.”
Cupping Shelly’s chin with my left hand I looked deep into her beautiful eyes. “I swear that I didn’t put that snake in your bed.”
Her eyes squinted and she held my gaze. “Did you have someone else do it?”
“Nooo.”
“Hmm…” She sounded skeptical.
Holding up my palms, I grinned. “All right, I’ll admit that I had forgotten about the snake thing, but the truth is that I knew it was there.”
“Aha!” Shelly poked her finger into my chest. “Itwasyou.”
“I spotted William and Plato leave your room snickering, so obviously I went in to check. At first, I was going to remove it, but then the idea of you asking for my help grew on me. That’s why I warned you instead.”
“And when I didn’t ask for your help?”
I released her chin and pulled back. “I was disappointed of course.”
