A Destined Death (7 page)

“Nothing,” I lied, unable to swallow due to the large egg-sized ball of doubt that had lodged itself in my throat.

Her suspicious expression lasted a moment before she peeked downstairs. “Dinner’s almost ready. I’ll be back.”

When she rushed to the kitchen like something was burning, I returned to my room, changed into my nightclothes, and climbed into bed, hoping I wouldn’t be committed. It couldn’t be real. I kept glancing at the card on my nightstand expecting it to disappear when I blinked. It didn’t.  

With all hope of my sanity given up on, I didn’t see the need to stop there.

I wish I could talk to him.

I jumped when my cell phone rang but hastily snatched it from my nightstand and yanked the charging cord out of it. “Hello?” I breathed nervously.

“You’ve caught onto me,” Draven’s eloquent voice came with a chuckle.

My hands started to shake, and I almost dropped the phone. “H…How are you doing this?”

“I told you. It’s a gift of mine.”

I pictured him holding out a glass to me as he had at the party, calming only slightly. “But it’s not possible. I feel like I’m losing my mind. You’re literally making me crazy.”

Another chuckle soothed over some more of my tension.

“Look, you don’t have to go out with me. I was just messing around, toying with a theory.”

“I would love to go out with you,” he said, sounding sincere.

“Really?”

“Of course I would. I told you I was waiting for you.”

I shook my head, my confusion mounting. “But after what I said––”

“You said nothing wrong, Elizabeth,” he said, his voice distressed. “Someday you will understand.”

I didn’t get angry. Another promise of someday and a real date were enough to soothe my restless soul for one night.

“Sleep now.”

“I can’t…”

“Oh, Elizabeth?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever thought about marriage?”

I dropped the phone, my eyes bulging as I watched it fall to the floor where it closed by itself. Lying back on my bed, I spread my arms out and looked up at the ceiling, listening to my heartbeat.

Who was he? Is that why he wanted me to give up my plan? Or was he trying to drive me crazy? Maybe he wanted me to give up on my plan just so I could spend the rest of my life in an institution.

Sighing, I took a breath.

After a light knock, my mother stuck her head in the door.
“Do you want some dinner?”

“No.” I sat up when she started to close the door. “Mom, do we have a history of mental illness in our family?”

“I don’t think so,” she said with a laugh. “That’s an odd question.”

I held up the card from my nightstand. “And you do see this card, right?”

“Yes, of course I do. What’s wrong, Elizabeth?”

She came all the way into the room and sat down on my bed, crossing her arms over her legs. She’d taken the last three days off of work to take care of me so she looked relaxed in the jeans and a loose fitting green top that matched her eyes and mine.

I knew I’d gone too far when she crossed her arms. That always meant she planned to stay, but I couldn’t explain what just happened to her without serious repercussions. She’d either verify that I lost my mind or she’d insist that I had put it there myself and forgotten about it. And if by chance she did believe that someone had been in the house without her knowledge, she’d call the police and have fifty new locks installed.

“Nothing,” I said. “I think the not working is getting to me. Thank God I can go back tomorrow.”

She rubbed my shoulder with her hand, appearing unsure of how to continue. Our relationship had never quite been as close as she wanted it because I rarely felt my age. When I was little, she used to make jokes about me reading to myself instead of letting her read to me. After a while, she accepted it but she still tried to go the extra mile whenever I was sick or particularly vulnerable.

“Honey, if something’s bothering you, I’m here. Let’s talk about it.”

“Do I have to wait all night to eat? I’m starving here,” my dad called up the stairs.

“Start without us!” Vera yelled back.

“I have a date,” I confessed, hoping the interruption along with a change of subject would be enough to make her forget what I’d said.

“Really? That’s wonderful.” She clapped her hands in front of her body, cheering me on just as I’d imagined her doing if she had caught Draven in my room three nights ago. “You must just have a case of the jitters.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “That must be it.”

My mother shut the light off when she left.

I closed my eyes but I couldn’t sleep.
“Have you ever thought about marriage?”
Draven’s words bounced around in my mind, inhibiting my thought process. If that had been a ploy to distract me from my questions, it had worked. But he couldn’t have meant it, I decided.

I finally started to drift off about midnight. My thoughts rambled aimlessly to the time when I was five, and I silently wished for a
Swan Queen in Swan Lake
Barbie doll. My parents had been so busy setting up their accounting firm that I hadn’t wanted to bother them with the request, but it appeared under my bed the next morning to everyone’s surprise. My parents had both thought the other bought it and didn’t want to admit to spending the money.

Another time when I was ten, I’d wished for a laptop so I could start writing poetry. It appeared again. Had he and his gift been here my whole life? At the thought, I dragged myself awake, feeling alarmed.

Had everything I’d ever wanted been only a wish away? Was he my fairy godfather?
Suddenly, I realized there were other little things that I’d wished for that had just magically appeared under my bed––comfortable shoes, an umbrella––things I’d just made offhand comments about in my head but never really contemplated getting.

I felt confused, mystified, and a little angry with Draven but two solid conclusions brought me to grips with the unexplained occurrences: He was a mind reader and either a thief or a magician, maybe both. I didn’t think I would be able to get back to sleep after the realization but my eyelids tugged themselves closed until I did.

The next morning I picked up the necklace case to put it into my purse so I could return it on Friday, but it was heavier than it should have been. I slowly opened the lid, finding the necklace inside along with a note that read:
It belongs to you.

From the minute I woke up on Friday morning, the day hinted at disaster. I slapped the snooze button, and my alarm clock tumbled to the ground where it broke to pieces. Since I had to get up earlier than usual, my shower was cold because my parents always took marathon showers. While making breakfast, I burnt my toast and spilled my orange juice all over the table. The day being the thirteenth had nothing to do with my bad luck.

I never dreamt my first date would make me feel so nervous and distracted. My brain stayed on autopilot while my real thoughts were on what I would wear, what he would say to me, my first real kiss...

The kiss actually consumed nine-tenths of my mind. I knew it would be magical, and I’d already planned to use it as a muse for several stories so my expectations were high. My bubble of anticipation finally burst when my cell phone rang.

“Why haven’t you called me?”

“I’ve been busy. I was sick, and I’ve had a lot of homework to catch up on.” I was secretly glad Tina called today of all days so I didn’t miss the opportunity to rub my date in her face.

“Well, I’m really happy that you haven’t been arrested.”

Sure she was.

“Actually, the necklace belonged to his great grandmother,” I lied. “He’s taking me out tonight.” The silence and the click on the line were so musical that I actually hummed as I closed my phone and pulled open the heavy glass door at the bank.

“How can I help you today?” the teller asked. Her brown hair stood up in a puffy eighties hairstyle as she smiled at me.

“Hi…Janet,” I read the nametag on her gray suit. “I checked my account online. There’s been a mistake.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, appearing politely apprehensive. When I handed her the bank statement I’d printed off, she typed my account number into the computer. “Oh, wow! That’s quite a deposit. How in the world did that happen?”

I smiled. “That’s sort of what I’m wondering. Could you check into it please? I don’t want to be arrested.”

“Of course!” she exclaimed, nodding with concern. “Just let me check with the manager.”

“Thank you.”

My cell phone rang again, and the unknown caller display made my stomach twist into knots.
Please don’t cancel.
“Hello,” I said calmly.

“Hello, Miss Tarkson?”

“Yes,” I said, surprised to hear a female voice on the line.

“Hello! My name is Calista Jones. I’m an editor for Romance Today.” The woman’s voice was irritatingly bubbly for eight a.m. “First, I want to say congratulations on winning first place in our young reader’s writing contest. I loved your short story and your unique writing style. We’ll be publishing it in next month’s issue. You’ve also won a thousand dollars and a referral to our sister company, a novel publisher, when you finish your first book. All I need for you to do is sign the release forms.”

Another error!
The day was taking a turn for the worse before I even made it to the date. I could only hope it wasn’t an omen. I cleared my throat, still irritated. “There has to be some mistake. I didn’t send a story in to––”

“If There’s Love.
That isn’t your story?”

Shock jolted through me at the mention of my last month’s assignment. “It is but I didn’t send it in to a magazine, or a contest, or anywhere.”

“I see. Well, somebody did and you’ve won! When you find out who it was, be sure to thank them. It’s quite an honor, and that’s quite a lot of money that I suspect will help with college. Your name has already been published online as the winner.”

When I saw Janet heading toward me, I grew anxious. “Can we talk about this later?”

“Oh, how about I just send the paperwork?” she asked, insistence in her motherly voice.

Completely flustered, I worked my bottom lip between my teeth. Who could have sent my story in? And how did they get a copy of it? A handsome man with dark hair came instantly to mind, but I pushed the thought away quickly. I had other things to worry about. “Fine,” I finally muttered. “Do you have my address?”

“Of course. It came in with the submission.”

When I closed my phone,
Janet said, “I’m sorry, Miss Tarkson.”

“What now?” I asked, trying but failing to hide my annoyance.

“My manager took care of this transaction himself. There’s no mistake.”

My composure snapped like a rubber band, and I leaned across the counter, growling angrily in a low voice. “Are you trying to tell me that I deposited a
hundred thousand dollars
into my account on my birthday?”

“No ma’am,” she said quickly, shaking her head as her eyes widened. “The deposit was anonymous.”

****

I had only planned to take the morning off from school, but I didn’t go at all. I couldn’t. I felt too distraught to think about college.

Instead, I went to the zoo. It was a hundred degrees but a light breeze blew off the duck pond to cool my bare arms. Feet flat, arms folded, I sat unmoving as I watched the swans dipping their whole heads into the water when people threw them corn. That’s what I felt like doing, submerging my head, burying it in the sand while people called me names for taking money from a strange man.

I hadn’t wish for it. I didn’t want it. I didn’t want anything that I didn’t deserve. Little things like soup and shoes were one thing, but this was a hundred thousand dollars! For hours, I tried to consider what it meant while sweat beaded on my forehead. Did he think that if he gave me all that money, I would just quit school like he wanted? Did he think I owed him? Did I owe him?