Dream On (Stories of Serendipity #2) (29 page)

The Superintendent spoke, “No, Ms. Fuller, you’re not.  We understand this is a small town, and word gets out about certain things, and whether they are true or not, damage can be done.  We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused.”

She nodded, afraid of what she might say.  Her first inclination was to stand up and shout about inconveniences, but the relief was too great.  She felt her shoulders lift, and something vague inside her brightened, just a bit.

She left, after they gave her more apologies and hollow platitudes, and went back to class to finish her day.  She wondered what had been the deciding factor?  Was it the students, who sang her praises during the meeting?  Was it her friends?  Was it Dalton’s words?  She would never know. 

She found out soon enough.
  At her desk, she found a newspaper clipping from that day’s paper on the school board meeting.  Somebody had left it there for her.  She realized she had neglected to lock her door and checked to make sure her purse was still where it was supposed to be before looking at the paper.  On top of it was a bright yellow sticky note with the words, “Way to go!  Look at letter to editor. – Cody.”

The headline read
, “Area teacher on the chopping block for personal relationship.”  Alyssa groaned aloud as she read a play-by-play of the meeting published in the newspaper for everyone in town to see.  Turning to the letters to the editor, she was pleasantly surprised to see someone had stood up for her.

I am appalled at the behavior of our school board members tonight.  They have shamed us all by their actions.  A highly respected member of the high school’s teaching staff has been called before them to answer for her personal choices, which have absolutely nothing to do with teaching, and a member of our community, as well as his family, have been slandered in an only slightly disguised agenda of one man with a grudge.  Listening to the members of the board, as well as the community tonight, I have seen some great things and some sorry things.  The students Ms. Fuller teaches are eloquent in their praises of her.  One girl in particular astutely comparing the charade tonight to the Salem witch trials.  The man in question, is an old family friend, and I must say, I would be proud to call him my own son.  When his father fell ill, Dalton Colt left his life in Dallas to take care of the family ranch.  My own son hasn’t done as much for me.  I think this town needs to get its judgmental head out of its rear and pay attention to what’s important.  It is obvious to me, this woman teaches her students with love.  She seems to be a good mother, and as far as Dalton goes, I think she should be allowed to have a relationship with whomever she chooses.  If the school board fires this woman, I will start a personal campaign against each and every one of them to make sure they aren’t re-elected to the position that they are so proud of.  It was clear to me this was all an elaborate hoax by Steven Fuller in an attempt to ruin Ms. Fuller’s chances of custody of their children, which begs the question.  Why all the smoke and mirrors, Steven?  What are you trying to hide?

Sincerely,

Ed Hodges

Alyssa didn’t know Mr. Ed Hodges, but she sure did appreciate his letter.  She wondered if this was what had tipped the school board in her favor.

As her next class filed in, her insides filled with elation.  Her job was secure.  Let Steven say whatever he wanted.  Now the whole town knew what was happening.

After school was over, she went home.  Now she knew her job was okay.  She just had to worry about her children.  The letter to the editor brought up a question that she wanted answered.  Why was Steven doing all of this?  Was he trying to hide something?  Was this an attempt to deflect attention from himself? 

She began gathering all of the documents from the school board meeting, the newspaper article, letter to the editor, and then sat down to write down all of their recent conversations.  She wasn’t sure what the lawyer would need, but she wanted to have everything ready for him on Thursday.

Dalton’s mother showed him the letter.  He was proud of Mr. Hodges, a friend of his father’s, for saying what needed to be said on Alyssa’s behalf.  The newspaper article itself hadn’t been slanted either way, but the information it gave had the tendency to make a person lean toward the negative, like newspaper articles tend to do.  He had been disappointed the writer hadn’t waited to publish the piece after the school board announced its decision, afraid the decision to keep Alyssa would be diluted by the scandal. 

In the weeks that followed, he paid attention to the uproar in the community surrounding him and Alyssa. 

And there was an uproar.

After the newspaper article, he was stopped at the feed store by a high school kid who worked there after school.

“So, you and Ms. Fuller aren’t going out anymore?”  The young man asked shyly.

He grimaced.  “No, we’re not.”

Seeming to gain a little courage, the boy said, “That’s a shame.  She seemed real happy while you guys were.  Going out, I mean.”

“You knew we were going out?”

“Well, I’m in Kelly’s English class, and we talked about it once.  I think it was y’all’s first date.  We were all talking about how pretty she looked that day.  She seemed real happy, there, for awhile.”

“She doesn’t seem happy, now?”

“Naw…She’s not.  You can tell, you know?  She’s quiet.  Real quiet.”  The boy started hefting Dalton’s feed sacks into the back of the pick-up truck.

Dalton watched him quietly, for a few minutes, contemplating whether or not he should send Alyssa a message through this kid.  He decided against it.  She would get on with her life, and it would be better without him in it.

He called Kelly that evening.

“Hey Kels, how’s it going?”

She muttered at him, noncommittally.

“Have you noticed Ms. Fuller acting…different?”

“Lord, Uncle Dobby, she misses you bad.  All this ruckus with the school board messed her up, you know?  I personally think you guys should just ignore what every body has to say and get back together.  She barely combs her hair anymore.”

“I’m not sure about all that.  Just let me know if anything changes.  Will you do that?”

“Changes, like how?”  She asked.

“Like, if she gets worse or anything.”

“Okay.  I will.  Although, honestly, I don’t see how she could get worse.”

Dalton’s gut clenched with a pang of guilt.  He had done this to her, and it was killing him.  Trying to change the subject, he asked, “Hey.  Do you have anything going on with the boy at the feed store?”

“Johnny?  No.  He’s just a friend.  Why?”

“He’s a nice kid.  I was just wondering, that’s all.”

Kelly giggled, “Whatever, Uncle Dobby.  Bye.”

“Love you, kiddo.”

After hanging up the phone, Dalton almost called Alyssa, but again decided against contacting her.  It hurt like hell to leave her alone like this, but he knew she wouldn’t appreciate him trying to call her.  She didn’t need him in her life.

Dalton was the recipient of winks and nudges in the days and weeks that followed, supporters of his who believed that he and Alyssa needed to get back together.  They were like Serendipity’s very own live soap opera.  At the grocery store, the checkers would nod at him
,
and ask if he’d talked to her, yet.  When he shook his head no, they would look at him sorrowfully and shake their head in pity.  At the gas station, the attendants would ask, and when he responded, they would cluck their tongues
,
or whistle low in disbelief.

He had his share of nay-sayers too.  There were plenty of people who believed he needed to take his debauchery back to Dallas
,
and stop sullying Serendipity.  One lady at Walmart told him so.

“I wish you would just go back to Dallas, and stop trying to corrupt our young folks here.  Ms. Fuller was a perfectly respectable woman before you came along.”  She sniffed as she spoke to him down the end of her long.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, ma’am, but I can assure you, I didn’t corrupt Ms. Fuller.  We never did anything inappropriate.”

She made noise in the back of her throat before turning her back on him and waddling down the aisle.

He lost track of the weeks, as lost as he was in his own self-pity.  He woke up and tended the ranch until time to go to bed, trying to lose himself in his work.  The only problem was, Alyssa was never far from his mind.

Then the dreams started again.

It had been a normal day, nothing exceptional had happened.  After a quick shower to wash off the day’s grime, he’d gone to bed and fallen asleep rather quickly.

Then he was in her classroom.  He watched himself teach about identifying themes in stories, and then he read the beginning of a post-apocalyptical short story, written during the Cold War.  He assigned the remainder of the story for homework
,
before the bell rang, and then he did it all over again.  Six times.  After his classes were over, he went home and got ready to go to the Gin with Jessie and Summer.  He drank tequila and beer, chatting with his girlfriends, feeling as if he were putting on a show.  When Summer asked about lawyers, he felt his façade slipping. 

In the knowledge that comes only in dreams, he knew Alyssa was having a hard time staying upbeat around her friends.  When the subject of lawyers came up, he could hear the fatigue in her/his voice.

“Michael wants to fight fire with fire.  He says Steven never had a case, and now with the school board’s decision, it’s even weaker.  I agree, but the thing is, Michael says we can’t let the furor that the school board meeting incited die down.  He’s going to have all of his cronies on the square down town put signs in their windows.  He says the more people support me and Dalton, the better for the children.”

“What kind of signs?  I can do a sign.”  Summer asked.

“Alyssa and Dalton together forever
.  C
, c
heesy stuff like that.  I don’t really like it.”

“Of course you don’t, but what could it hurt?”

Jessie piped up, “What about Dalton?”

Alyssa shrugged, “What about him?”  Dalton felt the pain the words evoked.  He was intimately familiar with it.

“Have you talked to him?  How’s he doing with all of this?”

“I don’t know, Jessie.  He’s probably fine.  I imagine he’s moving on with his life.”  He felt himself choke up with tears
,
and then felt himself try to hold them back.  “I don’t want…I can’t talk about it.  I’m sorry.”  She took another drink of her beer.  “Who’s going to sing?”

“I’ve got a hankering for some B-52’s.  Who’s with me?”  Summer asked, and Alyssa felt a little better as she watched her friends clown up on the stage singing “Rock Lobster.”  Dalton enjoyed feeling the smile on her face.

The next morning, Dalton awoke to an unbearable sense of sadness.  She hadn’t sung the night before.  It broke his heart a little to realize that.

Chapter 24

Alyssa was having a hard time getting used to the signs.  It had started with just the square around the courthouse, where she didn’t go much.  Then other business owners had caught on, and now the signs were everywhere.  You’d have to be living under a rock to not know about Alyssa, Dalton, and Steven.

Summer had, predictably, been the first one not on the square to post a sign in the window of
‘
A Summer Place.
’
  It said, Dalton and Alyssa—when will you see what the rest of us do?  Y’all  were made for each other!  Other signs around town had things like, Alyssa and Dalton, sitting in a tree…, or Alyssa and Dalton,
t
T
wo souls, one heart.  The Methodist Church even joined in
,
on its bulletin board
,
with
:
Alyssa and Dalton, come to church together.  The Lord will see you through.

Most of the signs were hand-lettered
,
on poster board, but a few, like the church’s were on the permanent light boards with removable letters.  A couple of businesses had even had signs professionally printed.

Of course, people talked to her, too.  Some even told her they’d talked to Dalton already.  Most were trying to play match-maker, but there were a few who told her she was better off without him.

Alyssa was flattered by the attention, but at the same time, unnerved.  She really didn’t like her private life, or lack thereof, being plastered up all over town.  There was really no way around it, though.  Michael, her lawyer, had started it, and there didn’t seem to be any way to stop it.

To top it all off, the dreams had started up again.  She was dreaming of Dalton’s life once more.  She could feel he was hurting inside, as much as she was.  These past weeks had been just as much torture for him as they were for her, and somehow, that made it worse.