Charlottesville, VA – Past

 

     In his dorm room, Adam fiddled with the top button of his collar for the tenth time that morning. The hazel eyes of a mysterious, young woman had been haunting his dreams lately, and he was anxious to get to the market. He was beginning to wish he hadn’t signed on for three courses that summer; he’d hardly been able to concentrate during lessons, especially in Professor Denton’s class. For a reason Adam couldn’t explain, his relationship with his teacher had changed last weekend. He often found Denton’s eyes on him when he’d look up from his desk, and the man had asked to sit with him at lunch twice that week; always with a mask of friendliness. Adam had a feeling it had something to do with Sissy, but what the connection was, he wasn’t sure. He’d been relieved to hear that Denton would be gone that weekend. Along with most of the university faculty, he would be attending a teacher’s seminar at a prestigious hotel near the ocean.

Scowling at himself in the mirror, Adam combed a part to the right, then to the left, and finally, he just raked his fingers through his hair, threw down the comb and walked out the door. Though at least a good mile away, he decided to walk to the market. He set a brisk pace, breathing in deeply the smells of green. At home, every breath was full of the scents of pine and sage. Adam chuckled.

     Or cattle.

Along the way, he passed a grove of cherry trees. A few of them still had blossoms and, checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming, he quickly hopped the fence and broke off a stem full of the softly perfumed flowers.

When he arrived at the market, the fair was nearly done being set up, and he made his way through the various stands, twirling the stem in his hands and watching for a certain familiar face. His heart was beating wildly, and he had to force himself to take deep breaths and calm down.

An hour later, he tried not to be disappointed by the fact that Sissy hadn’t arrived. “She never actually said she would come,” he reminded himself. Walking slowly over to a cart of baked goods, he purchased a muffin and then found a shady place to sit near his usual spot. He quickly downed the muffin and then pulled out a book on Latin verbs and phrasing, but his eyes, instead, focused on the blossoms he still carried. With just the gentlest shade of pink, they reminded him of Sissy’s lips and the way they’d curled up at the edges when she’d smiled. He sighed deeply and then tossed the stem off to the side, determined to memorize at least the next lesson in his book before he watched any of the games. A moment later, a soft, southern voice startled him.

“Are these for me?” Sissy asked, reaching down to pick up the discarded stem.

She wore a pale green dress, long and flowing, and her braid was pinned up in a circle around her head. Adam burst into a smile. “Ah, my lady, you’ve arrived.”

She smiled and dropped her eyes, bringing the flowers up to her nose. Adam noticed how much more at ease she was this time, and he delighted in the fact that he apparently hadn’t been the cause of her anxiety after all.

“Well,” he said, jumping up from the ground. “Do we play, or shall we stand aside and gape?”

Sissy cocked her head in thought. “I like the idea of gapin’, then . . . maybe a game, though at some point, I do need to buy some more cherries.”

Adam’s eyebrows rose in mock alarm.

“Don’t worry,” she giggled. “I brought enough money with me this time.”

Offering his arm, Adam led the way through the crowd to the area sectioned off for racing. First up were the young children in a three legged race. Adam laid odds on two tough looking little rascals he guessed to be around six or seven-years-old. Sissy burst into a fit of laughter when the two boys became tangled and each started to run in a different direction. It was the first time he’d heard her really laugh, and it started a tingling sensation in the center of his stomach.

They spent the next hour watching people make spectacles of themselves in a variety of outdoor games. Adam invited Sissy to eat lunch at the restaurant with him again, and on the way, they passed a fruit stand with at least three different kinds of cherries. Adam leaned against a post, his arms folded across his chest, as Sissy took her time picking out the best ones. When she’d filled her basket, he quickly reached out and gave the coins to the woman working. Sissy turned to him questioningly.

“For the pleasure of you company,” he said, and was rewarded with a smile. “It’s too bad your cousin couldn’t join us.” Adam had barely finished speaking the words when he wished he could take them back. The smile that had graced Sissy’s face was gone, replaced with a pained look of sadness.

“She isn’t feelin’ real well. She hardly ever gets out of the house . . .” Sissy’s voice trailed off, and a faraway look came into her eyes. Adam reached out and brushed her hand and was surprised when she flinched and pulled it away.

“I’m sorry,” she chuckled nervously. “I just got lost in my thoughts.”

He shrugged. “No harm done. I’ve been known to wander off myself once in a while. Now, what say we take a chance and order the catfish this time?”