Slightly agitated Liz fumbles
looking around for the car keys that are buried somewhere deep inside her
cluttered purse. She is borrowing the
corps van while visiting in town. As a
plane ticket slides off the front seat and onto the floor, she feels a pang of
disappointment that her time with Darcy is too quickly coming to an end. The last few weeks have been fun and enjoyable
with him. “Maybe I’m just not looking forward
to going back to work” rationalizes Liz to herself with a sigh knowing that her
thoughts are not true.
Over the last few days life has
become just a little more sweeter and happier. Darcy has been very attentive
and kind towards her. They have spent
many hours talking and discovering as much as they can about each other. Liz considers that this has been an
exceptional moment in her life and feels that it will be unlikely that a time
like this might come again.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, the
day of sweethearts and romantics. It’s so nice to finally have someone this
year. He seems to appreciate her as much
as she admires him. She follows down the now familiar road to the pharmacy on
the corner to pick up a box of Kleenix for Collins who seems to having
difficulty with his cold. Rather than
hearing him sniffle all day, she considers a box of soft tissue is well worth
the minimal investment.
Passing through the aisles of
products, her eyes fall on an organized row of dozens of assorted pink, red,
and white cards. She begins to look
under ‘friendship’ cards but they appear rather dull, so she switches over to
the title card of “humorous”. Liz smirks
‘humor’ is definitely a matter of personal taste rather than a general
perception. The crude jokes fall flat and the simple one-liners seem to miss
their cue. Thumbing through the stacks
of envelopes, she decides to shift her focus to the cards trimmed in faux
velvet and lace prints.
Gently Liz opens the card with
the most appealing cover, “To my love, with each day that the sun rises, you
bring rays of light into my world, filled with beautiful surprises, and
memories bright and bold, take all of my evening sunsets, let us gaze into
tomorrow, forever our hands to hold”.
Liz contemplates the card “This
may be more than he is ready to hear, but I want him to know how I’m beginning
to feel about him before I leave. I
don’t know how much longer it will be until I see him again”.
Just as her thoughts settle in
the haziness of her consideration and the romantic purchase filled with high
expectation, she hears a much too friendly “Hello!” standing behind her from
around the checkout corner.
“Liz! What are you doing here?” asks Will Fitz
delighted to have the opportunity to run into her while she is alone. “I didn’t know that you came here”.
“I’m … I’m … I’m …”
drawing a complete blank and not able to complete her sentence, Liz
considers what she should say next. The
only thing coming to her mind is that she has just bought a card for Darcy
which she certainly does not want Will Fitz to know about.
“Yes, you’re …. Are we playing a
game? Do you want me to guess?” jokes
Will Fitz kindly smiling at her and looking at the red card sneaking through
the translucent bag. “Who’s the card for?
Did you buy one for me?”
“I, uh, you know, it’s just for a
friend” swallows Liz unable to calm her nerves and looking around the store
hoping that something will suddenly stimulate her mind to start another less
stressful topic.
“Um … how disappointing …. I
hoped that you would be picking one out for me, but unfortunately I can guess
who that one might be for” Will Fitz laughs “too bad he met you before I did.”
Looking down Liz blushes slightly
and acknowledges, “It’s been fun having you and Darcy around these last few
weeks. I never know quite what to expect and it has been highly entertaining.”
“You know, Darcy can’t stop
talking about you. I think that I know
more about you than you realize” teases Will Fitz enjoying watching Liz squirm.
“Well, I hope there are a few
good things or at least the things that don’t seem to be too offensive” mocks
Liz with feigned humility “I hope there isn’t anything about me that is too
shocking”.
“No, I don’t think so. You seem a rather cool and contemplative
type. I don’t think that you would waste
too much time on nonsense” accurately surmises Will Fitz but charmingly adds
with a twinkle in his eye “I think that there are many sides to you that are
just waiting to burst forth”.
“Ummm maybe, I just don’t know
what they are yet” jokingly reflects Liz shrugging her shoulders “When you find
one of these sides, you’ll have to let me know about it so I can notice it
too”.
“So what are your plans for
today? Do you want to grab something to
eat?” suggests Will Fitz “There’s a Chicken Hut around the corner from here”.
“I’m starving since I missed
lunch this morning” states Liz aware that her stomach is grumbling “Maybe we
could call Darcy and see if he wants to join us”.
“Ok. Just a second let me call
him” agrees Will Fitz taking his phone out and waiting for his cousin to answer “Hey, Darcy.
It’s me Fitz, do you want to meet me for lunch? … Yeah, okay, maybe
later”.
Liz is a little disappointed that
Will Fitz doesn’t mention that she will also be there and wonders if the
response would have been the same if he had.
“It looks like it will be just
the two of us today. Hope you don’t mind
my company for an hour or so” conjures Will Fitz knowing that he intentionally
left Liz’s name out of the request. “You can ride in my car and I’ll drop you
back off”.
After ordering at the counter,
Liz tries to find an empty bright red fifties style booth to sit in. She takes a sip of her Coke and stretches out
comfortably in the seat. Will Fitz soon joins her with the waffle fries and
chicken wraps.
“So Liz, tell me what are your
plans when you return home? I’m sorry to
see that you are leaving but I’ll have to make a visit to Longbourn Citadel
sometime soon which I’ve heard so much about” genuinely offers Will Fitz
sticking a rather large waffle fry into his mouth all at once.
“Well, I’ll go back to work at
the local paper. But other than that, it
will be volunteering at the corps and preparing for Easter events” trying to
remember her calendar Liz continues trying to find something interesting to say
but failing at her attempt something that Will Fitz might be able to repeat to
his cousin as an invitation “Lydia’s 18th
birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks so I’ll probably be helping with
party plans. Maybe you and Darcy could come down then. You’re more than welcome to attend. She’s also graduating in June which is only five
months away from now and she may need some help with a lot of end of the year
things too.”
.”I’d love to come. Darcy and I can make a road trip if he can
find time to take off from work. He’s
always busy but he might find that you would be worth the trip” teases Will
Fitz “I might enjoy the company too”.
“So what can you tell me about Darcy
while he’s not with us? What do you think of him?” courageously asks Liz
wanting a frank reply to judge her current perceptions which are tending to attractively
leaning towards his favor.
“Darcy, let’s see … He’s a good
guy. Qualities I would attribute to him are that he is dependable, loyal,
honest, smart, sincere, and real. He’s a
genuinely good friend. He won’t leave
your side and will be there when needed” contemplates Will Fitz.
“Those are nice things, but what
would you say are his weaknesses?” asks Liz wanting a fair and objective
evaluation to concur with her hopeful personal plans.
“That’s a difficult one. If anything, he can bit a bit secretive. At
times he can be somewhat of a dark horse. Some misunderstand him to be a snob,
but he’s not. He has a compassionate
heart but he just doesn’t want to be taken advantage of. People tend to cling to him because of what
he has and that it will increase their reputation value but not necessarily
because of the great guy that he is. But one thing that is true is that he’ll
never let you down” honestly replies Will Fitz not exactly appreciating listing
all the admirable qualities of his cousin to Liz in the likelihood that it will
deplete future opportunities of getting to know her better. “What do you see as
his faults?”
“He isn’t always easy to read and
doesn’t share what he’s thinking. I find
myself having to guess but I think that I have a tendency to more accurate than
not” offers Liz quite pleased at how things seem to be recently between them.
“I’d like to hear more about how he is a good friend especially in the case of
Dan Wickham”.
“Wickham? That name is a blast from the past. Let’s see
….what to tell you about Wickham. You
know that he was the son of the General Manager of his father’s business. He lost his mother when he was young. He’s only a year younger than Darcy and they
use to hang out together while their fathers dealt with business and other
management issues. They were raised
together almost like brothers” begins Will Fitz not sure how to continue.
“Did he know Georgianna very
well?” curiously asks Liz wanting to know more about Darcy’s sister that seems
to do well at just about everything.
“Ginny was quite a bit
younger. She’s eight years younger than
Darcy. She followed them around while the
boy. When they were teens she was more
into playing with her Barbies and earning badges as a Sunbeam at least that was
the way it was then” states Will Fitz as his voice fades “Ginny grew up to be
quite beautiful even as a teen”.
“What happened between Darcy and
Wickham? There seems to be a mutual
dissatisfaction with each other now. What made them practically not able to
stand the sight of each other?” sceptically asks Liz wanting to know if there
is something in either of their characters which leaves them unforgiving and
uncharacteristically vindictive.
Will Fitz looks directly into her
eyes for a moment unsure what he is able to share with her. “When Wickham was 16 his father died of a
heart attack. He moved in with the
family and was considered almost like a second son. It was understood that Wickham would go to
the same college as Darcy which would be paid for by Darcy’s father which he
had put into a trust fund for each of the boys.
He was given all the same opportunities as Darcy which also genuinely pleased
everyone in the family. “
“That seems awfully kind of
Darcy’s dad. But it doesn’t explain what
happened” notices Liz wanting to know more “Everything so far seems like it should
be quite good between them”.
“Well, Wickham was a bit of
player in high school and into heading towards adulthood. One day after
attending a youth councils he decided that he would like to go to the training
school and become an officer. It was a
somewhat of a shock for those of us that were close to him” and then reflecting
Will Fitz adds “but it’s true that God can transform lives and make dramatic
changes in character and behavior.”
“Just before Darcy’s dad died, he
released a rather large trust fund so that Wickham would have money to live on
while an officer” Will Fitz takes a deep breath currently struggling with his
own personal calling, “Knowing that the weekly allowance doesn’t even meet
minimum wage standard although there is a lot of other compensation including a
filled house, a vehicle, and other benefits, his father felt that the money
would enable Wickham to live a more comfortable life as a pastor.”
“I don’t remember him ever saying
he went to training” states Liz trying to recall any mention of him attending.
“Well, something happened but I’m
not sure of the details and he dropped out of the training school and decided
to enlist in the Navy. He came back
after ending his term about eight years ago and spent a summer working with
Ginny at Camp Long Branch He was the program director at 24 and Ginny was 17
working as a dining room girl. I think
she turned 18 at the end of the summer because she has a late birthday. She was just starting her senior year. But there was a falling out when the summer
was over and I really don’t know all the details of what happened. You’ll
probably have to ask Darcy about it” feeling relieved to offer some information
but not too much Will Fitz informatively continues “Wickham ending up enlisting
again and I really haven’t seen him since then or know anything about his life
either. There were rumors that he had married someone on the rebound who had
been jilted at the altar, but it doesn’t seem like they are together if he was
by himself. I didn’t even know he had
set a foot back into an SA building until Darcy told me he had visited
Longbourne Citadel a couple of months ago.”
“That’s really interesting. It sounds like there is more involved than
what I know. I’ve only heard Wickham’s
side of the story which I’ve been think about lately. It matches in some ways. I’m not exactly sure
what to think” confesses Liz feeling perhaps that there are a few potholes
along the road of Wickham’s version of the story but not convinced yet of
Darcy’s innocence in the matter.
Sensing her doubt about Darcy’s
character, Will Fitz encourages her “Darcy is a good friend. He would never let anyone down. He was just telling me last month about this
friend his that he rescued from a scheming gold digger. Evidently she was an outrageous flirt and her
mother was incredibly atrocious always bragging about how much money her
daughter would have once they married to anyone who would listen.”
“Did he happen to mention this
friend’s name?” suspiciously asks Liz starting to feel the temperature rise
below her ears and her eyes narrowing to accommodate the anger rising in her
soul.
“I don’t know. I’m not good with names. It was something like Ringo or Bingo. The
family was a real trip though. One of the sisters of the girl that he rescued
his friend from was always bragging about her talents and how much smarter she
was than everyone else but the reality was far from it. The younger sisters were also a bit boy crazy
too and were allowed way too much independence to think and do whatever they
wanted to.”
Seeing that what he is saying is
upsetting Liz but not sure as to the cause, he decides to let her know that Darcy
at least liked one of them “One of the
older sisters evidently was all right for the most part but unfortunately really
opinionated on just about every topic under the sun. From some of the things he told me she did,
it sounded like she lacked a lot of common sense.”
Liz can feel her body heat rise
by twenty degrees as her eyes start to water “How dare he judge someone’s
family like that? Who is he? What does he know about them except a few
days around them? Did he ever try to
understand them?” furiously asks Liz pounding her fist on the laminate table
sprinkled with silver glitter under its surface for special emphasis and
affect.
“I don’t know. But in my history of knowing Darcy, he reads
people fairly well. He’s a good judge of
character. My guess even though I wasn’t
a participant in the situation was that he was right about the girl. He doesn’t often jump to conclusions”
suggests Will Fitz trying to soften the blow but not entirely understanding
Liz’s tempered response to a stranger’s fate.
“Well, I can tell you he was
wrong” states Liz crossing her arms in front of her and leaning back to sulk
for a moment in the cherry red plastic cushions of the booth.
“Maybe you should talk to him
about it. I’m sure he could give you
more information that I’m not aware of either” offers Will Fitz feeling a bit
uncomfortable about being included as a possible target of Liz’s anger and
disappointment.
“You know, I think that Char
might need some help with Girl Guards’ Valentine Day’s party this afternoon.
Thank you for lunch. It was really
delicious and for talking with me. It
helps to settle a few things that I’ve been lately considering” grateful for
his insight Liz responds with a self-satisfied smile.
Getting back into her car, Liz
looks at the plastic bag in the seat next to her containing the bright red
velvet card and contemplates what to do next.
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