Keep Me in Your Heart Page 11

  “It’s the first break we’ve had,” the detective told them with a tremor of excitement.

  The news about Jessica had become a national story. Calls came in from all over about supposed sightings of her car. Jeremy’s father said, “We’ve heard from people as far away as California. How do you know this one is the real thing?”

  Jeremy listened with mounting excitement as the detective said, “A woman called who’d been stranded on U.S. Seventeen by that overturned tanker truck five days ago. She remembered a girl who looked like Jessica standing on the shoulder of the road near her. She described the clothes Jessica was wearing exactly, and we haven’t released all those details to the press.”

  “U.S. Seventeen,” Jessica’s mother said, confused. “What was she doing out that way?”

  “No idea,” the detective said. “But at least we can concentrate our search in that area.”

  Jeremy called Dr. Witherspoon with the news. “The minute they find her, you call the hospital,” the doctor said. “We’ll send the Life Force Helicopter for her. And you get here fast too. We’ll do the transplant just as soon as she’s stable.”

  For the first time in days, Jeremy dared to hope they might find Jessica in time.

  She heard a dog barking. The sound came from far, far away. She wanted the animal to hush. Didn’t it know she was trying to sleep? A gray fog shrouded her now, beckoning her ever deeper into its depths. She wanted to slip inside its soft gray arms and find peace, but something kept her from going.

  She vaguely heard a pounding sound. And a voice. “Wake up, girlie! Unlock the door. Wake up.”

  She couldn’t move.

  She heard a noise—glass cracking? She felt the wet, cold nose of a dog and a man’s hands lifting her. And a voice saying, “I got you, girlie. Don’t you worry. Old Luther’s got you.”

  “An old man going fishing found her in a field. Her car had a flat tire and a dead battery.” The detective relayed the information to Jeremy and both sets of parents. “An ambulance is taking her to the nearest hospital—it’s just a small community facility. I’ll dispatch the helicopter from here.”

  “How is she?” Jessica’s mother’s voice trembled.

  Jeremy held his breath, waiting for the answer.

  “She’s alive. But not by much.”

  Jeremy gazed at Jessica through the window of the intensive care unit, hardly recognizing her. Tubes and wires seemed to be growing out of her body. She was swollen with water weight, and her skin had a ghastly greenish tinge.

  “Are you all right, son?”

  He turned to see his father, who’d come up beside him. “I’m all right. Dad,” he said pensively, “nobody should have to die of kidney failure. It’s a terrible way to die.”

  “I never had an appreciation of dialysis the way I do now. Seeing her like this …” Frank didn’t complete his thought.

  “And nobody should have to live their life hooked to a machine if they can get a transplant. That’s why I know I’m doing the right thing by giving her my kidney.”

  “I’m still afraid for you.”

  “I’m going to be fine.”

  “Dr. Witherspoon says the incision on your back to remove your kidney will be about fifteen inches.” He held out his hands to demonstrate the length for Jeremy. “You’ll have a scar there all your life.”

  “Jessica will have one too,” Jeremy countered.

  “Your recovery won’t be easy.”

  “Hers will take longer.”

  “Nothing I can say will dissuade you, will it?”

  “Nothing.”

  His father sighed. “I didn’t think so. You’ve already missed the start of school, you know.”

  “It won’t be a problem.” He’d already decided to finish his senior year. The schoolwork was easy for him. It would give him more time to be with Jessica while she recovered and adjusted to her new kidney and antirejection medications.

  “I’ll be glad when this is all behind us,” his father commented.

  “Me too.”

  “Just for the record”—his father gripped his shoulder—“I’m proud to call you my son.”

  His father left, and Jeremy turned to gaze once again at Jessica as she slept. He pressed his forehead against the glass partition and said a prayer of thanks to God for sparing her. Then, for the first time since the ordeal had begun, Jeremy allowed himself to cry.

  After she left intensive care for a private room, Jessica learned that she’d become a minicelebrity. “You mean I was on national news?”

  “Yes,” her mother said. “The mail still hasn’t stopped coming.”

  “And your room looks like a florist shop,” her father added.

  Jessica felt embarrassed.

  “We saved all the newspaper clippings for you to read,” Jeremy added.

  “I would have rather become famous some other way,” she admitted. “It was so weird when I was stuck out in that field. I wanted to do something to help myself, but I couldn’t. My brain felt fogged in.”

  “It’s just as well,” her father said. “The police said the smartest thing you did was to stay with the car. If you’d tried to walk away and collapsed—”

  “Well, it’s over.” She interrupted him. “And now the real work begins.” She looked up at Jeremy. “Dr. Witherspoon told me the transplant is set for day after tomorrow. You sure you don’t want to change your mind?”

  “What? And miss my chance to make the national news?” he kidded. “Maybe they’ll want to make a TV minimovie about us.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “They could get a hot young star to play me. And who could they pick to play you?” he mused.

  “Willy the Whale?”

  He chuckled, then sobered. “No matter how this turns out, Jessie, I don’t have any regrets.”

  Two days later their beds stood side by side in the preop room as they waited for the transplant teams to assemble. Jeremy would be in one operating room and Jessica in another. One team of surgeons would snip out his healthy kidney and sew him up, and the other team would place the organ in Jessica’s body. The whole procedure would take four to five hours.

  Jeremy felt as if he were floating. “This stuff they gave me to relax sure does work,” he told Jessica.

  She wore a green cap over her hair and had an IV line attached to the back of her hand. “Do I look as silly as you?” Her speech was slurred.

  “You think I look silly? I’m wounded.” But he couldn’t suppress a grin.

  “Just as soon as you’re able to move, you come visit me,” she said.

  “I’ll be there.”

  Two anesthesiologists appeared. “Time to go to sleep.” They injected medications into Jeremy’s and Jessica’s IV lines.

  Dr. Witherspoon leaned over their beds and smiled. “Okay, you two. It’s showtime.”

  Jeremy felt the medication numbing his body. He turned his head and saw that Jessica was staring at him, her eyelids heavy with the drugs. He reached his hand through the bars of the bed. She laced her fingers through his. “I love you, Jessie.”

  Moisture filled her eyes. “Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you for my new life.”

  Chapter

  20

  “You look beautiful.”

  Jessica smiled. “Thanks for the compliment, but you’re prejudiced. After all, we share body parts.”

  She gazed around the ballroom of the hotel, at the girls in beautiful dresses and gowns, at the boys in formal tuxedos.

  “I must admit I feel funny out here,” she whispered in his ear. “I’ll bet I’m the only college freshman at this high-school prom.”

  “You missed yours. I thought you should come to mine. Aren’t you glad you’re here with me?”

  She slid her arms around him and knew that beneath his tux, along his back, was the scar that attested to his gift to her. There had been a few problems after her transplant, but for the most part it had been trouble-free. She took antirejection medic
ation, and her body appeared to have accepted his kidney.

  “One of my friends is having a weekender on his grandfather’s boat after the prom. The boat’s anchored in the harbor at Annapolis,” Jeremy said.

  “I hope there’ll be food.”

  He grinned. “A crate of lobsters and a mountain of french fries.”

  “Count me in.”

  Jeremy hugged her tightly. She looked sophisticated in a long black dress that clung to her shapely body. Her thick hair had been swept into a luxurious twist and her eyes sparkled with vitality. Jeremy thought she looked far more elegant than the high-school girls around them on the dance floor.

  “I’m so glad that I’ll be going to Georgetown in the fall,” he said.

  “I’ve been hoping that would be your choice.”

  “Okay, so the fact that you’re there influenced me a tiny bit. I’ve also decided to go into their prelaw program. It’s one of the best.”

  “Why doesn’t it surprise me?” she teased.

  He shrugged sheepishly. “I’m told I have a flare for it. My dad says, ‘like father like son.’ I have to admit, it’s great to see what’s happened to my parents. The group they joined, Compassionate Friends, has helped them meet other parents whose children have died. They’re happier than I’ve seen them in years.”

  “I’m glad you and your family didn’t split apart because of me,” Jessica said slowly.

  “Listen, Jake and Fran both passed their bar exams and found jobs.” Jeremy changed the subject quickly. “Jake was like a brother to me.” His voice cracked as he said “brother.”

  “Did I tell you what I’m considering? I think I want to major in biology and become a premed.”

  Jeremy laughed and kissed her lightly on her mouth. “Wait’ll I tell my mom. She’s always wanted a doctor in the family.”

  Jessica kissed him back, knowing that no matter what happened their lives were intertwined forever.

  Telling Christina

  Goodbye

  Dedicated to Nathan, Megan, and Andy … who lived it.

  February 12, 1995

  “FOR I KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU,” DECLARES THE LORD, “PLANS TO PROSPER YOU AND NOT TO HARM YOU, PLANS TO GIVE YOU HOPE AND A FUTURE.”

  JEREMIAH 29:11

  (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)

  One

  During the first week of classes after Christmas break, between fourth and fifth periods at Mooresville High School, Trisha Thompson went looking for Christina Eckloe. She found her best friend crying in the girls’ bathroom. Her sobs were muffled and sounded almost like a kitten mewing, hardly the reflection of a breaking heart, but Trisha wasn’t fooled. She’d heard Christina cry before. And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. Tucker Hanson.

  Trisha slipped into the unlocked stall where Christina was hiding, her hands covering her face. Trisha unrolled a swath of toilet paper and handed it to her friend. “Here, use this. It’s more absorbent than your palms.”

  Christina took the wad of paper without looking up. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “H-how did you find me?”

  “When you didn’t show up for lunch, I started checking the bathrooms. This was my third stop.”

  “Wh-where are the others? I don’t want them to see me like this.”

  “Kim and Darby went on to class. Cody’s waiting outside in the hall.”

  “Why couldn’t I get a guy like Cody?” Christina asked.

  “You mean instead of a jerk like Tucker? That’s always been my question to you, hasn’t it?” Trisha felt angry. “Tucker is the reason you’re crying, isn’t he? I mean, he usually is the reason you cry.”

  Christina nodded.

  Trisha sighed. “What’d he do this time?”

  “We had a fight.”

  “Over what?”

  “You don’t have to talk to me like I’m a child,” Christina said. She stood shakily and edged past Trisha out of the stall.

  Trisha followed. “Sorry. But you’ve been fighting with Tucker off and on for years. It gets to me because he’s not nice to you.”

  Christina bent over a sink and splashed cold water on her face. “You just don’t understand.”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “This time it really was my fault,” Christina said. “I ran into Bill Lawler at the library last night. Tucker was supposed to pick me up at nine, but we’d had a fight that afternoon and he didn’t show.”

  Trisha rolled her eyes.

  “Anyway,” Christina continued while drying her face on a paper towel, “Bill offered to drive me home and on the way we stopped off and had coffee. Someone must have seen us together and told Tucker, because when he picked me up for school this morning he was really upset. I tried to explain that there’s nothing between me and Bill, but he won’t believe me.”

  “So now he’s mad because you had coffee with Bill? What’s wrong with that?”

  “I’m Tucker’s girl. I shouldn’t have gone out with another guy.”

  “Oh, please!” Trisha crossed her arms. “You didn’t go out on a date, you had a coffee together. How can he be that insecure? You’ve been with him since eighth grade.”

  The entire class knew about Tucker and Christina’s relationship. He had been voted Mr. Most Popular and this year’s Homecoming King; she had been selected as Miss Best Personality and Homecoming Queen. Kids saw them as perfect for each other, beautiful people who had been going together forever and who were destined to always be a couple. Only Trisha and her boyfriend, Cody McGuire, knew about the tumultuous nature of the pairing. To Trisha’s way of thinking, Tucker was often hateful to Christina, sarcastic and even rude. Trisha didn’t understand why they stayed together. Christina could have any guy she wanted at Mooresville.

  “Are you saying Cody wouldn’t object if you were seen in public having coffee with some other guy by people who think you’ve got an exclusive relationship with him?” Christina sounded defensive.

  “Frank Russo and I go out all the time and Cody doesn’t feel threatened.”

  “You’re coeditors of the yearbook. Of course you go out all the time. Plus Frank has Abby Harrison for a girlfriend.”

  Trisha ignored Christina’s logic. “The point is, Cody trusts me. After all the years you’ve been with Tucker, he should trust you too.”

  Christina looked dejected. “That’s what I told him, but he’s still angry.”

  “Then that’s his problem, not yours. He needs to get over it, cut you some slack.”

  “There are other things too.” Christina fished in her purse for lip gloss. “I’ve been accepted at the University of Vermont—”

  “But that’s wonderful,” Trisha interrupted.

  Christina smiled for the first time. “Mom and Dad think so too, especially since it came with a ten-thousand-dollar scholarship.”

  Trisha was speechless. She’d always known Christina was smart, but this really proved it.

  “It’s Dad’s alma mater, so he really wants me to go there,” Christina added.

  “So why wouldn’t you?”

  “Tucker hates the idea. He can’t accept that I would go so far from Indiana, or him. He’s really bummed out about it. He wants me to go someplace in-state, like IU.”

  Indiana University at Indianapolis was a good hundred and fifty miles from Mooresville, a midsized town in the middle of nowhere. Trisha had moved to Mooresville with her parents and kid brother five years before when her father, an insurance agent, had taken over the job of area manager for his company. To Trisha, after having lived in a sprawling suburb of Chicago all her life, Mooresville had seemed like the most boring place on earth. When Christina had befriended her in seventh grade, that had made all the difference. Then, when they’d both started at the high school, Trisha met Cody, and having him for a boyfriend for two years had turned Mooresville into the center of the universe.

  “How can Tucker expect you to change your plans—your future—for him? Why doesn’t he chang
e his plans for you?” Trisha asked.

  Christina shook her head. “He has to start at the community college because his grades are poor—if he decides to go to college at all. I know you and Cody are planning to go to IU together, so don’t pretend you’re making any sacrifice for each other in that respect.”

  “Point taken,” Trisha said. “We do plan on going off to IU together, but first we both have to be accepted.” She and Cody had applied, but acceptance letters wouldn’t be sent out until early spring. “But I’m telling you, if I had a valid scholarship offer, I’d take it. Tucker should be happy for you.”

  Trisha stared at Christina’s reflection and her own while Christina put on powder. Christina was blond, with a pretty heart-shaped face and clear blue eyes. Trisha’s plain dark hair—which she was letting grow long and which now was lank and scraggly—and brown eyes looked drab next to her friend. But Christina wasn’t conceited about her looks; she was genuinely congenial and friendly. People liked Christina because Christina liked people.

  “We’ve missed fifth period,” Christina said with a sigh. “You shouldn’t have skipped on my account. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

  Trisha shrugged. “I skipped world lit, big deal. I’ve read the chapter already, and you know Mr. Childess can put a dead person to sleep.”

  Christina raked a comb through her hair. “You’re the one I’m going to miss the most if I go away to Vermont, not Tucker.”

  Trisha put her hand on Christina’s arm before they stepped into the hall. “Don’t let Tucker make you do something you don’t want to do. If he really loves you, he’ll give you some room to do what you want, go where you want.”

  “You sound like my mother.”

  “Hey, no need to insult me.”

  They both laughed. Trisha had offered a standard refrain, one worthy of any adult. The truth was, she knew she was right. Tucker Hanson was trouble. He always had been and he always would be. How could Christina be so blind that she couldn’t see that?

  “Ah, Tuck’s not so bad,” Cody said as he shut his locker in the crowded halls after school.