Page 68 of Timeless

“I can’t be long. My dad will want me to be there to answer the phone.”

“Okay. It won’t be long. Can we?”

“Cheryl, can I askyousomething now?”

“Of course.”

“Why are you being so nice to me? You never have been before?”

“I know. And I’m sorry about that.”

“So, this is a pity thing for the new girl in school?”

“What? No,” Cheryl replied. “I… I want to spend time with you. Is that all right?”

Diana smiled softly and said, “Yeah, it’s all right.”

“So, I’ll see you in biology and then, we can meet here after school?”

“All right,” she agreed.

Diana didn’t remember much from that school day nor the one that preceded it. She only remembered Cheryl, who, before the previous day, was only a girl in her class, but after one moment of dizziness that had caused Diana to fall down on the sidewalk and skin her knee, Cheryl was suddenlyallshe could see. She was just so pretty and looked like she actually liked wearing the skirts all the girls wore, while Diana preferred the jumpsuits from work, even though they didn’t have any in her size.

By the end of the day, she had no idea how she’d done in any of her classes. Biology had been the worst. Normally, she paid attention with ease, but today, she could only think about Cheryl sitting behind her, wishing that she could turn to look at her. Maybe Cheryl would be looking at her, too.

“No, she wouldn’t,” she muttered to herself on her way to the bench. “Why would she?”

“Hi.” Cheryl came up to her, practically bouncing on her heels. “You ready?”

“Hi. And I guess I am.” She smiled and gave her a little laugh because Cheryl’s enthusiasm was infectious. “Where are we going?”

“Not far. It’s just through my neighborhood. You’ll see,” Cheryl replied as she looped her arm through Diana’s.

Diana did her best to pretend like it was totally normal for her to have a girl’s arm through her own, even though it wasn’t and she wanted to hold Cheryl’s hand like the boys got to hold girls’ hands in school. She wanted to kiss her like the boys got to kiss girls, too. As a kid, she’d been told in church that those kinds of thoughts were wrong, but after years of trying to get rid of them, Diana had given up. She didn’t know what that meant for her future, but for right now, it meantthat she could just enjoy walking with Cheryl, pretending that Cheryl was her girl and that they were going off necking somewhere.

“It’s through here,” Cheryl said, pointing between two houses. “You’ll really like this, I think. It’s peaceful. That shop is loud, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” she asked.

When they stepped into the grass, Diana looked down at her shoes, worried they’d be stained with green or brown from the wet grass. They were the only shoes she had that were appropriate for school, so she couldn’t get them dirty.

“You all right?” Cheryl asked, and noticing what Diana was staring at, she quickly moved them to a set of decorative concrete stones. “Here. You can walk barefoot from here. It’s safe,” she added. “I’ll take mine off, too.”

Diana felt instantly better and removed her shoes and knee socks, leaving her barefoot. She then watched Cheryl do the same before Cheryl’s arm was back through hers, and their free hands were carrying their shoes, with their socks tucked inside.

“So, the shop’s loud, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s really loud. Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess I thought that if you’re in school all day, where the teachers and other students are loud, and then you go to a shop that’s also loud, maybe you’d want some peace and quiet.”

Diana would love some peace, but quiet wasn’t something she was seeking. In her house, after supper, her dad always went back to the shop, and she was left alone most nights until he got back long after she’d gone to bed. She had the small two-bedroom house to herself for hours at a time, and while she would watch something on their used black-and-white television, she wasn’t much of a television watcher, and she didn’t want meaningless noise. Diana wanted someone to talk to like she used to have when her mom had been alive. She’d had her. She’d had her friends from school. Now, she had nothing but her thoughts.

“Am I wrong?”

“What? No, not about the peace part, anyway.”

They walked to the back of someone’s yard, and Cheryl pointed to a group of shrubs that lined the property.