A Knight in Central Park(103)

Shelly winced. “That doll is scaring me.” She scooted his legs off of the coffee table. Then she took a seat beside him. “That bad, huh?”

“I can’t stop thinking about her,” he admitted. “I was holding the last stone when I realized I didn’t want to leave her, couldn’t leave her. But it happened anyhow.”

He sat up and laid his face in his open palms. “I took the rock, Shelly. I drew back my arm, ready to throw it toward the horizon, then zap! I was back in Central Park.”

He snapped his fingers. “Just like that.” He shook his head. “Central Park is safer than people think. I wanted to be mugged. I didn’t want to be here. It was cold, but it felt good to be cold because at the very least I wanted to feel numb. But then some guy gave me his coat. Can you believe that? A complete stranger; a homeless guy with nothing gave me his coat. All those years I walked through that park and not once did I ever think to give a stranger my coat.” He pointed to a stack of coats and blankets and sweatshirts at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m going to give those away.”

Shelly nodded, but she didn’t say anything, just listened.

“It’s my own fault I’m here. Stubborn, close-minded. That’s me,” he said jabbing a finger into his chest. “I was so stuck on love being something you could see and hold, something concrete, something I didn’t deserve, that I didn’t figure it out until it was too late.”

He looked intensely at Shelly, and fiercely hoped her boyfriend deserved her and loved her.

“I’ve given up the one woman I’ve ever loved.” He closed his eyes. The aching in his gut felt like a dozen knots pulled tight. He needed to hear Alexandra’s voice, see her face, touch her, feel her hand in his.

“Professor. Was it true what she said about the stones? Were there two stones missing when you and Alexandra arrived in her century?”

His eyes remained closed, but he managed a slight nod.

“Listen to me carefully. Do you remember when the three of us...you, Alexandra and I, were in the kitchen? Your kitchen?”

He nodded again, opened his eyes. “What about it?”

“Alexandra had been upset that day,” Shelly said. “She was troubled that morning because she had lost one stone in Central Park and one stone while she was here.”

Shelly peered wildly about the room. “Maybe, just maybe the second missing stone is here somewhere.” Shelly jumped to her feet and ran into the kitchen at about the same time her words sunk into his thick skull.

By the time Joe managed to get to his feet and to the kitchen, Shelly was on the computer, her fingers clicking away on the keyboard. Each second felt like hours as he waited, not quite sure what he was waiting for. Hope was thick and tangible, and definitely in the air.

“Yes!” Shelly shouted, jumping to her feet, giving him a heart attack. “Tonight is the night! We don’t have much time. Oh, crap, look at you. Oh, forget it, we don’t have time to fix your hair, or your...” She plugged her nose. “Professor, what is that smell? When was the last time you took a bath? Never mind. We’ll spray you with a hose if we have to. What are you doing just standing there? Start looking for that stone!”

The tiny ray of hope expanded, its power soaring through his body, renewing his energy like nothing else could. Shelly was already in the living room, flipping cushions from chairs and turning end tables upside down.

Tonight. Shelly had just said. “Tonight was the night.”

He caught up to Shelly in the bathroom where she was dumping garbage to the floor, searching through old tissues and magazines.

“What did you mean when you said tonight is the night?”

Shelly stood tall. Between her high-heeled boots and his bare feet, they stood eye to eye. “Do you love Alexandra?” she asked him.

“More than life itself.”

“Do you want to be with her forever?”

“More than anything.”

“Then why are you just standing there?” She glanced at her watch. “We have less than three hours to find that stone and get you to Central Park. There’s a full moon tonight. You need to hurry!

“How would you know?”

“Let's just say that ever since meeting Alexandra, I've learned more about the moon than I care to know,” she said with a smile.

Two hours later, Joe emptied the last of the kitchen drawers, letting its contents spill across the table and onto the floor. They had searched the entire house. “It’s no use,” he said. “Maybe there never was another stone.”