Midnight Circumstances

This was a night like no other. David didn't know it at the time.

Neither did Amy. They didn't know what would happen in the next few minutes, or the next few hours, or even days. They did know something. Amy knew she shouldn't be up so late. David knew he would be gone by morning. The man lurking outside the window knew precisely when he would throw the rock in his hand.

"Fifteen minutes," he muttered to himself, glancing at his watch.

"Fifteen minutes," sighed David.

"Fifteen minutes," Amy gasped, fingering the tie of her robe.

They all looked up at the cloudy sky, all gazing at the same thing, all thinking different thoughts about it. The man with the rock was hoping it wouldn't lighten soon. David was hoping it wouldn't rain, thinking how difficult it would be to walk at night in the rain. Amy was wishing the moon was out.

The hand on the man's watch struck twelve and he took aim. David looked down by coincidence at the bushes in front of the house across the street and his eyes fell upon the man behind them. He dropped the suitcase in his hand and opened the window.

"Hey!" He shouted. The lurker started, dropped the rock, and slipped behind the house. David leaped out the open window and took off after him, not noticing the girl watching in astonishment from the house. He didn't notice the man coming back from behind the shadows and picking up the rock. He stopped and glanced up at the window, realizing for the first time that there was someone watching from the window into which he was about to launch the stone. Amy withdrew from the window, expecting the glass to shatter at any moment. But it didn't. John hesitated, doubting his action. Amy looked cautiously out the window and saw his hand fall at his side. The stone dropped to the ground and he looked up at her. She looked back at him. She didn’t know who he was, or why he was outside her window at twelve o’clock at night, but she didn’t say a thing. That is until David appeared around the corner.

“David!” she exclaimed, suddenly remembering. He remembered too. They remembered the ice cream sodas, the hours together on the old park bench, the notes in history class. While they were remembering, John remembered where he was and what he had almost done. He didn’t remember why he hadn’t done it, though.

Run, you idiot! 

The voice rang out like a bell. John heard it, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. The moon came out, just like Amy had hoped, and he saw her again in a new light. She looked confused and tired, but not frightened.

Get out of here! You fool. Throw the rock or run! This time, John listened to himself and disappeared into the trees. David didn’t even notice.

“Amy?” he muttered. She opened the window and leaned out.

“David, is that you?”

“Amy Cooper?”

Amy nodded and broke into a cold sweat. “David Jackson!”

John knocked on the door of the small apartment building. The sound of shuffling footsteps approached the door and it opened, revealing a middle-aged man.

“Fields!” He groaned. “Not again!”

John strode past him into the hall and turned.

“I am an idiot, Mark,” he said bitterly.

“What else is new? I knew that, and you know it now, so what are you waking me up in the middle of the night for?”

“No, I’m really an idiot. Do you know what I did?”

“You’re going to tell me either way, so shoot.”

“I got cold feet and didn’t go through with it. What is wrong with me?”

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with you, kid,” said Mark, reclining on the couch. “You think things through too much. You consider the consequences. Ya’ just have to do it and take what life throws at ya.”

“You’re right, Mark. I think about it too much. What should I do?”

“I’ll tell you what you should do, and you’ll do it. Go out the door, walk two blocks down and go into the third house on the right. Stay there until eight-thirty in the morning.”

“Why?” John asked, looking at him quizzically.

“That’s where you live, you addlepated moron!”

“What about the job?”

“You don’t need that blasted job. You need what’s waiting for you at home.”

John got to his feet and glanced at the door.

“I think I’ll take a walk,” he muttered. He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out the door. Mark smiled. He knew where John was going. Two blocks down, third house on the right, where a young woman by the name of Abby Fields was waiting.

Amy had gone quietly to the door and was now sitting close to David on the park bench, just as they used to. It was now twelve-thirty and the moon was out.

“The moon’s out, Dave,” Amy observed.

“Yeah.”

“And the stars.”

“Yeah.”

Amy laughed and gazed up at them.

“Won’t you even look?”

“Who needs the stars? I could just look at you all night.”

“Oh, David!” said Amy reproachingly. He smiled and glanced up at the stars, then back at her.

“There, I’ve looked at them.”

“You’re still impossible, aren’t you, David?” Amy asked with a smile.

“Stubborn as a bull.”

Amy watched the stars through a moment of silence, then smiled and turned back to David.

“Remember that day in the high school gym?” she asked.

“How could I forget that? It was October the second. That was the first time.”

“The second was-”

“September fifteenth,” he recalled. “The day you left.”

Amy nodded and scooted closer.

“I never wanted to leave,” she said quietly.

“I didn’t want you to either,” replied David, drawing his arm around her. 

“I’m not going to anymore.”

David remembered his plans then and looked across the street to his house.

“I am,” he muttered.

Amy sat up and looked at him.

“What?”

“I’m leaving,” David repeated.

“But why?”

David sighed and stared at the grass.

“It’s all so complicated. There’s something going on and I want to get away from it.”

“What is it, David?” Amy demanded.

“It’s just a silly lawsuit. And I, like the dope I am, got tangled up in it. So I’m leaving.”

“You can’t leave!” cried Amy, on the verge of tears. “After so long, and we finally...you just can’t leave now!”

“Why not?”

Amy hesitated, her big blue eyes shining with tears, her tongue tingling with long unspoken words. She forced them out now.

“Because...because I love you. I loved you in the gym, I loved you the day I left, I loved you every day after that. I think of you always, every moment of my life. I love you and I’ll never love any other, no matter what.”

David looked deep into her eyes with a seriousness she had never seen.

“Do you mean that, Amy?”

Amy nodded, the knot in her stomach making it impossible to speak. David rose and glanced out at the road, then back at Amy. He turned away, then hesitated.

“I can’t-” he began, taking a step forward. "I mean-"

Amy peered up at him with such a pleading look. He soaked up her innocence and beauty, and at that moment, he gave in and took her in his arms. And that night, at midnight, made the third kiss they had ever shared. The third and warmest, most tender ever shared. As David held her that night, he made a firm resolution to never let go.