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In my mind, I flipped through the photographs I’d taken of Daniel, beginning with the first, fuzzy one from the night on the hill by Ayres Hall, and ending with the as-yet-to-be-developed ones I’d snapped when I’d arrived at his house the day before.
The bell rang, and after running to the drop-add office to request that change, I was still free for twenty minutes before Photography.
Finding a pay phone near the University Center, I dropped in a quarter and dialed the number I’d already memorized.
The phone rang several times. When Daniel answered my stomach flipped over. “Hey, it’s me, Peter.”
“Hey, I was just thinking about you.”
My smile came like an ocean wave breaking, uncontrollable and rushing with life. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool.”
Daniel chuckled, and teased, “Yeah, I think you’re cool.”
Blushing, I pushed ahead. “So, after I left your place, I called the hospital. They said Bobby’s allowed to have visitors. Kerri’s been in to see him.”
Kerri was Bobby’s other ARK volunteer. She lived in the same neighborhood and came over to his place four days a week, while Daniel had taken on the other three. I’d never met her, but she took good care of Bobby, so she had to be a nice person.
“Great. Tell him hi from me when you see him.”
“I was thinking we could go together. Tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. The kids…”
“They go to school, right?”
“So do you.”
“My Tuesday-Thursday classes don’t start until noon. We could meet at the hospital around ten. That’d give you plenty of time to make it back home before Paul and Kennedy’s schools let out.”
“But that’d mean leaving my mom alone all day,” he said.
“Oh.” I hadn’t known that would be a problem, but now that he said it, I understood. I tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice when I replied, “Okay, I’ll tell Bobby you said hi.” It wasn’t like Daniel didn’t want to see me, or Bobby for that matter. He’d been thinking of me when I’d called. I’d hold on to that.
“Wait. Don’t go yet.”
“I’ve got class in a few.”
He cleared his throat. “Okay, I can make it work.”
“What?”
“Going to see Bobby. Meet me at Baptist at ten?”
“But what about your mom?”
“I’ll take her car keys with me and hope for the best. It’s a long walk to the liquor store.”
We confirmed the plan again, agreeing to meet in Bobby’s room, and when I hung up, I was smiling like I’d won a prize. Setting off toward the Art & Architecture building for my first college-level photography class, a warm breeze blew through my hair. My backpack was a nice weight on my shoulders and the clove-scented cigarette smoke of the dreadlock-wearing hippie dude walking in front of me drifted back, the aroma pleasant in the open air.
It’d been a good plan to call Daniel and ask him to come with me. He needed to see Bobby, and I still needed to find a way to help Daniel too. Two birds. One stone.
My heart flew.
Chapter Four
