Page 10 of Paper Ghosts

“He’s not the only person who can give lessons.”

“Okay. Jeez. Let’s dance. Terrence, get over here and take Wills for a spin!” Jani called to him.

“Jani, I don’t feel like dancing.”

“Then what are you doing at prom?” Jani said, pulling her onto the dance floor. “Come on!”

Terrence joined them and he began to dance without inhibition, which amused everyone around them, including himself. Okay, she thought. This wasn’t so bad. Terrence was doing what he did best. He was blending in. They were in a group, and he looked like just another student.

The DJ suddenly ended the song and in the silence Principal Penwell appeared in a spotlight with a microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a special treat for you tonight. I’ve had the pleasure of hosting Jack Vaughn for the past few weeks, and some of you have had the pleasure of lessons from him. Now our very own professional musician from California is here to play a song live.”

The spotlight fell on Jack in a chair. “Let’s slow things down,” he said into the microphone Penwell put on a stand in front of him. He settled his guitar in his lap and started to strum.

Several couples immediately came together as if by suction. Terrence looked at her as if asking if she wanted to. He would have taken a no with equanimity, but she nodded.

Jack started playing “Time in a Bottle.” Then, to her surprise, he started singing, too. She’d never heard him sing before and his voice was breathtaking, as clear as water. This man had something special. The world was going to love him. She stared at him over Terrence’s shoulder and he met her eyes.

After the song ended and everyone hooted and clapped, she muttered something to Terrence about needing some air. She ducked outside and leaned against the building, taking some deep breaths and telling herself to pull it together.

A few minutes later, the side door at the far end of the gym opened with a flash of light. She turned to see Jack step outside with his guitar case. The door closed behind him, but not before a loose balloon escaped and floated up into the night sky like a stray thought. She watched as he fished a pack of cigarettes out of his blue jean shirt pocket, lit one, then took a few puffs. He picked up his case again and started to turn toward the street, ostensibly to walk back to Principal Penwell’s home.

“You were amazing,” she called, though she had almost convinced herself not to. He hadn’t seen her. He never would have known she was there.

He turned and they stared at each other for a moment before he walked over. “Thanks. And you look amazing,” he said.

“I look like something from a TV comedy sketch,” she said, whipping off her hat, and then patting her blond hair back in place.

“Now that you mention it…” She hit him with the hat, which made him laugh. “Why are you wearing it if you don’t like it?”

“My grandmother picked it out for me.”

“You didn’t have a say?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It is that simple,” he said. “You’re making it complicated. You, and everyone else in this town. You’ve given too much power to a woman who, as far as I can see, only peddles in myth and rumors.”

“Your grandmother, Mim, saved you by letting you go,” she said, nodding to his guitar case and the umbrella he kept inside. “Mine saved me by keeping me here. We show our gratitude in different ways. Gram doesn’t want to be alone. Everyone she has ever loved has left her but me.”

He took a drag off his cigarette. “So who’s the guy?”

“Terrence Wester. He’s a distant cousin.”

He waited a few beats before he said, “He’s more than that.”

She wouldn’t insult him by pretending to misunderstand. “Gram wants me to marry him.”

“Ah. So are you?”

“It could be worse. He’s decent. Uncomplicated.”

“In other words, the very opposite of you.”

“You don’t think I’m decent?”

His eyes went to her lips. “I think you’re complicated.”

“You don’t know me at all,” she snapped, angry at him for validating every feeling of discontent she’d been having lately about her life, her future. “Why did you have to come here?”