Page 33 of The History in Us

Katie

Another letter came to me a few days after the museum.

K –

You and I hold history. Speak to me.

̴ L

I sighed at the paper and pressed it to my chest. For someone mocking my romantic tendencies, Levi had his own, although he was still a mystery to me. Shortly after our stolen moment near the gorgeous miniature castle, Levi told Professor Erickson he needed to leave. Something about AJ. He hadn’t said anything to me, other than collecting his sleeping bag next to mine and excusing himself to tend to AJ’s needs. I couldn’t fault him for the care of his child, I only wish he had more words for me. Then again, I didn’t know how to describe what he’d done to me. That nip at my neck destroyed me, unleashing something I didn’t know I held within myself. I became unhinged, ready to tackle him to the museum floor and make him kiss me.

Penelope teased that she’d tap her own vein and let a hot vampire take his pleasure from her if the opportunity ever arose. In the dark of the museum, I felt that same way. Amongst the history of those long dead, I felt more alive than I’d ever felt, until he left. Then my heart ridiculed me for wanting more from him, and admonished me for thinking I could be anything other than a schoolgirl with a crush on an unobtainable man—rock star syndrome or something. I cursed myself for my romantic notions and glittery dreams, for an imagination too ripe for its own good, but then I’d stared at this note and wondered what I was missing.

The night at the museum was like a dance, a masquerade. Not that I had experience with such a fantastical party, but the back and forth was clear. Levi and I gravitated toward one another in the group, and then we’d catch the other staring, and separate. We’d come near one another again until our hands bumped or shoulders tapped, and then one of us would turn in a different direction, avoiding the other. I thought I wouldn’t survive the night, hyperaware of his every movement, yet separated by an unspoken distance. And then he crossed the hall and set his sleeping bag next to mine. When he read the book I was reading, dirty story time abound. Hot and bothered and out of control myself, Levi was apparently at the end of some hypothetical rope because he nearly dragged me down the stairs to the basement where he kissed me madly against the castle exhibit. That night I dreamed of living in such a place, with Levi as my prince, and woke to curse myself. My imagination got the best of me.

* * *

My phone rang during class, startling me.

“Katie?” His voice sounded distant, garbled and weak.

“Levi? Are you drunk?” I whispered as I stepped out of the classroom. I never answered my phone during class. In fact, I normally turned it off, but I must have forgotten.

His silence answered the question.

“Levi, where’s AJ?” Muted crying filled the background as I paced the tiled hallway.

“He’s crying, Katie. Make him stop crying.” His voice faltered. “I can’t help him.” My heart leapt then crashed to my feet. Panic seized me at the urgency in Levi’s voice.

“Just…can you come home?” He choked as if catching the error in his words.

“Levi…” I don’t know why I hesitated.

“Katie, please.” Desperation filled his voice, and I nodded before remembering he couldn’t see me. Then the phone went dead. I called back, but the lack of answer didn’t surprise me, it terrified me. My eyes drifted back to the classroom. I apologized to my professor while I noisily slunk from the room after gathering my bag and computer from the back desk. It felt like I took the longest cab ride in history, every stoplight turning red, every vehicle cutting us off before we finally reached Levi’s street. I was ready to burst from the yellow cab and run the rest of the way. It might have been faster.

Racing up the stairs, I found the door to the second floor already ajar, as if waiting for me. AJ squalled, and I took the steps two at a time to find Levi sitting on the floor, propped up under the bay window. His hands cupped his head, his shoulders slumped forward as his elbows balanced on his knees. A prosthetic leg was on display below his right knee. Shock wasn’t the word to describe my reaction. I had no idea, since I hadn’t seen his leg before. I fell to my knees, my hand hovering over his fiberglass shin.

“What is it?” I exhaled.

Levi’s hands slipped to his ears. He didn’t look up at me.

“Make him stop,” he mumbled, and I pressed upward, running for AJ. His sweet little face bright red. His cries rough from the strain. His eyes closed in emotional pain.

“Shh, baby boy.” Cradling this innocent babe, I was caught between sympathy for AJ and fury at Levi. AJ tried to fight me, arms flailing and feet kicking. He needed a clean diaper. First mission accomplished, I swaddled him snugly in a blanket as if he were a newborn. Lifting him again, I pressed his little head against my shoulder and paced the room a few times, working a path over the worn hardwood floors before his cries settled to hiccups. I rubbed his blanket-covered back and cooed soothing words. Finally, I sat in the glider chair in his room. Pushing off the floor, we slid back and forth until his sounds subsided and he relaxed against me. He shuddered in his sleep, which startled me, but his lip puckered as he drifted off to haunted dreams, probably of his father letting him scream.