Free Falling

This is a bit of a departure from my usual writing that came out of some past experiences. The following is based ever so slightly on real events, but the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Enjoy!

James Daniels, Jimmy to anyone who’d known him for more than ten minutes, had just graduated from college not three weeks before and, out of necessity, moved in with his big brother Billy’s family in The Big City. He “was sure to find a job” because “after all, if any place needs another programmer, it’s Seattle.” At least that’s what his old roommate had said. Of course, the guy had just taken his third hit off a joint the size of your arm so his advice might be somewhat suspect. But, in truth, his chances were certainly better than if he’d gone home to Dixie. Which was, as luck would have it, about as far from Seattle as you could get and still be in Washington. Of course, the national recession didn’t help either. “Hiring Freeze” seemed to be the favorite term of the companies that had so far politely rejected his resumes.

So there he stood, on a bright summer Sunday afternoon, surrounded by people he didn’t know and a lot of pink ribbons and bows. He carefully and with great skill applied his expensive education and supreme brain power to stack baby shower gifts in a stable pile on the dining room table. The shower was for his sister-in-law Michelle, and the party was in full swing. And this wasn’t your traditional “Girls Only” shower either... Oh no ... everyone “got” to come. What fun.

“Hey Jimmy!” Michelle yelled from the foyer adjoining the dining room. “Come here. There’s someone I want you to meet.” She was talking to another girl ... or should it be woman ... He never could figure out which was the right one. When did one cease being a girl ... or a boy for that matter. He would never know.

Anyway, as he approached Michelle’s friend from behind, he didn’t ogle her. He saw only her hair. She had long brown hair that made its curly way to the small of her back. Jimmy liked long hair.

Jimmy had never been one to leer at women ... or girls for that matter. The first thing he always noticed was her eyes or her smile. He got to know her face before he even looked at the rest of her body. There were many times that he couldn’t have described the body shape of a girl he’d been talking to for hours, but he knew the color of her eyes, how her smile made them crinkle in the corners, or how her hair hung just right to slightly obscure an ear ... an ear with three piercings.

Michelle made the introductions. “Sara, this is my little brother Jimmy.” Michelle didn’t cotton to any of that “in-law” stuff ... family was family. “Jimmy, this is Sara. My best friend in the world.”

He automatically extended his hand as Sara turned, and when he looked into her eyes, he was struck dumb. Sara was beautiful ... radiant. Her eyes projected her beauty which before the day was over would take hold of his heart and not let go. Her smile melted him. And that was just in the first three seconds.

“Er ... Hi” was about all he could manage. His mind went blank. His more geeky side would probably call it a Mental Application Hang.

She smiled some more. “Nice to meet you.”

Two seconds. “Same here.”, he replied. Instantiate the Task Manager. Kill the Process. Drop to the command prompt.

“Ah ... I need to go finish stacking the presents before they fall over.” Reboot.

He walked a not too straight line back to the pile.

As the party progressed it got better ... no really. It wasn’t like he was stalking her exactly. He was just getting used to her presence. Whenever he saw her across a room, she would look up and make eye contact and smile. He couldn’t help but smile back. It was like some kind of drug he was sampling ... but just a little at a time ... in progressively bigger doses. When she was standing next to him (which he tried to make happen as often as possible through a sequence of very complicated moves and countermoves that would have made his former chess club geek friends sweat), whether talking to him or someone else, she was the room to him. When she left the room, it was empty ... he was empty. When she laughed her eyes crinkled, her face beamed with an inner light. He was intoxicated by her.

Several times, to keep from overdosing, he left the room, just to let his heart slow down. But he’d invariably jump back in and “dose up” some more.

Night fell finally and the party had thinned somewhat. Jimmy had “just happened” to be in the neighborhood of a mingling Sara when Michelle and Billy came over to her with grave looks on their faces.

In a low voice, Billy said, “Lance is outside”.

Sara was visibly upset, “What does he want?” Her eyes were suddenly large and wet.

Now, Jimmy was normally a low-key, even-tempered guy. But the mere thought that someone could make Sara cry made him feel a surge of violent, protective anger. That detached part of his brain that got him through hours of Philosophy 200 was surprised.

He moved closer. “Who is this person?” He was seething inside but nobody seemed to notice.

Sara looked up, not unhappy about his intrusion. “He’s my ex.” Jimmy heard “ex” and interpreted that to mean “I’m single now”. His heart lurched a bit, and then he chided his own insensitivity while Sara continued. “He doesn’t seem to get the fact that we’re no longer together and keeps pushing.”

Michelle spoke up, “He says he just wants to talk to you for a minute.”

Sara sighed. “Why can’t he just leave me alone?”. She stood silently for a moment and took a deep breath. “Okay, but you’re both coming with me. I don’t want to deal with him by myself.”

And then it happened. Sara grabbed Jimmy’s hand and said, “Let’s get this over with.” His pulse raced. He was probably closer to passing out then he realized. Fortunately, she let go in time to save him the trouble of sprawling out on the ground in a quivering heap of Jimmy.

It was dark outside as they approached a man leaning against a late model black Trans Am. It was parked on a dark part of the street, but there was enough light to see by. Jimmy couldn’t help but smile at the cliché that stood before him. The man was over six feet tall with a black cowboy hat, a black button down shirt with fancy stitching, black jeans, and pointed black boots with silver tips. Jimmy likened him to a young Burt Reynolds without the charm and silly laugh. The cigarette in his mouth flared brightly as he took a drag.

As they approached, on some obviously self destructive impulse, Jimmy offered Sara his arm, she took it and leaned in just a little bit. It was slight, she may not even have noticed, but Jimmy noticed and it was his undoing. His head, his heart, his entire being tipped over the edge and fell for her.

In that detached part of his mind, he thought he now knew where the term "falling in love" came from. It felt like that feeling when you’re on a roller coaster and shoot over a hill in the tracks. Just for a moment you’re floating … you’re in free-fall. That’s what he felt ... he was free-falling in love ... there would be no coming back.

Jimmy and Sara came to a stop on the sidewalk beside the car, and Jimmy’s brother and sister stood behind them. Lance pushed his hat higher on his head and flicked the now spent cigarette on the ground and crushed it under his toe. With a slight drawl, he looked down at Sara ignoring everyone else, “I wanted to talk to you alone.” He exuded menace.

Jimmy was instantly pissed off. In that moment, he noticed how small Sara was. The top of her head barely reached his chest. He hadn’t notice that before. He moved slightly, half shielding Sara with his body.

Jimmy was not a small man. He never played football, but everyone said he could have been a lineman in high school. He was just shy of six feet tall and was naturally wide and strong, and with Sara holding his arm he grew at least six more inches ... in both directions. His movement wasn’t lost on Lance.

Lance looked Jimmy over with open contempt, “I see you have a new ... friend.”

Jimmy bristled but stayed still and was surprised when Sara stepped out from behind him and gently put a hand on his tensed arms as if to calm him. He looked at her and saw a fire burning in her eyes that both scared him and made him proud.

Sara stared unflinchingly at Lance and responded. “I think maybe that I have, and already I know that he is twice the man you’ll ever be.”

Lance looked like he’d been slapped and started to speak, “Why you filthy cu...”

That was enough of that. Jimmy started to move and take this jerk down when Sara’s voice stopped him short. She spoke with a quiet power that cut through Lance’s bravado. “Lance, you don’t get to talk to me any more. You don’t deserve the privilege. So I’d suggest that you get back in your car and drive away. The police will be here any second, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want them to find all those parole violations in that hidden compartment in back of that heap of crap you call a car. I’ll be applying for a restraining order tomorrow.”

Lance went white, and hearing the approaching sirens, was spurred to action.

He jumped into his car and started the engine ... or tried to. After three attempts, it backfired and finally sputtered to life with an impressive cloud of dark smoke erupting from the tail pipe.

As the car lurched forward, he screamed out of the window, “This isn’t over! You’ll see!”

At the end of the block the car paused under a street light, and Jimmy finally saw that it was made of multi-colored dark panels with several of them dented or covered with Bondo. One of the windows was covered with tin foil and had a good length of duct tape flapping in the breeze as the car sped around the corner.

Seconds later, the sirens approached and an ambulance passed by on a call somewhere in the neighborhood.

“Moron,” Sara said just loud enough for Jimmy to hear, and then louder, “Let’s get back to the party.”

She took Jimmy’s arm again, swung him around and started walking back at a measured pace.

“You bluffed him,” said Jimmy, openly impressed.

“About the cops? Yeah ... Lance isn’t very bright, but he can be dangerous. But I wasn’t bluffing about the restraining order ... I’ve had the appointment for a week.

“You were very brave to step up like that, but I should probably tell you that he’s a black belt and probably could have wipe the floor with you.”

Jimmy thought for a moment and gently covered her hand with his where she'd grasped his arm. “Maybe so, but then you’d have visited me in the hospital. It would have been worth it.”

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