PART 7: THE THIRD DATE

Rorie was released from the hospital seven days after she was admitted. She thanked Dr. Goldberg for everything he had done and her mother, Tara and Keri escorted her home. She stayed in bed at home for another two weeks while her body finished repairing itself. Keri visited Rorie more at her home than she was allowed to at the hospital and helped out with everything from bringing her meals to changing the sheets on the bed once or twice and helping her with her makeup. When Keri began doing Rorie's makeup at the hospital, she decided that she should teach Rorie how to use makeup, and it became a regular part of time together. During Rorie's home convalescence, she and Keri began to discuss making their third date happen.

During the next two weeks, Rorie could get up out of bed, but she would tire very quickly, and their third date would have to wait a while longer.

Six weeks after the accident, Rorie and Keri finally got a chance to have their third date — alone. They arranged to have their third date at Rorie’s home at a time when Rorie’s mother would not be there. She was attending the retirement party of a coworker one Friday night and Rorie chose exactly that Friday for her date with Keri. She coaxed Tara to make plans elsewhere with her friends and Tara, with a wry smile on her face, agreed to be out of the house.

Keri’s sister dropped her off at six o’clock. Keri wore a floral dress with a fine pattern of white and mixed shades of blue. She touched up her look with a pair of white nylons, a white cardigan and white leather flats. Her makeup was flawless. Her hair looked like she’d just come from a salon. She walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. Rorie opened the door immediately.

“Hi, Keri!” She greeted Keri with a hug and a kiss. “You look beautiful tonight! Well, you always look beautiful, but you look extra special tonight and I love it! Wow, I love that dress on you! It really brings out your eyes.”

“Thank you, Rorie. You look wonderful, too!”

“Thanks. Come on in!”

Rorie closed the door behind her. Rorie wore a pale lavender tank dress, also with white nylons and matching flats.

“That’s a really pretty dress you’ve got on, too. It really looks great with your lighter complexion.”

“Thank you! Tara helped me pick it out.” Rorie hesitated for a moment. “Would you like anything to drink?”

“Sure. I would love some ginger ale, if you have any.”

“We do. I know you like it and I made sure we would have some.”

“Awww, aren’t you sweet?”

Keri stroked Rorie’s chin and kissed her.

“Anything for you!”

Rorie kissed her back.

“Come on, I’ll get you some.”

They sat at the kitchen table, sipping ginger ale and chatting. As they finished their ginger ale, Rorie began to get a bit nervous. Keri reached out and gently put her hand on Rorie’s.

“Are you okay, Rorie?”

Rorie looked at their hands sheepishly.

“Y-yes, I am. It’s just… well, are you ready to see my room again or would you rather hang out in the family room?”

“Let’s go up to your room. I won’t run away this time. I promise.”

Rorie smiled at her and offered her hand to lead the way. Keri took it gratefully and they returned to the scene of the most tumultuous experience that they had had together. Keri walked into the room… and smiled.

“This really is a nice room, Rorie, I have to say.”

Rorie was immensely relieved.

“Thanks, Keri. You’re welcome in it anytime.”

“Thanks! I’m certainly comfortable in here.”

They smiled at each other, sat on the bed and put arms around each other.

“Is that a new desk?”

“Yeah, it is. I guess the redecoration got kicked up a gear.”

"I like it!"

"Thanks!"

Rorie’s mother had bought her a new desk. Rorie had spent some time cleaning out the contents of the old one and putting them away in the new one. In the course of her cleaning, she had gone through her things and thrown out old and unwanted items. She had also come across a stack of old photos and had left them on her desk so that she could go through them later.

“Do you want to see some old photos?”

“Sure! I love looking at photos.”

“Me, too!” Rorie rose to get the photos. “These are really old. They’re from when I was… gosh… not even ten yet.”

“Wow, they are old!”

“Yeah!”

Rorie sat down on the bed next to Keri and handed her the stack.

“Some of those are of old birthday parties and stuff. My old room is in there, too. We moved eight years ago, when my father died. There were so many memories around the old house and the old neighborhood, too. It was too hard on Mom.”

“Oh, that’s right you told me about that.” Keri gently rubbed Rorie’s shoulder. “Do you miss him?”

“Yes, I do, sometimes, but it’s been eight years and I guess I’ve gotten used to it.”

“Well, I’m so sorry that happened.”

Keri put down the photos next to her and hugged Rorie.

“Thanks.” Rorie paused while savoring the feeling of Keri’s arms around her. “Sometimes I wonder what he would think of me now.”

“Oh, Rorie, I’m sure he would have loved you just the way you are.”

“Yeah, I hope so. I guess I’ll never know.”

“I bet he would have. How could anyone not love you?”

Rorie tilted her head to one side and tears slipped from her eyes.

“Awww, that’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

She hugged Keri tightly.

“I had a feeling that maybe you needed to hear it.”

“Yeah, I did. Thanks.”

Rorie kissed her full on the lips.

“You're welcome. So, I would love to see your old room.”

Keri picked up the photos and resumed her perusal.

“Okay! Keep looking, it’s only a few pictures away, I think.”

Keri looked through a few pictures of Rorie’s seventh birthday party and a few pictures of her with her mother and sister at the Grand Canyon.

“Oh, wow, you went to the Grand Canyon! That must have been amazing.”

Rorie remembered how Keri loved inspiring and beautiful things.

“It was. I wish you had been there to share that with me. You would have loved it.”

“Oh, I know would have!”

Keri looked over at her and smiled. Rorie returned her smile with equal fervor. The next few pictures were taken in Rorie’s old house.

“Here’s one of my old bedroom.”

“Oh neat!”

Rorie’s old bedroom was fairly unisex. The walls were white and there was a poster of the Scooby-Doo gang and another of the Gilmore Girls. The comforter on the bed was a mixture of colored stripes.

“You liked that show even then, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I did. I immediately liked Rory. I got that poster the year that show got started, actually and a friend gave it to me for my birthday.”

“Wow. You’ve been investigating your identity for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I have.”

They smiled at each other and Keri looked back at the photos. There were two more photos of Rorie’s bedroom, one of Rorie alone, sitting on her bed, and one with Tara.

“You two look so cute in this photo!”

“Oh, thanks!”

“You’re welcome. Well that was a lot of fun!”

“Yeah, it was!”

The stack of photos was exhausted and Keri went to put them back on the desk. There was one last photo sitting on the desk and leaning against Rorie’s computer monitor. Keri looked at the picture and froze with a look of shock on her face.

“Oh, my God!”

“What?”

Keri showed Rorie the photo, pointing to a brunette in the photo with her arm around Rorie.

“Who’s the girl in this photo?”

“She was kind of a friend of mine who once lived across the street from me. At least, we were starting to be friends until Mom and Tara and I moved here eight years ago. Actually, I kind of had a crush on her, but of course at age eight, what does anyone know about love?”

They chuckled for a moment.

“So, please tell me more!”

Keri was moved by Rorie’s admission. She seemed very excited to hear this story and Rorie was delighted to indulge her.

“Okay, I will! I never knew her name because we didn’t get a chance to really meet, but we lived right across the street from each other. I used to stare at her all the time. I asked my mother a couple of times if she knew this girl’s name and she didn’t.” Rorie began to chuckle. “This girl would make funny faces at me just to make us both laugh. It got started when she caught me looking at her one time. At first she just looked at me like she was wondering what the hell I was looking at. Then she pinched the sides of her face so the corners of her eyes and mouth were stretched toward each other -- like this."

Rorie demonstrated the face and they laughed out loud.

"Anyway, when she did that I laughed really hard — we both did. We thought it was great fun and she kept right on doing it after that. I thought that was so cute.”

They both began to laugh.

“I sure did like her.”

Rorie sighed nostalgically.

“So what happened to her?”

Keri seemed very eager to know.

“It was really sad. I remember that someone was having a Halloween block party and we found a flyer about it on our front door. Her mother’s address and phone number were on it because she was one of the coordinators. I knew which house this girl lived in so I knew it was her phone number. I memorized her phone number and when I got up the nerve, I called her up. Whoever answered the phone told me that she moved away to live with her father. I was so sad that she was gone! Then, a couple of months later, my father died and four months after that, we moved away. Anyway, I found this photo while I was transferring the contents of my old desk into the new one and on the night I called you for the first time I was looking at that picture and remembering her silly faces.”

“Wow, really?”

A tear leaked from Keri’s eye.

“Yes.”

They looked at each other and Keri hugged Rorie tightly. Rorie gladly reciprocated.

“Wow, Keri, that story really affected you!”

Rorie kissed her on the cheek. Then Keri pointed at the photo with a big smile on her face.

“Rorie, that’s my house — and that’s me!!”

Rorie looked at the picture, utterly astounded.

“That was you??”

“Yes. I still live in that house!”

Rorie leaned back for a moment, letting it sink in.

“That was really you?”

“Yes!”

“When did you dye your hair?”

“Three years ago.” Keri rolled her eyes. “It was the ‘in thing’ at school.”

Rorie smiled at her.

“I can’t believe that was really you!”

Rorie threw her arms around Keri, who returned the gesture.

“I’m so glad we found each other after all these years.”

“I am, too! So how come you ended up moving away?”

“I didn’t move away, Rorie. When my parents divorced ten years ago, my mother got the house and shared custody with my father. Eight years ago, my mother was laid off from her job and my father temporarily got full custody. My mother didn’t know what was going to happen and she probably didn’t want to get your hopes up that I would be back, so she told you that I moved away. Then, she got another job about nine months later, the shared custody was reinstated and I was back. When I got home I decided to walk across the street to your old house and ring the bell. I was really excited to see you again — and make faces at you -- but some stranger answered the door. You had moved away and I was so upset! I had a little crush on you, too.”

“You did?”

They smiled at each other.

“Yeah.”

“Awwwww, and we moved while you were gone, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess so!”

They embraced each other and fell silent for a moment.

“Well, I’m glad we found each other again — in so many ways!”

“I am too, Keri."

They hugged snugly again.

"Do you remember on our second date when Chloe and Joe were saying that movie we saw was unrealistic?"

"Yeah, of course! They made it pretty clear that they don't believe in amazing things."

"Yeah, Chloe and Joe thought that movie was too full of coincidence, but maybe things aren't so coincidental --"

"-- and maybe that's what makes them amazing."

"Right! Anyway, you and I are living proof that amazing things can and do happen."

"You know what I think?”

Rorie pulled a few inches back, her head cocked to one side.

“What?”

“I think you were right. It wasn’t a wrong number!”

Rorie kissed Keri squarely on the lips and this time, they weren’t interrupted! They lingered in the kiss, letting love lead the way.

THE END

[ Other Stories By Mona Lisa ]