Ain't No Mountain High Enough

"Valerie"

I stared at the name on my phone in shock. Valerie, who I had not heard from since I was mugged, was calling me? When I realized I was just letting it ring, I quickly swiped the green button to answer.

"Hello?" I winced when my voice squeaked. "Valerie?"

There was a pause, then her beautiful, rich voice filled my ear. "Yeah...it's me."

I was so shocked I didn't know what to say for a few seconds. My mind was racing with reasons she might have called me. If she wanted to make up, I couldn't mess everything up again. I had to do better this time. "Is everything okay?"

She laughed nervously. "Not really." Another pause. "Randall, I'm really sorry about what happened..."

My grip tightened on my phone. "It's not your fault. I shouldn't have left. You were having a hard time, I shouldn't have made things worse." I smiled. "So don't be sorry. In fact...I'll apologize. I'm sorry I got mad at you. It was wrong."

When she didn't say anything for a long time, I thought she might have hung up, and it scared me. But then I heard her sniffle. Her voice was thick with emotion when she spoke again.

"I forgive you," she said. "I'll miss you. I do miss you. I miss how it was..."

I couldn't tell if she meant how it was before my accident, or back in school when we were just a couple lovestruck teenagers who weren't sure how to make it work. I decided to go with the latter, since I couldn't let myself think she didn't want to be with me because of the accident.

"I'm leaving in a couple of weeks, so I just...wanted to make things right," she continued. "If you'd rather not talk anymore, though, I would understand."

I grinned despite the situation. "Us? Not talk anymore? Never. Unless, you don't want to?" I held my breath. Not dating her was one thing. Not talking to her ever again was a completely other tragic story.

"Of course not!" she cried, and I sighed with relief. "You'll come visit me, right?"

"You bet," I replied. I took a deep breath to make sure the disappointment that she was still going to leave wasn't in my voice. "Would it be okay if...if I came to the airport to say goodbye?"

"I'd like that," she said. "And if Arjun and the others could come...I'd like to say bye to them, too."

An idea struck me then. What if we threw a going away party for her? It was probably the worst idea known to man, considering what happened the last time we had a party. But maybe we could make it work this time. Maybe it would actually be enjoyable. I almost blurted out the idea to her, but forced something else out. "Yeah, I'll tell them. We'll be there."

"Thank you, Randall," she said. Her voice was so gentle it hurt my heart that I couldn't hear it all the time.

After we hung up, I stared at my phone, and my mind went blank. I had tried to forget that Valerie would be moving to Boston soon, but now I knew it would be the only thing I'd be thinking about since it was so close. I leaned my head back and squeezed my eyes shut. Her voice was still in my ears, breaking my heart, making me want her even more. What had I done to lose her after that night where we confessed our feelings for each other? What had made us drift apart? Maybe I'd never know.

~ ~ ~

That evening was incredibly cold, and it even started to snow a little, which was highly unusual weather for us. Ms. Harlow was ecstatic about the snow, however light it was, and she insisted that I watch Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate with her instead of locking myself in my room. I did tell Arjun I'd keep her company while he was at work, so I obliged. I didn't feel like being alone, anyway.

Ms. Harlow turned on one of those cheesy Hallmark movies and settled on the couch with a fluffy blanket. I wheeled up beside her in the wheelchair with my own blanket in my lap. As down as I was feeling with everything going on, I found a brief respite in spending time with my "other mother".

We spent the evening laughing about the cheesiness of the Hallmark movies and staring out the window at the tiny flakes of snow falling outside. Ms. Harlow even told funny stories about Arjun as a baby. For the first time in months, I was something close to happy.

When Arjun got home around midnight, we were still up watching movies, though I was losing interest in them now. I was a little tired, so I went on to bed. However, before I got Arjun to help me get in bed, my phone started to ring. When I looked, my eyebrows raised when I saw it was from the social security agency. I had almost forgotten they were going to call!

"Hello?" I said after answering it.

A monotone voice said, "Is this Randall Riggs?"

"Yes, ma'am," I answered hastily. My heart pounded, and I realized I was holding my breath.

"We did some searching for your mother, Mr. Riggs, as you requested."

"And?" Would they just get to the point already?!

"We found her."

_____________________________________________________

Thanks for reading!

Listen to "Valerie" by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse!

Peace ✌️~ A.J.