Caffeine for the Soul

Hope Springs

It was all one big miscommunication.

Malicious intent oozed between Drew's misinterpreted actions. It wasn't his fault, but he needed to make amends. He cared too much for Casey even if she didn't know it yet.

As the starting quarterback on his high school football team, Drew wasn't the prototypical muscle-bound hunk that took up residence on the gridiron. He was as interested in dissecting his pig, Wilbur, in biology lab as he was tossing the pigskin to his wide receiver downfield.

With his inflated social status as captain of the varsity squad, Drew could have asked any girl to the Halloween dance. The strawberry-blonde at the table next to him was the only one on his mind. The sight of her in safety goggles brought an involuntary smile to his face. Smitten, he was.

It wasn't a secret, his desire to ask her out. Everyone knew it, Casey included. The ghostly gala was less than a week away. It was a simple question. Why couldn't he just ask her?

Lisa, Drew's lab partner, saw an opportunity to elevate her own social status, even if it was at the expense of their classmate. She caught sight of his wandering eyes as Drew used the empty metallic dissection plate as a mirror to glimpse furtively at Casey.

"So, are you going to the dance?"

"Yeah, who isn't?" Casey's reflection caused his words to trail off, distracted.

"Have you asked anyone yet?" Lisa knew the answer to her question. It was rhetorical, and she didn't give Drew an opportunity to respond. "You know she's already asked someone else. Rumor is she offered to take a sophomore. The nerve of some people, right?" She continued to work at extracting Wilbur's heart, while metaphorically doing the same to her lab partner.

He portrayed a laissez-faire attitude, preparing to call an audible at the line of scrimmage. "Oh, yeah? No biggie. I was going another direction, anyway." Inside, he shed tears he didn't feel permitted to show as the standout player on his team.

As popular and confident as he appeared to the world, Drew had a vicious streak of insecurity that surfaced with triggers of rejection. Even though Casey hadn't turned him down, the endorphins flowed. He did the first thing he could think of to quell those feelings, and it played right into Lisa's plan.

"So, would you like to go? To the dance with me?" He almost couldn't believe the words uttered into the space between them.

"Sure, why not?" Lisa offered her nonchalant response, but smirked with pride at her simple, yet ingenious ploy. Her high school version of witchcraft produced an irreversible imprecation. Even though one could renege on an invitation, it was beyond socially unacceptable to do so as an upperclassman. Doing so would violate an unwritten teenage code.

He didn't learn the truth until he arrived at the dance. Casey wasn't there. She never had a date and had been waiting for Drew to ask her. Now, he needed to make things right.

"Ryan, I could use your help, man." He sat down next to his teammate in the cafeteria.

"Sure, what's up?"

"It's about Casey. I need to do something, and I have an idea."

"Yeah, I heard about that. That was low, even for Lisa. What can I do?"

He shared his plan. The abandoned park on the edge of town laid dormant for nearly a decade. Hope Springs. It was a failed experiment at creating a combination amusement park and nature sanctuary. It had struggled but was making a turn toward profitability before Mother Nature intervened.

The torrential rains flooded the attractions beyond repair. Its owners, intent on salvaging whatever they could in the face of this unexpected storm, battled the forces from above. The solitary lightning strike during the violent squall claimed both of their lives.

The superstitious ones in town believed the park was haunted. Drew thought it was malarkey. "I want to give her the dance she deserves. There's a bunch of Christmas lights in my attic. I'll string them up around the old carousel and have music playing in the background." He was smiling while detailing his plan. No one could mess this up.

"I need you to flip the switch for me, when we get close. I want it to be a surprise. Can you do that?"

"Yeah man, sure, you're such a sap though." Ryan punched Drew in the shoulder. He mocked him, yes, but there was jealousy writ in Ryan's voice, that he hadn't thought of something so romantic and original.

#

The full moon cast a warm glow over everything it touched, a tender caress from Mother Nature. Casey accepted Drew's offer when she learned it wasn't his fault. Besides, she still wanted a chance at that dance she'd been dreaming of.

Drew drove her to the edge of town, led her through the abandoned field, past the sprawling lake, and toward the park. Two ducks resting on the shoreline scuttled into the water. Blindfolded, Casey shuffled along, all the time with a smile on her face.

"Where are we going?" She asked her question knowing she wouldn't receive an answer. She liked it. There was magic interlaced with her anticipation.

Arriving at the perimeter of the deserted site, Drew removed her blindfold. "Is this the..." began Casey, confusion etched into her furrowed brow.

"Yeah, the abandoned park, Hope Springs." He raised his left hand behind Casey's back, a signal to Ryan. The gasp and look of surprise on her face was unmatched, save for that on Drew's.

The lights on the antique merry-go-round came to life, twinkling the way they last did a decade ago. Slowly, the horses creaked as they cycled up then down, traveling in circles. The music coming from the steam calliope in the center of the carousel was beautifully romantic. Drew took Casey's left hand while placing his other around her waist. Swaying gently to and fro, the couple moved as one.

As Casey reached up to run her fingers through Drew's hair, she whispered in his ear, "Thank you. This is... you are... amazing." She placed a tender kiss on his cheek before nuzzling her head into his shoulder, like a perfectly fitting puzzle piece. Their dance stretched into forever, a surreal and timeless memory.

#

"Dude, I don't know what you did..." Drew confronted Ryan in the hallway the following day at school.

"Man, I'm so sorry. My mom, she needed me to... I mean, I messed up."

"What are you talkin' about, bro? It was awesome. I'm not sure how you did it but thank you!"

"But..." replied his teammate with a confused look. "I never made it out there. My sister..."

"Yeah, whatever," interjected Drew. "Anyway, thanks, I definitely owe you one."

#

Riding the carousel at the park on the edge of town, the apparitions of Heathcliff and Deanna traveled in circles, the first time they'd done so since that fateful day a decade ago.

Deanna traced her ghostly fingers along his cheek. Even though he couldn't feel her touch, he sensed something on a deeper level. Heathcliff was more alive than he'd ever felt in physical form.

"Thank you," she said. "I know you like this to be our special place. You didn't need to do that, but I'm so grateful you agreed to open our park again, if only for one more night."

Heathcliff smiled, but shared nary a word. He and Deanna named the park as it was for good reason. There was no way he could ever pass up an opportunity to bring those emotions back to life.