One Wish Left

CHAPTER 11: FAITH

Jesse turned 29 today, his first birthday stateside since moving here, and as a gift to himself he purchased a Jeep Cherokee, which he promptly drove from Chicago to Marion, straight from the car lot. When he'd first arrived after the almost five-hour road trip, he'd driven around the small town for another hour, just to get a feel for what Brodie's life must have been like. When he got to the high school, he spent an inordinate amount of time gazing at the football field, envisioning Brodie making a tackle.

Eventually, he took out his wallet and found the slip of paper that he'd been carrying with him for ten years. When Laura had needed Jesse's help buying his cousin a birthday gift, she'd texted him her home address from Brodie's phone. He had immediately written it down, treasuring it as if the paper itself connected her to him.

He pulled up to the small, brick house.

Lowering his forehead to the steering wheel, he thought, What am I going to say? 'Hey, I made this promise, so here I am?' This is ludicrous.

He got out of the car anyway. He'd come this far, why not a few more steps?

He heard the doorbell echo through the house and stood waiting for what seemed like an eternity. At last, an elderly man answered the door.

"G'day, sir," Jesse greeted. "Is there a Laura Gibson at home? She was an old friend of mine."

"Gibson, you said?" pondered the old man. "Well now, let me think here. Gibson would've been the name of the woman that sold the house to me and my wife. I think the gentleman passed away, so his widow was moving to live with her daughter."

Jesse rubbed his neck as his heart cooled.

"Thank you for your time, sir," he said, turning to go.

"Anytime, son. Sorry I couldn't be of more help."

A flickering thought stopped Jesse in his tracks.

"Sir? One more thing: do you happen to know where they moved?" he asked.

"Chicago, I believe."

Hope flared.

+++

Laura typed out the last sentence for this week's column. As she submitted it, she smiled to herself, basking in the glory of completing a task early. She closed her laptop, and eyeing the piles of notebooks and research materials clogging up her dining room table, she felt slightly less accomplished. She really needed to do some organizing in here, as her mother often reminded her. Knowing she was having company over tomorrow evening finally provided the necessary motivation to do something about it.

As soon as she started shuffling papers around, her phone rang.

She answered without checking to see who it was. "Hello?"

"Hey, babe," Chad greeted cheerily.

"Oh, hi," she said with surprise in her voice.

Chad chuckled. "You sound like I was the last person on Earth you were expecting to hear from tonight."

Laura cringed at the accuracy of that statement.

"No!" she denied with a nervous giggle. "I was just preoccupied with work stuff. I'm shifting my brain over to boyfriend status right now."

"Good. How's work?" he asked.

"Really great. I've had some fun reviews and opinion pieces lately. You know I love it. How did your fight go?" Laura inquired.