BACK WITH YOU
Chapter Seven

A few days later, Jessamyn stood across the street from Rose's shop, staring blankly at the store. It had taken her a great deal of time and courage--and prodding from Charlie--before she had decided that today she would do it. Today she would meet her mother.

She had been so nervous that morning that she didn't even eat, just guzzled down some coffee and then called in sick to work with a cold that had been going around. Charlie had called later, to wish her good luck, and had offered to come over. She told him that no, thank you, she would be fine, eventually, and that she could do this by herself. And so, grabbing a coat and an umbrella, she had made her way across town, to where she was now.

It hadn't started raining yet, but it looked like it would. Jessamyn didn't get it; she had always heard that California was always sunny. But it seemed like it was raining a quarter of the time and if it wasn't rain, there was a chance of it. It was almost as bad as Maine in the springtime. At least in Santa Monica it didn't flood every April like it always seemed to do at her old house.

A car rushed by, knocking Jessamyn out of her thoughts. Again, she went over what she was going to do once she got in there, for the millionth time that day. She would ask to speak with Rose privately, and then see where things went from there. Her heart started racing with adrenalin when she thought about it. It made her excited and want to throw up at the same time.

After a few more minutes, she realized she was going to have to go sooner or later. So, with a deep breath, she checked both ways, waited until it was clear, and then ran across the street. Approaching the entrance, her shaking hand reached out and grasped the doorknob. This was it; now or never.

Her heart trembling, she pushed open the door and then was vaguely aware of the little bell that rang when she walked in. There were quite a few people around, a lot of customers and then one girl behind the counter. Jessamyn was pretty sure that the woman wasn't Rose; she was far too young and her hair was blonde and straight. She began to calm down a little bit as she made her way to the counter. The first part was over; she was inside. One step at a time, Jess, she reminded herself. At least you are here.

"May I help you?" the woman behind the counter suddenly asked, startling Jessamyn. She hadn't noticed she was actually standing next to the counter. Suddenly, she was very nervous again. She set her umbrella down on the countertop and took a deep breath.

"Um...I…well…" Jessamyn stuttered with the words, not knowing what to say. "I…I…I'm looking for Rose...Dawson," she finally said, her voice quivering. "Is she here?"

The woman shook her head. "No. Sorry, miss. She just left for her lunch break. She won't be back for about an hour."

Jessamyn was relieved and disappointed at the same time. What was she going to do now? If she gave up, she knew it would take days to get her courage up to where it was again. But, what was she to do? Rose wasn't here.

"Do you want to talk to her? I'm Phoebe, by the way; I’ve worked with her for a while. I can take your name and phone number, if you want, and then I can have her call you and set up a meeting time."

No, that wouldn't work either. She couldn't talk to Rose over the phone. Think, Jessamyn, think. C'mon, there has to be something! You’re a clever girl, Jess.

"Ah…you know what? Can I just leave my name and then I'll get back to her. Maybe this afternoon?" That might work, leave her first name and then give Rose a little bit of a warning.

Phoebe nodded. "Yeah," she said, breaking off a piece of white paper from a pad and handing it to Jessamyn. "Just let me take care of these other people and I'll get back to you."

"Do you have a pen or something I could use?" Jessamyn asked, and then, without thinking, leaned over the counter and started looking for one. Phoebe didn't seem to mind; just nodded and motioned for her to look around. She was still busy with the other customers. Something immediately caught her eye, and it wasn't a pen. It was a letter sitting on a top of a pile, addressed to a Rose Dawson. It was unopened, and more importantly, had a different address from the one at the store. Jessamyn realized it had to be her mother's home address and without meaning to, gasped. Quickly, she committed the words to memory and stood back up straight.

"You know what? Just tell her a Jessamyn stopped by," she said hurriedly, as she repeated the address over and over in her head.

Phoebe nodded absentmindedly, and Jessamyn doubted she had even heard her. But even so, she left the store and started running down the block. It was a long shot, but maybe, just maybe, Rose was at her house eating lunch. It would be better this way, if they could talk without being in a public place.

It seemed like it had taken hours, but really had just been a few minutes before she had found her way through a maze of streets and to her mother's house. Now she stood in front of that, staring at it the way she had the store. There was a small mailbox next to the corner of the driveway, and the same Dawson was printed across the front of it in white letters. That was all the proof Jessamyn needed; she had found the place. This was really it now. But, she had to do this quickly, before her courage left her like it kept threatening to do. Promptly, she made her way up the walk and knocked on the front door, her heart pounding from the excitement and all of the running.

There was no answer.

"Hello," Jessamyn called timidly, as a distant clap of thunder suddenly sounded. She knocked again, this time louder. Still, no one came to the door. This wasn’t working very well. Jessamyn began to pound on the door, all hope leaving her.

"Can anyone hear me?" she called, more urgently this time. "Hello!"

It had started to rain by now. Jessamyn, not wanting to admit defeat, sunk down on the front step and leaned against the house, pulling the hood of her coat up over her head. She was very close to crying in a mixture of anger and disappointment. This was turning out to be more of a stressful day than she had planned on. And, in addition to everything else, she was exhausted and it was raining. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes, confused as to what to do next.

*****

Rose, meanwhile, was having a shit time to. The morning had gone all wrong; she had woken up on the wrong side of the bed again, after some terrifying dreams, the shop had been packed, and by the time lunch rolled around, she was exhausted. All she had wanted to do was go to a sandwich place and get a little lunch, but even that had taken tons of effort. When she had shown up, the place had been packed. And when she finally placed her order, they said it would take at least a half an hour because one of their employees was out sick and they were shorthanded to begin with. So Rose had taken a seat in the corner of the deli and was prepared to wait. But, while she was calmly minding her own business, some men, obviously very much out of it, had come in and accosted the whole place. Rose had hidden behind a magazine, not wanting them to see her, but they had and managed to give her grief about being there alone, not to mention making some inappropriate remarks. And by the time they left and she had gotten her sandwich, it was time to leave for work again.

And now it was raining.

Not that Rose really minded the rain; it was just that it made it harder to get around and other people were generally in a bad mood. Her father used to tell her that when it rained it was all the souls in heaven crying for the people on earth. Rose liked to think that was true. It made her feel less alone all the time, even though she knew in her heart that it wasn’t.

She made up her mind on the way back that she would take the rest of the afternoon off. She really had to get away for a while. And she might as well give Phoebe the rest of the day off, too; there was no point in having only one of them there, especially with how busy it was. The customers would just have to wait until tomorrow to buy their books.

The bell over the door chimed as Rose entered and she rolled her eyes as Phoebe gave her a confused look.

"Everything okay?" her friend asked.

Rose shook her head and made her way back to the office. Phoebe jumped up from her seat behind the counter and followed her. "No, everything is not okay," Rose announced as she packed up her stuff into a shoulder bag. "I’m going home for the rest of the afternoon."

"Well, what shall I do then?" Phoebe asked, following Rose again as she left her office, closing the door behind them.

"I don’t care. Take the rest of the day off," Rose suggested as she went back to the counter and started going through her things there, grabbing a few letters and messages. She paused only for a second, and that was to ask if there were any messages for her.

Phoebe shook her head. "No. Although…" She stopped and thought for a moment. "A girl stopped by a little while ago looking for you."

"A girl?" Rose repeated.

"Yes, well, she was about seventeen or eighteen maybe. With longish, kind of strawberry blonde hair…" Phoebe reached down and picked something up. "…she left this umbrella, too. She kind of ran out of here pretty fast."

Rose couldn’t think of anyone she knew who looked like that or was around that age. "Well, did she leave a name or something?"

Phoebe thought for a moment again. "I don’t remember exactly. Sorry, Rose. I think it was like Jessica, or Jasmine…yeah, I think it was Jasmine…something along those lines, at least."

"Okay…" Rose trailed off, still confused. What did Phoebe want her to do? She had no idea who she was talking about, and if the girl didn’t leave any sort of message, then she couldn’t really get in touch with her now, could she? "You know what, Phoebe? I’m just going to go home. If she stops by again, give her my telephone number or something."

"Okay. Will do."

"And lock up when you leave, please," Rose reminded her as she made her way to the front door. "I’ll see you tomorrow!" she called as she left. Once she was outside and the door was closed, she sighed heavily. That girl was a bit of a mystery, but she couldn’t let herself think about it too much. All she wanted to do now was go home, slip into some pajamas, grab a book, and lie in bed. She wanted all thoughts of work and mysterious people to leave her alone for just a little bit.

It was raining harder now, but Rose didn’t care. A good walk in the rain never harmed anyone. As long as her papers were safe inside her bag, a little water was fine. Too much, of course, was horrible; it reminded her of a lot of things, most of which were too painful to think about for too long. But this little spring shower was kind of nice. She felt close to Jack in some strange way.

It didn’t take her very long to get home; her house wasn’t far from the shop. By the time she got there, her hair was more or less soaked and her clothes were damp. She needed to get out of them quickly before she caught cold; that would just make everything worse. Briefly, she paused to get the mail and then trotted up the driveway, fumbling in her bag for her keys. She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice anyone on her front steps. But when that someone stirred, Rose screamed in fright and threw up her arms, her mail going everywhere.

"Don’t scream! I’m not going to hurt you…" the person said, jumping up.

Rose placed her hand over her heart, and tried to calm her pulse. "Who…are…you?" she asked, in between gasps for air.

The person was, of course, Jessamyn, who by now was too shocked to say anything else. She realized that this was her mother. She actually stood face to face with her mother, who right now was looking just a little angry. This was so weird. Jessamyn felt a wave of nausea hit her and she would have fainted if Rose hadn’t noticed and put her arm out to steady her.

"Are you all right?" Rose asked, her voice becoming more compassionate. She felt a strange, overwhelming sense of something come over her as she made contact with this girl’s arm. It was very odd…unsettling, almost. Rose tried to get a look at this girl, but her face was hidden in the shadows of her jacket, which was damp. How long had this girl been sitting out here…and why?

Jessamyn nodded, still unable to say anything.

"C’mon…let’s get you inside…" Rose mumbled, fumbling around in her bag once again, trying to find her keys. She succeeded and managed to get the door open with only one free hand. She walked inside, and flipped on the lights, forgetting about the mail completely. She wanted to know who this person was and why she was at her house. Jessamyn didn’t speak a word still, merely followed her mother numbly inside, contemplating what to do now. How on earth was she going to tell Rose who she was?

Chapter Eight
Stories