Page 32 of A Case of You

“What’s that?”

“An international society for really smart people. She’s going to be a criminal profiler.”

“What’s that?”

“Someone who studies and catches criminals.”

“So she wants to be a policeman? You don’t need some fancy degree to do that. I don’t even think Sheriff Jackson has more than a high school diploma. He was a year ahead of me in school, and he’s been elected to four terms now. Plus he ran a farm for years.”

Futility.

Stuart clearly saw it now.

Somehow, he’d managed to peel back the blinders his family was extremely fond of wearing, envisioned a different life for himself, and jumped into the drink to sink or swim.

With Brandon and Jeff’s love to buoy him, he’d easily floated.

“I’ll let you get going, Mom.” He realized he was squeezing the phone so hard in his hand that it was painfully digging into his palm. “I love you. Please tell Dad I love him, too. We’ll see you in a couple of weeks.”

“We love you, too. If you ever decide to get right with God and come home for good, we’ll be waiting for you.”

He hung up instead of responding, and didn’t realize he was crying until Jeff got up and brought him some tissues.

“I need to call Eileen,” Stuart finally choked out.

“Why?” Brandon said. “Are you cancelling?”

“No. I…I just need to talk to her.”

Stuart leaned against Brandon, feeling safe with the man’s arm around his shoulders. With the phone in speaker mode again, he was a little surprised she answered after the first ring.

“Hey, Stu.”

“Hey. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure. What’s up? Are you still coming?”

“Yeah. I just talked to Mom.”

“How’dthatgo?”

“It went. Hey, listen. When you graduated high school and wanted to go to college. How did Mom and Dad act?”

She went quiet, but the call showed it was still connected. It sounded like she stepped into another room and closed the door, because the background noise died off.

“Why?” she softly asked.

“Just…tell me. Please?”

“I thought you were there that night.”

“Refresh my memory.” He also wanted Brandon and Jeff to hear it, to give them first-hand insight.

She did, nearly verbatim what Stuart remembered had happened.

When she finished, it sounded like she choked back tears. “John wants me to go to college. That’s the main reason why I’m moving, even though he’s going to be overseas for a while. He’s going to be stationed out of Fort Benning, and he’s got a cousin who’s already stationed there. I’m going to live with him and his wife and go to school at a college near there and get my nursing degree. I already applied and was accepted.”

She sniffled. “I didn’t tell Mom and Dad that. That’s the other reason John wanted me to marry him now. So I can get benefits. I start classes in January.”