The Glassheart Chronicles Read online

  Three rings later, he picks up.

  "Hello?" A groggy Elliott Gray answers.

  "Elliott," I barely say. "It's Sawyer Tuttle."

  "Tut?" Great, high school all over again.

  "Yeah, Tut," I hurriedly confirm. "Hey, I know it's late and it's been, what, I don't know, ten years or so."

  He laughs, a genuine laugh. Good sign.

  "All true, still good to hear from you though." He pauses. "I heard about your father," he adds softly.

  "Yeah, he's doing remarkably well though, just struggling with some physical stuff. He'll be right as rain in a couple of months, his therapists say."

  "That's amazing news, Sawyer. I'll never forget what he did for me. I'm glad to hear it."

  "I know," I said. It was critical that I avoid that topic.

  He coughed.

  "Listen, I'm calling...Well, I'm calling because I, uh, ran into your sister tonight, under some, uh, strange circumstances."

  "What happened?" He asked, more alert than I think I'd ever heard him. I always enjoyed making that guy uneasy.

  "Well, long story short, I stumbled upon the missing head of that tourist whose body had been discovered last week. Familiar with the story?"

  "I am. Go on," he said tersely, nervous about his sister, no doubt.

  "Well, after your Uncle Danny interviewed me, your sister showed up for an interview of her own."

  "Mmm, hmm."

  "And, well, we had this moment."

  He quickly jumps in with, "If you're calling for my permission to ask out my little sister, you've got terrible timing, Tuttle. It's two in the morning here, not exactly the best time to convince me what a responsible guy you've become."

  "No, you don't understand. We had a moment," I said, emphasizing the word, trying to lead him to the correct conclusion without actually having to say out loud what I had always considered ridiculous. Saying it out loud would be the same as admitting it.

  Absolute silence followed for a good five minutes.

  "Elliott?"

  He sighs. "Have you touched her?"

  "No, no. I've barely looked at her."

  "That's disgusting and no, you idiot, I mean, have you physically touched her yet?"

  "I tried but she shrugged away from me," I admitted.

  Elliott snorted.

  "Listen," I say, "I know it's late but I could really use some advice."

  "As much as I hate to say this, you need to touch her, to know for sure, you have to touch her."

  "How do I do that?" I ask.

  "You're asking me, Maddy's brother, to give you, Sawyer Tuttle, advice on how to put your hands on her?

  "You're already on my shit list for this two a.m. call, not to mention the moves you pulled on Jules in high school." I shrug into my shoulders at that embarrassing comment. "Do you really expect me, after I've already given you the solution, to also give you further advice on how to go about touching her? You're walking on thin ice, bro."

  "Alright, alright," I concede.

  "Call me when you do," he says. "And Tut?"

  "Yup?"

  "It's good to hear from you, ya' dirty rat."

  I smile as I hear the click of his phone. I spin in one fast circle in my dad's swiveling office chair, feeling for all the world like a teenager once again.

  The next morning, I wake early to call The Tribune, to get a hold of one Miss Madeleine Gray. As I prepare myself to make the call, I run my hand over my mouth, my hands trembled in anticipation. I couldn't believe how one girl could make me that much of a mess. Girl, I repeat inside my head. Six or seven years are quite a distance, Sawyer.

  But Maddy was no longer that little girl. She certainly didn't look like one and she sure as heck didn't dress like one either. I thought of her in her lovely, feminine skirt and that's when I decided I didn't care and that made me laugh out loud. I was certainly going to be rattling the bear cage when I finally caught hold of her and I was going to catch her. The city of Bramwell was going to hate my guts because little Maddy Gray was officially set in my sights.

  I rang the newspaper only to discover she'd called in sick. Of course. I lean my back against the wall in the kitchen, trying to get a grip on the supreme disappointment of not knowing where she is, a hollow wanting seeped into my heart. Find her.

  I ran past my mom, kissing her cheek in greeting and headed for the shower, knowing I wasn't going to stop that day until I touched Maddy and had seen for myself that this reaction wasn't what I knew deep down it really was.

  In the shower, I lowered my head under the fall of water, letting it cascade down my back. My brief moment with Maddy heightened my senses, making me aware of each rivulet of water as it sluiced down my back and shoulders. Madeleine Gray, what are you to me? I know what I wanted her to be. I would have climbed Everest twice in one day for her to be what I wanted her to be.

  After dressing, I helped my dad use the restroom and my mom dress his sarcastic ass. "Good to see your mouth hasn't lost its bite," I'd teased, then placed him in his chair. I practically ran to the old pickup I used to drive in college. I sat inside the cab and the leather protested beneath me.

  "Easy, girl. Just like old times," I wooed her, running my hands along the dash.

  I placed the key in the ignition and turned. Click, click, click. Nothing.

  "Damn it, Annie! Start for me, girl."

  I tried again but got nothing.

  "Fine, have it your way. You know I hate doing this," I mumbled underneath my breath.

  I stepped from the driver's seat and slammed the door. I paced in front of Annie three times before kicking the grill with everything I had in me. Before the kick had lost its strength I hauled to the cab once more, stabbed my keys in the ignition and turned. Nothing.

  "Listen, I know you're pissed. I can sense it but I've got a very important person to meet right now and I don't have the patience for this."

  I walked to the front of the truck once more. "Here we go," I whispered, before slamming my foot into the grill once more and running for the cab, turning the key again. She whimpered in response that time. "That's it Annie," I said, coaxing her, turning the keys once more, then again, and again, each time brought more of a response from her and with one final push, the truck rumbled to sweet life.

  "Ha, ha, hahaaa!" I shouted in triumph, jumping from my seat and landing on the grass beneath me. I whooped and hollered before turning to Annie and kissing her on the hood.

  That's when I heard a faint sarcastic clapping coming from behind me. I froze in terror, dropping my head to my chest.

  It isn't.

  I turned.

  It was. I lifted my eyes toward the heavens, a sense of humor indeed.

  "Hello, Maddy," I say coyly.

  She stands from her relaxed position, having leaned her striking body against the bottom banister of my parent's porch and started walking my direction.

  God, you look beautiful, I thought. She wore tattered, faded jeans that fit her like a glove, a pair of olive green Tom's, her black shoe liners peeked out at the sides of her shoes, the worn hems of her jeans encased the heel of them. She wore an indigo fitted t-shirt that read ‘Team Einstein' in white and her hair was down, the soft waves flowing with the wind. Her blue-grey eyes were engaging and glinted in the afternoon sun. Her lips were full and red, practically demanding me to kiss them.

  "Hello, Sawyer Tuttle," she teased with those begging lips.

  "Playin' hooky today, kid?" I said, stupidly emphasizing our age difference.

  "Checking up on me, Tut?" She countered, letting me know she wasn't going to be treated like the title I'd just called her. Touché' Gray.

  "I might be," I confessed, digging my hands in my pockets for safe-keeping.

  She narrowed her eyes as she came to a stop too close for my own comfort, for my own sanity. Step back, Gray or I won't be responsible for my actions. As if she could read my thoughts, she rounded my body and approached my finally running Annie. She ran her r
ight hand along the hood.

  "I've always loved this truck," she threw over her shoulder at me.

  I crossed my arms over my chest as if in protection. Like an arrow to the heart, that girl.

  "Oh, really? And why's that, Maddy?"

  "Because it belonged to you," she said, shocking me.

  My mouth dropped open and I almost had to force it shut with my own hands.

  "Speak plainly, Madeleine Gray," I said thickly, not believing this was happening.

  She leaned her back against the side of my truck, placing her elbows on the hood and her left foot on the tire. "How much more plainly could I speak, Sawyer?" she dared.

  I gulped down my anticipation.

  "Wh...when?" I asked.

  "My sophomore year at Bluefield, when you were in law school, you'd come home on the weekends, sending all the girls around here into a tizzy, including yours truly. Except, I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut, biding my time."

  My breath sped up. I crossed the little bit of yard until my arms surrounded her, my hands on the hood on either side of her tiny frame, inches from the touch I had been seeking.

  "Biding your time until when, Madeleine?" I scarcely asked.

  She brought her big eyes up, her breaths matched mine. "Until you noticed me on your own," she murmured.

  We stood there for seconds, minutes, maybe an hour, I couldn't be sure, just staring each other down, daring the other. I inched my face towards hers and she tilted her chin up.

  "Little Maddy Gray?" We heard from behind us.

  "Dang it," I whispered, my eyes sunk to the ground.

  My arms felt like magnets on that hood. I couldn't move them. Maddy, sensing my difficulty, ducked under my arm and met my 'perfect timing' mother at the top of the porch. My arms finally fell to my sides and I joined the women there.

  "It's good to see you, too," Maddy tells my mother. "It's been too long."

  "Come in here, child. I have a glass of lemonade with your name on it," my mama said, poking at the air in front of her.

  Maddy hesitated, looking up at me. I nodded my encouragement.

  "Don't even think about refusing me, Maddy Gray," my mother continued. Infuriating woman.

  All three of us met my father in the living room who was watching ESPN, some update on a college baseball team. He turned his chair our direction.

  "Maddy Gray! How are you, baby doll?" he asked. "I haven't seen you in such a long time. Too long honey!"

  Maddy surprised me and bent to grab my dad around his neck, hugging him tightly. I caught a single tear dripping down her cheek but she wiped it away before he could see it. My dad had helped out the Gray family once in a rather sensitive predicament. One that actually made me cringe thinking about, not only because of what had happened but because I had held a ten year old Maddy's hand during the thick of it and that sobered me quickly.

  She's too young for you, Sawyer.

  After a short visit with my parents, Maddy and I found ourselves alone on the front porch together.

  "Where are you living now?" I asked.

  "I have a little wood house off County. It's adorable, complete with white picket fence."

  It sounded charming, much like its owner.

  It got quiet, so I broke the silence. "I need to talk to you, Maddy."

  "There's nothing to talk about," she said.

  "I beg to differ," I said sternly, looking around, "but it's not safe to talk about it here."

  She snorted. Too much like Elliott.

  "It's hardly anything," she lied, tracing her toe over a gap in the wood planks of the porch, studying it like it was the night before an exam.

  "Come on," I said, bounding down the porch toward Annie. "I know the perfect place."

  Annie started in one turn of the key and Maddy took credit for that.

  "Where are we going?" She asked.

  "To the old vintage theater."

  "Sawyer, I hate to tell you this but The Ridglea shut down five years ago."

  "I know," I answered cryptically.

  "Alright," she said, turning her gaze toward the window, studying a town we've both lived in practically our whole lives.

  "Hasn't changed much," I said.

  She turned, locking her gaze with mine. "It hasn't changed at all," she said, making me wonder what she truly meant.

  We arrived at our destination quickly. The Ridglea Theater was a formidable structure in Bramwell, ancient in its architecture, an art deco dream. Dark red velvet lined every seat in its one room theater. Once a live venue house, it was turned into a movie theater in the late sixties. In high school, I worked the projector during the summers and during the last fifteen years of its existence, it only played classic films.

  I parked in the rear of the theater, near the back entrance.

  "You aren't going to just break into The Ridglea, Sawyer Tuttle! I'll not be a party to this criminal behavior!" she teased.

  "Oh hush, Maddy. It's not breaking and entering when the owner gave you a key, is it?" I said, dangling a silver key inches from her face.

  Shocked, she said, "I suppose not."

  We entered the theater and its old smell of dust and history assaulted my senses.

  "Smell that?" I asked.

  Maddy took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the sweet bouquet of The Ridglea, a Bramwell landmark.

  "Yes, I do. It smells like home to me, like high school popcorn fights, like Casablanca, like make out sessions with Robbie Dash."

  That caught my attention. It heated my neck with bizarre anger and that brought a sneaky smile to Madeleine Gray's face.

  "You like to push me, don't you?" I asked the cheeky girl.

  She lifted one shoulder and feigned indifference but the girl was obviously everything but apathetic and that made my stomach clench.

  It was dark once we reached the lobby and I instinctively reached for her hand.

  Her hand cupped beautifully inside mine.

  An instantaneous shot of warmth crept up my fingers, wound through my shoulders and sunk into my heart. The room began to glow with ethereal, dancing globes of soft yellow light, slowly rolling in and around us, never breaking their flow until Maddy jerked her hand away.

  This is not what Elliott and Julia described when they illustrated their gift to me. Theirs was decidedly more violent and I found myself wondering if there was something wrong with me, not with Maddy though, never with Maddy.

  "What. Was. That.?" Maddy asked.