Page 67 of Two Weeks
But he looked older. Not as happy and carefree.
And then there was a loud noise at the door and someone kicked it open and Randy stepped in. Mean and big and screaming mad. “Elise, where’s the baby?”
She didn’t have to ask. She knew what he was talking about. “The baby’s mine, Randy. Leave us alone.”
“No. I changed my mind, Elise. I’m keeping her.” Then he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Elise. At the last second he spun and aimed the weapon at Cole. “And I’m finished with you forever.”
Randy pulled the trigger and Elise screamed. But before the bullet could tear into Cole, Elise sat straight up in bed. Her lungs gasping for air. “God, help me. Please... save Cole!”
She was still only half awake, and gradually the reality washed over her. Randy wasn’t here. He hadn’t burst through the door and he didn’t just shoot Cole Blake.
It was a dream. The worst one Elise had ever had. But as she settled back into the pillow, as her heart found its regular rhythm again, she realized that one part of the dream was actually very possible.
The idea that Randy might come after her if she kept the baby. He had signed off his rights, but that didn’t mean he’d leave her alone. Even if he moved away from Leesville, he could come back. And one day the kick at the door wouldn’t be a nightmare. It would be real.
Suddenly the pieces started adding up. The fact that Cole deserved his own dreams and that she wasn’t sure she even wanted to be a mother. The reality of Randy’s temper and the way she longed to attend NYU. The truth that any day she would find out if she was accepted there, and she had the strongest sense she would be.
Elise put her hand on her stomach. It was still flat, but it was firm now. Getting hard as her uterus filled out. She ran her fingers over the area and felt something that hadn’t been there before. A gentle rise between her hip bones.
“I’m sorry, little girl. I wish I could be what you need. I wish things were different.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
She cried herself to sleep and when she woke up she didn’t have to ask God what the answer was. It was clear as the morning outside her window. And that afternoon a letter from NYU was waiting for her in the mailbox.
As fast as she could she tore into it and began to read.
Dear Ms. Walker,
We are pleased to inform you of your acceptance to New York University. We find your paintings to be of the highest caliber, and we look forward to the next four years of shaping and refining your skills...
Elise couldn’t read another word. Not until she did what she couldn’t wait to do. She took a breath, trusted God with all her heart, and made the call.
The call to Mr. Green.
21
With all the intensity of the situation with Elise, Ashley woke up on Cole’s graduation day feeling a little cheated.
Years ago when he was little, as much as Cole delighted her more every day, she was often sad at how quickly he was growing up. That every few months he stood taller and talked more clearly.
Back then, when Cole was four, Ashley had taken a day to clean out his dresser drawers. Clothes Cole had outgrown she boxed up and gave to the Goodwill. All except a few special outfits. When she was done cleaning that day, she’d played the song “House at Pooh Corner” by Kenny Loggins and found her journal. Tears had filled her eyes as she opened it to a blank page. She could still remember what she wrote.
I grew up believing I could do anything. But today I realized there’s something I’ll never be able to do. I can’t stop my Cole from growing up.
Then she had turned the page and done a little projecting. She wrote out the next fifteen years on so many lines and beside each date she wrote the grade Cole would be in. A minute later she was scribbling out the year 2019, and then the two saddest words she could imagine.
Cole graduates.
As far off as that year felt, Ashley had made a decision that day. She would savor every minute. Appreciate the seasons. Paint them. So that when 2019 had the nerve of rolling around and sweeping Cole from his little-boy bedroom to a whole new life, she would be ready.
But now here they were.
And Ashley felt like they’d wasted most of the semester helping Cole figure out what to do with Elise, how to navigate the situation, what decision to make. When he wasn’t with the girl, he was talking about her, distracted by her.
Nothing about this past semester was how Ashley had seen it playing out.
Elise was a very kind girl, a free spirit and an artist. She’d been accepted to NYU and for the past month she seemed set once again on placing her baby up for adoption and heading to Manhattan for school. But she still had to give birth and hold her baby, still had to get through those last two weeks before the adoption would be final.
All those days before Ashley could be sure Cole wasn’t going to throw away his dreams and follow Elise to Louisiana.
