The Fourth Sunrise: A Love Story Read online

  “‘You really love her,’ Christine said with a giant smile across her face.

  “‘Of course I do. She is my mom.’

  “‘It’s more than that. You love her for who she is as a person. Not just because she gave birth to you.’

  “I thought about it and said, ‘My mom is the most amazing person I know.’

  “‘I hope someday my kids feel that way about me. Your mom is very lucky that you recognize that and don’t take it for granted.’

  “I stared at Christine and was impressed with her insight. I liked what she had to say… a lot.

  “‘What about your dad?’ Christine asked.

  “‘He is tougher nut to crack.’

  “‘Why is that?’

  “Raising seven kids takes a lot out of man in the sense of how hard he works to put food on the table. He’s a janitor at the local elementary school. He puts in a lot of double shifts.’

  “‘Is he a good man, too?’

  “I thought about my dad and a tear started to roll from my left eye.

  “‘I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?’ Christine asked, seeing that a question about my dad obviously made me more emotional than a question about my mom.

  “‘No, you said nothing wrong. My dad is a good man. He’s the best kind of man there is. He is there for his family. He might not be the happiest guy in the world, but he is faithful to his wife and children.’

  “It was time to throw some of these highly emotional questions in her direction.

  “‘What about your parents? What are they like?’

  “‘They’re old.’

  “‘Old? All parents are old.’ I laughed.

  “‘Mine are really old. My mom had me when she was 42 and my dad was 50.’

  “‘Wow. They are old.’

  “‘It was like being raised by grandparents.’

  “‘That isn’t such a bad thing.’

  “‘No, it isn’t. My parents are fantastic people in their own right.’

  “‘They must be.’

  “‘Why?’

  “‘They produced you. Better late than never.’

  “‘You’re cute,’ Christine said to me.

  “‘I’m not aiming for cute.’

  “‘What are you aiming for?’

  “‘I don’t know… maybe…knight in shining armor status.’

  “‘Oh, you are a long way from that.’

  “‘Even after I was the only person in two hours to knock down all those bowling pins with a softball? I did it twice. And I did it completely on the spot.’

  “‘That was extraordinary. Don’t get me wrong. That was one of niftiest things I have ever witnessed. But a knight in shining armor status is even out of your reach.’

  “‘Why?’ I asked pretending to be hurt.

  “‘Unless the Queen knighted you recently, it’s an impossible feat.’

  “‘I’m speaking in the hypothetical sense.’

  “‘Well, if you are going to aim for knight in shining armor then I’m aiming for the mysterious, small town girl who has a secret past.’

  “‘A secret past? I like that. What is it?’

  “‘Maybe I’m a gypsy who made her way to the States and was adopted by a couple of small town folks from Delta, Colorado.’ Christine stared at me and just started to bust out laughing. Then Christine just suddenly stopped laughing.

  “‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

  “‘I was just thinking how unlucky I am,’ Christine said quietly.

  “‘How so?’ I asked.

  “‘I know how this ends.’

  “‘How what ends?’

  “‘You and I,’ Christine stated.

  “‘What’s ending?’ I asked. ‘The way I see it, it is just the beginning. We just met a couple hours ago, and I think we are really hitting it off.’

  “‘Are we?’ Christine asked.

  “‘We are still in the beginning stages,’ I pronounced.

  “‘The beginning stages of what?’ Christine asked.

  “‘Of whatever is happening here.’

  “‘What is happening here?”

  “‘Well, if you can’t see it, then maybe I am a bit delusional.’

  “Christine looked across the table and reached out her hand and held mine. I thought my heart stopped. This was her town. She was making a public display of affection. Her ex-boyfriend had just gone to war. I was probably not the most popular guys at this fair. But here I was, on a night when my team bus broke down, holding the hand of the most amazing woman I had ever met.

  “As I held her hand, I looked into her eyes and smiled. This was as natural as anything I had ever felt in my life. Still, I didn’t want to be the scumbag baseball player who slipped into town and put the moves on the prettiest girl and was never to be seen again.

  “I tried to look around us nonchalantly to see who was watching. No one was. Everyone was more concerned about having their own good time and certainly weren’t worried about us. Once I realized that, I was able to really enjoy my time with Christine.

  “A girl like Christine was able to play by her own rules, call her own shots. She was about to get very real and honest. ‘I’m afraid for it, Joel.’

  “‘Why?’

  “‘Because I see something here and I know you’re going to be gone tomorrow and the odds of you writing and keeping in touch are slim. I’ve been dealing with this reality for a while. I meet a cool-enough guy and then inside of a couple days, he’s gone.’

  “‘I’m just a cool-enough guy?’

  “‘You are more than that. At least, I hope. I just met you, but you seem like a fantastic person.’

  “I was quiet. I tried to say something, but nothing came out of my mouth.

  “‘What’s the matter, Joel? Things just got a little too real for you?’

  “‘I know you’re trying to scare me away, trying to see how far I run, because that is your defense mechanism. I don’t scare that easy. I’m just trying to process your blatant honesty that is coming my way.’

  “‘Am I wrong? Isn’t this what you ball players do?’

  “‘Some guys might, but I march to the beat of my own drum.’

  “‘Do you?’ Now Christine was looking deep into my soul. We were definitely having a connection, a connection far greater than anything I had ever encountered.

  “‘I do. I don’t run from girl to girl in each city. The truth of the matter is, I’m actually pretty shy when I like someone.’

  “‘You haven’t been too shy with me.’

  “‘I know.’ I paused. ‘Maybe we should try to start over. Don’t look at me as a ball player whose bus broke down. Look at me as a guy who met...’ I stopped what I was saying, out of my fear of revealing too much.

  “But it didn’t matter, she would get it out of me.

  “‘Who met who?’ she asked.

  “‘I’m a guy who just met the love of his life.’”

  Chapter Seven

  Present Day – Delta, Colorado - Coffee Shop, Midnight

  “Wait a second. You really said that phrase, ‘The love of my life?’”

  “It just came out of my mouth. It was as if the words had a life of their own. I never said those words before; I didn’t even know I had them in my repertoire.”

  “Repertoire?” Sharee asked.

  “Meaning… I’ve never spoken like that before. As a matter of fact, there many things I have only said to Christine and that I never said to another woman.”

  “Why do suppose that is?” Sharee asked.

  “Christine was different. She saw though me. There were no games, no preconceptions. It was as if she could already read my mind. I thought someone that deep in my head would scare me. Instead, it got me more excited.”

  “Excited?” Sharee seemed a bit confused. “How so?”

  “I knew I had just met a woman who was about to change the rest of my life. I also knew I better slow things down or my brain wouldn’t be able to process
my present situation. So I decided to slow it down a tad.”

  “That seems virtually impossible in the face of saying statements like ‘love of my life’ and ‘chance of a lifetime.’”

  “You’re probably right. But I tried.”

  July, 1968 – Delta, Colorado - Deltarado Days, 1:40 a.m.

  “Christine seemed to be taken aback by my statement. The last thing I wanted to do was to scare her. ‘Love of your life? Do you believe that to be true?‘

  “‘I don’t know. I don’t do this. I don’t meet girls. I don’t break curfew and eat pizza at 2:00 in the morning.’ I stared at Christine and her eyes were so spectacular.

  “‘How does one not get lost in your eyes?’ Christine said to me.

  “‘I was just thinking the same thing about you.’

  “‘Be quiet for a second. It’s my turn to talk,’ Christine said, teasing me about my enthusiasm.

  “‘Sorry, I’ll let you speak,’ I said.

  “‘You have amazingly expressive eyes, Joel. I’ve never seen eyes like yours before.’

  “‘Seriously? What do you see?’

  “‘I see a boy who is not sure how he is going to make it as a man, but is loving every minute of it.’

  “‘At this moment I am,’ I answered.

  “‘Joel. Let’s go somewhere. Away from here,’ Christine said excitedly.

  “‘Permanently?’

  “‘No, silly. Away from the fair. I want to take you somewhere. My special place.’

  “‘Sound good to me.’”

  Present Day – Delta, Colorado - Coffee Shop, 12:10 a.m.

  “Where did she take you?” Sharee asked.

  I looked over and smiled at Sharee.

  “Where was it?” Sharee insisted on knowing.

  “Right here.”

  “Right here? At this coffee shop?” Sharee asked.

  “It wasn’t a coffee shop then.”

  “What was it?”

  “One of her many jobs, It was a library. A rundown, beaten-up library. Just about where we are sitting, I had one of the most amazing conversations.”

  Sharee smiled and said, “This story just gets better and better.

  “In the middle of the night, the library looked like a castle. As we left the fair, I could see it from down the street. I thought it was just another abandoned business that went bankrupt. It wasn’t. It was an active library, but not at that time of night. Christine had a key to the place. The librarian who ran the library gave Christine keys to come into the library and do cleaning once a week.”

  Chapter Eight

  July 1968 – Delta, Colorado - Library, 2:30 a.m.

  “I stood out front as Christine unlocked two different locks to get the library open. In the night, with the streetlight shining off her skin on the corner, she couldn’t have looked more beautiful.

  “Eventually, she got the doors opened and we stumbled inside. Christine went to the back and turned on a light that just lit up a part of the library. The library seemed very spooky and very romantic.

  “‘Have you ever danced in a library before?’ Christine asked.

  “‘I have never danced, period,’ I said, smiling. ‘I’m not much of a dancer.’

  “‘I’m not looking for Fred Astaire,’ she joked. ‘Just don’t step on my feet.’

  “I smiled. I could probably handle that. I asked, ‘What kind of dancing would we be doing? I’m not much of sock-hop guy.’

  “Christine walked over and there was a record player in the corner of the room. She took out a record. It was Frank Sinatra. She put the record on. Then Frank went to work. It was one of his slower songs. It was beautiful.

  “She turned around and stared at me across the room. I couldn’t believe where I was. I was in some town I had never heard of before this day. I was in the town’s library at 3:00 in the morning getting ready to dance with the prettiest girl I had ever laid eyes on.

  “Christine slowly walked over to me. It wasn’t scary at all. It was better. She was unsure what I might think and I could see it in her eyes. That vulnerability was the most intoxicating trait I had ever felt. I fell in love with her at that very moment. I knew she was special, but at that instant, I knew I had completely fallen for this woman.

  “That was when my inhibitions left. I met her halfway and took a hold of her hands and brought her close to my body. She wrapped her arms around my waist and I covered her shoulders with my burly arms. It was more embracing than dancing, but I didn’t care. I was loving every minute of it.

  “I took her hand into my hands and maneuvered my body and hips and we began to slow dance in that very library on that magical night.

  “At first, it was tender and intimate. Then I caught a look in her eyes where a bit of passion surfaced.”

  Present Day – Delta, Colorado - Coffee Shop, 12:25 a.m.

  “You didn’t have sex on the first night you met her did you?” Sharee pleaded.

  “Of course not. She was a lady, but I was also a gentleman. Back in those days, we didn’t act out every urge like young folks do today. It was actually more intoxicating to wait and feel the little nuances of a woman. I was definitely doing that. Every smell, every touch, every breath was accounted for.”

  July, 1968 – Delta, Colorado - Library, 2:45 a.m.

  “One hour became two; two hours became three hours. We danced and touched, and stared into each other’s eyes.

  “I wanted to kiss her many times. The energy I felt while we danced was something out of a fairytale. Having our bodies experience one another in a slow, methodical, ritualistic swoon of intimacy, I held her tight. I smelled her hair and kissed her forehead. I never felt more alive or more scared of anything in my life.

  “We went through five entire albums, just dancing and touching, but still we hadn’t kissed.

  “As we danced, we shared everything about ourselves. We would whisper our life stories as if they were secrets in each other’s ears. We opened up in ways I didn’t realize humans could with one another emotionally. We left everything out there while we held each other, moving to the music.

  “This was all new to me. I didn’t understand the protocol. I didn’t know what the gentlemanly thing was to do. I had no idea. I was in a library that was a bit on the scary side, and top it off, I was there with a beautiful woman who was obviously not a fast girl.

  “I was again taken aback by the concept that at times, I was both spectator and participant.

  “Finally, I saw that the clock on the wall displayed 5:30 a.m. I was going to be in so much trouble. It wasn’t going to be funny. My coaches are going to kill me. I might get docked a week’s pay for something this unscrupulous. Someone by now had to have noticed that I was gone. The reality was, I knew whatever consequence I’d receive would be worth spending more time with Christine.

  “Christine looked up at me and I looked down. ‘This night was perfect.’

  “‘This whole thing is overwhelming,’ I said.

  “Christine took my hand and we walked over to the record player, and together, we stopped the last album from playing by turning off the record player.

  “‘Thank you,’ I said.

  “We stood there in front of the east window and stared into each other’s eyes. The sun was coming up. I could see it coming up over the mountain range. This time, there was no music playing. We both stared at the sunrise.

  “‘It’s so beautiful,’ Christine said.

  “‘It is.’ I turned and faced Christine. I leaned my head down and as if she had been waiting all night, our lips gravitated to each other in a deep passionate kiss. The second our lips touched, tears began to drip from my eyes. I had never felt this way before. I was a mess. I tried to fight back my emotion and be a man. We kissed and kissed for a good twenty minutes. Up to that point, it was the most exhilarating twenty minutes of my life. My heart felt like it was outside my body. I had never felt this way.

  “Finally, we stopped and just stared into each
other’s eyes. We just looked at one another, completely unsure what to do next.

  “‘Where do you go after this?’ Christine said to me.

  “My team is trying to trying to get back to Albuquerque. I’m pretty sure we will be leaving first thing in the morning. Today, I mean.’

  “‘Are your coaches going to be mad at you staying out all night?’

  “‘If they find out? Probably.’ I paused. ‘But I don’t care. It was definitely worth it.’”

  Chapter Nine

  Present Day – Delta, Colorado - Coffee Shop, 12:40 a.m.

  Sharee looked up at me and tears were in her eyes.

  I said, “That pause turned into a long stare. That stare turned into a longing that I never expected. I remember thinking at that very moment that this was going a long, exhausting ride.”

  “How could you have possibly known that at that moment in time?” Sharee asked.

  “I knew because at that point in my life I had never felt so many intense feelings for a woman, so fast. You see, things are different these days with easy travel by buses, planes, and trains. Back in 1968, it was easier to hitch a ride somewhere than to travel traditionally.”

  “But people did it. You were a big-time baseball player at the time?”

  “Big-time baseball player?” I laughed. “Playing ‘Triple A’ baseball is definitely tough to do. But unless you make the show, it is all pretty much for nothing.

  “Where I was coming from was I understood that I was about to leave my heart in Delta, Colorado. That was when I started the close-up. That was when my entire body froze up. I wanted to run. But I couldn’t run. What was chasing me had already caught me. She was standing right in front of me. I knew at that moment that I would be ready to do anything for her. All she had to do was ask.”