A Very Good Day

“I know. Wanna guess who we ran into when we got here?” Amelia chuckled, then paused. “Was it okay, Honey?”

“It was wonderful, Mom,” Steph admitted, blushing.

“That’s all I need to know then. Where are you now?”

“I’m home, getting cleaned up and packing a few things before I go pick John up at work.”

“Well, make it an early night if you go out. They’re calling for snow around midnight up there.”

“I’ll make sure we watch the weather later, Mom,” Steph promised Amelia.

“Okay. Be careful, Honey. Love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

---

Stephanie Bertram walked into McCorrison’s Feed Store just before 5 o’clock. Tim McCorrison, who had gone to high school with Dennis Bertram, looked up to see who had just come in, and his face broke into a big smile. The big man came around the desk with surprising speed and gathered his goddaughter into a big, spinning hug.

“Stephie!” Tim cried as he let her down. “It’s been a while, kiddo! How are you doing?”

“I’m great, Uncle Tim!” Steph laughed back.

She loved this big bear of a man like another father, and admitted to herself that she hadn’t been very good about visiting.

“I’m glad, Princess. Now, why do I think that you haven’t stopped in here at closing time on a Saturday to see your godfather?”

“Uncle Tim!” she pouted. “I’m hurt!”

“Uh-huh,” Tim grunted. “That may work on your dad, but it won’t work on this guy. Now, spill.”

Just then, the sound of a powered pallet jack approaching interrupted their conversation. John, having clearly worked hard that day, was concentrating on steering a pallet of feed bags into the proper spot. Satisfied that the load was in the right spot, he dropped the pallet to the floor and worked the jack free. Glancing at the desk, John did a double-take when he saw Steph and gave her a little wave before heading back to the warehouse with the jack.

Tim McCorrison watched the whole scene with a look of near shock on his face. He looked at Steph and blinked a few times.

“When did you start dating him?” Tim asked.

“Yesterday.”

“Wow! Do your parents know about John yet?”

“Mom does. I’m not sure if she’s told Dad yet, but he knows I was at John’s house last night. It all happened pretty quickly yesterday afternoon.”

Tim just nodded.

“Well, I’m happy for you, Princess. For both of you, actually. John’s a great kid, and his parents are terrific, too.”

Just then, the object of their discussion came back out onto the sales floor to begin straightening up the shelves. This was something that the floor’s sales staff was supposed to do during the day, but John always came out when he was done with his work in the back. This was another reason why Tim McCorrison thought so highly of the young man. He was always going above and beyond without being asked.

“Hey, John,” Tim called out to the young man, “come on over here.”

John finished straightening the shelf, then hustled over to the main desk.

“What’s up, Mr. Mac?” he asked, giving Steph a quick smile.

“With the snow they’re calling for tomorrow, I doubt we’ll see many customers. Why don’t you take tomorrow off?”

“Snow?” John asked, looking confused. “How much are they talking about?”

“The latest forecast is for only a few inches, John,” Steph answered, shrugging.

McCorrison added, “I’ve got a strange feeling about this one, though. I think it’ll be more than that. You two hunker down at Steph’s house, John. They have a generator and a wood stove, in case the power goes out. Did your folks ever get a generator?”

“No, not yet,” he answered. “Are you sure about me talking tomorrow off, sir? Aren’t you going to need the help?”

“No,” Tim answered, shaking his head. “I doubt anyone will be coming in during the storm, but I’ll be here if they do. You know how close I live, so it won’t be an issue for me to get here.”

They both said goodbye to Mr. McCorrison and went back to John’s house. They made sure a few things were ready and that his car was in the garage before heading to Steph’s house. The pantry there was well stocked, so there was no need to brave the crowds at the supermarket. After dinner, they sat quietly on the couch, simply enjoying each other’s company as they watched a “romantic comedy” together, before enjoying each other’s company in Steph’s bed.

Once again, the weather-guessers were wrong ... big time.

The storm, which had been predicted to drop three to four inches in their area, stalled over them for almost two full days and dumped nearly 18 inches. John and Steph had gone out a couple of times to clear the walks, mainly so they wouldn’t have to clear the full amount at the end of the storm.

Steph had shown she was quite capable with the snowblower, and John had surprised her with his skill in plowing the long, curving driveway with her father’s truck. He admitted to her that Mr. McCorrison had been having him plow the lots at the feed store for the past two years.

When the storm finally seemed to be winding down, John and Steph loaded the snowblower and shovels into the back of Dennis Bertram’s truck and drove over to John’s house. The power had stayed on in his neighborhood, for which he was glad, as there were no issues at his place. They cleared the Janaczaks’ driveway and walks before they began clearing their neighbor’s, Mrs. Osterlind’s, house.

John had grown up next to ‘Opa’ and ‘Oma’ Osterlind. Tom Osterlind had met Heidi Mueller while serving in West Germany in the 60s, fell in love, and brought her home as his wife. Oma had taught John German with his parents’ blessing.

While the Osterlinds had children and grandchildren of their own, they were all scattered across the country; the Osterlind kids and grandkids were glad to have people they could count on looking out for Opa and Oma, so they treated John and his parents as extensions of their family. When Mr. Osterlind had died suddenly of a heart attack eight years ago, John had been as shattered as the rest of the Osterlind grandchildren.

Heidi Osterlind was delighted to see that her Enkelsohn Johann finally had a girlfriend, and such a beautiful one, too! Heidi thought she knew who Steph’s mother was, and her suspicions were confirmed when she heard Steph’s last name. John was clearly head-over-heels for the girl, and Heidi was very happy to see that Steph felt the same way. Steph got a great, big hug from the older woman as the young couple left, and was told that she was very welcome in her house.

One consequence of the storm was that both sets of parents were stuck out of town. The airport was just coming back into operation by Tuesday morning, but the backlog of flights was enormous. Steph and John would be able to enjoy a couple of extra nights of sleeping in the same bed before their parents returned.

Tuesday morning, the couple walked back into school hand-in-hand. To say that this caused a bit of a sensation would be a huge understatement! Every student, on both sides of the ‘popular’ equation, was nudging, pointing, whispering ... and, of course, forming an opinion. The couple shared a quick kiss goodbye before heading off to their first classes of the day.

A few periods later, Steph walked into her French class and settled into her regular seat, which was right next to Mike Mullavey’s. Mike was one of the few student-athletes that Steph genuinely liked. Most of the jocks at the school were way too cocky for her taste. Mike was a very gifted baseball player, what she had heard described as a “five-tool” player, which was unusual enough since he was a catcher. Before the class got going, Mike leaned over to say something.

“Steph, I’ve been hearing some rumbles, today,” Mike said in a voice too low for anyone else to hear. “A lot of the football guys are pissed at you for dating a geek, and at Marissa for standing up for you.”

“Why do they care?” Steph hissed. “I’m nobody’s little puppet! Nobody tells me who I can date!”

“Hey!” Mike said, leaning back with his hands up. “Steph, please don’t shoot the messenger, okay? I, for one, think it’s cool!”

“I’m sorry, Mike, it’s not directed at you. My mom’s a doctor. Actually, she’s an extremely successful surgeon, yet she married a cop! They’ve been in love for over 30 years, and it’s taught me that no one is ‘too good’ or ‘out of my league.’” Steph sighed. “Anyway, how come you’re so cool with it?”

“Because he’s my boyfriend,” said another, familiar voice.

Turning towards the voice, Steph saw Lisa Turnbull getting up out of her chair with her things, apparently so she could sit next to Mike. Lisa was all but a shoo-in for valedictorian, even though the school year had just started. She was a tall, willowy blonde who, if she dressed a little nicer and presented herself a little better, would be absolutely stunning. She leaned down to give Mike a quick, soft kiss, then sat in the empty classroom chair/desk behind his.

“No way!” Steph said happily.

Like John, Steph had known Lisa all her life and had watched the girl be shunned for being ‘too smart.’ Steph and her best friend, Marissa, had always been friendly to her, but they weren’t close friends or anything.

“How long have you been going out?” she asked them, figuring the relationship had just begun.

“What is it now, Sweetie?” Mike asked Lisa. “Almost three years?”

“Sure is, since right after the start of freshman year,” Lisa confirmed.

“What?” Steph asked, dumbfounded. “Why have you guys kept it so secret?”

Mike frowned a bit when Steph asked the question.

“That was actually my idea,” Lisa admitted. “There were already rumblings that Mike was going to be the next big baseball star here when freshman year started, and I didn’t feel he would get as far if people thought I was his girlfriend.” Lisa sighed and said, “Don’t ask me to explain the logic of it, because there probably really isn’t any. I figured if people knew I was his girlfriend, the other girls would try harder to take him away from me than if they thought he wasn’t interested. I guess it was fear.”

“Well, that’s over,” Mike stated emphatically. “It’s my senior year, and I’m going to enjoy it with my brilliant, sexy, smarter-than-me girlfriend.”

Lisa smacked Mike on the arm in exasperation, but couldn’t help blushing. Their French teacher walked in just before the second bell, ending the main conversation.

Steph whispered a quick, “Sit with John and me at lunch?” to which Mike and Lisa both nodded.

An hour later, the two couples were seated at a table in the cafeteria with Steph’s best friend, Marissa, to plan a dinner at Steph’s house. John quickly texted his friend from McCorrison’s – Manny Ortiz – and invited him, too.

The friends all gathered at Steph’s house, where the others chuckled silently at the instant attraction between Manny and Marissa. It was decided that they would go out instead of having Steph and John cook, so the group headed to the Lotus Empire, the most upscale Chinese restaurant in town. Steph figured they could have picked the town’s bus transfer station to eat. Marissa and Manny wouldn’t have noticed.

The six friends were able to secure a great table on a Tuesday night, one that would have been the table to get on a Friday or Saturday night, and they were very visible in the restaurant. Most of the people who had also decided to go out on a Tuesday smiled at the obvious fun the young people were having, but there was one person who didn’t share that opinion.

Dave Wainwright had gone to the buffet at Lotus Empire to get dinner since his parents were out for the night. As he was getting into his car with his meal, he saw the six friends enter the restaurant. The shock of seeing Stephanie Bertram kiss John Janaczak at Caffeine Nation had turned into a slow-burning anger at the humiliation he felt when he left. Seeing them together at school had only fueled that fire.

Dave’s meal grew cold in the takeout container on the front seat as he sat, staring out the windshield. The emergence of the six friends nearly an hour later shook Dave Wainwright out of his stupor and got him out of the frigid car.

Steph and John had just said goodbye to the other two couples and were approaching their car when John noticed rapid movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning to look, he saw a figure hurtling towards them. He grabbed Steph and spun them out of the way as a heavy booted foot slammed into the car door. With Steph now safely behind him, John turned to confront the attacker.

The figure moved towards him again, but badly telegraphed his punch, allowing John to pull back out of the way as his attacker spun himself out of position. Then John stood his attacker straight up with two quick punches to the kidneys, swept his legs, and drove him to the ground. The attacker landed flat on his back, knocking the wind out of himself.

John quickly stepped back and looked to see for Steph, as his attacker rolled himself into the fetal position. He relaxed marginally when he saw she was safe with their friends.

Then he saw two Fryetown PD officers rushing towards him. He put his hands up immediately.

“Put your hands down, son,” came a deep, gravelly voice from one of the officers. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. We saw the whole thing.”

The very large police officer and his petite female partner both moved quickly past John with their TASERs in ‘low-ready’ and approached the attacker, who was still hidden by his hooded sweatshirt and face mask. In short order, the attacker had his hands cuffed behind his back and his face exposed.

“Well! His dad’s gonna be pissed at this,” the female officer muttered.

“Sure as hell,” her partner agreed.

“JOHN!” came Steph’s cry.

John barely had time to turn towards her before she slammed into him, wrapping him in a furious embrace. He stroked her hair as she sobbed for a bit.

“Hey, Stephie,” came the gravelly voice again, “you gonna introduce me to your boyfriend, or what?”

Steph’s head came up and looked around John. John turned to see the male police officer walking towards them with a big smile on his face. As he drew closer, John could see that the man’s name tag read “BERTRAM.”

“Hi, Uncle Jack,” Steph said, without letting go of John. “This is John Janaczak.”

John looked up at the large man as he placed an equally large hand on John’s shoulder.

Damn, does Steph know any small men? John thought.