Ellie woke up. This was the day she’d been waiting for. New
Year’s Eve. She looked over at the end of her room where a mass of duvet lay
over Jamie. He burrowed in the night. She lay for a while watching him only
snapping her eyes away when the pile of duvet began to move as Jamie awoke.
‘Hey,’ she ventured, not really knowing what to say. Jamie rubbed the sleep out
of his eyes and yawned. He then got up off of the mattress that had been laid
out on the floor for him at the end of Ellie’s bed. He reached out for Ellie
and they both felt tingles. Why would today be any different to other days when
he’s helped her, when occasionally their arms might brush each others or
something? Ellie was confused. Jamie continued to lift her body and placed her
safely in her wheelchair. By now there were so many tingles flowing through
Ellie’s body that were sending so many signals she didn’t know whether to laugh
or cry. But she couldn’t lose face to Jamie. She smiled and thanked him. She
hesitated but didn’t mention the feelings going on in her body. It was
electricity. She was fairly sure. From that moment on she felt alive. She
didn’t tell him how she was feeling, because to imagine he would be feeling the
same was preposterous.
Later, with the candles out, no lights on Ellie looked at
Jamie. In the dim light he looked so beautiful. She couldn’t get the words out
to tell him though. It was teen to twelve when Linda put on the TV. To watch
the fireworks and the new year come in. She kept looking between Ellie and
Jamie wishing that this new year would be good for them and one of them may
come out with it. It was hard to watch two people who were so right for each
other taking baby steps. But it was the only way sometimes. She wanted to bang
their heads together but resisted…only just. She had had long talks with Jamie
since he had been there – knew he was single, knew about his family and knew
the way he helped her daughter. And today, Ellie had been so active and fun
that Linda knew something must have happened. Jamie had been dynamic too today.
Maybe they were finally feeling it?
The countdown to new year had reached five by the point Linda
looked back over at the two of them. Ellie was sitting looking nervously over
at Jamie, who was in turn looking pretty anxious himself. ‘Happy new year
everyone,’ Chrissie started before the claxon for new year had gone off. It
went off a second later. Everyone pranced around the room kissing each other’s
cheeks and wishing them health and happiness in the new year. Jamie pecked
Ellie’s cheek and mumbled something about being happy that she missed. She was
hoping that that would have been the time he’d confess if he was feeling
anything, but obviously it was aall in her head.
Steph
XxX
No comments:
Post a Comment