Chapter 51

Now that cell phones are ubiquitous, there is almost no place and no time you cannot reach someone if you need to.

This, however, requires you to keep your phone on.

That shouldn't be a problem because you can always use vibrate if you don't want your ring to disturb other people. It seemed Jeff had not mastered this concept.

It was the second week of November. I returned to our place in the middle of the afternoon. I put down my books and went to the kitchen to make myself a snack.

As I was deciding what I wanted, the phone rang. When I lifted the receiver I noticed there were thirteen messages on the answering machine.

"Ashley, is Jeff there?" It was Sunny. Her voice was controlled but just this side of panic.

"No. He gets back from class around dinner time. Uh, 5:30 to 6:00."

"Is there any way you can get a hold of him?"

This was getting scary. The voice, the urgency conveyed by the fourteen calls, the request to contact him immediately told me he wasn't going to be pleased with the subject of the call.

"I don't know. I don't know his schedule. There hasn't been any reason to contact him during class so we never discussed it. What's going on?"

I chose to avoid, "What's wrong?" to avoid implying bad news, though I knew it was coming.

"Louis had a heart attack. We don't know how bad yet, but it's serious."

"Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I'll have him call you the minute he gets in. In the mean time, I'm going to gas up the car and make us sandwiches for the trip.

"We'll leave as soon as he gets back. Is there anything I can bring or do that would be helpful? Can I make sandwiches for you? Can I call anybody? What can I do?"

I didn't wait for answers; I was just throwing out questions as quickly as I could think of them. This was terrible.

"No," said Sunny. "I've, we're calling people, letting them know. We'll be able to get something to eat. They're doing tests now and they really don't know anything yet.

"At least I hope they don't know anything rather than keeping it from us. No, I'm just letting my emotions get the best of me. We've just got to wait until they can tell us how bad it is or isn't."

"We'll get there as soon as we possibly can, Sunny. And I promise to have Jeff call you the second he gets in."

I did my job. I went to the local 7/11, filled up and got us a bunch of subs. I bought way more than we needed just in case somebody at the hospital didn't eat before we got there.

I did it slowly, but by the time I got home, it was only 4:00.

I was too antsy to watch TV.

The laundry was done. The place was clean.

I wished somehow I could just jump over the next hour and a half and head home with Jeff. I had to do something to keep my mind occupied. There was no point in worrying about Louis. There was nothing I could do.

So I worried about Jeff.

He was running himself ragged and I was worried about his health. He hadn't taken care of himself when I had the flu. He stayed up late and got up early. He was so tired that sometimes he nodded off when he was studying.

The only exercise he got was when we danced.

Was Louis the same way? I hoped he was okay.

I wasn't the only one who noticed.

Jeff's faculty advisor had stopped by the previous weekend to chat with him. I offered to leave them alone but Jeff said he had no problem with my staying.

"Jeff," he said, "I've had a long and pretty distinguished career at this University. I thought I had seen everything, but you've introduced a whole new brand of craziness."

Jeff and I just waited for him to continue.

"I've gotten complaints from almost all the assistants and professors teaching your courses. They asked me to see if I can convince you not to be so damn well prepared for their classes."

Jeff was so shocked he wasn't able to muster so much as a, "What?"

After a while he did say, "I don't understand."