Second Chances

Rob walked into the Howling Wolf and smiled when he saw Laura waving to him on the other side of the bar. Her smile warmed his heart, and the excruciating headache he experienced moments before was just a distant memory. She was as pretty as he remembered, with jet-black hair that cascaded over her shoulders, brown eyes filled with mirth, and full lips curved into a smile.

Rob’s smile dimmed as he approached the table and saw Laura was not alone. Another man sat at the table casually drinking a beer. He had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked like he had just stepped out of an L. L. Bean catalog.

Laura rose as he approached and hugged Rob. Her body felt good in his arms. He didn’t want to let go but reluctantly stepped back.

“Rob, this is my friend Andy.”

Andy stood up, gripped his hand with a firm handshake, and gave him a big smile. Rob didn’t smile back.

Rob sat down and quickly became involved in a deep conversation with Laura. They strolled down memory lane and became immersed in conversation, time hadn’t diminished his feelings for Laura. He felt just as connected to her as when they had taught together.

“Remember the play we created for the Christmas Assembly? All that practice and then Abby forgot her lines in the middle of the play,” Rob reminisced.

“I remember! I felt so bad for her. The room got hushed and she looked so scared. But then she improvised and her lines were better than the script. I was never more proud of a student than I was of her that day.” Laura beamed with pride.

Rob noticed how pretty she looked when she smiled. He smiled back. “Yes, she gained a lot of confidence in herself. I was proud of her too.”

For a moment, it seemed like they had gone back in time, to the days when they had taught together at Oakridge Elementary School.

Rob paused for a moment before continuing. “How about the Health unit we taught together? I thought I was going to hate it, but you helped me get through it.” Rob smiled fondly at the memory.

“Yes, I remember thinking how disorganized you were, but…”

“What?” Rob said scowling.

“Oh Rob, don’t be so sensitive.” Her words were teasing and there was a smile on her face. “You know I think everyone is disorganized compared to me. I was going to say that your passion and creativity made that one of my best experiences as a teacher.”

Rob remembered fondly the time they had taught together, as well as all the fun they’d had at Happy Hours and the faculty parties. He had always thought there might be something between them if she hadn’t been married.

But that was two years ago before she had been transferred to Bainbridge Elementary School, before they had fallen out of touch, before her tumultuous divorce.

Rob decided to address the elephant in the room. “I heard about your divorce. That must have been rough. Are you doing OK?”

Laura was silent for a moment, her expression thoughtful.

“It needed to happen. Our interests were too different, and when I tried to talk about it he didn’t respect my opinion. I let things go on longer than they should have, it’s all for the best.”

Andy, who had been absorbed in the game on TV leaned in and whispered to her. Laura replied, but Rob didn’t catch what she said.

Instead of turning back to the game, Andy continued talking to Laura. She shifted her focus to Andy, and suddenly Rob felt like a third wheel.

“I’m going to get another beer,” Rob said to no one in particular as he stood up.

Rob walked to the bar but no one noticed him and he had to wave twice to get a bartender's attention. It took a while, but finally, a young blonde sauntered over, and Rob ordered another draft. Steve, the regular bartender, would have never made him wait this long, but he was nowhere in sight. Rob watched the bartender fill his glass and thought she looked vaguely familiar. He knew he had seen her face before, but where? Finally, he had it, there had been a big accident on the interstate last spring and a college student’s car had been hit by a tractor-trailer. She looked similar to this girl but that couldn’t be right. That girl had died. As Rob glanced around he realized he didn’t recognize any of the other bartenders, but he dismissed the thought as soon as his beer arrived. His mouth felt dry and he took a long swig of the golden ale.

As he walked back across the room he heard a familiar voice.

“Rob…Rob Cooper…It’s good to see you!”

Rob turned and was astonished to see Coach Veller. The coach was a legend in town, but Rob hadn’t seen him in years. He had never known the coach to frequent the Howling Wolf, yet here he was. Rob had played basketball for Coach Veller fifteen years ago at Davis High School, and Veller was one of the reasons he’d gone into teaching.

“Coach, it’s so good to see you! You look great!”

It had been ten years since Veller had retired, and Rob had heard he had been in poor health, but the coach looked great tonight. His hair was the color of copper, his sideburns were still a bit too long, and his blue eyes twinkled.

“Come have a beer. What have you been up to Rob?”

Coach Veller was sitting at a table with three older men. Rob didn’t recognize any of them. One of them was wearing an ‘old school’ Davis High School letter jacket, like the one Coach Williams, had always worn. Rob didn’t know the former football coach, although he had heard the man had been friends with Veller. Coach Williams retired several years before Rob reached high school and passed away last year. But everyone knew of his fondness for wearing his letter jacket from his days as an All-State linebacker at Davis. Maybe this guy had been a teammate of the former coach.

Time seemed to stand still as he talked with his old coach. He told Veller how much he had enjoyed playing for him, and they reminisced about past games and former players. Rob told the coach about some of his exploits in college, how much he enjoyed teaching, and then sheepishly admitted he was still single. Finally, he began to feel guilty about monopolizing the coach’s time and excused himself so Coach Veller could resume talking with the other men seated at the table.

He found his way back to Laura and realized he had been gone much longer than he had intended. Laura was uncharacteristically quiet, so he started talking about sports with Andy. It turned out that Andy had played for Coach Veller too, although he had graduated a few years after Rob.

Suddenly Laura reached over and touched the back of Rob’s hand.

“One thing I remember is that I could always talk to you, I felt I could tell you anything. Has that changed?”

He looked into her eyes and felt his pulse racing. Did he dare tell her his feelings, or was it too soon and he’d scare her away? The thought made him feel like his head was going to explode. He took a deep breath.

“Laura, there’s something I need to tell you. Can we talk privately?” Rob glanced towards the back room.

She nodded at him before speaking to Andy. “Andy, please excuse us for a minute.”

“No problem,” Andy said. He took a sip of beer as he turned his attention to the game on TV.

Rob’s heart pounded as he led Laura back into the ‘Alpha Room.’ It was usually reserved for parties, but tonight it was empty.

His pulse hammered in his head and he felt breathless as he turned and looked at her. Laura stood quietly looking back, her eyes locked on his. He took a deep breath, it was now or never.

“I’ve…I’ve always felt we had special chemistry between us.” There was a loud crash in the other room accompanied by some yelling, and his eyes automatically turned toward the door as he continued speaking. “That’s what made it so easy for us to work together, but it was more than that, at least for me. From the first day we met, I’ve been happiest when we’ve been together, and I’ve missed you for the past two years. I still feel there’s something between us…and I’m wondering…do you feel it too?”

He looked back to see her reaction, but Laura wasn’t there. Suddenly the commotion in the other room died down, like someone had turned the volume down on a radio. Then he heard soft voices that seemed to surround him. He couldn’t tell where they were coming from, but it wasn’t the bar.

“Something is wrong. A mistake was made, those two were taken too soon.”

“I concur, it’s not their time.”

“Then we agree to send them back.”

“Yes.”

Rob felt dizzy, and disoriented, as the world slowly came into focus around him. He looked around and realized he wasn’t at the bar. He was at home, in bed. He looked at the clock and realized it was 5:00 in the morning. He felt strange, and he looked at the display on his Apple Watch. How long had he been asleep? His sleep pattern looked odd; it showed he had been asleep from midnight until 4:45 am, then the screen was blank until 4:58 am. He had never seen that before.

Puzzled he pulled up his heart rate. Everything looked normal, although his resting heart rate was lower than usual. But then the chart went blank at 4:45 am. That was weird. It picked up again exactly at 4:58, with a heartbeat of 60, his normal sleeping rate. Rob scowled at the screen. Had something gone wrong with his watch in the middle of the night?

Suddenly he sat bolt upright. Something was wrong. He felt it in his gut. He grabbed his cell phone and punched number three. Although they had drifted apart, he had never removed Laura from his speed-dialing list. Rob held his breath while the phone rang. One ring, two, three. He found himself holding his breath until finally, he heard Laura’s voice.

“Hello?”

“Laura, it's Rob?”

“Rob? It’s…it’s 5:00 in the morning! Why are you suddenly calling me now? And why this early?”

“I’m sorry, I apologize, I just needed to know that you’re all right.”

“What? …I’m fine Rob.”

Hearing her voice, Rob’s breathing slowly began to return to normal.

“I’m sorry, I’m being an idiot, but it was just such a strong feeling…you’re really feeling OK?”

Laura paused. “Well…if you must know I did have chest pains last night. I was very uncomfortable when I went to bed. I probably ate too much for dinner, I’m sure it was just indigestion. I’m fine now, I feel great.”

Rob’s face felt hot. “I’m sorry, I…I just had a premonition something was wrong.”

“Premonition? Rob, what’s going on?”

Rob swallowed deeply, “I’m sorry, it was more like a dream…you were in it, and when I woke up something seemed wrong.”

Silence. For a moment Rob thought she had hung up.

Finally, Laura answered in a whisper, “In the dream, where were we?”

“What? It doesn’t matter, I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Laura spoke again, and her voice now had a sense of urgency, “Where were we?”

“It’s silly, just a dream, but we were at the Howling Wolf.”

He heard Laura gasp.

“Laura, what is it?”

She didn’t answer for a minute, then her voice grew so soft he had to strain to hear her. “I was there.”

Rob frowned.

“What do you mean, of course, you’ve been there. We used to go there for Happy Hour all the time.”

There was another pause before Laura answered, “No, I was with you. I had the same dream last night.”

Rob took a deep breath, “What?”

“I was with you in the dream last night.”

Rob was skeptical. “That’s not possible.”

He heard Laura take a deep breath. “I know, but it happened.”

Rob felt his stomach flutter.

“OK, if you were there, what did we talk about?”

Laura didn’t hesitate.

“Well, for one thing, we both said how proud we were of Abby for improvising when she forgot her lines during the Christmas play.”

Rob was silent. He felt his heart beating out of control. He took a deep breath before continuing.

“Laura, who’s Andy?”

There was a slight pause before Laura continued.

“I teach with his wife Carolyn. He often joined us at happy hour and he came to some of the school parties. He was a very nice guy. He died a year ago in a mountain climbing accident. I had lunch with Carolyn yesterday. I guess I was thinking about him, she’s still having a hard time.”

Rob’s hand shook as he held the phone. His voice was a mere whisper as he asked the next question.

“Did you hear what I said in the Alpha Room?”

He held his breath as he waited for her answer.

“You said we had great chemistry together. I agree, we’ve always worked well together when we were teaching. Then there was a loud crash in the other room, and then I woke up.”

Rob exhaled; he wasn’t sure whether he felt relief or disappointment. His heart continued to hammer in his head.

“Laura, there’s something I need to tell you, something I should have said months ago. Can we meet at the coffee shop downtown later?”

She answered right away, and Rob felt the warmth in her voice.

“I’d like that. I’m awake now, why don’t we meet in an hour.”

“Great,” Rob answered, his heart racing.

Rob quickly showered, although it took him a while to pick the right shirt to wear. Funny, he usually didn’t worry that much about his appearance. He whistled as he strode out the door, and absently picked up the newspaper on the way to his car. He was about to toss it in the back seat when one of the headlines caught his eye and a chill went up his spine.

“Town mourns the sudden passing of Coach Veller. Memorial services planned next Saturday for longtime Davis HS basketball coach.”