Life's a Great Balancing Act

Be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
And remember that Life's
A great balancing act.

 

It didn’t take long to arrive at the movie store. Jim and Trixie began looking through the titles. Many were immediately discounted due to their mature ratings since Jim was very conscientious about what the boys would be allowed to watch. He wanted to stay away from PG-13 if possible.

“Hey look at this, Trixie. They have the original King Kong with Fay Wray!” Jim waved the movie box as he spoke.

Trixie looked over and sniffed, she didn’t care much for King Kong. “Let’s find a football movie; after all, the boys are still pumped about the game today.”

“Like what? Do you mean something like that Tom Cruise movie with Show Me The Money?” Jim spoke skeptically.

“No silly, that’s rated R. How about this one? It’s about a Virginia high school team, the Titans?” Jim didn’t remember the movie but Trixie convinced him the boys would enjoy watching it.

However, they were delayed on their way back to the dormitory when their taxi had a flat tire.

“Do you have any idea what he’s saying?” Trixie laughed as the driver furiously spoke in a language she didn’t recognize.

“Not a clue, but he doesn’t sound too happy.”

“Let’s just walk” Trixie suggested.

Jim nodded, and after paying their driver the full fare, they left him to change the tire and walked the remaining distance to the dormitory. They arrived right before the rain started falling as a heavy thunderstorm moved into the area.

Bobby and his friends had gotten lucky. As it turned out they had needed the extra time it took Jim and Trixie to walk back to the dormitory to finish setting up ‘Operation Otis’. They had almost forgotten to disable one of the elevators. A frantic phone call, some caution tape and a little bit of broken glass fixed that. Then it would be easy to turn the power off in the remaining elevator. It would be tricky stopping the elevator at exactly the right spot between the fourth and fifth floors but Otis had given them specific instructions on how to accomplish that. Otis hung a neon green plastic slinky toy inside the elevator shaft from the fourth floor entrance. Once the elevator car passed the slinky they should stop the elevator.

“Where is everyone?” Trixie wondered as they arrived in the dorm common room.

“Beats me, I figured they would be here waiting, playing game and drinking cokes by now.” Jim answered looking around puzzled.

Trixie laughed as she saw the elevator was out of order. “Look Jim one was repaired and now the other one’s out of order.”

Jim studied the elevator with its yellow police tape and the floor that appeared to be littered with broken glass. “They weren’t kidding about keeping that elevator repairman busy” he said as he pushed the button for the working elevator. Little did they know ‘Operation Otis’ had commenced.

 

 

“Stair unit calling floor command, Olive and Oscar have landed. Repeat, Olive and Oscar have landed. Over.”

Bobby grinned as he got the signal and replied. “Roger stair unit, its show time. Repeat, its show time.”

The stairwell contingent breathed a huge sigh of relief as Jim and Trixie entered the left elevator. Thump and Kevin, aka Agent 56 and Agent 24, were on the other side of the staircase door listening carefully. In accordance with fire codes, the stairwell did not have a lock. Their assignment had been to block the door if Jim and Trixie had decided to take the stairs.

Using hand-held radios they gave the signal as soon as the elevator doors closed. “Stair unit calling floor command, we have lift-off. Repeat, we have lift-off. Over.”

In perfect conformity with ‘Operation Otis’, precisely between the fourth and fifth floors the elevator ground to a halt.

“Stair unit, this is floor command, Otis has landed. Repeat, Otis had landed. Over”

“Acknowledged, floor command, Elvis has left the stairwell. Repeat, Elvis has left the stairwell.”

Dan and Regan, who had been waiting with Bobby, exchanged a look. “What does that mean?” Dan asked bewildered.

“It means they are on their way to the fifth floor to help you guys walk the students down to the common area” Bobby explained.

“Whatever you say, floor command” Regan gave a mock salute. He left with Dan to join Mart and Diana who had been distracting the students on the fifth floor.

Inside the halted elevator, Trixie and Jim looked at each other. Jim pushed a few buttons but nothing happened. He picked up the emergency phone to call. There was nothing but dead air. A push of the emergency button resulted in zilch.

Dissatisfied with what Jim had accomplished, Trixie went right behind him, pushing the same buttons, picking up the phone and pushing the emergency button herself. He just grinned “Like you don’t think I pushed them right?” He reached out to do something he hadn’t done in years and pulled one of her curls.

She smacked his hand away. “Don’t do that!” she snapped.

“Why?” he asked, hurt. “Is Jake the only guy allowed to touch your hair?”

“Jake who?” she asked him.

“Jake. You know, the guy you’ve been dating, the one you brought home last Christmas,” he said.

She burst out laughing “I don’t think so. Jake was just a friend, is just a friend. He was helping Honey and I get some of our business problems resolved.”

Jim decided to shut up about her boyfriends. After all, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know anything about them anyway.

“Any ideas?” Trixie asked him after a moment.

He looked around the small cubicle and pointed up. “We could see what’s through that hole. You want to get on my shoulders and look?”

Trixie shrugged, “Why not?”

Minutes later she was pushing on the door while thinking that Jim certainly had a fine physique. She was glad he couldn’t see her face. Just sitting on his shoulders was a nice feeling.

Holding on to her legs, Jim was entertaining similar thoughts. Trixie sure does a good job of keeping in shape. It was all he could do to stop thinking about her shape.

Trixie pushed the door flap open and then groaned. “Nothing,” she said. “It’s another ceiling behind it, with an opening just big enough for air to flow. There’s no way we could crawl through that.”

“Hop down, let me take a look,” Jim insisted as he lowered her to the ground. She slid down his back and was shocked at the feelings that went through her as her breasts brushed down his shoulders and back. Jim had to be the sexiest man she had ever known. She had no idea, but Jim was doing everything he could not to let Trixie see the feelings she had aroused in him.

He stared up at the opening. While the flip door had been big, the opening behind it was small, maybe eight by ten inches. She was right, it was a small air duct, nothing more.

“Well, I guess we could shout up it,” Jim suggested.

They yelled and gave the Bob-White whistle. Jim even pounded on the elevator doors and tried to open them without success. Finally, they just gave up and sat down.

Jim and Trixie had no idea that Bobby and his friends had already provided the students a movie and sent them downstairs to the game room. They would be chaperoned by Mart, Di, Dan and Regan for the rest of the evening. Bobby, Moose, Thump and Kevin were monitoring the elevator situation closely. Thanks to the work they had done earlier in the week, they could hear every word.

“So Trixie, do you have any ideas?” Jim asked her.

“Well, no, but we still have twenty questions,” she answered.

He looked over at her sharply and was relieved to see her eyes twinkling. “Yeah, I remember playing that game before when we were stranded.” He smiled in return, “But we don’t even have birdseed to eat this time.”

“We didn’t have anything to eat in Iowa,” Trixie reminded him.

“Yeah, but we aren’t in any real danger of starving. Someone will eventually figure out we haven’t made it back and find us,” Jim told her.

“True,” Trixie replied and started studying her fingernails. She debated whether to tell him she had a candy bar in her purse.

“Well, then is it John?” Jim asked suddenly.

“John? What are you talking about?” Trixie was perplexed.

“Is John the guy that’s allowed to touch your hair?” He had to know.

“I haven’t seen John in almost two years. He was just a good friend, my partner for a while and a fellow FBI agent who wanted an introduction to Dan.”

“Dan? Why did he want to meet Dan?” Jim asked.

“Because John’s gay,” Trixie explained. “After I assured him that Dan would not be interested, he finally backed off.”

“John was gay?” Jim said weakly. “And he wanted to meet Dan?”

Trixie shrugged her shoulders, “Well yes, I mean, Dan is an attractive man after all. But sadly for John, Dan just isn’t interested in him or any man for that matter. At least, he wasn’t when I asked him.”

“You asked Dan if he were interested in meeting John.”

“Well yes, that’s what I said. I was pretty sure Dan didn’t swing that way, but I wanted to be sure. After all, John sure had it bad for him.”

“Did he break your heart?” Jim asked softly.

Trixie snorted, “If you mean John, then of course not, I always knew he was gay. If you mean Dan, well get real, Dan is just another brother, although he would have to qualify as the least annoying of my brothers, at least most of the time. Like I said, Dan is quite dashing, but he knows it. The girls go crazy over him.”

Jim was getting angry that she had the nerve to talk about how good-looking Dan was in front of him. “What about all the others? Josh, Jason, Jeff and Joe, were they all just friends?”

“Well yes, sometimes they wanted more than that but once they met my brothers they pretty well lost interest” Trixie explained. “I figured if Mart, Brian and Bobby could scare them off, then I certainly wasn’t interested. Actually though, I think Dan scared off Josh when he mentioned he was running a background check on him.”

 

 

Kevin whispered to Bobby as they listened, “Did you know John was gay?”

Bobby nodded “Oh yeah, didn’t you?”

“Hell no, but a lot more things make sense now. How about you warn your friends next time?”

Bobby nodded, “They’re not doing anything, why aren’t they talking?”

“Give them some time; we’ve still got Plan B,” Thump reminded him.

 

 

“You have a real thing for guys whose name starts with J don’t you?” Jim asked, grinning.

She just stared; he had a lot of nerve, “Yeah right, Jim, a real thing. Those were just the ones that I brought home. What about you? It seems to me like I remember hearing about some kind of alphabet contest at the apartment in New York? Amber, Bethany, Charley, Denise, Erin and Faun, or was I misinformed?”

Jim looked at her shocked, who had told about that little game? It had to be Dan. I’m going to kill him when I get out of here.

“Uh, Trixie, where did you hear about that?”

“Please, like I would reveal my sources!” Trixie snorted. “Honey, Di and I have always known about that. Do you think they could actually marry my brothers with that being a secret between them?” Trixie rolled those beautiful baby blues.

Back upstairs, Bobby cringed and looked at his friends. “It sounds like it’s time for Plan B,” he announced.

Jim and Trixie both heard it, “Hello………” the voice yelled.

They both stood up and answered, “We’re in here!” Trixie yelled back.

“The phone doesn’t work!” Jim hollered.

“Just a minute,” the voice yelled.

Then they heard it, the ringing of a cell phone. It was coming from Trixie’s purse. She just stared for a moment and Jim finally spoke up.

“You have a cell phone in your purse?” he asked incredulously.

“Okay, so sue me. I forgot about it.” Trixie was embarrassed, how she could have forgotten something as basic as a cell phone and remembered a stinking candy bar?

She dug around in her purse finally locating the cell phone and answering. “Hello?”

“Trixie, where are you two?” Diana demanded grinning at Dan, Mart and Regan.

“Well, I’m in the elevator with Jim right now” Trixie replied dryly.

“Well, it took you two long enough, see you in a few.” Diana disconnected the call; she had wisely used one of the dorm phones instead of her own cell phone. Neither Mart, Dan, nor Regan had a cell phone.

“That will give them something to stew about” Diana said with a grin.

“She hung up on me,” Trixie whispered.

“What?”

“She hung up. She didn’t even give me a chance to explain we were stuck in the elevator, she just hung up.”

“Well, call her back,” Jim said impatiently.

Trixie called the number displayed on her cell phone.

The four friends in the common room just stared at the phone ringing in front of them. No one made a move to pick it up.

“Well great, now they’re not answering,” Trixie muttered.

“They probably went to the elevator to meet us.” Jim replied.

“So, do we give them a few minutes, or call 9-1-1?”

“Let’s give them some time. It’s not an emergency, after all they’ll figure it out eventually.”

Trixie nodded and called Bobby’s dorm room, as well as Di’s cell phone, both to no avail.

Diana picked up her cell phone and nodded but otherwise ignored the call. The chaperones walked back over to the students and settled down to watch the movie with them. It seemed to the four of them that Trixie and Jim could use a bit more time.

“What happened to the person yelling?” Trixie asked Jim.

“I don’t know, they said just a minute.”

“Do you think they realized we were stuck?”

Jim just shrugged in response and settled back down to wait. “I wish I had argued more with Mart over that last piece of pecan pie now at the restaurant. I’m getting hungry again,” Jim said looking around.

Trixie reached in her purse and produced a crushed candy bar. “Will this keep you going until we get out of here, Jim?” It was the least she could do after the cell phone mistake.

“Thanks!” he said, as he devoured the chocolate bar.

 

 

“Okay Agent 48, what next?” Kevin whispered. “Are you sure they love each other? I mean listen to them, neither one of them has even made a move.”

“Try the music,” Thump suggested.

Otis had showed them earlier in the week how to hook up a CD player to the decrepit elevator music system. He had fixed things so it would work for them that night and they could play whatever music they wanted.

“It couldn’t hurt at this point,” Bobby mumbled. “Might as well.”

 

 

“Trixie, do you hear music now?” Jim asked suddenly.

Trixie looked up from her cell phone; she had called Diana’s number at least five times now.

She listened. “Yeah, I hear it. What is that song? That doesn’t sound like elevator music.”

It hit them both at the same time and they looked at each other incredulously. “It can’t be,” Trixie whispered. For the first time that night, her light blue eyes were filled with merriment.

Jim grinned and nodded, “It is.”

They both sang together, “Love in an Elevator, Livin’ it up when I’m going down.”

They burst out laughing. “Well now, how ironic is that?” Trixie asked. “I wonder if the elevator only plays elevator music. Or do I mean music about elevators?”

“I don’t know” Jim said. “Sounds like something college kids would have set up though. It’s nice to have some music. Too bad it’s nothing we can dance to.”

 

 

“Okay, Moose,” Kevin said. “You heard the man. Find him some dance music.”

Moose started looking through his stash of CD’s. “What do you think, Agent 48, what will they dance too?”

Bobby snorted, “Are you kidding? Those two could dance to anything you put on, but try something slow. Maybe Jim’s getting ideas.”

Moose continued looking.

 

 

The music made things in the elevator much less tense. Trixie tried the dorm phone and Di’s cell several more times but no one answered. When she disconnected the call, she got the ominous beep from her cell phone.

“Gleeps, Jim, what do I do now? My batteries are dying.” Trixie stared. She didn’t know whether to call emergency services or turn the phone off and try one more time later.

“Just turn it off, Trixie,” Jim told her. “Diana is bound to get suspicious soon, after all you told her we were in the elevator. If she doesn’t figure it out soon, we’ll turn it back on and call 9-1-1.”

Trixie turned the phone off and cocked her head to one side. “Now what song is that? Can you guess that one?”

 

 

“Okay, guys. It sounds like they’re going to give us some time anyway.” Kevin chortled. “What is that song?”

He was answered not by his friend Bobby Belden, but instead Jim provided the answer.

Jim smiled, “Sting, Every Breath You Take, 1986.”

“You can still do it.” Trixie marveled.

“Yeah, I always include it on my resume, an uncanny ability to recognize songs and artists.” He smiled. “Still, not the best one to dance to though.”

“I like it though.” Trixie sang the lyrics along with the piped in tune.

 

 

“Cripes, Moose, find something they can dance too,” Kevin muttered. “If you can’t do better then they’re just going to play rate a record all night.” Kevin switched to a high-pitched girlie voice, “I don’t know, Dick, I like the words but the beat’s kind of hard to dance to.”

“Jeez, you two, this isn’t Bandstand. Besides, that show was ages ago, how do you even know about it?” Thump asked them.

“Listen, if you have any song you think will make him pull her into his arms and dance with her, then name it and if I have to go download it I will, but I can’t find anything.”

“Let me see.” Bobby looked through the discs, Moose had hundreds of them. He grabbed one, “Play this one, Track 14.”

“Are you sure, man?”

“I’m sure,” he informed them. “Just trust me. This one will do the trick. Reading those damn diaries should be good for something.”

 

 

The music changed again, and this time Jim stood up and bowed. “May I?” he asked her softly.

Trixie smiled. “Absolutely.”

There in the space that couldn’t have been more than ten feet by twelve, Jim and Trixie danced as Anne Murray softly sang, “Could I have this dance for the rest of my life….”

Upstairs the guys exchanged high-fives.

“It worked! How did you know?” Moose looked at him excitedly.

Bobby just shrugged, “Some things you just have to pull out of your memory bank. Now, find an Elvis song and then maybe some of that sappy Rod Stewart or Connick Junior guy.”

Nothing was being said inside the elevator at that moment. Nothing really needed to be said. Trixie was perfectly content to dance with Jim; in fact, she couldn’t take her eyes off him now.

Jim was also satisfied. He had Trixie in his arms, and there had never been another woman who felt quite that way when he held her. There had never been another woman whose eyes sparkled quite like hers did as she looked at him with that smile. Not the brilliance of her regular everyday smile, this was the smile. The smaller one, the bewitching one that would make men slay dragons, sail the oceans, and take a bite of a forbidden apple. When Trixie looked at him with that smile on her face, he would do anything she asked him, and more, twice.

At the top of the elevator shaft, the college guys exchanged looks. “This might actually be working,” Bobby offered tentatively.

Moose nodded. “Just wait, they’ll never be able to resist this next song.”

As soon as Anne Murray finished her warbling, the music transitioned immediately to Elvis crooning.

The boys listened hard. “Are they still dancing?” Kevin asked.

 

 

“Elvis,” Trixie murmured.

“Elvis is a classic,” Jim whispered as he pulled her closer to him. They danced more slowly and more closely than before.

Neither of them seemed to care they were in an elevator, much less that they were stuck in an elevator.

 

 

“How’s it going?”

All four of the guys jumped. Diana had snuck up on them.

“They’re dancing,” Bobby told her.

“She must have called me at least twenty times.” Diana smiled at her brother-in-law.

“Well good, because it just about killed her battery. I hope you have a good story for why you didn’t come looking for them.”

“But of course, I was downstairs and I thought we missed them coming up. When they got upstairs, I just assumed they wanted some time alone so the four of us chaperoned the students. There was a movie right there, next to the TV. Why the must have left it, right?” She blinked her eyes innocently.

“Damn, you’re good.” Thump told her admiringly.

“But of course I am,” Diana answered tossing her long hair back and batting her violet eyes at them. “But then, Mart already knows that.”

The four college men groaned. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t all been insanely jealous of Mart.

“Get out of here,” Bobby told her. “We have to be done in time to make our curfew, plus we promised Otis we’d keep him out of it.”

“Okay, but we’ve only got about seventy more minutes of movie left,” Diana warned them. “Then we’ll have to get those six very well-behaved young men upstairs without them knowing we’ve trapped their headmaster in an elevator.”

The college men nodded. They were on it.

At the last second, Moose realized he needed another song. He had another one queued up before the dancing couple realized there had been a delay. Harry crooned and the men listened. It sounded like they were still dancing.

“How do we get them to talk?” Bobby was getting worried. They could come out of that elevator having had a really nice time but if they didn’t talk, it might all be for naught. Maybe a different kind of song would help. “Let me see those CD’s,” Bobby muttered, “There’s got to be something here that might make them talk.”

“This one’s next.” He handed the CD to Moose. Moose looked at it and nodded.

The hauntingly familiar melody drifted into the elevator. Jim recognized the song on the third note and tensed up tighter than Mr. Lytell’s wallet. Oh please God, no, not this song, he thought to himself.

Trixie listened carefully, she knew the song. “Hey, it’s one of your favorite artists, Billy Joel.”

Jim could barely move, much less speak so he just nodded.

Trixie nodded, “Which album was this was on; you have them all don’t you?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t listened to Billy Joel in years,” Jim told her truthfully.

“Really? What happened? I always thought he was your favorite.”

“He was, but it’s just not the same anymore.”

“Well, you sure made us all listen to him enough when we were together.”

Jim didn’t know what to say. He had replaced Billy Joel with the alphabet girls that fall in college. There had been an endless line of dates to meet women and somehow forget that Trixie did not want to acknowledge his love for her. It hadn’t worked, he still loved her. Then it hit him what she had said. “When we were together? What do you mean when we were together?” he asked confused.

Trixie laughed, “The Bob-Whites, silly. When we were all of us together before Honey, Di and I went to college, you made us listen to him all the time. I’ll bet we played every song of his at our graduation party, including this one.”

Years later, Jim would say a prayer of thanks for the words that automatically came out of his mouth next. He still couldn’t believe he actually said them. “I asked the Dee-jay to play this song at your graduation party. I fixed it up so I could tell you that I loved you.”

Trixie froze, “What on earth are you talking about? You never loved me, oh you mean as a friend.” She immediately answered her own question and relaxed slightly.

Now it was Jim’s turn to freeze. “What do you mean I never loved you?” He demanded as he came to his senses. “I’ve always loved you, ever since I was fifteen. You were the one that needed to see what was out there, experience life and not be tied down to what was in sleepy little Sleepyside,” Jim finished up sarcastically.

 

 

“They’re talking.” Thump said.

“Oh man, are they ever talking.” Bobby grinned.

“Sshh, I don’t want to miss this” Di grinned back. No way was she heading back downstairs now. Mart, Dan and Regan would have to handle chaperone duties without her presence. Trixie’s reply reeled her in for the duration.

“Jim Frayne! I don’t have a clue as to what you are talking about. You have never once told me that you loved me, NEVER said those three little words, I LOVE YOU. Are you delusional or what?”

“Way to go, girl,” Di whispered.

“She can give as good as she gets, that’s for sure.” Moose grinned.

“Shh!” Bobby hissed. “It’s getting good!”

 

 

“Why, Trixie Belden, it’s been a few years but I guess I can remember when I tell a girl I love her. It was at your graduation party, the one Mother and Dad gave all of you. You were wearing this incredible white dress and you looked gorgeous, you just glowed. We were dancing alone out on the veranda to cool off and they finally played Billy Joel, Just the Way You Are. I sang the ENTIRE song to you, Trixie. I said I loved you just the way you are. And when I was done, you immediately started talking about how you were excited about seeing the world and college and wondered what things would be like outside of Sleepyside. Sleepy little Sleepyside.” Jim made quote marks in the air with his fingers as he spat out those last three words.

Trixie looked at him in shock. “Jim, that is not telling a girl you love her. That is singing! Singing is not telling!”

They were yelling now. In fact they were louder now than when they had called for help.

“Trixie, I can’t sing, everyone knows I can’t sing. Why in the hell do you think I did that if I wasn’t trying to tell you that’s how I felt about you?”

“How was I supposed to know that? It sure sounded like singing to me. You didn’t stop and say the words did you? You just sang along to one of your favorite artists while we were dancing.”

“Fine! How about if I just say them now. I…LOVE… YOU… TRIXIE… BELDEN. I …LOVE… YOU… JUST…THE WAY… YOU ARE. Is that obvious enough for you to understand? Did I say them plainly enough? Did it sound too much like singing to you?”

“Yes, I understand that perfectly!” She crossed her arms. “Who wouldn’t understand when you speak plainly instead of singing!” she retorted as the words dripped sarcasm. Then it hit her, what he had said. She stopped talking and her arms dropped to her side as she stared at him in total amazement.

It was the longest thirty seconds of Jim Frayne’s life before she spoke again.

“You love me?” she asked in disbelief. “Really love me, like a … lover?” Words failed her at that moment.

“Yes, I love you, I’ve always loved you,” Jim answered quietly.

“How? I mean when, no wait I mean why? Why do you love me?”

“I love you because that’s who I am, nothing can change that. I love you because you’re my special girl. You always have been, ever since that day in my Uncle’s mansion.”

“I love you too,” she spoke quietly as well. “I’ve always loved you. Ever since that day in your Uncle’s mansion.”

“Why?” he asked as he reached for her, intent on pulling her into his arms.

“Because you’re the most wonderful boy in the world.”

There was no opportunity for further conversation as Jim softly claimed her lips with his own.

 

 

There was no other sound coming from the elevator after that. Bobby looked at Diana, she was crying. His friend Moose had his arm around her, comforting her causing Bobby to roll his eyes at the pair. He would never admit he had to blink a few times himself; damn, was it possible the plan had actually worked?

Mart appeared, “Hey, what’s going on?” He frowned at the sight of Moose hanging on his wife.

“Oh Mart!” Diana threw herself in his arms. “It was so romantic.” She was still sniffling.

“Why are you crying?”

“Because they said it, they said they loved each other. It was so beautiful.”

Mart looked at his little brother and noticed his eyes were overly bright. Even Kevin, Moose and Thump looked a little overcome by the moment.

“Are you saying it worked?” he asked carefully.

All five of them nodded.

“Well what do we do now? How do we let them know we’ve found them without them being suspicious? Hell they’ve been in there awhile now. The movie is going to finishing up soon.”

“We can’t let them out yet,” Diana protested. “They just found each other. Just listen.”

“Jim?” Trixie was the first one who spoke.

“Yeah?” He smiled into her eyes.

“What happened to the music?” she asked.

“Oh HELL!” Moose muttered as he immediately pushed the play button. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad, the next track began playing, but it was almost too little too late.

“Jim, there’s something strange going on with the music tonight.” Trixie looked suspiciously around the elevator.

“Billy Joel again, they must be playing his Stranger Album since that’s the next track,” he answered listening to the sounds coming through the speaker. Suddenly Jim couldn’t care anything about the music as he pulled her into another kiss.

Jim’s kissing managed to distract Trixie for the next few minutes and this time Moose was ready. Rod Stewart crooned to the lovers the moment the song finished.

“Oh God, Trixie,” Jim murmured into her hair as his arms encircled her shoulders. “I’ve been a complete idiot. I had no idea you didn’t understand that night. I was so hurt when you talked about seeing the world and how you couldn’t wait to leave when I had just told you I loved you.”

“Jim, it’s not your fault. I can’t believe I was so dense….”

Jim stopped her with a kiss. “It’s officially my fault, okay? Besides there are better things we can do in this elevator besides talk about whose fault it was.” He kissed her again. “It’s a long train ride back to Sleepyside and we sure can’t do this on the train,” he murmured as his lips claimed hers.

This time Trixie wisely didn’t argue. Nothing felt as right as being held in Jim’s arms. No kiss had tasted as sweet as Jim’s kiss. Each time they stopped kissing and gazed at each other she saw a piece of heaven in his emerald eyes. A wildly suggestive tingling sensation moved through her like a current when her hands touched his body. When her eyes were closed, all she heard was him saying Yes I love you, I’ve always loved you. Those words that replayed in her brain would always be the sweetest music Trixie had ever heard.

The elevator was suddenly very warm and Trixie and Jim reluctantly pulled apart, breathing heavily. Her blue eyes twinkled as Trixie spoke again.

“I think it would be a good idea to talk for a few minutes,” she suggested as she took a deep breath. Emotions were running high in that small space and if they weren’t careful their desire would flash out of control.

Jim nodded in agreement as he pulled on the collar of his shirt. It was extremely warm in that elevator! He didn’t want to let go of her hand though, so he slowly backed into the corner holding her hand as he pulled her along with him. He slid down to a sitting position, and she sat next to him leaning her head on his shoulder. Jim kept one arm around her shoulder. He just couldn’t bring himself not touch her now.

Trixie still had questions for him. “Jim, I knew if we got together that summer we would have to be apart for several years for school and stuff. But we could have made it work. If you liked me why didn’t you ask me out?”

“Trixie, I was crazy about you. It was so hard for me to find the right words before I left for college. We never resolved anything after your fourteenth birthday. Your parents told us we couldn’t go steady since you were too young. When you finally turned sixteen and could go on dates with me, I was at college. You didn’t say a word. I kept thinking you would say something. Then you never did, so when I finally got up my nerve, well uh, Trixie, your brothers didn’t exactly make things easy for me to be alone with you. At least, Brian and Mart didn’t seem happy with the idea of us being a couple. If you had given me any kind of signal, I wouldn’t have worried about those two at all.”

Trixie shook her head in understanding. “Sometimes I’d like to kick those two! They never wanted me to go out with anyone, but they sure didn’t have any problem pursuing my two best friends.”

They shared a laugh. Trixie sighed as she wondered what her brothers would think of her current situation.

 

 

Bobby and Di looked at Mart incredulously. “What exactly did you and Brian do to Jim?” Diana asked her husband suspiciously.

Mart looked guilty as sin. “Do? We didn’t do anything to him. We just made sure that every time he came home from college the Bob-Whites planned a group activity.”

“But you still asked me out!” Diana protested. “We went on dates together, so did Brian and Honey.”

“Well, we kind of had a schedule while you girls were still in high school. One of us would go out while the other watched Jim and Trixie,” Mart admitted reluctantly.

“Of all the….” Diana sputtered to a halt. Her husband and brother-in-law were simply too much. “Martin Belden, you will be hearing more about this later!” she hissed at him.

 

 

“Trixie, why didn’t you say anything to me? If you had just said anything at all, I think I would have had the courage to ask you out.” Jim was curious, he didn’t think he had misread any signals from Trixie back then. “Your brothers were just part of it. No guy wants to be rejected.”

Trixie sighed; it was so hard to explain. “I was afraid if I said something you would ask me out just to be nice. I didn’t want you to be nice to me because you’re nice to everyone. I wanted you to be nice to me because you liked me.”

“Trixie, of course I liked you.”

“Jim,” she whispered, “I guess I just jumped to the wrong conclusion. I thought if you liked me, if you wanted to be with me that well, you would have asked me out.”

Jim softly dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I wanted to ask you, but uh, Trixie, you didn’t give me any signal you were interested in me that way. I even pumped Honey for information.”

Trixie nodded, she understood that part completely. “Jim, I never told her or Diana how I felt about you. The only place I ever admitted it was in my journal. It was later, around Thanksgiving, when I read back what I wrote that summer and it hit me how I must have sounded like an idiot to the rest of you, quoting Dr. Seuss all summer about the places I would go. It came back to haunt me freshman year.”

“How did it come back to haunt you, Trix?” Jim looked into her eyes; he was drowning in them now.

“You can get all hung up in a prickly perch.  And your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a lurch.” she quoted Dr. Seuss.

“Oh, Trixie, don’t you think you were taking it out of context a little?” he said gently.

“Yes, but realizing how insufferable my behavior was that summer just made me believe I deserved what I was getting.” Trixie shuddered as she remembered how horrible that first semester had been in Virginia. “Jim, do you remember what you did that night? It was after that dance when I told you I couldn’t wait to leave Sleepyside.”

“No, I don’t remember doing anything, I could barely function.”

“You reached out and pulled my curl and said, “I guess you’ll remember you can always count on me.”

“Okay and that was bad why?”

“Because I thought you were going to kiss me, but you just pulled my hair again. I thought you were telling me there wasn’t anything but friendship between us.”

“Is that why you said to stop earlier?” he asked her tenderly.

“Yes.”

He couldn’t help it. If he didn’t kiss her again he would die. His lips descended and gently caressed her soft lips, parting them with his tongue and exploring her mouth. He pulled back and looked at her before asking softly. “Do you care if we ever get out of this elevator?”

“No, just keep kissing me, because I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and find out this was a dream,” Trixie said huskily. “It’s perfectly all right with me if we sleep in this elevator.”

“Who wants to sleep?” Jim replied and resumed kissing.

 

 

“Okay guys, we have six grumbling students in their rooms. You have 90 minutes to curfew,” Dan reported. “What’s the sit rep?”

“Sit rep?” Thump looked at him.

“Situation report,” Regan explained. “He starts using this police lingo sometime; you just have to overlook it.”

“Okay, they are quiet again, still kissing a lot,” Bobby reported. “I didn’t have to use the secret weapon.”

“What’s the secret weapon?” Mart asked quietly.

“Copies of certain pages from Trixie’s diary,” Bobby grinned. “I’ve got like twelve years’ worth of them.”

“Gleeps, how did you manage to get hold of those?” Mart was amazed.

“Listen dude, I never reveal my methods. Let’s just say I’ve never been stupid enough to try and keep Jim from asking Trixie out and leave it at that.”

“What good would the diaries do?” Dan asked curiously. “Are you going to auction them off? What’s the plan?”

“Are you kidding?” Bobby looked at him. “Almost everything good she ever wrote was about the most wonderful boy in the world. I think the first mention is when she’s like, what, thirteen? And then the latest was last Christmas, when she was still mooning over him.”

The group burst out laughing, unfortunately they were a little too loud that time and Jim and Trixie heard the noise.

“Did you hear that?” Trixie asked.

“Yeah, someone’s having a good time” Jim said.

“What time is it?”

“It’s ten thirty. I hope they made the boys go to bed. I can’t believe they haven’t been looking for us. Maybe you should turn your phone on now.”

“Okay, but you promise this isn’t a dream.”

“Trixie, I promise this isn’t a dream. You turn the phone on and decide where you want to go on our first date next week.”

“A movie would be great,” Trixie said quietly. “So would a ride through the game preserve?”

“You said you get up and run every morning, right?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

“So let’s go on a ride one morning instead of running,” he suggested.

“It’s a date,” she promised, as she turned on her phone, jumping as it immediately started ringing. It was Diana, but this time she was calling from her cell phone.

“Di?” she answered.

“Trixie, where are you? I thought you were back and upstairs in your room but no one has seen you or Jim and then I find my cell phone and there’s like twenty missed calls from you, but when I called you back I didn’t get an answer.”

“Jim and I are stuck in the elevator. You didn’t let me finish before,” Trixie told her.

“Oh dear, where are you stuck?”

“Di, we’re in the dorm elevator. The one that was broken yesterday when we got here.”

“Oh no, let me see who I can find, I’ll call you back.” Di disconnected and grinned. “So who should I be able to find?” she asked wickedly.

“Well, I guess they know now,” Trixie said regretfully.

“I don’t care, it was all worth it,” Jim said, pulling her onto his lap. “Let’s just sit here and enjoy what time we have alone together.”

“Yeah, maybe if we’re lucky we’ll be stuck here all night,” Trixie said with a smile.

 

 

“Okay, time for operation rescue,” Bobby announced. “We have a curfew to meet, even if we did win today. Moose go put the music and the radios in the car and turn the crappy Muzak station back on. When you’re done, go up to the fifth floor and keep an ear out for the students, no sense letting them think they can get away with something. Dan, you and Regan go bang on some elevator doors near the fifth floor and act all concerned. Thump, you and Kevin do the same thing here on the fourth floor. Mart, you, Diana and I will act the concerned siblings.”

Everyone went to play their part. There was the standard yelling, making sure everyone was okay, button pushing and of course, outside the elevator, the gang was doing what they could to keep a straight face.

“Hey, Trixie can you hear me?” Bobby yelled up the elevator shaft.

“Yeah, we can hear you,” she answered loudly.

“Dan and Regan are talking to Otis. He’s at the hospital with his wife, they’re having a baby,” Bobby explained.

“Okay, we’re fine, no rush.”

Bobby had to walk away and laugh at that answer. If he hadn’t promised Otis, he would have left the two of them trapped all night in the elevator.

Trixie and Jim didn’t care about their rescue. They only answered their friends when they absolutely had too, and otherwise they sat together in the corner of the elevator, Trixie in Jim’s lap with her arms around his neck. They kissed and talked and whispered until forty-five minutes later, which just coincidently let the college men barely make their curfew. Finally, Trixie and Jim were walking out of the elevator on the fourth floor.

A tearful Diana gave them both a huge hug, a concerned Mart and Bobby hugged their sister and Dan and Regan repeatedly asked Jim if he was okay.

“Di, we’re fine!” Trixie insisted. “We just sat and talked and waited for you to realize we were missing.”

“Yep, Trixie even had a candy bar to keep us from starving,” Jim told her. “No harm done, but are the boys okay, are they in bed?”

“All six in their rooms and accounted for, boss!” Mart gave a mock salute and did his best not to grin at the couple.

It was apparent looking at them they had been making out, messed up hair, shirt tails pulled out and swollen lips, all the signs were there. But the best sign was the look of utter happiness on both of their faces, they positively glowed and when everyone was done asking them questions, Jim casually reached over and put his arm across Trixie’s shoulders.

The group didn’t know whether to make a comment or not, what would Jim and Trixie expect them to do? Diana played it cool, raising an eyebrow and giving Trixie a look that simply said, “We will talk later.”

Bobby looked at Mart, who shrugged. Mart then decided to frown, then decided to smile, then decided he should say something but as soon as he started too, decided he shouldn’t. He knew Diana was going to let him have it later.

“What is it?” Trixie asked Bobby. “Don’t miss your curfew. You know that touchdown won’t count for starting next week’s game if you miss your curfew.”

The college men looked at their watches and nodded. “We better hoof it, Age -- BB,” Kevin told him. “Trixie, if you guys are sure you’re okay, we’ll just put signs on these elevator doors until Otis can get over here. He knows there’s a problem so I’m sure he’ll be around as soon as he can.”

Trixie and Jim assured them they were fine and that they would see them at breakfast before they caught the train to head back to Sleepyside. Both of them recommended using the stairs instead of the elevator.

Bobby said good-bye to Trixie with a hug. He was relieved he hadn’t had to use the pages he copied out of Trixie’s diary. He still needed to figure out how to get rid of that damning bit of evidence. The problem was he couldn’t remember where he had left the incriminating documents.

Regan volunteered to make sure there were signs on all the floors. Dan, on the other hand, had no intention of letting the duo off the hook that easily.

“Jim?” Dan spoke up once the college guys were gone and Mart and Diana had gone upstairs to check on the boys.

“Yeah, Dan?” He turned around to look at this friend.

“Inquiring minds want to know, exactly what did you and Trixie do in the elevator all this time?” he asked, smirking.

“We danced a little” Jim explained his arm tightening possessively around Trixie’s shoulders.

“We talked a little…” Trixie interrupted.

“We fought a little...” Jim was getting into the groove of this.

“We laughed a little.”

“We kissed a little,” Jim concluded.

Trixie giggled and Dan’s eyes twinkled as he said nothing but looked at Jim expectantly.

“Okay, you win, Mangan. We kissed a lot,” Jim admitted with a foolish grin.

“It looks like things are different between the two of you now.”

Trixie blushed while Jim simply gazed at her adoringly. “She knows I love her, Mangan. She’s going out with me next week so you can stop all the not so subtle hints about how I should ask her out.”

To his credit, Dan managed to keep a straight face at Jim’s last remark as he remembered. Hints, hell I was trying to light a fire under your ass Frayne to get you to make a move. “Belden, this guy has it all wrong. I was hinting that I should be the one to ask you out. I can’t believe you would break my heart like this. Are you sure he’s the one you want?” Dan teased her.

“Oh, I’m sure Danny. Jim knows how I feel about him. Just make sure you tell those brothers of mine to stay out of it.”

“Whatever you guys want, I’m behind you 100%. All for one and one for all, right?”

“Right!” Jim and Trixie chorused as they continued to stare at each other with foolish expressions.

“Good night, Dan.” Trixie said over her shoulder, as the couple walked slowly up the stairs holding hands.

 

 

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