As Lori Rose was giving her Valedictory address, Amy went over her speech in her head one last time.  Lori was wrapping up and Amy’s nerves were multiplying.  She glanced over to the beginning of the first row of graduates.  Jonathan gave her a thumbs up and blew her a kiss.  He mouthed ‘I believe in you’ before she looked back out into the audience.  She wasn’t sure where her parents were, but she looked around to see if she could spot them.  She also knew that Gunny, Melody and their whole team were in attendance. 

Lori finished up and Mr. Garrett stepped up to the microphone and introduced her.  Her knees were weak as she made her way to the podium.  She looked out again at the arena.  It sat twelve thousand people, but this evening there were perhaps a quarter of that in the seats, with another four hundred students on the floor, as well as the teachers and other school staff. 

“It was the best of times,” she began, “it was the worst of times. 

“Charles Dickens wrote those words to begin A Tale of Two Cities, in 1859.  It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…

“I think that is an incredibly accurate picture of our high school experience.  Emotional highs and lows, as well as academic triumphs and defeats.”  Amy continued for a few more minutes, recounting the experiences of the Class of ’83.  “In conclusion, this has been the time, and these have been the people that will remain fundamental to shaping our various futures.“

As she finished, from the corner of her eye, she spied Jonathan Dixon walking across the stage.  She turned, not knowing why he was walking toward her.  His stride was purposeful.  The look on his face was both taut and serene. 

Behind him a couple of paces was Principal Garrett.  He was supposed to take over speaking as her speech concluded, but he seemed to be waiting for something.  

As Jonathan got within a couple of steps of her, Amy saw the school’s principal hand him something.  Mrs. Foster, the Cheerleading Coach also walked up behind Jack and handed him something else. 

Jack put the microphone from Principal Garrett up to his mouth.  “Amy Prince, look out into the crowd.”

As she scanned the front row, she saw the message…  AMY PRINCE, WILL YOU MARRY ME?  Then, when she looked up, there was a banner strung across the front of the balcony saying the same thing.  As she looked at the banner, she saw her father at one end, Ed Dixon at the other end, and in the middle were her mom and Jack’s mom, both giving her a thumbs up. 

She turned back to Jonathan, who was now down on one knee, holding out the ring that Mrs. Foster had handed to him. 

“Amy Prince, I have loved you since the very first day I met you.  You walked into Mrs. Garrison’s class, and I didn’t know yet, but my life changed.  As we embark on the next stage of our lives, let’s take the rest of our journey together.  Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”

Amy was in shock.  She knew that Jack wanted to marry her, and she knew that he would propose.  But this… this was a complete shock.  And there was nothing more she wanted than to be Mrs. Jonathan Dixon.  “Yes, Jonathan Dixon.  A thousand times, YES!” she said through tears of joy.

The assembled students let out a cheer.  There was applause from the audience.  Jack stood up and took his fiancé in his arms and twirled her around. 

Principal Garrett stepped to the microphone as Amy kissed Jack just behind him.  As he started to speak, they returned to their seats, Amy on stage and Jack on the first row down on the floor.  “How do I follow that?  But such is the life of a High School Principal.  But I have to say, I’m thrilled to have been a part of their story and wish them the happiest of lives.  This school will not be the same without them.”  After another few comments, he began the process of delivering the diplomas to all the students graduating. 

All too quickly, it was over.  The students headed toward the exit, looking for their families and friends, meeting them on the apron in front of the building.  Many had dinner reservations, others had graduation parties.  Some just wanted to go home. 

The Dixons, Princes, and a few others had booked a party room at Darryl’s 1895.  Amy hadn’t known that it was a two-fold celebration.  Apparently, she was the only one that hadn’t known about the proposal.  The room was decked out for both celebrations. 

“Wow, Son, what would you have done if she said no?” Ed asked Jack.

“Crawled under the stage and died, Dad… I don’t know what else I could have done.”

“It would have never happened, Mr. Dixon,” Amy added.  “I’ve been waiting for this day since ‘the party,’ when Jonathan said those words when he meant to ask me on our first date.”

Jack reddened at the thought.  He flashed back to the embarrassment he felt when, while struggling to ask Amy out, he instead asked her if she would marry him.  That was just about two years before, in tenth grade, and he’d had a crush on her since fourth grade.  It was only poor communication and fear of rejection on both of their parts that kept them apart that whole time. 

“I was so shocked.  I mean… I’d had a crush on him from the moment I saw him, and he was so sweet to me.  Part of me wanted to just kiss him right then and there.  And he turned white as a ghost when he realized what he said.  It was so cute.  I wanted to laugh, but not at him or in a mean way,“ Amy told Jack’s dad. 

“So, when do you kids think will be the big day?” Ed asked.

“We haven’t really talked about a date, yet.  I think we need to sit down and have a long talk about our goals, dreams and plans and see when we want to have a wedding,” Amy responded. 

“Yep.  I mean, part of me wants to do it right away, but the rational side of me knows that isn’t realistic.  We need to have a plan for both of us,” Jack added. 

“Sounds like you two are really wanting to do this the right way.  I’m glad to hear it,” The older Dixon said before walking away to join his wife and Chrissy.

***

“Hey, Bill, Jack’s grandparents still own that house in Vegas,” Ed said to his friend. 

Sharon piped in, “Chrissy and I were just talking… did you know that we all got married in the same chapel in Las Vegas?”

“Seriously?  I had no idea.  Wouldn’t it be funny if the kids eloped to the same place?” Bill added. 

The four parents joked about their own elopements.  Both fathers had managed to pull off a surprise with the aid of their wives’ parents.  Maybe Jack would have the same idea.  Or maybe not… they’d have to wait and find out. 

***

Ross Abbot sat there as an outsider at the table full of old friends.  He’d never met any of these people, aside from Ed and Sharon Dixon, prior to coming to the graduation and dinner with Nicole.  They were in Culinary School together and had been out on a couple of dates.  As he looked around the table, he was a little surprised at the assembled group.  There were a couple of guys, especially Gunny, Ronny and Bobby, that looked like they could break someone in half… and had.  Duke looked and sounded like British Royalty.  Gino was hilarious.  He seemed to always have a joke on the tip of his tongue.  And Melody’s eyes seemed to almost look into his soul. 

All the older adults acted like Aunts or Uncles to Amy, Jack and Nicole.  They were like a big, happy family.  He didn’t get some of the comments between them, and almost felt like an outsider that had intruded on a family gathering.  At the same time, everyone was very welcoming. 

“You go to school with Nicole?” Ronny Torres said as he handed the younger man a beer.

“Yes, Sir,” Ross replied. 

“Come on, Son, call me Ronny.  We’re all friends here,” the older black man told him.  “Don’t let this bunch scare you… unless you need scaring,” he added with a big smile.  “Are you as good a cook as Nicole?”

“No, Sir.  I wish.  She seems to just know what works.  Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that she has more kitchen experience than the rest of us.  I was pretty surprised when I found out that she was opening a bakery this summer and already has had clients for over a year.” “She is something else,” Ronny replied before sitting down at the table as dinner was being served. 

She almost knocked him down.  The “old Terry” would have been on the floor… probably with a concussion… when she did the flying tackle through the doorway.  But the “new Dirk” caught her and spun her in his arms.  Sherry was crying and kissing him.  He didn’t know what to think. 

“Oh my gosh, Terry… Dirk… whatever.  Oh my…  I missed you so much.  There was so much I’d wanted to tell you, and then you were gone.”  She started crying again.

“Why don’t you guys come inside.  This is incredible.  What a wonderful surprise.  How long are you here?” Terry asked.

Amy replied, “At least through the weekend.  It depends on how long you want us here.  School doesn’t start for another few days.”

“I just can’t believe I’m here.  Amy told me yesterday that she had a surprise for me and told me to pack some clothes for a little trip.  She gave me a list of what to pack and said we were going to have some fun.  She told me that she hated to see me moping around, but she knew how to lift my spirits.  I could never have imagined…”

“I’m really glad you are here, too, Sherry.  I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather see.”

“And you look so different, but your eyes.  Oh, how I have missed your eyes.”

Jack and Amy got up, “hey guys, we’ll let you talk for a few minutes.  We’ll see what we can whip up in the kitchen.”

“Terry… or do you want me to call you Dirk?”

“I guess you should call me Dirk, but I love hearing you say my old name.”

“After what Amy told me, I need to get used to calling you Dirk.  I would hate to have habit take over at the wrong time and blow your cover.  But I have to tell you something.”

She was sitting next to him on the couch.  She turned to face him and reached out to turn his face straight to hers.  She gently stroked his cheek.

“I missed you so much.  When I heard that you’d died, I was so full of regret.  I wanted to go out with you so bad.  I wanted to tell you.  Every time I rode in your car, I wanted to hold your hand.”

“Sherry, I had a crush on you for years, but always thought you were out of reach.  It always seemed like you were carrying a torch for someone else,” Dirk replied.  He pointed toward the kitchen and gave her a conspiratorial wink.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I did for a while.  But that fully died the night Jack asked Amy out for the first time.  But even before that it wasn’t much of a real crush.  I thought he was cute… he’s still cute… and he’s funny and stuff, but you were always so nice to everyone.  And you have always been really funny.  And the way you treated me… I always felt like a queen around you.  And the more I was around you, the more I wanted to be your queen.”

“Wow… that was… unexpected.”

“I’m so sorry.  I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable…”

“No, that isn’t it.  I wanted to ask you out so many times… and I was always afraid you’d say no and then our friendship would deteriorate.  And I put so much value in our friendship that I was afraid to risk it.  When I left Hampton, the one person that I didn’t want to leave was you.” Sherry leaned into Dirk and kissed him passionately.  And he held her the way he’d wanted to for so long.  As they embraced, they heard Amy shout from the kitchen that lunch was ready.  They headed into the kitchen for tacos. 

Saturday, 27 August 1983

Dirk had an amazing week.  He and Sherry, along with Jack and Amy spent the week doing a bunch of the tourist things he hadn’t been able to do in July.  They rode the Durango-Silverton Railway to Silverton and spent the day walking around and hanging out in the old silver mining town.  They hiked a few of the peaks around Durango.  They went to Mesa Verde National Park and hiked to some of the cliff dwellings.

Having people actually call him Dirk, which Amy and Jack were getting in the habit of doing, as was Sherry, helped him transform himself into his new identity.  When Sherry told him that she had to make herself think of him as “Dirk” so that she didn’t accidently blurt out the name “Terry” at the wrong time, that actually sunk in.  He’d been thinking of himself as “Terry, playing Dirk” like an actor.  But he realized that there were people that wanted to kidnap or kill Terry… and Dirk was a survival mechanism that he needed to embrace. 

As the week closed, it was time for Sherry, Amy and Jack to leave and head back to Hampton.  Sherry had classes starting up at William and Mary, while Amy and Jack had classes starting at Christopher Newport Community College. 

Dirk stood on the apron at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, by the General Aviation Terminal.  Sherry was giving him a last kiss, with Jack and Amy boarding the Gulfstream G III behind her. 

“I want you to be free, Dirk.  I could fall in love with you, but I also want you to be ready to fall in love with me.  You’ve never had a girlfriend before… and unless I’m wrong, you never kissed a girl before me.”

“Well, I…”

“It’s ok, actually, it’s kind of wonderful.  But I don’t want you to wonder what it’s like to kiss another girl when you are with me.  Even Jack has kissed other girls.”

“And then what?”

“When you come back to Hampton, or maybe when I come out here to visit you again, let’s see if you feel the same way.”

He kissed Sherry again.

“Have fun,” she said, “but not too much fun,” as she flashed a serious look, followed by another smile.

She climbed the stairs to the plane, turned and waved. 

As Dirk drove back to the house in the Jeep CJ-7, he thought long and hard about what Sherry said.  Classes started in two days.  It was going to be a new experience.  But, in the meantime, he had work to catch up on. 

***

“I love him, Amy.  It’s as simple as that,” Sherry told her friend.

“Did you tell him?” she replied.

“No.  I couldn’t.  If I did, he would have told me that he loved me, and I think things would have been great for a while, but the ‘long-distance’ thing would have gotten in the way and I think in the end we would have both been miserable.  Instead I told him to have fun.”

“So, the ‘If you love someone, set them free’ theory?”

“I guess.  But, Amy, he’d never kissed a girl… I mean unless you count that one time on the playground in fifth grade when that girl dared me to kiss him and I pecked his lips at light speed.  He’s never been on a date.  He’s never had a girlfriend.  I want to be the only girl he thinks about, but I want it to be his choice.”

“Seems risky, Sherry.  I don’t want to set Jack free,” Amy said, laughing a little.

“It’s different.  You had another boyfriend.  Jack had a bunch of girlfriends before you.  But through it all, you guys wanted each other.  I want Dirk to kiss a girl and think of me,” she said, “then, he better stop kissing her and fall in love with me, though.”

***

The next day, Dirk went to his favorite restaurant in Durango, the one with the cute waitress that flirted with him.  It was the day he was going to ask her out.  He sat at his normal table and ordered his normal dinner.  She was, as normal, his waitress.  

“Mary,” Dirk asked, “I was wondering if you might want to go out sometime… maybe grab lunch or something.”

“Sure, Dirk.  I have school tomorrow, but maybe after?”

“Fort Lewis College?” he asked.

“Yeah…”

“Me, too.  Hey, what about if we have lunch.  I’m free from twelve-thirty until two,” Dirk told Mary.

“Meet me at one in the commons.  We can get something and hang out.”

They met for lunch, then went to dinner on Wednesday.  Dirk got his wish and kissed her.  And it was fun.  But over the next few weeks, as they went out once, twice or even three times each week, he started really missing Sherry.  He also found that he really liked hanging out with Mary, but it was more of a friendship than a romance.  Luckily, when he talked to her about it, she agreed. 

He dated a few other girls… never taking them to Mary’s restaurant, and if he enjoyed spending time with them at all, he didn’t seem to be romantically interested in them.  Some, although they were beautiful, he just didn’t like hanging out with them.  He was excited for Christmas Break.  Sherry was flying out to Denver and he was picking her up.  He couldn’t wait. 

Terry squeezed her hand.  Chrissy patted the back of Terry’s hand with her other hand.  She let Terry know she was going to turn off the lights and dim the room, and not to try to open his eyes until it was dimmer. 

Chrissy Prince walked over to Terry’s bedside and got the water bottle.

“Here, Honey, let me give you a little squirt of water before you try to talk,” Chrissy said to him. 

His eyes fluttered open a little.  He saw Amy’s mother standing over him, smiling sadly.  She ran her hand over his forehead. 

“What happened?” Terry said softly after getting a little water to help moisturize his mouth. 

“You were attacked, Terry,” Chrissy gently told him.  “Bill had a team trying to keep an eye on you because he was worried, but the attackers got into your house.  They were able to get you on the way out.”

“How long was I out?”

“Twelve days, Honey,” she said.  “We were terribly worried about you.  Amy and Jack have been here each evening after school, and Sharon Dixon or I have been here the rest of the time.”

“What about my parents?”

“They didn’t make it.  The people that attacked you killed them.”

Chrissy saw the tears forming in his eyes and starting to well from the corners. 

“I’m so sorry, Terry.  I know this can’t be easy.”

He started trying to get out of bed.  “I need to see them.”

Chrissy was crying with him now.  “I wish you could, but the funerals were almost a week ago.  Please don’t try to get up.  You need to heal.”

Terry had a lot of things to work through.  He was angry that Bill’s team hadn’t been able to save his parents, then he moved on to his own role… had he not hacked into the DoD, none of this would have happened.  He had much more than survivor’s guilt.  Chrissy spent several hours talking through things with him, knowing he was going to need to talk to someone professionally.  Her husband had already arranged that, as well as some other things to help Terry get through the next few weeks and months.  After school, Amy and Jack showed up. 

Terry didn’t know that he was dead, yet.  That needed to wait until he was ready. 

Wednesday, 10 August 1983

Terry walked into the kitchen of the house he was staying at in Durango, Colorado.  As he sat in the kitchen, he looked out over the ranch in the valley below.  There was a herd of cows grazing in the late summer sun.  It had peeked over the ridge behind him a little while before, bathing the valley in golden light. 

He was still working to get over the shock of everything that had happened to him.  His parents were gone.  He was officially dead and learning about his new identity.  Steve, Ed and Bill had sat around a conference table with him one day and he picked a name… Dirk Bryce.  It had been in early May, and he still wasn’t used to it. 

He was starting at Fort Lewis College in a couple of weeks.  Sharon Dixon’s parents owned the house he was staying in and he’d agreed with Ed, Bill and Gunny that he needed to stay out of the Hampton area for a year… maybe more.  Bill and Steve set him up with a full computer system so he could work from here when he wasn’t in school and Bill had also hired a personal trainer for him. 

It had been a rough summer so far.  He started the summer unable to walk unassisted, and in therapy to deal with depression.  At the end of June, Amy and Jack had come out for a whole month.  They were among a very small group of people that knew he hadn’t actually died in the house explosion.  And when they came out, they helped him with cooking, cleaning and getting to his physical therapy and emotional therapy appointments.  He loved having them around… a positive reminder of his old life. 

There were so many things that had changed since April.  Back then he couldn’t run a hundred yards without worrying about a heart attack… not exactly something that a nineteen-year-old should be thinking.  Now he ran five miles in the mountains three days a week.  He lifted weights another three days a week.  Sundays was his off day… and the day he would splurge on eating out and all the other unhealthy things that had ruled his life before… especially ice cream. 

He’d gone from two-seventy-five down to one-ninety, and a forty-six-inch waist to a thirty-six.  He had to replace his entire wardrobe, which he’d done on a trip to Denver with Jack and Amy.  And after the plastic surgery to slightly alter his face, he had a whole new style.  He noticed that girls looked at him… he even flirted with one of the waitresses in town on Sundays when he went out to dinner.  Amy had urged him to ask her out, but he didn’t know if he was ready for that quite yet. 

Dirk’s life was different from Terry’s in so many ways.  As Dirk he had completely different struggles, but even though so many things were wonderful, there were still struggles.  And he knew the struggles wouldn’t be going away any time soon.  Today was weight day…  He had his morning health shake and was ready to set out for the college, about fifteen minutes away, for his time in the weight room.  After three hours in the weight room he would shower in the locker room and meet his trainer for lunch.  After lunch he had his weekly appointment with his therapist to talk about his depression and guilt.  He would be back home by three to sit down and work for a while, depending on the workload.