If Only She'd Loved Him

Chapter 22

Friday 8:00 pm

"What? What did you figure out, Matt?" Jean asked. Leaning over his shoulder, she tried to see what he was grinning about.

Matt smiled, thoroughly pleased with himself, but he wasn't about to just explain his discovery, he wanted to savor the moment. Besides it would make Jean squirm, and that was always a fun thing to watch. "Megan was a puzzle junkie, wasn't she?" he asked.

Jean shook her head. "Yeah, so?"

"Was she also a history major?"

"Speak English. What are you talking about?" Jean demanded. Her hands were clenched a little too tightly around her glass of Coke. He suddenly had a vision of himself wearing that Coke if he didn't get to the point.

"This." Matt picked up some of Megan's notes, and then grabbed a pen that was lying nearby. Across the back of the magazine, he wrote down the first three dates from the pages he held in his hand: 1/6/20, 1/0/66, 1/8/12. Jean looked at the numbers.

"I don't get it."

Matt grinned and rewrote the dates without lines through them. "Look Jean-Genie, 1620: The pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock, 1066—"

"William the Conqueror! Wow, you've done it! You really are smart!" Jean exclaimed, giving him a fast, spontaneous hug. In her happiness, she didn't even notice that she broke the hug, not him.

"As if there was any doubt," he replied smugly. Smiling did wonders for her mouth, he observed, mighty pleased that Jean had finally acknowledged his brilliance.

"Taylor's done what?" Paul asked, emerging from the hallway. He toweled off his hair, but not, Jean was pleased to note, with one of her towels.

"He's figured out Megan's journal notes," she replied, hugging Matt again. Paul grimaced as he watched the two of them. "She didn't date them," Jean continued. "She numbered them by important events in history!"

"That's nuts," Paul responded. He slid a comb through his hair, making sure his part was perfect in the hall mirror. "Why bother going to all that hassle for your own thoughts?"

"Megan really loved games, you should know that. Didn't she always do the crosswords puzzles? Don't you remember anything about the girls you date?"

"Only the ones I care about, " Paul replied, watching with satisfaction as she flushed. "Yeah, now that I think of it she did do those puzzles, usually during football. Waste of time, if you ask me, she missed some great plays." He paused, "So now what?"

"We find out what she considered important," Jean replied, reaching for more notes, but Matt shifted away. He wasn't about to give up the only clues he had to the Missing Megan Mystery. "A lot of these numbers end in 89," he observed, flipping through the notes. "Was Megan big into U.S. history? That's after the American Revolution."

Jean frowned, "no," then she smiled, "but she was a French history nut. She loved the whole French Revolution. In fact, her freshman seminar focused exclusively on Marie Antoinette."

"The one who got her head chopped off?"

"One and the same," Jean replied.

"The French Revolution that went down on what?" Matt asked, irritated that he didn't know off the top of his head. "December 6th?, 7th?"

"No, that's Pearl Harbor. Um, I don't remember." Jean clicked her nails on the table in frustration.

"Try July 14, 1789," Paul stated, his wet hair dripping on both of them. Matt moved the notes away so that the ink wouldn't get smeared by Paul, then he flipped through the pages in his hand. 1/4/89 was towards the end.

What a night! Finally broke up with Erik yesterday. He didn't make it easy. He even tried to lock the car doors shut and not let me out! So I started crying, told him I was sorry, told him I needed some time to think things over, then when he finally let me out, I ran back to the apartment, and told Jean not to answer his calls, ever again. What a total jerk! I am so glad it's over! I'm not sure what I ever saw in him, I guess it was green eyes and pre-med, usually a good combination. Not to mention helping him pass history, Jean called it the Florence Nightingale syndrome, she may have a point there. She was so sweet, afterwards though, I'm glad she's my roomie, even if she's a total neat freak. She helped me bag up all the stuff he's given me, and give it to the thrift store. Whew, Hallelujah, out of sight, out of mind! I think I'll go throw myself into the Game tomorrow night. I've even got a cool new gun, thanks Jean! Bang! Bang! M

Jean sat still for a minute, a shiver feeding like a cold, wet worm throughout her body. "Matt, what's the next entry? Chronologically, what's the next date?"

Matt sorted out the pages. "It's that one we read before, about Megan feeling like she was being watched during the Game."

Paul tore the paper out of Matt's hands. "Jeanie, tell us about this Erik guy in detail, now!"