The Teacher and the Police Man

(sorry about the long delay)

Julie stared out of her car windshield, watching the road disappear underneath her 1992 Toyota. There were few cars on the road at this hour of the morning. Every day she drove, about twenty minutes one way to the school where she worked as a teacher, watching the sun rise. 

Her schedule was set, her routine nothing more than that. Every day she was look out of the window as she passed over the river and watch the sun effect the water, making thick clouds in the spring. She always meant to take a picture, but she never really had the time.

Julie Slotson did a lot of thinking on her way to school every day. She thought about the fact that she still did not have a husband. This thought scared her a little bit. She was nearing that terrifying age of thirty, and no one had presented themselves as suitors. She never really understood why. She was pretty, nice, and funny on her good days. She trusted the right man would come along eventually, and she mostly left it all in God's hands. 

She thought about her students. The nice but quiet ones like Kyle Clay, always playing his games. The sociable but smart ones like Emanuela Gordon. The loud and frustrating ones, and all the little clicks in between. She thought about how funny it was that a group of friends consisted of so many different types of students. 

She thought about Gary, the wrestling coach and history teacher. She shouldn't be thinking of Gary, because he was married, but she did it anyway. He had nice hair, and a nice smile, and he spoke intelligently. 

Julie thought about a lot and she worked through the day and by night she barely remembered any of the thoughts she had had in the early hours of the morning. 

She often left the school late, tying up the various loose ends of the day. One night she was delayed later than usual and was caught behind a row of police cars blaring their way to some unknown disaster. Julie loved police cars. They were annoying and loud but she loved watching them pass, listening to their desperate cries as they sped away into the night. Trying to save people who probably didn't deserve to be saved, but they tried all the same. 

Her next-door neighbor was a cop. Younger than she was, and very cute. They smiled at each other every time they went out to get their newspapers in the morning. He had a dimple in his right cheek that appeared every single time he smiled. She loved looking at him, but she wasn't sure she'd ever love more than that. 

The night she saw all those police, something seemed to click in Julie's head, and the next morning she walked over after picking up her paper and said hello. The two of them had a lovely conversation. His name was Cole. He liked teachers almost as much as Julie liked cops, and they agreed to go on a date. 

That saturday they went to eat at a nice restaurant, and afterwards Cole took her to an ice-cream shop called "Carl's Custards." She ate some of the best ice-cream she'd had in years. 

There was a moment, and in later years she would never be able to recall exactly when it was, that she thought she could spend the rest of her life with this man. He watched her like she was new, and beautiful, and she couldn't remember anybody else looking at her that way. 

Julie's life mostly went on in the same way after that. She and Cole went on dates and still got their newspapers at the same time every morning. There was something in the atmosphere now, though, that charged that morning ritual. The air was static and the looks exchanged between the two lovers were filled with something more than longing. 

Eventually, there was only one newspaper to get, delivered to one house. But that was further off, and until then, they would get their papers separately.