Beth's guitar gleamed not as brightly as her smile, nor sung as melodiously under her delicate but uncertain fingers as her sweet voice. There was beneath it a strange melancholy, a faltering behind her shy embarrassment. Gabe's eye caught hers, and he knew.

"You miss him, don't you?" he asked her.

She made no reply except perhaps to close her eyes in chastisement.

"Don't worry. I won't be hurt," he reassured her.

"It's only a week," she said, trying to giggle and feeling slightly silly and slightly more embarrassed.

"Yes?" he asked, carefully drawing out the word.

As if reluctantly confessing before a jury, she answered slowly, "Yes... I miss him." Then with sudden recovery, her eyes meeting his, she asked in return, "Don't you miss her?"

Vaguely remembering an earlier conversation, but effectively shutting it from his mind, Gabe tried to be nonchalant. "Well, yes - certainly I miss her," he said. "I almost wish," he paused to clear his throat, "I almost wish she were as foolish as we were and decided to stay here instead of going home." If Beth only knew how strongly he meant those words.

Beth eyes suddenly sparkled like aquamarines, the corners of her lips perked up, her hands motioned excitedly, and her voice, which squeaked in a high pitch when excited, was almost beyond hearing range. "Gabe! Gabe! What if we have Lee drive up here? He can bring Melissa with him and we could go into the city and we could go out to dinner and up to the concert hall and the Red Chariot Lounge and...." Beth was a deluge of ideas, all of which were excellent, but most of which flew by so quickly that Gabe caught only segments. Still, the segments began to sound beautiful to him. If only there were a way to convince her, he thought; and yet - there was. Beth's storm of ideas suddenly reversed polarity.

"Gabe!" she exclaimed, "What if we go there? Surprise them? Oh, why didn't I think of that before? Just think. Can you imagine the look on his face? Can you imagine hers?"

Gabe's usually good imagination completely failed him on that last point. He had absolutely no idea what to expect. Yet, what he discovered was: it didn't matter. Some force, some energy not his own - perhaps Beth's own wild impetuous fire - compelled him to forget about the consequences and to do something a little crazy, a little unexpected, to follow, for once in his life, sheer caprice - and live.

As the dawn sends sign after sign before it explodes upon the horizon, Gabriel's eyes expanded until they could no more. The excited anxious screams of an ecstatic blonde pressed upon him for an answer. Yes! Yes! he screamed to himself. Let Lee worry about details.

A moment later Gabe and Beth were both dancing around the room in unexpected delight. As they tumbled upon the bed in a queer combination of laughter and exhaustion, Gabe caught Beth's hair in his fingers, her head nestled against his chest. "What would I do without you and all your craziness?" he asked. "Tell me."

Beth only blushed and held his hand more tightly against her cheek. "You nut," she giggled.

The rest proved brief, however. As the bells in the campus chapel steeple chimed one o'clock, the two realized that they had not a preparation made. Were someone to walk in on them in the next several minutes, he might have mistakenly thought Gabe and Beth were either going to Europe for a year, planning a Christmas list for an Irish-Italian family, or getting married. Schedules of trains, busses, money, clothing, food all had to be computed and coordinated. Beth felt as if she were back in class. But the smile never wavered as she rushed to complete everything, still in excitement - until she checked her purse. She stopped and looked at Gabe.

"Gabe, how much money do you have?"

The thought struck his mind at the same time it did hers. As they quickly discovered that they had too little money to make the trip, Beth flopped on the bed in disappointment. The smile faded and a tear began to form on a red cheek. But before that tear could run down that cheek, Gabe was speaking. "Wait a minute!" he called to her. Beth had fired him too far. There was no turning back. He grabbed a pad by the phone and, as he dialed, began scribbling figures like a madman. Beth watched him anxiously make his calls, not knowing what he could be planning. But at the words, "Operator, get me Silver Springs, Maryland, please," the tear froze in her eye and her mouth flew open.

"Lee, Lee, this is Gabe," she heard him say. "What? What in the world are you doing in bed at this hour? You never go to bed before dawn, anyway... You're tired? What kind of excuse is that? That never bothered you before. Anywho, listen: what do you think of Philadelphia this time of year? What do you mean, did I wake you out of a sound sleep to ask you that? Just answer my question... Because that's where I'm going to be tomorrow afternoon, you turkey... Yes, I've decided to come home after all... Well, I have ulterior motives, of course - what, Beth? I might try to see if she wants to join me... well you better, little brother, or they'll be - I know, I know...."

By this time Beth was lost to the conversation and almost in hysterics. When she heard the final click of the receiver, the smile on Gabriel's face was all that she needed to know. Both arms were surrounding his neck with immeasurable force, a kiss was planted firmly on his lips, and a delirious "I love you" was bounding through the caverns of his brain.

As he ambled to his room a few minutes later, Gabe's mind was a confused combination of ecstasy and misery. The telephone conversation of hours ago tried to return, but he pushed it deep into the far recesses of his mind. Tomorrow was another day when all would once again be righted. One just has to have faith. Faith, he thought: the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Where did I get that from? he asked himself, Beth? But his mind was a blank, too tired to think anymore. He wanted only to sleep, a sleep that brings dreams. Perhaps some tomorrow might fulfill them. There was hope in his thought, something he had believed to have been lost. But it was only sleeping... sleeping...
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