The Agent's Daughter by Ron Corriveau

two people go through when there is interest in each
other. One of the two people has to go first. To come out and say
what is hoped they both feel. Either way, she realized that this
was hard for Alex to say. She had to respond.
    “ I like being around you,
too,” Melina said, as smooth as she could muster.
    They both smiled awkwardly at each other,
unsure what to say now. After a moment, Alex bent over and looked
sideways at Melina’s arm.
    Melina looked down at her arm too. “What is
it?”
    “ I’m trying to look at the
ugly watch, so I can find out what time it is. Can’t be late for
your next class.”
    “ About that watch,” Melina
started. “I told you that it was one of my mom’s watches. But this
watch in particular has some meaning to me. It is the watch that
she was wearing the night of her accident.”
    Alex looked horrified. “Oh, Melina, I am so
sorry. Jean told me about your mom. And I have been making jokes
about your watch.”
    Melina put her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “No,
don’t worry. It is truly ugly. I am only telling you this so that
you understand my feelings about my mom’s situation. Everyone
around me thinks that she is not going to wake up. I don’t know
why, but I believe deep in my heart that she is going to get
better. Carrying around something of hers reminds me of that.”
    “ I can totally
understand,” Alex said. “I had something similar happen to me. A
couple of years ago, my dad was on a business trip and his plane
went down right smack in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean.”
    “ Went down?” Melina asked.
“You mean it crashed?”
    “ Yeah,” Alex said. “Over
water and nowhere close to any land. The night that we got the call
he was missing, I wandered around the house in a daze until I found
myself in my parents’ bedroom. On the dresser, there were some
coins where my dad’s keys and wallet sat when he was home. He
always has some change in his pocket, but he was going out of the
country, so he must have felt that he did not need them. I scooped
the coins up and put them in my pocket. The jingling noise that
they made in my pocket helped make me feel better. Like I had a
part of my dad with me.”
    “ Obviously, it turned out
okay,” Melina said. “So what happened?”
    “ They were fortunate that
it was daytime, and there were clear skies, so the pilot was able
to set the plane down gently on the water, and my dad and the other
people on board were able to get out of the plane and get into a
raft. But for the three days that it took to find him, I carried
those coins that I found on his bedroom dresser in my
pocket.”
    “ Do you still have the
coins?” Melina asked.
    “ I don’t carry them with
me anymore,” Alex said. “But I have them in a special box at home.
Two quarters, a dime and two nickels.”
    Jean was right. He did understand.
    Melina held out her arm, unclasped the watch
from her wrist, and held it in her hand before her. “I’m going to
have to give the watch back at some point. I just have to make sure
that my dad doesn’t find out that I have it. He would go
ballistic.”
    That thought caused her to lose her grip on
the watch, and it dropped toward the floor. In an instant, Melina
thrust a hand downward and snatched the watch from the air before
it reached her knees.
    Alex stared at Melina with wide eyes. “Wow.
I have never seen a hand move so fast in my life.”
    “ Must be all those years
of martial arts training,” Melina answered sheepishly.
    “ Do you take classes at
the company studio?” Alex asked.
    “ Yes,” Melina said. “Well…
I used to, but I stopped. Long story. ”
    “ Taekwondo or karate?”
Alex asked.
    “ I studied krav maga,” she
said.
    Alex looked puzzled. “But krav maga classes
are for…” And then he caught himself.
    “ For what?” Melina
asked.
    “ Um… for people who are …
um majorly into martial arts. I just didn’t picture you liking krav
maga that much.”
    “ It was my