The Book of Leah

Eternal Flame - Chapter 11

Monday, June 8, 1992, Waukesha, WI

Leah sat upstairs on Bonnie's double bed as her cousin sorted through clothes in a basket on the desk. The TV played Murphy Brown in the background, as Leah glanced at the bed sheets and chuckled. "Still into New Kids on the Block?" she teased her cousin.

"Not like three years ago," Bonnie laughed. "As much hassle as Mom went through to find them, I haven't had the heart to tell her I want something new."

"Well, no opinion on the other brothers, but I saw the new Calvin Klein ad and Mark Wahlberg is pretty smoking hot," Leah said with a wry grin.

"I definitely agree with you there," Bonnie started to say before the tinny ring of her cordless phone interrupted her.

Looking at the time, Bonnie wondered aloud, "That could be Jake."

"Can I answer?" Leah asked with a mischievous look on her face.

"Be nice and make sure it's him," Bonnie said.

"I'm always nice," Leah said as she reached the phone before the answering machine picked up and hit the speaker button.

"Hello?" she said with an exaggerated slow southern drawl and just a hint of sultriness.

"Uh, hi, Leah? Is Bonnie there?" Jake said slowly.

"You're on speaker, Jake, I can hear you," Bonnie said, turning to sit on the other side of the phone from her cousin.

"Oh, so what are you girls doing?" Jake asked.

"Reading Tiger Beat and talking about how hot Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix are," Bonnie said.

"Oh, that's, uh," Jake said, unsure how to answer. "I mean, I think Keanu Reeves is amazing as an actor, Point Break was beyond awesome. And River Phoenix can pretty much play anything. He's hard to describe."

"Yeah, I would highly recommend My Own Private Idaho. I saw it a few times; amazing film," Leah said. "And I must say Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure has a lot more nuance than people give it credit for. But you have to really watch it to see the little things they bring out in it."

"Wow, I liked that one. It was pretty funny," Jake said. "You see a lot of movies?"

"Yeah, my friend Kyle's family is part of the people who own Carmike Cinemas," she said. "So I worked with him at the theater his dad manages."

"That's pretty cool," he said. "Do you still work there? There are some awesome films coming out this summer."

"No, I don't anymore, not since David and I broke up," she said, unsure how much she wanted to say. "It got weird with him working there. I still go to movies there with my friends. Kyle hooks us up for premieres."

"Oh," Jake said, "I get that."

Bonnie, jumping in to save her cousin from more awkward questions, interrupted, "Actually, Jake, we're watching Murphy Brown. What are you doing?"

"I'm just upstairs in the sitting room listening to the Brewers' baseball game," Jake said. "I was flipping through my grandpa's stacks of Reader's Digests and National Geographics."

"National Geographics, huh?" Leah said teasingly. "Looking for pictures of tribal women?"

"What? No!" Jake blurted out a little too defensively.

Bonnie laughed. "Wow, that quick denial makes it sound like a yes!"

Jake started to stumble around to defend himself when Bonnie interrupted him"Jeez, Jake, just messing with you,"she said with a laugh.