True believer - Nicholas Sparks [120]
Alvin feigned a yawn. “Sorry,” he said. “You were saying?”
“It’s not boring,” Jeremy insisted. “Don’t you realize how many things had to come together to create this phenomenon? How the quarries changed the water tables and made the cemetery sink? The placement of the train trestle? The phases of the moon, since it’s only dark enough to see the lights at certain times? The legend? The location of the paper mill and the train schedule?”
Alvin shrugged. “Trust me. It’s boring with a capital B. To be honest, it would have been a lot more interesting if you hadn’t found the solution. Television audiences love mysteries. Especially in places like New Orleans or Charleston or someplace cool and romantic. But reflected lights in Boone Creek, North Carolina? Do you really think people in New York or Los Angeles care?”
Jeremy opened his mouth to say something and suddenly remembered that Lexie had said exactly the same thing about the phenomenon, and she lived here. In the silence, Alvin looked at him.
“If you’re serious about this television gig, you’re going to need to spice it up somehow, and the diary you were telling me about just might be enough to do that. You can do the piece just like you researched it and spring the diary at the end. That might be enough to get the producers’ attention if you did it right.”
“You think I should throw the town to the wolves?”
Alvin shook his head. “I didn’t say that. And to be honest, I’m not even sure that the diary will be enough. I’m just telling you that if you can’t come up with some ooze, you’d better give using the diary some thought if you don’t want to look like an idiot at the meeting.”
Jeremy looked away. The train, he knew, would be coming in just a few minutes. “Lexie would never talk to me again if I did that,” he said. He shrugged. “Assuming that she still wants to.”
Alvin said nothing. In the silence, Jeremy looked his way.
“What do you think I should do?”
Alvin drew a long breath. “I think,” Alvin said, “that it all comes down to what’s most important to you, doesn’t it?”
Nineteen
Jeremy slept poorly on his last night at Greenleaf. He and Alvin had finished up filming—as the train passed, Riker’s Hill only faintly registered the reflected light—and after viewing the film, both he and Alvin had decided it was good enough to prove Jeremy’s theory, unless they were willing to arrange for better equipment.
Still, on their way back to Greenleaf, Jeremy’s mind was barely on the mystery or even the drive. Instead, he began to once again replay the last few days in his head. He remembered the first time he’d seen Lexie in the cemetery, and their spirited exchange in the library. He thought of their lunch on Riker’s Hill and their visit to the boardwalk, recalled his amazement at the extraordinary party in his honor, and how he’d felt when he first glimpsed the lights in the cemetery. But most of all, he remembered those moments when he first began to realize that he was falling in love with her.
Was it really possible for so much to have happened in only a couple of days? By the time he’d reached Greenleaf and entered his room, he was trying to pinpoint the exact moment when everything started going wrong. He wasn’t quite sure, but it seemed to him now that she’d been trying to run away from her feelings, not simply from him. So when had she begun to realize that she had feelings for him? At the party, like him? At the cemetery? Earlier that afternoon?
He had no idea as to the answer. All he knew was that he loved her and that he couldn’t imagine never seeing her again.
The hours passed slowly; with his flight leaving from Raleigh at noon, he would be leaving Greenleaf shortly. He rose before six, finished packing his things, and loaded them in his car. After making sure that he saw Alvin’s light shining from his own room, he made his