Free Keep Me in Your Heart by Lurlene McDaniel

decision against them.”
    He did. “What about
your
parents?”
    “Mom’s pretty shaken up, but Dad’s more philosophical about it. He seems more understanding. He keeps saying we’ll find some other donor.”
    “Can I see you later?”
    She hesitated. “Maybe it would be better if you didn’t come around for a few days.”
    He felt sick at her suggestion. And afraid they’d never let him see her again. “Why?”
    “Just until Mom calms down. She’s … mixed up … and angry.” He could tell it was difficult for Jessica to talk to him about this. “Give her a few days to get a better perspective on things. She’ll come around. I know she will.”
    “Things like me?”
    “Things like the unfairness of life.”
    “I love you, Jessie.”
    “I love you too. That won’t change.”
    He didn’t want to hang up. Didn’t want to sever the connection. He wanted to hold her, kiss her. Quietly he said, “It’s not over, Jessie.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’m going to find a way to do what I want to do.”
    “But—”
    “But nothing. I won’t let my father stop me.”
    Jeremy spent the next week working and keeping to himself. At home he hardly spoke to his parents. He was aloof and impersonal, and went out of his way to avoid them—leaving the room when they entered, eating no meals with them and staying in his room asmuch as possible. They didn’t pressure him, content to give him the latitude to nurse his hurt and anger.
    The worst part of his self-imposed exile was not seeing Jessica. If she didn’t answer the phone when he called, her mother hung up on him. In a way, he didn’t blame Mrs. McMillan. Her daughter was acutely ill, and her best chance for recovery had been snatched away. He had gotten their hopes up and then failed to deliver on his promise.
    It was only mid-July, but the remainder of the summer stretched before him like an unbroken chain of dreary days and endless nights. He knew he’d have to do something to turn things around, not only for himself, but for Jessica.
    He began spending his lunch hour poring over law books, making notes as he waded through the legalese. Slowly he began to formulate a plan, and as it started to coalesce, he began once again to find hope for Jessica’s impossible situation. But he needed help to carry out his plan. Serious help.
    He called Jessica’s father, catching him by surprise. Jeremy said, “I need a favor.”
    “What kind of favor?”
    “I want you to help me get in to see a law professor at Georgetown. A
good
law professor.”
    Don McMillan set up an appointment for Jeremy with one of the top professors of law at Georgetown University. On the night of the meeting, Jeremy drove to the campus, parked in front of the law building and went into the lobby.
    Don McMillan was waiting for him. Jeremy held out his hand. “Thank you, sir, for helping me.”
    Jessica’s father smiled wanly. “Judson Parker is a good friend of mine. And an excellent professor of law. We haven’t seen much of each other ever since Jessica got sick, but he was willing to meet with us when I called and asked. Besides, Jeremy, I hold no ill will toward you. Your heart was in the right place when you tried to give Jessica … well, you know.”
    “How is she?” Jeremy had sneaked in to see her that very afternoon at the dialysis center. He’d come before her mother was to pick her up and had sat beside Jessica’s chair, holding her hand while the machine finished cleansingher blood. They hadn’t talked much; Jessica was ill. But being near her had calmed and comforted him. And it had given him renewed resolve to face tonight’s meeting.
    “She’s not well,” Don McMillan said in answer to Jeremy’s question. “Dr. Witherspoon tells us she’s struggling with high blood pressure and water retention, despite the dialysis. He’s changed her medications again. That’s the third time in four months.”
    Jeremy was dismayed.
    Her father patted him on