But That would be a miracle. I don't even have a title! And I don't want to get my hopes up...
GETTING TO THE POINT:
In my boredom... I have decided to put a little... snippet... for lack of a better word, on here and see what happens.
Who knows?
Back round information:
So the main character is Tyler, an average guy from Minnesota. His parents have gone away to Greece for the summer, and being responsible parents, they sent him to go stay with his 25 year old sister, Tavia. In this part, his grandparents are driving him to the airport, and there is a flashback involved, and a dream, and a goodbye. I love this scene. It's dear to my heart, so I hope you like it!
Chapter Two:
Ron and Shelly were waiting patiently in the car. I heard Ron unlock the trunk. It was one of their many quirks; there always had to be as much space as possible in their car. They didn’t even keep their wallets or purses or anything like that in the car with them. It always had to be in the trunk. I never did understand the idea behind that. It always made me chuckle when they made me pop the trunk to put my stuff in there. I lifted my suitcase into the biggest open spot next to Shelly’s purse, Ron’s wallet, some breath mints, about six dollars in change, and a pair of old glasses.
“Just in case I suddenly go blind while I’m driving,” Shelly told me one day when I asked, “I wouldn’t want to cause a big accident, now would I?”
“Are they even the right prescription?” I asked, suddenly very curious about the subject. Only eight, it didn’t take much to make me curious. I also was just trying to make conversation, as my mother requested.
“I don’t really know, but only seeing barely is better than being completely blind, right?”
“I don’t know, Grandma. It seems pretty dangerous either way,” I cautioned her.
“Oh, pish posh, sweetie. I know what I’m doing. I don’t need my eight year old grandson telling me what is and isn’t dangerous,” she babbled a little annoyed at my cautiousness even in my early years. “Why when I was a teenager, me and my gal pal Emily would do all sorts of dangerous stuff. Well, I should say that I did a lot of dangerous and reckless things, she mostly watched me. We were such crazy teens. But whenever we, I mean, I would get in trouble, she would somehow get me out of it. To this very day, I still don’t know how she did it.”
“Was Emily your best friend, grandma?” I asked.
“Oh yes,” she smiled. “My very best.”
“What happened to her?”
“Oh.” We stopped at a red light. I turned to see my grandma’s eyes starting to shimmer. “Well, that’s a pretty hard subject to talk about, sugar cakes. I mean we were the best of friends, practically joined at the hip. Since she had moved there when I was 16, we did everything together and it was really great. Our families got along, so there was no problem there. It was probably the happiest time of my life when she was there. But all of sudden, one day when were hanging out, just like any other day, she said that she was leaving. I was so confused; I couldn’t even say anything. She just, got up and left without saying goodbye or explaining anything.”
“Why did she do that?”
“I still don’t know, honey. That was the last time I have ever talked to her.” She sniffed and wiped the tear that had broken free of the prison behind her eyelids. “But that was ages ago.”
“Do you miss her a lot?”
“Not as much as I did. It was so hard the first couple of months. It was like having half of my soul was gone.”
“Wow, that sounds pretty harsh.”
“I guess. But she must’ve had a good reason to leave me.”
There was silence in the car. The soft hum of a saxophone swirled around the car, engulfing them in the peaceful melody that carried us into a place of thought. It was a simple song, a song of comfort, a song of relaxation. Jazz was always relaxing to me. But I still wondered something.
“Grandma?” I asked.
“Hmm?” she was still caught in the music, not yet ready to surrender.
“I was wondering. Where did you grow up? When you and Emily…”
“Well, I was growing up in a small town in Vermont. She had moved from Ontario with her parents and two younger sisters. They were lovely people, all of them. They were also abnormally beautiful, and I always thought they belonged in some big mansion in Hollywood or New York. They could all be models, even the little ones. I remember meeting them all for the first time…” she had trailed off, smiling at her private memory.
I smiled at the memory, still paused over the trunk. Finally, Ron honked. Another one of their quirks; they always hated to be late. I made one last check, to see if I had indeed put everything in the back of the car. As I swept, I saw a something that caught my eye.
It was a broken picture frame. I went to grab the old frame, thinking that Ron and Shelly had forgotten about it and would appreciate that it was found. I was also thinking of their safety, because I thought that if they were rummaging their trunk for something, it was almost guaranteed that they would slice their hand on the sharp bits of glass that now were trapped in the frame. I grabbed it, now feeling that he had done them a favor, and slammed the trunk closed. It was as I opened the car door that I noticed the red hand print I left on the handle.
Oh great.
Luckily, I always kept a couple of band-aids in my pocket. I’m glad that my mother taught me well, so the cut would be taken care of nicely. But it would be a little hard to explain the blood on the door without making me miss my flight. I glanced in the back window and saw a rag. How unusual, I thought. But I didn’t ponder the mystery rag in the car too long, for I became grateful for a way to clean up without alerting Shelly.
I slid smoothly into the back seat of the Camry. Even though the car was purchased four years ago, it still had the new car smell.
“Why hello there, kid,” Ron said cheerfully.
“Hi, R- grandpa,” I always called my grandparents by their first names behind their backs. My mother told me it was rude to do that, so I was lucky that I spared myself a long, extraneous conversation on respecting elders by my mother.
“Looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day today, isn’t it?” Ron was already driving onto the intersection where the diner was. He was like driving with a maniac. “Too bad you’re spending the summer with your sister. Now I always forget, where is she living nowadays?”
“Um. Tenneridge. It’s a pretty small town in Oregon,” I managed to say without reminding Ron to slow down. I was tempted to look in the diner’s parking lot, to see if one car still remained there…
“Oh that’s right!” Shelly said enthusiastically, showing that she remembered more than her husband, which brought me back into the car. “She moved there with her husband before the accident, right?”
I nodded. Why did she have to bring that up?
“Poor thing. I bet it must be hard for her. He was such a nice boy.”
“Now, what was his name?” Ron questioned. “Robert, wasn’t it?”
“No, I think it was Fred. Or was it Todd? Hmm, maybe it was Timothy. Yes, that’s it. Right, Tyler?” Shelly was determined to get this right.
“His name was Skyler.” I bluntly pointed out.
“Well, I was close,” Shelly spoke, her tone defeated.
“No you weren’t.” Ron pointed out.
“Yes I was, honey.”
“How in heaven’s name does Timothy sound like Skylark? “
“It’s Skyler, Grandpa.” I rolled my eyes.
“Whatever, it’s still not close.”
I knew this was going to go on for a while. They always fought about the silliest things. And the worst part about this whole thing is that even if they knew that they were both wrong, they still kept going. It bugged me so much. I hoped that when I got married one day, we wouldn’t argue as much as they did.
Looking out the window and seeing all of the moving scenery in front of me, it made me nauseous. I grabbed the mystery rag from behind me and started to mop up my hand. Most of the blood had already dried, so I had to spit on it to wipe the dried blood off so I didn’t look like a murderer of some sort. As I pressed the rag on my palm, I found the source of the blood. It was about a centimeter long, but still pretty deep. If I had some time, I would have given my hand a lot more attention than just a wimpy band-aid.
But, for now, that would have to do. So I peeled off it’s packaging and stuck it crudely on I cut. It was sufficient. I leaned my head against the window, my eyes suddenly felt heavy. Still listening to the hum of my grandparents’ arguing, I drifted off into sleep.
I was in a dark field, surrounded by many evergreens. It was pretty cold, for the beginning of summer, and I was wondering why I didn’t bring a coat. Thinking that my parka was somewhere in the clearing, I began to search in the trees. It was weird. I knew exactly where my parka was, but I still kept searching.
While searching, I saw someone. It was just the outline of a person, because they were about a hundred yards away from me. I called out to the figure, to help me look for my parka. The figure came closer to me. As the person came closer, I realized that the figure was a girl. She was very frail looking, like she hadn’t eaten in days. She inched towards me, very gracefully, almost as if she was floating.
She was one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen. Almost too beautiful to be real, in fact. The sensation to reach out and stroke her perfectly smooth face was overpowering. When she was close enough for me to touch her, I reached out my arm. I could almost feel the satisfaction of touching her…
I stumbled forward, almost hitting the tree in front of me. I hadn’t noticed that she had taken about four steps back. I walked towards her to try again.
This time, I did see the girl move. And boy, was she quick? And graceful.
“Don’t be afraid.” I spoke softly. “I don’t want to hurt you. Can you help me?” I inched forward.
She came a little closer. I hadn’t noticed how young she was. She was probably ten years old.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
She spoke in a soft, musical voice. “My name is Abigail.”
“Abigail. That is a nice name. What are you doing in the woods by yourself, Abigail?”
She gave me a mischievous smile, her teeth shown white against her ivory skin. Her piercing blue eyes, with a brilliant crimson ring outlining the irises, gazed into my soul. This should frighten me, but I was almost hypnotized. “I am hunting.”
“What are you looking for? There is nothing in these woods,” I stared at her, not understanding what she was trying to say.
“Oh, on the contrary. There is something in these woods.” Now I got uncomfortable. She was starting to scare me. She walked gracefully towards me.
“W-w-w-what do you see?” I stammered.
“I think you know what I see.”
And with that, I started running. I tried to find the way out, but it seemed like I was just running in circles. And she was keeping easy pace with me. She looked almost like an animal. The way she ran and stalked me was like a cat. There was a big grin on her tiny face.
Suddenly I was stopped, unable to run anymore. I wanted to keep going, but my body was unable to move. I was trying to force myself to move when she came upon mr. She looked quite frightening for a ten-year-old little girl.
“What’s wrong?” she asked genuinely. Her head tilted to the right.
“I-uh-I-uhmm,” I stumbled over the words. Wasn’t it obvious?
“Aren’t you going to run?” There was a little more frustration in her voice, but not enough to alter the pure curiosity in her voice.
“I… can’t,” I whispered.
“Well, why not? Aren’t you afraid?”
“I’m…” I gulped, “terrified, actually.”
“Why?”
“Well, you said that you were hunting me, and then chasing me. Aren’t you trying to hunt me?”
Silence. I didn’t breath; nothing was in the woods to move except Abigail, and she was still. Even the subtle breeze in the trees stopped its humming to listen to what was going to happen. It was almost deafening. It was impossible to escape the engulfing emptiness of sound and movement.
Suddenly, the silence was shattered by the small whisper of a familiar voice.
“Ty?”
It was my sister, Tavia. Except, she was very young, about the same age as Abigail. She walked quietly towards us in her favorite dress and her hair done up in ribbons, just like when she was little. She walked to my side and grabbed my hand.
“Tyler, who is your friend?” She started at Abigail, bewilderment in her eyes.
She smiled. Then they both smiled at each other, as if they were having a private conversation.
Then Tavia turned from Abigail to me.
“She’s really pretty.” She smiled. “Do you wanna play with me?”
The corner of Abigail’s mouth twitched into a mischievous grin. “Of course,” she stated. “But first, I have to eat. I am quite hungry.”
She turned back to me, while I looked at Tavia. Tavia knew what she meant, and seemed totally at peace.
“Okay.” She whispered. Tavia was walking away, waiting for her newfound friend to finish eating before they played.
Next thing I knew, I was shouting. “TAVIA! Aren’t you going to help me? HELP ME!”
My voice echoed throughout the clearing, but no one came to my rescue. Abigail was getting closer and closer. She kept repeating my name with each step she took…
“Tyler? Tyler, we’re here, honey,” Shelly spoke softly.
I opened my eyes, realizing that the clearing was now off in a distance. And I definitely did not want to return.
Ron had unlocked the trunk for me, so I was able to get my stuff. He wasn’t into the whole goodbye nonsense. There was always a feeling of distance between Ron and me. But it never really troubled me. I had other things on my mind; more important than worrying if Ron didn’t like me.
But Shelly was the entire opposite. She frequently reminded me how much she cared for me and how she hated to be more than a half an hour away from me at all times, like she always was. She opened her car door and walked to the end of the car. I got out slowly, and then took the rag to the door and made sure the handle was blood-free. As I walked towards the trunk, I stuffed the rag in an empty pocket in my jeans so that Shelly wouldn’t fuss. I reached the trunk at the same time as her, so I could save her the burden of pulling my heavy suitcase out of the car. Well, for her it was heavy; I could lift it with one hand.
Shelly looked down. Then, she curiously asked, “Where did you get that frame?”
I glanced down at my hand. “Oh. I found it in your trunk. The glass was broken and I didn’t want you guys to cut yourself on it.” I looked back up into Shelly’s confused face. “Is there something wrong. Grandma?”
Her face was blank. It looked like someone had just sucked the soul right out of her. It worried me. But before I could say anything, she spoke in a small voice. “That’s me and Emily. Her father took that picture.”
In all of the hurry, I never did glance at what the frame held. It was a black and white photo that showed two girls, beaming at the camera. I immediately figured out where Shelly stood in the picture. She hadn’t changed much, just her age made look different. I glanced at the girl who occupied the other half of the photo. Beautiful, was the only word I could come up with. Almost too beautiful, in fact. It reminded me of the little girl her saw in my dream…
I shuddered, and pushed the dream back into my head.
There was a honk that snapped us both back to the present. We both stood there, awkwardly, not knowing what to say or do next. Carefully, I took the picture out of its hazardous prison and handed the photo to Shelly. She took it gingerly, like I just handed her a grenade that would explode at any minute.
“Thank you, honey. This really means a lot to me,” she gave me a warm-hearted smile. A tear started to roll down her cheek.
She glanced down at the suitcase I clutched in my other hand. “Well, it’s getting late, and I wouldn’t want you missing your flight.” She feebly slammed the trunk shut. I wondered if it had even closed all the way. “Now, come here and give your Grammy a hug,” she outstretched her arms so that I could give her a hug. I obeyed, even though I usually protested against this type of stuff in public, but I made an exception. I really was going to miss Shelly, my own personal comforter. “I’m going to miss you so much, cupcake. Make sure you call me as soon as you land.”
“I will, don’t worry,” I whispered in her ear, smiling. I was glad that someone was going to miss me.
“And make sure you call me when you get in. And then check in with me every week. So I don’t go crazy,” she sniffed, but smiled at me. She slowly started to unravel herself, trying to enjoy the last moments she had with me. I gave her a little extra squeeze, before I, too, started to let go.
“Make sure you give Tavia our best. And keep each other safe and out of trouble.” She gave me a sheepish smile, knowing that she really only had to worry about one person getting into trouble, and that certainly was not me.
“I’ll try my best. Make sure you tell Grandpa I said goodbye. And… thanks so much, Grandma. For driving me today and just for everything. It really means a lot to me. I love you so much,” I smiled.
Shelly was trying her best to hold back her tears, but her eyes were overflowing and starting to run down her cheeks.
“I love you so much, sweetie,” she stated, her voice shaking. “Have fun!” she gave him a small squeeze with her hand and returned to the passenger’s seat inside the car. As I started walking towards the airport doors, I decided to sneak one last glance of his grandmother.
But the car was already speeding away, and I couldn’t see her face. My heart started to ache. “Bye, Grams.” I whispered, as I realized that a small tear had rolled down on to my cheek.
So what do you think?!
1 comment:
so cute brynnie. you're such a fabulous writer!
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