Breakfast
Jon felt light headed again. Come
on old boy don’t lose it this time, stay with it, he thought to himself. How is
this real? He took a drink of water. Yep, it was water, and it was wet, and he
was drinking it. It even tasted just like he remembered. Horrible Waco Public
water system water, the foulest water you could drink and it not kill you. Damn
it was good! Jon smiled. A second chance, he thought. If I’m dreaming, I’m
going to enjoy it.
Enjoy it he did. At least the
morning he enjoyed. He ate two helpings of eggs, bacon and toast. He listened to
Cat prattle on about the Fall Formal dance and how she still did not have a
date. It did not matter to her, she had said. She and her two best friends Beth
and Mary were all going without dates. Being probably the three most beautiful
girls in the entire school, Jon was not surprised; boys in this time are nowhere
near as aggressive as they will be years from now.
He listened as Cat continued to
complain that he was taking too much time to eat. As he ate, Cat showed their
mother the shoes she would wear with her skirt. She worried if their color would
match. Jon knew she would go through 3 more colors before she settled on the
blue ones. Jon also knew that she would change her hair a few times before she
was happy.
He drove his sister to Waco High
School. Or rather the old Waco High School, which had be demolished in 1975. The
school never looked better to Jon. Banners were everywhere proclaiming, ‘Fall
Formal 1959’. Jon knew that he would be there to welcome the new class of
seniors, as the senior class president of 1958. Jon also knew this would be the
last night that he would see Cat alive.
She slammed the car door shut
without even a word of goodbye before the car had completely stopped.
She ran to Beth and Mary, and together the trio walked into the school.
Jon drove home, and as usual his
mother was now cleaning. “Jon, honey,” she asked with a quizzical look on
her face.
“What, Mom?”
“You not going to class this
morning?”
Oh shit. His classes at Baylor University; he could not remember what classes he took his freshman year.
Didn’t matter, not today, but instead he said, “I forgot something in my
room.”
“Okay, dear,” she said as she
continued to clean.
Jon paused. Should he tell his
mother that she should start taking better care of herself because in less than
15 years she would die from a burst blood vessel in her head? Jons head was
swimming again. He shook it and headed up the stairs to his bedroom to think of
the best way to keep his little sister from going to the Fall Formal tonight, or
at least keep her inside the gym where the dance would be. Jon had to keep her
from being killed by the car driven by a man in a great hurry. The man would not
see Cat until she darted between the many-parked cars in front of the school
gym. It should be easy, thought Jon. All I have to do is take the time to keep
an eye on her. His head started swimming again.
He reached his bedroom and sat on
his bed. He heard a tiny thud of something falling to the carpet of his bedroom
floor. He leaned over his bed to see what it was. Cat’s locket! He reached for
it, and as his fingers touched the gold metal of the chain his world once again
went black…
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