It had been
years since Mysti had seen him. It seemed impossible that they had
lost touch. Terry
had been her best friend for as
long as she could remember. There was a time when Mysti could have
gone to him with anything. Now that had all changed. Once upon
a time they had been inseparable. Mysti liked him the first day and
as time went on be came more comfortable in him then she was in herself.
She let herself think about him from time to time, wondered how he was
doing and if he ever got out of the small town where they grew up.
Time passed and she thought about him less and less. It seemed like
a lifetime ago but now Mysti found herself standing on a street corner
with no where else to go. Every minute that passed seemed longer
then the one before it. Her heart pounded so hard she was sure that
everyone else on the street could hear it too. She tried to think
but she was lost. Where was she going to go? What was she going
to do? Frantically she began to search through her bag. She
pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and said a little prayer.
Terry was having a hard time
getting out of bed. What time was it anyway? No one he knew
got up this early on summer break. Six-fifteen was entirely too early
for a June morning, but it was the only way he got any personal space
these days. With a sigh he rolled over and looked at his little brother,
James was in his usual spot curled up own the floor hugging his teddy bear
and tangled in the blankets from his bed room. Terry saw his brother
with a mixture of love and contempt. Most people his age would have
long since outgrown stuffed animals. That was James though
and he would always be just that way. Terry loved him more then almost
anybody but sometimes he hated him to. There was no question that
having a brother like James in his life was a complication and sometimes
he wondered if this was some sort of sick cosmic joke. Most days
he did not know how he was going to handle this and he thought more then
ten times a day that he had made a huge mistake. Terry was about
to engage in some early morning self pity when the piercing ring of the
phone jarred him from his thoughts.
Mysti hung up and for the first time in days took a deep breath. She had done it and now all there was to do was wait. What was she going to say to him after all these years. She really did not have the strength for a scene. He said he would need about four hours to get himself together and get to the mall. She figured that gave her enough time to come up with a plausible story. Terry was going to have questions lots of them and she needed to figure out how to say what she needed to say. It was going to have to be a good story because Terry was not easy to fool. For now though she wanted to sit down. Making the phone call had sapped most of her energy reserves. She seemed to get tired so easily these days.
Terry listened to the hum of the broken connection for a full minute then he got up and made his way back to the bedroom. He stepped over Jay and tried to get a grasp on what he had just agreed to do. He allowed his mind to drift back seven years to the night Mysti had left. They had both just turned twenty and it was the night of the pool party and Jack´s next door. The perfect end to the summer or at least had started out that way. It's amazing how quickly things can change he thought bitterly. Terry abruptly stopped this train of thought no use rehashing now . Somehow he knew there would be plenty of time for that later. Besides he reminded himself he had four hours to get to the mall to meet her. He needed to get a shower and get Jay ready. He knew that didn't leave him a lot of time for memories. He sighed , got up ,shuffled down the hall and slammed the bathroom door.
An hour and a half later Terry was crawling down the interstate. Who's brilliant idea was it to make this trip during rush hour anyway? Between Jay's constant chatter and the traffic he was having a hard time focusing on driving. He hoped that Jay's morning wasn't a signal of things to come. It had started out badly when he insisted on wearing the green shorts with the blue radio station T-shirt. Terry usually insisted that he match his clothing but today he had bigger battles to fight and just didn't have the heart to tell him no. He had learned early on their little adventure that Jay did much better when immersed in a routine. Having a schedule made life easier for both of them. Any deviation from that schedule was asking for trouble so just for today he let Jay "match" his own clothes. Even so as jay was happily chattering and pointing out the window, he could hear his mother scolding him for letting the kid leave the house that way. Terry turned up the radio in an effort to drown out the noise for the back seat and the voices from the past in his head. Driving was he least favorite thing and rush hour just made him crazy. He looked out at the endless sea of cars and groaned inwardly, this was going to take longer then he thought.
Mysti found a soda machine and bought
herself a diet soda. She wandered through the mall and sat down in
the middle of the food court. Except for the power walkers and the
donut shop crowd it was very peaceful. She began to wonder about
Terry. She was amazed that he still lived in the same place and even
more surprised that he had answered the phone. He'd never been an early
riser. She smiled and thought of all the times when they were in high school
that Terry had to walk to school making it just after the second bell.
He just could not get started in the morning and often complained that
classes should start at noon. He always said that a few hours of
detention in the afternoons were worth that extra fifteen minutes of sleep
every morning. Mom and Dad had a hard time with that but by the time
they were seniors that'd stop trying to change him. Mysti smiled
again. In spite of the situation it would be great to see him.
It would be good to be home again even though she knew she was in for a
good lecture. She glanced at her watch and wondered what was going
to take him so long. It was only two hours from the house to the
mall even in the heaviest of traffic. Then suddenly it occurred to her
that Terry might have a family of his own. Giggling she dismissed
that thought as quickly as it had come. Terry was the least responsible
person that she knew. She remembered how upset Terry had been when
mom and dad announced that they were expecting a baby. At ten Terry
was sure this was the end of his world and it wasn't until Jay was a year
old that he calmed down. He was most certainly not the type to have
kids. Mysti wondered if they got along better now that Jay was almost
seventeen.
Terry eased the van off the highway
at exit twenty-five. The mall was about two miles from the exit.
He glanced in the rear view mirror at Jay who had fallen asleep about half
an hour ago and was grateful for the peace. He knew that it wouldn't
last long. James never did well with strangers and for all intentions
that's what Mysti was now. Terry was sure she would be uncomfortable too
and had a momentary pang of guilt for not warning her. Then he remembered
that she made this choice and deserved whatever she got. He could
feel the anger welling up in him again as he thought back to his childhood.
This is how things always went with Mysti. She would have a crisis and
Terry would be there to bail her out. He covered for he so many times
he couldn't even remember them all. It started innocently enough
when they were about six. The had been playing in the living room
and Mysti had spilled her grape juice on the carpet after mom had
just had it cleaned. Mysti had looked so frightened that Terry told his
parents that he knocked it off the table. He hated to see Mysti cry.
Things only got worse from there as the cover ups got bigger, when they
were fifteen and Mysti took Mom's new car, Terry took the blame for the
dent. He was grounded for the entire summer and missed the baseball tryouts.
Freshman year he hacked in to the University mainframe and change her French
grade so she wouldn't get kicked out of school. He still had nightmares
about that almost eight years later. When she left seven years ago
he swore he would never help her again and yet, here he was.
Terry pulled into the mall parking lot and began to hunt for a space.
Didn't all these people have jobs to go to? After several circles
around the building he finally found a place to park. Backing the
car into the spot he cut the engine and took a deep breath. What
could she possibly want from him after all this time? He sighed Mysti
was a user but in spite of that he still loved her. He let Jay out
of the back seat and the two of the headed for the fountain on the main
floor. James loved the mall and unfortunately for Terry he remembered
the play land in the middle it. Terry sighed this was one of the
things he hated most. Jay could never understand that he was just
to big for the ball pit. It wasn't so much a problem the actual
structure as it was the other people there. He had actually seen
parents pull their kids away from his brother. Jay loved other kids
but most adults just couldn't deal with a toddler Jay's size. Things
like that just made Terry sad so , as a result, he tended to avoid them.
When Jay started to loose it Terry appeased him with the promise of a cheese
burger on the other side of the mall and sat him in front of the fountain
to watch for rainbows in the water while they waited for Mysti.
******
to be continued