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Conners Ghostly Summer |
| Written by strawberrywino | |
| Thursday, 22 May 2008 | |
Conner awoke to the sunlight streaming in through the windows of his room. The sun was already bright and his room was warm. He rubbed his eyes then looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand beside his bed. Eight a.m. He sat up with a start. He was late for school. He couldn't fathom why his mom would let him over sleep, she always made him get up early even on the weekends. Summer break was the only time she let him sleep in, then it came to him, today is the first day of summer break. He thought for a moment of going back to sleep but decided against it. If it had been a school day, he would've done so without hesitation, but since this was a summer day, he wasn't about to waste a moment of it. He jumped out of bed, put on his cut off jean shorts, and a yellow and green striped t-shirt he had strewn on his computer desk the night before. He sat down to put his socks on and found that one was missing. A quick scan of the desk, the bed, the nightstand, and the dresser revealed he would have to search for the missing sock. First things first, he had to go to the bathroom. His mom called him to breakfast while he was using the bathroom. He brushed his teeth while he tried to find his missing sock. He found the sock under the bed then wondered why the thing your looking for is always in the last place you look, he answered his own question, because you don't look for it anywhere else once you've found it. He put his remaining sock on and then his shoes. He finished brushing his teeth rinsed his toothbrush off then put it in its holder. He brushed his flaxen colored hair even though it was so short he couldn't tell the difference. His mom always knew though. She knew lots of things, things he thought she'd never know like the time he bent the rim on his bike jumping a ramp. She grounded him for a week that time. He never did find out how she knew, only he and his best friend Jeff had been there, and Jeff swore he never told anybody. He went back into his room and made his bed. He looked around the room to see if he needed to do anything else before he left. He didn't want to give his mom any reason to send him back up here. His room was unusually tidy for a change. Satisfied that it would do, he grabbed his baseball glove, and backpack on the way out of his room. When Conner reached the top of the stairs, he stopped to put his baseball glove into his backpack. He heard female voices coming from downstairs. His mother was speaking to someone. "He's getting out. How can that be?" Her voice got a bit loud then muffled probably whispering so Conner wouldn't be able to hear her. Could she be talking about his father? Fear struck him, giving him cold chills up and down his body even his toes and fingertips tingled. The last time Conner saw his father was at the courthouse when he had to testify about the night his father tried to kill his mother and himself. Impossible, she must be talking about something else. His mother told him he'd be a grown man before he ever had to worry about his father again. He walked slowly down the stairs listening to see if he could figure out whom she was talking with. This early in the morning the visitor either had to be Samantha, Conner's mom's best friend or Aunt Franny. Conner didn't care for aunt Franny, she always bragged about her son Frank being better in someway or another then Conner. She was Conner's Aunt on his father's side and she didn't hide the fact that she felt it was his mom's fault in someway, "that would make him do such a thing," as she put it. He was proud that at age 12 he knew so much of his family's drama despite the fact that his mom was very cautious of what she said around him, to his pleasure his other relatives weren't so careful. They loved to gossip about anything and everyone except that night, that night was taboo to even mention. They'd talk about his cousin Marysue, pregnant for the third time, and that she didn't know whom the father of this one was. How his cousin Phillip was heavily into drugs. Conner really didn't care much about that stuff, he wasn't obviously ever going to get pregnant, and he was never ever going to do drugs, but it felt really good that they included him into the conversations instead of sending him away. He sat his backpack on the floor by the front door then headed toward the kitchen. When he heard that it was definitely aunt Franny's squeaky voice, he considered going into the living room to watch TV, sometimes he could avoid her that way. However, he really wanted to hurry and get down to the creek where he would meet up with Jeff and some of his other friends. If aunt Franny was in a good mood she would just give him a condescending look, ask how he was doing, then ask how he was doing in school, make a comment about how Frank was doing so good in whatever she chose to brag him up about, then she would let him be. If she were in a bad mood, however she could go on and on for quite sometime, on whatever she felt like lecturing him about. Even though Conner thought Frank's mother was a pain, Frank was actually nice, a little boring though. Conner thought that Frank didn't like to do much of anything because if he were to get in trouble he'd have to face aunt Franny's wrath. He saw it once, and it scared him. He wondered if he was going to grow up to have a temper like his father and aunt Franny. Everyone said he was more like his mother and not to worry. "Shouldn't that boy be down here by now, maybe you should go get him," aunt Franny said sounding impatient. "Give him a bit longer he just woke up." "He just woke up, you shouldn't let him sleep so late," Her squeaky voice turned to a hissing shrill, then back to her normal condescending tone. "Frank's up at 5 a.m. every morning." Can't avoid her this morning Conner thought. He took a deep breath did a warm up exercise as he had seen boxers do before a fight on TV. This wasn't going to be a boxing match but he figured if it helped them to take a physical punch it couldn't hurt him to take her condescending verbal punch. He went into the kitchen, his mother, aunt Franny, and Frank sat at the table. "Hi," he said taking a seat by his mother. They all greeted him back simultaneously, 'hello," "good morning," and aunt Franny's, "finally." Aunt Franny gave him a smile then pushed an envelope across the table, she kept her hand on it while she spoke. "This is for your birthday, as you know we're going to Europe for the summer, we won't be back in time to see you then." The minute she pulled her hand away Conner grabbed the envelope, opened it, then pulled out a card. It had a puppy dog with a sad expression on the front, holding a sign with bold letters in the middle, Sorry we couldn't be there. When he opened the card money fell out on the table, he ignored it and read the inside of the card. Written in he assumed his aunts handwriting, happy birthday, with love Franny, Carl, and Frank. He picked up the two bills ten dollars each. "Aunt Franny are you sure you meant to give me this much?" "Yes Conner that's usually what I spend on your gifts." She had an amused condescending expression as she spoke. He put the money back into the card, then the card back into the envelope. He stood up from the table, went over to her and gave her a big hug. "Thank you aunt Franny." She gave him a big hug back. Very uncharacteristic of her maybe his efforts of being extra nice to her were paying off. He had a feeling there was more to it than that, especially after his mother saying, "He's getting out." He sat back down at the table. "Well, we won't keep you any longer." She was halfway out the door, Frank closely following behind her, by the time Conner and his mother could say "goodbye and have a nice trip." When he saw the door close and the top of her hair pass the windows, he handed his mother the envelope "could you hold onto this for me?"
After the cold eggs and sausage breakfast, Conner rode his bike to the creek. It wasn't far from his home so it didn't take him that long. The creek was down a small embankment. He parked his bike to the side of the small bridge. He looked from the bridge down to the creek his friends weren't here yet. He decided he could catch crawdads without them. He stepped slowly down the steep incline of the embankment following the dirt path that led from the bridge to the creek using the bridge's concrete supports for support. He took his backpack off, setting it on a dry rock, back just far enough it wouldn't end up in the creek. Facing the backpack with his back against the creek, he bent down to his knees, unzipped the backpack pulled out his baseball glove, set it to the side then pulled out a good sized plastic container. He zipped his backpack then went searching for his first new pet. He loved crawdads he thought they were fascinating. Their cute round eyes the shape and largeness of their pincers (except for when they pinched him, then he didn't love them) their long bodies, even their legs and tails fascinated him. They even went by many different names crawfish, crayfish, of course, crawdad was his preference. Though they were of the crustacean family and similar looking to the lobster, they were not just small lobsters. They weren't reddish looking like lobsters, at least none of the ones he has seen, and they were freshwater not saltwater crustaceans. Who knows, maybe they were just smaller lobsters that somehow adapted to freshwater; he hadn't spent that much time learning about them. He'd rather be out here, catching them and then watching them once he got them home, than to learn all about them from some boring book. He found the first one right away. He smiled seeing its large size. Just as he got it into position where he could easily pick it up behind the pincers on its body. A young girl spoke "watcha doin." He looked up at her standing at the top of the embankment on the opposite side he had come from. The Sun was bright making it seem as though she were glowing. She was wearing a long white dress; he figured she was maybe 9 or 10 years old. She had long blonde hair a little darker then his own. He thought about ignoring her, but that didn't usually work with younger kids, especially girls, so he answered her. "I'm catching crawdads." She took a step forward loosing her footing she fell and slid down the embankment. He ran over to her. "Are you alright?" She stood up brushing away what dirt she could from her dress. She looked up at him smiling " what an entrance." "Entrance?" he was confused. "Oh," she waved her hand and shook her head. " I just heard that somewhere before, thought it could work to cover my embarrassment." She had such a goofy expression as she said that, and with her head tilted to the side he couldn't help but to laugh with her. He became immediately self-conscious, "I'm sorry I wasn't laughing at you." "Yes you were, at my goofy expression and that's why I made that face, come on." She grabbed his arm pulling him with her, " Lets go catch some crawdads." "But your in a white dress," Conner tried to protest as he was being pulled by the really strong little blonde girl. "Its already dirty it can be washed they wouldn't make a dress for a kid that couldn't be washed would they," She giggled. "My names Angelica in case you might want to know Conner." "How did you know my name?" "Oops, I wasn't supposed to know that was I, It was on your bicycle sorry, I'm a snoop," She giggled again. They spent the rest of the day catching crawdads and looking for pretty rocks, Angelica's reason for coming to the creek. His friends never showed up, boy did they have some explaining to do. It was ok though he had a lot of fun with Angelica.
The sun was starting to go down, they were standing by his bicycle when she reminded him. "You forgot your baseball glove." He went back down to get it, Angelica following closely behind him. He picked it up put it in his backpack just as he zipped it closed, he heard screeching tires, he looked up toward the bridge just in time to watch the car hit his bicycle. They ran up the embankment slowly, but as fast as they could manage. The car had backed up away from his mangled bicycle and the driver was walking unsteadily toward them. "Are you kids alright?" he asked with a noticeable slur in his speech. "We're fine but my bikes not," Conner nodded his head toward his bicycle. "Well why don't you come over here kid, and I'll give you some money to cover it. I keep my wallet in the glove box," he motioned them to follow him as he turned to walk back to his car. Angelica tugged on Conner's sleeve, "he's a very bad man," fear noticeable in her voice. "He's got a car we can't out run him." "The creek, he's to drunk to follow, and the car will be of no use." They were already at the creek by the time they heard the man yell, "Hey kids where are you going?" Just before they lost sight of the bridge, Conner looked back to see the man standing in the middle of the bridge. He didn't look like he was going to chase them. They ran just the same as if he were, only slowing to a fast walk once they were a ways in the woods. About halfway to Conner's house Angelica pulled on his arm to stop him, "well this is where I depart you my fair haired prince." Playing along Conner replied, " are you sure you will be safe the dark knight of evil could be lurking beyond the forest." "I see my castle from here just beyond the field of gold," She pointed to a house just beyond a cornfield. "Then I bid you farewell my fair haired princess," he bowed down before her. Then feeling silly, he quickly stood up. She giggled. "I want to thank you Angelica, if you hadn't reminded me to get my baseball glove I could have been as bad off as my bike." "Oh don't be so serious, I believe everything happens for a reason, and well maybe it just wasn't your time yet." "Maybe." He couldn't think of anything else to say. "See you Conner," she took off running toward her house. He stood watching her until she was halfway across the field then continued on his way home. Once he was home, he explained to his mom what had happened to his bike, and how he and Angelica had fled from the man. His mom immediately called the police. After an hour of speaking with the police, he poured himself a glass of milk. He drank it standing by the open kitchen window. He heard the police officers talking as they left. "This is the same guy, I'm sure of it Pete." "You think it's the same guy who killed Angelica Ripley when she was visiting her grandparents last year?" "She was headed to the same creek the last time she was seen alive, the grandparents have moved now, but they had lived just one road over." They walked out of hearing distance but Conner knew he'd heard enough. Angelica dead, by the same man they had encountered earlier today, killed a year ago, but the girl he was with today was alive. He tried to think, was that the Ripley's house she had gone in the direction of? He wasn't sure; even if it was, it made more sense that another girl named Angelica lives there now, then a ghost he'd spent the whole day with. He was tired and his brain wasn't putting the pieces together properly. He decided he would think about it after a good nights sleep. He instantly fell asleep when his head hit the pillows. "Conner." He heard a voice, soft, sweet, angelic even; it was her voice. She seemed so far away. Was that smoke he smelled? He was so tired he just couldn't seem to wake up. "Conner, come with me." He opened his eyes Angelica was floating above him, she spoke again. "Come with me, it's your time. Your father has succeeded to do what he could not before." That was the last thing Conner ever heard. Copyright 2008 strawberrywino |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 June 2008 ) |
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