Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Ummm, well, I remember the hole in the wall after that boy said something derogatory. Then I remember us, well, um, we did it.”
“We did it?” He laughed. “I would say so. I think we more than did it.”
Trying to change the subject, I moved on to safer topics that didn’t leave me feeling as if I’d eaten a whole tub of Kick Ya Ass Hot peanuts. “I’ve had one fuck of a hard seven years, Jack. I don’t remember much. What I do remember doesn’t make one lick of sense. I have these dreams of winter and what I’m guessing is you. Now that you tell me my name is Winter, I think that makes more sense. When I was in the hospital and lost the baby…”
Jack’s swift inhalation froze me midsentence. “You what?”
I smiled sadly. “I lost our baby, I’m guessing. It was on September 9, 2006. I was one fucked up mess. I sustained s-so many contusions and abrasions to my body that they think the f-force of whatever happened to m-me made me miscarry. I was about three months along.”
I watched a mask slip over his face, and decided to wait for to tell him the rest. Something in the air vibrated with menace, but I knew he wasn’t mad at me, only at the situation. “A month after I deployed.” He stated quietly.
It was so quiet that I had to move closer to him to be able to hear what he said next. “I’m a fucking failure.”
Tears sprung to my eyes, and I walked up to him and wrapped my arms underneath his. My head lay against his wildly thumping heart. His breathing was fast and erratic, but his arms went around me anyway. “You were my lifeline. I knew something was keeping me here. I was dead, Jack. So dead, in fact, that I remember a weird place that had fields and fields of Bluebonnets. I had a dog there that was running and playing. A young girl with black hair and black eyes was chasing after the dog, squealing in laughter. Something held me back from chasing after them, though, and that was a man with black hair and black eyes. That was you.”
“Some fucking lifeline. I left you to whatever fate happened to you. We lost our child. Fuck. I didn’t even fucking look for you in the last two years. After I moved here from San Antonio, I couldn’t find it in myself to look anymore. When my dad died, I didn’t have that constant reminder anymore.” He replied dejectedly.
“Jack. You’re a smart man. Whatever happened must have been so very real. So real that it fooled everyone. Now, I need to piss like a racehorse. Where’s the bathroom?” I said, trying not to dance from foot to foot.
He laughed softly and pointed to the hallway that yawned behind me. Making my way, I used the facilities, and then being the nosy busybody that I was, I snooped.
Opening the medicine cabinet first, I found the usual of shaving cream, toothpaste, toothbrush, and razor. Just as I was about to open the drawers, an amused voice drifted through the door. “You won’t find my condoms in there.”
I slammed the drawer so quick that I caught my finger in it, and then proceeded to see stars as the throbbing of my finger left me breathless. “Fuck me. Mother fucker. Dirty rotten cock sucker.”
“I see you still have that colorful mouth, too.” Jack said, as he slipped in the door and picked up my hand.
He gave it a kiss and held it firmly in the palm of his hand, adding pressure to the sting, bringing it down to a six on the scale of zero and ‘I just stepped on a Lego’ ten.
Turning out the light in the bathroom, he led me back to the kitchen table where he sat me down and then gave me an ice pack for my hand. He cracked open a Corona, then placed a glass of iced tea down in front of me with a box of Ritz Crackers and a bottle of squirt cheese.
I fell on the sacrifice like a starved maniac. It was when I was about ten crackers in that I saw Jack silently laughing at me from across the table. “What?” I asked around a mouthful.
Incidentally, I spewed cracker crumbs. My face flamed, and he laughed even harder.
“My God. It’s as if we picked up exactly where we left off. What the hell is your fascination with cheese?” He asked with a smile.
The smile didn’t reach his eyes though, telling me that he was still in shock.
“How the hell should I know? Queso is my absolute favorite. However, if you give me a bag of shredded cheese, or even one of those round wheels in the wax paper, I’m a happy camper.” I admitted.
“I know,” He said sadly. “Tell me how you came to be in Kilgore.”
My good mood instantly deflated. That wasn’t something I wanted to speak about whatsoever. Nevertheless, I knew it needed to come out sooner rather than later. The man I spoke with told me that the situation I found myself in was dangerous. That if I delayed, it might not be something that I’d be able to fix if I stalled too long.
Only because I wouldn’t be breathing.
Taking a deep breath and then looking him in the eye, I trudged forward with my story.
“It was the dreams that made me start looking into myself. From what I can guess, it was my researching, and then inquiring into random disappearances of nineteen year olds that I started to draw attention to myself.” I explained.
“Keep going.” He said, while picking his feet up and propping them up on the chair beside me.
I looked down at his greasy boots and continued.
“Every once in a while, I would remember a memory, and then write it down in a little notebook. I figured that with enough time, I’d finally have enough information that I could start digging into something that would reveal my identity. However, it wasn’t until the past few months that I was able to look at it from a different perspective. The last dream I had was of going on a ride with a couple. I remembered the make and model of it, and then started searching for a stolen vehicle BOLO. That’s what led me to the couple. A man and a woman who’d disappeared. The man’s father had reported them missing, as well as the car.”