Content of choice #2
This piece is a short story written for a fiction writing class. It has a message, an inspirational message, and is suitable for all audiences. It shows another facet of my creative abilities, adaptability, being able to adapt my writing for several different genres.
A short story
by James Daniel
Another hot day in June and Paul Mason found himself getting ready to leave home for the airport to begin his planned vacation trip. He had decided he would return to the town in Georgia where he had grown up and attended school before his father moved the family. His father had found a new job in another state and city, Seattle, Washington, almost three thousand miles away. That was ten years ago, he was a sophomore in high school.
Paul finished packing his bags and made sure he packed the yearbook he had managed to keep from his old high school. He was hoping to find some of his old classmates although he hadn’t kept in touch with any of them since he moved. He was especially hoping to see his old girlfriend Julie whom he had just begun to go out with before he left. Throughout all these years he has never been able to get her out of his head. It was something about her that remained a lasting impression in his mind.
He thought about the last time he saw her it was a day in June just after school was out for the summer, the year that his family moved. They talked about his impending move, they had been a couple for only two months and this move was about to separate them maybe forever. They both agreed that it would be very hard to maintain a relationship with so much distance between them, after all, they had only met each other just a few months ago. They decided it was best to just say goodbye and let fate determine the rest. So, with a hug and a smile, they said their goodbyes.
Paul made it to the airport and on the plane all in good time. The flight was uneventful. Landing in Savannah after so many years away, Paul felt weird thoughts rushing through his mind that were uncontrollable. He was thinking to himself, “Why do I feel this way? What am I doing here?
I don’t know if she is still alive or even still living here, ten years is a long time, she could be married with a family.” Ever since he left this town, he had wanted to come back but something else would always get in the way. He finished high school then went off to college where he studied data management and after graduation, his father encouraged him to go back for his master’s degree so he could get a better job. He was glad he did, he found a great job right there in Seattle. He had met other girls, in the last years of high school and during his college years but he kept comparing them to her, never forming any lasting relationships. Although he never tried to contact her after he left because he thought “What sense would it make, we are too far apart, and we had already agreed to break up.” Besides his friends said he would be inviting heartache.
Paul went to the car rental counter in the airport he had decided renting a car would be the best way to get around, Savannah had grown a lot since he left. Putting his luggage in the trunk of the rental, he removed the yearbook from his bag and placed it on the front seat, he thought, “I can have this close to me in case I see someone that might seem familiar.” He reached the hotel unloaded the car and started planning how he would spend the next few days. He remembered the street that he used to live on, so he decided to ride by to see if the house he lived in was still there. He would then ride by his old school to see if it was even still there.
Back in the car, he drove until he found his way back to his old neighborhood. The neighborhood was on the southside of town the subdivision still looked the same. The houses and yards looked like they had been kept up over the years. He pulled up to a white house with a fenced backyard, he could see little kids in the back playing. The house brought back memories of the days he spent playing in the yard. He remembered riding his bike up and down the street. It was a safe, quiet neighborhood. Looking around he could see that the place hadn’t changed that much, he parked on the street and got out of the car. He wanted to walk around just to see if he would run into anybody that he knew.
He decided he would go up to the house next to the white house that he once lived in because that was where his best friend Bobby had lived. He went up to the door and ring the doorbell, a middle-aged lady came to the door she looked like Bobby’s mother as best he could remember her, “yes may I help you? ” she said looking strangely at him as she spoke, “Paul is that you?”
“Yes, Mrs. Austin it is, I didn’t think you would remember me.”
“You have grown up a bit, but you still look like Paul. It has been a long time, what brings you here? How are your parents and your little sister?”
“They are all doing fine thank you, but my sister isn’t so little anymore she’s married with twins. Where’s Bobby, how’s he doing?”
“Bobby is not doing so well since he came home from Iraq and got out of the Army.”
“The Army?”
“Yes, he joined the army right out of high school. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t listen, he hasn’t been the same since.”
“I’d love to see him, is he still living here at home?”
Bobby wasn’t living at home, he had his own place, his mother gave Paul his number they exchanged pleasantries and Paul got back into the car and pulled off. This time he located the old high school and pulled up in front of it. It didn’t look the same to him, it just looked like an old building. Sitting in the car in front of the building he called Bobby.
“Hello, who is this?”
“Bobby this is Paul who used to live next door to your mom’s house. Your mom gave me your number, I’m in town visiting.”
“Oh, Pa—Paul? Yeh, what’s going on with you man, I thought I’d never see you again, where are you? Where are you calling from?”
“I’m here in town for a few days just visiting.”
“Good, maybe we could get together for a bit, talk about old times?”
“I’d like that, when?”
“I’m at work, I get off around five this evening, maybe you can pick me up from here, I’ll text you the address ok?”
“Ok, I’ll pick you up at five.”
Paul was beginning to feel better about making this trip, his memories about the place were coming back. He loved this place and he remembers being really sad when his family had to leave, for him it was hard leaving his friends and everything familiar to him for a place full of strangers, fast living, and the absence of little white houses with fenced-in back yards, neighborhood schools, friends next door, and a girl like no other. That last thought brought him back to the reason he had returned to this place. He thought, “Maybe Bobby might be able to help me find her if she still lives here.”
Five o’clock came quick. Paul pulled up to the diner where Bobby worked, he saw a guy standing out front that looked like what he thought Bobby would look like after 10 years, but this guy looked much older. He pulled up in front of the man, rolling down his window he asked, “Bobby is that you?”
“Yeh, Paul it’s me, man, how are you?”
“I’m fine, get in, good to see you.”
They shook hands and patted each other on the back like old buddies. Bobby did look much older than Paul even though they were the same age. Bobby had joined the army just out of high school and right after basic training, he had been sent to Iraq. Subsequently spending two tours in the war-torn country. Shortly after finishing his last tour and returning home he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He’s been in treatment now for a few years but still, he has recurring problems. It has been hard for him to hold down a job for any significant period.
“Bobby is there someplace we can go sit and have a drink maybe?”
“Yeh, man there’s a nice sports lounge about a mile ahead on the left.”
“Good, let’s go there.”
“What brings you back to this town Paul after all these years?”
“This might sound crazy to you Bobby, but I came back to find someone.”
“Not many people still here, a lot of the old guys we grew up with are gone Paul, some went off to college and didn’t come back to stay after graduation. Some joined the services went off to war, some came back with missing parts, some came back in boxes, some came back different people altogether. It’s been tough for some of the families around here. So, who are you looking for, I don’t remember you having any relatives around here?”
“It’s not a relative it’s an old girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend? You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m serious she’s been on my mind for a long time and I can’t get her out of my thoughts.”
“I vaguely remember some girl who you had just started going out with, just before you left, couldn’t be her you had just met her, who is it?”
“You won’t believe it but that’s the one. We had just started going out and then I left, and I didn’t keep in touch with her.”
“You didn’t keep in touch with any one man, not even me, we were supposed to be best buddies, what happened? When you left, I was kind of lost I didn’t have anyone to hang out with.”
“Well, I didn’t know, when I left, I didn’t want to go, but the family had to move. I hated it for a long time and kind of went into a shell, unhappy because I had lost my friends and everything else that was familiar to me. It hurt me a lot.”
Paul and Bobby were best buddies when Paul lived here, they did everything together. They both played on the varsity baseball team. Paul felt bad that they hadn’t kept in touch over the years, but things were different in Seattle, everything moved faster, what with school, extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs after school, and homework time just flew by. Cell phones weren’t a common thing until a few years ago and his father was strict on phone usage, especially long-distance calls, they were very expensive.
“Yeh, that’s why I joined the Army as soon as high school was over. I had no real friends around here and I just didn’t want to stay.”
“Why didn’t you go to college?”
“I didn’t know of any of the other guys going off to college, besides my parents didn’t have that kind of money. Did you go?”
“Yeh, I went and when I finished undergrad I went back to grad and got my master’s, I got this great job. It’s not too late now for you to go. Have you thought about it? There are special programs for veterans and I’m sure you’re qualified for at least one of them.”
“You’re right my mom keeps telling me the same thing, she thinks that it will help me a lot to get my mind off the war.”
“It probably will man, I can help you with the paperwork and tell you what to expect. I’ll definitely stay in touch and help you all I can.”
“Maybe I’ll think about it… hmm getting back to this girl you’re looking for, what’s her name, I’ve forgotten which one it was?”
“Her name is Julie, you don’t remember?”
“Julie! Julie Sinclair?”
“Yeh, that’s her.”
“Wo…wow!”
“What was that supposed to mean?”
“What was it about her that made you want to see her after all this time?”
“Well she was a lovely girl very smart, funny, she was easy to talk to, she was a very caring person, she had dreams and goals, she wanted to do something with her life. We talked a lot about how we wanted our futures to be, married with kids, even though we had just begun to get to know each other. It seemed like we had the same goals for our lives we just clicked. I felt like this was the girl for me, I could feel it in my heart kind of like they say, ‘love at first sight’ and bamm…, just like that it was all over because I had to move, I never ever even got to kiss her.”
“Damn man, you’re really serious about finding her? Suppose she’s married, maybe she’s forgotten you it has been a quite a while and you didn’t keep in touch and you know what they say, ‘life goes on,’ ‘out of sight out of mind.’
“Yeh, you are right but for some reason I never forgot her, and she keeps hanging around in my head for some reason, for what purpose I don’t know, but I need to find out, so that’s why I’m here, I need to find out. I’m at a good place in my life and I want some of those things that she and I talked about. I want to be sure before I move on that there’s not a chance for her and I to achieve those things together.”
“That’s weird, buddy.”
“I never knew exactly where she lived because she was from a different neighborhood and we weren’t together that long what do you think, think I can find her?”
“Nothing’s impossible but, but suppose you don’t like what you see?”
“What do you mean?”
“She may have changed; she might not still be the same way that you remember her. I’m just saying things change.”
“Yeh, you are right, but regardless I need to see her just to settle my mind. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with these same thoughts in my head.”
“Yeh, Yeh, I understand.”
“Can you help me find her?”
“Yeh, I’ll help you; I know someone that knows her well, I think she can point us in the right direction.”
“Hey, that’s good when can you find out?”
“I’ll text her now hold on………., ok she texted me back with her address she still lives with her parents.”
“Man, that’s great you’ve been a big help, thanks” I’ll probably wait until tomorrow to go by there it’s kind of late in the evening for today.”
“Let me know how it goes man, like I said things change.”
Paul’s mind began to whirl with a myriad of things, what would he say to her? How would she look? What would she think about him after all these years? How would he even begin a conversation? He began to think that maybe this was a bad idea in the first place. He then decided that the whole purpose of this trip was to settle his mind and the only way to do that was to at least see her and if he could talk to her, well that would be good also. So, it was all set, he would try to see her the next day.
It’s another hot day in June and Paul has just awakened after a fitful night of sleep. He’d been waiting for this day for quite some time now. He tried to picture in his mind how Julie would look after ten years. He knew the face in the yearbook because he had looked at it many times over the course of all those years. He thought, “I should expect some changes; besides she was already beautiful how much could she change? Bobby changed a lot, but hell he’d been in the war, but he was still recognizable, and so was his mother.” Anyway, he proceeded to get ready to drive over to Julie’s house, again he thought, “Maybe I should call first but Bobby didn’t get a Phone number only an address.”
He drives to the other side of town about fifteen miles away from his hotel. He moves slowly through this well-kept subdivision following the directions from the GPS, finally, he pulls up to a tan-colored house with a nice big yard, a two-car garage, lots of flowers around the house, a minivan with a platform on the back, for a chair or scooter, was parked in the driveway. The house had a ramp going up on the side leading up to the front porch. Paul thought, “maybe one of her parents is handicapped.” He walked up to the door, rang the doorbell and waited nervously. The door opened and a middle-aged woman peeked out.
“Yes, may I help you?”
“Yes, my name is Paul Jackson and I’m an old friend of Julie’s. I used to live here on the other side of town, we went to the same high school, I don’t live here anymore I’m just visiting, my family moved away about 10 years ago. I haven’t seen or spoken to Julie since I left. I just wanted to see how she was doing and well… maybe she doesn’t remember me. I’m really sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have come by without calling, ah…. maybe she’s at work or something, I’m sorry, just tell her I came by, ah, um…um…
“Paul! Paul? Is that you? mom is that Paul at the door?”
“Yes, Julie it’s someone named Paul Jackson, says he knows you and you all are friends.”
“Let him in mom, I do know him, yes we are friends.”
“Come in young man Julie’s in the family room, just follow me.”
Paul follows Julie’s mom into the family room and there she was, Julie as beautiful as he remembered, she was sitting in a wheelchair which she rolled up to Paul with her arms stretched out towards him. Paul was stunned, he didn’t know what to say. His mind was racing he wanted to know what had happened to the vibrant young lady that he remembered. She was still vibrant even though she was in a wheelchair. There was nothing about her that he didn’t like. Without talking, Julie held out both arms to Paul as she stopped the chair directly in front of him. He froze.
“Give me a hug Paul, I’m really glad to see you how have you been? I wondered if I would ever see you again. I have asked around to several people and no one had seen or heard from you since you left.”
“I’m well Julie, how have you been, what happened?”
“I was in an accident that left me paralyzed from the waist down. Here I was driving home from school for the Christmas break, in my second year of college, the roads were icy in some spots, I hit one of those spots, and the car swerved around, went off the road, down an embankment and hit a tree. I was pinned in the wreckage for quite a while until help arrived. My back was broken, long story short, I’m in this wheelchair. I managed to finish school although it took a little longer than I had planned. What about you Paul? Tell me what’s going on in your life. I think about you all the time wondering what might be happening in your life.
“Well not much Julie I managed to finish high school and then college, found myself a great job, and that’s pretty much it.”
“What brings you back here, after all this time? You don’t have any family around here, do you?”
“No, I don’t have any family here, of course, there’s my friend, Bobby, by the way, he helped me find out where you lived.”
“How long are you staying?”
“I’m on vacation, just a few more days left.”
“Any plans?”
“No, not really, what I really came here for I found it so now it’s mission accomplished,” Bobby said smiling.
“What mission were you on if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Well really I don’t mind, I had to settle something that had been on my mind ever since I left here and now that it’s been settled, I’m happy.”
“That’s a good thing then, you’re happy. In a way I kind of know how you feel I’ve had something on my mind that had been bothering me for a while and seeing you again, after all these years kind of made me feel better, you know, this is kind of embarrassing, but I never lost my feelings for you and I wondered if I would ever see you again, now look, here you are.”
“That’s funny I’ve been thinking the same kind of thing. I wondered if I would ever see you again and that’s why I’m here on this trip. I told my friend Bobby that’s why I came back and that’s why he helped me find you.”
“Really and he didn’t tell you that I asked him about you when I ran into him a few years ago after he came back from Iraq?”
“Really? So that’s why he asked me that question.”
“What question?”
“Never mind it’s not important and it wouldn’t change a thing anyway.”
Paul had found what he was looking for, his trip was a success. He thought about what they had said to each other when they parted that day in June, ten years ago, “we’ll just let fate determine the rest…”
“What are you doing the rest of the day Julie?”
“Nothing, why?”
“Let’s go for a ride we have a lot to catch up on,” Paul said with a big smile on his face.
Images: Canva free photos
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