I don't have a title yet...

The bell proclaimed the end of school with a deafening ring.

         I, as always, was the first one out of the school and sat down next to the old sycamore tree, waiting for Max and Sierra.  Sierra was usually the last one out of the school, so I found my favorite indent in the trunk of the tree and got comfortable. Max and Sierra shared their last period of the day together, which was science. To get out of the school from there, they had to go all the way across the school.  That meant that they had to fight the other kids in the hallway to get out the front door.  I, on the other hand, had the class right next to the front door for my last period. My teacher usually got mad at me for getting ready the earliest by saying, “Danny, do you see that clock? Do you see how it is not 2:15? Do you know...” and the rest is usually cut off by the bell. I know exactly when to start getting up.

         Max was the first of my friends to come out.  I could always find Max because he stood a head taller than the other kids and wore a dark green military jacket.  His hair was very blond and tightly curled.  He usually looked down and seemed to be concentrating as he briskly walked. He was muscled, but I could still bruise him when we played the slug bug punching game. When anyone sees me next to him, they have to comment, “It’s David and Goliath!” because I’m nearly a head shorter then average. Like David, I am surprisingly strong for my size, but not strong as strong as Max. Max had been my best friend since second grade.

         Max came out in the constant stream of students who were so scrunched together most could barely move their arms. Sierra was never rushed to get out of the school, so she always walked slowly, stopped at her locker, and talked to people. Max and I were just sitting propped up against the tree when Sierra rushed up to us. Even though she was breathless and panting, she still looked beautiful as always. Her long blond was slightly curled, touching barely grazing her neck, and the contrasting difference from her deep blue eyes and her pink cheeks she got from running through the hall added to her beauty. She was wearing a plain light blue shirt and a pair of jeans, both of which complimented her slight figure. “Wow, Sierra, you are early! You never get here before the doors aren’t cramped.” Max exclaimed “Ya, well, it wasn’t easy. I was racing you here. Max bet that I couldn’t get here before he did.” “Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. Pay up girl.” Sierra sheepishly forked over a single dollar. “This is it?” Max said incredulously. “I thought it was five.” “No, it was whatever money I had on me. That is it.” “It can’t be it. You’re the one of us with an allowance.” “Ya, well, I don’t take all my money with me everywhere. Anyway, how do you do it? How do you get through the halls so fast?” “I don’t have a secret passage, if that’s what you’re asking. I just run and shove the other guys out of my way.” Max said with a slight grin. “Come on, this can wait for the walk home. I can’t. It’s a long walk.” I said, and I started walking away. Max and Sierra locked eyes and laughed, then ran to catch up with me. “If you had a million dollars what would you do?” Max asked me. “Me, well I would go on a cruise and see the world. I would put the rest in a bank.” “Why would you do that?” “I just want to do something with my life. I think seeing the world as it is, not someone else’s point of view but how it truly is, I might be able to do something. I don’t know what yet, but something.” “Well, I would probably hire a sculptor to make a statue of me. Then I would go skydiving, repeatedly. Then I’d probably buy stocks.” Max replied. “Well, I would buy as much real estate as I could, because property values are only going up!” countered Sierra. “As long as I have my full head of hair, my natural good looks, and my outstanding charisma, I don’t need anything more” I was joking, even though I am sort of handsome. Well, I hope I am, and a couple of girls said so. Then Max replied “Except for a breath mint.” While pretending to gag. I glared at him, but it was hard to stay mad when he and Sierra were almost in tears from laughing so hard. I almost kept a straight face, but trying to keep from laughing is like trying to stop a river. Sometimes you can do it, but most of the time its contagious. I burst out laughing harder than both of them combined. We had to stop for me to catch my breath before we could continue walking. I don’t know why it was so hilarious, but it just was. When I was finally ready to start moving again, I had to wipe tears from my eyes. Occasionally on the way home I remembered it and burst out laughing. My friends just looked at me like I was crazy half the time, joining in during the other half. By the time we got to my house I should’ve had a six pack. I walked over to the fake rock in the bushes and pulled out the key from beneath it. I unlocked the door and walked in, my friends close behind me. My mom was sitting somewhere comfortable around the house, as always, with a notebook in hand and a pencil in the other. She was an aspiring writer, but could just barely keep the house with her writing and her jobs paychecks combined. Her other job was a librarian at the high school. She writes when she isn’t doing anything, which is all to common. She has published a number of books, but few of them were very popular. I’ve read a number of them, and I think that they are really good. A number of people must think so too along with the publishers, or else they wouldn’t get published. Some are very popular, but not a best seller. Since her school gets out an hour before mine, she is always home when I get there. So it was surprising when I found her sitting on the couch watching TV. “Mom, shouldn’t you be writing?” “Oh! You’re here! I would, but I stayed up late last night writing it and I was tired all day. I just woke up from my nap but haven’t started writing yet.” “Mom, you need to stop doing that. If you stayed awake for an hour and a half writing, then you slept for an hour and a half in the afternoon, all you are doing is making yourself tired while you worked.” “I suppose so, but you aren’t a writer. When you have an idea, go with it and finish it.” “You couldn’t have done that in the morning?” “No, it wouldn’t have been nearly as powerful in the morning.” I hung my head in defeat, so she couldn’t see my small grin. My mom works herself silly trying to keep the house and pay off her debts, but it wasn’t easy being a widow. The first six years were the hardest, or so others tell me. My father died in a plane crash just before I was born. My mom stayed strong and determined to keep us alive, when others would have been crushed and wallowing in self-pity. She convinced herself that there would be time to mourn later, and so she kept going day by day. At least, that’s what I have pieced together from my who would talk about it. I know that there is something I am missing, but I can’t figure out what it is. My neighbors only know so much, and my mom won’t even mention it. I don’t even know what my dad looked like. Some say that he was a thin man, others say he was heavy. Some said that his voice sounded like a cello, others said his voice was very high. A widowed woman that lives down the street say that he had light brown hair, dark green eyes, a short nose, he was very tall, thin, and muscled. Her neighbor insists that he had black hair, pale skin, red eyes, fangs, and he was very short. Most of my neighbors agree that he had blond hair and fair skin. After that, things change. There are no pictures of him, and since mom won’t say anything, I don’t know for sure. My mom, with her long dark brown hair and dark skin, and me, with my light brown hair, almost dirty blond, and fair skin, didn’t look that much a like, so I figured I must take after my father. So I would assume that my dad was blond and fair skinned, as my neighbors say, had dark green eyes, slightly shorter than average but not small, and thin. My hair darkens every winter, but not slightly as others. My hair goes from nearly blond to almost jet black. I swear I could use it as a calendar if I had wanted to. If it was chocolate brown, it is spring. If it is nearly dirty blond, its summer. If it is light brown but no blond hairs anymore, it is fall, and if it dark brown with some black hairs, it is winter. I’ve done it before, but I haven’t always had a mirror handy. I just wish that my mom would tell me why.


         It was a Monday when it happened. It was early march, so my hair was still dark, but it was lightening, and Sierra’s birthday was coming up, so Max and I figured we should get something for her. It was just the mall that was close to the school so we figured our parents would be fine with it. It was the weirdest thing, and not something I would ever forget, as it changed me and my future forever. Max and I were browsing the jewelry section, even though our faces were bright red. If we had gone to a different section first, or when we flipped the quarter, the food court had won, then it never would have happened. It did happen, though, and began me on my journey. While we were being very secretive in the jewelry section, we accidentally ran into an old man in a stained yellow bathrobe, though with a surprisingly full head of white-blonde hair. The man was immediately angry, but when he saw my face, he stopped, a mix of confusion, surprise and something I think was guilt on his face. He was about to say something, but thought better of it, and politely apologized, and walked away. I had thought that that alone was weird, but what made it remarkable was the fact that as he walked away, his clothes seemed to rearrange into a toga, like the thing caesar wore. He even had the little branch thing on his head. He looked like those little angels that stand on peoples shoulders in cartoons. “Max, what is the thing that caesar wore on his head?” He looked at me confused, but replied, “A wreath, Danny. Why do you want to know?” “That guy in the stained yellow bathrobe looked like he wore one.” I replied slowly. He looked at me like I was crazy, so I just shook my head. “Never mind, must’ve been a trick of my imagination, but I knew it wasn’t. The man was wearing a wreath and a toga, and nobody but me noticed.

         The walk home was a quick one, as we shopped until 6:30. Sierra’s birthday party started at 7:00, and we still needed to wrap her present, a bracelet with small turquoise intwined into it. We went straight to my house, as always, and put the bracelet into a box, and wrapped it with my mother’s help. My mom, being the perfectionist she is, insisted that I go take a shower, change into nicer and cleaner clothes, and put on my father’s old watch. It surprised me that my mom wanted me to wear it, as it was something very precious to her. She told me, “That may be your fathers watch, but it is beautifully made and does no good in a closet.” She was right about that. The circular watch looked gold-plated with small red gems on it’s outer edge, a leather straps and an adjustable buckle. My mom has never even thought about selling it. Even through our hardest times, she would sell other stuff, or work harder, or get another job. The watch was something special to her and she rarely did anything more than polish it and oil it. She was nearly as obsessed as some people who have a really expensive car and does nothing to it but polish it. All of this added to my surprise when she told me to put it on. At 7:59, or so the watch says,  I was finally ready. I wore a pair of dark blue jeans and a button up shirt, which hung loose with rolled up sleeves, a dark belt, and my fathers watch. When my mother saw me, her eyes got all teary. “Daniel, you look so much like him.” She whispered, and the air literally was knocked out of me. I struggled to breathe in before she realized the impact of what she said, and succeeded in breathing in a little. I knew instinctively that she was talking about my dad. Who else would she talk about like that? She said my full name. Nobody really ever calls me Daniel. Before I could say anything, though, Max said, “Well hello slow poke. The party is about to start, and we are going to be late.” and the moment was over. My mom shook her head and said, “Your right, and here I am doing nothing about it. Danny, put your shoes on and let’s go.” Before I could say anything, I was sent out the door.The car ride to her house was around 15 minutes long, and when I got into the car, Max said, “Are you wearing cologne?” I blushed slightly before denying it, but he saw, and he knew. I was hoping nobody would know that I had a major crush on her since like second grade, so I was further surprised when he said, “Ya, I figured. I already knew, by the way.” And so naturally I blushed even harder and said, “How?” “Dude, you are so obvious. I’ve seen how you’ve become tongue tied around her, and of course there was that day in second grade.” I remembered that day. I have been friends with max since kindergarden, so it wasn’t coincidence that he and I did everything together in second grade. That was the year Sierra moved in. She was in my class, and I thought she was really cute. I confided this to Max during recess, and he looked at me like I was crazy, and said, “You like her! You have cooties!!!” and ran away laughing. I chased him down and punched him, blushing the entire time, but the damage had been done. I guess he still hasn’t forgotten it. Then something occurred to me, and I said, “How did you know that I haven’t changed who I liked since then?” and he simply answered, “Why would you?” Before I could question him, we arrived at her house and both got out at the same time. She was sitting on her doorstep, waiting patiently but on the verge of tears, and when she saw my mom’s car, she stood up immediately. As she discreetly wiped her eyes by pretending it was an itch, Max and I walked out of the car. She came up to me and punched my arm. Beautiful and strong, I thought, and grinned. “What are you smiling about?” she demanded “You were distraught without us, probably thinking we forgot, even though we are only 15 minutes late. If you look at me, You would see that the time was well spent.” She stepped back, looked me up and down, and said, “Fine, I’ll admit it, you look presentable.” I figured that was the best I was going to get, so I started forward, and she stopped me. “Whoa, is that real gold?” and pointed to my watch. My first instinct was to cover it, but she had already seen it, and got there before I did. She grabbed my hand, and pulled it up to look at it closely. I was blushing furiously, but she was too interested in the watch to notice. “Follow me.” She ordered as she pulled my hand into her house, and Max followed behind us. We passed her parents who were standing in the hallway leading into the kitchen. We went straight up into her room, where she sat us down on her bed. She went to her dresser and grabbed her magnifying glass that was lying on top of it. She then grabbed my hand, which made me blush furiously, and looked closer at it. “This is solid gold.” She said in awe “and the red gems are red diamonds that are natural, flawless cut, and each one would probably be worth into the millions each. There are a dozen of them, and I’d say that this watch weighs about a half pound.” She went over to her desk and grabbed a strong magnet. She came back and place it right next to the watch. It just sat there on my hand, and I didn’t feel any pull at all. “That means it is pure gold.” “How can that be...?” “I was hoping you’d tell me.” “How do you know so much about jewelry” Max interjected “and how did we not know about it?” “My neighbor is a jewelry maker and has been tutoring me for a while now.” Sierra replied “And I don’t talk about it much.” I just sat there like an idiot the entire time, wondering how such an expensive watch got to me. Now the number of questions about my dad were multiplying. My imagination ran wild as I tried to come up with logical explanations why he had this obscenely expensive watch. With the amount that this watch is worth, we could have our own island. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts, and weakly said, “We had better go downstairs and celebrate your birthday or else your parents might explode.” I managed a slight grin. “Danny’s right” Max said, and stood up. I slowly got up, and was barely able to walk. My legs were like jelly, but I successfully made it down the stairs. The rest of the celebration was fun, but Max and Sierra kept glancing at me. When she saw opened our gift, she immediately put it on and said, “It’s beautiful. Thank you.” At around 10:00, Max and I said we should go home, joking that our parents would kill us. When we said that, Sierra replied, “We all know neither of your parents would do that.” And I countered, “We do, but they don’t.” To which we all laughed. I went home happy, but still immeasurably confused. I sat on my bed all night, thinking of the possibilities.

         If I had gotten home a minute earlier, it wouldn’t have happened. If I had decided to take the long way home, it wouldn’t have happened. As it was, it did happen. I, naturally, went to go and get the key, but when I tried to put it into the keyhole, I realized that the door was unlocked. Nervous now, I slowly opened the door and walked in slowly, swinging my head side to side. I heard voices coming from the kitchen, so instinctively I went closer. As I got closer, I learned that there were only two voices, and that one of them was my mom’s. Her voice was happier then I had ever heard it, but tainted with a sorrow, a sorrow I had only heard once before. I couldn’t place where it was I heard it. My curiosity inflamed and I started walking forward to the kitchen. I stood just outside the door and listened in. “...he’s the only one that could do it.” A familiar voice said “But he is just a boy. You can do it.” My mom said fiercely “You know I can’t, Elaine. That was part of her curse.” The voice said calmly “Besides, he is standing just outside the door.” I didn’t know what was going on until the door I was leaning on was jerked open and I nearly fell in. My mom was standing there, looks of worry and extreme sorrow on it. She seemed to have aged 20 years by the strain on her face. As I came out of my daze, I began to look around. By the sink there was the one thing that was out of place. A man stood there, his face looking unsurprised and vaguely familiar. Then it all clicked into place. The one time I heard the sorrow in her voice was when I overheard her talking to someone about my father. The reason the man’s voice was familiar was because I had heard it, but a long long time ago. The reason that the man’s face looked familiar...was because I looked at it every morning in the mirror. I looked just like him, which could only really mean one thing. My dad caught my staring and said, “So you figured it out. I knew you were smart.” I stared at him, dumbfounded. “Well, come on then, get up.” And I realized that I had seen that anger before. It then occurred to me where. “You look just like the man at the mall.” I said, the confusion in my voice obvious even to me. “Oh yes, the incident at the mall.” “So it was you?” “No, it wasn’t me.” “You have a twin?” My dad laughed, a strong hearty laugh that made even me feel better, or at least clear up my mind. I realized I wasn’t mad at this man who claimed to be my father, or if he was, the man who had abandoned me and my mom and left us to fend for ourselves while completely unprepared. I was bitter that it happened, and my bitterness showed, but I wasn’t mad at him. I was mad at the situation. I should be mad, right? But deep down I knew that he had gone through far worse then we had in the past 13 years. I could see it in his eyes which had a slight haunted look, his laugh had a bitter edge to it, and he was shaking, so slightly that I could just barely tell that he was, which seemed to say he was fearful and tired. His larger appearance said otherwise. His arms were very heavily muscled, as if he could wrestle a bull and win. He wore a red plaid shirt like a farmer or that giant with the really big blue bull...Paul Bunyan. Other than what I mentioned, he looked as healthy as a horse. His smile was full and white. He had a full head of blonde hair. His clothes looked clean an new, as if he had just gotten them.