Untitled, Chapter 2

Mary was seven the first time she became aware of her status.   For most little girls, you aren’t aware of much of that at seven.  There is some teasing and name-calling but for the most part, you play with the people you like and you don’t play with the people you don’t like.  Who those people are often changes every day. “Suzy wouldn’t share, so she’s not my friend.” “Hannah called me weird, I don’t want to play with her anymore.”

Mary, like many girls had a new best friend every week.  In her town, there was definitely enough to go around.  They weren’t hurting for seven year old little girls, especially in her class. 

She was put into a work group in her class at school, where she met Page.  They became instant friends.  Immediately they were planning to play after school. They didn’t live far from each other.  Close enough that they could meet each other in the middle without having their mom’s drive them. 

They would often meet in the park near by after they checked in at home.  They had been playing together for about 2 weeks with no friendship altering moments.  They shared well together without name-calling.   They both loved to play kitchen in the dirt at the park, using the fountain nearby to make all sorts of treats.  Each took turns being Mom, the most coveted role.

They had been happy friends until Page’s older sister, Phoebe came to get Page for dinner. 

“Who’s your friend, Page?”

Doppelganger

"Margery?" Ellen yelled to her knew found friend. "Why do they talk to me that way?"

A pause follows as Ellen searches the air.

"Margery?" She speaks again, not deterred by the disappearing act her friend likes to play. "Why do they sit there so still?"

A man passes Ellen, sadness touches his eyes.

"Margery?" Ellen cries one more time. "Why must you play these games?"  Blank expression flows from Ellen's eyes.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Mom?  How are you feeling today?" A stranger whispers to Ellen.  She looks at him expectantly, knowing that this stranger bears some resemblance to her beloved Charlie.  She waits for Charlie to emerge from this kind man's eyes.  Charlie's doppelganger looks back at her with the same hope and expectation.  Each give up, pushing back the desire for a sweet reunion.

"Mom, its me, Phillip. Your Son."  Each word spoke, Phillip hopes will resonate in his mothers ears, bringing back all of those memories.

Ellen smiles remembering her little boy.  Confused, she wonders how her sweet little man could be this tall, broad shouldered, gentlemen in front of her.

Untitled, Chapter 1

Mary was your average teenager.  She had average looks, average intelligence, and average personality.  There was nothing about Mary that seemed to stand out to anyone other then her parents.  Mary spent her childhood and now high school career under the radar.  To many, Mary wasn’t even near the radar. 

Mary was OK with her status, for the most part.  In her school and community, to go unnoticed was a good thing.  There seemed to be two classes: the perfect and the unwanted.  There was the underground class of the invisibles.  Mary, fortunately, was in that group.  The perfects were the rich, talented, over-achievers who knew what they wanted, knew how to get it and nothing ever stopped them.  The Unwanteds were often the poor, marginalized, under-achievers.  They were often viewed as the dirt on the feet of the Perfects.  Something they stepped on, on their way to success. It was rare that the two ever mixed and even more rare when they switched places.  Being in the unclassifiable class wasn’t an issue for Mary and she planned to keep it that way.  That was until her invisibleness became not so invisible.

It all started the day that Mark Everstein moved into their classified town.  He was an instant Perfect but you’d never hear him call himself that.  Mark’s dad had been a New York City Defense Attorney but after a high profile case ended badly, Mark’s dad decided it was time to move his family to a less “high profile” town.  Little did he know that Lawrence, PA was a high profile community living in a low profile city.

Mark had an eye for the unnoticed.  The obvious and the cliché were like bright colors to a colorblind man.  He saw them but didn’t see what others saw.  What Mark did see was the blacks and whites and especially the grays.  He went out of his way to figure out what made them tick, what put them on the level they were at.  He found Mary pretty quickly.  To him, she was the brightest start.

The day they first met was forever stuck in Mary’s memory.  It would take her a while to figure out if this had become a good memory or a bad one.

13.1

"How did I get here?" Angela thought to herself? "When did I sign up for this and why?" On mile 2 of 13.1, Angela wondered what could be wrong with her that she ever saw this as a good idea.

Angela and her best friend, Maggie, had decided six months ago to sign up for a half marathon in hopes that they'd be inspired to run more often. To give themselves credit, they had run far more then they had 6 months prior but this was borderline certifiable.

Angela was only on mile two and already she was bored and suffering. As she watched people pass her, she was sure she'd be the last person to finish. "There can't be that many people running this race,” she would think to herself.

The pain in her lungs was intense and she wasn't sure that she could suffer through it for eleven and a half more miles. Shaking out the stiffness in her arms, she pushed forward. Two miles was nothing. She ran that three to four times a week. Heck, ten miles wasn't that big a deal anymore. For the last three Saturdays they had run ten to twelve miles each. Now that it was race day, it seemed impossible.

Taillights

Megan watched him drive away. 10 years of marriage fading away with taillights in the night. Just like that. No warning. No explanation. Jason just left. Leaving his five year old son, a crying heap in her arms. The man she loved had left a long time ago now the man she married was following suit.

She knew Jason was unhappy. She knew he was struggling with so many things; marriage, work, his faith and the loss of his parents two years ago. They had tried therapy, prayer, and constant arguing but nothing seemed to bring him back to her.

When Megan got home that night, she found him loading his car. The ache in her gut began immediately. There were no planned trips especially that would take that much luggage. What gave it away though was that he was loading up the Civic. He never drove that car. They had been trying to sell the car for over a year. It wasn't worth much, but she was sure it could get him where he needed to go.

Invisible Regrets

She woke up that morning feeling like something wasn't right. What was wrong? She wasn't sure and couldn't put her finger on the source but she knew today wasn't going to be her day.

Avoiding what was waiting for her, she stayed in bed. Snooze became her best friend and most annoying one at that. Pulling her trusted eye mask over her eyes, she rolled over and waited patiently for the piercing sound to annoy her again.

Finally after an hour, making her extremely late, she pushed the covers down and allowed her eyes to open to the bright morning sun. Glancing out the window she could tell the sky was out in all of its glory, ready for the day ahead. Jessie wasn't ready for what it had to offer her.

Hold Your Breath

Grace wasn't sure how long she had been under but she could feel the pressure on her lungs, the ache in her chest and the need to draw in each breath slowly and intentionally. Devin had challenged her for the 100th time to a "hold your breath" contest. This time, she was determined to win. She had been practicing every day, desperate to add to her 45 second record. Devin had at least 10 seconds on her each weekend and she was determined to finally beat him.

"Ready, set, go", deep breath and they were under water. The pressure the water adds to the hold makes each second feel like minutes. She waited for what felt like a minute before opening her eyes. She knew from experience that to watch Devin made it harder for her to keep her breath. So she waited, eyes closed, dreaming of the ice cream she knew her mom would buy her at the end of the day. Excited about the trip to the fair her parents promised on Sunday. When her head started to go light and her chest started to scream she slowly opened her eyes. Devon was no where to be seen. She didn't know if he was teasing her, psyching her out so she waited until she couldn't wait any longer and then slowly came up for air.