"Leslie…no…why"
mumbled Jess Aaron's as he twisted and turned in his sleep. It has been seven years
since the worst day in his life.
"Please Leslie…no" he continued to mumble. His eyes suddenly shot open. He was
breathing hard and sweat glistened off of his neck in the moonlight from his window.
"again" he asked himself as he lowered himself back to his pillow. It has been the same
nightmare for over two weeks now. When Leslie died it really crushed his soul. No one
saw through the act he was playing but inside Jess Aaron's was falling apart, crumbling.
All because of a mistake. She was his only true friend and it continued to stay like that
for seven years. A solitary tear slid down his cheek as he repeated her name "Leslie.."
Jess grabbed his blanket, pulled it up to his head, and slowly drifted back to sleep.
The next day Jess awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs from downstairs. He
slowly got out of his bed and looked around with an expression that was half sleepy, and
half puzzled.
"Hello" Jess yelled downstairs.
"good Morning" came a female voice from the kitchen. Jesses eyes widened as he
jumped out of bed and scrambled to put some clothes on. He put on a pair of dirty jeans
and a stained white tee-shirt.
"Mom" he yelled as he ran down the steps, almost tripping on the last one. "What the
hell?" he ran into the kitchen and saw his mom, Nancy smiling at him, with breakfast on
the table.
"I thought I would surprise you," she said still smiling. "You have been in here for three
days without leaving." Jess just stared at her.
"Thanks" he muttered. He walked to the table and sat down. Nancy grabbed the plates
from the cabinet and brought them over to the table. They both made there own plates
and started eating. During the breakfast, Nancy tried making conversation, but Jess
ignored everything she said. Eventually Nancy started to get annoyed.
"What's wrong with you jess" she asked him. She had concern written all over her face.
Jess looked up at her.
"just been thinking about something's" he whispered. Nancy looked deep into her sons
eyes.
"Her" she asked him. Jess nodded. He went back to eating and did not say another word.
Later Jess hugged his mom goodbye and closed the door behind her. He then
locked it. he gave a sigh and headed up the stairs to his room, his only refuge. All that
jess does now is draw is his room. When jess got inside of his room and had his
sketchbook in his hands a image appeared in his head.
"Leslie?"
he started to draw furiously on the pad and did not stop until 2 hours had passed. He
stared at his drawing. It was mediocre at best but if someone who saw it knew Leslie they
would know that it was her. He felt happy for once. He could draw Leslie again,
something he could not do for the last three years. He closed his sketchpad and decided
he wasn't going to sit around his house today. He was going outside and doing something
social, The word social scared jess. Without Leslie, everything scared jess. He got into
fresh, clean clothes grabbed his wallet off of the counter and headed out into the city.
He did everything fun he could imagine that day. He went to the movies, spent
sometime at an arcade, and even took long runs in the park. Nothing could have made
this day any better. First he remembered what Leslie looked like and then he spent the
day actually doing something. It wasn't until darkness fell over the city that jess thought
it was time for him to head back. He walked the dark streets a few blocks away from his
house trying to discover the quickest and safest route back to his house.
"If only Leslie was with me. She would help me get back," he thought to himself. He
started to run again. He came to an alley way and say a street sign at the end of it with his
street name on it. he laughed to himself at getting scared, and thinking he was lost. He
turned down the alleyway and was almost to the end when everything went black.
"What the hell…?"
Jess opened his eyes and looked around him. He opened his moth and screamed at what
he saw. Nothing, he was in a white void nothing on either side of him.
"Hello" he cried out. "Is anyone out there?" he took a few steps and a figure materialized
in front of him. It was a average height man, dressed all in white. He had bright, piercing
blue eyes and a long flowing white beard.
"hello…" Jess started to say before the man interrupted him
"Jesse Aaron's" he stated in a deep bold voice.
"yes" Jess said. The man in white gave out a deep laugh.
I wasn't asking you if it was your name I was stating to all of the observers" he said. Jess
looked around again and say them. They looked like shadows but were not dark at all.
They were actually shining.
"where am I" jess said boldly.
"Heaven" the man said.
Jess couldn't believe what he was hearing. Heaven, that can't be right. He did not die. Or
did he?
"Am I dead" he asked.
"No I just sent for you to fix the mistake I made so long ago" the white man Jess
presumed to be God said. Jess could not take it any more. His legs buckled and he fell to
the floor.
"Is this my fate" he asked God. "Is this my fate to walk the earth alone, with every ounce
of life taken from me when you took Leslie" he was screaming now. He was crying. He
then looked around in the crowds around him hoping to see her. She did in fact go to
heaven of course, right?
"No Jess, I am dreadfully sorry about Leslie. I thought it was her time to go" God said.
And let out a sigh.
"wait, you thought" Jess stuttered. How could God be wrong?
"when I took that girl from the world I had hoped her soul would be inside you now and
you would possess every trait she had. I was wrong. You lost everything when I took her
and now I am fixing my mistake." God said as he put his hand on jesses shoulder. He c
ould feel the warmth of his touch.
"what do you mean" Jess asked him. He wasn't crying anymore but the tears still stayed
on his face.
"I am going to give you the chance to save her, Jess Aaron's" God stated in his deep
voice again. "I will turn back time to the day it happened. You will have all your
memories for the last seven years and everything you learned. Only you can save her. It is
your choice." He said. Jess did not understand the words he just heard. God smiled at
him and waved at jess in a farewell like gesture. Then everything went black again.