Real Life
By Lauren Pauley
I strutted down the aisle, trying my best to keep my eyes straight ahead and not cry. I can't believe this is happening! I thought excitedly, smiling vibrantly. My eyes moved forward to Jake and I smiled. He was wearing a very handsome black velvet suit and had a white rose corsage pinned to his suit, the white rose being my personal favorite flower. He was smiling at me; I knew we would be together as long as we were alive. I hadn't seen him for a day because of that old folk's tale that Jake believed in, but it felt like an eternity not seeing him, or being able to touch him or feel his arms around me. I got to the front as my dad led himself to his seat. Wait. Dad? He's dead… what's happening here? As I ran out of the church my white heels clicking as I stepped, I saw smoke and heard a buzz of a fire alarm and then… My eyes popped open to the buzz of my alarm. I groaned loudly and reached over to turn it off. That was the second time I've had a dream with Dad in it, I missed him, and I know that I yearn for him to be there with me on my wedding day with Jake. I pushed the thoughts of my dad out of my head. I lifted my left hand and watched my diamond engagement ring glowing in the sun brightly. Only four more weeks. I thought smiling brightly to myself, not remembering anything about my previous thoughts of my dad. My phone buzzed loudly against my cedar nightstand. "Hello?" I answered groggily almost ready to yawn. "Hey sweetie it's Jake, I'm just calling to say I landed safe, sorry if I woke you." Jake answered on the other end radiantly, noticing my groggy sounding voice. "No, its ok I just got up." I said leaning forward and sliding on my slippers, my blanket wrapped around my shoulders. "How was the flight? Is it sunny?" I peeked out the window to see what seemed like a foot of snow and the sun shining brightly, shadowed by a thin layer of grey clouds. "It's beautiful down here, I wish you were here with me, I miss you." He said his voice falling slightly saying his last sentence. "You'll be fine Hun, you'll be back in a week and then we can plan the wedding together." I rushed into my robe holding the phone to my shoulder, smiling at the fact of how much he cared. "Oh, my boss is coming, I got to go, love you so much, and I'll call you later tonight ok?" "Okay, love you too hunny, talk to you later, bye." I said hanging up the phone, wanting to see my love. Just a week. I thought quoting myself with a surge of pain and envy of the people who can be with him. It wouldn't seem like 'just a week.' It would slowly drag on forever as if a year. I sighed heavily, tromping down the stairs. It felt strange here without Jake; empty and lonely. I sighed again. This is going to be a long week. I thought walking into the kitchen, trying to remember the next time the maid would be at the house, just so I could talk to her. Maybe I'll go to Donna's house. I thought as I opened the cupboards and pulled out my favorite cereal. I turned to the next cupboard and pulled out a spoon, a plastic bowl. Then I got milk out of the fridge and poured the milk onto my cereal. I fell down onto the couch, placing the milk and cereal on the coffee table in front of me and changing the channel news. I sat on the couch as the newsman finished a story, "As the girl was pulled out of her house, the fire collapsed the top of the house." A swooshing noise was made by the TV as words came onto the screen. "Now it's time for Neighborhood Watch. The killer known as the "Minnesota Masker" has been captured, but a new killer is on the loose, he's killed three people, but only 2 have been found. He has been known to drag people out of their houses at night with a strong sleeping drug." I shuttered and puller my blanket over my shoulders and paused my chewing "So those in the Montana area need to lock their doors and try not to drive at night. In other news..." The anchorman went on with the next story. A cold chill ran down my back. Will he come here? Was all I could think as I slowly chewed my cereal. I stood up in my slippers and went back to the kitchen and washed off my bowl in the sink, and then I rushed up the stairs to take a quick shower before getting ready to go and doing things like blow drying my hair, curling it, and getting dressed for work. I sluggishly got dressed, putting on a purple camisole, my favorite dark blue skinny jeans, and my light brown boots, which always seemed to get more torn up each time I wore then. I looked at myself in the mirror to brush through my hair and sighed as I pulled through the tangles. Same as I'll always be. I thought frowning slightly I need something new. I thought, adding a mental note to go to the mall after work, maybe with Donna. I slid a brush through another hunk of my hair, watching it as it gleamed darkly in the sun. I glanced at myself in the mirror again. I don't look 20, more like 18 or something. I thought frowning and heavily sighing again. I glanced at the clock as it glowed 7:36. If I don't hurry I would be late for work again. I thought of last Wednesday as I rushed down the stairs. I hesitated at the door, wondering if I should take my Volvo or Jake's truck. I decided to take the truck when I glanced out the window passed the deck and saw the thick layer of snow covering my Volvo. I raced down the hallway and grabbed the keys to Jake's truck. I turned the corner passing the kitchen and went down the small stair case to the secluded garage. When I got into the garage, I went quickly passed the tool shelf to the driver's side of Jake's truck. I clicked my buckle and opened the visor to look in the mirror and did my make up before turning on the engine and turning on the heater, shivering and trying to regain my body heat. I soon opened the garage, heading for my quaint office building by the freeway. On the way out of the neighborhood, I saw a man with a brown gruff beard and a wool cap on; He had a terrible plaid lumberjack's shirt on, and a pair of worn light blue jeans. I tried not to look at him because he seemed to be staring right at me, with a confused, or interested, look. I raced to the nearest highway, by my work, passing A Starbucks and the little mall which was the center of our whole town. I thought about my route to work, which took about fifteen minutes to get to the office because of all the lights and stops on the way. I got to work about 8:10 so I had to park quickly and rush inside, because Ms. Selena always got to work at 8:20 sharp, as if she were on a timer. I rushed down the hallways trying to avoid familiar faces I would usually stop and chat with, everything didn't seem to matter, and I knew if I were late I would be fired. I rushed into the girl's locker room and quickly changed into the uniform I hated so much, my plain white top with a plain black pencil skirt and black paradas. I can't wait to get out of here and back into college. I thought smiling, thinking of all the great times I had in high school and all the fun I would have in college. I rushed on my heels as I raced out the door and to my desk, just in time to hear the office chime, "Good morning Ms. Selena." As my well-dressed boss came in, in one of her usual beautiful flowing dresses, that she most likely designed herself. She always seemed so ravishing, with her perfect hair and clothes, it surprised that she was not married. There had been rumors around the office that she was secretly seeing someone, but no one really knew who, she always seemed to flirt with her assistant, but Jair was always bugging the others about not dating people in the office, to avoid unnecessary drama among co-workers. I pretended to be deep in a conversation on the phone with a costumer complaining about a defective item as she strutted by, showing off to the rest of the office, and waving quickly to those of higher value to her. I was just some 'costumer service girl' to her. I had gotten a few compliments for her, on my hair, and I had sometimes brought up the subject of being able to wear clothes that looked professional, but were comfortable too. I had always had an issue with my outfit; it was itchy and not flattering to anyone. I heard the slam of the front door of our office and quickly turned in surprise to see the same man I had earlier encountered on my drive to work in my neighborhood, the one that had looked straight at me. He slowly made his way over to my desk, before leaning to close to comfort by my face. "Excuse me miss, you left your garage door open when you left this morning and I wanted to warn you about it. It's mighty dangerous lately with that serial killer out there lately; you might want to be more careful." He said in a light south accent, probably from Texas or some other state, then gave me a quick wink as his sour breathe embraced my face. I felt a shiver go up my spine. "Um, thanks sir, I'll get back to that later but thank you for the concern." I said struggling to find my words. He slowly walked out, waving to random by standers as I sat by and answered the phone. "Hello, Selena's Fashion Department, how may I help you?" The women on the other end started ranting about some problem with a jacket as I stared into space and caught few of what she was saying. I quickly caught the words and started to listen when someone else's phone rang and got me out of my trance. "Uh-huh, I'll see what we can do to fix your jacket, just bring it in to the store you bought it from and talk to the person at the costumer service desk and they will help you any further." Feeling anxious, I hung up the phone and strutted over to Jair's desk. "Is Miss Selena available to talk Jair?" He looked up at my and smiled and then looked down at his schedule book. "Sorry Jess, she's in a conference call right now, but she should be out in a sec, is everything all right Hun?" "Yeah, I'm just feeling sort of sick and I wanted to see if I could talk her into going home." Jair gave me a pouty face. "I'm sorry Hun; I'll call for you when she gets out." I smiled slightly. "Thanks Jair." I walked passed a few other customer service desks to Donna's. "Hey Donna." I said approaching her with a smile. She stood up with a big smile. "Hey Jess! What's up?" She said hugging me over her desk. "The most bizarre thing happened, I was driving to work this morning and this man was staring at me, and he was very creepy looking, but I just kept on my way cause I didn't want to be late, but then when I got to work today, after Ms. Selena went by, he came in and told me my garage door was opening, but I remember closing it." I said in a rush, hoping the only Donna heard what I was saying. "That's really creeper. Did you know the guy, like from the neighborhood or something?" Said Donna, of course she had questions, she practically always did. "No, that's the weird thing I have no idea who he is, he just showed up out of nowhere, I've never seen him before, not walking or anything, and nobody has moved in forever." She had a confused look on her face. "That's really weird; I hope that you'll be okay." I smiled at her courtesy. "Thanks for caring Donna; I'm sure I'm just being paranoid or something." I heard Jair call my name, "Jess! She's open to talk now." I trotted past my co-workers and knocked on her golden wood door. "Come in." Ms. Selena's melodic voice came from the office. I slowly walked in through her door. "Is something wrong darling?" She said as I approached. "Can I go home early today? I can work for a few more hours, but after that I would like if I could go home." She frowned looking concerned. "Sure darling just tell Jair when you're going to leave." She said looking back to her work. "I will thanks." I replied faintly. I worked for a few more hours, taking about 20 more calls and eating my lunch with Donna, we talked about the man a little more and the wedding, she was my maid of honor, of course, and she was about as excited as me for the wedding. I decided to stay the whole day, I thought I was kind of overreacting about the whole thing that happened. As I left, I slowly got in the elevator by myself with no one else in it besides the 'friendly' camera in the top right corner, which I almost always waved to as I entered the elevator. I clicked on the down button, and watched as I went down, looking through the see through glass out to the beautiful view around me, soon disappearing by the ground as I went down to the parking lot. The elevator slowly opened as it stopped at the parking lot. I quickly trotted to Keith's truck, unlocking it as I approached, with the sensor keys. I always seemed to be creeped out by being alone in the parking lot, it reminded me of all the horror movies where the women would get murdered or stalked when they were alone. I got inside quickly and locked the doors as I listened to the roar of the start of the engine. I turned on the radio to see if I could run to a near-by mall without getting stuck in traffic for about half an hour. "Traffic will be backed up, because of an accident on south-bound 45." There go my hopes. "The weather calls for about 3 more inches of snow and a foot in the mountains. Tomorrow will be cloudy, with a chance of heavy snow fall. Wednesday.." He continued with the forecast as I listened quietly, waiting for the car in front of me to move. "Breaking news, we have found new news about the killer on the loose. His third victim, the one of which he killed the sister of, has been found on a near-by highway, have alive. She has not been able to comment and we don't have a quote from her just yet but we will try to soon. In other news, a man in Colorado has been accused of robbing a corner grocery.." He continued with the report as I pulled into my driveway, turning off the engine, I hopped out and slammed the door behind me. My garage wasn't open, I realized quickly, shivering and feeling confused again. I rushed around the corner and up stairs to my bedroom, and called Donna. "Hello?" She answered brightly. "Hey donna, it's Jess," I answered her quickly. "Do you think we could have like a sleepover, like in the old days? I just feel kind of lonely without Jake here, and that whole thing with that man.." I cold chill went down my spine. "Oh my gosh, sure! That would be totally awesome, you can come over in about half an hour or so, I'm having Teddy over tomorrow and we can talk and stuff, it'll be awesome." I smiled inside. "Okay, that sounds awesome; I'll see you soon, bye." "See ya!" She replied on the other end before I hung up. I started to get ready to go and packed all I needed for at least a week at Donna's, enough clothes that I somehow crammed into one suitcase, even though I'd only be there for at least 3 days. I rushed through the bathroom grabbing what I would need, hairbrush, toothbrush, etc, and quickly grabbed for my teddy bear I'd had since I was 3, named Mr. Cuddles, even though he was about as fluffy as a porcupine, and had holes all over his body that were sewn up. Soon after, I raced back down the stairs, going outside and threw my luggage into my Volvo, I felt a need for speed at the moment, and I knew Keith's truck couldn't stop fast enough for the speed that I yearned for. I hoped into the driver's seat and buckled my seatbelt and waited a few minutes for the car to defrost from its freezing state that it was at. After a few moments, I was racing down the street to Donna's house across town, driving madly through the streets, rushing through yellow lights and honking my horn at anyone that was going only a mile under the speed limit. I reached it in a few minutes. I rang her doorbell, waiting for a minute before ringing it again, getting impatient. "I'm coming, stop nagging me." I heard Donna yell from inside. "Okay, it's just really cold out here, and I'm a little nervous for some reason." Donna swung open her door in sweatpants and a tanktop. I laughed then said, "You didn't need to dress up for me." She laughed too and replied, "You like it?" and did a little spin, showing off her worn out outfit. We both laughed a little and than she invited me in. "do you want some cocoa?" She called from the kitchen around the corner. "Ya, sure that sounds great." I said as I looked around. "Have you redecorated?" "Ya, you like it? I had Jair help me pick out some colors, he used to be an interior designers assistant and he caught on to a lot of the skills." Donna replied as she walked from the kitchen to the living room in front of me. "Do you want to watch some TV and the news to see if we can go on a run or something tomorrow?" Donna asked, sounding excited. I nodded slowly and reached for the remote, turning the channel to the news. "… As the police expected." The news woman exclaimed on the TV, finishing a story. "The weather for the next few days should be cold, theres been a change in the weather and instead of snow, we're getting rain, it will ran for the next 2 or 3 days then the temperatures will drop back down, creating a layer of ice on the roads. Then it will continue to snow again. In other news, the sister of the victim to a murder was found half dead by a highway in Montana. She's 16, here's a word from her." Another voice broke onto the TV, no picture was shown. "I-it was so cold... He had my sister and I tied to a chair and he kept whipping us and threatening us, I couldn't help her. I couldn't stop him!" The meek voice sobbed. The news woman's voice came back onto the speakers, as it went back to the news room. "She has identified the man as a Caucasian male, in early forty, with light brown hair and a brown beard. We had an artist draw a picture of him." A picture came up on the screen; I froze as I stared into the face of a man. The same one from my neighborhood. The same one from the office. The same man that had told me my house had been venerable and open to the world. The same one that had, maybe, been in my house when I wasn't home. The same one that had stared straight at me as I drove by. "Jess, are you okay? Jess?" I could hear Donna call in the distance. I blacked out and fell down beside her.