I t was an ordinary day in every sense of the word. Samantha or Sam as she preferred to be called had just come home from High School.. She was a Sophomore even though she was only fourteen.
Unknown to Sam at the time, this particular day would haunt her for years to come. Mark was at football practice and mom wasn't home yet either. Vaguely Sam remembered her mom telling her that she had a meeting and her father would pick her up after it. Sam started on the cookies she needed to make for the school bake sale. She mixed the dough and followed the instructions, measuring the ingredients carefully.
She and her mother often cooked together with her mom showing her little tricks of the trade like packing the brown sugar but not the white flour and scraping the top of the measuring cup with a butter knife to get an accurate amount.
Sam's favorite activity was sifting the flour she loved how the flour changed into a fine powder and the sediment of the remaining nuggets clung to the mesh. Scientifically she knew that the flour being forced against the mesh caused the dense particles to break down into finer ones and the aerated flour ensured the cookies were light and flaky. Secretly she enjoyed the puff of fine mist that settled and spun up again as the flour was sifted and the fine powder product created.
She had just put her final batch in the oven when her father came in the door looking forlorn and lost.
"Dad, what's wrong? Where's mom, weren't you supposed to pick her up?"
"Samantha, sit down I need to tell you something."
"What is it dad you're scaring me, where's mom?"
"Oh God I don't know how to tell you this, your mom, she took a taxi because I was late coming to pick her up and …."
"What dad, what happened to mom she's okay, isn't she? Is she in the hospital?"
"No…She…you see the taxi…the taxi got into an accident…"
He took a deep breath, "Your mom, she died at the scene they couldn't save her."
No no no no, this couldn't be happening her mother couldn't be dead she just saw her before she went to school and there was just no way she could be dead, but Sam looked at the devastation in her fathers' eyes and his hardened solider façade cracking.
Only the death of his wife would have been able to affect him like that.
Sam realized her father was telling the truth and her mother was dead.
If her father said anything else after that Sam didn't hear him she was too busy trying not to succumb to the overwhelming sadness that was breaking her young heart. The cookies never got eaten and Sam never set foot in the kitchen to bake or cook again.
Sam barely remembered the funeral or the wake it all passed in some weird kind of dream like state that she prayed she'd wake up from soon and everything would be how it was.
Mark became bitter and angry fighting with his father and blaming him for his mother's death. Sam still grieving herself shut off her emotions and poured herself into her studies at school. She tried to make her father proud of her but he was so lost without his wife that he immersed himself in his work and traveled a lot.
Jacob found it easier to deal with everything if he wasn't at home so he stayed gone most of the time. Being in the military it was easy to volunteer to go on missions and stay gone for months at a time.
Lucky for Sam and Mark that when Jacob left on assignment, he sent Sam's Godfather George Hammond to watch them. Sam loved her godfather and had a good relationship with him.
He told her that her father still loved Sam and her brother, Mark but right now it was too hard to be around them because they reminded him of his wife. George took Sam to the air shows and tried help cultivate her dream of flying and becoming an astronaut . He knew it wouldn't be easy with the way Jacob was acting Sam would be likely to shun the military and everything it stood for because of her father.
He was somewhat surprised to learn that Sam had become closed off emotionally and he decided to take some steps to remedy that situation. He arranged for her to attend, "Science It's a Girl Thing" a week long workshop designed for gifted and talented students pairing them with a science professional. If anything could jumpstart her interest in school and learning he hoped this would. Sam would be staying at the dorms for the duration of the program and he hoped it would rekindle her interest again.
Sam knew what Uncle George was trying to do but she just couldn't get interested in school anymore she was hurting and her mom was gone. Her dad was too lost in his own grief to help her and she needed him desperately. She was still keeping up okay but her thirst for learning was gone as was her desire. She would go to the science thing to please her uncle George but she wasn't going to like it.
Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
The first day she met three other girls that would be sharing her room with her they seemed nice but Sam wasn't too interested in getting to know them. All the friends she made she eventually had to say goodbye to so she just quit making them after awhile preferring to study in the library during breaks and lunch. Unfortunately one girl named
Torri wouldn't take no for an answer. Come on Sam we have to go check out the University Center and all the cute boys. Sam hadn't really had any interest in boys besides liking some of the same things they did like cars and motorcycles. Torri however was determined and Sam decided it might be easier just to let the girl drag her around than trying to dissuade her.
"Okay I'm coming", she said
"You are not wearing that Torri exclaimed horrified."
Sam had on her blue jeans and a nice oversized T-shirt.
"What's wrong with what I am wearing?"
"That shirt is too big for you and those jeans don't fit well either. You can borrow some of my clothes and then tomorrow we are going shopping."
She reluctantly changed, she had to admit the jeans were much better fitting than hers and the top she picked out was form fitting without being too revealing. Sam was still not comfortable with all her body's changes over the last year but she had noticed she wasn't as skinny as she used to be and Mark's friends seemed to notice her a lot more.
She started to put her long blond hair into it's usual ponytail but Torri stopped her saying "no, leave it down it looks better that way."
Sam in her new outfit and styled hair walked into the Center with Torri. Two other girls from the program came over and introduced themselves as well. There were two guys playing pool and Sam walked over to them. Torri wasn't that good at pool but Sam who had been playing for awhile gave her some pointers. The guys Larry and Todd were impressed by Sam's pool playing and invited her to play with them. They played in pairs and soon Sam and Torri were winning the game. They decided to meet tomorrow after the morning session.
"That was fun I am glad you talked me into it"
"You seemed sad when I met you and I wanted you to feel better."
"My mom died recently"
"oh Sam I am sorry I didn't mean to.."
"No you are right, I haven't been very happy, but thanks tonight I had fun and it took my mind off of, she hesitated not wanting to voice her emotions but needing to, well being sad. "
Torri didn't know what to say to Sam so she settled for, "You looked great in that outfit and I am glad you had fun tonight."
The week passed by quickly with Sam rediscovering her zest for learning and being challenged. Torri and she became fast friends and suddenly Sam didn't feel so sad all the time. The professors invited Sam to attend a special seminar later in the summer in Washington DC it was an opportunity to work with a leading researcher in the field of her choice. Sam loved physics and math so she chose that."
George Hammond didn't recognize the confident happy teenager who came back to him.
He was glad he had made the decision to let her go. Sam excitedly told him about the Washington seminar she had been invited to as well. She was blossoming into the confident young woman he had met in 1969. Not that he would ever tell her but he knew how important she would turn out to be for his future.
By the time she got back from Washington, she had already impressed the professors and the researcher she was working with and they invited her to be an intern for them next summer. She had barely started High School but already she had placed out of all her freshman and sophomore classes with her guidance counselor telling Hammond that she recommended dual placement next year. Sam would continue her high school courses but at the same time take course at the local college as well if she wanted to she could live in the dorm as well.
This was a good solution because Jacob was still overseas and Hammond would have to be going TAD soon as well. He felt bad leaving her but he knew that she was more than capable to stay by herself and he would visit her as often as he could.
TBC
