The Girl Next Door

Benny's grandmother's favourite pizza toppings were anchovies, onions, green peppers and extra garlic. Nobody else save Benny and Rory were fond of this combination; even then it was far from Benny's preference. But given Benny's grandmother was paying (and she did have to pay, the pizza arrived within a half-hour!), nobody complained.

Jane was doubly happy. Not only did she get pizza, but she was able to stay up late to have her share of the extra-large snack.

"Did I say sorry enough?" Ethan asked Sarah jokingly, when they had finished their slices and were sitting on the sofa. "How many times did I tell you that you were right?"

"Enough to think we have might have a good thing going" Sarah replied in kind. "And Ethan. When you have a girlfriend, it's usually okay to put your arm around her shoulders."

A skeptic might have found it unromantic, but Sarah loved the fact she had to remind the thoroughly geeky and decent Ethan that there wasn't a problem in putting his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders.

"Well, I've learned my lesson" said Benny. "And thanks guys, for offering to help me wash and wax Grandma's car tomorrow."

"It's the least we can do" said Ethan. "Especially since we're grateful for having the future erased from our minds."

"Yeah" said Rory. "You can count on the Ror-ster to wash down your roadster."

"A roadster is an open car with two seats, Rory" Benny said forcefully. "Basically, your two seat convertible."

"Really? I didn't know that" Rory answered. "Wouldn't it be great if the Ror-ster drove a Roadster? It's the human way, the real way, to speed down the road and through the wind. No, it would be better to have a plane! An old school aeroplane! The human way to fly through the air and the wind! I can just see me now! Flying an awesome old school biplane. Just like the kind Air Marshal Billy Bishop flew during WWI . . . .

Ethan's parents returned home a short while later. Jane was sent to bed. Benny and his grandmother walked to their house, taking the short cut across the yard.

Ethan's father drove Rory home. Ethan's father remembered that Rory had once had such bad night vision that he was next to helpless without a flashlight or the light on his smart phone. Strangely, Rory hadn't been stumbling through the dark these past couple years. But now, Ethan asked his dad to again do Rory the favour of driving him home.

Funny, on the drive, Rory practically bragged about his inability to see well in the dark! There was also the weird fact that Rory stunk strongly of garlic. It smelt as if the kid had been eating garlic all day. Well, Ethan's father figured, if anyone could stand stuffing themselves with garlic without a bad case of heartburn . . . it would be a teenage boy.

Ethan had a lot more fun walking Sarah home. The upshot of the evening had been that Ethan no longer wondered about the years ahead. He knew that he was better off not knowing; he should take life as it came. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Ethan should be prepared for the future, in the way an ordinary high school student might be. Doing his homework, thinking about university, maybe even considering his career and perhaps saving some money. But Ethan's being prepared was different than viewing his future in advance.

If the future would be like the last month or so, it would be as awesome as Benny believed it would be. Ethan's friends were no longer so freaky; Sarah, Rory and even Erica had been brought back to normal by the destruction of the lucifractor. Benny's magic was all for the good; not to mention often really fun. Ethan felt confident that he could use his seer gift to help the people of Whitechapel without having to live in supernatural weirdness day in and day out. That reminded him . . . .

"Have you ever noticed my eyes when I'm seeing things" Ethan asked Sarah, as they went up towards her house. "I mean, visions. I mean how the eyeballs are all glowing and the pupils dilated?"

"What about it?" asked Sarah.

"Does it, you know, freak you out?" asked Ethan.

"After all I've been through the last couple years?" laughed Sarah. "Get real. Okay, I prefer your eyes the way they are now. Deep and brown and, well, sincere. But really, I appreciate it when your eyes turn wonky. Your seeing is such a part of you."

"I don't think so" Ethan replied. "Not really. I'm still the same guy I was two years ago, before I started having these visions."

"It shows how brave you are, Ethan" said Sarah. "You're a geek, but you may be just about the bravest guy I've ever known. I realize that instead of fighting evil you'd rather be among your video games, your Battlestar Galactica, your Star Wars, your license plate and toy robot collections. But you choose to fight the good fight because you've been given this big gift. You maintains le droit. Like the Mounties, you maintain the right here in Whitechapel. And sometimes you even have a great time doing it!

"A lot of the fun comes from going through all with you" said Ethan, blushing a little as he stepped up on Sarah's front porch. "To me, you're the girl next door. With a heart that's pure. Nothing that's happened has ever changed that. I don't think anything ever will."

Ethan leant in to kiss Sarah, without hesitation and little of his usual gawkiness. Funny how just a few weeks practice made all the difference! Odd how Sarah called his eyes deep, brown and sincere, when that was just how Ethan would have described Sarah's! Strange how wrapping your arms around your girl and giving her a long kiss was unlike anything Ethan had experienced before these past few weeks.

Frack! It was far too soon for Sarah's father to start blinking the porch lights! Ah well. Ethan had a car to help wash and polish in the morning.

The End