DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from the movie Stand By Me. They belong to the copyright holders (Stephen King and Castle Rock entertainment I think). Jane isn't even mine as it is! Please enjoy and feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Jane looked around slowly. It had taken her only five short hours to get to Castle Rock, but she felt as if she had traveled to a different planet. She sighed, ran a shaky hand through her hair and grasped the car's door handle. Jane drew in a shivering breath, and a single hurt sob escaped her before she could clap a hand brutally over her own mouth. Her eyes shut tightly for a moment.
Janie Girl, you can do this now. You've gotten this far. Now let's try opening the Plymouth's door, stepping out into the warm summer air and taking a look around. Whatta ya say? Wanna take that chance? The inner voice whispered to her, mocking her. Jane shook her head fiercely from side to side and looked around. A mother and child walked by. Janie watched them, her eyes welling up with tears. Her eyes were not sharp now; they were hazy with memory, soft as the eyes of a woman only become when she is remembering the only time in her life that she can say she was truly happy.
~~Denny glides to Jane by the sidelines after the season opener, a large smile on his face. She opens her arms to him and he embraces her, the smell of his sweat mixing in with his cologne.
"Baby, did you see that?! I was on fire tonight!" he says, his voice rising. Jane smiles and kisses his cheek. Denny laughs a bit and then takes her face in his hands.
"Wanna get married?" Jane's eyes light up slightly. She is flabbergasted.~~
And then the memory is swept away. Jane sighs once more and opens the car door. She has now taken one of the biggest steps. Her eyes scan over the town's buildings. Nothing much has changed. Everything has ceased to stop growing. But the trees seemed shorter, the buildings smaller. Maybe she had grown up after all.
After Denny's death, she had just packed up and went to stay with her cousins in New York. A month turned into a year, and now here she was, back in the place she swore she would never come back to. Denny's death had hit her, hit her hard. Maybe she was running away from the spiteful past. Who wouldn't? But standing by her aunt's rusty Plymouth, those old memories started to creep back in. It was if the old Castle Rock had been on pause until today. The same people walked the streets, the same old men sat outside of the barber shop and stared at people walking past.
To Jane, she thought that when someone dies, you bury the mattress they've slept on, you give their clothes to the salvation army, whatever, you put finish to the life any way you can so that the living can get on with theirs. But what struck her the most odd was that nothing had changed since she left. And that made the town more dreamy, more surreal. Of course it was a stupid thought; how can a whole town change but it still stuck in the back of her mind.
______________
She was three blocks away from the car, walking with no sense (clear sense) of where she was going, when she realized she had ended up in front of the small ice cream shop Denny would take her to on Friday nights. Her eyes surveyed the people walking around inside. If someone had walked past and seen her standing there, looking pensively into the store's window, they would have asked her if she was lost.
"Jane?" a voice asked to her left. She turned toward the sound, her heart skipping a beat. It was Gordie. He stood, his hands hanging limply by his sides with Chris and Vern to his right. Both boys mouths dropped open. Gordie stared at her, pale and unmoving.
"Hi Gordie." she replied simply, her face contemplative. They stare at each other for a moment and then Gordie's gazr is broken by Chris's oddly smooth tone of voice.
"W-we'll catch up with you later, LaChance. Meet us at the treehouse after you--" Gordie drops his stare to the floor and nods solemnly. Chris tugged at Vern's arm and started moving. Vern cast an occasional glance backward until the two boys disappeared around the corner and out of sight.
Jane and Gordie stood there a moment longer, both silent and then Jane sighed. She looked up, half-smiling and nodded toward the parlor.
"Hey, you want a root beer float? I could sure use one right now, you little nosebleed. My treat…" Gordie looked up, grinning sheepishly. She started walking then, a chuckle bubbling up from her throat.