Amy gently moved the single pea she had left from one side of her plate to the next with her fork. Her parents were bantering back and forth across the table about the new stoplight going up on Main St. Her brother Bright seemed to be in the same bored sense of mind that she was in, only he was playing with his mashed potatoes.
"Tell me, dear, when's the last time a crash actually happened at that corner?" Dr. Abbott demanded.
"None so far and we'd like to keep it that way! It's just a precaution," his wife replied.
"A precaution costing the town money. Where is this money coming from anyway, hm? The fire department? Our schools? Maybe the hospitals, that's for irony!"
"Can I be excused?" Amy asked them before her mother got to reply. Dr. Abbott examined her plate and let her leave. Following his sister's example, Bright asked for permission to leave as well. He still had mounds of potatoes on his plate so he received a firm "no."
Up in her room Amy walked over to her CD player and hit the 'play' button. When the music started she paused in her steps briefly and closed her eyes. For that moment she enjoyed the beginning notes as she always did. Once the singing began she continued her trip and threw her book bag onto her bed. She only had some Algebra homework tonight, and that was no problem for her. She could never understand those people who have to struggle through Math; it came so easily to her. She got out the sheet and did the ten problems mostly in her head but had to write it all out anyway so she'd receive full credit. She understood the value of always writing the problem out for people who got them wrong, but she never got them wrong.
Once her Algebra homework was finished she sighed, a bit lonely, and her eyes traveled to her dresser. Sitting in front of the mirror was a picture of Colin. He had that great smile of his and the warm feeling in his eyes. She never thought living without him could be so hard. Sure Bright helped her get through it, he missed Colin too. Only he didn't miss her the deep way she did. When Colin wasn't around it was like a part of her was missing. Sure she'd get up and go to school every morning, but on some days it seemed like she was just watching everything happening, like she really wasn't there. She was lonely now and slowly becoming depressed. Her psychologist said that whenever she got depressed she should talk to someone, anyone. Unknowingly her hand reached out and grabbed the phone. She hit three numbers and stopped. That was the wrong number. That was Ephram's number. She hit the connection switch and redialed.
"Yea?" she heard her grandmother's cantankerous voice on the other end. Amy smiled; something about her grandmother always made her smile.
"Hi Grandma. Can I talk to Jig?" Amy asked her.
"Oh, hi Amy. Yea she's right here. It's for you…" Edna said.
"Hello?" Jig asked curiously.
"Jig have you ever been in love?" Amy asked her. There was a pause on the other end.
"Hold on, let me sit down," Jig said and there was another, shorter pause, "I have, but not in the way you're thinking."
"What way am I thinking?" Amy asked walking over and laying on her bed, looking at the ceiling.
"The 'I need you,' 'I can't live without you,' way."
"Something like that. So how have you been in love, and, more importantly, with who?" Amy asked. Some how talking about somebody else's love life helped get her mind off of her own. Jig sighed, realizing she's have to tell for the sake of her cousin's, and her pawn's, happiness.
"It was more of a need, than a love. He was my best friend. We grew up together, same apartment building, same school. He lived right above us."
"What was his name?"
"Isaac Graham. He was Graham and I was Green so we always sat next to each other. It was so much fun growing up. Isaac was this big, beautiful, Puerto Rican guy who all the girls loved, and I was his sarcastic little friend. He wouldn't date a girl unless I gave him the okay. We were really alike; we were basically in the same position growing up. I suppose I loved him," Jig explained and Amy smiled.
"What happened?" Amy asked her, hoping it wouldn't be something horrible and tragic.
"He moved about a year ago, he and his mom. It was a move up though so I'm happy for him. He still calls and writes, we talk online. We're still friends," Jig said and Amy was glad she said that, even if it was a lie, which it could very well be. Amy hoped it wasn't though.
"Maybe you will love him in the type of love I'm talking about some day," Amy suggested and Jig laughed a little.
"I'll have competition," Jig said with a slight chuckle. Amy was curious but figured it best not to ask.
"Do you miss him?"
"I miss other things more," Jig said and for a moment neither of them said anything.
"He'll be okay, Amy," Jig told her in a serious and reassuring tone. Amy nodded knowing Jig wouldn't know she was doing it.
"I know, I just, I just miss him so much. He really was a part of me, you know?"
"Not really, but I know people who do. Listen, Amy, try not to think about the people who aren't around, and try thinking about people who are. Now I don't mean forget about Colin, never do that, I mean look around and see the people who talk to you and touch you every day. The people who aren't ghosts from memories or dreams. The people who smile at you with genuine joy."
"You're talking about Ephram…"
"No, I'm talking about everyone," Jig corrected her and paused, "are you thinking about Ephram?"
"I, I don't know Jig. Ephram is this, this…"
"Yea, I know," Jig said and Amy sighed. She didn't want to think about Ephram, but sometimes she found that she just, did.
"You know tomorrow's Thursday…" Amy said a bit more to remind herself than Jig. There was a pause from the other end of the line.
"Yea… Today's Wednesday, Wednesday is usually followed by Thursday…"
"No, I mean, didn't Ephram tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"You have a date with her and you didn't tell me!" Jig yelled at Ephram as she slammed her books down in front of him on the library table. He jumped a little less than a mile and told her to be quiet. She huffed once and sat down. They were both quiet until they were sure no one was looking at them anymore.
"It's not a date," Ephram leaned forward and whispered to her.
"Will there be food?"
"Yea."
"Will there be friends?"
"No."
"Will there be family?"
"No."
"Is it out in public?"
"Yes."
"Than it's a date Ephram!" Jig yelled in a whisper.
"She's paying," Ephram said. Jig opened her mouth to retort but no sounds came so she closed it again and narrowed her eyebrows confusedly.
"Than I guess it isn't a date…"
"See, I told you," Ephram told her. The reason he hadn't told Jig was because she would think it was a date when it wasn't. Amy was just thanking him for something he didn't do. Jig sighed, recovering from her agitated state.
"It was bold of you though, asking your dad to help Colin," Jig commended him. Ephram said nothing; instead he just looked down at the book he had been reading before Jig's arrival.
"You did ask him, right?" she demanded from him, a growing feeling in her that she wasn't going to like the answer. Ephram bobbed his head from side to side and moved his shoulders a little, giving her a completely useless physical response.
"I haven't gotten around to it, yet, actually," he more mumbled than said, but Jig was expecting the words so she heard them well enough. She clenched her fist and kicked his shin under the table as hard as she could. Ephram yelled out in pain briefly and bent over to rub his leg.
"You are such an asshole!" Jig yelled at him, grabbing her stuff and standing up. She quickly turned and walked away from him. Ephram sighed, grabbed his stuff, and limped after her.
He finally caught her in the hallway once feeling was back in his leg. It was after school hours so they were all alone in the hallway. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, making her look and talk to him.
"Look! I regret it, okay? I was scared! I thought she only talked to me to get to my dad!" he confessed. Jig was still angry but no longer in the mood to physically injure him.
"And now, huh? What about now Ephram? Why haven't you told her you lied to her?" she demanded from him as he looked away from her, shame covering his face.
"Because she might kick me," he told her as a joke, though he didn't say it as one and she didn't take it with any humor.
"You deserved to be kicked, Ephram Brown. And Amy's too nice to do it, she likes you too much!" Jig told him and again he looked away. Jig now saw the regret on his face to the full extent so she sighed and rubbed the space between her eyes.
"Look, you can't go tonight," she told him. His head snapped back to look at her.
"Why not?" he asked her. Time alone with Amy was what he wanted more than anything in the world, just short of his mother. Jig sighed, aggravated that he would even ask.
"Because you don't deserve to go, Ephram! You can't get the prize if you didn't earn it, that's how it works," she told him. He nodded his head, knowing it was true enough.
"So what do we do?"
"'We' now is it? I don't remember being informed of this dinner so you have lost all of your 'we' privileges here, pal," Jig told him. That made Ephram's eyebrows furrow.
"You mean, with all the crap you haven't told me, that when I neglect to tell you one thing, you're just going to leave me?" he demanded from her angrily. That didn't make any sense and it wasn't fair. Now Jig turned her head away, more in avoidance than regret.
"I told you I don't want to talk about it, Ephram…" she reminded him.
"I don't care about why you're here anymore, I've given up on that. Okay, listen, we'll be even if you just tell me one thing," he told her. Cautiously she turned back to face him.
"What 'thing?'" she asked carefully.
"That necklace you're always wearing. I only see the chain around your neck, what's on it?" he asked her. Her hand raised immediately to the chain of small silver balls that loops around her neck and disappeared under her shirt. She sighed and with her two hands pulled the entire thing into view. At the end of the chain was a pair of dog tags. Ephram's eyes narrowed curiously and Jig sighed again.
"They're my dad's. That's how he and my mom met. They were posted together. They fell in love, got married, and then she got pregnant, so they sent her home. When she was about six months pregnant she found out his platoon had come under attack… These tags are all that's left of him, they're all that were found…" Jig told him. Ephram was silent. There was really nothing he could do but be silent. Her eyes had been on the dog tags as she spoke, but his eyes had been on her. She looked morose, but not to the point of tears of any sort. Not liking seeing Jig look like that, his eyes finally went to the dog tags she held in her fingers. He could see the name 'Donald Green' pressed into the metal. After a few moments of uneasy silence Ephram grabbed her arm lightly.
"Come on, I'll take you home. We have three hours to think about what to do about dinner," he said and they left the hallway.
