Chapter 23
Nothing is Real
Christmas Day 2005
Same nightThe answer to the question was pending in the light misty air during the one fifteen
o'clock in the morning hour of a nice middle class neighborhood in San Diego,
California. Torey Becker could not believe her ears. Not five minutes ago she was the
one this time who was going to end the relationship and here Drake was like the scene
out of some two-hankie romantic tearjerker on bended knee, proposing marriage, and
presenting her with the prettiest ring she ever saw in her entire young life. A sapphire
heart and two mini diamond mini heart chips on each side of the white gold banded
ring. It may not have been the most expensive piece of jewelry ever made, but it was the
most beautiful piece of jewelry that she had ever seen. They were slightly covered in a
light film of raindrops. Still weren't they just in her words two stupid kids in love? This
was the big league. They couldn't afford any more relationship landmines not if they
were going to get married. Maybe every couple had a harmless tiff now and again, but
weren't true couples supposed to be above it all? Maybe that wasn't the most human
way to look at it, but it's what all the teenage magazines reported about issues of the
heart alongside of articles of eating disorders and how to look like your favorite celebrity
who ironically had the eating disorder the magazine warned you about.
"Drake, I," She knew the tears were going to start to flow once she opened up her
mouth, "Yes!"
She breathed a sigh of relief. Drake smiled as he put the ring on her finger.
Torey wrapped around her arms around Drake tight. "I love you so much."
"I love you too."
They kissed each other forgetting that they were outside.
"I'm sorry about how I acted before." Drake said as they held hands.
He loved how the ring looked on his fiancées finger.
Fiancée.
Before Torey came into his life Drake never gave marriage much thought. He always
assumed if he wasn't married by forty he was going to be one of those life long
bachelors who try to convince themselves that scoring was more important than having
a meaningful relationship.
"It's okay."
She loved how engagement ring looked on her finger.
"No, it's not. I never should have looked for a hidden meaning to you wanting a winter
coat. I was just extremely nervous about proposing."
"It's okay, Drake, really. This explains your up and down moods."
"Now I have to be a bastard and tell you, you can't wear your ring all the time."
"You aren't. I know I can't. Between my Mom and your parents we'd be lectured to
death."
Drake put his hands on Torey's shoulders. "Speaking of your Mom, she won't be home
for a few hours right?"
Torey smiled, "As always, you read my mind."
To think Drake was this close on not proposing tonight and taking Torey home earlier
than planned because he had a bee in his bonnet over her leaving for college without
him.
He kissed her on the tip of her nose. "Merry Christmas, baby."
Torey was jubilant to see Drake smile. To think she was going to close her diary with
heartbroken rant now she would be able to end her life script on a positive note that
someday she was going to be Mrs. Torey Becker-Parker.
"Merry Christmas, Drake."
Torey rested her head on Drake's shoulder on the whole while it took him to drive them
back to her house.
Mrs. ParkerShe really loved the sound of that.
Flashback Restored-1991Peter sat five-year-old Drake down on the counter in the jewelry store in the mall.
"What should I buy Mommy for Valentine's Day?"
Drake pointed instantly to a necklace under the glass. "That!"
"Your son has very good taste." The blonde saleswoman came over to help the man with
his purchase.
"How much is it?"
"Three thousand."
"Yes, my boy does have good taste. Unfortunately I need to see something else."
"Did you know what you were looking for?"
"Not a clue."
"How old is your shopping buddy?"
"I'm this many." Drake held up his hand.
"If it's all right with your Daddy, I'll let you have a lollipop?"
"Sure."
The saleswoman handed Drake a root beer flavored Dum Dum pop.
"Thank you. You're pretty. Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Drake! The things you say!" Peter laughed. Audrey would have had a 'fit' over that
remark.
"It's alright, sir. Your son is a cutie. Let me show you a catalogue."
"I just want it to be special. Like the day I proposed," Peter supposed he was telling this
more for Drake's benefit than the saleswoman's, "I should say night. We were having an
argument over something that I can't even remember and I was taking her home when I
got a flat tire—and I remember it was pouring rain outside. I kept the ring in my pocket
for MONTHS because I was terrified of proposing. We were outside arguing in the
downpour while we waited for Triple A to come by with a tow truck was when I just
decided to pop the question. I took her by surprise, she said yes, and here we are
happy and two beautiful kids later. Even if we did catch the flu." Peter kissed
Drake's cheek as he took the bare white lollipop stick and threw it in the trash basket
that was on the floor next to him.
"That's a nice story." The clerk replied
"Thanks. I have an idea, son. Your Mom likes that old heart ring from years ago. Let's
get her a sapphire heart ring. I wish I could get her the biggest and the best, but alas I'm
not a rich man."
This young man and his son were so cute that the saleswoman had a tear in her eye.
"I would say you are rich, sir, in a way more important than financial status."
"I always say that family is the most important thing."
The most important thing…The most important thing…
The most important thing…
Flashback Interrupted (again)
"Drake, Drake," Torey hated waking him up. He looked so tranquil sleeping in her bed.
"Drake…"
She kissed him ever so lightly on the lips.
"Hi," he rubbed his eyes, "I didn't mean to doze off."
"It's okay." She climbed back in the bed, "Mom will be coming home soon."
"Just think," he sat up against her pillows and put his arm around his gir—fiancée!
"Someday we'll be able to stay in bed all day and all night if we want to."
"I know," She kissed his cheek, "We can still cuddle for a little while longer. If you want
to?"
"You never have to ask, Torey."
It was a shame that Drake never noticed the parallels.
12:15 PM
Everybody loved Christmas Day priority mail except for the postal workers that had to
deliver the packages on this supposed day off because people couldn't shop on time.
They had families they wanted to be with too. Audrey gave the mail carrier a money
envelope with a certificate for a free set of movie tickets from the Premiere. She'd have
given money, but she never knew if tipping federal works was illegal or not.
"Drake!" Audrey called out, "Come downstairs!"
Josh was sitting in the chair pretending to be watching the football pre-game show with
Walter.
"What is it?"
"This big box is for you!"
Megan came from the kitchen wondering what all the excitement was about.
The return address just said Los Angeles, California.
"I'll get the box cutter." Walter said as he got up from the sofa, as Josh became more
internally angst ridden over the whole situation.
Drake gets a present and the whole world has to frigging stop?
Walter helped him open the box. Yes, Drake was quite capable to have opened the box
himself, but he was glad have a bonding moment considering the circumstances of the
state of their family unit.
"F--," Drake stopped when he remembered his parents were in the room, "Awesome!"
It was a metallic red Jackson Open Box JS1 electric guitar.
He picked up the invoice with all of the pricing information omitted, but he didn't need to
see it. He knew exactly what the list price was.
Merry Christmas, DrakeMay you continue to make beautiful music.
Love Always,
Torey.
"That's a beautiful guitar." Audrey said
"Yeah it is and so is the woman that bought it for me." Drake blushed and wasn't
ashamed to admit this in front of his family. He would have preferred if Josh was in
China, but you cannot win them all. Thankfully, he'd be leaving for the Premiere after
dinner and Drake wouldn't have to look at him for the rest of the day and for most of the
night. It was a shame, but he had Torey and she was all that he needed.
12:45 AM
Christmas went much better for the Nichols-Parker family than the Thanksgiving holiday
went. Audrey and Walter were civil with each other, but the bottom line was that he
wasn't sleeping at his home. Drake's mind replayed the day's events racing upstairs to
his room to phone Torey and play his new favorite guitar before going to her house to
pick her up. She thought it would be bad luck to have to keep on taking off her
engagement ring so that her mother and his parents wouldn't know, but he assured her
that was just superstition. He had to work tomorrow but only for half a shift, because his
band was playing the second date of their Christmas concerts at the local mall the last
date was on December 30th and Drake's conscious thought stopped as he fell asleep.
Drake's Dream:
Drake was in a particularly good mood as he jumped out of bed. He didn't even mind
that Megan was sitting on the sofa watching the TV in his bedroom.
"Is your TV broken again?" He asked
"No," Megan turned the TV off with the remote control and stood up, "But your arm will
be."
"What are you talking about?" He went to check his reflection in the mirror.
Looking good"You don't know. That's good Drake."
"You are speaking gibberish, Megan. Now if you don't mind I'm going to go downstairs
and eat breakfast before I pick up Torey."
Megan walked towards Drake and laughed, "You silly boy. Torey's long gone."
"What?"
"I wonder what happened to your ID bracelet?"
Drake looked at his left arm and realized it was missing from his wrist.
"It's probably in my bed." Drake went back to his bed to look for the bracelet to see if it
fell off while he was sleeping.
"It's not there. Que Sera, Sera. Whatever will be, will be."
Megan left the room.
"I'm so glad for this day!" Josh burst in he was wearing the black Premiere vest. The
one only seen in dreams of dead Helen's funeral.
"Josh?"
"Finally, Drake Parker gets his real comeuppance. It's been a long time coming brotha.
Maybe, I'll see you have a nervous breakdown on Oprah!"
"What are you talking about?" but before Drake could catch up with him Josh
disappeared.
"Where's Torey?"
"Oh, you won't be seeing her for awhile, son." Audrey said as she walked up the stairs
with a laundry basket full of perfectly clean soft white fluffy towels.
Drake ran downstairs to the living room to answer the phone that started ringing.
"I'm sorry, Drake."
"Dad?" As in Walter Nichols
"I have to go now. I'll talk to you later."
This was all too confusing for the young man as he opened the swinging door to the
kitchen and saw his birth father Peter James Parker sitting at the table drinking his
usual coffee which consisted of two creams and one sugar.
"Dad? What's going on? Why is everyone acting so weird and where is Torey?"
"You're dreaming, Drake."
"I am?"
"You won't remember any of this when you wake up. You are much too young. Save you I
cannot."
"Why are you talking like Yoda?"
"I don't know. It's your dream."
"Where's Torey?"
"The question is where were you when you lost your bracelet?"
"Is she all right?"
"Too young. Why are you in a rush? Now all the goodness is going to be wiped away for
a very long time. I'm very disappointed in you, Drake."
"Dad! I didn't do anything."
"Yet."
"I love Torey very much. I would never hurt her."
"I didn't raise you to be judgmental."
"Dad! Listen to me. I proposed to her on Christmas Day. We're going to get married."
"Oh, you think it's that easy? The lesson you are about to learn. And yet how unfortunate
that you won't be able to recall any of this dream."
Peter disappeared in a ripple effect.
He was water.
"Dad!"
Drake got on his knees trying to make the puddle come back to life.
"Where's Torey?"
The tears were streaming down his cheeks now as he stood up to dial her number on
the kitchen phone.
"The number you have reached has been disconnected."
Then he tried her cell phone.
"The number you have reached has been disconnected."
No further information is available.
End DreamDrake woke up at two in the morning feeling empty. He knew something was wrong, but
he didn't quite know what. Or maybe it was just the extra turkey sandwich he ate before
bed that hurt his stomach. Did he have a bad dream? He couldn't remember anything if
he did. The last thing he thought about was his bands Christmas concerts at the mall.
Nothing could be wrong. He and Torey were engaged to be married that was a
wonderful thing. Drake put his headphones on and turned on the radio. His Mom must
have used his Walkman again because she left her easy listening station on.
"You are listening to Overnights with Ken on KJQY 94.1. Here is a classic from Doris
Day from the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Que Sera, Sera."
Whatever will be, Will be.