July 3rd.
SOMEWHERE IN TEXAS
Sallyanne Jenkins sat at the kitchen table, drinking the morning coffee. Of course she had only had two sips of it, and was currently wondering whether or not to pour it out, because in all her worrying, she had complete forgotten about the coffee, and she had once again let it go cold.
Of course, she had never really wondered why she still kept drinking coffee after all these years.
She had lost the taste for it after Sam was born. She figured it was because, well, she was in her early 30's by then, and then the Fort Worth Coffeehouse indie scene with open mike Fridays and the acid washed jeans...
She guessed... it was getting tiresome for her. After dealing with the baby, she was too tired to meet with her friends...instead, of coffee and cigarettes with Susana and Jeff (her ex that became more like a brother to her over the years) it was more of a bottle of wine and X-Files with the husband... if he ever came home...
She sighed and got up and went to the sink.
As she poured the coffee down the sink, she thought that maybe she should go into town, and get her hair done...even though it had been worked on in the last 48 hours...
Maybe her nails...
She looked at her nails.
The fakieness of the freshly done nails reminded her it hadn't even been 24 hours since they were worked on...
She sighed and placed the empty coffee cup in the dishwasher, reminding herself that she should probably unload it.
She didn't feel the need for food, so she placed the remaining parts of the toast into Lady Di's dish.
The pit-bull just sneezed and begin to snore again.
She tighten the wrap around her robe and begin to walk up the stairs, thinking a shower would do her good.
As she walked up stairs, she passed by Lauren's room. She always paused by her room. Mainly because the sounds of her screaming as the nurses took her away always haunted her now a days.
She decided to give Matt, the youngest, a few more hours of sleep.
Matt was somewhat planned. That she was sure of.
Sam was very much planned, and Lauren well...
She walked into her bedroom, determined to rid of these 'negative energies' as Pastor Adam called it.
She found the little transit radio and turned it on.
Country Music (her favorite, behind Motown) began blaring her master bedroom.
She hummed the familiar tune of the wife and husband who got drunk and came home and place the gun to their own temp-
That's when she heard it again.
VRUME. VRUME. VRUME. VRUME
"Oh's heck's no!" she muttered. She grabbed the Chanel purse with the pistol hidden in it and ran to the door, dropping the purse and carrying the gun with her.
She checked the gun, made sure it was ready, and then she opened the door.
And there he stood.
"You have caused me a lot of trouble these past few months mister." She snarled at him. "May God have mercy on your poor little-"
BAM!
The gun went off.
AUGUST 2009
ARLINGTON, TEXAS.
Lauren quietly lay in her bed. The windows were open, adding some relief to the very hot room, but even pushing the heavy covers down didn't do anything.
She hadn't been able to sleep since the jail cell. She still remembered the feel of the hard floor she was forced to sit on, waiting for someone to bail her out. She was there for three days.
Longest days of my life. She thought.
In the jail cell, she couldn't wait for school to start. So that she could back to normal. To be normal again was all she ever wanted.
Why didn't they detain me? Keep me afterwords? Wouldn't they do that normally?
We cut a deal with them. You were free to go. Said the singsong voice.
She jumped up. She was quite surprised that there was an answer for once for her questions. But she recognized that voice anywhere.
What are you doing here? In my head? What?
This is the only way I can communicate with you. Lauren, Gwen says hi.
Okay...?
Listen, we need you to do something for us?
Um, I don't know what time it is there, but its 1 in the morning here...
Listen, just follow my directions.
Um, okay...
She got up, walked into her closet, grabbed a few pieces of clothing and closed the door.
What are you doing! Is that a-?
Um, I have a feeling this is something extreme. I'm not going to be found on the side of the road with a transmitter radio wearing superman shorts and an oversized football jersey.
-Sigh- Make it quick then
Lauren smiled as she pulled off the-
Next thing she knew, she was driving Matt's truck down 360 in the middle of the night. Not a lot of traffic, but still...
Okay where am I –
STOP! STOP!
She slammed on the brakes as fast as she could.
She heard the screeching of the tires, the truck almost making a 360 and then the final jolt of gravity as it finally came to a stop.
For several seconds, all she could see was smoke and she could only her heart racing and her heavy breathing as well.
She struggled to catch her breath as she heard a knock knock
She turned to her left.
There he was,
The Captain in all his glory. Wearing the same clothes (clean however, this time) and without the three day stench of body odor as well
You look...different then I remember. She thought. Confused as to why he was here.
"That's because I was under bad lighting then."
He opened the door, and released her seat belt for her.
"We have 3 minutes before the next car comes and crashes into here. Lets go."
He helped her out of the car and they began to run.