When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes

Jacob Felton tugged his luggage into his great-grandmother’s home in Eastwood, Maine. He had volunteered to take care of her and her home until she wasn’t well enough to stay alone at all, then the rest of his family would step in. She was eighty nine years old and the kindest elderly woman most had ever met.

“Gram?” Jacob said as the smell of brown sugar danced around his nose. The house was very cool and chill bumps prickled his arms.

Suddenly, Gram turned the corner, clinging to her walker. Her white hair stood on end and wrinkles clung around her gray eyes. “I’ve missed you, my boy.” She said, stretching to her limit to give him a hug. Jacob reached town and wrapped her arms around her frail shoulders. She smelled like peach body wash, and he smiled.

“I’ve missed you too Gram.” Jacob released her from his embrace and started off to the spare room where he normally stayed on visits to unpack his things. Gram rounded the corner, following him, and looked up at him with her pitiful gray eyes.

“I know you’ve just gotten here, but can I ask you a favor?” She said, her small, raspy voice shaking.

Jacob felt himself smiling at her once again. “Of course, what would you like Gram?”

“I would love some vanilla chai tea. Could you maybe take my car around the corner and pick some up for me? My keys are in there along with my purse.”

“Of course.” He said, kissing her on the cheek and heading out where he had just came from. Gram’s battered, Tan colored Toyota was sitting in the garage and he could tell that it hadn’t been driven in a few weeks or so. Gram probably couldn’t drive it herself.

He opened the door on the driver’s side and sat down on the cream colored seat. Just as she had said, her keys were located in her purse and her purse was in the front seat of the car. Jacob shoved the key into the ignition and turned it all of the way to the right until the engine revved. He reached up and pressed a button on a remote that was clamped to the visor above his head, and the garage door opened. Watching cautiously behind him, he backed out.

The store was less than a quarter of a mile from Gram’s house, and Jacob seemed to be looking everywhere for something on the road, like something was missing. He pulled into the store’s parking lot, turned the car off and jumped out.

Something was nagging the back of his mind, like he hadn’t seen something that he’d needed to in Eastwood. There was something he hadn’t done yet, someone he hadn’t spoken to or came across. Something was missing. He found himself searching his mind for the missing piece and he chewed on his bottom lip with confusion.

Was she here?

Suddenly it hit him, he was looking for the girl with the blue eyes from the airport. . .he had been looking around Eastwood for Julianne.



After unpacking and taking a heated shower, Julianne drug herself downstairs to find her mother sitting on the couch in their dimly lit living room, watching the evening news. She jumped. “I forgot it was Saturday, for some reason I assumed you’d be at work.” Julianne said, chuckling slightly.

Her mother stood up and wrapped her arms around her neck. Julianne hugged her back and the soft material of her mother’s robe tickled her nose. “I’ve missed you so much and you were only at Oxford for seven days. What am I going to do when August rolls around and you leave me for good?” Julianne rolled her eyes, a bit annoyed.

“We’ll figure it out.” She said, forcing a smile. The television bumbled behind them, and Julianne found her annoyance growing. Her mother would do whatever it took to keep her in Maine, even with the knowledge of how badly she wanted to leave.

Her mother broke away and looked her in the eyes. Julianne’s were the same sparkling blue as her mom’s. “I hate it that you’re leaving your siblings and me here. You’re turning into a woman. Pretty soon you’ll be passing me up and calling me by my first name.” Her mother let out a giggle, but Julianne couldn’t bring herself to do the same. She could only dwell on the first sentence her mother had uttered there.

Julianne’s top lip curled and she blinked twice. Teal evening light poured into the room and fell upon her mother. Her black robe hung open around her pajamas and her short hair fell into messy ringlets around her chin. “Of course, Ann.” Julianne said, plastering a fake, toothy smile on her lips. “But like I said, we’ll figure it out.”

“Julianne, you can’t hate me for wishing that you were staying here.” Ann replied.

“No I can’t. But I do resent you for not understanding. I can’t stand this place.” Said Julianne, shivering under the cool breeze of their air conditioner.

Her mother sat down on the brown couch that she had been lounging on when Julianne had entered the room, and picked up a bowl of caramel corn off of the wood floor. Her next words sent Julianne into an agitated frenzy. “Bad things happen to everyone, but what’s done is done.”

“Not everyone’s best friend dies when they’re ten years old, mom. Everything here reminds me of her and that’s something that you’re obviously not intelligent enough to fathom. I can’t wait to leave you in August, Ann.” Julianne turned on her heel, listening for a response from her mother. She heard nothing, so she breathed in once, dried a few tears clinging to her cheeks, and walked up to her room.

Ninety five days left in Eastwood.