Set It Off

It had been a long time since I’d been back to the place where I had lived almost half of my life. And standing in the doorway of some stranger’s house, I just realized I never really liked this house. I had lived here for nearly eighteen years of my life. Playing water tag in the front yard, helping my dad build the tree house that used to be in the giant Sycamore tree in the backyard. Of course, that was before I had nearly more than thirty of my friends jumping and banging pots and pans on New Year’s Eve in the summer of 2002. That was the year I turned fourteen. That was also the year my dog got hit by a car, and Cody ran away. I really missed that dog. I’m pretty sure I cried for weeks.
Cody. I think I’m the only one on this entire planet who knew the real reason Cody ran away. Of course, people only assumed it was his dad’s fault. The guy was a drug addict and hung out at bars every night. Of course they thought that. I would have assumed that too. Well I guess that was part of it. But it sure wasn’t the REAL reason. He told me, the night he left, that he would come back for me. Well, that sure didn’t happen. I waited for him to knock at my window every night and say: “Casey, it’s time.” But my dreams were shattered when his name made the front page of The Paper. CODY CARSON MURDERED. It tore me to pieces seeing Cody’s name end up in The Paper for that. Who would ever want to kill Cody? The only enemy he ever had was Brice, the captain of our school’s football team. Of course, they went way back to Kindergarten. But he moved to Florida four months before Cody ever ran away. And Cody couldn’t be in Florida if his murder made the headlines. Cody’s disappearance made everyone cry. Imagine what it did when the news was out of him being murdered? This was in late spring of the year 2005. I was 17, just barely a senior.
The doorbell rang and rang. I don’t really know why I allowed myself to ring my old doorbell, but when a young boy, maybe about thirteen answered the door, I realized I shouldn’t have come. He was about medium height maybe 5’4, 5’5, somewhere around there. “Can I…help you?” the boy said to me. I couldn’t look towards the entryway so my face was turned. “Oh, I…um…I used to live here. I’m just…trying to remember old times.” I never once mad eye contact with the boy, but I could feel his gaze on me. “Well my Dad isn’t home…wait, did you say you used to live here?” I looked at the ground still not looking at him when I responded. “Yeah…I did.” I said feeling awkward. “Well my Dad won’t really care…you can come in if you’d like?” I finally looked up at him. My questions answered. He looked just like him. His eyes, his smile, his nose, his body!” I felt like I was falling. Falling into a dark pool of loss and resentment. I screamed.
“Casey! Casey, wake up! It’s ok. It’s only a bad dream.” My mother said to me from my right. “Casey calm down. Everything is all right.” My dad said from my left. They were both leaning over me as I lay in bed. “Mom…I had a bad dream. I…I never have bad dreams…” She looked at me with a concerned expression. I sat up looking around my room. There was a baseball bat in dad’s hand. He saw me looking at it quizzically. “I…I thought I saw a bear or something.” He mumbled getting up. “I see now you’re fine so…Good night! I love you.” He walks out of my room leaving me alone with my mother. “Was it him again?” she asked. This wasn’t the first dream I’ve had of him. Not all of them are nightmares either. “Yeah, well not exactly. It was more like his son or something, only he was in our house and I was old. Well not that old, probably in my forties. But that wasn’t the point. The thing is…every time I close my eyes I see him. And I know he’s dead. Well, at least that’s what The Paper says, but what if he isn’t. What if these dreams are a sign? A sign that he’s alive or something?” I was in deep thought; pretty much mumbling to my mother whatever came to mind. “Honey, you barely knew the boy. You only became friends like a few weeks before he disappeared. Maybe you just need to forget about him.” She said getting up and walking towards the door. I thought about what she said. Maybe she’s right. Maybe…No! She wasn’t right. I was right! “No mom! He’s alive! And I know him better than anyone else around here. Better than his own father! He’s alive! He’s alive. He’s alive.” I barely whisper towards the end of my breakdown. My mother tells me she loves me and then shuts my door, leaving me in complete darkness.
The rest of the night was miserable. I was afraid that if I closed my eyes, I would see him. So, of course, going back to sleep would be hopeless. I stayed awake in bed for three hours staring at the invisible ceiling that lay somewhere beyond the darkness. When dawn approached, it only reminded me of the fact that I have school to face. Ugh. Finally, my alarm clock when off to the Looney Tunes theme song. It was 5:40 on a Friday morning. School started at 7:20. Which meant I had and hour and forty minutes to get ready and be at school, in room 104, sitting at my desk, next to Chase Miller, in Mr. Hopkins History class. God, I hated my life.
School is the worst thing ever invented. At least I think so. Especially when it runs K-12. Thank God summer is right around the corner. It was just a Friday. Just like any other ordinary Friday. Only this Friday was special. This Friday was the last football game of the season. Our team never lost a game this year. It was all because of our new quarterback Chase Miller. And I sat next to him, or near him, anyway, in almost all of my classes. All the girls liked him. I honestly thought he was a pretty nice guy, up until him and his friends started spreading rumors around that Cody Carson ran away because he was afraid the cops would get him for robbing the 7-11. “So what should we do our project on?” I ask Chase right after Mr. Hopkins explains our last project of the school year. “Um…you can pick since you were probably listening this whole year.” I smirk at him while flipping through the history book for ideas. “How about you choose a topic and then tell me after the game just to cheer me up if I don’t win.” He says loud enough so that all of his friends can hear and pretty much the whole class. Just before the bell rings I say, “You know, you can’t always depend on someone smarter than you to do all the work for you, because as long as you keep me doing all the work, that ‘A’ isn’t going to stand for AWESOME much longer.” As I walked towards the door, my books in my hands, it felt good to know that Chase Miller had nothing to say for once.
“Hey Casey. Over here.” Beck shouts from a picnic table all the way across the quart yard. Miranda and Chelsea and everyone else were just sitting down. I made my way over there passing by the football team’s table. I ignored them as I passed, leaving them staring at the back of me as I reached my friend’s picnic table. “So how was your day?” Chelsea asks me with a massive coat of blush splattered onto her face almost making her look like a Barbie Doll. “Horrible, yours?” She looks around the table at all the faces of the people I’ve grown up with. “Let’s just say all of ours’ has been nothing but a disappointment.” “Tell me about it…” I say and then I add “Not literally.” She stops just before she’s about to babble on about her boring day leaving me, and the rest of my poor friends to listen. “Hey Casey, Chase Miller is looking at you. In fact, they all are.” Miranda says looking in their direction. “What did you say to them?” Beck asks and everyone leans in towards me. Everyone in the whole entire eleventh grade, especially my friends, know that I spend almost every second of the day except for the mornings, lunch, and after school, with Chase Miller. “I didn’t say anything…mean to him. Or nice!” They all seemed excited up until I said ‘nice’. “Do you think he likes you?” Jordan asks. “Heck no! He knows I hate him. Everyone does.” I say taking a bite of my turkey sandwich. “You going to the game?” Beck asks, not exactly directed at anyone in particular at our table. You hear some “yeah’s” and some “no’s” some “maybe’s” but out of all of it they all realize I never said a word. “Casey you have to go.” Chelsea says “Yeah. Looks like Miller’s got his eye on you.” Miranda says. “Shut up Miranda.” I say. “Can we change to a different topic now?” I ask staring off into space. Chase Miller was nothing but an attention hogger. Even if I went to the game, it would only be because of food.
I was supposed to go with my dad to the game, but I ended up watching the rest of That 70’s Show and my dad was too impatient to wait for me. So, I had to catch a ride with Beck. As I sat in the passenger seat with the wind blowing in my face and my hair getting all knotted I realized Beck didn’t have the radio on. “Beck, what’s wrong with you?” He was staring straight ahead, stone still. He never once replied to my comment so I spoke even louder. “Beck!” He turns his head slowly in my direction. “What?” He replies sounding very annoyed. “Are you ok?” I shout against the open window. “Yeah I’m fine.” He looks ahead once more and neither of us says a word for the rest of the ride there. I wonder why he seemed so pissed? Was it something I did? Who knew?
“Go Bull Dogs!” You hear everyone shout as they run onto the field. “I really hope they win…” Miranda says, sitting next to me. “Hey I’m going to go down by my Uncle.” I say to Miranda and the rest of them sitting on the bleachers next to me. The coach was my Uncle Tom. “Hey can I come with?” Chelsea asks me. “Um…sure. Just…don’t be loud.” We both make our way down to the giant, grassy field towards my agitated uncle. “Casey, it’s time…” I hear his voice. I stop in my tracks looking around for the source of his voice. What am I thinking? Cody is dead. It must be my mind playing tricks on me. “Casey, C’mon.” Chelsea says ahead of me. “Did you hear that Chelsea?” She looks around. “Um…Casey? Everyone is screaming and shouting. I’m not deaf…” She walks off towards my uncle leaving me standing there dumbfounded. I was definitely going mad.
“Casey, it’s time.” I look around. “Huh?” Omigod! I’m hearing things. “It’s Time. Time to play some football!” You hear the intercom say with principal Myers voice radiating off the crowd. Oh. It was only him…see? I wasn’t going crazy. “They better win this one.” My Uncle Tom says. “I think Chase may be getting a scholarship if he keeps it up.” My dad says. Which only made things between Chase and me better. Chase was a big deal in our family. In fact, everyone was. I know almost every single person in Oxford, Wisconsin. Our population was 943 peoples. There are 693 dogs, 910 cats, 43 birds, and 212 hamsters. Everyone was family here, but Chase was the main topic in most of our conversations at dinner. It almost felt like, well this may sound weird, but ever since Cody left, Chase was coming into my life more and more frequently. I didn’t like it. Chelsea and me stood with my uncle and my dad through out the whole game except for snack breaks. Chase was never set out. And at half time, instead of him going to his friends, he came to me. Like I said, I didn’t like it. “Hey.” he said jogging over to me with beads of sweat running down his face and soaking his shirt, or jersey. “Um…hi.” I say with the slightest bit of interest in our short conversation. “Oh, here’s some water.” I say tossing him a bottle. He says thanks, but to my surprise, he sets it down and looks back at me. “So how are you?” He asks sounding completely unaware that we’re both at a football game and that he was just running back and forth for two hours straight. “I’m pretty good.” I say laughing. “What’s so funny?” he asks bewildered. “Aren’t you tired? And wouldn’t you rather be over there?” I ask pointing to the rest of his team. He looks back at his team and then faces me again saying “Nope, I rather be here talking with you.” Why is he acting like this? What he said was really sweet, but…was he on drugs or something? “Listen I want to apologize for acting like a jerk earlier. I guess I need to realize what I’m about to say before I say it.” It’s like he took a trip to Perfect World and magically became a nice guy. “Well it’s not a first, Chase, but it’s ok. I forgive you, just like every other time.” He looked into my eyes like he was searching for something. Something that would make me understand that he truly meant it this time. I give him a hug explaining to him that I really, truly forgive him and then I wished him good luck, leaving to go back to the bleachers where my friends are waiting. I grab Chelsea by her shoulder and then head back towards the bleachers leaving Chase Miller in the dust.
You hear everyone scream, “We, won! We won!” Everyone deserts the bleachers and runs towards the field. Even my friends followed, but I stayed. I didn’t want to be in a massive crowd of overly excited people at the moment. I actually wanted to go home and curl up in a ball in my nice, warm bed. I could see people lifting up Chase with him holding the trophy. He looked like he was searching for someone because he looked distant and then his eyes met mine and a huge grin grew on his face. I gave him a thumbs up and smiled, but I still didn’t leave the bleachers. Suddenly he disappeared into the crowd of people. But before I could react he was walking up the bleachers right directly towards me with a sparkling trophy in his hands. “Hey, good luck charm.” He says sitting down next to me. I look at him and then look away. “What do you mean?” I ask actually having know idea what he meant. “I noticed you haven’t missed a game this whole year and I haven’t lost a game this whole year. You’re obviously my good luck charm.” He explains to me, smiling a huge white-toothed smile. “It’s just a coincidence.” I say finally getting up. He gets up too, but instead of walking away like I thought he would do, he faces me and says “There are no such things as a coincidence.” He smiles down at me making me say something I would have never said to him as long as I lived. “I thought you did great out there.” He was getting to me and it was getting hard to resist. “You thought?” he smiles. “You did great out there.” I say not very happy with myself for giving in. “That’s what I like to here.” He says laughing. “So…” he says changing the subject. “Have you decided on an idea for our history project?” He looks really serious, which I kind of liked. “I’m gonna have to get back to you with that one…” I say walking towards my awaiting friends. “How about this,” I say. “Why don’t you pick the topic and tell me when you’re ready.” I say walking away. “Okay, it’s a deal.” He says just as his friends crowd the bleachers around him. “See you tomorrow, Casey.” He shouts. So loud my friends hear from the open window. As we drive away, you hear a bunch of whistling and me say “Shut up!” Oh, the spirit football games brought. That’s one thing I’ll miss about school.
“Chase and Casey sitting in a car are they-“ Beck chants just before I slap him on the head. “Seriously guys. It’s not cool…” I say flipping my hair dramatically. Jordan looks at me like I’ve got something on my face. “Don’t look at me like that. We’re not even friends. “Casey, it’s time…” I scream. “Omigod Casey! Don’t do that while I’m driving!” Beck shouts so loud everyone covers their ears. “Didn’t you guys hear that?” I ask shaking inside. “Um…you mean the loud obnoxious screaming you just pulled off a second ago? I think we ALL heard that. In fact, I think you might have woke the dead…” I let that one settle in my mind for a while. Cody. Dead. I’m losing my mind. “Pull over.” I say. Beck starts to respond with an excuse but I shout so loud the windows seem to rattle. “PULL OVER!” We pull over next to a lake. It’s too late for fishing or swimming so nobody seems to be there. The car pulls to a stop and I literally leap out of the car landing face first on the grass. “Land!” I shout while rolling around like a dog. “I think she’s insane.” You hear Bethony say to Chelsea and Beck. “Um, Casey, are you okay?” Chelsea asks me. Suddenly I fall back to reality and what do I find? Well, I find Bethony, Chelsea, and Beck staring down at me like I’m going crazy. I get up off the ground and walk towards the car. “Guys, I think I’m going to call it a night. I feel like poop.” They all look at me like I ruined their night. “You sure, we were going to see a movie.” They looked like they actually wanted me to go. “What movie?” They all look at each other. “War of The Worlds. You know, the one with Dakota Fanning?” I knew exactly which movie they were talking about. “No, I think I’ll pass.” I say rubbing my head. “Your loss.” They say. And we all climb into the car.
When I get home, my dad’s on the couch watching Freaks and Geeks. For some reason he likes that show. My mom’s sleeping next to him, her head in his lap. I quietly I sneak past them up to my room. The next thing I know, I’m lying on my bed, face first, sleeping like some knocked out party junkie. I hear his voice in my head saying, “It’s time, it’s time,” but I really could care any less about it. The last thing I wanted was to think about Cody Carson. Plus, he was dead. For some reason I had a feeling…he wasn’t dead at all.
The phone rings. It’s 5:47 on a Saturday morning.
“Hello?”
“Hey it’s Chase…Miller.”
“Oh, um…what’s up?”
“Well I found an idea for our project.”
“Oh…can it wait till Monday? It’s kind of early.”
“Oh…right…sorry…but let me just tell you anyway.” He sounded excited.
“Okay, what is it?”
“Romeo and Juliet! It’ll be interesting right?”
“Chase, we don’t learn about that till next year.”
“But won’t we get extra credit or something.”
“Sorry Chase. That’s not how Mr. Hopkins does it.” Chase sounded disappointed.
“How about we do…The French Revolution?” He’s laughing and I realized…duh? He was a guy. They laugh at everything.
“Um…okay. Good night then.”
“Good morning Chase.” I say and then hang up. Since we had talked for nine minutes, I was up now. Great. Now my Saturday is ruined. I tried to go back to sleep.
I went down stairs. As I sat at our kitchen table eating Cocoa Puffs I realized school was out in a matter of two weeks and we didn’t have much time to finish our project. “Casey, it’s time.” I had gotten used to that now. It still really creped me out, though. I get up from the kitchen table, grabbing my bowl and putting it in the dishwasher. “Casey, it’s time.” I laugh to myself. I needed to get out of the house. Away from here. From everything. “Casey, it’s time.” The voice seemed to never leave my head and it was starting to get on my nerves. I leave a note on the counter explaining I was going up to The Lake. My parents knew exactly which lake that was. I also told them I was borrowing Beck’s car unless he wanted to come with, but I doubt it.
Driving through the trees felt like heaven, because even though I knew the sun was out there somewhere, it wasn’t bothering me or telling me what time it was. Yeah, okay there was a clock on the dashboard of Beck’s car, but really, I wasn’t paying attention. My phone was off and it was just me, myself, and I, against the world. I got to the lake around 4:00. There weren’t many people there so it was nice and quiet. I found a nice bench right by the water’s edge and parked the car close, too. I sat on the bench just staring at the glassy water until I finally fell asleep. I dreamt it was darkish out, and the stars were twinkling above me. I heard a voice, just barely a whisper, telling me to come and find them. I didn’t recognize the voice until I was standing at the entrance of some boardwalk. There was a person at the end of it. I knew exactly who that person was. I was going to walk towards him when almost in the blink of an eye he was standing directly in front of me. He holds out his hand and I take it. Together we walk towards the end of the boardwalk. He doesn’t say anything. And for some reason this dream felt different, but I couldn’t tell how. I never take my eyes off him, because for the first time, I’m afraid he’ll disappear. I dreamt about him a lot, but never had I felt like this. I felt…almost…awake. He never looked at me, just stared off into the water. He seemed lost. I wanted to hug him; he looked lonely. Well, yeah I was sitting right next to him, but he, himself, looked sad. “Casey, it’s time.” He turns to face me. His eyes are like black coals and I scream. I scream and scream, and all the while he just sits there and stares at me with those sad, empty eyes. Then something flickers within them and they’re back to normal. “Cody, what does that mean when you say ‘It’s Time?’ I don’t understand.” He looks away, almost disappointed looking. Like my answer affected him in a way…that meant way more than I thought. “Cody, who are you, really?” He turns to face me in a way that meant we wouldn’t be talking for much longer. I could tell it was time…time for him to leave, because he looked on edge. “Casey do you remember what I told you the night I left Oxford?” I thought for a moment. “No, not really… it was early in the morning. I was tired.” He looks at my hand for a moment and then takes it in his. I was surprised by his gesture. He then traces the thin lines on my hands, giving me goose bumps. “Try to remember what I told you.” He says dropping my hand. “But Cody? Why don’t you come back with me? I’m sure your father misses you by now. He’s not so bad anymore. He quit drinking and he barely goes out…” He just shakes his head. And I barely hear him say, “Exactly…” What did that mean? “Casey…didn’t you understand me the night I left?” I shake my head. “No. I forgot what you told me. Just tell me again.” I look at him searching his face for any sign that he’ll return with me. I can just picture it.
“Cody! You’re home!” Mr. Carson says running out of his house in his robe and slippers as I walk Cody up his old driveway. Cody embraces his dad in a bear hug. I smile from behind.
“Cody! You’re back!” Mrs. Bently, my old eighth grade teacher says turning to look at Cody and me standing in the entryway of her classroom. Everyone cheers. I smile, once again, from behind.
Even though these images in my head involved only my imagination, no matter how hard I tried, Cody still somehow looked sad in every one of them.
“I can’t tell you. You have no idea how much I’m dying to tell you, but I wasn’t even supposed to tell you the night I left. I just thought, eventually, you’d find your place on your own.” That was right. He was dead. I’d almost forgotten he was dead. Why had I actually thought Cody was alive all this time? Now…back to reality. I was confused. My place? Cody had run away when we were fourteen. This was three years later. We were at my favorite lake sitting under the stars, right on the water. And here he was, with me. Telling me the reason he’d left, was because he’d somehow known, I’d find my place? “Cody, just come back with me, please. I miss you. You’re father misses you. Everyone misses you.” He doesn’t look at me. I could tell he was thinking for the right words to say. That was Cody. For as long as I’d known him, he’d always had the right thing to say at the right time. I look out onto the still, water of my favorite lake. Then he says something. Something that romance lovers would have died to hear. But in this case it made my skin crawl. “Casey, your love is the only thing that can bring me back.”
I woke up with a sudden shove on my shoulder. “Excuse me, miss, but can you get up?” I opened my eyes to some old man with a long white beard and light blue eyes. Santa? I found myself lying on a boardwalk with a bunch of old men in fishing caps holding fishing poles crowded around me. “Yeah, miss this is the perfect spot. The fish are out. This rarely happens on a cool morning like this.” Wait, did he say morning? “Excuse me sir, but what day is it?” “Why it’s Sunday morning miss.” I didn’t move. Was that dream real? Had I really…seen him?
“Thank you.” I say getting up and walking towards Beck’s car. “Sure thing miss.” A few of the old guys say. “Stop calling me that.” I say walking away.
As I drove back, I couldn’t get Cody out of my head. It’s like he was in there somehow. When I got back home Chase was sitting on my front lawn. “Hey what happened to you? I called you like a billion times.” He says. ”Sorry I was…away.”
“Oh. Well, that’s ok. I got started on our project. It’s back at my place. You could come over and maybe we could get a head start on it.”
“Casey, It’s time…”
“Um, yeah, I’d like that.” I tell him and then we both walk off towards his house. For some reason everyone from school seemed to be in their front yards today. So, of course, they all saw Chase and me walking. Together. When we got to his house, his dad was just leaving. When we got inside his brother and some of his friends were out in the living room playing video games. “Move dorks.” He says unplugging the PlayStation 2 from the TV. “Hey!” You hear them all complain. “Go play it upstairs in the loft.” Chase says. “But this TV is bigger…” his brother complains. Finally, after minutes of arguing, Chase gets his brother and his friends to go upstairs. “I don’t think they’ll be bothering us anymore.” He says pulling out a stack of papers and books from inside a cabinet, under the counter in the kitchen. “You didn’t have to move them.” He puts everything down on the kitchen table. “Well this way we can concentrate better.” We both laugh and in about three hours we were halfway done with our project.
“Would you like to stay for dinner?” he asks. “I don’t know…” I start to say. ”It’s okay, it’s just Pizza.” And that’s how I ended up eating dinner with Chase Miller. I was actually having a good time and was forgetting all about the thing at the lake when I hear it. “Casey, It’s time.” We were both sitting on his couch watching Monk while eating Ice Cream. “This is really good.” I say distracting myself from Cody’s voice dancing across my mind. “It’s homemade. My brother and I make it for desert a lot because my dad doesn’t like me having junk food and stuff because of football.” As we talked, it had felt like we were always friends. Chase wasn’t so much of a jerk after all. I wonder why we never hung out before?
“Wow it’s getting late.” Chase says. I look at the clock above the TV. It said 10:30. “I’ll walk you home.” He says getting up and walking towards the front door. “If my dad finds you here this late he’ll ground me.” I look at him and then at the clock and then at the door. “Really?” I ask finding it almost funny. “Really.” He says opening the door and allowing me to go first. It was pitch black outside and there was a really cool breeze that seemed to wrap itself around me. “Here, take my jacket.” He says putting it around my shoulders. “N-no you d-don’t have t-to do that.” I say lamely. “No problem. I have millions of jackets. One less won’t kill me.” He rubs his hands together so I lean in towards him so at least our shoulders are touching and he isn’t that cold. “But w-won’t you n-need it f-for the w-walk b-back?” I ask. “I’ll just run.” He simply says. When we get to my house the lights are off, but the door is still unlocked. “Th-thank you,” I say shivering so badly it’s hard to speak. He smiles at me, and then turns to leave. I couldn’t just leave him walking back like that without anything in return. So I do what any other girl would do. It was actually really dramatic if you ask me. But I hadn’t planned it…so…yeah. “Chase, wait.” He turns around to face me. I know what you’re thinking. You thought I hugged him! Hahaha. No. I kissed him…on the cheek. Then I ran back inside leaving him out there in the cold Wisconsin air. Mostly it was because I was freezing my butt off.
The next couple of weeks went by…slow. First of all, there was Chase; second of all, there was the graduation dance; and third, there was Cody. I think our school is the only school that has a graduation dance, or maybe not. I’ve never really been anywhere else but Oxford so…who knows? “Who are you going to the dance with?” Miranda asks me one day between classes. “I don’t know yet. I wasn’t planning on going.” She looked at me like I was bluffing. “Okay…sure. Well did you hear? Beck asked Karen to go, and she said yes, but then Amy wanted to go with him so they had an argument about it in Biology today…and Mr. Truman go so mad his fake hair flew onto Terri Juno’s face and…” I wasn’t really paying attention and the dance was at the back of my mind. What was on my mind was our History project. I hope we at least get a B, but an A would be AWESOME! The dance was tomorrow and Chase had told me he probably couldn’t go because he was leaving for his family camping trip up in Milwaukee. Plus, I rather wait for next year to go. It would make it more special. J
When I got home I found a note on the refrigerator that said my parents had gone out to dinner for their anniversary. This meant I had the whole house to myself. That included the refrigerator, and the TV. I was too lazy to make myself a real dinner so I ate a mix of Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms instead. I pretty much only ate the purple and blue thingies from Captain Crunch and the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms. After eating that I felt really fat, so I took a walk. It was nice out, considering it was only 5:30. I walked around my whole neighborhood. Barely anyone was out except for the elderly who sat on their front porches and said “hi” to any moving object that passed by their houses. That included cars, birds and squirrels. It was getting colder out, but I didn’t need the calories so I walked into the forest that surrounded the west of our neighborhood.
I used to come here all the time with my cousins whenever they came over and we would get lost trying to find good places to just hang out and call our territory. I also remember showing Cody this one place. It was a bunch of trees fallen on top of each other. It sort of made a spiraling stairway that ended up being flat on the top. So you could sit there for hours and watch the world around like your own 3D movie.
It was at the highest point of the forest so it took me at least an hour and a half to finally get there. It looked mystical almost, in the light of the setting sun. I climbed the fallen trees to the very top, surprised to find someone sitting up there. Their back was towards me and their hood was up so I didn’t recognize them. “I’m sorry I didn’t think anyone would be here.” Now remember something. Something important. The last time I saw Cody; he was fourteen. Imagine what he looked like now that he was seventeen. Don’t look at me. I had NO idea. When this person heard my voice they reacted oddly. They didn’t say anything, but yet, they turned halfway to face me. I couldn’t see their face really, just some of their hair that hung in their face. Then I spoke again. “Do you mind if I stay?” I ask. They turn their face a little more just enough so I could see the smile that was planted across their face. Why was this person smiling? Did I know them? I had noticed that their hair was a golden brown. Just like Cody’s. I sat down next to the back of a fallen tree so I could lean on it. Just to get rid of the silence I began to talk to this smiling stranger. “I used to come up here a lot when I was little. I would get lost a lot, but I would somehow always find my way back. I haven’t been out here since eighth grade I guess. I wonder why I never came back.” The person never said a thing, but I could tell they were listening intently. “Sometimes I miss coming out here. I remember when my dog died I came out here just to get lost so someone would come find me. I…miss that dog.” The person had turned in my direction a little more and I could tell it was a guy. Maybe I went to school with him. He probably recognized me. But the thing was, I could almost, always tell who they were. But this person left me hanging. “Do I know you…from school maybe?” I ask. They don’t respond. “Will you at least tell me your name? Then I heard him, except this time he spoke something different. “C’mon, Casey you know who that person is.” I was silent, too shocked to speak.
“C-Cody?” I ask. Finally the person turns his head. I covered my eyes afraid to meet his eyes. “You can speak to me. Without talking. Why can you do that?” I crawl away from him. I’m a few inches away from the edge. “Casey, come back. You might fall.” He was coming closer to me and even though I was covering my eyes I knew he was coming closer because I could feel him coming closer. “Get away from me. This is all a dream. I can jump. I can fall. I won’t get hurt or die because this is all a dream.” I’m going hysterical now because I know this isn’t a dream. “Cody you’re dead.” I was scooting closer towards the edge. “You’re dead why are you here?” I still wasn’t looking at him. “I’m crazy. Yep. It’s just my imagination. You’re’ not real. None of this is real. I’m probably sleeping on my couch or something.” I was babbling now. I guess it’s something I do when I’m nervous. It bugs me, though. “Casey, take my hand. You’ll fall. You have to take my hand. It’s time, Casey. Take my hand, now!” I open my eyes to find his face just inches from mine. He looks into my eyes. Even his eyes were pleading. “Take my hand, now.” He was definitely pleading now and I realized I was slipping. He looked like he was about to cry. “Please, Casey. It’s time.” Then I fell. I fell and fell. It felt weird because I never once, hit the ground. Then everything went dark. And I thought, “This is it.”
I wake up to find Cody staring down at me, tears pooling in his eyes. “I’m so sorry.” He was saying over and over. “I’m sorry for everything.” Everything? He hadn’t done anything. I realized we were still in the forest, but I felt different than when I had come. I hurt all over. I tried to move, but he stopped me. “I hurt, Cody.” I say to him. “Shh, I know, I know.” He says. He tells me to close my eyes and I do.
When I wake up I was back in my bedroom. My leg was bandaged up and I had a cast on my arm and ice on my forehead. “Honey, she’s awake.” I hear my mom say. “Mom what’s going on?” My dad came in and sat on my bedside and my mom told me what happened. “You were on your bike riding down that huge hill at the end of the road, coming back from your walk?” My dad nods. “And you hit a huge rock and went flying off. Mrs. Shirley said one of your friends from school brought you home. You just got back from the hospital three days ago and you’ve been out ever since.” My mom patted my good leg and then left with my father to give me some time alone. Cody was alive. That’s all I could think about. I fell off that rock because I was too caught up in my dumb, dramatic, hysteria that I couldn’t just take his hand. The thing that mattered most was that he’d saved me. He jumped off after me and landed under me so I wouldn’t crack my head open or break my neck or worse; die. Now that I realized this, I wondered if he was ok. Cody. Alive, in the forest. Hurt. I needed to help him. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. I hurt too much. He was out there somewhere. Then I remembered. He could speak to me. What was the word? Telepathically. Why could he do that? He wasn’t an alien, that’s for sure. If he could speak to me then maybe I could speak to him. I felt really dumb, but I was anxious. “Cody? Can you hear me?” I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing. Omigod! What if he was dead? Like for sure for sure. This was all my fault. My parents had said I’d been out for three days and who knows how long I’d been in the hospital. I wonder if I missed the last day of school? Well, that was the least of my worries right now.
It had been almost three weeks since the “biking” incident and still no sign or anything from Cody. However, Chase had come back from his camping trip a few weeks ago, so I walked over to his house since my leg was better. His brother tells me he’s up in his room, which I was surprised to here since he knew I was coming. Usually I just go right in, but something told me I should knock this time. “Come in.” He says. When I come in he looks up at me and then to my surprise, he frowns at me. “What’s wrong?” I ask to him. “Oh…it’s you.” I’m confused. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” I say. “Well I’m surprised you even dropped by. Wouldn’t rather be with your boyfriend Cody?” I froze. “Who is he anyway? I’ve never met him and he obviously never went to our school.” I stood there puzzled. He knew Cody. The whole town knew Cody. Even tourists somehow knew him. “You don’t remember Cody?” I ask. “Remember him? So it is true.” He says a bit too loud. “No, of course not, but you don’t remember him?” He never looks at me once. “No I’m sorry. But, no Cody comes to mind at the moment.” He says, anger rising in his voice. He didn’t remember Cody. I wasn’t thinking clearly at the moment and because of that I walked out of there. Just like that. I guess I shouldn’t have walked out on him like that. I needed answers, but not from him. I’d never seen him angry before and I wasn’t really planning on finding out.
I ran home, completely regretting it when I got to my front door, though. My leg was cramping REALLY badly. “Honey what is it?” My mom asks coming into the front hallway. “Mom do you remember Cody?” She makes a face like I’d just asked the world’s dumbest question. “Of course. The boy in your dreams.” My mom looks at me, concerned, but also like she didn’t really know who he was. “Did you run all the way here?” She was trying to change the subject. Typical Mom. This couldn’t be happening. “No, Mom! Cody from school. Cody who used to live next door.” My mom looked at me confused. “Honey the only people we live next to is Mr. Carson and the Henderson’s. And of course the folks across the street.” I couldn’t believe it. It was like Cody was being erased from everyone’s memory, from everyone’s mind. He was real. He lived here for as long as I’ve lived here. I couldn’t believe, the only one who remembered him…was me.
I must have been in bed for two days straight. Mostly trying to get my head on right. School had been out for almost a month now. I was feeling miserable. I went downstairs for breakfast, finding my parents had already left for work. I didn’t feel like eating anything. For some reason I had this weird feeling. Like I had to be somewhere. And I didn’t like. I got dressed and walked to Beck’s house, asking him if I could borrow his car. Of course he said yes. He’s never said no to me. “So where are you going, anyway?” I get in the driver’s seat and roll down my window. “I don’t know.” I say staring straight ahead. He throws a towel over his shoulder and leans into the car window. “Well…good luck with that.” He backs away as I pull out of his driveway. “I’ll be back soon.” I shout. He rolls his eyes and walks back towards his garage.
So I’m driving along the road, having no idea where I’m going. Suddenly, I pass by my favorite lake and I have that same feeling again so I turn into the parking lot and get out. I walk around searching for whatever I’m looking for. Whatever that may be, I have no clue. I’m about to turn back when I come across Chase sitting by the water’s edge under some tall oak trees. “What are you doing here?” I ask breaking the sustained silence that left me feeling awkward standing behind him without any words escaping my mouth. He jumps up and turns around with a surprised look on his face. “What are you doing here?” he asks. “Um…I’m pretty sure I asked you first.” I say laughing. I had forgot about my dramatic exit at his house three days ago, up until now. He scratches his head and looks at the ground. “Well…it’s really dumb. It must be a coincidence that you just happened to be here…” I look him in the eyes and tell him, “There are no such things as coincidences.” He half smiles and looks up. “I guess since I yelled at you with no proof about anything, I owe you some answers.” I stand there waiting for him to go on. “This may sound totally weird, but I heard a voice telling me to come here.” He looked different and definitely not the person he was two days ago. I walk towards him. He backs away from me. “Chase…who told you about Cody?” he looks confused and then remembers what the whole argument was about in his bedroom two days ago. “I heard…a voice tell me. I’m not crazy either! It’s true.” I look out at the water trying to piece everything together. “You’re not crazy, Chase. I believe you. I hear him too.” He really looked confused now. “Casey…what are you talking about? I-I don’t understand…?” So, Cody told Chase, that Cody was my boyfriend. Chase didn’t remember who Cody was. Neither did my mother who actually liked Cody and pretty much called him part of the family. Now Chase was hearing him too? “Chase?” I ask. He looks at me. “What does the voice say to you?” He looked very uncomfortable. He didn’t speak at first. “It tells me…It’s Time…Or something like that. I don’t know. I wasn’t hearing anything for a while until today. It told me to come here. I see now it told you the same.” Then I asked, “Chase, how long has this been going on now?” He looks away again. “In the locker room, at school. Just before the last game.” So Cody left me to go to him? How rude! “Have you had…dreams?” I ask feeling kind of awkward. He laughs like I’m crazy and then stops suddenly. “I’ve only had…one. And it was actually here…at this lake! And there was someone with me. I thought then maybe it was you…but I couldn’t really tell…” This was so weird. “Do you know who it is who’s speaking to you, Chase?” He looks defeated and falls to the ground with his head in his hands. “No…I don’t…who is it?” I don’t want to tell him. But I feel like I have to. “It’s Cody, Chase.” I say and he doesn’t say a word.
After about ten minutes of silence he begins to laugh hysterically. “So this Cody guy, who I don’t even know told me to come here. Why would your boyfriend tell me to come here?” I just stare at him. “He’s not my boyfriend Chase. Don’t you hear what I’m saying? I hear him too. He’s speaking to you telepathically.” He just laughs. I couldn’t believe it. Why couldn’t he just take me seriously? I guess I do sound psychotically pathetic right now. “He needs time…” The voice tells me. So I stand there for who knows how long waiting for him to get over his hysteria. Then I walk away after about three minutes, because I knew he would need more time than I hoped for.
After about an hour, I come back from wandering around to find him sitting in the same spot with a blank expression covering his face. He stared straight into the water. In fact, I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. “Chase?” he looks up at me, his eyes full of tears. “I’m so sorry.” He says. “It’s ok Chase.” He doesn’t look away from me. “I’m not Chase.” He says. I sit down next to him and turn to face him. Chase’s eyes were different. They weren’t the sparkling blue you see everyday. They were a dark brown, with a hint of gold in them. Just like Cody’s…“Are you ok, Chase?” He smiles at me. “I’m not Chase.” I start to panic. “Chase what are you talking about? Did you get contacts…?” I was trying to distract myself from the fact that Cody may as well be inside Chase’s body. “I’m Cody, Casey.” He just keeps on smiling into my eyes, almost like he’s used to possessing people all the time. “Cody, get out of Chase!” I scream loud enough for some people fishing nearby to look up. I never thought I would EVER hear myself say THAT. Cody is still smiling. “Time is running out, Casey.” He says almost looking a bit sad. “Save me, Casey. Time is running out.” I had a feeling I was starting to figure out what his whole freaking sentence was starting to mean, but what I was thinking was way too…unrealistic. Just then Chase’s/Cody’s eyes start to change and then I realize Chase was back to his normal self. I give him a hug and then when he realizes what’s going on, he hugs me back. “I’m so sorry. For everything. What I said about that Cody guy…I know now…why I could here him.” He whispers in my ear. I lift my head up. “Chase? Why is it, we’re the only ones who hear him?” He smiles and laughs a bit. “He told me to say nothing…so literally, I made a deal with a non-existing friend of yours.” We lock eyes and, and then it happens. We kiss. I never could’ve thought of a better place to have my first kiss. Right by a lake, with a blue sky above my head, and white puffy clouds blowing in the breeze. The sun was just setting behind some trees making it look mystical out. We pulled away from each other. He has a huge grin on his face. “Glad to have you back, baby.” He says to me. I wonder where Cody is and then I hear just the shy of a whisper coming from an oncoming breeze. It was a nice, warm breeze. I knew this was the last time he would probably ever speak to me because the words he said left a tiny hole in my heart. “You saved me, Casey…when it’s time…you’ll see me again. I promise you.” I smile up at the sky knowing Cody will be all right. I’ll see him again. I don’t really know how or why at the moment, but I have a feeling I will soon. “I love you Cody…” I whisper.
“What’s that?” Chase asks still looking at me. “How did you even get here, Chase?” I ask him. He thinks about it for a moment. “Well I got a ride from some tourist bus. They were surprisingly friendly…” I laugh. “C’mon, I’ll drive you home.” And then we both walk off into the sunset, towards Beck’s car. Acting like nothing paranormally weird just happened a second ago. Then again, I might be dreaming…who knows?