Fake Your Death

“Nora,” Mom said as she cracked my door. I sat up on my bed and looked at her. “Honey, there’s someone here for you.” I stood up and walked over to the door.

“Who?” She just smiled and turned away, heading back down the stairs. I groaned and followed her. I heard Dad laugh from the living room, followed by a vaguely familiar voice. As I stepped around the corner, my dad pulled him closer.

“There she is. Baby girl, look who came to see you.”

“Hey,” I greeted nervously. “What’s up, Gee?”

“Nothing really. I just wondered if you might want to get that coffee,” he offered. I looked to Mom, who hadn’t stopped smiling, before nodding my head slightly.

“Sure, that sounds good.” He turned to face my dad.

“Well, it was good to see you again, Don,” he said as he shook his hand.

“You too, Gerard. Be sure to send me that meal plan. I could lose some weight myself,” Dad joked. Gerard smiled and started towards the door. I started to follow him, but Mom grabbed my arm.

“Here,” she said, stuffing a twenty into my hand. “Just in case you needed some.” I smiled at her gratefully. Gerard stopped at the door, waiting on me to follow. We left the house and started down the sidewalk. Neither of us said anything for a minute.

“So, what brings you back home? Life out west not work out for you?” He asked to break the awkward silence.

“Ahh… Unstable career… Bad relationship choices… Insufficient funds…” He nodded slowly. “I don’t know. I guess it was just time to come home.”

“Well, it’s been quite some time. I’m sure your parents are glad to know that you’re okay. They’ve been worried.”

“You talked to my parents?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, we live in a small town, so I saw them a lot during the first few years. I had to know…” He stopped for a second before continuing. “I had to know that you didn’t just leave us.”

“Gee…” We approached the door of the coffee shop, and he held it open for me. As I stepped inside, he motioned towards a corner table. As I claimed the table, he ordered drinks. After a couple of minutes, he came over and sat across from me, setting one of the cups in front of me. I took it gratefully. As I took a drink, I chuckled to myself. “Chai. You remembered.”

“It always was your favorite.” We sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while before he coughed nervously. “So, what are your plans, now that you’re back?”

“Eh, I don’t really have one. I got a job at Lowery’s. I start Monday.”

“Well, that’s something. You been up to anything else, aside from job hunting?”

“Not really. I’ve hung out with Frankie a few times, but other than that, I’ve pretty much just stayed around the house with my parents. What about you? How’ve you been?” He just shrugged.

“Honestly, I could tell you, but it’d be a book. It’s been seven years, Nora. A lot has happened.”

“Well, give me the highlights, if you don’t want to go through the whole thing.”

“Well, let’s see. Where do I start? Well, after you bailed, I got really depressed for a while, got on drugs, got off of drugs. Developed a drinking problem, quit drinking. I moved out of Mom and Dad’s. I got a job, making cartoons for newspapers. I got engaged, but she cheated on me. So, there’s that. Um… Let’s see… I think that about sums it all up.” He took a drink and stared at the table.

“Gee…” I said softly. He raised a brow at me.

“And that’s something that’s kind of weird to me. You just up and left. No one hears from you for years. Then, you come back and are calling me by a nickname I haven’t used since high school?” I heard a slight resentment in his tone.

“I’m sorry… I don’t know what to say…”

“Well, I mean, if you’re offering? You could start with what happened seven years ago. After all this time, I think you could at least give me an explanation.”