Post 16

Written while waiting for my car to be done at the shop. I was pretty distracted, between the TV, other patrons and their conversations, and cell phone calls.

As he got out of bed, it dawned on him that today was graduation day. It was exciting, but at the same time, it seemed to dwarf in comparison to recent events. It was as though his life was trying to move on without him. Two weeks ago, graduating and going on to college was the only thing on his mind. Now, he had a mystery to figure out, a mystery about someone he hasn’t even formally met yet.

He walked into the bathroom and saw in the mirror the results of falling asleep with wet hair. He couldn’t just grab a ball cap and hide his hair under it today. It took him fifteen minutes to wrestle his hair back to some semblance of order before he got dressed and went downstairs.

His mother was home today. She took the day off to make sure he was ready for the graduation ceremony. His dad would be coming to the ceremony later. Breakfast was on the table. She made pancakes, hash browns, bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese. On the table was juice and milk waiting for him.

“Good morning,” she said. “How’d you sleep? You were out like a light last night.”

“I slept pretty well,” he said. Aside from waking up for an hour in the middle of the night, he did sleep pretty well.

“Are you ready for today?”

“I guess so.” Peter grabbed a plate of food and sat down at the table. As he poured the syrup, he said, “Laura is going to give me a ride this morning.”

“Oh? Are you going to let her chauffer you everywhere?”

“Not everywhere, but I don’t mind going with her to the school today.”

His mother sighed. Peter knew that she was planning to take him in today, but selfishly, he also knew that she would let him make his own choices, and she wouldn’t argue with him when he said he wanted to go with Laura.

“I’ll see you at the school, mom,” he said, trying to mollify her.

She cleaned up the kitchen while Peter ate. Sarah came downstairs looking better than she had in days. She took the plate that Heather made for her and sat down across from Peter, who was almost done now.

“Is mom taking you to school, Pete?”

“No, Laura is.”

“Oh, okay. Well, don’t feel bad, mom,” she said over her shoulder. “I’ll go with you. I want to see him get his diploma to prove to me that he’s not such a dummy any more.”

“Thanks a lot,” he said mockingly as he stood up and took his plate back to the kitchen. As he put it into the dishwasher, the doorbell rang. A clatter of dishes arose, and Peter called out, “I’ll get it!”

He was too late, though. As he walked towards the door, he heard his mother talking with Laura. “Well, don’t you just look lovely this morning,” she told Laura enthusiastically.

“Thank you, Mrs. Valgard.”

When Peter heard Laura’s voice, he wanted to run to her and hold her. His mind called to mind to the embrace with the redhead at the airport. From there, his mind flashed back to the bedroom scene. He forced the image back in his mind before he came face to face with her. He rounded the corner and as soon as he saw her, his pace slowed dramatically.

She looked gorgeous in her graduation dress. He took in the sight of her, every curve, every color. Her hair was pulled back and fell in cascades down her back. Her make-up was perfect. He didn’t want to mess it up by kissing her! Her lips looked fuller, her eyes bigger than he was used to. Her dress accentuated her athletic figure, but she looked curvier than usual, too. He walked up past his mom and hugged her, smelling her sweet perfume. He whispered, “Hi. You look awesome.”

After their embrace, she held him at arms length and looked him over. His shirt and pants were pressed. He was wearing dress shoes and a belt. He wasn’t wearing his tie yet. That was hanging from the back of his chair in the dining room. “You look pretty good yourself.” She looked at Heather and continued, “Nice work, Mrs. Valgard.”

“Hey, don’t I get any credit here?”

Laura looked at Peter, and then at Heather with a big smile. “Nope.” She looked back at Peter and said, “Are you ready to go?”

“Almost,” Peter said. He ran into the kitchen, grabbed his tie and disappeared into the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, fixed his hair and tied his tie. When he came back out, Laura and Heather were in the living room talking about Dan still being in the hospital. They expected him to get out later that day, but he was going to miss the ceremony. They both stood up and looked at him as he walked in, his look having been completed by the tie.

Laura was nodding in approval. His mother said, “You look great, Peter. You’d better get going, though. You’re supposed to be there soon.”

They all walked out the front door of the house. Heather and Sarah headed for the truck and Peter and Laura went to Laura’s car. Once they were sitting in the car, Peter let out an exasperated sigh. “I thought that would never end!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been wanting to talk with you about what happened in the middle of the night last night.”

“Did you have another dream?”

“No, not quite. I mean, I might have been dreaming, but I don’t remember the dream part of things. I remember sitting up in the middle of the night with a realization.”

Peter didn’t think ahead about the implications of sharing this realization with Laura. Now that he opened the can of worms, he realized that the part of the vision from yesterday that was what he suspected to be Gerald’s memory was the part he hadn’t told her about yet – the sex.

Laura was looking at him expectantly. He couldn’t go back now. But what was he going to say? He didn’t want to spoil the mood from this morning. They were both dressed up, and about to walk across the stage to get their diplomas. This was supposed to be a happy day.