I am (on hold)

Prologue

This story is on hold!!

I am racing down the alley way, swerving around boxes and garbage heaps as I go. My dark brown hair is flagging behind me in the wind. My crisp, blue eyes are brimming with tears, making it hard to see. I try to swallow back the tears as I run faster and faster. As I leap over a big cardboard box, the edge of my shoe catches on the worn material, and I fall head long into the cool, dark concrete.

*******

“Evelyn Jones!” I heard as the tears I had tried so hard to bottle up came spilling down my cheeks. I knew the voice well. It was Jimmy.

“What do you want?” I yelled at him through sobs. I stumbled to my feet as he drew nearer.

“What are you doing?” He asked quizzically as he looked me up and down. “You look like a train wreck, are you okay?”

The friendly features of Jimmy’s tanned face stared out at me through a curtain of brown hair. We had spent our whole childhood together. The times were simpler back then. Everything was better before the accident.

“I thought I told you to stay away from me!” I screamed at him, furiously. “Just leave me alone!”

“Hey. I just wanted to talk to you. Why are you so angry at me? What did I do to you?” he whispered. I could barely hear him over my own thumping heart. I knew I shouldn’t be yelling at him, but I just couldn’t seem to stop.

“Why do you treat me like I’m special? Or like I have some disability? Just because I had that stupid dream doesn’t mean I have any special power!” I listened to the echo of my words as they faded away. Jimmy looked like he had been hurt in a thousand places at once. I tensed as he looked at me; his eyes almost blinded from tears himself now. He drew in a sharp breath and opened his mouth to hurl some insult at me himself, but I interjected him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. I guess I’m just a little shaken up from all that’s happened lately. Can we just forget about this and get a milkshake or something?”

“Yeah,” he replied, stiffly. “That would be nice.”

As we emerged out of the dark, soundless alley way, the noises of the city returned. The honks of impatient cars, the clatter of plates and cutlery being gathered up in nearby cafes and the murmur of people flowing down the pathways, out on an early morning shopping trip came rushing back as we stepped out on the pathway.

Jimmy’s voice was barely audible over the rush of the city. “Evie!” he yelled in my ear. “Let’s go to Luigi’s.”

“Good idea,” I replied, overwhelmed by the noise confronting me. “At least it will be quieter there.”

We zipped through a series of side streets, each one taking us further away from the noise. We were almost there. Any tourist that came to Harton would surely get lost on the way to Luigi’s; even most of the locals didn’t know the exact location. But Jimmy and I knew the side streets and alley ways like the back of our hands.

After walking in silence for another five minutes, we came across ‘Luigi’s Pie and Pizza Place’. The old, beaten sign never looked so welcoming. As I pushed open the battered wooden door on its old, rusty hinges, the aromas of pizzas, pies and chocolate milkshakes rushed to greet me. I breathed deeply for a few moments, letting the sweet smells envelope me. With the smells of the shop, old memories came flooding back. I remembered a laugh, a smile and the taste of crispy pie pastry. It was like going back to a simpler time. As I reopened my eyes, reality came crashing back. I stumbled backwards for a breath, but the ground didn’t find me. Jimmy had seen me hesitate, and had caught me. “Thanks,” I said breathlessly.

I sat down at table number eleven, a table right in the corner that we sit at every time we come here. The familiar sight of the weary red gum table looked inviting and strangely homey. As I sunk into the worn leather seat, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion overcame me. I ran a hand through my hair, which was now a knotted mess. I flinched as I felt the blistering heat of the egg that was forming on my head. I cursed under my breath at my clumsiness. Jimmy was probably right about me looking like a train wreck. I sighed, reluctantly giving into the fact that Jimmy was right about a lot of things, and I shouldn’t abuse that fact. I almost lost a friend today.

Jimmy came back to the table with an iced-chocolate for him and a chocolate milkshake for me. I took a long drink of my milkshake and marvelled at the taste. Luigi’s wasn’t the fanciest cafe in the world, but it certainly did make the best milkshakes I have ever tasted.

“Sorry I yelled at you today.” I said. An awkward silence passed between us. I desperately wanted to say something, but my mind had gone blank. “I.... I guess you were pretty freaked about the way I reacted earlier.” I stammered.

“It’s fine.” He said, a little bluntly.

“What’s the matter with you?”

“I just want to know why you don’t think that dream meant anything. I think it is a sign. Have you ever wondered that maybe Ruby's death... wasn’t an accident?” He said the last part so quietly; I had to hold my breath to hear him. His words sent cold shivers up my back, but at the same time, heat was rising to my face.

“What do you mean ‘not an accident’?  You think it was planned?"

"Come on Evelyn, face it. Nothing can be blow to smytherenes 'by accident'. That just can't happen." He reasoned with me. His voice was calm, but I could hear the steel in it as well. Yep, he was pissed.

"I dont want to hear it. Especially not from you. Arent you suppoesed to be supporting me like a real best friend would? Don’t talk about Ruby ever again!” I fumed at him. I was outraged that he could have even thought of that possibility.

I scraped my chair back and stood up, but he grabbed my arm. I could tell by the force of his grip that he wasn’t going to let me go. I looked into his cool brown eyes and was surprised to see how serious he looked. He wasn’t even concerned at how angry I was! This fact just made me even madder.

‘Stop, stop, STOP!’ A tiny voice inside my head was screaming. But they were only small words compared to the many thousands of things I could have said to him then.

“I lost everything that mattered to me that day! You don’t know what it’s like to lose that much in twenty-four hours!” I raged.

“They were like family to me too! You don’t think that I’m pained to think of that possibility? Why can’t you embrace the fact that maybe that dream did mean something?” He was starting to loose his temper now, but I didnt care. I almost could have killed him.

“Don’t try and change the subject! What does the fact that you think I’m ‘special’ have to do with their deaths? Why are you so intent on that?”

“I didn’t try to! Don’t you see? It is all connected! You may not like admit it, but everyone’s dream has something to do with reality! You have to go with it! We only get one dream in our whole life, and you had one! Why don’t you want to do something about it?” Jimmy was almost spitting now. He said his last words as if they left a bad taste in his mouth.

I opened my mouth to retort, and a thousand things happened at once.