(I Just) Died In Your Arms ~ Stanley Uris

005

Julia's POV.

I listened carefully as Stanley recited the Torah in his room, pacing back and forth in front of me, whilst I sat on his bed.

It was the day after I had told Beverly about my dad. Stan had invited me over to his place so I could help him be less nervous for his bar mitzvah, which was in a week.

He stumbled over his words and paced back and forth with the large heavy book in his hands. I looked up and followed with my eyes, waiting for him to stop.

He finally stopped after messing up on almost every word, and turned to me.

"So?" Stan asked, setting his book down.

"I think you should be less nervous. You can try again if you'd like." I offered and he shook his head.

"Trying again isn't helping. I've been practicing non stop. I just have to accept I'm going to disappointment to my father." He sat down next to me, hanging his head in shame.

"You're going to do fine, don't think about what your father thinks, think about what you do."

"Could you go there, with me? To watch? It'd help." He asks, pleading with me with his eyes.

"Of course. How about we watch a movie, or do what you'd like? Get your mind off things?" I thought about things Stan could like, maybe a movie would be nice. He turned his head as my wild imagination grew, and snapped me out of it.

"Bird watching." He said simply.

"What?"

"There's a place, near the quarry, where I like to go bird watching. Would you like to come with me?" Stan asks, standing up from his bed.

"Yeah, sure." I agreed, still flabbergasted that he actually liked to watch birds. "Can we talk for a second though?"

"Sure, what's up?" His face and voice softened, looking at me with his crystal blue eyes.

"All this clown stuff, kids going missing, what do you think about it?" I asked.

"I think that we should forget it, leave it to the adults and-"

"Forget it? It could easily be one of us on one of those posters! Kids are dying, and the adults are turning the other way." I was scared just to think about it. "I can't protect myself. Neither can you. Neither can any one of the losers. I want to do something to protect us."

"You're scared we're going to go missing?" He finally asked the question that I wanted to answer, yet kept beating around it.

"Yeah, I guess I am." I admitted.

Stan thought for a moment, then looked back at me.

"There's something that could help."

He bent over to his dresser and rummaged around for a bit. His hand stopped on something, then he picked it up. It was a gold necklace, with a small star at the end of it.

"My mom used to say this protected her in World War II or something. She gave it to me but seeing as I am guy, I have no use for it." He walked over to me and chuckled. "Maybe you can use it." He said softly, looking down at the necklace.

"Aw, Stan you don't have to. Isn't that like a family heirloom? It should stay in your family." Maybe if Stan has a daughter one day, he would like to give it to her, but he couldn't because I had it.

"It doesn't matter too much to me, I don't like my family anyways." He smiled, handing the necklace over to me.

"Sure, okay." I smiled, taking the fragile necklace in my hands.