A Mad Poisonous Cigar

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A Knee-Jerk Reaction

It had been quite awhile since Casey had been out of the house, besides a daily walk. Life had become much more of a waiting game rather than enjoying the moment at hand; he was mostly concerned with the future moments. At first it began with mild seclusion, leading him to dwell mostly on his own character. This seclusion intensified, leading to narcissism and eventually an existential crisis, ending in a jaded, solipsistic attitude. He could easily pick apart his mind and try to determine which part of his subconscious the characters in his dream stemmed from, and what he might do to let them return.

This day wasn’t much different from any other, but he was feeling more adventurous than usual for some reason. Without a break from time to time, being alone can drive one mad. He was motivated to leave his house and see if he could enjoy the company of others for a time. Casey collected a few quarters he had on his dresser, packed a few books and notebooks, and decided to leave the house. He hopped in his car and drove downtown to his nearest coffee shop.

Why he choose today to spend some time out of the house is hard to tell. The weather was terrible. Winter was closing in fast, and it was becoming quite chilly. He put on a simple pull-over jacket to keep him warm. The sky was very dark to the West, but seemed to brighten up slightly as you looked toward the other direction. It was raining sporadically, but didn’t seem to bother Casey at all. It was just nice to be in a somewhat less familiar environment.

He arrived at the coffee shop downtown and parked his car. Despite the rain, he didn’t bother rushing into the store. He took slow, careful steps, trying to maintain awareness of every sensation of his feet as they hit the ground. It seems silly and pointless, but he had developed a habit of trying to synchronize his breath with his steps; making sure that with each breath he took the same amount of steps with each foot.

He walked into the shop and was greeted by a very thin man who wasn’t very old. However, his hair seemed almost white. He seemed to be the trendy type, the type that would give passive, uninterested art reviews and read cigar magazines. It easily made Casey nauseous. The man looked at him with his head tilted slightly upwards.

“Can I help you?” he said.

“Yeah, I think I’ll have your coffee of the day,” Casey replied.

“Sure.”

He pressed some buttons on the register.

“That’ll be $1.61 please.”

Without saying anything, Casey handed him several quarters. He collected his change.

“It’ll be ready in a moment.”

The place was deserted besides the people who worked there, which there was only two. He had a seat next to the window to wait for his coffee. He remembered from his past trips there that the coffee of the day was always the same coffee. It never tasted any different. The coffee of the day would masquerade itself as a dark blend one day, or a Columbian roast another, but it never seemed to be any different. Maybe he never really developed a sophisticated taste for coffee, he wasn’t sure.

Within a few moments, he saw his coffee sitting on the counter. He picked it up and added some non-dairy creamer. No sugar. The rain actually seemed to be comforting for some reason, so he chose to sit outside. He took his coffee and his backpack full of books and had a seat outside. The coffee was still very hot.

He unzipped his backpack and took out a few books. Most people who have no taste, the types that read only novels about romance or mystery, would consider his interests to be somewhat eccentric. Casey never had any motive to read any sort of novel that wasn’t either obscure, spiritual, or famous. The books he brought with him included “Nine Stories” by J. D. Salinger as well as “Franny and Zooey” by the same author. “Franny and Zooey” was so excellently riddled with what seemed to be koans that he would reread the book constantly, hopeful of some sort of fleeting satori, but that was hardly ever the case. After he had certain experiences, Casey felt as if his mind had frozen. Often times when he would read a phrase or think some thought that he was certain would clear his mind for even a moment, allowing him to peer past the surface, but it never would these days. He also brought with him a book by Eckhart Tolle, a book that was pretentious and practically unbearable to read. It was terribly repetitive, and it would make you wonder whether Tolle has really only one concrete idea about anything; an idea he can only rephrase over and over in hope that something new is born. But often times it can be hard to tell the difference between creating something new and breaking what you already have.

He also had a Bible, the Qu’ran, a book by Thich Nhat Hanh, and Mein Kampf. Thich Nhat Hanh was a very enjoyable read. It can be repetitive as well, but it is in an entirely different approach. Whenever an idea seems to be recycled, it only serves to reinforce what has already been said, and in some sense of the word can even be seen as comical from time to time. He set his books on the table and thought about what to read. To jog his mind, he decided to smoke a cigarette as he began to drink his coffee. He took out his pack, slid out a cigarette, fumbled in his pocket for a lighter, and lit it up.

He decided to read “Franny and Zooey”, but was quickly distracted when he noticed what seemed to be a familiar face walking towards the coffee shop. He was far from certain, but he thought he had seen this person before. Casey eyed her for a moment, but about when she entered the store he quickly averted his gaze back to his book.

He read for awhile. A line that had always stuck out to him was a character in the book describing satori as “knowing God before he said let there be light.” He had always thought this statement to be riddled with error, but it was one of those things that seemed so clever you often hope it’s true for the sake of who knows what. He often tried to reason with the statement, picking apart theology as if he were splitting hairs, hoping that he could rationalize some sort of truth. His mind still seemed frozen.

After several minutes passed, the girl he noticed earlier stepped outside with her coffee. She looked over at Casey and recognized him as well. She walked over to him with a fair amount of confidence and had a seat.

“You’re Casey, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s me. You look awfully familiar.”

“People will tell me all the time that I look different. But you look about the same. I thought it was you.”

“I do know you don’t I?”

“We were in fifth and sixth grade together. At Denmark Elementary. That small town?”

Casey laughed a little bit.

“Erin, the piano girl. Yeah, I remember you.”

“The piano girl? Is that me?”

“Yeah that’s you. You don’t remember that?”

“No.”

“That’s all I remember about you, to be honest. You would always tell me about your Grandma bringing you a new piano, but you had far too many pianos in your house already, and you had no room for the new one. That’s all I remember. The pianos.”

“Well, we had one piano. And my grandma brought me a new one home from vacation. We had no room for it. We put it in the garage,” she said.

“So, how have you been?”

“Well, I haven’t a reason to complain. Not about anything really, to be honest. Except for a couple things. Some things aren’t too good, if you really do want me to be honest about everything and all.”

“Sure be honest.”

“Well, my boyfriend spit on the back of my neck.”

Casey laughed again.

“Why?”

“He said he didn’t mean to. But I know he did. He was lying about everything.”

“Everything?”

“About why he spit.”

“Oh.”

Erin was eyeing his books. She picked one up a looked through it.

“I don’t like to read much. It’s so boring.”

Casey wanted to say something about her being poorly educated, or perhaps even a simpleton, but he didn’t.

“What did he say?” Casey asked.

“About what? What did who say?”

“Your boyfriend. About spitting on your neck.”

“Oh, that. He said it was a reaction. He didn’t try to do it at all, he just reacted. To be honest, he said it was a “knee-jerk reaction”.”

She paused for a second.

“Why do you read this book? Isn’t this what people in other countries read?”

He laughed.

“The Qu’ran?”

“Yeah. People that believe in Mohammad read this book. Some people who don’t believe in Mohammad say that he had epilepsy. He was a lunatic.”

“Well, I guess I read it because so many other people have, and it has had a tremendous amount of influence on society. It’s mostly curiosity, I suppose.”

“Oh. Can you read all of this? Even the squigglies?”

“No, I can’t read the squigglies. I wish I could. They say you can’t really understand it unless you can read Arabic.”

“What did you get to drink?” she asked.

“I got the coffee of the day.”

“I always get the coffee of the day. No exceptions. I like the variety.”

Casey almost burst out laughing, but only quirked a smile.

“Well so what have you been doing all these years?” he asked.

“Oh gosh. Well, if you want me to be brutally honest and all.”

“Let’s hear it. Brutal honesty.”

“Well, let me see. I’ve been going to school. Doing all sorts of things. There was the spitting incident. And others like it. I’ve also been going for walks. I like to daydream, and think about things.”

“What do you like to think about?”

“I guess, I don’t know really. I like to think back as far as I can, and see what I can remember. Buddhists say if you think back far enough, you can remember a past life, or even before that. The Buddha remembered millions and millions of past lives. He was a bird, a fish, an ant, and even a blade of grass.”

“What do you remember?”

“Well, only flashes. I remember being a kid and walking through the woods. It was in a town so far away, you can’t even find it on a map. I was walking through these woods. It was kind of scary, to be honest, because I think, if I can remember, that there were other people there to. But I don’t remember what they looked like, or what they said, or anything at all like that. What about you? What have you been doing?”

“Not a lot. Not a lot at all. Mostly reading. Using the computer. I’ve been going for walks to, just about every day. I guess, I think about things too.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. All sorts of things. I guess I think about the future more than anything else. I wonder what will happen to me, and the people I know, and society. Maybe there would be a revolution, where everybody would start thinking differently and be more creative. I wonder what could happen millions of years into the future. Whether or not there will still be people, if we will live in space. What we could discover. All that stuff.”

“Man. That’s really out there. I don’t think I would want to live in space.”

“Well, I didn’t say I would want to live in space. I just wonder if some people would live there or not.”

“Well, gosh! What do you remember about Denmark? Anything? Anything besides pianos?”

“Sure, I remember some things. I remember the kids that sat on the monkey bars. The kids that sat on the monkey bars were always much cooler than the kids who played kickball. They were damn sophisticated, in my opinion.”

She laughed.

“Well, I don’t remember that. I remember Mrs. Cooper. Her eyes were always bulging out of her head. Christ Almighty, that woman could stare through a brick wall!”

“You probably don’t smoke, do you?”

“Well, no, not really. My boyfriend smokes. He’ll blow the smoke in my face, and will pretend like he didn’t mean to do it at all, as if it was an accident.”

“A “knee-jerk reaction”?”

She laughed.

“God, who knows,” she said.

“So you don’t like to read books? No books at all?”

“I used to read. I used to read all the time. But then I read this one book and it made me think about some things differently. And after that I just didn’t think I could bear to read one more sentence!”

“What was the book?”

“It was a short book. Real short. I found it in a book store; it was so short that I didn’t even have to buy it, I read it in the store in one sitting. The book was practically nonsense. It was just all over the place; not even slightly cohesive. It had a theme, though. It was about philosophy, but you could never really gather what the point of it all was. It was just nonsense. I try not to think about it.”

“You try not to think about it? Why?”

“Well it wasn’t a bad read. Not at all, really. But it just isn’t something you want to put a whole lot of thought to. It’ll drive you mad, thinking about it all day.”

“My goodness. That sounds intense.”

“Well sure. Sure it’s intense.”

The rain seemed to let up. There were little pockets of blue appearing all over the sky by this time. They didn’t say much for several moments. They just sipped their coffee, staring off into space.

“I thought of the craziest thing yesterday,” Erin said, still staring off.

“What’s that?”

“Well, I wondered what it would be like if I had been born blind. It would be different than being able to see early in your life, and then losing your sight. If you had never seen colors or shapes, or anything like that, well than you wouldn’t have any idea of what they are like.”

Casey’s mind seemed to unfreeze instantly.

“Well, it was nice talking to you, Erin. But I really need to go.”

“Sure. It was nice to see you. Take care.”

Casey hopped into his car and drove home. He had the suspicion that he was enlightened. Everything he thought about quickly dissolved. But as soon as the idea that he was enlightened crept into his mind, his mind would seem to freeze again, so he tried not to think about it. Thinking about it would drive one mad. As soon as he got home he took all of his books and stuffed them in his backpack. They wouldn’t all fit, so he had to carry a few of them. He walked briskly to the nearest park, taking no notice of anyone. He dumped all of his books in a fire pit and set them all on fire; what seemed to be a knee-jerk reaction. His mind disintegrated into ashes along with the books, leaving nothing left. He eventually dozed off staring at the fire.

A Cliche in a Cliche

Benjamin Brown had been attending classes at the local community college for a couple weeks now. He would have been away at a four-year university if it wasn’t for some unfortunate events that surrounded the middle of his senior year of high school. Let’s just say he had some difficulties interpreting reality. After his so-called difficulties he was left with only one friend named Morgan, jobless, less intelligent, and with a less-than-understanding family. He was desperate for friends, and above all else, he had always wanted a girlfriend.

Today was the first day of the third week of school. Benjamin awoke at seven o’clock in the morning to his alarm. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a few moments. He was in a fairly decent mood. He didn’t mind going to the community college.

“I should probably get out of bed,” he said to himself. He worked up the motivation to drag his body out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a shower. He got undressed, turned on the water, and hopped in the shower. He liked to take cold showers in the mornings; it helped him wake up.

“Just another day,” he muttered to himself. He had become quite bored with his banal daily routine lately. He needed something more to life. Little did he know that today he was about to find something.

He finished up his daily routine of cleaning himself up by shaving and brushing his teeth and flossing and all those sorts of things. Then he went to the kitchen to make some coffee. He had a seat at the table and turned on the news. The news reporter on television was talking about a murder that had taken place in his town a few weeks earlier. The police had no suspects so the murderer was still on the loose. It’s not like Benjamin was too worried about it, but it was still very strange to have a murder take place in such a small town.

Eventually Benjamin turned off the television and finished his coffee and morning cigarette and drove to school. He put on Radiohead in the car, some relaxing music, the kind of music he liked to listen to in the mornings. His favorite album was Kid A. The effulgence of the sun was illuminating the world around him and he was in quite the mood. Something was special about today.

He arrived at school and parked in the parking lot. He got out of his car and slammed the door and walked briskly into the building. It was a small, modest school, but he enjoyed the atmosphere. Since it was a smaller school, it was easier for people to get to know one another. However he still had a rough time making friends. He wandered through the hallways to his first class of the day, “Intro to Psychology”.

As soon as he walked in the door he immediately noticed the breath-taking sight of a girl sitting right next to the chair in which he usually sits in. He had never seen this girl before in the couple weeks of school. He almost felt like sitting somewhere else because he was so intimidated by her beauty. She had dark brown, shiny, flowing hair that came down past her shoulders and a gorgeous round face with very pale, porcelain skin. He somehow mustered up the courage to go and sit where he usually sat. He pulled out the chair and had a seat.

He sat there for a moment while the girl merely stared off into space. He wanted to say something to her. He felt something forcing him to talk to her. He didn’t know what it was.

“Hey, uh, excuse me, but could I borrow a pencil?” he said. He had pencils. He just needed a conversation starter.

“Oh sure!” said the girl in a very high-pitched teeny-weeny voice. She dug into a compartment in her book bag and pulled out a Dixon Ticonderoga pencil; the Cadillac of pencils, and handed it to him; already sharpened to a fine point.

“Thank you,” he said as he took the pencil. “So, uh, I’ve never seen you in this class before. Did you start late or something?”

“Oh I don’t know. Maybe I’m in the wrong place…” she said somewhat mysteriously while taking a look at her schedule.

“Let me see your schedule,” Benjamin said. She handed it to him. “Yep, it says you’re supposed to be here, there Colleen.”

“Well, thank you. You’re funny. What’s your name?”

“Oh, uh, my name’s Benjamin Brown, but you can call me Ben for short,” he said.

“Okay there, Ben.”

Pretty soon the teacher walked into the room. Their teacher was a fairly thin, lanky man, with a small, gray pony tail in the back of his hair who talked with a slight lisp. But he was obviously a very intelligent man. He had authored their textbook.

They were sitting in the back of the room as the teacher was lecturing and something about this girl was so arousing that he couldn’t help but try and talk to her some more.

“So Colleen, what kind of things do you like?” he asked curiously. He really did want to know.

“Oh, I like books. I work at the library downtown. I like novels, and fairy tales, and ghost stories, and quite a lot of non-fiction as well. I especially like ghost stories. I like going to haunted houses to try and find ghosts. Have you ever heard about Stony Hollow here in town?”

“No, I haven’t. But I like books too! Have you read any Nietchze or Thomas Merton or maybe possibly Thich Nhat Hanh? Those are the kinds of books I read. I also like some novels too.”

“There comes a time when one asks even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, is this all?” she said and looked over and winked at him.

“Oh my God I just met a girl who quoted Aldous Huxley,” he thought to himself.

“And before you ask, I, too, am familiar with the Perennial Philosophy. From the sounds of it we’re both in search of perspicacity and panshopy in this lifetime. We should hang out.”

Benjamin was speechless for a moment and then mustered the word, “Sure.”

“Come meet me at the library at 9 o’clock tonight when I get off work. We’ll hang out and talk about life.”

The teacher cleared his throat. “Excuse me back there, would you quiet down Benjamin?”

He felt embarrassed for a moment, but then looked over at Colleen who winked at him once more. How strange, he thought. Before long, class was over and Benjamin and Colleen parted ways. Benjamin went to the rest of the classes that day and didn’t see Colleen at all for the rest of the day. He went home in an amazing mood.

The time passed quickly that day and soon enough evening was fast approaching. He couldn’t wait to go meet Colleen at the library. He was lying on his bed when his father whom he lived with called him for dinner. He came out of his room and went to the kitchen. It didn’t take Benjamin long to burst out into a laudatory speech about the girl he met at school today.

“You won’t believe what happened to me at school today, dad. I met the most amazing girl. It was kind of weird though, I had never seen her before in my class and she started two weeks late I guess. She likes the same kind of books I do and everything.”

“Well, that’s great there Ben,” he said. His father wasn’t always the happiest of campers.

“She invited me to come and hang out with her tonight. I’m supposed to meet her at the library at nine o’clock tonight. I’m really excited. After dinner I’m going to get ready.”

“Alright, son, well have a good time. I’m glad you made a new friend,” he said.

They finished eating and Ben took another shower and dressed nicely and fixed his hair the way he wanted it. It was around eight o’clock then. Suddenly the phone rang. He got up to see who it was. It was Morgan.

“Hello?” said Benjamin.

“Hey Ben, it’s me. What’s going on?”

“Only the greatest thing ever! I met the coolest girl in the world today at school. I’m supposed to meet her at the library when she gets off work.”

“I see, I see. Well would you mind if I stopped by for awhile before then? We could have a porch sit; I have about half a pack of cigarettes. We could chat for awhile.”

“Sure that’s fine, I’ll be here.”

“Alright, I’ll be there in a few minutes. I’m already in the area.”

“Okay, see ya’”

“Bye,” she said as she hung up the phone.

Benjamin, in quite the mood, went outside and had a seat on the porch and waited for Morgan’s bright yellow car to pull up in his street. Before long, there she was. Benjamin and Morgan were very good friends, but they had decided that a relationship thing between them would never work. They thought of each other like siblings more or less. They were in what they call the “friend zone”.

“Hey!” said Morgan.

“What’s up?” Ben said.

“Oh nothing. Just got done taking my sister home from the basketball game at the high school.”

“Oh yeah, did we win?”

“No, we lost,” she said as she had a seat. She then pulled out a pack of Marlboro Virginia Blend cigarettes and struck a match and lit it up.

“Mind if I get one?” Ben said.

“What’s mine is yours,” she replied.

“Anyway, what’s been on your mind lately?” he said as he lit up his cigarette.

“Well, I’ve been reading a really good book. You’d like it; it’s about building a church in the medieval times. It’s funny though, in the preface the author says something along the lines of “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in God in the slightest.” I thought, how idiotic. I don’t care what your religious beliefs are; I just want to read your novel.”

“Ha! That is a tad ridiculous. Anyway, like I told you, I’m meeting this girl Colleen at the library tonight at nine o’clock. Would you want to come? I don’t even know what were going to do.”

“Sure, I’ll come, if that’s really okay.”

“Sure it’s okay,” he said.

“Well I just don’t want to be the third wheel or anything like that on your little escapade.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Benjamin said. “Anyway, let’s head there now. It’s about eight forty-five. We can be a little early.”

“Alright. Do you want to take my car?” she asked.

“Sure.”

They got up off the porch and put their cigarettes out and headed to Morgan’s car. They hopped in and drove away to the library. Benjamin was very excited to see Colleen again. Something about this girl fascinated him. Pretty soon they arrived at the library. They got out of the car without saying much and walked inside. Their town had a pretty nice library for its size. They started walking around inside looking for Colleen.

“So what does this girl look like, Ben?” Morgan questioned.

“She’s about my height with dark brown hair and pale skin,” he answered. “She’s very pretty; we’ll spot her pretty quickly.”

They walked around the library, down through all the aisles, looking for this girl. The library was near closing time and there was hardly anybody there. They didn’t think it would be too difficult to find her, but it was proving to be quite the task already. They wandered through every aisle of the library at least twice and she was nowhere to be found.

“Maybe she forgot and left already?” suggested Morgan.

“Hell, I don’t know. Maybe,” Benjamin said.

“We might as well just leave. If we haven’t seen her by now, there’s no way she’s here.”

“She might be in the back or something,” Benjamin said. He thought about asking at the help desk for a moment, but then decided against it. He would just ask her tomorrow morning where she was. They left the library; Benjamin was pretty disappointed. Morgan dropped Benjamin off at his house and he went inside and decided to go to bed early.

He awoke that morning excited once more. He was going to get to see Colleen again at school. He did all his usual morning rituals; showered and cleaned up, drank his coffee, and smoked his morning cigarette. Then he rushed off to school.

Sure enough when he arrived at his Psychology class, there was Colleen sitting where she had sat the day before. Benjamin went up and sat down next to her again in the same spot.

“Colleen! Where were you yesterday? I went to the library…” he said.

“I don’t know; I was there.”

“That’s strange, we walked around forever and we didn’t spot you once.”

“Well, that is weird. I know I was there.”

“Well, how about we hang out tonight then. I could pick you up at your house…” he suggested.

“Okay. I live at 604 South 14^th Street. Pick me up at nine. Same time as yesterday.”

“That’s funny. I live at 808 South 14^th. That’s only two blocks away from your house. I can’t imagine how we’ve never met before,” Benjamin said.

“That is funny,” Colleen said in her tiny, girly voice. Her voice was so uncanny it was almost creepy.

Pretty soon class was over and they parted ways once more. Benjamin went to the rest of his classes and eventually headed home. He anxiously waited out the rest of the day, ate dinner, and just like the night before got ready to hang out with Colleen. Then he hopped in his car at almost nine o’clock and drove the two blocks that it took to get to her house. He was surprised to see Colleen simply sitting on the front steps to her house. There was also a real estate sign in the front yard. She got up and got in the car.

“So are you moving or something? Or did you just move here?” Benjamin asked.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said.

“You don’t know? How do you not know? Do you just not want to tell me?” he questioned. He thought that was a very strange response.

“I just don’t know,” she said in that teeny-weeny voice.

“….alright. Well, so what do you want to do?” Benjamin asked.

“We should go to Stony Hollow. Have you heard about that legend?” Colleen said.

“No, I haven’t. I don’t even know where that is.”

“It’s out of town a ways. Down pass Case Company. Just drive in that direction and I’ll tell you where to go.”

“What’s there?”

“Well, there’s a legend. A long time ago there was a girl who was engaged to a handsome young man. But he joined the military and was killed in World War II. She became so horribly depressed because of his death that she leaped off of one of the cliffs down Stony Hollow Road. They say that if you go there at the right time of night during the right time of year you can see a little glowing orb float up to the edge of the cliff then fall off and disappear.”

“Really,” he said. He didn’t really believe it, but he didn’t want to spoil the night. “Anyway, it sounded like you are pretty into religious philosophy. Are you a religious person?”

“I was born and raised Catholic, but when I left Catholic school I sort of grew out of it.”

“So what do you believe in now?”

“I just think you should be able to make up your own stuff. I’m just going to wait until I die to figure everything out. I wonder what will happen after I die a lot.”

“I’m sorry Colleen, but I really don’t buy this story. It sounds too, I don’t know, cliché, and besides, I don’t really believe in ghost stories to begin with.”

“It’s true,” she said. “Oh, make a left up here, down this gravel road.”

“Alrighty, whatever you say.”

He turned down the gravel road and drove a few miles down the road.

“So, what other kind of stuff do you like to do?” asked Benjamin.

“Oh I really don’t have many hobbies, if that’s what you’re asking. What about you?”

“I like to do a lot of things. I like to draw and paint, play cards, read, write, play board games, all sorts of stuff. I like to keep busy,” informed Benjamin.

“Well, that’s really cool. I guess I seem pretty boring then,” she said with a somewhat coy tone in her voice.

“Nah, you’re not boring. I can tell you’re smart because of that little chat we had in psychology class.”

“Oh,” was all she said. “Well that’s the cliff. Park on the side of the road and we’ll wait and see if we can see the ghost.”

“Whatever you say,” he said as he pulled over to the side of the road.

They waited there for awhile without saying much. Benjamin started to feel like making a move but he still felt somewhat intimidated by this girl. But eventually, he talked himself into it, leaned over, and tried to kiss her. She pulled back.

“What?” he said. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it’s not you Ben. It’s me. I can’t kiss you.”

“Oh don’t give me that whole, “it’s not you, it’s me” business. If I did something wrong just tell me.”

“No, it’s really okay. You should probably just take me home now.”

“Fine.”

Benjamin was a little upset by this and drove back through town without saying a word. The car ride was exceptionally uncomfortable. “Thank God were back,” he thought to himself when he pulled up to her house.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at school,” he said.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. And again, I’m sorry,” she apologized.

He drove off.

The next day in school Colleen wasn’t there. Benjamin began to wonder why as he sat through the lecture. As he sat there he eavesdropped on a conversation between a couple students that were sitting in front of him.

“So I heard they found the guy that killed that girl a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah, I heard about that on the news this morning. That Colleen Fitzpatrick girl. Sad story, but at least they caught the guy.”