A DATE WITH FOREVER
Do you believe that someone can come back from the dead
and take back something they have lost?
I believe it,
because it happened to me!
Quite by accident you see,
but none the less, it happened!
It all began with my pesky sister, Laura.
She is only a year older than I am,
but she acts like she is my mom!
She is forever bossing me around,
"clean this"
"pick that up"
"don't track the floor"
it never seemed to end!
I thought I would hate her till the day she died!
Little did I know just how soon that day would come!!
Laura yelled at me on that day,
right in front of my friends.
I was so embarassed.... and MAD!
I vowed I was gonna get even with her
if it was the last thing I ever did!
After school,
I ran home to plot my revenge.
I was Mulling over my options,
with milk and graham crackers,
when my friend Josh called me.
"Whatcha doin"? Josh asked....
I told him what happened with Laura,
and that I was gonna get even with her this time!
"Ah,man...let it go,
Josh said,laughing,
"she always wins,you know".
"Well not this time",
I screamed as I slammed the phone in Josh's ear.
I was too fed up to eat my snack..
so I began thinking of a way to get even with Miss Bossy Pants!
Suddenly, it hit me!
Laura had a date tonight with Mr. Perfect himself,
Brad Crackenmire, the school's star football player.
Laura had been trying forever to get a date with Brad,
but he had been dating Tracey Bernard.
Tracey and her family just moved to Nebraska,
so Laura moved in,
like a tiger stalking it's prey!
Finally, last Tuesday, Mr. Wonderful asked the boss out
to a scary movie to celebrate Halloween.
Teenagers wee too old to trick or treat,
Laura informed me smugly.
I knew just what I would do to my bratty sister...
maybe this would teach her to leave me alone!
I always loved to make up different voices.
Mum said I was right good at it too!
I called Brad Crackenmire's house...
"Hello, is Brad there"? I asked,
imitating Laura perfectly.
"Yes, he is", said a soft voice,
"One moment please".
"Heyah", said a deep bass voice into my ear.
I assumed this was Brad,
and continued.
"Hi,Brad...This is Laura Barnes.
Listen, I have to cancel our date tonight."
"Kinda short notice Laura",
Brad said dissapointedly.
"Yeah, I know Brad", I said,
stifling a giggle.
"I have to watch my stupid brother."
"Oh", Brad Mumbled,
"Okay. Well maybe some other time...goodbye".
As I hung up the receiver,
I knew I had won this time.
I whooped with glee and danced around my bedroom
like a drunken fool!
I paused for only a moment
to recall Brads last words,
"Maybe some other time".
Yes I thought to myself,
she will get another chance to date Mr Football...
if she wasn't too mad at him for standing her up that is!!
Laura came home right at 6pm,
directly from band practice
and headed straight for the bathroom to get ready for her "date"!!!
The way females get ready for dates,
she should have come home at Lunch!
She spends forver in the bathroom,
and tonight she spent a little longer than her usual forever.
"I am trying to look special for Brad",
she sneered at me,
when I pounded on the door.
"If you wanna look special",
I sniped,
"try my old halloween mask on,
that'll help more than all that face goo will!"
Laura threw her hand mirror at me,
I ducked quick
and it landed with a crash against the hallway wall.
"Ah,ha!" I yelled,
"Thats seven years bad luck for you missy!
"GET OUT!", she wailed,
as she slammed the door.
I was having a bit of fun already!
The old grandfather clock in the den ticked slowly,
chiming half past 8 PM,
and creaking it's way to quarter to nine.
Laura sat in the high back red chair,
dressed in her short purple dress with the violets on the hem.
her brown hair swept into a perfect bun,
with little curly things cascading down her heart shaped face.
Brad was supposed to pick her up at 7:30,
and it was painfully obvious that he wasn't coming.
But Laura never moved from the chair.
Suddenly, this didn't seem so funny anymore.
It seemed kinda cruel and nasty.
I began to feel squeamish.
A funny kind of hurt welled up in my belly.
I tried to make a joke,
thinking that Laura would snap at me
and bounce back into her "bossy" mode.
"Maybe Brad is stuck in the goal post",I said, chuckling.
You know how goofy those jocks are!"
But Laura said nothing.
She just stared ahead, silent,
her gaze fixed upon the clock as it chimed nine bells.
"I am going for a walk, mother", Laura said quietly.
"I need some fresh air".
Mother of course nodded in understanding.
"Take your brother along", she said,
"You shouldn't walk alone this time of night."
But Laura never heard mum's last words.
She had slipped out the door into the chilly night.
Thats when it happened.
No one knows for sure just how it happened.
Laura was hit by a car.
Her head struck the curb hard,
and she was killed right then and there.
When I heard the news,
it felt as if I had been punched in the gut.
All the air seemed to go out of me,
and I found it hard to breathe.
The funeral was terrible.
All Lauras' friends from school came.
Brad came.
He was crying, as he came to the casket
where Laura lay in her purple dress.
The very dress she was wearing for her date with Brad.
The very dress she wore when the car took her life.
"I wish you hadn't canceled our date Laura",
Brad said weeping.
"I wanted so much to take you out,
I have liked you for a long time".
Brad turned his head away,
his gentle crying gave way to sobs
and he had to be led away from Laura.
I felt awful, my insides tangled in knots!
I was also glad dead people can't hear!
If Laura had heard what Brad had just said,
she would have come back and haunted me,
till I died!
But I took comfort of some sort
that she couldn't hear him,
and she would never know my secret...
or so I thought!
A year has passed,
and tonight is the first anniversary of Lauras death.
I feel uneasy, without knowing why,
as I put the finishing touches on my halloween costume.
I am going with Josh and Bobby
to the town hall costume contest
dressed as Mestophisto, the great magician.
I was just adjusting my cape,
when Josh bounds in and flops himself on my bed.
"Hey man", he says grinning, "Looks pretty cool!"
"Thanks", I say... so do you".
Josh is dressed as Dracula.
He even has the fake blood dripping from his plastic fangs.
"Are you sure you should leave your parents alone tonight?",
Josh asks.
"I mean it is the anniversary of Lauras death and all."
"Yeah,I know" I say..."They told me to go,
they don't want me sitting home mopping around with them."
Town hall is 5 blocks away, and some of the street lanterns are out,
No doubt busted by halloween rowdies.
Josh and I decide we can save time
by cutting through Miller park.
It's dark and creepy,
but we want to get there before the judging is over.
As we round the corner to Miller park,
I see a white figure.
I stop and stare first,
thinking it is another kid taking the short cut.
As I get closer,
I can see that the figure is a girl.
Her skin is misty and chalk white
and she is dressed in a short purple dress.
Her hair is upswept in a perfect little bun.
"Oh,my God...LAURA!!!", I try to scream,
but my throat is tight with fear.
The figure turns to me,
looks right at me, and shreiks
"Give me back that which you took from me"
and then she is gone.
"I think I'm goin nuts Josh", I say.
"I thought I just saw Lauras ghost!"
"Josh???"
I turn to look,
and Josh is no longer behind me.
The mist grows suddenly thicker
and seems to swallow what little light shines in the park.
I am feeling very scared.
My mouth has gone dry and I,
for some strange reason,
cannot remember my way through the park.
I stumble in the mist covered grass
searching for the cement pathway,
when I feel icy hands grip my shoulder...hard!
I whirl around and come face to face with Laura!
Her clothes are still the same,
but her face is riddled with decaying tissue,
her breath foul as an open grave.
"Give me back that which you have taken",
she screams in my face.
I tremble in sheer terror,
racking my brain,
trying to remember what I have taken from her.
I can not.
"What have I taken from you?" I ask her,
my voice quivering.
My body is shaking uncontrollably,
I cannot stop my knees from knocking together.
The foul thing in front of me screams,
an unearthly, mournful sound tearing from the gaping hole
that was once her throat.
"I heard what Brad said to me, you brat!" she cried.
"You took my date away from me!"
"You heard what Brad said?"
I was confused now.
"What are you talking about?" I whimpered.
Again the figure screamed,
a wail that sent shivers racing down my spine.
"Brad said I broke the date",she said.
As he came to my coffin in the funeral home.....remember now,Tommy?"
Remember I did,
horrified.
"You are dead!", I yelled.
"How could you hear?"
"I heard him!" the figure screamed.
"And I didn't break my date....
YOU did!"
I am sobbing now, scared out of my mind,
wishing Josh would come back and wake me up,
for I was sure I was dreaming!
My words came tumbling out in a rush,
"I'm sorry Laura!" I sobbed....
"It was just a joke..
just to get back at you
for yelling at me in front of the guys.
I am sorry,i really am!!"
I fall to my knees unable to stand any longer.
The figure of Laura looks at me,
it's empty eye sockets glowing,piercing my soul.
"I have come back to get my date from you" she says.
I cannot breathe again, I cannot think.
"How can I give you back your date?" I cry...
"You're dead......
Brad isn't going to date a corpse!"
"YOU will be my date!" the figure shreiks....
FOREVER!!"
And with those words,
the ghastly corpse of Laura reaches out it's icy hands
and reaches for my chest.
I try to cry out...
for mum, dad , Josh...
anybody.
But it is too late.
My jaw falls open in a silent scream
and my world goes dark.
The funeral was awful.
I never thought my parents would stop crying.
"It's sad,it is..." the Reverend Parker said to Mr Kendrick.
"This is the second child the Barnes have lost in a year,
and both on the same night."
"Shame it is" Mr Kendrick says,
"Shame it is."
The night air is chilly,
but I feel no cold.
I feel nothing,as Laura and I wander through the night.
I sit on the old playground swing at Miller park,
the place where I died.
No one is sure how it happened,
but a car came wildly from nowhere and hit me.
I hit my head....hard on the swing set post,
and I died right then and there.
Now I have to spend eternity with Miss Bossy Pants,
taking orders from her,
walking everywhere with her,
keeping her company...
for eternity!
"Sit up straight" she shreiks.....
"one never slouches on a date!
And you, Mister, have a date with me...
FOREVER!!!"
