Fook (15 page)

She’d cried herself to sleep that night, as
well as all those in the three weeks that followed. During all
those tears though, she’d also been thinking. There had to be
something she could do to help her mother get better. There had to
be something she could do that the doctors couldn’t. She’d been
seven at the time and the thought that she could perform some
miraculous cure that the medical world hadn’t yet imagined had been
childish. Her mother had survived years past the doctor’s best
expectations, a feat that her mother had attributed to, “the best
medicine money can’t buy,” she’d often said, ”love.” Right up to
the moment that life had escaped her body, she’d spoken of their
love being responsible for keeping her alive. She’d also instructed
them to take care of each another and that, no matter what, she’d
always be watching over them.

“I’ll be there for your graduation,” her
mother had struggled to form each word in the five minutes they’d
shared together while the rest of the family waited down the hall.
“I’m going to be right there beside you at the alter. You’re going
to be so beautiful in that white gown. I can already see you,”
she’d closed her eyes to picture the moment as a wave of discomfort
caused her to wince ever so slightly. “And your daughter...,” she’d
continued. “...my granddaughter. She’s the most precious thing I’ve
ever seen,” she’d spoke as if she could see her tiny face on the
back of her closed eyelids.

She’d seemed so convinced that she’d have a
little girl. She’d even fought through the pain of a few more words
to describe the angelic child from her vision.

“She’s going to have long blonde hair, blue
eyes and the cutest dimples anyone has ever seen,” she’d described
with a broad smile.

Even as another wave of pain overtook her
frail body, she’d held that smile. Her mother had died ten minutes
later with her husband by her side.

Katie had known it was coming; that didn’t
make it any easier though and with her mother gone she’d sort of
gone on a wild streak. She knew what her mother had told her, about
the family taking care of each another. She remembered every word
but for a while she hadn’t known how to go on, so she’d filled the
void left by her mother’s death, with drunken parties at houses of
previously unknown friends and drug induced encounters. No matter
how many times she found herself lying there, some unknown boy
writhing around on top of her, all she could think of was the image
of that little girl that her mother had described to her. Each time
she’d just closed her eyes, as her body shook with each thrust of
reality, and imagined that little girl’s face. She was beautiful;
just as her mother had described and she wanted nothing more than
to give her mother what she’d found so much joy in imagining in her
final moments.

Looking back on it, the decision was
probably stupid, though something inside of her wasn’t completely
convinced. The little girl currently growing inside of her was
nothing short of a miracle and, though a potential detriment to her
future, she wouldn’t trade her situation for anything in the
world.

“Katie. Kaa-tieee. Hey, Earth to Katie!”
Latisha shouted, startling her friend out of her trance.

“Sorry,” Katie smiled as she grabbed her
math book and closed her locker.

“Your mother again?”

“Yeah, but I’m alright.”

“I’m sure you are, but if you need to
talk...”

“I know. Really, we’re alright,” she held
her stomach again.

Latisha smiled at her natal embrace.

“Katie,” another voice suddenly cried from
the flowing sea of students.

“Oh, here comes Mark again,” Latisha spoke
with a devilish grin. “The poor boy just won’t give up. Maybe you
should give him a chance this time.”

Ignoring the advancing boy, Katie looked to
her friend for assistance in diverting the impending situation.

“Would you look at the time,” Latisha
announced loudly as Mark broke through the crowd, arriving by her
side. “I’m going to be late for class. You can tell me all about it
in science. Hey Mark,” she greeted the new arrival before
disappearing into the crowd.

“Latisha, wait,” Katie unsuccessfully called
for her friend’s return. “Bitch.”

“Hey, Katie,” Mark nervously greeted
her.

“Hey Mark,” Katie hesitantly responded. It
wasn’t that she didn’t like Mark. He was a great guy. He was one of
the brightest kids in the school and despite his high GPA and
horrendously bad taste in clothing, he actually wasn’t all that bad
on the eyes either.

“So, I know I asked you this before…,” he
began.

Katie knew where this was going. He’d
already asked her to the junior prom twice last week, both times to
which her response had been “no”. It wasn’t that she didn’t like
him. They shared many of the same classes together and in the last
year they’d actually grown to be fairly good friends. She just
didn’t feel right about going with him to such an important event.
He deserved better than to waste such an important coming of age
experience with some messed up, pregnant chick. He was going to go
on to do amazing things with his life and he didn’t need to run the
risk of falling for someone who would only hold him back.

“...but I’ve been thinking,” Mark continued.
“I know you said no and I respect that, but I don’t really think
you have a say in the matter.”

“Excuse me,” Katie, caught off guard,
responded.

“That’s right. You don’t have a choice in
the matter because I know for a fact that your daughter would love
to go to prom with me.”

“Okay, this is getting a bit creepy,” she
thought but chose to play along to see where he was going with this
new approach. “Is that right?”

“Yes. It is.”

“And you know this how?”

“She told me,” Mark spoke confidently, as if
he really believed what he was saying.

“She told you huh. How exactly do you know
that it’s a she?” Katie asked, sure that she hadn’t told anyone
about the sex of her unborn child yet.

“You told me a few weeks ago in psychology,
remember? Well, you didn’t actually tell me, but one of the times
we were talking you’d mentioned a pink dress that you’d seen at the
store and how you wondered if they made the same dress for
children. I could only assume you were talking about...” he
motioned toward her stomach.

She did remember the conversation. For
months she’d managed to conceal the fact of her pregnancy from the
rest of her peers but since word had spread about her condition in
the last month or so, most of the school just looked at her as that
poor pregnant girl...but not Mark. He didn’t seem to be fazed by
her condition. He was her friend before the pregnancy and after
finding out about the life growing within her, other than Latisha,
he was the only one who’d continued to treat her the same as
always.

“So, like I said, you don’t have a choice in
the matter,” Mark reaffirmed.

“And what exactly did you and…,” glancing
down at her stomach, “...talk about?”

“Oh, you know, the usual, the weather,
music…the growing of appendages.”

Katie stood silent at the odd remark.

“Nevertheless, the most important thing is
that she would like nothing more than for all of us to go to the
prom together and I couldn’t agree more.”

Overhearing the odd conversation, the girl
two lockers down turned to offer a perplexed look before closing
her locker and making her way to class.

“I’ve got something,” he suddenly announced
as he removed his backpack from his shoulder and dropped to a knee
to open it.

Given the oddity of the situation, Katie
wouldn’t have been surprised to see him withdraw a ring from the
overstuffed bag and profess his love to her right there in the
hall, but instead he withdrew a neatly wrapped box with a large
pink ribbon, which had been crumpled and deformed by the hardbound
contents of the bag.

With the box in hand, Mark returned to his
feet, holding it before him for Katie to take. “I got this for
you.”

Not sure what to expect, she nervously took
the box from his hand.

“Go ahead. Open it.”

Reluctantly, she pulled at the ribbon,
watching it unravel and release its grip on the flat, rectangular
box.

Mark stared at the box with a smile.

Lifting the lid, she couldn’t even begin to
guess what might be inside. Beneath the lid was a layer of snow
white tissue paper, neatly folded over the box’s true contents. As
she lifted the corner of the tissue paper, a silky pink fabric
slowly appeared. Intrigued, she lifted the tissue paper further,
revealing a lacy trim along the edge of the pink material.

Mark’s smile grew as his present was slowly
revealed.

Lifting the paper aside, Katie just stared
in amazement at the tiny pink dress within the box. It was exactly
as she’d described, however it was only a fraction of the
size...just big enough for a newborn baby.

“I hope it’s the right one,” Mark broke the
silence, pulling Katie’s gaze away from the gift. “I remembered you
mentioning lace but I couldn’t remember if it was pink or
white.”

“It’s perfect,” Katie spoke as she returned
her attention to the gift before her. It was almost exactly as
she’d described it. At the time she remembered wondering to herself
why she’d been telling him about the dress. He was a guy and
probably didn’t care about some stupid dress but, staring at the
tiny article of clothing, it was clear that he’d memorized every
detail, right down to the tiny bows on the end of each shoulder
length sleeve.

“I know she can’t wear it yet, but I was
wondering if her mother would mind wearing it to the prom.”

Looking up, Katie saw Mark holding another,
similarly wrapped but larger box. Since her mother’s death and her
unplanned pregnancy, her future had been questionable and she’d
done everything in her power to push away those who she feared
might sink right down beside her. “Maybe it was time to stop
pushing,” she thought. Maybe this was all part of her mother’s
grand scheme from up there in heaven. Staring into Mark’s hopeful
eyes, the only answer she could give was, “yes”.

SIXTEEN

“Herpes? Really?” Derek finally broke the long
silence that had loomed over them since their unforgettable ride
into town.

An elderly man sitting in the booth behind
Jason lifted his head from his bowl of soup to look around his wife
and shoot Derek a disgusted look.

Ignoring the old man’s disapproving stare,
“I mean, you could’ve said that I forgot my inhaler or something
not so...cock blocking.”

This time the old woman turned, joining her
husband in the silent scolding.

“And what girlfriend? I mean, what were you
trying to do?”

“I couldn’t allow you to sleep with any of
those girls and the way that it was heading, I almost expected the
car to suddenly pull to the side of the road so you could toss me
out while you took turns banging each one of them in the back
seat.”

“That’s ridiculous...there’s no need to take
turns.”

Apparently no longer hungry, the old man
signaled his server for the check.

“Besides, just in case you weren’t aware, I
was selling you like crazy to the cute southern chick who
definitely seemed interested,” Derek continued to defend his
behavior.

“Was she?” Jason thought. His lack of skill
when it came to the opposite sex wasn’t a shock, but was it really
so bad that he couldn’t even tell when a girl was genuinely
interested in him? “That’s not the point,” he snapped out of his
introspective detour. “The point is you, me, neither of us can risk
disrupting the past just so we can get our rocks off.”

“Get our rocks off?” Derek chuckled at the
expression.

“Yes. Us being here already poses a
potential threat to the future. Everything we do, every interaction
we have with the people of this time could potentially have time
altering affects. Something as simple as a passing conversation on
the street could lead to a mosquito killing a future Nobel prize
winner or worse.”

“You lost me,” Derek stared at Jason
confused.

“The person you talk to might be distracted
from killing the mosquito that otherwise would have been dead and
unable to bite someone who…never mind,” Jason gave up, realizing
that his explanation made perfect sense in his head but wasn’t
coming out in a logical, coherent manner.

“So what you’re saying is that we should
make sure to wear insect repellant while we’re here?”

“No,” Jason sighed. “What I’m trying to say
is—”

“—I know. I’m just screwing with you. I
understand. I don’t know how I figured it out since that was the
worst example I’ve ever heard, but nonetheless. And this is the
U.S.. Who gets killed by mosquitoes?”

Annoyed, Jason picked up his menu.

“Nothing was going to happen you know,”
Derek pulled Jason’s attention away from the laminated list. “I’m
not an idiot. I may act like it at times but remember who built
that thing,” he motioned to the case on the seat beside Jason. “I’m
well aware of the risks inherent to us being here. I wouldn’t have
taken the conversation in the car any further than just that, a
conversation.”

“Well, good. I’m glad to hear that you were
at least thinking with the right head this time,” Jason spoke as he
returned to the menu once again.

“It doesn’t hurt to have some fun and flirt
every now and then though,” Derek continued. “Just because you
can’t do something doesn’t mean you can’t test the waters to see if
it might have been possible.”

“And what would be the point in that?” Jason
glanced up from his menu again.

“I don’t know...fun. Jason, not everything
in life has to have some predetermined outcome. Sometimes the most
memorable things in life are those that happen spontaneously; you
know, when you’re just kicking back and having fun. A conversation
with a girl doesn’t have to lead to a relationship and marriage and
children and houses with white picket fences. Sometimes it can just
be an enjoyable conversation with a person you find to be both
interesting and attractive, regardless of whether or not you’re
looking to batter dip the corn dog.”