DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Gary Leonard Oldman
HTML https://garyleonardoldman.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Tips & Rants
*****************************************************
#Post#: 3568--------------------------------------------------
You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone { Jason & Colleen }
DIR By: Maggie Flannery
Date: July 14, 2019, 2:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I've been writing to distract myself. This was the end result.
Inspired partially by the song Miss Atomic Bomb by The Killers
and I Drove All Night by Roy Orbison
“Did you see the new guy at Quinn’s Hardware? My Dad said his
family just moved into the place over on the end of street.”
Normally the mention of new neighbors didn’t hold much interest
for Colleen but she had spotted the new kid in town at Quinn’s
while she had gone to pick up some anchor rope for her father.
He had smiled at her and she felt like she might melt right
there. She had returned his smile with a shy one of her own as
her face turned a bright shade of red.
“Saw you makin’ eyes at the Murphy girl, Halladay. Don’t go
makin’ a name for yourself in this town because her Daddy’ll
have your head if try anything with her.
Fair warnings had never been Jason Halladay’s thing.
“Colly open the window!”
It had taken him all of a week to ask the pretty dark haired
girl out on a date. To his shock she had accepted and they went
to the only spot in town that catered to the town’s teenage
crowd and stayed open during the summer months. The local
custard stand overlooking Good Harbor beach. It had taken just
as long to clamber up the trellis and over onto the branch of
the massive oak tree that lead to her bedroom window on the
second floor. She greeted him with the same shy smile she always
did as she opened the window.
“You could have used the front door, y’know. My Dad’s over in
Annisquam for the next two weeks.”
“Takes all the fun out of doing this.”
He pulled her in for a kiss and groaned as her hands fluttered
across his shirt mapping a trail of heat across his chest. They
shared many things in that bedroom with it’s pale pink walls and
white wicker furniture. Heartfelt dreams, stupid stories from
their childhoods, fears for the future. They had become much
closer than either of them had expected to become and had delved
into uncharted waters of teenage love as well as lust. That
bedroom was their own little bubble of perfection. Many hours
passed into the hot summer nights as they explored one another,
ultimately becoming each others first. The soundtrack to their
intimate moments and everything in between was usually the call
of a fog horn off the eastern coast of the island or whatever
was on the top 40 countdown with Casey Kasem.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
With time though, even the strongest of soap bubbles has to
burst. Theirs did one hot day in August when her father came
clambering up the stairs after a night out drinking away the
memory of Colleen’s mother. He found them draped over each other
covered only by the sheets that matched the color of her bedroom
walls both bathed in the soft light of the new morning. Fists
flew and blood was shed into the taupe carpet set to the sound
of chirping birds and the crunch of bone before Colleen was
called every name in the book and yanked up from her bed roughly
by the arm. They were barred from seeing one another and her
window had been boarded up. The first few weeks of September he
spotted her around town and then it was like she vanished. He
drove by her house and knew that her father still lived there.
Jason had dared to come in through the backdoor and sneak up
into the bedroom while Jimmy had been out on a bender only to
find that the room was bare. Only the bed and the bloodstain he
had left remained. Not one sign of his girl though. He finally
bit back his pride and stopped by her best friend’s house to ask
just what the hell had happened.
“She’s living with her aunt Minnie in Illinois, Jason. He sent
her away.”
“Why the hell would he do that? She’s over the age of 18 for
Christ’s sake!”
“She told me to give you this before she left. She told me to
tell you to open down on Good Harbor beach…your spot she said.”
The doe eyed brunette said as she passed him a small box and an
envelope. She gave him a farewell hug before he took off back to
his car. He had never raced against daylight until that moment.
For a split second he could almost see her running along the
beach and playing in the surf as the tide rolled. They had idled
away many an afternoon that summer running and playing along the
sand dunes. Parked out overlooking the beach he fumbled to open
the box. Inside was an address of her aunt and a tiny grainy
photograph of something resembling a large kidney bean.
‘Come and find us.’
Written on the back in black felt tip with the day only about a
month ago. He hurried home, packed a bag and drove nearly all
night before he pulled up into the driveway of a sedate looking
ranch style home. He watched as the porch light came on and she
walked out into the chilly evening her oversized cardigan
wrapped around her and the same shy smile on her face.
“Took you long enough, Halladay.”
“Well, I drove all night to get here. Your aunt’s not gonna come
out here and beat me senseless like your dad did…is she?”
“No, she’s actually waiting in the house with coffee and pound
cake. We even set the up he guest room for you.”
A grin spread across Jason’s face. She hadn’t stopped loving him
after all.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1