Anthony Deaver

"Still nobody there. ¬†Maybe it's already come." ¬†Jor­dan said as he peered out the door­way at the cor­ner down the street.

It's seven o'clock. ¬†We missed it again." ¬†David squat­ted beside in front of the liv­ing room win­dow and glared at the huge oak tree block­ing his view, " I hate that tree."

"I bet­ter call mom and let her know." ¬†Jor­dan closed the door and walked over to the phone. ¬†Slowly he dialed the famil­iar phone number.

It rang twice before it was answered by the young switch­board oper­a­tor. ¬†Jor­dan ask to speak to his mother and the line was transferred.

"Hello, Vic­to­ria Connell."

"Hi mom."

"Jor­dan? ¬†What are you doing home, it's after seven?"

"We missed the bus again." ¬†Jor­dan squirmed at the thought of his mother get­ting angry, and with good rea­son, this was the sec­ond time this week they had missed the bus. ¬†And it was only Tuesday.

"Jor­dan. ¬†how many times have I told you that you and David were going to have to get up ear­lier on school day's?"

"I'm sorry. ¬†We've been watch­ing the bus stop for almost an hour and there hasn't been any­body there. ¬†And we haven't seen any kind of bus."

"Well, you and David get that house clean before I get home."

"Yes ma'am.  Bye."

"What did she say?" ¬†David had moved from the win­dow and was on the couch flip­ping through the T.V. channels.

"Oh, the usual 'Clean the house.' You know the deal." ¬†Jor­dan hung up the phone and started down the hall.

David had not moved when he returned to the liv­ing room. ¬†In fact, Jor­dan won­dered if he was going to move since he was star­ing at the t.v. so hard.

"Your going to go blind doing that."

"Bite me." replied David with­out even look­ing up.

"Any­thing good on?" he asked as he dropped into the chair David had been try­ing to watch the cor­ner from.

"Nope. ¬†Here, you try." sud­denly, and with­out warn­ing, David tossed Jor­dan the remote con­trol and jumped off the couch head­ing for the kitchen, "I'm hun­gry. What's for breakfast?"

"What­ever you fix I guess. ¬†There is some cereal in the cab­i­net and pizza in the 'fridge." ¬†it was Jordan's turn to become absorbed by the flash­ing picture's on the t.v.

"The pizza's mine!"

"Bring me a piece."

"You want some, come get it your­self. ¬†Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief I am not your slave."

"Quit bitch­ing and bring me some." Jor­dan shifted slightly in the chair.

"I've said it before and I will say it again.  Bite me."

"I swear to god, you are such a pain in the ass." ¬†Jor­dan tossed the remote across the room and stormed into the kitchen.

"Maybe so, but at least I do my job well." ¬†the plate rat­tled as David placed it on the table. ¬†He sat down with his back to the slid­ing glass door as Jor­dan entered the room.

Jor­dan walked to the refrig­er­a­tor and jerked the door open, almost knock­ing the jar of pick­les to the floor. ¬†He then glanced up at the counter and saw the empty Coke bot­tle. ¬†He grabbed the bot­tle and twisted around to face David.

"Did you drink all the soda?"

"No."

"Do we have bottle?"

"No."

"Then where is the rest of it?"

"In my glass."

"You said you didn't drink it all."

"I'm not done yet." ¬†David laughed as he took a sip of the coke.

Jor­dan reached back and threw the empty plas­tic bot­tle at David's head. ¬†It bounced off with a hol­low sound and hit the glass door behind him.

"That hurt you bas­tard." snapped David as he rubbed his head.

"It wasn't sup­pose to feel good you idiot."

Now it was Jordan's turn to laugh as he poured him­self a glass of milk, and went back into the liv­ing room with a plate of pizza.

"What the hell?"

"What's the mat­ter?", David jumped from the table and ran into the liv­ing room.

"I thought I saw the bus go by." ¬†Jor­dan had sat the plate and glass on the t.v. and ran to the win­dow. ¬†As he looked out he real­ized he couldn't see because of the giant tree, "Damn I hate that blasted tree!"

"It is the bus," ¬†yelled David as he opened the door," and it's late."

"No kid­ding. ¬†There's still nobody up there."

"Now we really missed it."

"Well, I had bet­ter call mom again."

Jor­dan walked over to the phone and again dialed his mom's num­ber. ¬†Again it was answered by the oper­a­tor, and again it was transferred.

"Hello, Vic­to­ria Connell."

"Mom, it's Jor­dan again."

"What is it Jor­dan, I'm at work?

"The bus just ran."

"I thought you said that you missed it?"

"I thought we did.  I mean there is still nobody at the stop, and it's almost eight o'clock.  School's already started."

"Jor­dan you have got to quit lying to me about thing's. ¬†If you missed the bus, fine. ¬†There's noth­ing you can do about it now, but there is no need to lie about it being this late."

"But, I'm not lying. ¬†It just ran." ¬†Jor­dan became a lit­tle upset and almost started to cry.

"I don't have time to talk about it right now I have work to do."

"I'm sorry."

"Just get the house clean before I get home or your ass has had it.  Do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am. ¬†I'm sorry."

"Fine. ¬†Bye." ¬†Jordan's mother hung up the phone and the line went dead.

Jor­dan just stood there and stared at the receiver in his hand for a few second's before return­ing it to it's cra­dle. ¬†He sighed care­fully so that his brother wouldn't know that he had been crying.

"Well, she is now offi­cially pissed off at me." ¬†Jor­dan said as he picked up the plate and glass headed back for the kitchen.

"Why is she pissed at you?"

"Because she thinks that I'm skip­ping school, and that I'm lying about the bus com­ing just now."

"But, you're not lying."

It' doesn't mat­ter to her whether I'm telling the truth or not. ¬†I stilled missed the bus, there­fore she is mad and assumes every­thing else. ¬†I don't fell like talk­ing about it. ¬†I'm going to bed." ¬†Jor­dan left the kitchen and turned down the hall headed for his bed room.

"I'm going to watch cartoon's"

"Fine. ¬†Do what­ever you want, I don't care."

David watched as his brother dis­ap­peared into his room and won­dered, not for the first time, why their mother hated Jor­dan so much.

---------------

The plane dove and fired on it's tar­get. ¬†Jor­dan jerked his joy­stick des­per­ately back and forth try­ing to avoid the hail storm of bullet's. ¬†Sud­denly, the plane lurched side­ways as the right engine exploded. ¬†The radio crack­led to life as Jor­dan silently swore to himself.

"Jor­dan? ¬†Jordan?!"

"What? ¬†I'm kind of busy up here."

"Are you alright?'

Just peachy, and you?" Jor­dan jerked the plane left to avoid another attack.

"No jokes son.  Can you make it back on one engine?"

Jor­dan could hear the sin­cere con­cern in his captain's voice. ¬†This had become more dan­ger­ous than any­one had expected, and he was to far away to make it back under the cur­rent con­di­tions. ¬†But he refused to allow the fear to over­take him as he pre­pared to fire on his assailant.

"Don't worry about me, I could prob­a­bly make it back on no engine's"

Sud­denly the plane was rocked as another plane joined the fray and laced Jordan's plane with holes.

"Oh, shit!" yelled Jor­dan as he rolled ¬†the craft to avoid another attack. ¬†Unfor­tu­nately he passed into the first planes line of fire and was fired upon again. ¬†The bar­rage hit his left engine, and after sev­eral vicious puffs it too died.

"Oop's."

"Oop's? ¬†What oop's? ¬†Jor­dan what do you mean oop's?"

"Remem­ber that no engine thing I was talk­ing about ear­lier? ¬†Well, it look's like I'm about to try it."

"Jor­dan. ¬†Don't try to be a hero, get out of the plane. ¬†Do you hear me, get out. ¬†Jor­dan? ¬†Jor­dan? ¬†Jordan.….….….."

"…Jor­dan? ¬†Jor­dan, get up?"

"Wha-​​? came the sleepy reply.

"Get up.  Dad's home."

"Dad's home? ¬†What time is it?"

"It's about eleven o'clock." ¬†David jerked the cover's off of Jordan's bed as he walked out of the room.

"What's he doing home so early?  Hey!  Asshole!"

"Why don't you ask him."

Jor­dan stood up and stretched him arms above his head. ¬†He had a good dream again but couldn't remem­ber what it was. ¬†It was like that a lot lately, being unable to remem­ber dreams. ¬†He walked into the hall after David. ¬†The curtain's in the liv­ing room win­dow were open and he could see the famil­iar Buick LeSabre his dad had painted brown in the dri­ve­way. ¬†He noticed with curios­ity that the trunk was open.

Together the two brother's turned into the kitchen and started for the door that lead to the garage. ¬†Sud­denly, just as they were about to reach the door, it swung open and their father stepped through the door. ¬†He stood only slightly taller than Jor­dan who tow­ered over his brother, and had a old fash­ion mil­i­tary crew cut on hair­style on his head. ¬†His blond and red hair stood straight up from his scalp, a fact which had amazed Jor­dan for year's. ¬†His square framed glasses sat high on the bridge of his nose and although he wore a blue mechanic's uni­form he had the look of dig­nity and wis­dom around him. ¬†He also car­ried an author­ity that Jor­dan feared.

"What are you two doing home?"

"We.……um.….…missed the bus.' ¬†Jor­dan squirmed at the thought of telling his father the story.

"Why?" ¬†his eye's seemed to frown.

"Well…we were wait­ing to see if any­body showed up at the bus stop and.….when nobody did we thought we had missed it and called mom. ¬†Then it did run.…a-and we didn't know what to do, so we called mom again and she got mad." ¬†Jor­dan over­came the shock of his father com­ing home unex­pect­edly, "How come you're home early?"

"I got off early."

"Why?"  David finally spoke.

"I'm going to North Car­olina to get grandma. ¬†She's com­ing here for Christmas."

"Alright! ¬†Can we go?"

"Not this time."

"Why not?" ¬†David's dis­ap­point­ment showed in his voice.

"Because I can get there faster if I go alone. ¬†Besides, both of you have school tomor­row. " Jordan's father walked past them and across the kitchen. ¬†Jor­dan and David parted to let their father pass then fol­lowed him into the bedroom.

"Why can't one of us go?  We can miss one day of school."

"You've both missed two day's already this week. ¬†You're not miss­ing anymore."

"Please, I want to go see grandma!" David cried.

"No. ¬†Now that's all I want to hear about it. ¬†Both of you are stay­ing here and I don't want to hear another word. ¬†Do you understand?"

Both Jor­dan and David shook their head's. ¬†They knew it was bet­ter not to push their father too far if they wanted a chance to go with him.

"Can we help you pack then?"  David asked and smiled at his brother.

"I packed last night, but you can help carry every­thing to the car, as long as you don't fight over every­thing. ¬†I'll be back in a minute. ¬†I have to get a few things from the bathroom."

Jor­dan looked up from the han­dle of the suit­case at the bath­room door his father had gone into.

"You're leav­ing right now?"

"I have to if I want to get there before it gets too dark, ¬†his father called from the bath­room over the clang­ing of razor's and after­shave that would go into his case. ¬†"Grandma will be here by tomor­row night."

Jor­dan lugged the suit­case down the hall­way, their father looked out the bath­room door at the boy's and let one tear fall down his cheek before he smiled.

With a loud thud Jor­dan heaved the suit­case into the car trunk and closed the lid.

"All ready, Dad!"

"Good." ¬†Their father walked through the door­way lead­ing from the kitchen and closed the door behind him.

He walked to the pas­sen­ger win­dow and tossed the small shav­ing case into the win­dow onto the seat. ¬†Jor­dan noticed that it didn't make the clink­ing sound that it usu­ally made when the bot­tles bounce against each other but gave it no thought. ¬†His father walked around the front of the car and opened the driver's side door.

"You two promise me you'll be good and mind you're mother when I'm gone.  Okay?"

"Yes sir." came the dual response. ¬†Jor­dan thought it was a weird thing for his father to say since he would only be gone overnight, but dis­missed it.

"Aren't you going to say good-​​bye to mom?" ¬†David asked from his father's knee.

"I say my good-bye's to her last night David. Now you guy's be good for her and I will se you soon."

"Are you sure we can't go with you, please."

"No. ¬†I told you why I was going alone. ¬†If you two had been in school I would have been able to leave with­out you harass­ing me.."

"But, you will get there way before dark.  Why do you have to leave so early?"  Came Jordan's plea.

"I'm run­ning out of time Jor­dan, I have to go now before it's too late."

"But.….."

"No more buts. ¬†Don't argue with me Jor­dan. ¬†I'm not in the mood for it right now. ¬†Both of you hug me so I can leave."

They each in turn hugged their father and watched him climb into the car and start down the dri­ve­way. ¬†He glanced at them stand­ing in the garage door­way together side by side and again let the tear's come.

"Bye. Bye!" shouted Jor­dan as the car pulled away from the drive and started up the road.

"Have a safe trip!"  yelled David.

---------------

Jor­dan stepped down from the bus onto the side­walk in front of the school. ¬†Sev­eral of his friends were wait­ing for him just out­side of the glass doors.

"Did you do your home­work Jordan?"

"Yes, Patrick, I did my homework"

Patrick was one of the first peo­ple Jor­dan had met when he had moved here three year's ago. ¬†He was the typ­i­cal nerd. ¬†He had the glasses with the tape around the nose, pocket pro­tec­tor, high pant's, even the nerd laugh. ¬†Jor­dan con­sid­ered him one of his best friend's.

"Why, Patrick, you weren't going to copy Jordan's home­work were you? ¬†Now you know that's cheat­ing. ¬†It wouldn't do to have Patrick cheat­ing now would it Jor­dan?" mocked Nicole from behind Jordan.

"Why no. ¬†It would ruin all our plan's." ¬†Jor­dan smiled as Nicole joined the conversation.

She had been another one he had met at first, ¬†and he liked her. ¬†She was two year's older than he was, and had expe­ri­ence. ¬†At least more then he did any­way. ¬†She stood a lit­tle taller than Jor­dan, and walked around with an atti­tude. ¬†She had also pro­tected him a cou­ple times before, ¬†but that was never men­tioned between them. ¬†In fact, that was how they met, and he fell in love.

"Come on Nicole, we bet­ter get to class or we are going to be late. ¬†Again." ¬†Nicole and Patrick pushed their way through the crowd. ¬†Patrick turned at the top of the stairs and waved at Jor­dan, who waved back.

Slowly he walked into his class. ¬†Other's were fil­ing in and out of the room through both doors. ¬†Some greeted Jor­dan as he walked in, other's either ignored him or acted as if he wasn't there.

He took his seat in the back of the class just as the bell rang. ¬†The teacher began to dis­cuss the home­work from the night before, but Jor­dan paid no atten­tion. ¬†He allowed his mind to won­der and soon began to think of the thing's he wanted for Christmas.

It was only the twelfth ¬†of Decem­ber but he had to hurry. Time was run­ning out.

Lost in thought he didn't at first notice that the bell to change classes had rung. ¬†As he stood to go he glanced out the win­dow and noticed his father out­side the lunch room door. ¬†He seemed to be lost but was head­ing toward the stairs that lead to the office.

Jor­dan darted up the aisle and almost col­lided with two other stu­dents as he reached the door. ¬†He made his apolo­gies and weaved his way around oth­ers in a hurry to reach the front office.

Care­lessly he flung the door open, almost knock­ing over the teacher behind it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Mr. Cathers. ¬†I didn't see you there."

"That's okay Jor­dan, I needed a lit­tle wake me up this morning."

"What's so impor­tant Jor­dan?" asked the recep­tion­ist behind the desk.

"Have you seen my father?" Jor­dan gen­tly closed the door behind him and walked to the front of the small oak desk.

"No, I haven't.  Should I?"

"Yea, he was just out­side head­ing this way. ¬†I couldn't have run that fast."

"Sorry, I haven't seen him, and I've been here all day. ¬†Are you sure it was him?"

"Yes ma'am. ¬†At least I think it was him. ¬†He was .….….…" ¬†Jor­dan pointed to the wall where he thought he had seen his father,

"Maybe it's all the excitement."

"Excite­ment?" asked Mr. Cathers from behind a steam­ing cup of coffee.

"Yea, he left yes­ter­day to go pickup my grand­mother and bring her here for Christ­mas. ¬†I haven't seen her for two years."

"That's def­i­nitely some­thing to look for­ward to. ¬†Oh, you bet­ter get going or you're going to be late for your next class."

"If I'm late again I'm a dead man." Jor­dan grabbed his book's off the desk and started toward the door. ¬†As he opened it the noise from the hall flooded in. ¬†He stopped to wave before he slipped out and dis­ap­peared into the crowd.

---------------

Jor­dan sat in the back seat of the bus as his friends made their way, seat by seat, to the girl in the mid­dle that was the tar­get of the day. ¬†The plan was sim­ple; They would bom­bard her with paper balls from every direc­tion one by one. ¬†As each one ran out it was Jordan's job this time to resupply.

The bus dri­ver had become accus­tom to the attacks and said noth­ing as long as the paper was picked up off the floor. ¬†It was all in fun and noone seem to mind the assaults, in fact sev­eral lit­tle groups had sprang up to chal­lenge, but Jordan's friends had dev­as­tated them quickly.

They turned down Rollings Street. Prob­a­bly the longest street in the county, Jor­dan often thought. ¬†It ran from down­town where

the projects were being built and con­tin­ued for sev­eral miles out­side of town. ¬†Jor­dan lived at the end of the route so he was the last to get off, that made it his respon­si­bil­ity to make sure all the paper was up.

He glanced out the win­dow at the clock tower on the edge of town.

Good, he thought, only twenty more min­utes and he would see his grand­mother. ¬†Mean­while his friends were ready to attack.

It was set up so that when they turned off Rollings Street the first time, the attack began. ¬†Nobody knew who the tar­get was going to be before hand, and it was only until every­one was on the bus that they were chosen.

Slowly the assault team rose up and zeroed in on their objec­tive. ¬†The turn was made and the sound of paper pum­mel­ing flesh was heard through­out the bus. ¬†Nicole was the first to run out. ¬†Jor­dan grabbed the bag that held the reserves and headed for the seat behind her. ¬†Jason was the next to need replen­ish­ing. ¬†The rest quickly fol­lowed, with Peter receiv­ing the last of the paper balls.

"Clean!" shouted Jor­dan as he returned to his seat. ¬†That was the sig­nal that all the paper was gone and the attack was over.

Leslie, the girl that had suf­fered the bar­rage, had sunk deep into her seat and began to laugh out loud.

Sev­eral oth­ers picked up the paper and began a paper fight that soon con­sumed the entire bus.

The remain­der of the ride was largely unevent­ful for Jor­dan. ¬†He stared out his win­dow watch­ing the houses pass by.

The bus turned another cor­ner, this time it was back on Rollings Street. ¬†It was time for Jor­dan to get off. ¬†The trees on the edge of his house gave way sud­denly to reveal sev­eral cars parked in the dri­ve­way. ¬†Imme­di­ately his spir­its rose. ¬†He jumped out of his seat, grabbed his book­bag, and ran down the aisle to the front of the bus, won­der­ing if he had beaten David home today.

"Christ Jor­dan, relax. ¬†She's going to be here for awhile. ¬†There's still two weeks until Christ­mas." said Steven, the boy who lived behind Jordan.

"Maybe," replied Jor­dan, "but I still can't wait to see her."

The bus stopped. ¬†The dri­ver opened the door and smiled as Jor­dan leaped all three steps get­ting off the bus. ¬†Jor­dan ran across the street and into his yard. ¬†His brother came out of the house to met him.

---------------

They met in the front of the big oak. ¬†Jor­dan had not noticed Carla, his moth­ers friend fol­low­ing David. ¬†They stopped just short of each other. ¬†Jor­dan noticed the tears falling from his broth­ers cheeks.

"What's wrong?"

"It's dad.  He's dead"

"No!" Jor­dan yelled as he threw his book­bag across the yard. ¬†He fell to his knees crying.

Carla helped David pull his brother to his brother to his feet. ¬†They strug­gled to get him to his room where his mother, aunt, and sev­eral of his moth­ers friends were gathered.

"Mom", Jor­dan began weakly, "what hap­pened?" Jor­dan col­lapsed on the bed. ¬†His mother sat beside him.

"Your grand­mother called this morn­ing." started April stepped for­ward and took his moth­ers hands in hers.

Jordan's mother hugged him tightly. ¬†When she released him he stood up and walked over to the lone tro­phy that sat atop the tele­vi­sion. ¬†He returned to the edge of the bed and sat alone hold­ing the tro­phy in his lap.

"She said they were on their way here, " his mother stood up an walked to the other side of the room, fight­ing back the tears,

"They were pass­ing through Mt. Olive when he decided he wanted to get some flour. ¬†You know haw he hates the flour down here. ¬†Any­way, they stopped at the Pig­gly Wig­gly to get some. ¬†He went to the Fam­ily Dol­lar to see Judy and say hi, and then headed over to the gro­cery store.

"She said he fell to the side­walk in mid-​​stride. ¬†He hit his head on the lit­tle bench where we found Blackie that time, remember?

Well, the emer­gency crew said that he was dead before he hit the pave­ment. ¬†His heart just stopped."

Jor­dan had not moved since his mother had begun talk­ing except for the bounc­ing of the tro­phy. ¬†For a moment noone was even sure that he had even heard her.

"You know," his words came strong, "he helped me win this. ¬†'To the Most Improved '80-'81' is what it says. ¬†I was the most improved and it was because of him."

Noone responded to Jor­dan. ¬†His gaze was fixed on the tro­phy he held in his hand. ¬†Every­one watched him care­fully, won­der­ing what was going on inside his mind.

"Did it hurt much?" David at last broke the silence.

"Noone knows for sure, but they said it was quick so he didn't suf­fer long."

"We said good-​​bye to him." Jor­dan said

"What honey?" asked his mother.

"We said good-​​bye. ¬†We actu­ally got to say good-​​bye to him before he left us."

"I don't under­stand, son."

"I do, " said David from the cor­ner. ¬†He walked for­ward and stood in front of his brother. ¬†"Yes­ter­day, when we missed the bus, he came home to get his things. ¬†When he left we said good-​​bye."

Jor­dan looked up at his younger brother and began to weep. ¬†Their mother started for­ward to embrace her sons when April stopped her.

Slowly Jor­dan stood up and slipped his arms around David's shoulders.

The two broth­ers embraced and together they grieved.