Authors: Julia Sexton
Chapter 3
All the Reynolds’ were gathered at Mike and Becca’s place a week after the weeding. They were due to leave for their honeymoon in a few days and this was a catch up with close family before they all went their different ways.
Natasha looked around at her two brothers and their contentment. It was infectious. It was hard not to bask in the glory of their fulfilment and come out anything but happy; only if that was the case. Natasha, though inarguably happy for her brothers, could not ignore that there was something lacking in her life.
“I want to make a toast,” Jack said, from the couch and stood up.
Natasha who had been thoroughly occupied in her thoughts and had hardly said a word, woke up from her reverie and held up her glass.
“Mike,” Jack began. “To all that has to come and all that has passed; may you have countless happy hours with this new life of yours: To new lives.”
“To new lives,” everybody chimed in, Natasha a second later than everybody else.
Later Jack and Natasha were standing in the kitchen, doing the dishes. Jenna was outside with Mike and Becca, having a cigarette. Jack also smoked but he didn’t want to leave Natasha alone inside the house. He didn’t say that, but Natasha knew this was the reason. Jack wasn’t always vocal with his affections, but they were there nonetheless.
“So, what’s wrong?” Jack said, out of the blue.
“What?” Natasha said, taken aback. “Nothing’s wrong.”
Even to her own ears the answer seemed dubious. She had been too quick to say no, and her voice had lost its naturalness.
“Come on, Natasha,” Jack said. “It’s me.”
Natasha remained quiet and busied herself with the dishes. She thought if she pretended that there wasn’t any question, Jack might give up. But if Jack was one thing, it was persistent.
“You know, I can’t help you unless you tell me what’s wrong,” Jack said, his voice full of concern.
“Who says I need your help?” Natasha snapped and regretted it immediately, though she did not say so.
“Nevertheless,” Jack continued, pretending that he was not hurt by his sister’s snap. “I can tell that something is bothering you and I want to know.”
“It’s Mike and Becca’s moment, let’s not take it away from them,” she said.
“Mike and Becca are happy. I am not worried about them. I am worried about you. I have been so busy lately, hell, I have always been so busy that I could not stay in touch with you,” Jack said.
“Are you apologizing for lost time, Jack? Because you don’t have to. I don’t blame you for anything. You are the best brother a sister could ask for and I understand that you have your own life to live.”
“That may be so,” Jack said quietly. “But it doesn’t make me feel a whole lot better. Let me have this comfort.”
Natasha bit her lip, thinking hard. Jack was rarely so emotional and it seemed he genuinely wanted to make up for lost time, though truth be told Natasha had never been one to give it much thought. She didn’t want to pile all her troubles on his doorstep, so she threw a curveball.
“I am thinking of moving back,” she said, voicing something that she had only thought and the impact of the words hit her as they hit him. She saw in his face an array of emotions: bafflement followed by more concern.
“Back? But why?” Jack said.
“Because I think I need time to think things through, slow it down a bit. This isn’t working for me, the city life, so far.”
“But, what will you do?” he said, still not completely accepting this.
“Like I said, I am still thinking things through. The first few weeks will be hard, I know, but I’ll manage.”
“Did something happen?” Jack said.
“No,” Natasha said, exasperated. “Nothing happened. It is just something I want to do. It might be a step in the right direction. Nothing has to go wrong for me to make a big decision. Sometimes it just happens when things aren’t going your way. It is as simple as that.”
Jack nodded, though Natasha was sure that he was giving in temporarily and she would get a lot of phone calls when she heads back to her hometown. She mentally prayed that Jack get busy in his life and doesn’t delve into hers too much because at this moment, she didn’t need any more confusion. She was making it up as she went and she didn’t need that realization crammed in her face.
Just at that moment, Mike, Becca and Jenna returned from outside, laughing about some joke Jenna was telling them about Jack and their son and Natasha felt relieved.
The night wore on and the family ate and talked about old times. Jenna told the story about how Jack proposed to her which Jack had never told a soul, and he was red faced during the whole thing. Mike and Becca were occupied with the plans for their honeymoon. It was a one month excursion into Europe and a final week in Monte Carlo. One by one, people started to go to sleep as the night deepened.
First it was the newlyweds Mike and Becca and nobody pretended they didn’t know why they were so eager to go to bed. Jenna then got up and took Jack’s hand, though it looked like Jack wanted to spend some more time with Natasha and talk things through. Natasha was happy that Jack could not say no to Jenna because he got up and Jenna led her husband to their room. Natasha was sitting alone, looking into the embers of the fireplace, a shawl covering her from the cold. She realized it was time to go to bed, and she got up and left the living room.
When she was on the first floor landing, where her room was, she felt a disturbance below. She peeked downstairs and saw that Jenna and Jack were standing in the kitchen, not having made their way to the room, and were kissing passionately. Jenna was pushed against the counter as their lips seemed glued together. Not wanting to be caught seeing this display of affection, Natasha tiptoed to her room and closed the door quietly and fell on the bed.
The last thought in her mind was that the move to her hometown was going to change things, in a big way.
She was right.
Chapter 4
The movers were taking out boxes from the car, as Natasha stood in the doorway of her new home. It had been years since she had come back in this town but it was still the same old. The streets looked the same, even the bars and the shops were the same. Usually one felt bad for such consistent stalling, but Natasha felt comforted by the stability. She felt that the chaos in her life paralleled well against the uniformity of this town.
She had just told one person that she was coming back, mainly because she didn’t know many who still lived here. It was Nancy, her best friend from high school. They had lost touch over the years but still remembered each other fondly. When Natasha had called to tell her that she was coming back, Nancy had the tact to avoid asking intrusive questions over the phone and just be happy that her old friend was coming.
Currently, Natasha was standing on the doorstep of her home, which had been empty for the past few months. Earlier, they had been renting it out to various families, but it was sitting empty at the moment and Natasha jumped at the opportunity to live there.
She walked up to the curb to have a look around, tinker some old memories. She looked at one end and saw the cream colored house of the Joneses. They always gave most of the candy to her when she went trick or treating to their place. She moved her gaze to the other end and at the far side of the street; she saw a figure, a tall, athletic, muscular figure.
At such a distance, she could not make out the face but something about this person felt familiar to her. She could not place it but she was sure that it was not the first time that she was looking at this particular frame. The person was looking in the direction of her house and she was not sure if he was staring at her or not. The idea was not exactly comforting and she felt a little disturbed.
Before she could do anything, her cell phone rang. She took it out and looked at the screen and saw Nancy’s name on the screen. She picked up the phone again and looked up to see the man again but he was not there. She saw him walking away.
“Hi,” Nancy’s animated voice said on the line.
“Hi,” Natasha said distractedly, still not sure where she had seen that man.
“Have you moved in?” Nancy asked her.
“Yeah,” Natasha said and composed herself. “Yeah, almost.”
“Great,” Nancy said and Natasha could feel that she had something cooked up in that perennially lit up brain of hers.
“Here’s what I was thinking: what about I come by your place after work, we go out, have a drink, meet a few people, and refresh your memories of this place.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Natasha said. Although she was tired, she wanted to see Nancy and get out of her mind frame. She was ready to say yes.
“Great,” Nancy said again. “I will be at your place in a couple of hours.”
“Hey, listen,” Natasha said.
“Yeah?”
“Do you know some guy who moved in my street? I saw someone new in the street. Tall, athletic.”
“It’s been years since you went away. Tons of people moved in and moved out. Did he do something, this guy?”
“No. He was just looking at me from across the street.”
“Damn, girl, you are lucky. You have been here less than twenty four hours and already guys are checking you out.”
Natasha laughed, feeling lighter. She said to Nancy that she would see her later and cut the call.
She put the mysterious stranger at the back of her mind and went to her room, where the boxes had been laid down. She started unpacking and was thinking about what she would do tomorrow. She had formed no concrete plan when she decided that it was no use trying to plan, but for now, just live in the moment.
In a couple of hours, Nancy came to her door and hugged her for a long time.
“Wow, you look hot,” Nancy said looking at Natasha’s black skirt and jeans jacket.
“Shall we go?” Natasha said, ignoring her comment.
“You are ready to get your hair down, aren’t you?” Nancy said.
“Day at a time.”
Chapter 5
Natasha was standing at the bar, with a drink in her hand. Nancy had gone to the ladies’ room. Natasha was feeling a heavy dose of nostalgia in the town. She knew several of the faces and she said hi to many people who came up to her at the bar, old acquaintances. Some came up to her and talked of old times. She had not anticipated so many people to remember her, but she felt elated.
Currently, as she stood there sipping her drink, looking at the crowd around the bar, she was thinking what was taking Nancy so long.
“I didn’t know you liked pina colada,” a voice said from behind her.
She turned around and saw a familiar face staring at her.
“What?” she said.
“It’s that stupid song,” replied Robert, another friend from her high school.
She smiled at him. Robert was a sweet boy but there was nothing between them. They were just two people who went to the same high school, rarely talked to each other but knew of each other’s presence.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Robert said. “I thought you were a big city girl now.”
“I thought so too,” Natasha replied.
“But you aren’t now?”
“Life had different plans,” she replied.
“I never knew for you to have such a defeatist outlook on life,” Robert said, and his words stung Natasha. It was the first teaser of how her reappearance at her hometown might look to the people.
“Not defeatist, just realistic,” she said, wanting to explain more and in detail but she didn’t have the energy to go full throttle.
“Often the two overlap, don’t you think?” Robert said, continuing his barrage of forward statements.
“Jeez, you don’t sugar coat it, do you?” Natasha said.
Robert smiled sheepishly.
“I didn’t mean to sound rude,” he said. “I still haven’t gotten the hang of learning to talk to girls.”
“It isn’t rocket science,” Natasha said.
“So I’ve been told.”
Natasha laughed. It wasn’t every day that you came across someone as brutally honest as Robert.
“I wonder why we weren’t good friends in high school,” she mused.
“Because I was too shy and you were too pretty,” Robert said.
“Wow, and you said you didn’t know how to talk to girls. I’d say you are pretty well versed, my friend.”
“Truth be told I wanted to be your friend but never found an in,” Robert replied.
“You should have asked,” she said.
“You make it sound way easier than it actually is,” Robert replied.
Natasha was surprised how quickly she had found a groove with Robert and was immensely enjoying talking to him about old times. They talked about first jobs and college experiences.
Natasha told Robert all about life in a big city, which seemed to baffle and intrigue Robert. He seemed to be positively inquisitive about these things and asked questions like a childlike curiosity; after a long time Natasha had talked so much and had been involved in the conversation so deeply.
It dawned on her that Nancy had not been back yet and that started to worry her. She had been so captivated by telling stories of city life that it wiped everything from her mind.
“Will you excuse me? My friend went to the ladies’ room ages ago and she hasn’t been back yet,” she said to Robert.
“Maybe she met someone from her high school that wasn’t a very good friend,” Robert said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Natasha said and made her way to the ladies’ room. There was a line of women outside and Natasha could not see Nancy anywhere.
She tried asking a couple of people from around there but it was a fool’s errand. These people couldn’t care less. She called Nancy on her cellphone but the call couldn’t get through.
Finally, when Natasha was getting frustrated and starting to panic, she saw Nancy come out of the back room of the bar. Natasha walked to her.
“WHERE have you been?” Natasha said and Nancy jumped.
“Why are you shouting?” Nancy said, positively surprised.
“You’ve been gone ages and your phone wasn’t connecting,” Natasha said.
“I was in the loo, and after that I ran into some friends. I was having a drink round the back,” Nancy said nonchalantly, as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
“And you didn’t think of dropping a text?” Natasha said. She was clearly not in the mood to let it go.
“Jeez, Natasha, you are acting like my last two boyfriends,” Nancy said, rolling her eyes.
Natasha was exasperated but also comforted by the fact that she had found Nancy. She didn’t know if she was overreacting or not but to her it felt important.
“I saw you talking with Robert and you seemed to be having a good time, so I thought why not let you have a moment alone with him,” Nancy said.
“Thanks,” Natasha muttered, feeling worse now.
Nancy had good intentions and she had to yell at her for not showing up from the bathroom quickly enough, while all the time she was looking out for her. She felt like a terrible friend.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nancy said, offhandedly. “Let’s get a drink.”
The girls walked to the bar. Robert was still standing on the spot where Natasha had left him.
“Hi,” Nancy said to Robert.
He didn’t respond back but was staring at Natasha with wide eyes. She realized that Robert was white as a corpse at this point.
“What’s wrong?” Natasha said, having no idea what happened to the jolly man she left literally five minutes ago.
“You should have told me you came here with someone,” Robert said. His voice was uncharacteristically weak and Natasha and Nancy had to lean in to catch what he was saying.
“I’m with Nancy, what’s wrong?” Natasha said again, surprised with this turn of events.
Robert didn’t give any indication that he had seen Nancy.
“The tall guy,” he said, stammering. “The really huge, tall guy. He was just here, looking for you.”
“What are you talking about?” Natasha said, while Nancy looked on with mild irritation.
“He just left a minute ago,” Robert said. “Out that way.”
Natasha followed her gaze to where Robert was pointing. She saw out the window of the bar but couldn’t see anything. She ran outside, leaving Nancy shouting behind her. Her mind was reeling. She was sure that it was the same guy who was on her street this morning.
When she walked out, there was no one in sight. The sounds from the bar were dimmed in the street and not even the bouncer was standing at the door. It looked odd to her.
Before she could turn around, she felt a presence behind her and a hand covering her face and eyes. Then she was plunged in total darkness and lost her train of thought.