Chapter 7

After my evening with Cherry, I was about as happy as I’d ever been. I went about the apartment, cleaning and putting things away while humming some song I couldn’t put a title or group name to. My thoughts drifted back and forth between the time spent with my Cherry that night and the time that I would be spending watching her at the upcoming game where she would be cheering.

It was getting late, so I decided to get a shower and couldn’t help but recall when we showered together that morning—just before I took her to school. That shower was sexy as hell, even though there was nothing sexual about it. I pictured her stepping in the shower once I told her the water was hot and how the water turned her hair a much darker shade of red as it became soaked.

She had stood where I was now with her back to the shower head; running her fingers through her hair with her eyes closed as I helped soap up her incredible body. All I could wonder was: ‘how did she get to be so soft and yet so firm at the same time?’ But the most amazing aspect of it all was that, as hot as she was, I did not look at her with lust. Rather, it was with awe and love that I viewed Cherry.

Time seemed irrelevant with her: we’d only been together for a short time, but there was something there that just said we were meant for each other and that’s all that mattered to us.

The bathroom was beginning to get pretty steamy and I knew I was just wasting water at that point. I turned off the shower, dried off, and put on a pair of boxers. Before going to bed, I hung Cherry’s gift to me on one corner of the headboard; sort of an R rated ‘dream catcher’. I flopped myself in bed and could catch Cherry’s light, sexy scent from time to time. I slept soundly.

Cherry and I were walking on a nature trail, hand in hand. She was talking about something, but it was as if she had started the conversation without me. When I realized I didn’t know how we got to where we were or how we got there, I knew on some level that I was dreaming. Knowing on that same level that this dream was better than the last, I fell into the dream.

Apparently, the dream was about ideas she was coming up with on ways for us to get together without her mother finding out. She had a lot of ideas and I was just there listening to them. Her voice was sweet and melodic. I could just barely detect her perfume in the light, cool breeze. Cherry wrapped her arm around my waist and I put my arm around her; resting my hand on her hip as we walked side by side.

We continued coming up with ideas on how we could sneak some time together as we walked. After a particularly good idea, there would be a break in the conversation as we attempted to dream up another good plan to try. It was during one such break that Cherry moved her hand from my waist to rest it on my shoulder.

The pain was unexpected and I cringed slightly. Understanding what she had done, she moved her hand back to where it had been. As she did, her hip seemed to change; becoming a bit thinner and a bit higher. Her hand also seemed smaller on me.

“David?” The voice came from next to me, and while it was a pretty voice, it was at least an octave higher than Cherry’s.

I looked over to find Katie walking with me; her arm around me and my hand on her shoulder. Startled, I jumped back a step or two and she stopped in her tracks; holding out her hands to me. She was a little different this time. Her eyes were still wide open and showing nothing but pupils, but she wasn’t a bloody mess like she was before.

Her leg was still broken and bone was still exposed, but she stood on it like it had always been that way. Katie’s hair looked like she had tried to comb it with her fingers and instead of the tattered clothes she had before, she wore a bright yellow sundress.

“David,” she pleaded, “I can’t see. Please don’t leave me here. I don’t know where I’m going!”

Reaching out with a bit of uncertainty, I took her hand in mine and she closed the distance between us before we continued walking.

“David?” her tiny voice began again. “What happened that day—when we met?”

I said, “You were in a car crash, sweetie.”

She said, “Yeah; that’s what I thought.” After a few moments of thought she said, “It was so scary in there. Why did you get in the car? Weren’t you scared?”

I answered, “No. I wasn’t afraid of the car. I was only worried about getting you out.”

She thought for a moment and asked, “Are you a real superhero?”

I laughed out loud and said, “No; I’m just a normal guy.”

Katie though for a few moments again and said, “There were lots of people there, but you were the only one that got in the car with me. That means you were a hero to me.”

“Thank you,” I said, “but I don’t feel like much of a hero. A hero would have been able to do more.”

Katie said, “But if it wasn’t for you, I would have been scared and all alone in the car when I died.” Reflecting on what she just said she asked with some hesitation, “I ... died, right?”

Nodding my head slightly, I said, “Yeah. I’m so sorry, Katie.”

Katie seemed to accept that and then added, “Momma died, too, huh?”

I confirmed, “Yeah; Momma, too.”

Katie just nodded without much surprise to the news about her mother as we continued walking. The conversation quickly dwindled and I was soon simply reflecting on what Katie had said. I turned to ask her a question, but she was gone.

I awoke from the dream with a sense of oddity while thankful it wasn’t the full blown nightmare I had before. These dreams were so vivid and detailed that for the first few moments after waking it was hard to know for sure if it had been a dream or an actual encounter with Katie’s spirit.

After thinking about it for a while, I decided it was most likely just my own projection of what she might have said to me if she were able. At the same time, though, I wondered if perhaps a person’s actual spirit could haunt another by using dreams as the medium.

Ghosts and haunting were things I’d never believed in before, but the dreams were so real it made me question those beliefs.

In attempt to rid my head of these thoughts, I shook my head quickly and made a conscious effort to think about something else. I wondered for a moment if I should try going back to work to keep my mind off of Katie, but then I remembered Chief’s words to me and decided against it.

I had never realized how much time I spent at the firehouse until I was forced away from it. Searching for something to occupy my time, I found a small stack of bills that had piled up over the last several days and decided to take care of them.

As the last bill was being sealed, my phone rang. I knew it was Cherry before I even picked up the phone—I could just feel it was her (or maybe it was because I had just looked at the clock and knew she was getting out of school).

Cherry shared the details of her day with me; I just listened with enthusiasm and amazement at how little things had changed since I was in school. It was the same drama; even some of the names were the same! But since it was about her day, I wanted to hear all about it.

We alternated between talking and texting for most of the night until she had to go to bed and the day ended uneventfully. The next day was more or less a repeat of the previous day—spent not getting much done and thinking about Katie and Cherry (in no particular order).

When school let out on Thursday, Cherry called to remind me about the upcoming football game (as though I could have forgotten about it) and asked if I was still coming to watch her. I told her that, of course, I would be there and her voice went up an octave in excitement.

Cherry said, “I can’t wait to see you: it seems like forever since I saw you!”

I laughed but agreed with her saying, “I know what you mean. It’s only been about 48 hours since we saw each other, but it feels like 48 hours of torture.”

“More like 48 weeks of torture! I don’t know if I’m going to make it until tomorrow!” she responded.

I asked, “Is there any way you can get out tonight; make up an excuse for something?”

She said, “No; grounded—remember?”

I said, “Oh yeah; that’s right ... damn.”

Then I had an idea. I wasn’t sure how well it might work—if at all—but I figured it was worth a shot.

I asked Cherry, “What is your address? I want to look you up on Google Earth. If I can’t be with you, at least that might make me feel closer to you.”

Cherry said, “Aww, that’s sweet,” and she gave me her address before saying, “I’m going to look up you apartment, too.”

We talked for a few more minutes and then had to cut the conversation short since her mom was there to pick her up and take her home. From that point, we resorted to texting for our communications.

I looked up her home as I had said and saw that it looked like an average community. The lots in her area seemed a bit larger than some places and there was no shortage of trees or bushes. Seeing her place did help me feel closer to her—for a while anyway. But then I felt like I was teasing myself. It was like going to a strip club and looking at the girls you can never touch; it’s ok at first, but before long you want more.

As the afternoon turned to evening, Cherry and I continued texting almost non-stop. I noticed a few times that I was actually pacing while waiting for her texts to come in and each one was like the next present to a kid at Christmas. It might sound like just an obsession, but it was more than that. We had connected on multiple levels, never running out of something interesting to talk about, and I knew that I had fallen completely in love with her.

Before I even realized what I was doing, I was in the car and driving towards the love of my life. It seemed like a ‘stalker’ thing to do and I didn’t know what I was going to do once I got there, but I couldn’t help myself; I just had to be closer to Cherry.

It was getting late when I pulled into Cherry’s neighborhood. It looked like most of the community was home for the night; cars in driveways and no one out on the sidewalks. I turned onto her street and quickly found Cherry’s home but knew better than to stop in front of her place. I parked a few houses down the street.

Cherry and her Mom lived in a Ranch style home that had a lot of large trees and shrubs for landscaping. I only saw one light on in the house and since I was still texting her, I figured it might be Cherry’s room. I walked back towards her place as though I belonged in the area while being careful to look and make sure no one was peering out of their windows at me. Just as I was about to pass her place, I took one more look around and ducked behind some bushes and texted Cherry.