Chapter 74

Ah, yes. The blue pill. Mom took care of that. But mom was gone and Junior ... well ... Junior didn’t necessarily pay attention to small stuff ... and the blue pill is as small as it gets. She ran out. Since she never ... she didn’t think the pill was important. She was regular ... and a non sufferer of the maladies of some teenagers ... cramps ... spotting ... irregularity ... and promiscuity. She had ... over the years ... plenty of opportunity for adventure and excitement ... and her curiosity tended towards bigger things. She was friends with a flying saucer named Company and that had kept her busy. Sex? Maybe later. She was having too much fun to worry about it.

Fun didn’t include boys ... messy, smelly things. She had older brothers ... she knew what boys were like. That’s not to say she felt the same about ... men. Horse of a different color were men. If she had her druthers it would be Unka Dave ... but he was married ... and she really liked Andie ... Andie did cool shit ... and she knew about History. As she was bent over the ceramic throne she realized that History had bitten her in the ass. Cursed by Pharaoh to be short, busty and redheaded.

That was in the future.

Tonight ... the last sky rocket burst over the lake. The last ‘Ooo’. The last ‘Aaah’. The silence floated away with the smoke. Let there be young adult behavior! Kids!

Personally. I side with Tolkien ... adult doesn’t happen until 33 and I had eleven years to go. I drank some beer ... the vitamins and minerals in beer are as good as a pill ... maybe better ... it’s natural. Water, barley, hops ... beer. The pills are the product of science.

Now ... I’ll have to admit ... I didn’t drink as much as Junior ... or Missy ... but Bea kept up. We had a good time and I knew I was in moderation.

My phone vibrated in my bra ... best place for a cellphone ... unless you have a crotch pouch. And that goes off at the most inopportune times ... like meeting the Queen.

I fished it out.

“Hello?”

“Speak up.”

“No ... not a bar ... it’s a party.”

“At last count? 1100. Yeah ... a lot.”

“Who is this?”

“Zoe?”

“What’s wrong?”

“JW has been gone longer than 15 minutes? That’s not good...”

“Billy is with him?”

“He’s not back either?”

“Cassie, too?”

“How long?”

“Three weeks?”

“Christ, Zoe. I haven’t been gone three weeks.”

“They left right after I did?”

“Have you read the Journals?”

“There’s no bodies?”

“I don’t know anyone with a ring or a portal.”

“I know I have a watch.”

“How do I do that?”

“Never mind ... Junior will know.”

“No ... they’re not here.”

<Are too>

I dampened my shorts, ‘Jesus H. Christ ... scare the fuck outta me.’