The Life and Lies of The How-To Manual

When I woke up, Jaime was snoring soundly, but the bus wasn’t moving. I poked his face gently, trying to get him to open his eyes. He wouldn’t budge. I sighed for a moment and looked around.

The bus was void of life. It seemed as if everyone had gotten off. Looking out the window, I saw that we had parked somewhere in the back lot of a town. The parking lot was occupied by our bus and a small white Toyota truck. Jaime was snoring soundly. The blanket was tangled around us. His left hand dangled over the edge of the couch.

Propping up on one elbow, I decided to resume our usual wake up call. I leaned over and stared at him for a moment, deciding he was sound asleep. Taking a deep breath, I gently blew cool air into his face.

His eyes fluttered open. Himes shook his head like a dog, trying to rid himself of invisible particles. The messy hair flew everywhere, nearly whacking me in the face as well.

“Wha-what time is it?” He mumbled in his hot morning voice. Even though it was well into the afternoon, he always managed to sound so gosh darn hot.

I held up the number on my fingers. It was three in the afternoon. He reached up and grabbed my hand, entangling our fingers further. His brown eyes were locked on mine, like a mountain lion facing down a small doe.

“You want coffee?” He asked. I think this was his way of saying sorry for accidentally letting Tony lock me in the undercarriage. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Or maybe it was just his way for saying sorry for forgetting to zip his bags all the way closed.

“Ding.” I yawned. I pushed myself off of him while he stretched. Getting up on wobbly legs, I tottered around to my bunk to grab my sweatshirt. It was that same black sweatshirt I had worn when I first met Jaime back in the band room of my old high school.

The familiar fabric tickled my skin as I slipped it on. Even though it was Arizona in the early summer, there managed to be a small breeze that whipped through the town. It cooled the residents down enough to send them looking for their jeans and a sweatshirt.

“Come on, MD.” Jaime held out his hand as I turned around. I took it in my own and we walked down the bus steps. Jaime made sure it locked behind him. Hopefully Turtle hadn’t forgotten the keys-again.

Looking down at my worn out converse, I smiled a little. I wore these shoes around everywhere. They were black with white spots on the outside, and plain blue on the inside. There was a hole in my left shoe on the left side that was as big as a quarter. They let in rocks and sometimes made it uncomfortable to wear, but I loved them nonetheless.

“So I hear there’s a Starbucks around here somewhere.” Jaime muttered and checked his phone. I don’t know what the town was called, but we were in the Main Street area and it seemed to be pretty busy. There was a small crowd walking down the sidewalk behind us.

Jaime and I plodded towards the busy intersection. I glanced around at all the small shops. There was a pet store, grocery store, Indian restaurant, and many other delicious places. My eye got caught on a tiny little building at the far corner. It read Fettuccini’s Pastaria.

It looked delicious and I swore my nose could pick of traces of Alfredo in the wind.

“Hey, Willow.” Jaime whistled at me. I felt his hand tug on mine as we continued walking down to the intersection. There was a small shop behind us. I think it was a home appliances store.

“Jaime.” I got his attention and pointed inside the tinted windows. I could just make out the figures of Mike and Tony having a sparring fight with ladles and straining pots on their heads.

“Geez, those two. I’ll go tell them we’re up and getting coffee. I’ll be out in a minute.” Jaime kissed my forehead as I started to doze off.

“I love you.” I smiled. He squeezed my hand before running in to stop the two. I think Autumn was cheering her boyfriend on.

I waited patiently at the intersection, just on the curb with no one else around. The crowd loitered behind us, pausing a moment to stare into a window. I glanced at their faces, seeing the group of teens gawk at whatever they liked.

And that’s when I saw him.

Dad.

It had to be my dad.

I was frozen still, completely unmoving. The man with his blonde hair and his stark blue eyes like ethereal spirits had touched them. His eyes connected with mine for a brief moment before I pulled away.

That was my dad.

No, it couldn’t be. How could it? My dad walked out on my mom, Liza, so many years ago. He walked out never to be seen again. There was a million men in the world who had blonde hair and blue eyes.

So that couldn’t be him.

I turned my attention towards the ground, shaking my head and staring at an ant that desperately tried to obtain a crack crumb from beside a light post.

And that’s when I heard the screaming.

It was a great and terrible screaming, yelling, frantic cries of people to watch out. I felt my feet go numb and I looked around in confusion. I didn’t see where it was coming from. There was an angry squealing of tires and so my brain told me that the yelling came from down the block.

But then the voices grew louder.

But when I turned towards the street, it was too late.

A car, a silver Dodge Durango with the license plate UIE-432 and a slight scratch in the paint was swerving down the street. I saw faces pressed against the windows of the shops. I saw the group and the man duck into the pet store nearby.

I turned around to go inside to Jaime as the car swerved all over the road.

His face was the last thing I saw before I was hit.

The car veered off the street and right into me. At that moment, I knew I had lifted off the ground, now shooting through the air at thirty three miles an hour.

I turned around, seeing pointing pedestrians and screaming children, but hearing silence. My eye flickered to where I would crash down. It all happened so fast, I didn’t even realize what was going on until I hit that Stop sign.

The sign said STOP. So my body did STOP.

I hit my head right in the middle, as if the driver had been aiming for a target. My vision turned black instantly and my head sloshed as if it filled with liquid. There was screaming, yelling, and then silence. I felt my limbs go numb and my arm was on fire. It was cold and hot at the same time and I hated every moment of this.

It was only when the ambulance came and I passed out that I then realized why humans can’t fly.

Notes

O.O WILLOW GOT HIT BY A CAR!!!! Oh no!!!!!

Okay, in other words, I've posted ANOTHER new story! It's called Rage, Rage, Against the Dying of the Light. If you haven't checked it out already, I encourage you to! It's a bit more of a darker story, so it's not as humorous!

I hope you like it nonetheless!