Cookie Man

Chapter 3: Trees Can Talk

Chapter 3: Trees Can Talk

Jett was listening to “Little Wonders”, by Rob Thomas on his Sunday morning run when he accidentally tripped over a gigantic crack that he somehow had missed. Thank goodness for the bike lane, otherwise he would’ve been smushed for sure. It was a pretty big fall, and now he had cuts all over his knees and the wrists of his hands. At least he didn’t break his arm or wrist or anything.

Boy, the thought of breaking his wrist right before his mom was going to show off his violin playing-skills to his cousins a few hours later, that would’ve really pissed her off.

He looked around to make sure that no one had seen his embarrassing fall, and saw not a single soul. Thank goodness for that. After all, it was pretty early in the morning, six-ish he would say, and he hadn’t gotten very far before his accident. He debated going home or continuing on for a little while longer. It took three things to occur before he made up his mind.

Thing #1: His hands and knees did hurt pretty bad. But it was nothing he couldn’t suck up.

Thing #2: He didn’t eat enough breakfast, or do enough stretches, so he was getting some pretty bad cramps.

Thing #3: To be honest, he was really actually very sleepy now.

And so Jett Matthews decided he would not walk the ten-minutes back home, but instead continue jogging the twenty-minutes up hill, and then jog back down the hill the long way that took about 35-minutes on a good day. And he did this illogical thing, simply because he did not want to be at home. Home, where his parents were plotting up schemes of attention. Home, where his older sister was not. Home, where he had a mountain of stuff to do. And finally Home, where he had lived his whole life, unable to be what everyone wanted, but instead trying to be someone he was not.

Jett was a Matthews, and Matthews were sensible over-achievers with a strange addictive love for cherry cheesecake. But Jett was also a Lee from his mom’s side, and  Lee’s were hardcore kick-ass troopers. It wasn’t a crime for them to relax once in awhile though, with a cup of hot cocoa are something equally yummy.

Although his mom was born in Vietnam, she was adopted by an American couple and was raised in the good-old fashioned American way. Madison Lee was tough and straightforward, and very athletic. She was also very fond of frogs for some reason and music of course. Well, to be fair, his whole family consisted of music enthusiasts. Not any specific genres, but everyone, including him, practically worshipped Queen. There was a bit of conflict on how Enya was included onto Uncle Danny’s, Metal, Skulls, and Daisies playlist, but he claimed that she was totally the “Skull” of the whole thing. Whatever floats his boat, to each his own, but Jett learned the hard way never to question Uncle Danny. That was probably one of the lowest points in his already kinda miserable life.

Jett was really running now, pounding the pavement hard on, breezing through the fog like nobody’s business. There was a mantra in his head, he repeated it to himself every time he needed to clear his head and just focus on whatever he was doing.

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming swimming swimming. Swimming swimming swimming. Just like a fish. Dory. Finding Nemo. One of the best movies ever. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Swimming is fun.

By this time, it was 6:45, and Jett had until about 7:00 to make it all the way down the hill plus ten more minutes until he got home. This was a pretty popular path, and Jett knew he would be seeing some of his running friends soon so he decided to just chill. His parents wouldn’t mind he decided, but just to be sure, he sent his mom a text. He knew in his head exactly what she was up to. She was probably already up and working out on the treadmill, his dad was making some sort of pancake, and his little sister was probably still sleeping. The cliche happy family kind of scene. Except just really early for a Sunday morning.