Thousand Year Switch

Chapter 8

My room was dark, and I squinted at the ceiling, at the wash of pale moonlight that painted the stucco into jumbled patterns. It reminded me of Carly, how we used to lie on the grass at recess and pick out shapes in the clouds. Argue about weather certain puffs of white looked like a clown or a dragon, point out vague lumps and giggle when we thought they resembled something dirty. She was probably having way too much fun to think about me right now. I bet she wandered the market all day, and ran up and down the beach with her family. They're probably roasting hot dogs now, and trading jokes and laughing loudly around the fire. I wished I could just think hard enough and teleport myself there.

If I could see her right now, I resolved, I would ask her out, finally. I was always too chicken to do it, since I've known her forever and was scared it might ruin the friendship. Cowardly, was what I was. Maybe she would have said no, maybe she never liked me back, but then again, maybe she did. And we would have been more than just friends. But then, Sara still would have died and Mom still would have had a mental breakdown and moved us. Mom and Dad still would have divorced. I would still be miles away from Carly.

I sighed, rolling over to grab my phone and check the screen. No calls or texts, I knew that, because it would have beeped at me, but I still checked sometimes. I had messaged her this morning, asking how camping was going. Maybe she didn't get reception on Hornby, I couldn't remember if I had last time I was there. It had been years ago, with her family. I put the phone back down and flopped back onto my pillow with a sigh. Yeah, she was probably having way too much fun to even notice her phone. I jammed my pillow over my head and tried to block out thoughts of wiener roasts and skinny dipping.

After school the next day I ended up sitting on the bus stop bench with Morgan (who claimed her brother was at hockey practice.) The experience was surreal, like when the bizarre feeling of déjà vu rolls over you. It made me nervous. Was I tempting fate sitting at the bus stop with the girl in the red sweater? I looked at her as she talked about the zoo field trip tomorrow. She was gesturing with her hands, excited. Today she was wearing a black jacket and jeans. No red sweater. No tempting fate. 

I told myself there was no fate. Just like there is no karma, and no God. My family was never religious until after the accident, after my sister went and got herself killed. Then Mom went whole hog, the preaching, the praying and the thumping of bibles. The whole kit and caboodle. 

briefly I wondered what a "caboodle" was.

Dad left a few months after Sara died. The truth is, I'm not fond of the guy, but I can't blame him either.

"You look sad."

I looked up, startled. Morgan was studying me, her expression wistful. I shook my head and gave her a devil-may-care grin. "Nah, I'm just thinking of how depressed I'll be if I don't get to see a giraffe tomorrow."

She laughed. "Don't they have one there?"

"I guess they'd better," I said, and she laughed again, and the sound made me want to stand up and do an entire comedy routine, just so I could hear her laugh again and again.

The bus pulled up with a whooshing gust of smelly air, and she turned away. I sighed, hiking my knapsack higher on my shoulder. Geeze, I hated buses lately. Morgan stepped up first. She went to swipe her card, checked her watch and said to the bus driver,

"Does this bus go to Park Ridge Place?"

The driver, a hairy, thick-necked Neanderthal type, nodded with a grunt of acknowledgment. I wondered if he'd tried to make fire yet...

I mounted the bottom step, but Morgan didn't move. "Like, right past Park Ridge? Or a bit of a walk? There's that hill just below..."

"Right past it," Neanderthal said impatiently, his uni-brow was starting to crease. "Look, kid, you getting on or not? I have a time schedule to keep to."

"Hey," I said, levering myself up so I was looking right over her shoulder at him, "no call for rudeness here, the lady was just asking a question."

I got the full force of his angry eyebrows. "You're holding the bus up, kids. Either you get on or I leave you behind."

Morgan checked her watch again. "Alright, that will be fine. Thank you."

She gave him a pleasant smile, swiped her card and found an empty seat in the very back row. I dropped my change in with a plunk and a whir, glaring at Neanderthal the entire time. The doors hissed shut and I lurched my way down the aisle like a drunk, throwing myself onto the seat next to Morgan."You gotta be home at a certain time?"

"No," she said, sounding mildly surprised. "Why do you ask?"

I gestured at her wrist watch, a clock with a light blue face set in a thin silver chain. It emphasized how delicate her wrists were. I wondered what she'd do if I ran my fingertips up her arm. Probably smack me. "You kept looking at your watch."

Morgan shrugged, "Did I? Force of habit I suppose."

We were silent for a moment, and again I had the terrible urge to ask her if she'd been with me at the bus stop that day, the day of the accident. But I shoved the urge violently away. Obviously she hadn't been. My scrambled brain had invented it, and Morgan just happened to be wearing a red sweater the first day of summer school. If I said anything she'd think I was a crazy person and that would completely blow my chances with her.

"I'm so excited for the zoo," Morgan's eyes were shining, "I haven't been since I was a little kid."

I opened my mouth to reply, and instead the bus gave a shuddering lurch and I was thrown forward, doing a spectacular face plant into the back of the next seat. I tasted dirty plastic and the salt and copper of my own blood, heard Morgan gasp and felt her body tense beside me. A few people screamed as the bus shuddered again, the wheels screaming. I cupped my hand over my mouth, feeling my lower lip start up a slow and steady throb. Morgan's hand was on my knee, her blue eyes studying my face anxiously."God, are you alright?" She clapped a hand over her mouth, looking horrified, and I wondered how messed up my face looked. The bus' engine was still rumbling away, but we were at a standstill. I could hear the deep voice of Neanderthal as he said over and over,"Oh God, that was close, Oh thank God."

"What the hell is happening?" I mumbled past my hand.

More soon! I'm going to be changing the schedule to update every Wednesday and Sunday, so tune in for that! =)