City Of Dreams

Eighty-One

Day Two

Darren giggles like a kid on Christmas and shakes me.

"Charlotte...wake up...."

I groan and turn away from him.

"Guess what day it is?"

He whisper shouted.

I opened my eyes lazily.

"Sunday?"

I ask, still half asleep.

He nods.

"What's Sunday?"

I shrug, pulling my blanket closer to my face.

"It's matinee day! Which means this is my last show."

I sit up.

He has his hair up and his bag ready.

"You're going right?"

I smile, yawning and pulling the covers off.

"Wouldn't miss it."

I kiss his cheek and get in the shower.

When I return, he is on the couch watching Kelly and Dave.

I ask who's being interviewed.

He cringes and remains silent.

The TV is the only sound in the room.

"Have you talked to Oak since he asked for a divorce?"

Kelly asks whoever was sitting in the chair.

I don't have a chance to figure out who it is until she's on the screen with Chris at her side.

"I can change it if you want."

Darren says from the couch.

I shake my head and sit next to him, not removing my eyes from the screen.

"Besides on court days? Yes. But the few times we did speak were short and sweet."

Kelly turns serious after chuckling a bit.

"Ok we have time for one more question. Addie, what about Charlotte? Hell, nobody had heard from her since she came back. How is she doing with Darren's second deployment?"

Panic fills up in her face.

I didn't tell anyone.

"Darren...."

"N-No um...she failed to fill me in on that."

He shuts it off.

"How did they know?"

Darren stands up.

"I don't know."

He stares at the dark screen for a moment before shaking his head and grabbing his bag.

"Cmon. We're gonna be late."

_____________________

It's funny how you can watch the same show a thousand times and feel the same, then watch it one last time and feel as if it was the first time you're seeing it.

The cast recognized him.

They told about him leaving.

Not a single person in the audience didn't clap.

And not a single person didn't cry.

Including me.