Slipped: Book One

Chapter Two: Shadows

First loves are always going to the one to hold the trophy for most first moments. First kiss, first real date, first time, and first knowing you discovered a feeling called love. Sometimes first loves are your last loves and they rely on you to keep their memory alive.

What if you can’t?

                    Months before Outbreak

    Mandy flips through her old high school yearbook as snow idly falls onto the bay window she leans against. Familiar and distant faces smile back through rectangular black and grey images as Mandy caresses her fingertips over each name. Travis’ picture shows up and Mandy smiles wide, her husband’s senior quote under his name: “Never let a realist stop your dreams.” She texts him the quote and peers out the window where Travis and her cousin Freddie are attempting to conjure up a snowman with the soft snowflakes. Travis stops and glances at his phone, a smile escaping his lips before gazing up at his wife. She isn’t there but the words “I love you” are written in the window’s condensation. Mandy had escaped to the kitchen where her father is attempting to boil water in a tea kettle.

“Mandy, you’re a female; how do you work this damn thing?”

“I may be a female but even males know how the mighty kettle works,” Mandy teases and shows Clyde how to properly place the kettle on the shove with the stout lid flipped upwards. “There; rocket science at its finest hour.” She jokes. Clyde sighs and smiles small, glancing at his daughter.

“Taught you all I know, kiddo.” He chuckles softly and before Mandy can retaliate, Travis stomps inside the house with Freddie in tow. “If you drag one drop of snow onto my hardwood floor, I’ll send your asses right back out.”

“Don’t worry, Pops; no snow is getting on your precious faux flooring,” Travis wolf grins and winks at Mandy, who settles herself on the counter. “Babe, what do ya say with helping me out of these snow pants?”

“Not under my roof,” Clyde mimics gagging as he crosses his arms. “Unless you really are stuck, then I could get some practice in with iron work.” Mandy stifles a laugh and Travis glares at her, pointing his finger at her.

“Watch it, Candy Mandy.” Mandy only laughs harder and hops off the counter as Travis sprints towards her at half speed. They stir up the entire household with Kelly, Mandy’s mother, shouting to not run in the house. The couple tramples into Mandy’s old bedroom and onto her bed. “I got ya, sweet girl.”

“And you better not let me go, Travis David or else there will be Hell to pay.” Travis smiles wide and kisses his wife’s forehead.

“For absolute better or worse, right?”

    Clyde settles himself in his recliner with a tumbler of Jack in his left hand and a picture of Mandy when she was nine years old. The Jack leaves a tad burn at the tip of his tongue but he ignores it, remembering the details in younger Mandy’s face when she lost a front tooth. Her eyes were so much brighter and held an immense glimmer of hope but that died when she met him. When Mandy decided to give her innocence away to a boy- all he’ll ever be to Clyde, he broke her heart in pieces not even Travis can repair.

Gabriel Denton, football star and track god, broke Clyde’s darling Mandy into a puzzle of mix-matched pieces. Clyde caresses his thumb over the frame of Mandy and Gabe’s prom photo and he smirks before taking another sip of his drink. Looking at their smiling faces, Clyde wonders what Gabriel is doing with his life now. Married perhaps or just freelancing his way into women’s bedrooms for a romp of the night. The old man sits comfortably back into his recliner with the pictures laid out on his coffee table before him. He raises his glass and downs the rest of the Jack inside.