We Come Alive 5

Postcards

Thursday afternoon, Diego and Jose were walking to baseball practice together while Clover trailed behind them. Both of them were talking and laughing as they walked through the back halls of the school so they could walk out the closest way to the field.

Right when Diego and Jose were about to walk out the door, they saw Hurst appear from one of the back hallways. The two boys stopped in their tracks while Hurst gave them a stern expression.

"Where are you two coming from?" He asked with his voice low and rough.

Diego stuttered out an answer, but felt Clover collide into his and Jose's back. They both slightly jumped from the sudden contact, but Hurst got their attention again.

"Well...?" He asked, looking at them. "Why're you three back here?"

"Closest door to the field." Jose whispered. "And we had to get our bags from our cars."

Hurst nodded his head for them to go. Diego grabbed Clover's wrist and pulled her along with them as they rushed out to the field. When they got near it, Diego let the African American girl go and allowed her to walk alone.

Clover rubbed her eyes and yawned while she slowly got closer to the field. When she got to the grass area just before the field, she stopped seeing Ricky walking up to her.

"Long day?" He asked, crossing his arms and looking down at her. "When's the last time you've gotten some sleep? You've been sluggish all week."

Clover yawned again and handed her bag to him so he could carry it. "I've been having these nightmares. I can't sleep, they're so bad."

Ricky frowned, throwing her bag over his shoulder. "What about?"

"It's like....I'm at this party, everything's loud and I can't even hear myself think. I see the boys for a moment and they're right there. I can nearly touch Andrew's shoulder." She recalled, spacing out as she retold her night terrors. "Then...next thing I know...I'm being pulled away. I can barely see anything, the music is muffled, and I'm in a room and the lights are kinda dimmed but I can still see, but I can't at the same time. I can feel someone pulling me and talking to me, but then I hear yelling and shouting and the pulling stops...then continues. Someone's talking to me and their voice is right in front of my face and I can't even respond, like I'm sleeping or something. Their voice is...I can't explain it. I know something bad is about to happen, but I don't know what. I want to fight back, and I can feel all this pressure on my chest, and I can't breathe, and I can't speak, and I can't do anything. I'm paralyzed. And then they just disappear," she snapped her fingers, "and I can hear people screaming and yelling and someone yanking me up as hard as they can. That's when I wake up."

Ricky's heart started racing the moment he realized what she was saying and he knew it wasn't going to stop any time soon. He didn't show any emotion by his facial expression, but internally he was worried beyond belief.

"It'll be okay." He told her, wrapping a protective arm around her shoulders and walking her to the field. "It's just a dream."

~**~

That evening, while all his friends went home, Ethan went back to the facility and changed into his jumpsuit. He sat on his top bunk while his roommate Zane was staring out the window like he always was.

"Hey."

Ethan looked at the doorway and saw Craig waltzing in like he would every time Ethan came back. Craig pulled himself up onto Ethan's bed and sat beside him.

"How was school? Your new coach still an ass?" Craig asked, kicking his legs since they were dangling off the side of the bed.

Ethan nodded with the back of his head resting on the wall. "School was fine. Yeah, he's still an ass, but he's cool. How was the group session without me?"

"Boring." The elder admitted. "I get lonely around here without you. All I've got is Zane and he doesn't talk."

Craig looked at Zane who just kept looking out the window like he wasn't listening to them. His eyes were focused on the outside world and not on the trapped environment they were in.

"What about when I get released?" Ethan wondered, staring at the back at Craig's head. "Think you'll still be in here?"

"Oh yeah." Craig chuckled. "Definitely. I got a lot of issues to still sort out before I'm getting out of here. You don't—" Craig chuckled, "I was gonna say you don't understand, but I guess you do. I have a lot of outside work to do when I get out. I don't want to deal with it anytime soon, though. I ain't got no one outside of here to help me stay clean, so I might as well stay here where I'm forced to be sober."

Ethan frowned while watching Craig lean back so his shoulder blades were resting against the wall. "What about your parents?"

"Never met my dad." Craig revealed. "My mom kicked me out when she caught me with a heroine needle in my arm. When I came back to, she had thrown all my stuff into garbage bags and threw them on the curb. In her defense, I'd stolen $500 from her to pay for my drug habit at that point so I wasn't that surprised when she kicked me out. Told me she couldn't watch me kill myself anymore." He shrugged his shoulders. "She'd rather have someone tell her I was dead than to find me dead in my room on the floor. I guess I could understand."

"How old were you?" Ethan asked, staring at the wall across from them.

Craig let out a deep breath as he thought. "Shit...it was so long ago....maybe....six, seven years ago."

"You're twenty two." Ethan exclaimed, looking at his acquaintance in pure shock. "She kicked you out when you were fifteen?"

"Or sixteen." Craig estimated, but didn't seem destroyed by it. "That's how I know you still got some life left inside of you." He stared at Ethan with emotionless eyes. "I don't care about any of that anymore. I don't care about tomorrow. I know if I'm released today, I'll be back by tomorrow. I've accepted my fate and moved on. You're still trying to change it. That's a good thing. You still see the light at the end of the tunnel and you're moving towards it. Don't stop. Get where you want to get in life and forget about us."

Craig looked forward at the wall again. "Just send me a postcard from wherever you end up. If I don't send a letter back,...well, you know what happened."

Ethan stared at Craig for a moment, then glanced over at Zane who was just watching them. He made eye contact with Ethan and stared.

"I want one, too. I'll try to send one back."

Was all that left his lips.