Mind Or Matter

Chapter Twenty Two

William's Past(Part One)

September 1st, 1997

Halloween decorations were popping up in every store, along with pumpkins and scarecrows.

It was the first day of school. Mandy was sitting in the kitchen, thinking about her garden. Last winter, the poppies and daisies froze and she had to dig them up, all eighty-seven of them.

William came thumping down the stairs, wearing his school uniform. Now, William wasn't like the average kid, who would be excited to go to school to make friends and learn how to read and write. But he also wasn't pouting about going to school, wanting to stay home and watch cartoons.

No, William was a bit... different. He already knew how to read, and he was great at writing. His father, Nicholas, had taught him well, for he was a journalist and photographer that had to travel all over the world, taking his family with him. He had even been to Antarctica before. But his favorite place was definitely New York.

Both Nicholas and William dreamed about New York; like father, like son. Jacob, little Jacob, talked lots, but he never mentioned the big city.

But Mandy was the opposite. She loved the country and wished to live there, farming and taking care of animals. She sometimes grew jealous of her husband, longing for her son to love the countryside as much as she did.

But it wasn't meant to be, and Mandy knew that.

"Good morning, William," Mandy said from the kitchen table, a round wooden piece of furniture the family had gotten at a garage sale four years ago, around William's second Christmas. The child was a December baby, born on the twelfth around midnight. He loved the cold and hated the hot summer days that followed spring. That's another thing Mandy and her son didn't have in common – feelings about weather. Mandy would kill for a bright summer day, while William would have a big smile on his face if the weather was cold and rainy – or, better yet, snowy.

William hadn't responded – he was too busy looking out the window at the cloudless sky, which had cleared to show off the blinding, yellow sun.

Mandy followed William's gaze, curious at what he was so fixed at. She felt a smile come to her face at the sight of the nice, sunny day.

"Nice out, innit?" she asked, her sound not English at all. She had grown up in southern Texas, and she had only moved to London because of Nicholas. But she had caught the English accent like a cold, and it stuck with her since.

The grandfather clock in the hall by the window had the big hand on the twelve and the small hand on the seven.

William cocked his head to the side a little. "No."

Mandy kept her smile on. "So... are you excited for your first day of school?"

William shrugged, almost like he wasn't paying attention. "I'm going to miss being around Daddy a lot."

Mandy laughed a bit, trying to not show that her feelings were hurt. "Well, you and Daddy can still write stories after school, remember." Then, remembering the gift she had gotten for William, she added, "I got you something for your first day!"

William let out a small smile, his tiny white teeth shining. "What is it?"

Mandy giggled a little bit, her Southern Belle Laugh, as Daddy called it. She did a silly walk over to her bag by the front door, hung on the coat rack, then did the silly walk back, trying to amuse William. It worked. William let out a few childish giggles every now and then, but none of them stuck like they did for his daddy. When Nicholas cracked a joke or made a funny face, William let out his true laugh – one that brought Mandy to tears. She never heard that laugh directed at her...

Mandy held the present behind her back, sat back down at the table, and told William to close his eyes. Slapping his little five year-old hands over his eyes, he waited, impatient.

Mandy yelled, "open!" right after she prepared the present on the table.

William gasped. "A notebook!"

Mandy beamed. She had spotted it at the supermarket, sitting on the clearance rack. It had a burgundy cover with a latch protecting it. It looked unisex, and Mandy prayed none of the kids at school would make fun of it.

Instead of leaning across the table for a hug or thanking Mommy for the book, William got out of his chair and walked down the hall, the part of the hall Mommy knew very well.

Mandy felt hurt – William was headed for his father's office, the one he had built in the spare room Mandy had wanted for her gardening. William was going to show Nicholas the book, to write a few short story ideas in it or maybe even brainstorm a big novel.

Mandy felt tears building up, though she wasn't really sure why. William never shared anything with her, except maybe their love of the A-Z Mystery books. Of course, Mandy didn't love them anymore, but she was obsessed with them when she was William's age. She even named her puppy Ruth Rose after one of the main characters, a girl who always wore everything in the same color, from head to toe.

Meanwhile, in Nicholas's office, William sat in the big, spinny chair he loved. Daddy called it an OFFICE CHAIR, but William liked SPINNY better. It sounded more fun, and William liked it – squishy and big, the armrests not in the way of everything, like most chairs he knew. With his father's chair, he could lay sideways, upside-down, on his tummy, or any way he liked, and the armrests never got in the way. The SPINNY CHAIR could go up and down, and the back could go forward or backwards. It was the perfect chair.

Daddy was telling William about writing SCIENCE FICTION, a mysterious word that William loved. His daddy loved reading and writing SCIENCE FICTION. SCIENCE FICTION was a word (two words) that both William and Daddy loved.

"You ready for school?" Daddy asked, checking the time on his black wristwatch. "It's almost 7:15 and you haven't eaten! Oh, no! The teacher's going to say, 'William, poor little boy, did nobody feed you?'"

William started to laugh. "Daddy, I'm going to eat cereal!"

Daddy smiled, hugging his son, who sat in his father's lap. "Have I told you the story of the time I was shrunk and discovered the ant colonies?"

William giggled. "Daddy, that's not a true story!"

Daddy grinned. "Of course it is! When I was just your age, I met the ants and they shrunk me to their size. The queen had asked me to come to the tunnels, so I walked through the colony. A little ant came up to me and asked, 'what are you doing here, little boy?' And I told him that the queen ant had invited me to come visit her. The little ant's name was Matthew. He took me down the tunnel-"

Suddenly, Mandy knocked on the door. "You boys, come into the kitchen and have breakfast!"

Daddy sighed, picking William up off his lap. "Come on, now, let's go have some breakfast and go to school."

William laughed again. "You're not going to school!"

Daddy grinned, opening the door and leading his son outside of his office, the two holding hands. "Yes, yes I am. And, on a nice day like this, who wouldn't want to? It is nice outside, innit?"

William's laugh slowly stopped, only a straight line in place of his mouth. "No, not really."

Daddy got onto his knee and whispered something William still hasn't forgotten, to this day. "Life's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." He said it in a funny, deep voice.

Later in life, William found out that that quote was from a movie and his daddy hadn't made it up, but he didn't care. Those were his rules for a long time – never knowing what was going to happen.

Until fifth grade, William didn't believe in destiny and fate, that everything was planned out for him. He still doesn't, but he merged between fate and mystery, a line that was drawn by only a few people in history.

William knows that things from his past all come together to make his future. Everything that happens in his passed will have something to do with his future, or at least the important things like his first day of elementary school or the first time he met his friend Lilly.