COSMIC

17 - Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

The following morning I woke up late. Because of that, I stepped into the kitchen completely unaware of what I was walking into. I poured myself a cup of coffee, leaving myself no chance to escape when I discovered Mom was on the phone.

My thoughts returned to the other morning when Cynthia called and put a bug in my mom's ear about the letters. Now it felt like déjà vu--except it was reality.

"Really?" she said from the living room chair facing away from me. "Well that's very interesting to say the least. No, I haven't heard anything about this. Yeah, I think it's very strange, too. Well, thanks for letting me know about everything, Cynthia. Sounds like you had a great time at the party, too. Next time I will try to make it. Sure, I'll talk with you later."

With that, she said her goodbyes and I found myself wanting to run to my bedroom. But I was too late to act when she immediately turned around to face me.

"Oh, good morning. Didn't know you were up," she said. Reluctantly, I joined her and sat in the chair across from her. "That was Cynthia catching me up on the party last night."

"Oh yeah, it was great. Everyone had a good time. There was a lot of good food there this time, too."

"Jamie, you never told me you played a joke on Kyle."

Here it comes. I shrugged as innocently as possible. "Oh, well why would I? It wasn't really a big deal."

"Well, it sounded like a pretty big deal to me. Cynthia told me the whole story. What was that about candles? And you went to the radio station?"

"Yeah, Nancy and I were in on it together."

"But what was the whole point? I still don't understand," she laughed.

"To scare Kyle," I said, but after a few seconds of silence passed, Mom shrugged her shoulders and gestured for me to continue. "Nancy and I were pretending to have some ritual or something." I laughed but the creases on my face probably looked more like a cringe. "You know how he's weird about stuff like that. Then we decided to really freak him out by telling the DJ to talk to him. We knew that would get him."

"Guess it did. According to Cynthia, he was really flustered about it last night--unusually so." She smirked.

"Yeah, he's not one for being fooled." I took a sip of coffee hoping it would hide my nerves.

"Sounds, too, like he told others about it. You've been getting letters about this?"

I froze.

"Jamie, Cynthia told me. It sounds like some conspiracy. What's this all about?"

"Well yeah, we have. I guess Kyle told some other people and it spread to others that think this has something to do with aliens. It's funny--all it is is a joke!"

"Why didn't you tell me about these letters?"

"Well," I began. "I just thought it'd make you worry."

She nodded slightly. "Well, I think finding out about it from someone else has me more worried. I want you to be careful, Jamie. Don't talk to any of these people. And please, if there's ever something going on, talk to me."

I only nodded, unable to reply as my secret loomed heavily on my mind.

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Saturday afternoon was spent as mother and daughter time--that is, grocery shopping. And it was there in the parking lot where I began to fully realize the extent of our predicament.

Mom and I walked through the parking lot in the blazing sun, rushing to keep the refrigerated groceries cold, when a man spotted us and turned toward us standing by our station wagon. We immediately assumed he was going to ask for money, but upon observing his appearance, I began to have second thoughts. Though he was scruffy and wore baggy clothing, he wasn't dirty as if he were living on the streets. My gut knew this was a different kind of situation and the fears of my beloved secret resurfaced.