Dream a Little Dream

Dream a Little Dream - Dream 3

Dream 3

Throwing on a pair of sweatpants, Susan stumbled downstairs, and sank heavily in Jack’s office chair. She rubbed the smooth shiny wood of his dark cherry desk, lifted the lid of his humidor and picked up and rolled one of his expensive cigars between her fingers. Running the cigar under her nose, she inhaled like she had seen him do so many times.

She never understood why he loved these things. He had given up smoking them when they moved into this house, at her request. She always thought they smelled nasty. Yet, he loved to hold them, smell them and she often caught him with one to his lips, never lit.

Imitating what she had seen him do time and again, she bit off the end, spit the offensive piece into the trashcan and put it to her mouth. Jack had once told her that she had gotten so drunk in college that she took one of his cigars and smoked it, yet the next day she didn’t remember even drinking. That was a dark time for her, and he brought her through that abyss. He was her shelter in that storm, she held onto him like a life preserver in a sea of turbulent waves.

Closing her eyes, she could see him, young and in love...

For over two months after the kiss in the parking lot, Jack spent every moment he wasn’t in classes trying to romance Susan. She fought his attention at first. Laughing at his attempts. Every other girl on campus wanted Jack Rusaw’s attention, she had it and didn’t want it. Every day he would ask her out. Sometimes it was dinner, other times it was for a walk, or ice cream or her favorite, “Please Sweet Susan, please just let me be with you. Anywhere you want to go, anything you want to do.”

She would laugh, shake her head and say, “Give it up Jack.” And he would revel in the fact that he was wearing her down because she had used his name.

Walking across campus one day, she saw his head pop up as soon as he saw her and a smile spread across his face. It made her heart jump, but she couldn’t let him know. She had bought a new t-shirt with him in mind. As she approached she watched him read the letters across her chest. “It’s better to have loved and lost, than to live with a psycho for the rest of your life.”

Walking up to her he smiled and said, “I am crazy, crazy for you! Please go out with me.”

Susan smiled and almost said yes. Not because of what he said, but because he was looking at her in that oh so cute way that was his alone. She had also noticed that this notorious ladies man, had brushed off every girl that had approached him since he kissed her. Was he serious when he said he was done playing games and wanted to see if love at first sight was real?  

She walked back to her dorm with him following her like a puppy dog, only to find Shelly sitting outside waiting. They lived four hours away from the university and it wasn’t until Susan saw the redness in Shelly’s eyes that she knew something was wrong.

Shelly was two years older, fresh out of college and she and Josh Hawthorn were married what seemed like minutes after they graduated. They met in college and fell in love the first week, freshman year and dated exclusively for four years. Shelly had called it true love when she told Susan about him over the phone the day they met.

“Susie, it’s Mom and Dad. They’re gone.”

“Gone? Gone where? What do you mean?” In her heart, Susan knew what Shelly meant. But Susan could not wrap her mind around the words coming out of Shelly’s mouth.

“Gone, dead. They were going out for dinner last night. On their way home a semi-truck lost control and they died in seconds. I don’t think they even knew what happened.”