Remembering Sunday

"You okay?" Alex softly asked beside me, pulling my attention away from the roaring fire just feet from me. I looked to him, softly nodded, and smiled.

After I'd came back from my memory in Alex's room, I'd instantly requested of him that we actually went to that gathering by the river bed. Starving to be around the people I'd just remembered more of. And curious of what even more contact with them would bring back to me. And despite my mind still coming up empty after a half-hour or so of being there, I was happy I'd asked him to bring me.

Majority of the faces around me now felt more familiar. All of those around us had also been at the drive in the other day, and each aware of what had been going on with me. Sparing the few faces Michelle had told me I'd never actually cared for. But I didn't mind their absence in that moment.

It was just nice to look around a group of people and feel mildly at home amongst them. Despite only having the brief moment's I'd remembered and what they'd all told me in reference to the years we'd all shared together. I felt a part of this group. Like even though I couldn’t remember them entirely, I had a feeling of belonging when surrounded by them.

The fire had been started long before Alex and I had gotten there but was still roaring on when we'd arrived. Warming our already summer heated bodies even greater as we all sat around in respected lawn chairs. Most people who were up wandering around were holding drinks in their hands casually. Sharing stories with one another of their recent months or having conversations amongst themselves. But occasionally someone would plop down in the chair beside me and strike up a conversation.

Most of the talks didn't last long. Reminding me slightly of the nurse from my doctor's office who had struggled greatly in trying to carry out small talk. But even with me trying now, it was still harder than one might think to hold a conversation with someone who remembered so little about their life. No one ever once mentioned the week of silence that had just occurred between Alex and me. And no one had questioned our arrival together. To everyone else it appeared normal, and they were all over joyed to see us, something that made me incredibly happy to pick up on.

It had occurred to me that the small spat between the singer and I was kept to the tight knit circle of him, myself and Michelle. But I'd mentally decided to say nothing to either of the other two about it. And instead to just enjoy the company of my friends I'd slowly been starting to remember.

Sometime later on, Micah approached me. Smiling widely at me with his charcoal eyes as he sat down in the collapsible chair to my right. He rested his SOLO cup on the top of his thigh and nodded in acknowledgement. "Well if it isn't Bonnie and Clyde." He cooed smoothly. His swift remark making me laugh.

"Is the 5-O already out for me?" I joked, leaning back in my seat with a cheeky grin. The elder boy laughed loudly at my remark. Lifting his drink and tipping it towards me as a form of approval before taking a sip. But his boisterous laughter drew the attention of a few others who'd been close enough by to hear it.

"What's all the commotion?" Rico playfully asked approaching. Dressed now in normal clothes, free from his work setting I'd only ever imagined him in. I blushed slightly at the question, wanting to keep my embarrassment under wraps. That was, only hoping our whole friend group didn't already know how Michelle and I had actually met.

I don’t think they did by the way Micah instantly brushed it off. Shaking his head with another snicker and waving his cup nonchalantly. "Oh, nothing. Just laughing about the old days." He dismissed. Looking to me with an all-knowing smirk for a second before my gaze once again returned to the other male.

Rico was grinning down on me now, amusement in his bright green eyes from where he stood by the fire. And just to the side of his crinkled lids, something caught my eye. It was small, hardly noticeable even from the foot or so away where I sat. But still I noticed it. And before I knew it I was silently rising to my feet and stepping forward.

I did not even have a second to comprehend my rather bizarre and unexplained movements as I was drawn towards him. My hand rising against my will and reaching for the now blatantly confused boy's face. Gently, and without even thinking of the fact that my actions were strange and peculiar, I let the tips of my fingers graze what I'd notice. A small, insignificant scar just below his left eye.

Touching it, I felt something stab at my mind. And instantly I was taken back in time for what felt like the millionth time that day.

"GO, GO, GO!" I screamed, hardly waiting the split second it took for Jack to slam the truck's door behind him. Once again wedging my frail frame between him and Alex at the wheel. A bellowing smack echoed through the cab of the truck from outside. Someone signaling everyone was back in its bed and telling Alex to comply to my frantic command.

He didn't waist a second to put the pedal to the metal. Large wheels shrieking slightly as they spun out for a moment before catching the road and taking back off down the street we'd just came. In the night, you could see the select few houses with lights still on fly by in a blur of shadows and decorations.

It was October 31st, Halloween night, our Senior year. And earlier on when we'd all gathered at Michelle and Micah's house as we had every Halloween prior. The night had gone on as normal, sitting around watching scary movies having already decided we were all far too old to go trick-or-treating. When sometime later on, Nano Tissera proposed the idea of going out and egging houses. And for some unworldly reason, not one soul in our eleven-person party thought it to be a bad idea.

Without a single argument or objection, we'd all clambered into Alex's truck and took off to fetch an obscene amount of eggs from the nearest 7-Eleven. With Alex driving, Jack in the passenger seat and I stuffed in the middle, we packed the remaining eight people into the bed of the truck and headed into Meadowcroft Estates. One of the nicest neighborhoods in town.

With the headlights doused. We'd stop at a house, everyone would pour out, commit the crime and then jump back in to take off to the very next house that would be just out of eye shot from the last. We did this throughout the whole neighborhood, until the last house was reached and we all shot back into the truck one last time, making a break for the main road once again.

We were now rapidly approaching our turn towards freedom, the end in sight when – zoom. Alex blew a stop sign. About to open my mouth and say something, the singer seemed to realize it just a millisecond before I could, but still – just a little too late.

His foot slammed on the breaks, the tires screeched in a boisterous attempt to stop as Alex tried to turn the wheel to take the right we so desperately needed in order to get away. But the truck didn’t turn. Hissing and squealing, everything under the truck locked up despite Alex's best efforts. Smacking my hand to the roof of the cab, I squeaked out some form of a yell as we skidded into the blacked-out intersection. Not a car or street light in sight.

Eyes as wide as the road we'd coasted right through were fixated on the large plowed up corn field now dead ahead of us. I almost relaxed at the sight of it. Thinking we'd be okay, that we'd coast into it and eventually roll to a stop. When-

BAM!

The truck smashed nose first into a large ditch we'd all managed to miss in the darkness. Metal banging and rattling, we plummeted into its depths before plopping right back out almost as quickly as we'd dove in. The truck eventually rolled to a stop and we all quickly fell from the daze we'd been thrown into and settled back into a silent reality.

My head was swimming, my hands were shaking and I couldn't even begin to wrap my mind around what the Hell had just happened. That was, until the silence was broken by a choppy, deranged laugh coming from my right. Jack.

Slowly, I stiffly turned my head to see the boy in his previous position beside me. One hand on the door, the other on my wrist as he looked dead ahead. Eyes unmoving as this sickly laugh dipped from his lips at a slow and unsteady pace.

"Jack?" I hesitantly questioned, taking in his presence. He looked fine, shocked but fine. Not a dent, scratch, or drop of blood on him. Then, I turned my attention to where his eyes were looking to quickly notice the entire front windshield of Alex's truck. The previously pristine glass was now busted, completely shattered from corner to corner in a spider web fashion.

His big dark eyes were wide and confused as he looked between me and the windshield. "I think I did that." He told me, slowly coming out of his dazed state.

I almost instantly turned, worried and curious about Alex now. Only to see the back of him as he jumped from the truck. Instantly reminding both Jack and I that in addition to us, there were eight people in the back of that truck just then that had not been strapped down or secured in any fashion.

"Go, move!" I encouraged Jack to hurry the action he'd already been committing as he too clambered out of the truck, allowing me to follow after him.

It didn’t take long to count all nine heads scattered through the field. Three on one side aimlessly wondering around. And five on the other where Alex was headed towards in a hurry. And that was when I heard it.

"I'M BLEEDING, I'M BLEEDING, I'M BLEEDING!" Michelle was screaming. Her hands over her face as she stood off to the left of the truck, some ways out in the field by the ditch. The rest of us quickly ran over to her at the sound of her curdled cry. Everyone else seemingly fine, aside from being incredibly shaken up.

I approached her, stepping up beside Alex to get a look that the hysterical girl half a second before Jack appeared beside me. Her hands were still clasped over her face, but in the red glow from the truck's taillights it could be made out something glistening all over her forehead and down her face.

She was sobbing and screaming still when Micah who'd appeared, stepped up to her. Seeming totally unfazed by his sister's completely distraught state. And without saying anything at first, he took a finger and swiped it across her forehead before holding it to his nose and smelling it. Then, he began to laugh. Actually laugh!

We all turned to him looking for any indicator that he too had smashed his head. He looked right back at all of us, laughing still and said, "It's egg," He chuckled. "raw egg!"

Suddenly, her tears stop. Probably realizing she actually hadn't been hurt at all. And alongside her we all started to laugh. Low, twisted laughs that made us all sound a little insane before we turned back to the truck behind us once again. Sat now, in the center of this plowed up field, completely dead. Every window on this thing had been completely shattered.

"We should probably call the cops." Rian suggested once he'd taken in the truck's current state. A seemingly harmless remark which had Alex up in arms in an instant.

"Are you crazy!" He snapped, "We can't call the police, because then we will all get in trouble for everything we've done tonight!"

"Well what do you expect us to do, genius?" Rian shot back, putting his hands on his hips and raising a brow at his discombobulated friend. "There's no way that thing is drivable!"

"We have to push it!" Alex said, as though it were that simple. Causing Zack to start to laugh now.

"I'm not going anywhere near that thing ever again!" He stated, holding his hands in the air for good measure.

"Where are we supposed to push it anyway?" Nano asked, also putting his hands on his hips. Watching Alex closely as he shrugged and looked around us.

"I guess back to the last house on the street." He muttered, scratching at his arm in defeat.

"FATHER JOHNSON'S HOUSE?" Our friend Jenna all but screamed. The realization hitting me almost as hard as Alex's truck had hit the ditch.

"Oh, good Lord." I whined, running my hands through my long brown hair. "We're all so going straight to Hell!"

I snapped at out the memory in an instant without warning. Pulling my hand back and looking at Rico again. The elder boy now staring at me with a cocked and worried expression. "You okay?" He hesitantly asked, eyes scanning my face. I could feel a few tears shift as they dripped down my cheeks and I hastily wiped them from sight.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm fine." I told him, shaking the buzzing sensation from my head. Once again looking at the small scar on his cheek with widened eyes. "You got that on Halloween." I concluded, mostly thinking aloud to no one but myself. But obviously in his close proximity, he too heard the remark.

He nodded, "I did, I was the only one to have any form of a scratch on me, still have the scar as you can see." He chuckled. Then placing his arm on mine to silently coax me to sit back down between Micah and Alex. Information and visualizations flooding my brain as my little head spun like a top on my shoulders.

"I remember..." I whispered, looking up at him in a slight daze. "You'd been sitting in the bed, right by the back window."

He nodded again, "I broke the glass with my face." He chuckled. His eyes shifted then from mine over to Alex at my side and narrowed. Fixated on the scrawny brunette. "And I'm still not too happy about it." He said, faking mild anger despite the subtle smile on his lips.

"I apologized about a million times!" Was Alex's only defense. And Rico just laughed, tipping the bottle of his beer towards the younger boy before backing away and retreating to where he'd came. Alex looked over towards me in Rico's absence, taking in the look of concentration on my face. "You remember that night?"

I nodded thoughtfully, pursing my lips and beginning to nurse the side of my head that still ached. "I do now I guess." I mumbled, laughing slightly to myself as the memory sunk in. Another string of crazy, borderline unbelievable antics of days in my past. It was difficult for me to comprehend all the outrageous things I'd remembered from my past. Each and every one only making the stories all my friends had share seem more and more believable.

I felt a hand on my forearm pull me from my thoughts, and I turned to see Alex already looking back at me. Concern swimming through his expression. "Is your head bothering you?" He asked me, tilting his head ever so slightly. I could sense the gentle curiosity in his tone having noticed me absentmindedly rubbing at my temple.

I dropped the hand that had been nursing the area and lowered my eyes bashfully. "A little," I admitted. "I've remembered quite a lot today."

Alex just nodded understandingly at my words. Having added that last remark to explain to him my sheepish behavior. And his thumb began to rub gently on the tan skin he still held. "Did you want me to bring you home?" He quietly offered. "My mom wanted me home for dinner anyway, and maybe you could take a nap or something."

"If you wouldn't mind?"

"No, of course not!" He quickly responded. "Not at all." Only removing his hand from my person to wave it through the air. Swatting my worries from the breeze as they entered it. I smiled gently at him, taking in the way the fire made the caramel coloring of his eyes dance in the light.

"Thank you" I whispered, following in his steps as he rose to his feet and reached out for my hand. An offer I silently accepted as I tangled my small hand in his much larger one. Confiding in the comfort it seamlessly provided me.

Alex and I bid everyone goodbye. Stopping only briefly to explain to Michelle why we were heading off again so soon. She just smiled and embraced me in a crushing hug before sending us off.

And we walked like that, hand in hand, in silence back up the beaten dirt path. Headed for towards the road where Alex had left his truck. Now restored and whole again since years past.

Notes