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Teenage Ghost
“You look like you lost your best friend.” Evan Jr walked up Jeff.
Jeff looked up from the hallway floor and said nothing.
Evan watched him with worry.
After a few minutes Jeff spoke, “How’s your Granddad?”
“Enough about me.” Evan walked in front of his friend. “What’s going on? Start talking.”
The bell rang for fifth.
“I gotta get to class.”, Jeff walked around Evan.
Evan turned around quickly and reached for Jeff’s backpack. It felt as if his fingers slipped through it. Evan looked at his fingertips then back at Jeff. He shook it off, he must have imagined it. Maybe they were both under too much stress.
Jeff walked to the back field of the school. Touch football was played out here during lunch, but in the eighties it was the stoner hang-out. Every day at fifth you could come out here and see Evan and Vi making out. He walked to the spot they used to hide at. Back then it was a small cluster of shrubs, now it was larger and hid more space.
“Vi.” Jeff called out. “Vi I know you can hear me, just show up.”
Vi appeared in a flash in front of Jeff, she looked around her old make out spot. “What do you want?” she said impatiently.
Jeff held up his finger to his lips, he heard footsteps walking across the grass towards them. In two minutes time Evan Jr peered around the bush at the two standing there.
Evan’s heart skipped a beat as he saw Vi standing there. “Vi!” he exclaimed as his face brightened.
Vi smiled deviously.
Evan stopped smiling and looked at Jeff. “Were you meeting her here?” he felt betrayed slightly.
“He called me and told me to meet him here.” Vi didn’t hesitate to explain. “I assumed he wanted to get me and you together, and look… Here you are.”
Evan wanted to believe it, “Is this true?”
“Not entirely.” Jeff could not have been more annoyed.
Vi smiled and pushed past Jeff, she hooked arms with Evan and the two began to walk across the field.
Jeff waited for a few minutes then appeared in Evan Sr’s hospital room. In a few seconds he stood in the Gym with his long time friend.
Evan Sr looked over at Jeff as the two did squats for warm up.
“When you wake up tell Darren to watch over his son.” Jeff said plainly.
Evan Sr became slightly confused. The words of the gym teacher begin to become muddled nonsense. With a quick deep breath, Evan Sr opened his eyes to an empty hospital room. The nurses came in to check on him after five minutes, as did his son and daughter-in-law.
He asked of his grandson, and what was going on. Evan Jr’s mother began with the tale of teen angst, the goth girl she disapproved of, and the girl’s aging grandmother who was on the intensive care ward. The entire story took an hour to convey, by then the nurses were insisting Evan Sr needed his rest.
Evan Sr was far from sleepy though, in fact he felt as if he had enough sleep for a while. When the hospital quieted down, he stepped out of bed. He went to the intensive care unit, and walked to the next to last bed.
There laid a old woman barely clinging to life.
“Ms. Makbee sure has gotten popular the past month.” the night nurse walked up to him and picked up the woman’s chart.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Are you a old friend?” the woman’s bright smile lit up the caramel color of her skin.
“Yes, yes.” Evan Sr played along. “Quite old.”
“There was a teenage boy who kept coming by here everyday, asking about her granddaughter. I never said anything, but we both know she never had any children.”
“How strange.” Evan Sr looked back at the woman in the coma.
“I know.” the nurse shrugged. “No one had the heart to tell the kid anything, and besides he was the only visitor she ever gets. We thought maybe it would do her some good.”
“Maybe it did.” Evan Sr tried to be kind.