Real Gone
Ray parked his car outside Sarah's house. "Thanks for driving me home, Ray. I'm gonna let my dad give you another chance." She said as she came out of the car and gave her hand.
"No problem, Sarah." He smiled and then took her hand, stepping out of the car. "Thanks. I still don't get why he doesn't like me."
Sarah knocked on the door and Paul opened it in his robe in shock and worry. "Sarah, you almost missed your curfew." He then noticed Ray. "R-R-Ray?!"
"Hi, Mr. Hudson." Ray smiled nervously. "Nice to see you again."
"I'm sorry, Daddy." Sarah apologized. "We went for a drive."
Paul sighed. "Fine, I'll let it pass this time, but promise to come by curfew next time," He said. "Ray, I felt so bad about what I did in the past. I forgive you. Please stay if you want."
"I will, Daddy," Sarah promised.
Ray was surprised by the man's apology. "Oh, uh, thank you." He smiled. "Yes, I would love to stay."
They went inside and up to the guestroom, where they saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers on top of the bed.
"Wow, they're beautiful!" Sarah's face lit up with a smile. "Ray, you shouldn't have."
---
Paul looked at the family scrapbook and looked at the pictures of his daughter over the years, including her prom and high school graduation photos, when he saw the page sitting in his window.
He went over to the window and picked up the page. He looked at it curiously. It had a picture of a couple of cars with eyes. He still didn't understand. Where could the page have come from? Why was it on his window? It looked like it belonged in some storybook.
--
In the house next door, Mildred, an old woman was reading the newspaper. Marco, a buff 31-year-old military man was doing some push-ups. Rick, a 19-year-old hippie was meditating when they heard a voice.
"Hey guys," said Lindsey, a blue-eyed, black woman called. "You better see this on the news in the family room."
The three stopped what they were doing and entered the next room.
"Like, what's happening, Lindsey?" Rick asked.
"Look what I've found," Lindsey said holding a page.
"That just looks like a page from a book." Marco looked unimpressed.
Mildred looked at the page, putting her glasses, seeing it was a page with the Radiator Springs cars. "Hey, I rode that model T car back in my day. In the summer of 1920 when I was a teenager. Just wonderful times with your grandpa." She gladly remembered.
Marco slightly rolled his eyes. "Here we go again. We've heard these stories a million times."
"Calm down, brother" Rick trying calming his brother drown. "Clear your mind."
"Hmph! You and your hippie nonsense."
-----
When morning came, Sarah woke up with messy hair and wearing her blue nightgown. She saw that her alarm clock read 7:10 AM, and then noticed on her bedside was Ray sleeping so peacefully after they break up and she smiled as she opened the silky red curtains. "Wakey, wakey, love." She whispered as she gently put her arm around his shoulder.
Ray slowly began to wake up at her touch. "Hey, hon." He looked at her and smiled.
Sarah blushed at his shirtless smooth, hairless, work-up body, only wearing his red and yellow boxers. "Sleep well, honey?" She said, hiding her lovely face.
"I slept ok." He sat up. "But I had this weird dream that I was driving with a talking tow truck."
"Really?" Sarah said as she sat up next to him. "I had that similar dream as cars that we're driving together in some Californian town," she said as she grabbed her hair.
"Yeah. I don't know where that came from." He looked confused. "That sounds kinda nice. But we were cars?"
"I guess. This has been happening since Jack came to Pixfare." She was rubbing her head.
"I'm glad that he came to town." He smiled. "He actually saved my racing career."
"Not to mention got us back together." Sarah kissed Ray on the lips.
He let himself melt into her kiss.
Soon, he got out of bed and began to get dressed. Sarah was dressed in her white blouse, blue leggings, and her black slip-ons, while Ray was dressed in his yellow T-Shirt, gray jeans, and red sneakers. They headed downstairs and saw some heart-shaped strawberry pancakes on the kitchen counter with a note from Paul.
'Went to work. Made breakfast. Will be back soon.
- Dad'
The two sat down to eat.
----
Meanwhile, the Van Buren family was eating some eggs, bacon, blueberry pancakes, oatmeal, fruit and vegetable salads, porridges, cereals, hashbrowns, orange juices, and milk for breakfast while still wearing their pajamas.
"Hey, any of you have this weird dream last night?" Rick said as he ate half of his sunny side up egg. "Mine was that I'm in some kind of 1960s van."
"No surprise," Marco grumbled.
"Actually," Lindsey spoke up. "I did have this dream that I was driving down a road in a town with neon lights."
"That's amazing," Mildred said as she ate her oatmeal. "I had a dream where I was the same model T car while I met your grandfather in some town in the golden years."
"Aww, that sounds kinda sweet." Lindsey smiled.
------
At the Nagasaki Mansion, two Italian brothers, Lorenzo, with blonde hair, and brown eyes and Leonardo, with blue hair and brown eyes, woke up in the servants quarters.
"Hey, wake up brother!" Lorenzo said, trying to wake up Leonardo while rushing.
Leonardo woke up with a yawn. "Buongiorno, Fratello." He said, looking at his brother.
"It's already 8 AM. I'm gonna get dressed for breakfast." Lorenzo said as he went to the servants' bathroom. "So hurry up before we're late!" He was in a rush this morning because they had overslept.
"8:00? Perché non l'hai detto?" Leonardo was now wide awake. He also rushed to get dressed. Leonardo switched to his English. "There I'm ready!" As he put on his chef uniform. "Come on, let's cook for the family and us for breakfast," he said as he headed towards the kitchen.
Ivanna, Barry, and Susan soon came downstairs, taking in the smell of the food as it was being prepared.
They saw a beautiful Italian breakfast. "Here's today's breakfast!" both Leonardo and Lorenzo said in unison, and Lucas prepared lunches for school.
"Yeah! Looks good." Barry cheered as he, Ivanna, and Susan each served themselves.
After breakfast, everyone had gotten their lunches and headed off to the limo.
"Have a nice Monday," Lucas said, waving along with the other staff.
The kids waved back as they got into the limo, and it soon drove off.
The staff and servants went to the headquarters for their own breakfast. Lorenzo got himself a bowl of Cheerios and some milk, while Leonardo got apple pancakes and some orange juice.
"Finally, we got breakfast," Leonardo said as he sat down.
"Yeah. I was getting pretty hungry myself." Lorenzo sat beside him. "I had this weird dream last night that we owned a tire shop, and we were cars in some Californian town." He said, drinking his milk.
"Really?" Leonardo took a bite. "I had a dream like that too, but we were a racecar's pit crew."
"Looks like our dreams took all night." said Lorenzo said as he ate half of the cereal.
"Yeah." Leonardo nodded. "The thing is, I've never had a dream like that before."
----
Ray and Sarah were on the couch watching 'Coraline' on TV while discussing the plots.
"Wow. No wonder she doesn't like their new house." Sarah commented.
"I agree." Ray said as he took a bite of the apple slices "Mel should've called a real estate agent or an exterminator to see if the house was okay before they've moved to Oregon."
"Yup. It's like they don't care." She agreed, nodding. "Uh oh. She's going through the door. My gosh, Coraline's going to the other world." Sarah looked scared as she drank her water. "She's going to the other world."
"It's ok, Sarah." He touched her shoulder, trying to calm her. "The other world looks much brighter than hers."
Sarah sighed. "You're right." She remembered when they first watched that movie on their first date. "It reminds me of our first date."
"Oh, yeah. That's right." He smiled. "We saw this same movie."
"I'm glad that Jack brought us back together." Sarah said as she chewed on some spearmint gum.
"Me too." Ray put his arm around her and kissed her cheek.
----
Jack was napping on the couch when Laura Reed saw him and gently woke him up.
"Hey, Jack. Time to get up." She gently shook his shoulders.
Jack mumbled as he got up. "What time is it?"
She looked over at the clock. "It's 9 am."
"Man, guess I overslept," Jack said as he rubbed his head. "I had this weird dream of me as a baby being carried to a door."
"It's ok. There are some breakfast leftovers." She pointed toward the kitchen. "Really? Sounds like something Hilary would say."
"I really need some medication," Jack said as he stood up from the couch. "Do you have any?"
"Oh, sure." She went into the bathroom and then came back with a small bottle. "Here you go."
Jack took the medication and drink his water. "I feel much better."
----
At Pixfare High School, Tiana and Milla, identical twins with red hair in pigtails, and blue eyes were at their lockers getting their supplies for their next classes, when they saw James Jackson, a tall brown-haired, brown-eyed teen.
"Hey, James!" Both the girls said as they got their textbooks in lovesickness.
James stopped when he heard the twins talking to him. "Oh. Hey, girls. What's up?"
"How are you doing today?" Tiana said. "We had some weird dream of us as tiny cars watching a race."
"I'm fine. How about you two?" He looked at them slightly awkward. "Wow, that sounds... interesting."
Milla got her history textbook. "It almost felt real, like real-life memories."
"So, what did you dream last night?" Tiana asked James.
James thought for a minute. "Actually, I did have one that I was a kid playing with toys."
"My gosh!" The twins said. Then the bell rang, meaning it was time for their classes to start.
"I gotta get to class. I'll see you girls later." James began to walk down the hallway.
--
The twins went to their engineering class when they saw their teacher, Ms. Camilla Rogers, a woman with medium blonde hair, and brown eyes, in her yellow shirt, blue skirt, brown stockings, and her black flats.
"Alright, class," Camilla said while writing on the whiteboard. "I hope you guys had a nice weekend because we're now continuing our history and ideas of electrical engineering. Open your textbooks and go back for page 27."
The class took out their textbooks as Camilla began teaching the day's lesson.
"The first practical application of electricity was the telegraph, invented by Samuel Morse in 1837." Camilla lectured to the class. "40 years later, with the invention of the telephone, came the need for electrical engineers."
"What's next?" Said the twins as they took notes.
"The telephone, along with Edison's incandescent lamp and first central generating plant," she continued. "created a large demand for people trained to work with electricity."
--
After class, both the girls went to lunch. Tiana got herself a cheeseburger, banana, broccoli, and a carton of milk. Milla got herself a peanut butter and banana sandwich, a red apple, baby carrots, and a box of organic orange juice when they saw James outside the cafeteria.
"Hey, James." They both greeted him as they came over with their food.
Milla looked at James's lunch, which was a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, a banana, yellow apple, spinach, and a bottle of Vitamin Water. "Is it ok if we sat next to you?"
"Yeah, sure. Go ahead." He nodded, gesturing to the empty seats.
"So how's your family?" Tiana asked as she sipped her milk. "And when did you have that dream about you being a kid with old dolls?" Milla said as she crunched on her apple.
"My mom and sister are doing good." He answered, biting his pizza. "Oh, that was a couple of nights ago."
"Did you meet Jack yet?" Tiana asked as she took a bite of her cheeseburger.
"I heard that he's been in a lot of foster homes," Milla said as she sipped her juice.
He thought for a minute. "No, I don't think I have. But I've read about him in the paper."
"So, how's the toy-making class?" Tiana asked as she sipped her milk.
"And how's life?" Milla asked as she munched on the baby carrots.
"It's going well. Except for this guy, Eric. He's mean and tries to ruin my toys." He replied, slightly annoyed. "Fine. Same as always. How about you two?"
The bell starting ringing, meaning it was time for the last period.
"See you guys after class." James picked up his empty tray and left.
----
Ray and Sarah were watching half of the movie while continuing their discussion.
"If Mal didn't realize what Coraline really went through, the family could've picked their things quickly and moved back to Michigan," Sarah complained as she drank the water.
"I'm not so sure about that." Ray disagreed. "Sometimes moving isn't that simple. Especially when it's for a job."
"I mean that Mal could've gotten another job in Michigan and move back there." Sarah agreed. "But I agree with your opinion."
"I see what you mean. But I'm sure they must have their reasons."
Then there was a knock at the door.
"Who could that be? I'll be right back." Ray stood up and went to answer the door.
Ray opened the door to reveal Matt with his suitcase and boxes "Hey ya, mate."
"Hey, Matt." Ray greeted him with a smile. "What brings you here?"
"I thought after I helped you with ya car, I thought I might move in with you guys," Matt said cheerfully as he walked to the house.
"I really do appreciate all your help. But why do you want to move in here?" He wondered. "Is something wrong with where you live?"
"I thought I might return the favor by moving in," Matt said. "Your house is almost a mile away to my shop, and my small apartment just got evicted for some reason."
"Oh, that's too bad." Ray looked a little sorry for him. He nodded. "Sure, you can stay here. I think Sarah will be ok with it."
"Oh, I already know." Sarah hushed at Ray in the hallway. "I just paused the movie so I could listen to your conversation. Of course, you can stay. We have 5 guest rooms. I'll show you to your guestroom upstairs."
"Gee, thanks, Sarah. You guys are the best." Matt picked up his stuff and followed her up the stairs.
Sarah took Matt to the biggest room on the 3rd floor. Inside were plain, worn-out brown walls, a medium-size window, and a clean wood floor. "We'll get the cleaning supplies, bed things, paint, and some supplies for the room from the store," Sarah said. "You can come too, Matt. You can pick any bedroom furniture you like, as long it fits your personality and this room."
Matt looked around the room. "That's nice of you, Sarah. But I really don't need much. I like to keep it simple."
"It's ok," Sarah said, getting her purse. "We can do that too."
"I hope I won't be a burden to you guys." He sounded a little unsure.
"Don't worry." Sarah put her purse. "I just saw your moving truck with your stuff from your old apartment arriving at the house." she pointed at the truck.
"Yeah, I told them to come here." He also saw the truck. "I'll make sure it doesn't take too long to bring everything inside."
After setting up Matt's room, he immediately started unpacking his things. "Thanks for letting me stay with you guys. I will love to get along." Matt said to Sarah as he made his bed.
"Its no problem at all." Sarah smiled. "Just make yourself at home. We hope you'll like it here."
------
After school, Camilla went home to her apartment. She began to grade the class essays on electric engineering when she suddenly saw a page on her coffee table.
She put down the papers and picked up the page, looking at it curiously. It showed a picture of a yellow car racing with a red car.
She looked at the yellow car. It had the same eyes as her. Not only that, but the red car had the same eyes as Ray. Like she knew him before.
Or maybe it was just a coincidence. She shrugged and put the page down on the table, going back to grading the papers.
------
Both Lorenzo and Leonardo were getting into their uniforms when Lucas, along with his older brother, Charlie, an obese brown-haired, brown-eyed man, came to check on them. "Hey, I've heard about you guys' dreams this morning." Charlie said.
"Yeah, just a couple of weird car dreams." Lorenzo explained. "Almost made us oversleep."
"It was us owning some tire shop in California, and being a pit crew for a racecar." Leonardo added. "What did you guys dream about last night?" He asked Lucas and Charlie.
"I had one where I was a rat, running through a restaurant kitchen." Lucas replied.
"Alright. So Charlie, what did you dream last night?" He asked Charlie.
"I had one where I was a rat, too. With a bunch of other rats. And there was this old lady, shooting and chasing after us."
"My gosh!" Leonardo gasped in shock. "It seems that since Jack came to town, we've got strange memories."
"Jack? You think that he's what's causing these weird dreams?" Charlie looked confused.
----
Paul came home, fixing up his uniform when he went to the kitchen to see a delicious dinner on the table. Consisting of steak, salad, and freshly baked blueberry pie with a note from Ray.
The note said that he and Sarah had gone out. They had already eaten dinner and saved him some leftovers.
Paul looked proud of himself for having a great family when he saw Matt getting some pie and milk "Hey ya, Paul."
Paul looked slightly surprised. "Oh. Hi, Matt. I didn't expect to see you here."
"Well, I decided to return the favor of fixing Ray's car by moving in." Matt said as he sat down on the table. "So, what do you work for?"
"I see." Paul took off his coat and hung it up. "I'm actually a doctor. I work at the hospital."
"Well, I had this weird dream of me as a tow truck and was in some spy plane with some cars," Matt said as he ate his pie. "What did you dream last night?"
"Wow. That's some dream." Paul joined him at the table with his food. "I had one where I was racing on a dirt road, but then crashed."
"I guess our lives weren't so weird before Jack came into our town." Matt said as he washed his plate. "It felt like we knew each other from some other life."
"I'll admit, he's quite an unusual young man. Things do seem to be changing with him around."
----
Ray and Sarah were at the Pixfare movie theater watching "Gone with the Wind" when they saw Mason, a young man with curly red hair, freckles, and brown eyes, and Bella, a slender beautiful woman, with short brown hair, violet eyes, and fair skin, who had come to check on them.
"Hey. My girlfriend and I got off work at Ellen's early." Mason said.
"That's cool. Hey, you guys want to see the movie with us?" Ray invited them.
"Sure thing," Bella said as they take their seats with their buttered popcorn, chocolate mint candy, and red and blue slushies "What kind of foods did you get?" She said with her French accent on.
"We got popcorn too," Sarah replied. "Plus a couple of sodas, and some chocolate candies."
"That's cool!" Mason said as he took the popcorn and watch the film.
-
After the movie, it was 6 PM. They said goodbye to each other. The French couple went back to their clean penthouse and sat on the couch with their shoes off.
"Finally, home." Mason said as he laid on the couch pillow. "What a fun evening."
"Yeah." Bella nodded. She glanced at Mason and chuckled. "Looks like you're ready for bed."
Bella noticed his gray T-Shirt saying 'Paris is life' in gold glitter with an Eiffel Tower on the front, fluffy red baggy sweat pants, and gray socks. She also noticed the smell of Lavender in his hair. "And I guess you already took a shower." She said while she put her clothes in the laundry.
"Yeah. After working all day, I didn't want to smell like the diner." He answered.
"So as I," Bella said as she put on her pink and yellow two-piece PJs. "I mean, that diner smells gross. But Ellen had some crazy dream of her turning to a bear."
"Tell me about it. It's like they never clean that place." He agreed. "Oh, yeah. I heard about that."
"I had this weird dream of me being in Paris and on my motorbike," Bella said as she sat on the couch, picking a movie. "What was in your dream, L'amour?"
"That sounds like a great dream. I had one that I was a fancy kitchen, but I was cooking with a rat."
"It seems since this 'Jack' came to our town three weeks ago," she said as she put on 'Ralph breaks the internet' disc to the DVD player. "Everything is starting to change."
Mason thought about her words for a moment. "You know what, you're right. Until now, we've never had dreams like that."
-------
Meanwhile, at the Van Buren house, they were getting ready for bed when another page sat on Mildred's bed.
She found the page and picked it up, looking at it curiously. "Another one? Where are these coming from?"
------
James was wearing his red T-shirt, blue sweatpants, and brownish-red socks to bed when he heard a scream coming from across the hall to his sister's bedroom. "I'm coming!"
He rushed to his 12-year-old sister, Melody, a slender, fair-skinned girl with shoulder-length curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing her pink flower nightgown, looking a page.
"Melody, are you alright?" Asked Laurie, a slender woman with brown hair, thin eyebrows, blue eyes, rosy cheeks, pink lips, and wearing her dark blue nightshirt, and green sports shorts, as she came into her room.
"Mom, I found this. It just appeared out of nowhere." She showed them the page. "The people in this picture look like us."
Laurie looked at the page in shock. It was a page of the family at the high school graduation. "This can't be."
"You're right, Mom." James got a look at the page. "I'm still in school. I haven't even graduated yet."
-----
Eric was sitting at Ms. Princeton's class, thinking about what he did, when Carmen Princeton, a purple-headed, black-eyed woman came in.
"Well, looks like it's the longest after school detention you got after you wrecked the toys they were making." she said as she sipped her coffee.
He leaned back against the chair, with his arms crossed. "Hey, give me a break. I was just having a little fun."
"Don't give me that attitude, young man," she said as she sat on her desk and ate her pumpkin pie. "It's your fault that you ended up in detention, and spit that Tripledent watermelon gum out of your mouth to the trash!"
"Yes, ma'am." He rolled his eyes, spit his gum into a wrapper, and tossed it in the trash can.
"My gosh!" Carmen said with a disappointed look. "You cause so much trouble in my toy-making class, bullied a bunch of freshmen, and cheated on your English class, what's leaving no choice but to send you to the office and give you 5 weeks of after school detention. Your parents are very disappointed in you and ground you until you the detentions are done, and take your feet off of the desk!"
Eric put his feet on the floor, annoyed. He was about to speak when he had a flash of toys coming alive. He gasped as he flashed back to reality.
"Holy Moses!" Carmen immediately got off on her desk and quickly ran over him. "Are you alright?!"
"They were after me." He still looked freaked out. "All these toys. They were alive! One of them was talking, and they tried to attack me!"
-------
Tiana and Milla laid on their beds, wearing matching red and green nightgowns, black knee-length socks, and sleeping masks with their names written on top. Milla was reading her teen magazine weekly, and Tiana was watching some teen videos on YouTube when they saw a page sitting on one of the nightstands.
"Hey, Milla, did you leave this page here?" Tiana asked as she picked it up and looked at it. She looked in shock to see the girls that look like them with McQueen. "Wait a minute. Look at this." She showed her sister the page. "Don't the eyes on these characters look familiar?"
"It's from our dream," Milla said, shocked. "Just like what Hilary told us before Jack arrived."
"Yeah, you're right." Tiana looked at it closer. "I thought it was just some weird car dream."
-------
James sat with his sister trying to comfort her. "There, there, Melody. It's going to be ok."
"Your brother's right, honey." Laurie put her arms around her daughter. "There's nothing to be afraid of."
Melody looked at her brother and mother, wiping her tears. "You're right, guys." she signed "Maybe a bit of rest will help me get better. It's almost 9 pm anyways."
"Good idea." Laurie agreed. "Things will be better after a good night's sleep."
-------
Ray and Sarah were getting ready for bed. Ray was in his red T-shirt, yellow sweatpants, and black socks. Sarah was wearing her light blue nightshirt, dark blue sports shorts, and her green ankle-length socks when she heard Matt screaming from the guestroom.
Sarah rushed upstairs and into the room. "Matt, are you ok? What's wrong?"
"I saw myself as a tow truck again, but this time I just running with some British car and everything was exploding," Matt said, standing up from his desk and rubbing his head.
Sarah sighed in relief. "It's ok, Matt. You were probably just dreaming again."
-------
Derek sat at his office desk, looking over the profiles he kept of everybody in town. He chuckled sinisterly.