Chapter 9

This week James decided that Wednesday and Thursday would be his disappearing days. I must add, that he never disappeared on a Monday. On Friday I saw James as soon as I entered the library, he was waiting by the door and as soon as I entered, he hugged me. What do I do? My hands shot up to the sides of my face as if someone had pulled a gun on me. What do I do? The hug only lasted a few seconds but I stood frozen in place. I was stunned. He pulled back and laughed. "Sorry, I just missed you", he said. I finally started to move, noticing my hands were still frozen next to my face, I lowered my hands and when I could speak again I said, "It's fine you just startled me". He was going to give me a heart attack one of these days. Mary walked right past us, nose in a book, and went to sit in her usual spot, completely oblivious to the world around her. I took that as my queue to join her, I went to sit in my usual seat and James not far behind me, took his spot at my side. My heart was still racing when he leaned forward and said, "I bet you are wondering where I was these last two days?" I wasn't, actually I was still trying to calm my heart. "Sure", I said, not paying attention. "I saw that you are reading a new book and you don't seem to be making much progress", said James "I decided to see that if I don't come to the library now and then if you would make more progress and you do", he continued. "Do I bother you?" he asked. I wasn't ready for this question, what do I do? I looked over to Mary, maybe she could help. True to form, there she was sitting blissfully with her nose in her book, again, how I envied her. 

"No, it's fine", I said. "I just don't have a lot of time to read during the weekend", I continued. He looked relieved. "Oh, then I'm glad", he said and gave a small sigh. "I'll tell you what, twice a week I will go and play chess with a few friends so that you can read, I know how you love to read. If you want, or need more time to read, let me know and I won't bother you, how does that sound?" James asked. "Sounds nice", I said before I could think, I had this sort of word vomit where I could come across as rude but in truth I was being too honest before I could think of a better or more polite way to say something. This didn't seem to phase him, he gave a small smile and said, "It's settled then, but any more than two days and I might miss you too much," he winked at me and I blankly stared at him. He smiled and started a new conversation all about his upcoming chess tournament. I figured he must be really good to play competitively. I had no idea that each piece had a name, let alone the moves they could make so I just listened and hoped he didn't ask me any chess-related questions. Lucky for me he didn't ask questions and dominated the conversation, I didn't mind. 

One Friday evening I was sitting with my parents in our living room after the twins had been put to bed, watching the news as we usually did at the same time every night, nine o'clock. My parents would sit each on their own couch, father sprawled out on the three-seater couch and mother sat on the single couch, a blanket draped over her lap as she was knitting. I picked my favorite spot on the furry carpet with the softest blanket I could find. As I mentioned before, this was a sleepy, uneventful little town. Little did we know that we were about to experience the beginning of events that would change our lives forever. Josh Brown, our local news anchor, is a short and stout man with a face resembling a pig. He has a very flat nose and fat cheeks that seem to hang down his face. He has dirty brown hair and brown eyes, breaks out in sweats, and hives at even the mention of something new or fairly exciting happening in this town. He liked everything, calm, organized, and uneventful. So when we saw this man appear onscreen sitting at his desk he looked as though he might have gotten chickenpox from his children and you could see the sweat stains running down the front of his green long-sleeved button shirt as well as the pit stains when he picked up his stack of papers, we knew we were in for something big. I was just grateful that I didn't have to sit next to this man right now.