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| "Hey Natalie, you comin to the wrestling meet tonight with me or what? It's the last one you know."
"Yeah sure, Terri, I'm comin." Terri Bolhin was one of Natalie Johnsons best friends. They went to Jefferson High School in Madison, Wisconsin. They both had
decided to graduate early so they could have time to do stuff with each other before Terri went to college. Natalie didn't have any plans. "Do you think I'd live with myself if I missed hot guys rolling around with each other? I dont think so."
"Haha, I know. Monica's coming too, if that's aight."
"Sure, I love Monni. Pick me up at 6 then?"
"Yep."
"Kay, see ya."
"Bye." Natalie put the receiver back onto the cradle for the cordless phone. Things had really turned around for her in Wisconsin. She had a ton of friends and didn't ever have to worry about coming home to get abused. 'Where's my Adidas sweatshirt?' she asked herself. She went into her room and opened her closet door. She grabbed the sweatshirt off a stack of old papers. Her sleeve was caught under the pile and papers and
pictures went flying. One picture landed in front of her. It was a picture of her and Brian at her eighth birthday party. Emotions ran through her head. She thought of him almost everyday. She always wondered how he was doing and if he thought of her ever. Everytime she saw his picture, she got sick to her stomach with homesickness. She only
missed one thing from Kentucky, and it wasn't her accent. She picked the picture up and put it on her bed. She put the sweatshirt on. It had been almost 10 years since she had seen or talked to Brian. 'That's it, I cant take it anymore!' She got the phone she had just hung up and dialed the number she remembered for all those years. It started ringing. She was glad she had her own phone line so her mom wouldn't see his number on the phone bill.
"Hello?" an unfamiliar voice said.
"Hello? Is uh, Brian there?"
"This is him."
"Brian Littrell?" Had she forgotten the sound of his voice after those few years?
"Uh, yeah, who is this?" All the words she wanted to say had just left her, her mind was blank.
"I'm sorry." She hung up. What happened to talking for hours about nothing with her best friend? Maybe she had changed more than she thought she had. Sure, she had new friends, a new name, a new hairstyle, a new life, but she didn't think she had changed as a person. Evidentally she had.
"Who was it Brian?" Jackie asked her son.
"I don't know. They hung up. They sounded familiar though."
"Hum, I dunno." He went up to the same room he had lived in all his life. He turned on his radio and started singing along. He opened up his roll top desk and decided
to get his homework done. He opened the drawer to get out a pencil, he saw the picture of him and his old best friend Lillian. He took it out and stared at it. He hadnt seen her for 10 years and wondered about her each day. He wondered if she wondered about him. If only she would've left a phone number, address, something. Sure he had tried to move on. He made new friends and everything, but he and Lilly shared something special. He didn't know what. They were friends for life; even if they hadn't seen each other for almost 10 years.
"Okay, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't forget about that damn history test. I've gotta study like no other tonight. I haven't even opened the book."
"I know what you mean girl. I haven't either, but who cares when youre busy watching wrestlers."
"I know." She laughed. "Well, see ya Monica, see ya Terri."
"Bye." Monica and Terri took off and Natalie noticed that her mom's car wasn't in the driveway. 'That's weird,' she said silently. She unlocked the door and went and checked the messages.
'1' blinked over and over and she pushed the play button. "Natalie, this is Doctor Casey from Allen Hospital. Your mom was in a serious car accident you need to get down here as soon as you can."
"Oh my God." She stood there. Mom in an accident? No way. She opened the garage door and backed out in her 87 Sunfire. She drove as fast as she could to the hospital that was about one mile away. She parked in the Emergancy parking lot and ran inside. She didn't care where she parked, she just needed to know that her mom was
okay. Her mom was all she had. She didn't have any other family, she couldn't. If she lost her mom, she'd be lost. She ran up to the nearest nurse and asked, "Where's Ashley
Johnson?"
"Ashley Johnson? Oh! She was brought in about an hour ago. Follow me." They walked down many corridors to a hospital room where she saw her mom lying in a hospital bed. "Mom?" She ran into her room, the nurse followed. "What happened?"
"Drunk driver. Hit her broad side."
"Is she going to be okay?"
"We don't know. Right now by the looks of things, no."
"Mom! I'm sorry. I cant believe this. Once I get my hands on that bastard, just you wait! I'll get him mom, do what he did to you."
"They have the man in custody," the nurse cut in. "He's in jail right now. They're schedualing a trial date. Don't worry, he wont be out of there for a very long time. His BAC was .23."
"Oh. Could, could you leave me alone for a few minutes?"
"Sure." She left and shut the door. Natalie sat down on the chair next to her mothers bed. She put her head in her hands and cried. She had never cried like that
before. After all they had been through together, she may lose her mother. Without her, who knows what could've happened to Natalie. She was scared to even think about that. She spent the rest of her night in the hospital.
Natalie awoke to the sound of monitors buzzing all around her. "Mom?" She opened her eyes and couldn't see her mom through the group of doctors standing around
her mother. The nurse that had escorted to her mom's room escorted her out.
"I'm sorry dear, you have to leave and get out of their way."
"But what's wrong with my mom?"
"I don't know, I'm sorry." She left Natalie at the rooms small window as she looked on through the blinds as the doctors scurried about the room. 'What is going on?'
she asked herself. They had been working on her for about 20 minutes and the doctors stopped doing whatever they were doing.
"Why arent they helping her?" she said. She went into the room. "Why aren't you helping her?" she said in outrage.
"She's gone," a man in a white lab coat said to her. He looked up at the clock. "Time of death, 8:21."
"No! She's not dead! She can't be dead. No! Mom!" She ran to her late mother's bedside. "Mom! Talk to me mom! Dont leave me!" The room started to clear out. She was alone. Not just in the room, but for life. Sure she had friends, but she didn't have any family. What was she going to do at Thanksgiving? Christmas? She
couldn't see her other family, it'd be too dangerous. She looked down at her arm and the deep scar left there by her father when she was 8 years old. 'What ever happened to him
anyway?'
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