Laid 2 Rest Two Halves of a Whole by Melanie Rose

Jay was right all along, that was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits today. He knew me so well. Sometimes better than I knew myself. He was so thoughtful and caring. Why oh why couldn’t I be married to him instead?
    I couldn’t that’s why. If I ever said “I Do” to him, it would be the kiss of death for us… marriage was a curse!

    Later that evening, we dropped all the kids off at Maya’s house and headed for the little café to meet my brother. The owners there were like family to my dad. He went there everyday for the last 13 years of his life. They were as brokenhearted as we were when he died. They even put aside the chair my dad always sat in, out of respect for him. No one would ever sit in it again. Seated at my dad’s favorite table along the windows, we ordered all his favorite dishes to honor him.
    Even though it was dinnertime, I chose the biscuits n’ gravy for myself, my brother got a pastrami cheeseburger with onion rings, my nephew got ham n’ eggs with a big stack of fluffy pancakes, while Jay ordered the chicken fried steak smothered in country gravy. A couple of my dads old friends came over and joined us along with the café owners and before we knew it, our little party of four turned into eight…. ten…. then twelve. I think we had close to twenty people join us by the end of the night.
    It was comforting to hear all the different stories about my dad that I had never heard before that evening. He was loved and missed by so many.
    Things were moving along smoothly until I caught a glimpse of someone who walked past the café window out of the corner of my eye. I wasn’t 100% positive because the picture filed in my brain was so fuzzy, but I was sure that I knew him from somewhere. I continued to watch him as he opened the café door and walked over to the counter.
    Everything shifted into slow motion. I could make out every fine detail, the way his head swayed lightly as he moved, how he shifted all of his weight to one leg as he stood there waiting. The subtle way he moistened his full lips before speaking to the girl behind the register. “I called in an order for pick-up,” he told her.
    “Name?”
    “Tannon.”
    My heart dropped to the floor. There standing in the flesh was the grown up version of the boy in blue. He looked flawless, dressed in a dark gray business suit. Even though he was impeccably groomed, the thing that stuck out the most… was his face. There wasn’t a scratch on it from what I could tell. He still had that perfect baby face. I assume the shooting never took place and the business suit implied that he had made something of himself. Was this the effect from having never met me?
    Am I really that bad?
    I watched him as he paid the girl twenty bucks and told her to keep the change. He grabbed the brown paper bag from off the counter and walked casually out the same door he entered. He did not see or acknowledge me in any form just like a stranger would have. A stranger , my mind repeated mentally. That was exactly what I was to him now, I realized as Tannon retraced his steps past the window before vanishing from my sight forever.
    It wasn’t until I heard someone’s chair screech across the tile floor that time sped back up. I looked around to see if anyone else had noticed what just happened to me, but luckily, everyone was still caught up in a story that someone was telling. The group exploded into laughter… except for me that is. I didn’t even know what they were laughing about since I hadn’t heard a single word of it.
    Jay however, noticed this instantly before asking, “Are you about ready to go? You’ve had a long day and look tired. Let us get you to bed, huh. What do you say?”
    “Sleep sounds wonderful. I think my jet lag is starting to kick in anyways,” I replied automatically, unsure of how I felt about seeing Tannon again, but grateful to know that he was doing just fine without me.
    We said our goodbyes and got back on the road