| |
John got out of bed after a sleepless night to his alarm clock. It was 7:00am and Nancy would be here at 7:30am to take him to his car. As John prepared his much-needed coffee, he gazed at the sink where he poured the last remaining smooth whisky the night before. He could feel his throat drying up at the thought of another taste. John could feel his body tensing up and the hair on the back of his neck rising.
“Beep,” Nancy pressed against the horn, hoping John was awake. She was worried about him and his drinking habits. John may think Nancy was innocent, but Nancy knew of John’s struggle. She never felt it was her place to press on him though. She felt that when he was ready, he would tell her. She knew John had demons and she prayed every night that he would get the strength to face them.
John grabbed his coffee and came out of the house. He was dying for a cigarette, but he knew Nancy was ten years cigarette free, so he did not want to tempt her. He could wait till he got in his car. As the morning news played on the radio, John was telling Nancy about his upcoming time off. He told her some lie that he had too much paid time off that he had to use it. Nancy knew this to be a lie, but just smiled and nodded. She hoped that his time off was his choice and not his boss.’
Nancy and John made it to the garage. John got out of the vehicle, thanked Nancy, and waved to her. John paid the fee, got the keys, and opened his car door. As he sat in his car, he lit up a cigarette and decided that he should clean this car. It was a decent car, but it needed a turnaround in the cleanliness department. There was trash, dirty windows, and had a smell of stale tobacco. John started his car and drove to the store to pick up supplies.
On the way to the store and back to his home, John counted five liquor stores and the thirst was still unquenchable. He needed to distract himself from the itch. John decided to clean up his car, clean his yard, then clean inside his house. A day spent doing manual labor might make this withdrawal period a breeze.
It took John two hours cleaning his car. He cleaned it to perfection. John loved cars ever since he worked at a car wash in his teen years. He particularly enjoyed the glimmer after the wax was put on. John worked at the car wash in Southie throughout high school. His dad felt that if John had a job, played sports, and did his homework that he would have no time to cause trouble. John would work every day from after practice to 8pm then went home to eat dinner, do homework, then he would pass out in his bed from exhaustion. His father expected the best from his soldiers no matter what the cost was.
As John finished applying the wax, he could see a familiar and yet strange reflection on the hood. As he looked at the stranger, he could see the younger version of himself. The young boy was looking back at John and smiling. The look of innocence was something John had not seen in a while. John knew something was not right by seeing a reflection of his younger self in the car hood.
As John began to look away from the car, the smiling boy turned into a smiling man. This man was not John though. The man smiling back at John was his father. His father’s smile was something that John saw very rarely. He could count the number of times he saw his father’s smile with one had. Just like that, John backed up from his car and lit a cigarette. He felt a little dizzy but figured it was from the sun. He sat down on the porch, grabbed some water, and finished his cigarette. John realized that he must pace himself when working in this weather.
John went back to his car, and he saw another reflection. It was a woman smiling back at him. This woman had long brunette hair, light green eyes with a hint of brown in them, and an incredibly beautiful smile. The woman was Ashley. John had not seen her in so long that he could not recognize her at first. John was so heartbroken when Ashley left him all those years ago that he barely dated anyone since then. He had his causal hookups, but those relationships did not last more than the night.
As Ashley was staring at him, John felt a pain in his head and a weight in his stomach. John knew he needed to lie down but could not get his eyes off her reflection. Ashley’s beautiful smile disappeared right before John’s eyes and then everything faded into darkness.