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Back to Reality

Lucian has such a deep voice and when he talks to me I am so caught up in his voice I catch myself daydreaming. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he lifted me up like a baby. I kissed him as a thank you for staying with me. He leaves me and goes to his room so we can both pack up. As I leave, he meets up with me and helps me out to my vehicle. As we were walking out of the hotel, I was texting my sister to tell her I was on my way to Codger’s and then I noticed it. A TV was playing the news and it had a barely recognizable truck with no plates and the reporter said "Homicide in Effingham, a man was killed." The reporter said, “If anyone recognizes this truck, please call the Effingham Police Department.” It was the old beat-up truck that bumped me on the highway. The reporter said the man was beaten unrecognizable. Lucian was ahead of me opening the door of the hotel and I said “Hey, I think that man that bumped me on the highway is that murdered guy on the news.” Lucian replied, “No, that guy is long gone by now, I’m sure that is some meth head.” I refrained from saying anything else, but I was uneasy. Surely that is a coincidence, and the guy was driving erratic, maybe Lucian is right.

Lucian had parked his bike right by my van. It was the most beautiful bike I had ever seen. I kind of dreaded getting into my van to leave instead of leaving on the bike. Everything Lucian owns is immaculate and well taken care of. I gave him directions and I left. Codgers’ shop was a couple of miles down the road and he knew I needed my tire fixed and to check out my bumper. I arrived and he came out to greet me. He was older than my father but a hardy old man. He was tall, with very wide shoulders, and walked bent over, with a limp on his right side. We used to call him "Big Bear" when I was little, but my mother said that wasn’t nice. Codger would call me his "Little Bear" every time I would see him. He had such thick hair he looked like a bear coming toward you. He has one son Christopher but he was very wild and got into some trouble, but he was my favorite cousin growing up, because he was so fun. He was the oldest cousin and let us do anything. I last saw Codger when Grant died, he dressed in a suit, and it meant the world to me he was there. Christopher was in prison at the time so couldn’t make it. Codger was a very distant cousin of my father’s and took over as a father figure when he died. Although we were all adults when he died, Codger still gave priceless advice and was very protective over us girls.

Codger picked me up and gave me a big hug, he put me down and was looking past me in the distance at something and grumbled. I said “What? You glad to see me or what?” He said, “Who have you been messing with my girl?” I said, “What do you mean, messing with?” He said, “Well you smell and its not like yourself.” I just looked at him and laughed. He looked past me again and made a low growl and seemed grumpy. He said “I called that sister of yours, damn she has screws loose, but she is coming to get you.” I laughed because everyone, no matter who they are, makes a statement like that about my sister. Charise is known to be almost as bad as Christopher but never got caught. She liked to date bad boys and never held a job long because it was always tied to the guy she was dating. I said, “How have you been doing? Are you still taking your medicine?” Scratching his head he said, “Girl leave me alone now…well yes I am.” This pleased me because before I was a biochemist, I was going to be a medical doctor and finished the degree, but I ended up going into bioscience. I had a habit of taking care of everyone and making sure they were put on the right medications. I can’t turn that part off. Just then Charise pulled up in a huge truck. I recognized it as Codger’s. I looked at him and he shrugged and said “You know how she is, can’t keep a vehicle unless it isn’t doesn’t belong to her.” She jumped out and I hugged her, she brought me a cappuccino and jumped up and kissed Codger on the cheek. Charise was shorter than me, but we were very similar. She had light brown hair, she kept in a short bob right below her ears, but her skin was a lot darker than mine. She doesn’t have any white in her hair as I do even though she is older than me by 10 years. Charise was beautiful but you could tell she lived a rougher life. She has a lot of visible scars and her sense of humor can be off color, but people around her tend to like how rough she is. She would do anything for you if you were on her good side. Codger complains about her, but Charise makes sure to take care of him as well.

Codger said he would have my car done tomorrow and Charise would take me to the cemetery. We loaded the truck up with my tools and gave Codger a hug goodbye. I jumped in the truck and asked Charise, “Do I smell?” She laughed and said “What?”, I said, “Do I smell?” Charise replied, “Girl we need to talk. She said you know you were always sweet and I’m salty right?” I laughed and said “No shit.” Charise asked me point blank, “Who have you been messing with?” I said, “Why does everyone keep saying that?” I couldn’t help it but I looked back at her with such a guilty face. By now we were on the road and almost to the cemetery. We were going down the gravel road the cemetery was on, it was down an old road that passed an equally old farm that belonged to our family. I loved the property, but none of us could decide what to do with the property so we just left it but maintained it the best we could. The cemetery had generations of relatives from my father’s side. I had several great, great, great grandparents there as well as extended family of cousins and our father was there. It had an old church that had long been abandoned as well. We had chairs inside to use when we came to visit. I brought shovels as we noticed a lot of the stones were sinking into the ground and I brought supplies to clean the stones.

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