The Second Chance

It was a Sunday, I casually glanced at the clock as the music on the radio faded into the background of my daydream. 12:00 pm and my day hadn’t even begun. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened in those woods yesterday. I was scared shitless, sitting in an abandoned G-Mart parking lot with nothing but the high noon sun beaming down on my face and a black duffle bag full of money in the back seat. “What the heck happened?” I said with confusion as I picked up the little black notebook from the dash that I had found inside the bag. “This must hold the answers?” I thought.... but to understand it all, I must take you back to when it all began.

Like for any other 17-year-old, life was an adventure, parties and girls were at the top of the list, and me, well let us just say I was at the tip top, my popularity by the 12th grade was at god status and the girls loved me, hey being this cute came with its perks and was pretty much all that mattered in my world, or at least that is the way it seemed before everything happened, and my life changed forever.

September 4th, 2020, one month into my senior year of high school, Farrah Evans stopped me in back hall, and with that half smirk that she does ever so adoringly, handed me her annual Halloween bash invitation. The one that most of my classmates only dream of getting. “I hope to see you there,” she said and gave me a wink before walking away. All I could do was smile as I peered down at the little blue envelope. “Of course,” I whispered, and slid it into my back pocket as I walked toward 4th period.

Mr. Johnson’s math class, “hate it,” I thought and effortlessly checked it off my mental checklist. It just wasn’t fundamentally my area of expertise, but that’s why I have Bobo.

Alex Matthews, known to everyone as Bobo, was a life saver when it came to getting half decent grades. I mean nobody could really understand him because of his speech impediment, hence the nickname Bobo, but he sure knew how to crack a mean algebraic expression or two and is why he was my go-to guy when it came to math.

By the end of 7th period, the need for food was apparent as my stomach growled with an unpleasant tone, “pizza rolls and ranch were a must,” I thought.

The drive home was long, but the smell of late summer seeped through the open windows. The weekend had officially begun and the need for some pre-Halloween horror to get me in the spirit, was in order.

“What’s up bro?” The sound of Derek’s voice was nonetheless apparent as it barreled into my ear from the other end of the speaker. “We still on for tonight?”

“Most definitely,” I reassured without pause. “Hey man, did you get a chance to get the stash? The gangs gonna meet up at the quarry later?”

Stoney Cove, a large, flooded quarry, sets 10 miles northeast of town and has always been a local hangout for kids who want to escape the unrelenting nagging of parents and just chill like villains.

“Sure did,” Derek announced. “Three cases of beer and a pint of JayDees. Oh, did anyone say if they were bringing firewood or not?”

“Yeah, Junebugs bringing it. Are we still going to watch The Haunting at Hillcrest tomorrow?” I asked reluctantly.

“Oh, for sure. Guess who might be there?”

“Who?” I asked impatiently.

“Oh man, you’re gonna flip. Farrah Evans!”

“No way dude, don’t play with me like that.”

“Dude, I swear.” Derek reassured. “Oh, and she may be at the quarry later.”

Farrah is one of those girls who makes you want to do better and strive to always be your best. Anybody would be crazy not to want to be with her.

The sun set low in the sky as I headed toward the quarry. An uneasy feeling crept into the back of my mind, one of those ominous ones that keep the eyes in the back of your head affixed on whatever is stocking your footsteps in the dark. The late summer air was calm against my skin, and my head began to tingle as I turned down old state route 24. The shimmer of something up ahead caught my attention as I slowed down.

“What the heck is that?” I declared as I came to a complete stop. A wisp of light hovering in the middle of the road pierced my mind with dismay. It flitted toward the forest and disappeared into the trees. Something like this just screamed “danger,” but being the curious, thrill seeking lad that I was, I pulled off the road and decided to investigate. “What am I doing,” I thought as I shut the engine off and got out. “I’m going insane.”

The forest was dense as I trailed the small bare path into the unknown thickening of wood. Something in the back of my mind told me to turn and run, that nothing good would come of this experience, traipsing through the woods as the sun was saying farewell to the daylight. Something was drawing me deeper into the forest by an unseen tether. I felt faint and knew something was wrong. I wanted to turn around and run, but my mind wouldn’t let me. The trees began to spin as the dizziness overtook my headspace. I stumbled forward as my skin became pale and cold to the touch, like that of a vampires animated carcass. My knees hit the ground, I tried grasping the reality of what was happening, but my head went blank as it came to a rest upon the leaves of the forest floor and the world around me went black.

The warmth of the sun encased my face, as I became aware of my surroundings, I knew that something was dead wrong. My eyes shot open and I quickly sat up. “What is going on?” I thought. My bedroom lay silent and the clock on the nightstand could be heard ticking the time away. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. I quickly got out of bed and ran to the window. The scene on the outside was normal. I looked around the room to try and piece together what just happened, but no solution was proposed. I raced against time down the hallway, but my parents were nowhere to be found. “They must be at the country club,” I thought. I ran outside, the neighbors greeted me with inviting smiles from across the street. I waved back as I made my way to my car, hoping to find any shred of evidence to explain what had happened. The large black duffle bag in the back seat stole my attention as I opened the front door. Panic painted itself throughout my mind as I quickly pulled the front seat forward to investigate. I slowly unzipped it, not knowing what to expect. My mind went blank as I peered at what had to have been at least $20,000 dollars and a little black notebook staring back at me. Where it came from, is what bothered me the most. I tossed the book in the front passenger seat and quickly zipped the bag. I decided to go back to the place where my memory of yesterday went dark. The further I drove, the more the book stole my attention from the road. I picked it up to examine the cover, but it was blank. I was afraid of what the inside held, I’ve learned from experience, the less you know, the better. I tossed it onto the dash and continued driving toward the last place I could remember from yesterday.

“My friends must think I flaked on them, which is so not cool,” I thought. I decided to find a place to pull over and brave the pages of that book, it may help me understand what was going on. Up ahead, I noticed the old G-Mart that had closed 10 years back and figured being in the middle of nowhere would be the best place to gather my thoughts and try and figure out what was going on.

I picked up the notebook, and with my composure at stake, I opened it. My heartbeat quickened as I read the inscription on the first page.

“To find ones life is to gain freedom.”

The rest of the book was photographs of a family, aging through the years of their lives, as though it were showing me something by telling me their story.

“What is happening?” The thought kept repeating itself over and over, but suddenly ceased as my attention was drawn to the wisp of light floating above my hood. “The same one from yesterday.” I thought. I was paralyzed with fear as my mind ran a million miles an hour trying to understand what was happening. I finally regained control of myself and slowly opened the door. I stood at the side of my car trying to understand the force that was pulling me toward the little blue orb of light.

“To find ones life is to gain freedom,” the voice from the wisp echoed as though it were speaking through water. Suddenly the world around me grew foggy and distant, another time and place play before me as though I was being shown a scene from a movie.

“Hey, that’s the quarry and everyone that was supposed to be there last night. Why am I being shown this?” Everyone looked as though they were in a saddened daze. My train of thought suddenly stopped as my eyes fell upon that which lay at the edge of the campfire light. “But how?” I demanded.

It was me, laying lifeless on the ground. “I don’t understand.”

“Daniel!”

The voice startled me as it spoke my name from beside me and a hand gripped my shoulder. I quickly looked, as my eyes met with his.

“David?” I said with puzzlement as I looked upon the face of my twin brother that had passed away when we were 7. All I could do was wonder with confusion as he spoke.

“Daniel, the reason you see yet do not understand, is because this is that which has not yet happened. I am showing you this so that you may know what would have been if I had not intervened yesterday in the road. You see, if you would have made it to that party, you would have died from a rare heart defect triggered by the alcohol that you were going to drink. I could not let that happen. There is a doctor in Switzerland that can cure your defect, and that is why you have the duffle bag full of money. Travel there so that you may have a long life ahead of you. Trust me, it will be a good one. And by the way, do not be scared to ask Farrah to the prom when you go to her Halloween party, your future with her will be a long and beautiful one.”

But before I could speak, he was gone, and I was standing alone in the parking lot once more. I got back in the car and realized that the photographs in the little black notebook were that of my future, healthy and alive with Farrah my wife and my children. With the understanding of what just happened and the things that David had shown me, the black book slowly vanished from my hand, as though it accomplished what it was meant to. As I rubbed my chest, I looked east and knew that everything was going to be okay.