What's Real?

“Christopher! Come on son! We are going to be late for the church choir practice. Make sure you get your coat, it’s quite chilly out tonight!”

Christopher’s dad tapped his foot impatiently waiting for his son to come down.
Slowly two tiny feet emerged at the top of the stairs. Then they timidly made there way down the stairs.

“Son! We need to go. We don’t want to hold up Ms. Green, she has put far too much effort into the churches Christmas program, and your brothers have already gone ahead with your mother.”

“Sorry Dad! I was playing with Jonny and we were knights and we killed a dragon with our swords and then we saved the pretty princess.”

“Mhmm. That’s nice Christopher, but maybe you should make some real friends? Like Humphrey from down the street?”

“Jonny is real dad! He’s not make-believe!” Chris said as he stomped his foot to emphasis his point. “And Humphrey smells like moldy cheese and he eats his bogies.” Chris said as they reached the car.

“That’s not nice Christopher.” Secretly Chris’ dad couldn’t agree more about Humphrey, but he was the only boy on the street Chris’ age. “Now let’s focus on our songs for tonight’s practice.”

-+-

“Altos you are a bit flat on the chorus and bass, you need to carry out that last note longer, you men keep cutting it shorter and shorter. But my dears you are starting to sound like a chorus of heavenly angels”

Ms. Green was a unique woman. She was young, only in her middle 20’s, but she had the soul of a wise woman twice her age. She knew just how to tweak the choir to her liking with great ease. Everyone who came within in 10 feet of her was drawn to her radiating warmth and kindness. It was because of her that the church choir was so vast this year.

She was casting her eyes about the multitude when she spotted the little lad in the front. He was the youngest member of the choir, but had one of the most innocent voices she had ever heard. He often tried to puff out his chest and stand up just a hair taller to make himself stand out, which often led to fits of giggles from the group when he toppled over.

The little boy was Christopher, the preacher’s son. He was only the tender age of 7 but already so determined and level headed. Ms. Green laughed to herself when she remembered when she was trying to place him in the alto section.
--
“But Ms. Green, there aren’t any boys in that section. I can sing lower! Please can you put me with the Bass’ I don’t want to be with the girls! Eww they have cuties.”

“Oh Christopher, you have such a lovely voice and I would love to put you with the bass’ but your voice is just a touch too high.”

Crocodile tears began to form in the crystal blue eyes of young Christopher. He sniffed a couple times and then tried to be brave and not cry. It was a battle that he couldn’t fight. Soon the tears began to stream down his checks staining his shirt along the way. Kneeling down in front of Ms. Green he cupped his hands together in the pleading fashion and flashed her the puppy dog look.

Ms. Green couldn’t stand to see the little boy crying, he was going to make her cry. She crouched down to the ground and sat down next to Christopher, she then pulled him close to her side and hugged him tightly.

“Alright my little soap opera you can be in the bass section, but you have to stop crying okay? Crying is contagious and I might catch it!”

“It’s..*sniff* it’s contagious?”

“Christopher dear, I was just teasing you, no it’s not contagious.”

“Oh. Oh good, cause that would mean I would have made a lot of people cry.”

--

What was ironic about that day, was that he was more worried about crying being contagious to even realize or celebrate that she had allowed him to sing in the bass section.

Ms. Green focused in on his singing out of the entire group. She could hear him carefully emphasizing each syllable and putting great effort into singing lower than his little vocal range should. It brought her great joy, to see him trying so hard.

Soon the song the group was singing came to an end and then after a few remarks from Ms. Green she dismissed the group. Most of the members had left save a few and who was amongst that group was none other than little Christopher.

He was running around collecting the sheets of music off the chairs and the floors. When his arms were full of papers he marched over to Ms. Green and tugged on one of her pant legs.

She looked down and smiled at the sight. “Why thank you Christopher, you are so terrific for picking up the sheet music for me!”
“Your welcome Ms. Green! My friend Jonny was listening to us tonight and he says we were really good!”

“Is that so? Well where has Jonny run off to?”

“He’s right over there.” Christopher pointed to a pew in the back of the chapel on the left.

Ms. Green turned in that direction but saw nothing, but an empty pew.“ Are you sure Christopher? Maybe he has gone home already?

“No! He is still sitting in the back, he’s waving at you right now!”

Ms. Green turned her head again to the spot and yet again saw nothing. Christopher’s dad was watching from a little ways away and saw the confusion on Ms. Greens face and then realized that his son was telling her about his imaginary friend. He quickly caught her attention and mouthed I-M-A_G-I-N-A-R-Y to her. Ms. Green understood quickly.

She turned back to the pew in the back and waved her hand.

“Oh Ms. Green! You see Jonny!” Christopher exclaimed with a quirky smile.

“Very much Christopher, he is a lovely boy, now you best be going home, it’s getting late.”

“Okay, thanks for practice!” Christopher said as he walked away toward his dad.

“Dad! Ms. Green saw Jonny! I knew she would see him!”

“Well that is something isn’t it.”

“Yeah, you know what dad? When I get older I think I might marry Ms. Green.”

“Would you now? Well it’s a good thing you’ve got a while before you grow up.”

“That’s okay, I need to grow taller because I can’t kiss her from here.”

Christopher’s dad just smiled at his innocent son and patted him on the back. “Come on son, let’s go home, we have more practice in the morning.”


Chapter 2

“Good evening the future Mrs. Berryman, you look ravishing in that lighting.”

Dianna turned around and blushed at the sight before her. Her fiancé, Guy, stood in her doorway with little flakes of white snow dusting his lush dark locks and he held a vase of white daisy’s in his hands.

“Mr. Berryman, I regret to inform you that until we announce our engagement I am still Ms. Green.” Dianna said with a wink and dramatically placed her hands on her hips to give a sassy effect.

Guy laughed and crossed the room and set the flowers down on the counter and then proceeded to walk toward Dianna and kiss her. What had been planned as a quick little smooch turned into something a little longer than that. Guy finally had to break away because he smelled something burning.

“I think love your burning something.”
“Oh Shit! Dinner is going to be ruined.”

Dianna ran into the kitchen where black smoke was starting to fill while Guy waited for her to return. Guy had only been waiting a few seconds when he heard the clatter of a pan being dropped and shattered as it hit the tile floor.

Snippets of memories from long ago flashed in her mind like lightning striking in the same place. The small boy running and laughing, the long black car, the torn and stained t-shirt, and the grave stone in the overgrown field.

Dianna collapsed to her knees and grasped at her heaving chest. The few memories were daggers that were tearing her insides to shreds leaving her week and breathless.

As Dianna sat two strong arms wrapped there way around her and a warm body pulled her close and cradled her in his arms. He brushed away the tears and stroked her hair and waited until she was ready to talk.

“It hurts so much.” Dianna whispered.

“I know, I know it hurts.” Guy whispered back. “He reminds you off him doesn’t he?”

Dianna just nodded her head and buried it into to Guy’s chest. He hummed a sweat melody and rocked her back and forth in his arms until she relaxed and fell asleep.

Guy carried Dianna to her bedroom where he tucked her in. He set out a glass of water on her nightstand and then kissed her forehead and closed the door. He walked back to the kitchen and cleaned up the dinner mess and left her a message before leaving.

Dianna,
I wish I was as eloquent with words as you are or as gifted at music, but I have neither all I have is the love that overwhelms me when I see you. I have made mistakes and I have faults, but you are able to see past them. I know you have a past that weighs you down and is a burden on your shoulders, but one day together we will lift it and overcome. With all the love that one man has.
Yours and yours alone,
Guy

Chapter 3

I was unsure how long I had stood there, all I knew was that I could tell you how many scuffs there were at the base of the door. 26. Some were a dark gray and long and others were faint black and short. Regardless I had stood there long enough and I needed to gather my courage and knock on the door. I closed my eyes and counted to ten and then let my hand fall and hit the door three times. I waited for him to open the door, I waited to see the chocolate waterfalls that were his eyes and I waited for the scruff that would outline his jaw emphasizing the strong line. I waited.

-+-

I don’t know why I heard the knocks. I don’t know why I didn’t just ignore them and go back to sleep, but I didn’t and I don’t know why. I saw through blurred vision red numbers that gave way to an early morning. Instead of guessing what time it was I decided the smart move would be to reach across to the nightstand and grab my glasses. It was like cleaning the fog of your mirror after getting out of a hot shower; what were blurred numbers now became clear and told me it was 3 in the morning. I groaned and tossed my covers off and stumbled down the hall to the front door. I turned the lock and then pulled open the old oak door.

She stood there in her black pea coat staring at the ground, while flakes of snow were encircling around her as if they were a halo. I shivered, not from the cold, but from her shear beauty. Dianna was enchanting to begin with her hazelnut eyes and velvet chocolate curls but the snowy background just completed her. She flashed me a quick little devious smile and I beckoned her in to my apartment. She nodded and crossed the threshold and hung her coat up while I closed the door. I wanted to run to her side and hold her in my arms, but I couldn’t bring myself to. So instead I waited.

-+-

He looked so divine in his old glasses when he answered the door. It gave him this sexy professor look and I wanted to drag him to the bedroom, but I fought the desire. What I had to do was important.

“I have always loved your apartment. It suits you very well, it has an old spirit and lots of character.” Dianna said as she ran her fingers over the old leather couch. “The beat up wood floors have been loved and the fireplace has been used with tender care. That’s what I love about you Guy, you take care of everything, from your apartment to the old lady that lives next door and then me.” Dianna said as she crossed the room to stand in front of Guy. “That is why I need to take you somewhere, so you understand why, why I love you so much.” Dianna whispered.

Chapter 4

The sky was beginning to lighten up as the morning progressed. It turned from a swirling dark night to a snowy fairytale. The snow was continuing to fall and had now accumulated a few inches on the ground. A few rays of sunlight poked through thin clouds to cast a pinkish hue to the snowy grounds. The old oak tree sat still in the middle of the field, directly beneath it sat 7 gravestones. Each was slightly different from the next except for the last.

Dianna sat still in the car staring straight ahead. Her eyes followed the windshield wipers as they continued to slide back and forth across the windshield. Guy was sat next to her in the drivers seat, he was unsure what they were doing here, but this is the place that Dianna had him drive to. He decided to slide down a bit in his seat and take a nap, but as soon as he had he felt warm hands on the sides of his face.

“You ready?” He asked.
His answer was a simple kiss on his lips. “Mmm I will gladly take that as a yes.”

Dianna buttoned up her coat and tied her scarf around her neck; Guy followed her example but ditched the scarf for a hat. When the two were bundled up they emerged from the car into the snowy morning. Guy was quick to take Dianna’s hand and then let her lead the way.

They climbed up the little hill and then walked down into the valley where the old oak tree sat. Guy squeezed Dianna’s hand in a cute fashion to remind her that he was here for her. Dianna squeezed his hand back. Finally they stopped in front of the last gravestone. A tiny gasp slipped through his lips as he read the name.

“Dianna I..”

“You should know the story. You need to know why I feel the pain. Why Christopher is such a constant reminder.”

“Are you sure?” Guy timidly asked.

“Yes, you are my future now. This is Jonathan my twin brothers grave.”

Chapter 5
Christopher sat in the window seat with his face pressed up against the window making faces as he watched his brothers playing outside in the snow. “You know what sucks Jonny? Having the chicken pox on the first snow day of the year. Mommy told me I had to sit here away from everybody else and not scratch. I don’t even feel sick, well no, that’s not the truth, but I still think I should be able to play!” Christopher cupped his hands in frustration and hit the cushion next to him.

“Ouch! Watch it mate!”

‘Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry Jonny! I didn’t realize you had moved from my bed to over here! I didn’t mean to hit you! Honestly.”

“Naw I know you didn’t mean it, I’m just really good at being unnoticed.”

“You are so understanding Jonny! I’m so glad we are best friends!”

“Hey you know what! My sister and I had chicken poxes at the same time and what we did to pass the time was to use our poxes and connect the dots!”

Oh that’s a great idea! I love playing connect the dots and your absolutely right about using my chicken pox’s! I’ll go get my markers!”

Christopher skipped across the room and threw open the door and ran down the stairs to the kitchen.

“Excuse me mister! What do you think you are doing down here? You are sick and should be upstairs and in bed!” Chris’ mum said as she placed her hands on her hips.

Christopher glanced down at his feet and mumbled a short reply. “just bored and wanted some markers.”

“You want markers for what purpose? You should be laying down and sleeping.”

“Well Jonny and I were going to play a game and I uh”

“Tell you what let me make you some chicken noodle soup and then we shall see about those markers. Mkay?”

“Okay let me go get Jonny for some soup, he is going to be hungry too.”

“Christopher, how many times do your father and I have to tell you, Jonny is not real! He is made up, make believe, imaginary. You need to stop with this nonsense and grow up.”

“Mum, that is not true! He’s my friend.. my my only friend.”

“Oh Christopher. Here have some soup while I get you some calamine lotion.”

Christopher reluctantly sat down and sipped his soup. And soon his mum returned, dotted him up with calamine lotion and gave him and green and blue marker. “You mister, best march up those stairs and rest in bed, because if your father comes home and finds you up and about.. well let’s just say you won’t be singing in the Christmas program.”

“Yes ma’am.”

-+-

“Oy where’d you go mate?” Jonny asked as he was flipping through one of the books that sat at the side of Chris’ bed.

“Mum made me eat some soup and we got in a tiff over you. Nobody believes me that your real and it’s just unfair!”

“Don’t let it bother you. Come here and lets play.”

“Right you can have the green marker cause it the same as your eyes and I will have the blue for my eye color.”

The two boys sat on Chris’ bed drawing on Christopher’s legs and arms, creating shapes and letters.

“So Chris I need you to do something for me.” Jonny said as he drew a heart on Chris’ elbow.

“Mkay, what do you need me to do?”

“Pass a message on to my sister.”

“You have a sister? Oh that’s neat, who is she?”

“Ms. Green.”

Chapter 6

“I watched him die and there was nothing I could do. The doctor’s still say it wasn’t my fault, but I know that I am to blame. I was the one who convinced him to come out with me.”

Guy couldn’t get his lips to form words or much of anything so he just reached his hand out for Dianna’s hand and held it tightly.

“Jonny may have been my twin, but we looked nothing alike. He was tall, lanky, and had these vivid green eyes that were almost like precious gems from the Roman dynasty.”

“I remember dad coming home one day carrying into the kitchen this long black case. He set it down on the floor and looked up over at us with this unbelievably happy smile and beckoned Jonny and me over. We were only about 6 then, but I still remember Jonny’s face when dad opened the case. In laid this breathtaking guitar, made of cherry and oak. Dad had bought it for Jonny and he had told me that he had bought me piano lessons. I was thrilled at my gift, but Jonny. Oh my, I don’t think I have ever seen him that happy, no Christmas I can remember comes close. He was a natural, as soon as his fingers touched the strings beautiful melodies seemed to flutter all around like butterflies. He was extraordinarily talented, but painfully shy about sharing his gift.”

“As we grew older, I mastered the piano and then moved on to vocal lessons, but Jonny stayed with guitar. He just doubled his collection and his skills.”

“And then came the time that we were old enough to get our licenses. Mum drove us on Saturday morning and while we were taking our exam dad drove up in a surprise car for us. We came out and there sitting in the lot was a little orange beetle. It was a beat up ole’ thing, but it was a car that moved and it was ours. Jonny insisted that we name our car, so after much deliberation we came to the conclusion that we both liked the name Gloria. Gloria took us anywhere and it was Gloria that took us to that fateful night.”

“Jonny never played for anyone besides our family so I decided that he was too gifted to just sit around in our carriage playing for the walls that I entered him in one of the local pubs amateur music night. He of course was too kind so he willingly went along, but I knew that it was eating him up inside.”

“Well the set went fantastic, he had the crowd swaying and bobbing along with him. I met a nice guy who told me how great he thought Jonny was, and right after Jonny was done a man came up to him representing a record company that was searching for a new skilled guitarist and he was very interested in Jonny. Jonny came away from the gig a happy man. He was literally skipping to the car. Once there he reached for my hand and twirled me around, we laughed and danced in the street to our own music of the excitement in our hearts. Laughing and taking deep breaths to try and regain our composure we clamored into Gloria and took off down the street.”

“It was late as we made our way home and snow had begun to fall. We had to cross through a sketchy part of town to get to the street that leads to our house. The light up ahead had turned red and so Jonny slowed to a stop. I had my eyes closed and was listening to the crackle of the radio when I heard Jonny say, “Is that a boy?”

“I looked up and there in the middle of the street with snow falling steadily all around stood a little boy in a ragged t-shirt. He had this vacant stare but I can still recall the blue eyes that peeked out from under his eyebrows and the mess of curls that blew wildly in the storm.”

“The next thing I recall is the click of Jonny unbuckling his seat belt and then watching him walk out into the street toward the boy. In the blink of an eye I saw the boy’s vacant expressions turn to a menacing grin and then he bellowed a short hysterical laughter and ran down the alley. Jonny took after him; as soon as he was out of my eyesight I heard 3 gunshots.“

Dianna felt her knees begin to go weak and so Guy steadied her and let her lean against him. “I live everyday with the guilt that his death was my fault and then it is even worse when I see young Christopher. Everyone tells me it’s not my fault, but they didn’t watch their best friends blood stain the white snow red. They didn’t see his chest struggle to rise and fall and they didn’t feel the heat escape from his body. I did. I saw it all and it never goes away.”

“But you can make the numbness fade and you have slowly started to fix the unfixable parts. That’s why I needed you to know. Cause you should have the choice to marry me knowing everything.” Dianna said with a quivering lip and a few tears.

“You may be broken, but I intend to be your handyman and I will always be here to make things better. That is why I want to marry you.” Guy said as he kissed away the tears.

-+-

The Christmas program was a great success. The notes rung in every corner of the chapel and the sweet melodies brushed every surface with utter delight. Every member of the congregation rushed forward to praise Dianna and the choir. After what felt like hours of praise most of the members of the church had left and gone home. Dianna was cleaning up the stage when she felt a tug on her shirt. She turned to see Christopher standing next to her.

“Oh Christopher! You surprised me. Well done tonight, you sounded just like the men and did a terrific job.”

“Thank you very much. Uh Ms. Dianna I need to tell you something.” Chris said as he looked down at his shoes.

“Is that so? Well let’s hear it then.” Dianna said as she sat down next to Christopher.

“Your brother wants to tell you..”

“WAKE UP DIANNA!”

I opened my eyes and saw that I was sitting in Gloria in the front drive. Jonny was next to me with this Cheshire cat grin plastered to his face.

“Hey! So I wanted to tell you thanks for making me do this tonight. It was fun and I really enjoyed it, maybe I will be in a band one day?” Jonny said with a wink and then he hoped out of the car.

I smiled and shook my head and joined him outside.

“Oh and Dianna, that guy you met tonight, Guy was it? Date him. I have a good feeling about him.” Jonny whispered as we climbed the stairs to our bedrooms.

I laughed and winked at him as he closed his door and I closed mine. Who knows maybe I will I thought, maybe I will.

The End