Remember Me by Brian MacLearn Read Free Book Online Page B

look; or more than likely, my mouth which was wide open and hanging down to the floor. It’s funny how the wisdom of life can make you see things so vastly different.
    I was the one who was now her senior in years, and what I once thought of as excessive and over-the-top was becoming and flattering on her. In my world of tomorrow, she would be a “knockout,” boys and men would be lined up to buy anything from her. In this time, she was ahead of the curve and waiting patiently on the sidelines. I closed my mouth and walked cautiously towards the counter. I stopped dead in my tracks when the real motive for coming to the store hit me. Chalk-up one more reason for the counter lady to eye me suspiciously.
    I redirected myself towards the newspaper stack next to
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    the door. I reached down and grabbed one off the top. I had been both right and wrong. The day was May twenty-third. The year was nineteen eighty-five and not nineteen eighty-four. In this time, I had just turned twenty-five. I couldn’t remember for the life of me what I had done on my twenty-fifth birthday.
    I stared hard at the headlines; trying to recapture lost memories…nothing came to me. Samantha was two and a half. What had we done—I couldn’t remember. Both in the past and my future, birthdays were shared with my parents, but not always on the birth date. My parents would fix a meal of my choice or we’d all go out to eat. There was one extremely important thing I did remember about nineteen eighty-five! In July, Tami would become pregnant with Emily.
    The hair on the nape of my neck stood-up, and an invisible hand grabbed my shoulder. I began to have a mini panic attack as I remembered all the good and bad moments about Tami’s pregnancy. In the end Emily had been a God send for me. She was every father’s best wish. She was a beautiful and endearing child, and a tom-boy to boot. The day she was born I took one look at her and said, “God help the boys in her life!”
    I knew that included me. The bell above the door jingled as another customer entered the store. I shook off the memories of Emily, and looked out the store’s front window. The sky in the Southeast had begun to darken sharply. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was an ominous sign in more ways than one.
    I didn’t want the paper so I placed it back on the stack. I turned once again to face the clerk behind the counter. I could now read the “Stephanie” on her name tag. Stephanie’s smile was not perceptible, but her eyes had given up some of the scrutiny they once held. I shrugged my shoulders at her and moved to the counter. I set the diet Pepsi in front of her and pulled my wallet out of my back right pocket. Flipping it open, I ruffled through the small amount of bills stashed there. I had S 39 S
    Brian L. MacLearn
    two twenties, one ten, four fives and three ones. Old habits die hard and I reached for one of the fives. Under normal circumstances I would save the ones to deposit in the trip jar sitting on top of the kitchen counter at home. I had almost laid it down on the counter when I glimpsed the large head of Lincoln, sitting slightly off-center. It was one of the newly re-designed fives, and in this time it would be totally fraudulent. I snatched it back before Stephanie could grab it from my hand.
    “Crap,” was all I said, but it was enough for Stephanie to get that undecided look going on her face again. “Just a second,” I said, “I promised to give my son his allowance tonight, and I’m going to need the five. He doesn’t make change.” I tried to laugh so as to make my lie seem more plausible. It was a half-hearted attempt at best, but Stephanie noticeably relaxed. I put the five back in my wallet and thumbed through the other bills, only one thing mattered the date of issue. Every single one of my bills had a date of two thousand and one or newer. My mind raced with options. At least the one’s looked normal. I wasn’t willing to