Mundane

J. That's all anyone would call me, my real name unrecognized. I am nobody . . . at least that's how I feel. I'm 17, not that my age matters anyway. I walk to school everyday and see the same view, the tree line as thick as molasses. I see nobody on the way to school and see nobody back. I arrive home to my mother named Mary sitting at the table reading the same book she has read a thousand times. It has been this way since Dad died four years ago. It's like my mother has no soul. She no longer talked to any of the friends she once had, nor had she dared utter a word that carries any meaning in my direction. Every word she spoke to me sounded like she was just barking orders that carried no weight. I felt bad for her . . . that she would no longer speak with anyone. The disrespect became to much for me to bear so I just tried to ignore her ignoring my existence. Luckily my stupid strategy worked. 

"This is how things are", I would always say to myself in the silence of my own room. Silence kept me comforted. Silence to me felt like a being wrapping its arms around me and telling me everything would be okay. That silence would be rudely interrupted every morning as my alarm clock would blare like a tornado siren every morning. Time for school.

I got up and got dressed putting on my patented red jacket. I wore this jacket every single day without fail. It is the only keepsake that my father left me before his death. Heart attack. At least that's what the doctors say. I just chalked it up to, "shit happens", after grieving for well over a year. I think about it every morning as I don that jacket and old pair of jeans I loved so much. Just tight enough and not too lose either. Just how I liked it. I tell my mom that I'm leaving for school as I do every morning. She just turns her head to me and gives me a light smile. The kind of smile a baby would give to a slightly comedic children's video. I walk out the door and shut it quietly behind me. I walk along the tree line, looking up at the sky as I walk the same path I had walked for years now.  

Suddenly my "friend" had shot out from behind a tree. I guess he tried to scare me? Futile. "I don't scare to easily", I said to Rob as he just busted out laughing. I think he considers me a friend, even though I only consider him a close acquaintance. Would that classify as a friend? I didn't care much. We walked along the path together chatting about things going on amongst the students at my mundane high school. "Our basketball team plays Mountain West Christian tonight dude. You wanna go? I hear the student section is a really fun time" I looked at Rob with a glance that read, "Are you crazy?" I let out a sigh and reluctantly spouted the words, "Sure, sounds like fun." Why did I say that? Spur of the moment decision? No. Well to late now.

I met Rob at the gates to the arena, all the while questioning why I was even there in the first place. When I approached him he asked if I believed in miracles. "No, not really. That's a strange question to ask before a sports match. Why did you bring this up so suddenly?" 

"Well we're gonna need one to win tonight! That tall motherfucker on Mountain West is a D1 recruit. They say he's ranked as high as fifteenth in the country in his class on some sites." I didn't understand anything he just said. I didn't give a shit about sports. Yet another character trait to add to the mundane list.

The game starts as we file into the student section together next to some popular faces. I knew they didn't like me much. I didn't like them either. The cliques in this school pissed me off more than anything else. 

Tipoff. 

A soon as our players finger grazes the ball I feel a tightness in my chest that felt comparable to an elephant falling right on top of me. Everything around me stood still. I looked to my left, nothing moved. I looked to my right, nothing. I was trying to scream . . . nothing. "This is it man, fuck, fuck, fuck. Why is this happening to me? Is there something wrong? I need help! Please help!" My cries made it nowhere. Time stood as still as stone, my mind racing. My Dad had apparently died in the same way. Sudden chest pain and then death. Then it happened. A light as blinding as staring directly into the sun appeared in the middle of the gymnasium. A man appeared. A man no older than thirty-five by the looks of it. We locked eyes. He then sprinted toward me with what looked like the strength of an overly muscular horse and shouted at me as loud as he could. The words he uttered shook me to my core. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Is this fake? Am I dead already? What the fuck is going on? The tightness in my chest then increased ten fold. I proceeded to vomit on the group of people standing in front of me as the pressure in my chest made it feel like a volcano was erupting out of me. The man shouted those words again as loud as he possibly could. Reality begun to set in.

"Your father . . . his death . . . was no accident."