Well, Tulsa got its first snow of the season this morning, and yet another White Christmas is here. It came rather early, too, I must say. Usually it's well into January before the first snowflakes hit your nose during frostbite, and then you're glad the sky has finally broke the ice. Broke the ice, get it? Snow? Ice? Haha, okay now.
On a happy but sad note, Christmas is just a few days away, yet it won't be the same. It's happened before, so I'm more comfortable with it. When it happened, I was younger, before I could almost even care. The "it" I'm referring to is the Hanson's absence. I'm sure going to miss Diana making to pecan pies for my mom. I can almost taste them now. I also miss baby-sitting Mac, Jess, and Avie; rollerblading and thumb-wrestling with Zac, challenging Go-Kart video game races and jumping on the trampoline with Ike, and creaming Tay in one-on-one basketball games. But in a matter of days, they'll be back. More like a matter of weeks if this keeps up.
In fact, I'm getting side effects from having them be away for so long. It may seem irregular, but it's memory flashbacks...in my dreams no less..."Dear Diary, 12-21-96
Maybe I should start from the beginning. I was born on a Wednesday. T'was a sunny morning, seven thirty-two in the morning to be exact, on March the fourteenth, nineteen eighty-three, the year of the boar. My name, Kimberly Jean Brown, a girl with dark blue eyes and a head of light brown hair, height from my father, slightly off but slender once puberty hit body frame from my mother, was given to me by my mother, Barbara Jean Brown, and my father, Douglas Paul Brown.
And yet the same day, another great expectation was born. My best friend, Jordan Taylor Hanson, was born the same year, same month, same day, same time, and the same hospital as I was. According to this theory, we were astrological twins, which is found very rare.
I remember my parents telling me how they met Taylor's parents, Diana and Walker Hanson. The funniest story. Well, not funniest, but almost weird. Actually, Walker met my dad first. They had gone to visit their babies in the nursery. They later intoduced Diana and my mom to each other, and became good friends. Then it finally dawned on them. They lived next door to each other! And got a good laugh out of it. Maybe it was because my family had just moved to the neighborhood from northern Oklahoma, where my father was raised, in Bartlesville.
Another memory I carried with me. Diana was due with her fourth child in just a few short weeks. Isaac, or Ike, was Taylor's older brother, and was almost eight years old. Zachary, or Zac, Taylor's younger brother, was almost three years old. Taylor and I were five years old.
Anyway, I remember it was a hot and sunny summer afternoon, and I was trying to ride "a big persons bike," as I would call it, by myself. My dad had been teaching me, and going through a long process doing it, too.
So as I was getting the hang of it, I lost my balance and fell off of my bike. I had scraped up my knee on the burning asphalt. I sat there next to my bike, letting out a few tears. Taylor happened to be sitting on his front porch, watching me attempt to ride a bike, like a "big girl." He dashed inside of his house, and then came back outside with a band-aid in his hand and a smile on his face. All sadness faded away, as he invited me inside for a popsicle.
It may seem silly, but that is one of my top five fondest memories.
"...and so diary, as I conclude another day, I come closer to the Hanson's arrival from Los Angeles. It just takes a matter of time. I hope I last."
I closed up my diary and locked it away into my nightstand.
I laid there in bed, thinking. Why was this memory effect coming over me? I pondered over that thought, and drited off to sleep, dazed about my brain.
"...Taylor, have you ever kissed anyone?" I threw down a card in the "Go Fish" pile, and scratched my knee.
"My mom." he replied sullenly, throwing down a card to add to the pile.
"Not like that kind of kiss..." I drifted off, looking up at him.
"You mean like on T.V.?" he asked, looking at me now.
"Yeah."
"...No."
I shrugged. "Got and two's?"
He sighed. "Go fish."
"Have you ever wondered what its like?" I asked immediately.
"I dunno. Sometimes." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, maybe we should try, just to see what's the big deal." I said, unsure.
"Um, okay." he agreed and looked up at me.
"We'll kiss on the count of three, okay?" I started.
"Okay." He began to lean in.
"Ready? One...two...three." I said as we leaned in together, and we kissed. Then we stared at each other in surprise for the longest time.
"I don't see what the big deal is." he said, looking down at his hand of cards.
"Yeah, me neither." I pursed my lips.
"Got any nines?"
"Go fish."...
I woke up and shot up in bed, and looked at my alarm clock. Three fourty-two in the morning. That dream was a reality three and a half years ago. I can't believe I dreamed that. It took awhile for me to fall back asleep, but I did, and chucked to myself.
A few days later, I had another dream relating to my flashbacks.
"...Taylor, what are you going to name your kids when you get older?" I asked, sitting on his trampoline after doing ten high kicks in a row.
"I'm not gonna have any kids." he said, picking at the fuzz on the trampoline.
"Well, what if you had to?" I asked, sitting on my legs in front of him.
"Ummm, well, I guess, well, maybe Abigail for a girl, and, um, maybe Joshua for a boy." he decided.
"Well, I like Stephanie for a girl and James for a boy." I said, and got back up and started jumping again.
"C'mon, Kim, I don't wanna jump anymore. Let's go play soccer or kick the ball around; something else." he whined.
"Oh, fine..." I agreed.
I shot out of bed, nearly sweating beads.
"Okay, what's going on?" I said aloud to myself, looking at my palms. I mean, this has happened twice.
I tried to get back to sleep, but I only gave myself a great deal of tossing and turning about.
The Hanson's were due back anyday now. Personally, I was jumping inside. Taylor had sent me a letter in November, and told me that he and his family would be back sometime in the beginning of January. Then after Christmas he sent another saying they'd be back sometime in the middle of January, seeing there was unfinished business that had to be settled in the recording studio because some recorder had lost the samples they needed for a song.
"Stupid guy." I said aloud to myself as I finished the letter, and tossed it on my bed.
"...Hey Tay, dare me to jump out of the treehouse?" I asked, looking out at the twelve foot jump below me.
"No, it's too risky. You might break something." he said and got up off his seat before I could do anything.
"Oh, come on." I said with a daring tone, and gave him a pathetic look.
"I don't think you should..." he trailed off.
"Too bad, I'm going to."
I jumped out of the treehouse, but lost my footing on a rusty nail that let a floorboard loose, and sprained my ankle when I hit the ground.
"Kim? Kim! Kim...
"Kim! Wake up! You have to get ready for school!" my mom yelled almost in my ear, shaking me to get up.
Great, another dream. That dream actually happened last summer. I must be going crazy.
Once again, I was dropped of by the old school bus, finishing up another day of eighth grade. The same old routine. I walked down the block and around the corner, seven houses down towards my house, lugging my bad with my History, Math, Science, and English books in my back-pack. Never changes.
As I walked up the driveway, I notice a teal van in the driveway next door to me.
"They're finally home; I'll visit them later." I thought, smiling, and unlocked the front door.