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LIGHT BULB

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I felt the warmth as Isaac walked in. He was a morning person, not like Taylor and Zac. He woke up smiling and humming a little tune. Today it seemed to be the childhood song, "London Bridge." He turned the faucets on, using warm water to begin his day. The grey marble basin filled, and Isaac lathered up his shaving cream. Carefully tracing over the white areas with his shiny silver razor, Isaac removed all the light stubble from his face. He grinned into the mirror, raising his eyebrows repeatedly.

"Ike, you are the man, ya big dork." He chuckled to himself, ran a comb through his hair and smoothed out his shirt. He brushed his teeth, making sure to get each one as white as the next.

"Goin' to her house today.......ya, ya, ya....last night was great..." he sang quietly. I heard his name being called from downstairs, and apparently he did as well.

"COMING MOM!" He quickly buttoned the top button of his shirt and sprinted out the door.
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I wished I could have prevented what was going to happen next. Early the next morning, Isaac walked into the bathroom. I attempted to send him a mental message, Go back Isaac, don't come in, please don't come in! Unfortunately, he entered despite my unheard pleas. He flipped the light on, looked at the toilet and noticed Taylor. He sighed heavily and rolled his eyes, approaching the sleeping body. He was the one that normally found Taylor asleep in here and returned him to his correct bed.

"Tay, get off the toilet, I have to pee!" Isaac shook the limp body. "Come on Taylor, move!" He persisted. Suddenly his voice became weary and urgent, "Tay, please move. Please? Tay, come on Tay!" As he shook harder, a foul liquid poured from Taylor's lips. Isaac dropped the shoulders he'd been grabbing and retched a few times. He began quickly backing out the door, grasping at the doorway for support to keep himself from collapsing to the floor.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" At that time he yelled for Zac and Walker. I wished I could have helped him, or save Taylor, or do something, anything, to prevent from the havoc that would soon be cast upon this house. Walker carried Isaac from his spot on the floor to another room. I would have cried if I could have.

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Isaac appeared dead himself. His eyes were swollen, sunken in, and glassy, as if there were no life or feelings behind them. His face was pale, and he had a permanent trail of tears down his cheeks. His hair looked like it hadn't been washed in a couple days, stringy and hanging in his face. Once again the gray marble basin was filled, but this time with cold water. Dressed in a dreary, black outfit, he stared blankly at himself. There was no normal thought process to what he was doing this morning, and he robotically splashed some of the water on his face. He shivered as the water ran the curve of his chin, down his neck and into his shirt. He patted his face dry with a towl and leaned over the sink, peering down into the rippled reflection. Touching his nose to the water, he plunged his face into the water for as long as he could, struggling for a few seconds, then removing it. He breathed heavily, sucking in as much air as possible.

Then looking at his reflection said, "I can't do that to mom anyway." He collected his watch from the drawer under the sink and put it around his wrist. Taylor had given it to him as a present on Christmas Day, 1995. Isaac didn't really like it, so he stuck it in that drawer, claiming to have lost it. He involuntarily fingered the circumference of the face on the watch and smiled grimly. Again, I wished I could cry. Suddenly, he spoke.

"Taylor, I know that you are in this bathroom. You died here, and souls are suppose to linger in the spot where they last were alive, at least for a little while. I can feel your energy. All I can say to you is that this was the most taken for granted present that you ever gave me, and I'm never going to take it off again now. I know its too late to say I'm sorry and thank you, but I'm going to anyway. I wish I could get you back for just a moment so that I could have told you that I loved you, or given you one last hug. I just want to show you that I appreciated what you did for me, and your love." He smiled at his mirrored image, "This is kinda funny. It's like when Zoe lost that puzzle piece to her favorite puzzle and we didn't find it until we searched the backyard. At that point it had gone through about four thunderstorms and was unusable. Only in this case, our family is the puzzle and you're the piece we didn't find until it was unusable. I'll always keep you in my prayers and thoughts, and.....and I miss you." There were no more tears to leave Isaac's eyes that morning. He was all cried out. But the last thing he did in that bathroom, ever, was to put a single rose in a vase on the back of the toilet. A nice picture of Taylor was leaned up against the vase, and a small toy train was placed next to it. To anyone, it would have seemed like the most odd place for such a pretty little decoration, but to the family, it stood for a lifetime of memories.

I knew at that point I'd never seen another member of the Hanson family again, so I reflected the gorgeous memorial of Taylor as nicely as possible. No one would forget how special he was, or any of the family at that matter. I would always remember them, but now I could reflect the REAL Taylor, forever.

Reflections of
the one I use to be
Reflections of
the one I use to be...
- The Supremes
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