*JTH_77*: You first!!!!!!
*Angel_22*: Are we going to do those exclamation points again, because my computer is still surviving the last time!!
*JTH_77*: Are we mad???
*Angel_22*: No! Just frustrated. You know it’s hard for me to do!
*JTH_77*: And YOU know it’s hard signing off for me too. I could talk to you all day!
*Angel_22*: It’s nighttime, hon.
*JTH_77*: Yeah, whatever...I just love you.
Jessica Sarka stared at the bright glare of her computer. She blinked several times, making sure the typed words on her screen were really there. “What in the...” she thought to herself.
*JTH_77*: Jess? I have to go now, for real this time.
Jessica snapped out of her trance and forced herself to keep typing.
*Angel_22*: Wait! You can’t just leave now!
*JTH_77*: Jessica, I can’t. I really have to go.
*Angel_22*: Okay, but you can’t forget...
Jessica slowly lifted her hands off the keyboard, feeling as though she had been slapped. She continued to look at her screen, trying to get a hold of herself. “Okay,” she said out loud, “maybe I’m just being stupid. Maybe he didn’t mean “I love you” in that way.” She nodded. “Yeah, that’s it. It was just a casual...” Jessica couldn’t even finish the sentence. Maybe it was just a casual phrase, but Jessica didn’t want it to be. Reaching out, she pressed the power button on her CPU, leaving her in complete darkness, except for the faint lighting of the moon shining outside her window.
It was about 11:00 at night, and everyone else in the Sarka household was fast asleep. Hoping that she didn’t wake anybody already, she made her way over to her bed, trying not to trip over her accessories ever strewn across her bedroom floor. Finally reaching her bed, she buried under her covers and closed her eyes, trying to clear all the cobwebs out of her head. She was confused. Really confused. Over the past few months, she had noticed a change in Taylor. Sure, he still was the same sweet guy she had met in the Christian Chat room 2 years before, but there was something different. He seemed wrapped up in something that Jessica didn’t think he wanted her to know about.
Jessica sighed and turned on her side to look out her window covering most of the far wall in her room. She knew he was keeping something from her, and she hated it. Sure, he was allowed his secrets, and Jessica had hers, but it bothered her immensely. Up to tonight, she was sure they were growing apart...until he said the words that Jessica had kept so far down in her heart for so long. Words that she was sure he wouldn’t ever say, and words that she was sure she only felt. She wasn’t sure when she had fallen for a guy she never even saw, but she knew she had. Sometimes she would laugh at herself for it, and tell herself that she couldn’t fall in love with someone she hadn’t even met. But then she would completely forget her worries when an e-mail came from him, or she would talk for hours on-line to him about things she didn’t even discuss with her mom. She trusted him with all her heart, and finally came to know that love is based on that. She didn’t need to see him to know him.
Jessica closed her eyes again, and forced herself to stop thinking about him. She had a full day ahead of her and she needed her sleep. Her family had made a decision to move to Ohio so they could be with her father who was working up there for the summer. They would be staying there for about 3 months, and then they would go back home to Tulsa. “Think of Ohio,” Jessica told herself firmly, “not him.” Jessica concentrated on her aunt’s ranch, how there were miles and miles of just sky everywhere you turned, and pretty soon she had slipped off into a peaceful slumber. But not like Taylor wasn’t in her dreams... ************************************************************************ *********
“Finally!” Zac Hanson retorted, flinging his drumsticks on the couch, narrowingly missing his sister, Avery, “the tour is over!” With that, he started to do cartwheels all over the floor...well at least his version. Taylor Hanson appeared in the room behind his brother, and rolled his eyes at his antics. “Hey man, I thought you liked the tour thing!” he half yelled at his brother, pretending to be mad. Zac stopped the cartwheels, but went into a series of ballerina twirls instead. “I do!” he replied, not-so-gracefully doing a ballet jump, “it’s just that...oh, man I’m dizzy!” He dropped to his knees and held his head in his hands. Taylor laughed and threw his empty Dr. Pepper can at him, settling down on the couch next to his sister.
It was the end of their 1998 tour in Dallas, and the boys were dead tired. After 600,000 fans, 36 concerts, and covering the entire United States, they finally had a break for the whole summer, and the whole family couldn’t wait to be away from all the stress. As soon as the last concert ended, Isaac, the oldest Hanson, and Walker Hanson, their father, caught a flight to California. Isaac was going to spend the summer with his new girlfriend and Walker decided he wanted to start working again. He knew they didn’t need the money at all, but he loved his work and no one complained when he made the decision. While they were in California, the rest of the Hanson clan were going to be spending the summer on a quiet ranch in Ohio, away from fans and city-life. They made the decision not to go back home to Tulsa, because they knew if they went back, they would have no peace and quiet. They were making the plane ride there in two days, which made just enough time to pack and make last minute plans.
“Taybear?” Avery asked her big brother, “can I ride one of the ponies at the ranch?” Taylor looked at his sister and smiled. “I don’t think they have ponies at this kind of ranch, Avie.” Avery’s face dropped. Taylor chuckled and started tickling her. “Don’t look so down, babe, maybe there will be a horse there or something.” Avery’s face lighted at this. “Can you ride it with me?” she asked, hopeful. Taylor’s heart dropped down in his chest. Before Hanson hit the big time, Taylor and his younger siblings were very close, along with Isaac and Zac. When the tour came along, they hardly got to see them anymore, and Taylor had always felt guilty about it. “Of course I will, you know that,” Taylor replied, flipping Avery’s blonde ponytail in her face. Avery slapped Taylor on the arm, but still had a smile on her face. Just then, Diana, their mother, entered the room. “Okay, guys, let’s get in the car to go to the hotel. The bodyguards are waiting at the end of the hallway.” She started picking up toys up off the dressing room floor and placing them in the oversized bag they belonged in. Taylor smiled at his mother. He was glad she was getting a break from all of this, and he knew she was excited to see her college friends again.
Noticing that everyone was getting their stuff together, Taylor jumped to his feet and started to collect his various possessions from the large dressing room. Noticing his baseball hat under one of the many tables, he groaned as he bent down to retrieve it. He was so tired he felt as if his whole body was about to break. “Three whole months of rest and relaxation,” he thought, smiling to himself. Standing once again, he glanced around the room making sure he didn’t forget anything. “Taylor! Come on!” his mother shouted from the hallway. “Coming!” He yelled back. He made a beeline for the door, as he grabbed his Adidas jacket off a chair. But he stopped short when he recognized the gray box that appeared after he picked up the jacket. “Jessica,” he said out loud, recalling the conversation that he and his on-line friend had had just hours earlier. A blonde, nine-year-old head popped in around the corner. “What?” the girl asked. Taylor snapped out of his trance. “Oh, not you, Jessie,” he said to his sister. Jessie gave Taylor a weird look and shook her head. “Mom’s going to get mad, Tay,” she said. “I know, I’m coming.” Taylor grabbed his laptop and headed out the door, just stopping long enough to flick the light switch.
****I am in no way associated with Hanson or Mercury Records. What you are reading is purely fiction. F-I-C-T-I-O-N.****
