Seeing Britney

The year 1997      

The emergency room seemed dark and lonely as Mrs. Smith waited.

The year 2001

            Josh had been living on Elm Street for about 2 years.  It was in a nice neighborhood with decent people.  The neighborhood had a good school system but he didn’t have to worry about that since he was only 24 and didn’t have any kids.  His friend Justin had lived with him for about a year and they both agreed though the neighborhood was nice it lacked hot girls. They were single young men looking for someone to settle down with, but they couldn’t find anyone their own age worth dating.

            One day they noticed the old couple next door was moving out.  .

“Hey,” Justin said, “ I wonder who will be moving in next door.  There is a chance that it will be some hot chick.”

“Yeah,” Josh replied, “ I was just thinking that.”

            A few days later they noticed moving trucks pulling into the driveway next door. 

Josh decided it would be polite to introduce himself to the new neighbors and make them feel welcome.  As he walked across his front yard he saw a family of four pull up behind the moving truck.  There were two girls in the backseat and a man and women in the front seat.  The women saw Josh coming toward them and she got out of the care and walked in the direction of him.  “Hello, I am Mrs. Lynn Smith.  These are my daughters, Kelley and Jamie.  That over there is my husband Scott. What is your name?”

He answered, “ My name is Josh.  I live next door with my friend Justin.  I was just wondering if you’d like any help.”

“Sure, you can take the black boxes to the attic, thank you.”

“No problem!”  And Josh started lifting the boxes from the truck.  He wondered what was in them. When he was almost to the attic he tripped and one of the boxes opened.  Out fell a beautiful diamond bracelet, some certificates and a few pink plastic roses.  As he picked up the certificates he read “Awarded to Britney Smith on this day for excellent performance in….” That was all he read.  He wondered who Britney was and why she wasn’t with the family.  Maybe she had gone to college or something.  It was stupid of him to think anything else.  As he put the things back into the box he saw some light pink bed sheets with flowers sprinkling them.  They looked as if they belonged to a little girl. He started thinking about how one day he would like sheets like that for his little girl.   He wondered about the girl Britney and wondered if maybe they were her sheets.  He wondered if she looked anything like her family and where she was at this minute.  Then he realized he was taking a long time with one box and  hurried to the attic. 

            That night he told Justin about the box.  “I couldn’t help but wonder what this girl looks like.  She seems like a really girly person.”

“It’s too bad she doesn’t live with her family anymore.  Judging by the rest of them she must be pretty good looking.”

“Yeah.” Just then Josh looked out the window and noticed a girl sitting on the Smith’s back porch.  He hadn’t seen her earlier.  She didn’t look like Kelley and she was too old to be Jamie.  He had to find out who she was.  As he walked out the door he looked over the fence and the girl was gone.  He had only taken his eyes off of her for a second and when he looked back she was gone.  Maybe he was just imagining her. 

            A few weeks later the Smiths were having a garage sale.  Josh decided to go check out what they were selling. When he got there he noticed it was all girly things he had taken to the attic.  Then he saw her.  She was standing by a table that had the diamond bracelet and the flowered sheets he had seen weeks before.  She seemed to be really interested in the sheets.  So interested that she picked them up and took them in the house.  When she returned Mrs. Smith was looking all over for the sheets. She asked Josh if he happened to see them anywhere while he was looking around.  He told her a girl had taken them into the house and she looked at him as if he were crazy.  “What girl?”

He answered, “A blonde girl with a tan.  Really pretty.”

“Is this some kind of joke you are playing mister?  If it is you’d better knock it off right now.  It isn’t funny!”

“No joke ma’am.  A beautiful blonde girl took the sheets inside.”  Mrs. Smith wheeled around and marched  into the house.  When she came out she apologized and said  Kelley must have taken them upstairs.  Josh told her it wasn’t Kelley but Lynn just ignored him.  He couldn’t have been describing who she thought he was describing.  It was impossible.  He couldn’t know.

            That night Josh was outside when he noticed something sparkling next to his pool.  He couldn’t figure out what it was so he walked toward it.  As he got closer to the shining object a girl suddenly appeared.  She was sitting at the edge of the pool with her feet in the water.  It was the girl who had taken the sheets.  She was wearing the diamond bracelet. She turned to Josh and said, “forgive me for intruding, but your pool, it looked so refreshing, I didn’t think it would hurt if I put my feet in for a few minutes.”

“No problem.” He replied, “Nice bracelet.”

“My boyfriend gave it to me on prom night.”

“Oh. That’s nice.  So I’ve seen you around, where do you live?”

“Next door, I just moved in.  My mother is so silly.  She is always trying to get me to get rid of some of my things.  She says some of it is for babies.  I never thought she’d go so far as putting them into a garage sale without me knowing.  I took back what I wanted.  She tried to sell my bed sheets. Can you believe that?”

“Uh… no I can’t.  You live next door?”

“That’s what I said silly.”

“What is your name, your mother didn’t say anything about a third daughter.”

“I’m Britney.  She’s forgetful like that. I just got here yesterday.  Well I am going to go home now.  See ya!”

“Yeah, see ya.”

            Josh went back to the house.  “Who were you talking to?” Justin asked.

“That girl I told you I kept seeing.”

“I didn’t see any girl”

“well, I didn’t see her until I got closer to her.  That was weird how she suddenly appeared like that.”

“No I think you were just talking to yourself.  You are a crazy person.”

“Her mother told me that when I told her she had taken the sheets inside. I am not crazy.”

A few days later Josh decided he wanted to see Britney again so he went next door to get her. He knocked on the door and Lynn opened the door,  “Can I help you?” 

“Uh… I’m here to see Britney.” 

The expression on Lynn’s face was a mix of shock, hurt and anger. “This is not funny and you’d better knock it off right now. Do you hear me? I don’t want any more of this joking. It is cruel to do that to someone who hasn’t done a thing to you.” And with that she slammed the door in his face.

He knocked again. “you do have a daughter named Britney, don’t you?”

“no I do not know what you are talking about.”

“well I talked to a girl who said she was your daughter Britney.  She was telling me how you hated her sheets and you put them in the garage sale with out her permission.  She is the one I saw taking the sheets in the house.”

“Come inside.”  Josh followed Lynn inside.  They went up the stairs and into a room on the third floor.  Josh looked around and saw pictures of the girl he had seen.  There were trophies from gymnastics, dance and vocal competitions all around.  The certificates that had fallen out of the black box were in the room.  So were the pink roses and pillows in the same print as the pink sheets.    He studied some of the pictures.  In one photo, a girl, whom he assumed was Britney, was standing in front of an Accura  in a long pink spaghetti strapped dress with a slit in the side almost up to her hip, her long blonde hair in curls.  Next to her was a boy in a tuxedo holding a box with a diamond bracelet in it.     Lynn stood next to Josh and said, “When she bought that dress I thought it would be too sexy for her.  I was so mad at her for buying it, but she looked so beautiful in I couldn’t stay mad.”  Josh looked around a little more.  Then he came to a newspaper article.  Lynn took it off the wall and placed it in his hands.  As Josh read it his jaw dropped. 

The year 1997

“Kyle slow down!” Britney yelled over the music.

“Aw! Brit, I’m just trying to have a little fun.”

“We haven’t even gotten to the prom, it’s not time to act like an idiot yet.  You are going to get us into an accident”

“Relax, I’ve got it under control..”

Britney looked out the window just as the car skidded from the road. The last thing she saw was the bridge railing.  After that everything went black.

The emergency room seemed dark and lonely as Mrs. Smith waited.