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[outsideyour-window]

It happened on a beautiful day with my beautiful wife and beautiful children.

My wife is beautiful in a way that’s hard to describe. It’s a God-given kind of beauty, like a waterfall or mountain top. I can’t say what makes her so beautiful, but her face is addicting. I want to climb inside of her and live in her warm darkness.

The only thing that rivals her beauty is my children, Sammy and Sam. We named Sam after me, and Sammy after my wife, Samantha. Every person we pass stops us and says how beautiful we look. Sam, Samantha, Sam and Sammy. A perfect, American family.

Samantha’s parents came from money, so when her mother died, we inherited their house in the Rockies. Our backyard stretched right into a frisbee golf course, which winded down to a quaint downtown. As the frisbee golfers trail by, I like to sit on the back deck, drink my coffee, and listen to the breeze. The air in the Rockies is so clean it feels like your blood is getting filtered every time you inhale.

Sometimes my wife would come out and sit next to me. We liked to talk about our dreams. The money we got when her mother died was enough to live six lifetimes, so we had plans for foundations and charity work. We cared about a lot of things, which was easy when you had the kind of money we had. You’d lose track when you tried to count the zeroes in our savings account.

On the day they disappeared, Samantha, Sam, Sammy, and I were walking along the frisbee golf path through the trees. It was early September. The air was crisp and bright, the mountain tops free of last year’s snow. Sam was telling us about a show he just watched. It was of a family that liked to walk through the woods. It sounded like something I would enjoy.

As he reached the end of the trail, Samantha grabbed my hand and looked up at me. Her eyes were big and blue, just like mine.

“I love you, Sam,” she said, “Thank you for taking care of us. Thank you for loving us. You’re an amazing father, and husband, and person. Thank you so much.”

She leaned forward and kissed me. It was a long, warm kiss. Our kids were giggling, but we didn’t care. I wrapped my hand behind her head and pushed her closer to me. Her chapstick was sweet like watermelon. The air was rich with pine scent.

When I pulled away from her kiss, she had tears in her eyes. They were happy tears, but tears nonetheless. I wiped them away with my thumb.

She started to say something, but I didn’t catch it. She opened her mouth to try again, but no sound came out. I laughed as I wiped another tear from her cheek. They were falling faster now.

“Fish out of water?” I asked.

But, she didn’t smile. She continued to flap her lips. Her eyes looked directly at me, blinking in rhythm with her mouth. Open, close. Open, close.

“Samantha?” I asked.

I looked down at Sam and Sammy to see if they noticed their mother’s weird behavior, but they were mimicking her. They were all looking at me, blinking and breathing in a quick rhythm, like the air was leaving the atmosphere.

I took a step away from them. They’re lips were perfectly synchronized. Open, close. Open, close.

“Please, stop,” I said, taking another step back, “Why are you doing this?”

But, they didn’t stop. They continued, moving faster. They took a step closer to me.

“Stop!” I yelled. I never raised my voice, but this seemed to call for it.

They weren’t the kind to pull pranks, so I didn’t appreciate them doing it now. And, why such a weird prank? Why not put shaving cream on my hand when I was sleeping? That was a classic, American prank. This was just odd.

Then, all of a sudden, they did stop. They closed their mouths and shut their eyes. I breathed a sigh of relief. I made a mental note to address this with all of them at the dinner table that night.

“Can someone explain that weird mouth thing?” I said. But, they didn’t respond. They stood with their arms at their sides, looking more like the trees than my family. They were standing on their tippy toes. I could see their chests rising and falling softly. They were breathing, but just barely, like the air was precious.

I decided to give them a brief lecture on the danger of pranks, but, when I tried to speak, I couldn’t open my mouth. It felt like a branch was climbing through my lips and over my tongue and right into my throat.

I looked behind Samantha, Sam, and Sammy for help, for another family, or hiker, or something. But, I didn’t see that. All I saw was something odd, a light of some kind. It started small at first, then got larger and larger, growing from the size of a fingernail to the face of a mountain. It moved like a crashing wave.

As the light came closer, Samantha and our children began to shake, like a cold wind had crossed them. Their arms were still glued at their sides, but they peered up at me now, their eyes as big dinner plates. They were frozen like that as the light came closer. I should have reached out to them. I should have done something, held them, taken cover, kissed them one last time.

As the light swallowed them, it took me next. Everything was bright and harsh and burning hot.

“Tony?” a voice asked. It was a woman’s voice. It came from somewhere in the light. It was procedural sounding, like a tour guide.

I tried speaking, but it was still too difficult.

“Tony?” she said again, “Can you hear me?”

As I stared into the heat, the light started to change. The blinding brightness took on more color; there were blues and reds and browns. They started in strange shapes, then took on figures I recognized. Faces. Bodies. Bed frames.

I tried to speak again. I managed one word.

“Samantha?” I asked. My voice was deeper and rougher than usual.

“No, Tony,” the voice said, “My name is Doctor Fierno. You’ve been in an accident.”

I kept blinking, and each time, the world of the light became clearer. There were doctors standing around me. Some looked younger, college aged. They were all writing things down.

“Where’s Samantha?” I asked again. For as much as I didn’t understand, I knew I needed to find them. Maybe I had fallen on a hike, or crashed my car on the way to get the groceries. Either way, I needed to let them know I was okay.

Doctor Fierno turned around to one of the other doctors. He was an older man with a big, grey beard.

“Any Samanthas on record?” she asked. The doctor shrugged.

“Samantha,” I repeated, feeling an anger rise in me, “Or Sam, or Sammy. Please. Just let me see them.”

Doctor Fierno smiled at me, as if my family was an inside joke she didn’t understand. She turned around and faced the group of young doctors.

“Tony DeLaurente. 45 years of age. Head trauma sustained during a drunk driving accident. Patient was coming back from a bar when he hit and killed a family of four on Highway 45.”

I didn’t understand what she was saying. This was no time for stories. I tried to stand up to get her attention, but when I did, I snapped back onto the bed. I was handcuffed to the bed frame.

Doctor Fierno didn’t even turn around.

“He’s been in a comatose state for 3 weeks,” she continued, “Patients have a range of reactions, some of them include anger. Normally there is a next of kin to keep them calm, but his closest relative is an estranged brother in Iowa.”

Doctor Fierno looked at the door. There were two men dressed in suits with police badges on their lapels.

“We should let the detectives have the room,” she said to the other doctors.

As the doctors left and the detectives came over to the side of the bed, I closed my eyes. They started talking to “Tony”, but I ignored them.

I closed my eyes and prayed this dream would end so I could wake up in my life. Samantha needed me. Sam and Sammy needed their father. I had no memory of, or interest in, the life of Tony.

But, no matter how hard I closed my eyes, I could still hear the detectives’ voices. I didn’t answer their questions. I was only thinking about one thing. My family was lost and I needed to find them.

[outsideyour-window]

When I found her, she was waving at her reflection. It wasn’t waving back.

[outsideyour-window]

I thought the cabin would be a much-needed getaway. I was wrong.

Full Story Here: https://www.wattpad.com/910055870-outside-your-window-the-cabin

[outsideyour-window]

I walked into the woods on Saturday. By Monday, I couldn’t walk. 

Full Story Here: https://www.wattpad.com/910018618-outside-your-window-the-stranger