Cherry Pie

 This week my friend Ryan wanted me to write him his own personal story I asked him for a name, a time period and a place and this is what he gave me: Name: Jake, Time Period: 80s--4th of July, Place: On a hill in the mid west. Based upon that I am going to be writing a short story for him and adding on to it throughout the week and see where it goes. So Ryan this is for you:

Colors filtered through Jake's mind as he watched the clock sway slowly in front of him. Orange, red, yellow, then black was the last thing Jake remembered on July 4, 1985. It was now 10 years later and he still had blurry night terrors that woke him up in the middle of the night. Yet he had never been able to remember what exactly happened that night.

He had been engaged to a beautiful woman whose smile sparkled in his memory but whose eyes he had forgotten along with the rest of her. When he remember her smile he felt sadness but it wasn't the type of heartache you feel when you lose a loved one because he has no idea how he lost her or if that was even the case.

The woman he was with now had a similar smile but her mouth was smaller and her lips rough. Jake avoided kissing her on many occasions which of course pissed her off but he couldn't help himself - it always reminded him of kissing his abusive mother whose lips were rough on his cheek. He never told her this however but sometimes he wished he could. He liked having her near but ever since that night 10 years ago, he seemed to have lost the ability to love someone, at least in society's sense of love.

Jake also lacked a filter when he spoke to people and this caused him to go through women like water. Yet, Kate seemed to have stuck around the longest so far - about 6 months.

Kate loved one thing and one thing only - cherries. She had a cherry tattoo on her hip as well as oriental fans with cherries on them behind both her ears. Her hair was cherry red and her favorite shoes matched. Her favorite drink was a jack and cherry-coke with two cherries on top. Jake had never asked why and honestly didn't care but it seemed to be a never ending theme with Kate's life.

A cherry red mustang swung around the south corner and came to a smoking halt in front of her house. She jumped up from the couch when she saw his car speeding around the corner. She was dressed in all white and with her bright red hair blowing in the wind made her body looked like milk. He was leaning on the hood of the car with a cigarette balancing between his lips and gave her a short wink. She had  to get on her tip-toes to give him a kiss and she could taste the smoke as he blew it in her mouth.


He always wore the same high-top Reebok kicks with green neon toes. His hair was black, thick and curly and it always looked like he had just woken up. He had the persona of a bad boy but he would always open her door and at night when they couldn't be together he would call and sing to her, her favorite song, "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones. She always laughed when he sang "you make a grown man cry" and she always teased him by asking if she ever made him cry. He loved everything about his Wild Cherry, as he nicknamed her....