Post by Castle Court Jester on May 24, 2024 0:41:23 GMT -6
REMEMBER JENNIFER
“There! Over there, see?” Shana said, sitting up in the back seat of the car. “I’ll bet he
would. Whistle at him, Tonya!”
Jennifer pulled the Mustang over to the side of the road a little bit ahead of the young
man. She whistled at the young man and motioned him over.
“Are you ladies okay?” he asked when he reached their car.
“Oh, we’re just fine,” Jennifer replied with a
. “How are you?”
“I’m good, I’m good. Well, you ladies take care,” he said, feeling a little embarrassed.
“Wait honey!” Tonya said. “Would you buy us some beer? We’ll give you the money.
There’s a station a little ways back.”
“Um, I don’t know,” he said coming back. “You’re all underage huh?”
“What’s your name?” Shana asked.
“Uh, Jeff....my name’s Jeff.”
The girls gave Jeff their names. In less than a minute the car was heading towards the
station with Jeff sitting in the back seat next to Shana. Once at the station, Jennifer parked the
car. Jeff went inside and shortly came out with two 12 packs of beer.
“Here ya are!” Jeff said handing first one then the other to Shana.
“Thanks Jeff!” she said. The others smiled.
“Where were you walking to when we stopped you?” Tonya asked.
“Oh, home. Just home. No big deal.”
“Well, you wanna hang out a bit or go home?” Jennifer asked turning to look at him over
her shoulder.
Pretty soon they were back on the road enjoying the ride, the company the tunes and the beer.
They cruised the main boulevard for most of the night. It was the city’s hangout for the
teenage and older crowd. Jennifer let Tonya drive for a while as she talked to Lisa on the cell
phone. Jennifer didn’t mention the beer that was being passed around. Lisa would never let it go
if she did. Jennifer liked Lisa but sometimes she could be a little square.
“Who? No. Yeah, Tonya’s driving right now,” she said into the phone. “I don’t know,
hold on. Lisa wants to know if we’ve seen any cute boys yet?” Jennifer giggled. The girls’ eyes
all drifted over to Jeff automatically. “No, we haven’t yet,” Jennifer said into the phone, winking
at Jeff. Jeff shook his head like he’d been wronged and handed Shana a beer. Jennifer got off the
phone and handed it to Shana. Lisa wouldn’t be able to join them, she’d been grounded for her
grades. That was probably for the best anyway.
“With parents like that, it’s no wonder,” Jennifer whispered to herself and took a big swig of her
beer. “Like the way she handles?” she asked Tonya.
“Huh?” Tonya replied. The music was up loud. Metallica. Jennifer turned it down a little.
“I said, do you like the way she handles?”
“Oh, the car! Yeah!” Tonya said. “You know I’ve always loved your car.”
Tonya had always liked Jennifer’s Mustang. She never dreamed she’d actually get to drive it
someday. This was really cool!
“Good,” Jennifer said. “You drive for a bit longer then I’ll take it back.”
With that said, she turned Metallica back up again as the Mustang cruised down the boulevard.
The girls switched drivers during a bathroom break at another gas station off the boulevard. By
now they were acting silly but the attendant either dismissed their behavior or simply didn’t care. He
had the ballgame playing on a small television on a desk behind him and the world was just as fine as
she could be. Jennifer bought some smokes and climbed in behind the wheel.
“Check out Jeff and Shana,” Tonya said, getting in front on the passenger’s side. “They’
re asleep.”
“Yeah and kind of cozy too if you know what I mean,” Jennifer said, holding back a
laugh.
“Oh! So cute!” Tonya smirked, closing her door.
Jennifer and Tonya kept the music low for Jeff and Shana in the back.
“I’m getting kind of tired of cruising up and down here,” Jennifer said, glancing over at
Tonya.
“Yeah, I was just thinking that myself,” she replied. “We could head out towards Silver
Lake,” she suggested.
“That sounds good,” Jennifer said.
“Owee!!” a bunch of boys yelled, passing them and then slowing a little so the girls could
catch up.
“Oh, my god!” Tonya said, giggling.
Jennifer punched the gas and soon they were nose to nose with the boys and their car.
“Hey baby!” the driver yelled to Tonya, passing her a.
“Hey!” she called back.
“What’s your friend’s name?” another boy asked, leaning out from a back, side window of
the blue car. They were slowed down some by now.
“Who? You mean driving?” Tonya asked.
“That would be the one, not the lovebirds in back,” he said. The rest of the boys laughed
at that.
“They wanna know your name,” Tonya said to Jennifer.
“C’mon baby! Don’t let me down!” the first boy said from the car.
“Well, tell ‘em.....” Jennifer began but stopped.
All of a sudden the blue car sped down the boulevard.
“Damn,” Jennifer said. “Hold on.”
“Maybe we should just let them....,” Tonya began but it was too late.
Jennifer slammed down the gas pedal and the car took off down the boulevard in pursuit.
“Jennifer, slow down!” Tonya said nervously, looking at her friend. “Slow down!” She
was tensed up, her hand grasping the hand hold on her door. “Jennifer.....” behind them Jeff
and Shana were starting to wake up.
“Jennifer!”
“It’s fine!” Jennifer said.
The car continued to barrel down the boulevard, beginning to catch up.
“JENNIFER STOP!” Tonya screamed. Jeff and Shana were ripped awake.
Jennifer had time to say, “Oh Shit!” once then the car struck the median in the middle of the
road. It momentarily went into the air, turning as it came crashing down on its roof where it
rolled a couple of times before at last rocking to a stop.
Tonya could see a white light slowly becoming larger in front of her eyes. And sounds. It was
as if her head were underwater. Eventually her sight and hearing began to improve. She could see
that she was in a hospital. One of the nurses noticed she was awake and signaled that she needed
assistance.
“Hi honey,” a nurse said, coming over to her.
“Where are the others?” Tonya asked weakly.
“There’s been an accident,” the nurse said. “Your two friends are injured but they are
going to be fine and so are you. She wiped Tonya’s forehead with a wet cloth.
“Two?” Tonya said. “No, three you mean. You mean three others.” She looked up at
the woman. The woman smiled at her as two other nurses came in along with a doctor. Tonya tried to
sit up in bed. “The driver, Jennifer,” she said, falling back down on the verge of tears. “Jennifer?”
The nurse looked at her softly and slowly shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” she gently said.
“NO!” Tonya screamed. She bolted up again not feeling the pain. “NO!” The nurse took
her in her arms. Tonya burst into tears.
Tonya had a broken right arm as well as some bad, various bumps and bruises all over her body.
She was lucky. Shana had a broken leg, broken collarbone and three broken ribs. Jeff had suffered
major injuries in the accident as well but would recover.
Tonya and Shana both had nightmares over the incident for quite some time but they were
there for each other. They had always been close friends but this had brought them even closer
together. They never heard much from Jeff after the accident, only a couple of times since being in the
hospital.
About a month later, Tonya sat on the front porch of her house looking up at the stars in
the night sky. She never could find the constellation “Indus.” She had heard that all of the stars in the
constellation were very faint and therefore made it hard for one to find. Shana and her parents would
be over for dinner soon. Tonya’s father was barbecuing hamburgers and hot dogs in the back yard
and Tonya could feel and hear her tummy beginning to growl.
It had been a rough time and would continue to be rough. She thought about the boys in
the blue car. Had they even stopped when the accident happened? Maybe they had. She shook
her head back and forth then rested it between her hands with her elbows on her knees.
“I’ll never forget you Jennifer,” she said, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. She came
back to reality by a van pulling into the driveway. For a second she was lit up on the porch steps
by the headlights and then it was dark again. Shana’s mom and dad got out first, her dad waving
a “howdy do” at her as he got out from the driver’s seat. Tonya said, “Hello!” returning the wave.
Shana’s mom helped as Shana came down from the van.
“Hey Tonya!” she said, handing her crutches to her mom when she reached the porch and
eased herself down by her friend.
“We’ll be in the back with Mike and Cindy,” Shana’s mother said, looking over her
shoulder at the girls as Shana sat down.
“Okay mom,” Shana said.
“So, how you doin’?” Tonya asked, pretending she was about to slap a hard one on
Shana’s leg.
“I’m okay,” she said. “As okay as I can be I suppose. I don’t think I ever want to drink
another beer for as long as I live though, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah. Least in a car anyway,” Tonya agreed skipping a stone down the front walk.
“You still dreamin’?,” she asked Shana, turning her head to look at her.
“Yeah,” Shana said. “It’s not as frequent though. Not every night anymore,” She looked
at Tonya with a little smile. Tonya could tell that it was strained.
“I think the therapy’s helping,” Shana said. She skipped a stone of her own.
“Yeah, me too,” Tonya agreed. “My nightmares have subsided some too.”
“That’s good,” said Shana. She shivered for a moment and looked up at the stars. Tonya
followed her gaze.
“I can never find “Indus,” she said.
“The Indian?” Shana asked, looking at her.
“Yeah,” said Tonya.
“Here!” Shana said taking Tonya’s hand and tracing the pattern for her. “See?”
At first Tonya still didn’t see but then all of a sudden it was there.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “I see!” she said excitedly. “Cool!” She smiled. Shana was glad
to see it.
“Don’t mention it,” Shana said. She shivered again. “What friends are for.”
“Yeah, definitely” Tonya said.
They looked at each other for a moment then hugged.
“Man, those burgers are startin’ to smell pretty good,” Tonya said with a chuckle.
“Yeah!” Shana said, wiping her eyes with her shirtsleeve. “Let’s go see how they’re
coming along.”
“Girls?” Shana’s dad said, coming around the corner of the house.
“Yeah dad?” Shana said.
“Burgers are done,” he replied.
“Okay, be right there,” Shana said.
“As soon as we can get her up,” Tonya added.
Shana’s dad smiled and started coming over to help.
“We got it,” Shana said, looking at Tonya.
Tonya helped Shana up and the three of them went in back to join the others.
The End --msl2024 This is a fictional story I wrote based on true events of a friend of mine that I was friends with since the 4th grade. This happened in our senior year of high school. Jennifer is not her real name. I changed it for privacy purposes for the story. I miss her dearly though. We were very close friends. I thought this would be a nice time to post the story in her memory.
“There! Over there, see?” Shana said, sitting up in the back seat of the car. “I’ll bet he
would. Whistle at him, Tonya!”
Jennifer pulled the Mustang over to the side of the road a little bit ahead of the young
man. She whistled at the young man and motioned him over.
“Are you ladies okay?” he asked when he reached their car.
“Oh, we’re just fine,” Jennifer replied with a
. “How are you?”“I’m good, I’m good. Well, you ladies take care,” he said, feeling a little embarrassed.
“Wait honey!” Tonya said. “Would you buy us some beer? We’ll give you the money.
There’s a station a little ways back.”
“Um, I don’t know,” he said coming back. “You’re all underage huh?”
“What’s your name?” Shana asked.
“Uh, Jeff....my name’s Jeff.”
The girls gave Jeff their names. In less than a minute the car was heading towards the
station with Jeff sitting in the back seat next to Shana. Once at the station, Jennifer parked the
car. Jeff went inside and shortly came out with two 12 packs of beer.
“Here ya are!” Jeff said handing first one then the other to Shana.
“Thanks Jeff!” she said. The others smiled.
“Where were you walking to when we stopped you?” Tonya asked.
“Oh, home. Just home. No big deal.”
“Well, you wanna hang out a bit or go home?” Jennifer asked turning to look at him over
her shoulder.
Pretty soon they were back on the road enjoying the ride, the company the tunes and the beer.
They cruised the main boulevard for most of the night. It was the city’s hangout for the
teenage and older crowd. Jennifer let Tonya drive for a while as she talked to Lisa on the cell
phone. Jennifer didn’t mention the beer that was being passed around. Lisa would never let it go
if she did. Jennifer liked Lisa but sometimes she could be a little square.
“Who? No. Yeah, Tonya’s driving right now,” she said into the phone. “I don’t know,
hold on. Lisa wants to know if we’ve seen any cute boys yet?” Jennifer giggled. The girls’ eyes
all drifted over to Jeff automatically. “No, we haven’t yet,” Jennifer said into the phone, winking
at Jeff. Jeff shook his head like he’d been wronged and handed Shana a beer. Jennifer got off the
phone and handed it to Shana. Lisa wouldn’t be able to join them, she’d been grounded for her
grades. That was probably for the best anyway.
“With parents like that, it’s no wonder,” Jennifer whispered to herself and took a big swig of her
beer. “Like the way she handles?” she asked Tonya.
“Huh?” Tonya replied. The music was up loud. Metallica. Jennifer turned it down a little.
“I said, do you like the way she handles?”
“Oh, the car! Yeah!” Tonya said. “You know I’ve always loved your car.”
Tonya had always liked Jennifer’s Mustang. She never dreamed she’d actually get to drive it
someday. This was really cool!
“Good,” Jennifer said. “You drive for a bit longer then I’ll take it back.”
With that said, she turned Metallica back up again as the Mustang cruised down the boulevard.
The girls switched drivers during a bathroom break at another gas station off the boulevard. By
now they were acting silly but the attendant either dismissed their behavior or simply didn’t care. He
had the ballgame playing on a small television on a desk behind him and the world was just as fine as
she could be. Jennifer bought some smokes and climbed in behind the wheel.
“Check out Jeff and Shana,” Tonya said, getting in front on the passenger’s side. “They’
re asleep.”
“Yeah and kind of cozy too if you know what I mean,” Jennifer said, holding back a
laugh.
“Oh! So cute!” Tonya smirked, closing her door.
Jennifer and Tonya kept the music low for Jeff and Shana in the back.
“I’m getting kind of tired of cruising up and down here,” Jennifer said, glancing over at
Tonya.
“Yeah, I was just thinking that myself,” she replied. “We could head out towards Silver
Lake,” she suggested.
“That sounds good,” Jennifer said.
“Owee!!” a bunch of boys yelled, passing them and then slowing a little so the girls could
catch up.
“Oh, my god!” Tonya said, giggling.
Jennifer punched the gas and soon they were nose to nose with the boys and their car.
“Hey baby!” the driver yelled to Tonya, passing her a
.“Hey!” she called back.
“What’s your friend’s name?” another boy asked, leaning out from a back, side window of
the blue car. They were slowed down some by now.
“Who? You mean driving?” Tonya asked.
“That would be the one, not the lovebirds in back,” he said. The rest of the boys laughed
at that.
“They wanna know your name,” Tonya said to Jennifer.
“C’mon baby! Don’t let me down!” the first boy said from the car.
“Well, tell ‘em.....” Jennifer began but stopped.
All of a sudden the blue car sped down the boulevard.
“Damn,” Jennifer said. “Hold on.”
“Maybe we should just let them....,” Tonya began but it was too late.
Jennifer slammed down the gas pedal and the car took off down the boulevard in pursuit.
“Jennifer, slow down!” Tonya said nervously, looking at her friend. “Slow down!” She
was tensed up, her hand grasping the hand hold on her door. “Jennifer.....” behind them Jeff
and Shana were starting to wake up.
“Jennifer!”
“It’s fine!” Jennifer said.
The car continued to barrel down the boulevard, beginning to catch up.
“JENNIFER STOP!” Tonya screamed. Jeff and Shana were ripped awake.
Jennifer had time to say, “Oh Shit!” once then the car struck the median in the middle of the
road. It momentarily went into the air, turning as it came crashing down on its roof where it
rolled a couple of times before at last rocking to a stop.
Tonya could see a white light slowly becoming larger in front of her eyes. And sounds. It was
as if her head were underwater. Eventually her sight and hearing began to improve. She could see
that she was in a hospital. One of the nurses noticed she was awake and signaled that she needed
assistance.
“Hi honey,” a nurse said, coming over to her.
“Where are the others?” Tonya asked weakly.
“There’s been an accident,” the nurse said. “Your two friends are injured but they are
going to be fine and so are you. She wiped Tonya’s forehead with a wet cloth.
“Two?” Tonya said. “No, three you mean. You mean three others.” She looked up at
the woman. The woman smiled at her as two other nurses came in along with a doctor. Tonya tried to
sit up in bed. “The driver, Jennifer,” she said, falling back down on the verge of tears. “Jennifer?”
The nurse looked at her softly and slowly shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” she gently said.
“NO!” Tonya screamed. She bolted up again not feeling the pain. “NO!” The nurse took
her in her arms. Tonya burst into tears.
Tonya had a broken right arm as well as some bad, various bumps and bruises all over her body.
She was lucky. Shana had a broken leg, broken collarbone and three broken ribs. Jeff had suffered
major injuries in the accident as well but would recover.
Tonya and Shana both had nightmares over the incident for quite some time but they were
there for each other. They had always been close friends but this had brought them even closer
together. They never heard much from Jeff after the accident, only a couple of times since being in the
hospital.
About a month later, Tonya sat on the front porch of her house looking up at the stars in
the night sky. She never could find the constellation “Indus.” She had heard that all of the stars in the
constellation were very faint and therefore made it hard for one to find. Shana and her parents would
be over for dinner soon. Tonya’s father was barbecuing hamburgers and hot dogs in the back yard
and Tonya could feel and hear her tummy beginning to growl.
It had been a rough time and would continue to be rough. She thought about the boys in
the blue car. Had they even stopped when the accident happened? Maybe they had. She shook
her head back and forth then rested it between her hands with her elbows on her knees.
“I’ll never forget you Jennifer,” she said, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. She came
back to reality by a van pulling into the driveway. For a second she was lit up on the porch steps
by the headlights and then it was dark again. Shana’s mom and dad got out first, her dad waving
a “howdy do” at her as he got out from the driver’s seat. Tonya said, “Hello!” returning the wave.
Shana’s mom helped as Shana came down from the van.
“Hey Tonya!” she said, handing her crutches to her mom when she reached the porch and
eased herself down by her friend.
“We’ll be in the back with Mike and Cindy,” Shana’s mother said, looking over her
shoulder at the girls as Shana sat down.
“Okay mom,” Shana said.
“So, how you doin’?” Tonya asked, pretending she was about to slap a hard one on
Shana’s leg.
“I’m okay,” she said. “As okay as I can be I suppose. I don’t think I ever want to drink
another beer for as long as I live though, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah. Least in a car anyway,” Tonya agreed skipping a stone down the front walk.
“You still dreamin’?,” she asked Shana, turning her head to look at her.
“Yeah,” Shana said. “It’s not as frequent though. Not every night anymore,” She looked
at Tonya with a little smile. Tonya could tell that it was strained.
“I think the therapy’s helping,” Shana said. She skipped a stone of her own.
“Yeah, me too,” Tonya agreed. “My nightmares have subsided some too.”
“That’s good,” said Shana. She shivered for a moment and looked up at the stars. Tonya
followed her gaze.
“I can never find “Indus,” she said.
“The Indian?” Shana asked, looking at her.
“Yeah,” said Tonya.
“Here!” Shana said taking Tonya’s hand and tracing the pattern for her. “See?”
At first Tonya still didn’t see but then all of a sudden it was there.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “I see!” she said excitedly. “Cool!” She smiled. Shana was glad
to see it.
“Don’t mention it,” Shana said. She shivered again. “What friends are for.”
“Yeah, definitely” Tonya said.
They looked at each other for a moment then hugged.
“Man, those burgers are startin’ to smell pretty good,” Tonya said with a chuckle.
“Yeah!” Shana said, wiping her eyes with her shirtsleeve. “Let’s go see how they’re
coming along.”
“Girls?” Shana’s dad said, coming around the corner of the house.
“Yeah dad?” Shana said.
“Burgers are done,” he replied.
“Okay, be right there,” Shana said.
“As soon as we can get her up,” Tonya added.
Shana’s dad smiled and started coming over to help.
“We got it,” Shana said, looking at Tonya.
Tonya helped Shana up and the three of them went in back to join the others.
The End --msl2024 This is a fictional story I wrote based on true events of a friend of mine that I was friends with since the 4th grade. This happened in our senior year of high school. Jennifer is not her real name. I changed it for privacy purposes for the story. I miss her dearly though. We were very close friends. I thought this would be a nice time to post the story in her memory.
I hope this has helped with your grief.