the dream

jared's dream of the worst time of his life. nanowrimo piece.

Jarred Bowman Had always has been a handful for his mother. As young child, he had been an inquisitive child, but had an obstacle put in front of him, he has a learning disability. Jarred was born in a time when medicine was not available for his condition, so Jared’s mom had to give extra help. After twelve long years, Jarred finally graduated from high school.
On the day of his Graduation, only his mother could attend the ceremonies that ensued. His father, although he did not talk much about his job, had to be away from home on a “business trip” at this time.
Neither of them really wanted this trip to happen, so they said their unhappy good-byes and his father got into a cab that to take him to the airport, and sped away down the street, leaving Jarred standing there in his cap and gown ready to depart for the school.
“Tell me again mom,” Jarred asked,” Dad is a salesman, right?”
Jared’s mom paused for a second,” Yes, Jared , he is.”
Jarred turned his head and glared at his mother’s face, after spending his entire life with her, he could tell, by the expression on her face, that she was lying to him.
“Are you sure?” Jarred questioned her.
“Yes,” she answered avoiding eye contact with him altogether.
“Mom,” Jarred pushed, “I know you…”
“Jarred!” she interrupted him, “Just get into the car we are going to be late.”
Jarred did as he was told, without bringing it back up again they departed. In about ten minutes, this was a record as traffic never just worked out going to his school, it always snarled up in one spot or another along the way. However, today was different; it was almost as if today was supposed to happen.
This day had seemed surreal to the whole family, with Jared’s disability, none of them, Jarred included ever thought he would have been graduating. The day was perfect for it, no clouds in the sky, the sun was shining, and there could not have been a perfect day for this ceremony for Jarred.
The ceremony went off without a hitch. Jared’s classmates walked one at a time across the stage to get their diplomas and the back to their seats to watch all the others do it.
With his ADHD, Jarred always had issues with just sitting still, but through the magic of medicine he had no problem sitting there watching and waiting while everyone he knew celebrated their graduation by walking across the same stage as he did.
There was a commotion at the gate to the football field that caught Jared’s attention, Four dark sedans, with tinted windows, slid to a stop. The doors opened and four dark suited men got out. They were stopped at the gate with the ticket taker, within seconds the groups of men were allowed in. The moved with speed, skill, and authority as they moved through the crowd towards his mother, who at this time had not seen them yet.
“Missus Bowman,” One of them asked while looking at her with an unchanging expression.
She turned her head and the color drained from her face as she looked at the men standing beside her. She knew what this meant.
“Can we talk privately, ma’am?” he asked her.
She said nothing as this was the moment she had feared for a long time. She nodded and followed the men to a more private area. Jarred could see them from where he was sitting.
“It is about your husband,” He said,” His plane went down in a fireball about ten minutes after takeoff. He is dead.”
As when she heard the news she cried and nearly collapsed her knees became weak, Jarred seeing this nearly ran to his mother’s side but was stopped by the handler sitting right next to Jarred for the ceremony.
The men who were talking turned to one of the men with him and said something then pointing to the crowd where he was sitting. Then he made a beeline towards him and had a similar occurrence with the handler as they did at the gate.
“Come with me son,” he said in an expressionless, but authoritative voice.
Jarred went willingly with the man, towards the other group which had started moving towards the cars.
“What is going on, mom,” Jarred asked.
“Jarred?” she said as she took his hand in hers,” Your father’s plane exploded shortly after takeoff, he, along with everyone else on the plane is dead.”
She could see the color in his face just fade, his facial expression changed, and a tear burned his way down his cheeks.
“All this?” he said as he motioned to the others in the car with him,” Was because a salesman died?”
“Jarred, “His mom looked deep into his eyes,” Your father was not a salesman. He was…”
“Ma’am,” one other suited men interrupted which stopped her from saying what she wanted to,” I’m not sure that is a good idea at this time.”
“My son,” she spoke up in an almost rude tone of voice,” Has just lost his father, he will know the truth.”
The dark suited man then turned around and looked ahead of him.
Jared’s mother turned to her son,” Your father wasn’t a salesman; he was an operative for the CIA.”
Now jarred was upset, as he felt as though he had been lied to all his life about it, which of course was true.
“Jared?” his mother asked after a few moments of awkward silence,” Talk to me.”
Jared’s eyes shot open, his face covered in his sweat. As his eyes focused, he realized he was in his dorm room.
“Oh!” he moaned as he sat upright, realizing he was having the dream again, “Why dad? Why did you leave me?”