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I climbed the tree, when I got home, so I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. All I wanted was some time to think things through. Flopping down on my bed, I reached over and grabbed my dad’s journal.

March 28, 2005

Journal-

Baylee has finally crashed out for the night and Nick is sleeping soundly on the floor in Baylee’s room. He was too worn out to drive home and Baylee insisted that Nick sleep in his room. The two of them ran themselves to death today at the zoo!

It was highly amusing to watch those two. I think they ran around the zoo about five times! Then, Nick even talked Baylee into holding one of the snakes. I got pictures of them sitting on a bench with the huge boa. Leighanne just about freaked when Baylee told her about it. Baylee insisted on seeing the elephant six times and Nick dragged us to the aquarium more times than I can count. They both stood there, for over an hour, trying to name all of the fish. Quite honestly, I had a hard time keeping up with them all day. But I had just as much fun as they did. I really enjoy doing things with them; they make every outing a blast.

Oh, and THEN we stopped at McDonald’s on the way home. Baylee got his usual nugget Happy Meal but the cutest thing was when Nick got two Happy Meals for himself just so he could get the toys and play with Baylee! I had to take the action figures away from them until they finished their food…yes, Nick, too. After leaving, Nick sat in the backseat so they could play with their action figures for the rest of the ride home. Sometimes, I think Nick is my son, too! …


My reading was interrupted by the ring tone of my cell phone. Digging it out of my pocket, I saw it was the house number. “Hello?”

“Baylee? Are you alright? It’s getting late and I was starting to worry,” Nick’s soft voice floated through the phone. His voice carried a tone of concern.

“I’m in my room. I got home about an hour ago,” I responded as I laid my father’s journal back on the night stand.

“Oh, I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I didn’t really want to talk to anyone, so I just climbed up the tree.”

“Oh. Well, um, dinner is done if you want any, or I can just order you something.”

“I’ll be right down,” I flipped my phone shut and tossed it on the bed. My stomach growled as I began jogging down the stairs. The smell from the kitchen, actually, wasn’t that bad. “What’s cookin, Nicky?” He looked up at me with a bit of confusion. I hadn’t called him ‘Nicky’ in years, but reading the entry about us at the zoo made me want things to be like they used to be.

“Um…it’s uh…chicken. I, actually, got the recipe from AJ, who got it from his mom. It’s, like, a baked casserole kind of thing.”

“It actually smells pretty good. Where’s Howie?”

“He went out with AJ to a club or something,” he sat a plate in front of me before sitting down straight across the table.

“Nick?” I looked up before shoveling a forkful in my mouth.

“What, Baylee? Is it that bad?” His face dropped as he looked to me for my answer. He had not yet taken a bite, but, food was not what I wanted to talk about.

“No, the food is actually edible, for a change,” I smirked. “What I wanted to ask was: if you remembered when we went to the zoo with my dad?” I continued eating but Nick dropped his fork and stared at me as if he couldn’t believe I asked that question.

“Um…yeah,” he nodded towards me with scrunched eyebrows.

“What about the time that you got two Happy Meals just so you could have toys and play with me?” I pushed the subject further, hoping that we could ease into what we REALLY needed to talk about.

“I…um…how did you…I mean…who…um…”

“Do you or don’t you?”

“Well, yeah, I remember. It was the time that we held that snake. Why do you bring it up? I’m surprised you remember.”

“I don’t remember. But I was bringing it up because I miss that Nick.”

“We’ve been over this Baylee,” he sighed.

“I know…I’m just saying. Oh, and remember the time we went to Sea World? Dad kept telling us not to get to close, but we wouldn’t listen and we ended up drenched because a whale sprayed us!”

“I…I remember that!” he tossed his head back as he laughed.

“Then, the summer, right before that accident, you, me and dad camped out in the back yard…” I trailed off, hoping he would continue and he did.

“Oh yeah, we stayed up telling scary stories and ended up having a huge marshmallow fight!”

“Yeah, and when mom woke up, she freaked out because there were marshmallows everywhere and the sun was melting them into the grass!” We were both holding our sides as the memories came flooding back to us. Watching them in our minds like short movies, we continued to reminisce.

“And then there was the time that we covered your dad in silly string, right before he was supposed to take your mom out for dinner.” Nick brought up the next memory.

“Mom got some in her hair…”

“She went postal! We both got grounded.”

“We weren’t allowed to play together for, like, a week!” I could still see the look one her face as she tried to get the silly string out of her hair. “Oh…remember when we pretended to drown on April Fool’s Day?”

“We almost gave your dad a stroke!” his face was a dark red now and I am sure that mine was too.

“It was just too bad that I couldn’t hold my breath any longer! He was all like ready to give you mouth to mouth, until you spit water in his face!”

“You were pretty young, so you might not remember, but there was the time where I wrapped you up in a box for Kevin’s birthday…”

“Oh yeah…dad told me about that! You guys told him he had to open it immediately and when he started ripping the paper, I sat up and scared him out of his britches!”

“Yeah, the box had a top and it popped off of your head and hit Howie in the forehead because he was sitting on the floor!” Nick continued. We both took several deep breaths to calm ourselves.

“Hey, did we ever do anything to AJ?” I tilted my head to the side.

“You know, I can’t remember us doing much of anything to AJ. When you were younger, you were more afraid of AJ than anyone else.” Nick’s trademark smirk formed on his lips.

“Well…” I smiled, “I’m not afraid of him NOW.” I wiggled my eyebrows.

“What are you suggesting…Baylee?” he raised an eyebrow. I leaned my elbows on the table and looked him in the eyes. Maybe there was still hope of getting the OLD Nick back, after all.

“I am suggesting that we play a little prank on him. We may as well include Howie, since he is here.” I waited anxiously for a response as he leaned back in his chair. Come on Nick…take the bait…you know you want to. Up until now, he has NEVER been able to resist his prankster ways. He couldn’t have really changed THAT much…could he? I couldn’t read the look on his face as he just stared at his half eaten plate of food.