I WAS JUST

Two days earlier

The house noticeably creaked in the afternoon heat. The rustle of papers could be heard through an open window on the second floor. Charlie lay stretched out on his bed looking at the ceiling. Scattered text books lay discarded all over the floor. The fan rotated loudly above, delivering a trickle that would have been a breeze onto Charlie's face. Summer was definitely here. Yet Charlie wasn't to thrilled. Summer meant long hours waiting for Don to get out of practice so they could "hang out" until Don's girlfriend came by. Summermeant that this year, he and Don would be looking for colleges. The prospect both thrilled and scared Charlie. At least in college he could figure out all kinds of cool applications for his math, and he wouldn't be an embarassment for the other hand, though, Don wouldn't be here. His big brother would be moving away and Charlie couldn't do anything to stop him.

Charlie hoped with everything he had that he could meet someone with his love of mathematics. Someone he could speak plainly to, and who could be, he guessed, a replacement Don. Charlie shrugged uncomfortably. That line of thought was going way to far! No one could replace Don! Not in a million years! Still he desperately wished he could find someone he didn't have to explain everything to. After twelve, going on to thirteen, years enough was enough!

The rotation of the fan blades caught Charlie's eye. For a second he lost himself into his world of numbers. Calculating the rate of motion of the fan he tried to predict how much faster the blades needed to go in order to maximize the amount of cold air they were producing. As he thought the heat seemed to damper, as though a field stood between it and Charlie.

This is the life, Charlie thought absently to himselfClosing his eyes, Charlie let the contentment wash over him. It had been a while since he had given himself over to the joy of a bit more than a while.

Charlie watched a shadow pass over his closed eyelids. Cracking open one eye he looked up into his mom's face.

" Charlie, I said I was going to the laundrymat. Do you want to come?" she asked patiently.

" Huh," Charlie said, opening both eyes wide.

" Do you want to come to the laundrymat?" his mom replied even more patiently.

" Wha...oh," Charlie said, drawing back to life, " Uh, no, Mom. I, um, was going to start on an equation."

" Really, what kind of equation? I thought you said your tutors weren't giving you any homework?" his mom replied, genuinely interested.

" It's not homework," Charlie replied grabbing a loose piece of paper, " It's a hypothetical equation that points out design flaws in the ceiling fan, while proving the existence of a better one."

" Also known as air conditioning," Mrs. Eppes replied smiling.

" Mom!" Charlie glared up at his mom.

"Okay, okay," she replied, " If you need to build a better mouse trap...," Charlie glared again, " Then so be it."

Rumpling his hair she stood up and walked out. Charlie heard the casual click of the locked door followed by the purr of an old engine. Running over to an open window he looked out in time to see her car pass by. Sighing again he went and sat on his bed. Looking at the paper lying at his feet Charlie reached over to pick it up. There are worst things to waste time with, he thought.


A crumpled paper flew across the room landing within an inch of the trash can. Next to it lay a pile of similarly thrown papers. Charlie furiously scribbled on another page and crumpled it up to. With the slightest twitch of the wrist he sent it sailing again. This time it landed squarely in the waste basket. Charlie looked up curiously at the basket. Taking another paper he crumpled it up and threw it again. With a plop it went in. Charlie leaned over as if to examine the basket. Probabmatically he knew he could equalizehow many of the papers went in over time, but at the moment he didn't feel like it. Suddenly an idea flashed through his mind.

Jumping off the bed Charlie ran down the stairs and out the back door. He knew if his mom found out she would flip, since he wasn't suppose to leave the house. Running into the garage he began to search heatedly for Don's basketball. It wasn't there.

Jogging back into the house he looked around, as if thinking it would be out in the open. Walking back upstairs discouraged he noticed Don's door was cracked open. Charlie felt his heart begin to hammer. Don's door was never open, unless it was midnight or something. Cautiously Charlie creeped to the door. His mind flashed on all possibilities as to why the door was open. The only probable one was robbers.

Charlie had to get out of the house, immediatly. His feet would move, however, or at least they wouldn't move in the direction he wanted them to. With a morbid curiousity Charlie crept closer to Don's room. Taking in a deep breath he reached for the door.

SLAMM!

The door pushed open and ran into the wall loudly. Charlie flinched and ducked behind the wall. No sounds came from Don's room. Cautiously Charlie looked in. He couldn't see anything but a pile of jerseys. Standing up Charlie crept into the room. A cool breeze flew in from the window hitting him as he looked around. The room was safely empty. Charlie let out a sigh of relief. He had let his imagination run away with him. Suddenly Charlie realized where he was.

" Oh, crap," Charlie said under his breath, " Don is gonna kill me."

Over the past two years Don had become increasingly protective of what he thought to be his. He had even gone so far as to physically push Charlie out of his room when Charlie had simply come in to ask a question about Lit class. That, of course, didn't even underline the problem Don had when Charlie borrowed an old toy ora cdwithout permission.

" These are worth something, Charlie!"Don yelled exasperantly at his younger brother, " Besides you have your own stuff anyway."

The comment had been followed by another push out the door.

Technicallythough, Don didn't know Charlie was in the room and statistically the chance thatCharlie riskeda kick out the door was verylow. However, Don had an uncanny abilitly to beat odds like that. Therefore, just being in the room was to great a risk. Cautiously Charlie backed out of the room. Something hit hisleg. Charlie jumped and whirled to face his attacker. On the floor lay Don's basketball tempting him.

Charlie stared at the ball for a few seconds. He could always give the ball back afterwards. Besides with the information he was going to collect, Donwould be happy anyway. Looking around Charlie siezed the ball and ran out the was only going to take a few minutes.

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