There were tears in my eyes when the ambulance sped away. Tears from pain—for not being able to help her. She had come to save me and I couldn’t be like the heroes in the movies who were impervious to bullets and bullies and help her. I fought with the EMT’s on what to do. They wouldn’t tell me where they were took her, as they didn’t know either.
By then, the game had been suspended so everyone stood on asking questions that would become the news of Monday morning. Several teachers and students stood around me as I forced myself to hobble. No one asked is I was okay, because they could see by my bloodshot eyes, bloody mouth, nose, and chin that I wasn’t. I finally gave in to have someone drive me down to the school to call my parents.
I used the payphone in the hallway and called home as a few teachers tried to find a way to unlock the office so someone could call Anna’s parents.
It would take my parents twenty-five minutes to get to the school. Twenty-five long and stinging minutes as the office was opened and they attempted to call the Joel house, but no one could get through. I never recalled ever seeing a phone in their house, but maybe they had a cell phone and were on said phone trying to find out where their daughter was being taken to. I decided it would be best to try and go to their house and tell them what happened.
I got up from the floor where I was resting and felt a loose tooth. Another battle scar fort us to tell our children in the future when the time for such a conversation came up. I walked outside the school with a teacher yelling after me and walked across the grass in front of the building to reach the parking lot. I wanted to check on her car. I had allowed their daughter to be injured, I didn’t want to also tell them the car was damaged. I shuffled up to where the car was supposed to be parked, but it was gone.
“No! Not this too!”
The space was empty. Someone had taken her purse during the fight and decided to steal her car! “Thieving bastard!” I shouted as a pair of headlights turned the corner.
I turned to the vehicle in question, an SUV, and it screeched to a halt.
“Brian Andrew Robison! Oh my God!” Mom screamed from the driver’s seat.
“What happened? Are you okay Do the police know?”
“Long story. Yes, I am okay at the moment. Yes, they know. I need you to drive me-”
“-I need to drive you to a hospital. Where is a teacher or cop?”
“I need you to take me to someone’s house. Then we can go to a hospital. Please.”
“What address?”
“I’ll have to show you.”
I climbed into the passenger’s seat and we drove off.
“Turn left here and then right. Please hurry.”
“What happened?” Mom shrieked as she could now see my face up-close.
“A fight.”
“Why were you in a fight?” Her voice elevated every time she turned back to me.
“I wasn’t. I got caught in the middle of it.”
“Who started it?”
“Please go faster.”
“Where are we going?”
“My girlfriend’s house.”
“Girlfriend?” Mom’s voice went even higher with that revelation. “When were you going to tell us about her?”
“I just met her two days ago and I need to tell her parents something’s happened to her. Take the right fork.”
We turned onto an unfamiliar in the dark road. I looked to the left side of the road to see if I could see any lights to indicate where their house was. Everywhere I could see were rocks, trees and grass. After five minutes of searching, I leaned forward due to a headache.
“It’s not this far down the road. We need to turn around.”
Mom stopped the SUV, made a seventeen million point turn on the now narrow road and we drove back the way we came. I saw a driveway, but it looked overgrown and led to nowhere.
“Stop the car!”
The SUV slid to a stop on the rocky road. I got out and ran back to take a closer look. Nothing looked the same in the shadows and I spent every chance I could looking at Anna I never paid full attention to my surroundings.
“Brian!” Mom yelled as the car backed-up to where I stood. “Get in the car, now.”
“I have to tell her parents!”
“Not if we can’t find the house. We need to have you looked at.”
“Can I come back tomorrow?”
“Let’s see how you feel.”
I shook my head in anger, sorrow and pain at the thought of failing for the second time in a row. Defeated for the time being, I got into the car, and we drove to a hospital in Spokane.

As much as my mother professed, the entire ER department disagreed with her that I was on death’s door. Sure, I looked like the aftereffects of calling Chuck Norris a wimp, and I did have a cracked tooth, but everything else were bruising and cuts.

I had asked several times if a teenage girl had been brought to the hospital, but no one could give me an answer to my question. I waited to hear Mr. Joel’s voice trying to find out what happened to Anna so I could jump off of the bed, run to him, and apologize for what happened. However, after three hours, they sent us home with a prescription for the pain I had to my face and back. They also recommended contacting a dentist as soon as possible.

I didn’t explain anything to my parents, I just went to bed and stared at the popcorn spackled ceiling for what felt like an eternity. Why couldn’t time move fast like on the night before Christmas or when I was with Anna? My eyes wanted to sleep but my brain decided it was a great time to replay the horrific events from multiple camera angles. William’s face eclipsed my vision of Anna and I felt the kicks to my back over and over. I couldn’t acquire the prescription until later on in the morning.

At six o’clock in the morning, I drove into Reardan, and turned off onto the highway to try and find her house again as I would be able to see what little landmarks I recalled during the day. I drove with the radio off with the conversations I had with Anna replaying in my head. I also thought about how I was going to explain everything in a calm and collected manner. My grip on the steering wheel tightened as I turned onto the right fork and slowed down.
My eyes were glued to the left side of the road as I tried to remember our conversations on the way to the house as perhaps an audible memory would help. The lone driveway from the previous night came up after a thicket of trees and and I turned to drive up the slight incline. Perhaps the house was further from the road and without any lights on you couldn’t see if from the road. I rounded the small turn that led to the house and slammed on the brakes.
I got out of the car to where, about, Anna would park her car: in front of the barn and there was nothing there. No house, no barn, no cars, just a rocky field.
There was a house here. A living room, a kitchen, a grand dining room! A barn her dad used as an office!
I took a few steps away the area and then looked around. “Anna! Wendy?”
Only the wind through the trees answered me.
“This is impossible! This is from the stress of last night and the pain I feel.”
I sat down on the ground and cried for a few minutes. The kind of tears that sting your eyes and cause your throat to emit the sound of a broken heart. I slammed my hands down to my sides and saw something on the ground a few feet away. I crawled over to it with my vision streaked and picked it up. I used my shirt to wipe my face and eyes so I could see what it was: the picture Wendy had taken of Anna and I earlier last night. I stood up and I started to cry again, this time with a little happiness but still more of misery as I didn’t know what was going on.
“Hello, Bryce.”
I turned around to see what looked like a teenage boy with red hair and wearing a white sweater.
“Anna?”
“Yes, how I used to look a long time ago.”
I didn’t care if she had three heads and raging acne. I raced to her and hugged her tightly. “You’re alive!”
“I’m a memory, Bryce.”
“What do you mean?”
“A memory, we’re all memories of the past. Ma, Pa, Wendy. People who were lost and forgotten and exist only in hearts of the ones who loved us.”
“But you’re here now. Are you okay?”
“Are you okay, Bryce?”
“Now that you’re here, yes.” The nagging pain to my back and face were gone, as was my toothache.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t stay, not in the way you and I want.”
“But you can do all those things.”
“I did it for you, Bryce.”
I held her tighter and then kissed her on the lips. “Please stay with me.”
“I wanted to make your dream come true. If only I could be the girl of your dreams.”
“You are, I don’t care what you look like. I don’t care if you’re a ghost of something. Just say you’ll stay with me, Anna. Please.”
Anna took a step back from me and took my hands. “I’ll love you from here to the hereafter and five miles more.”
“Take me with you, Anna. Wherever or whenever it is, I want to go with you with.”
“Just show me you love me by being someone’s light and remember me.”
“I love you, Anna Renee.”
“And I love you, Bryce.
She gave me a wide smile and then faded away. Only our picture and my never-ending memories of her remained.