Now & Again Read Online Free PDF Page B

feel…off.”
    “Since when did you spend much time here?”
    “It’s not…I used to cut through here a lot from church and…”
    “From church?”
    Josh tossed a wry smile at his Dad. “Yeah, Jimmy and me…Okay? So maybe we didn’t spend as much time in youth group as you and Mom thought…you know?”
    Kendall stopped. He rolled his eyes. “Oh, that’s great. Your Mom woulda been so pleased.”
    “Yeah, so, anyway…I know this road pretty well and…” He scrunched his face and squeezed one eye shut and then another. He looked left and did it again, then right. “It’s doing this weird thing – stuff around me feels odd and then it feels okay, and then odd again; like, back and forth.”
    Kendall sobered. “Anything you can put your finger on?”
    “Yeah, those trees,” Josh waved a hand toward a pair of large trees across the street. The breeze through their leaves rustled like old paper. “Somehow, I’m positive they’re in the wrong places.”
    * * *
    There were only three cars in the Central Christian Church parking lot, and since one of them sat smugly in the slot marked
Pastor
, that left only two that could possibly belong to Josh. None were Mustangs.
    Kendall scowled, “I thought you said you parked it by the side door?”
    “The Mustang?”
    “Yeah, the Mustang!” Kendall shot back. “Whaddya think I’m talkin’ about?” His irritation turned into doubt. “Your car. Your…” He massaged his temples and grimaced. “God, what’s with us?”
    Josh stubbornly stared at the parked cars. “Hang on – I was at a meeting here and…” He tried to pull his jumbled memories into order but he kept finding things left over. “After the service, you wanted both of us to ride together to the cemetery.”
    “Yeah, in my truck, that’s right.” Kendall tried to hold that thought. “You…I remember…” He looked tentatively over at a blank section of the lot and pointed. “You parked it right over there, didn’t you?”
    Josh vigorously rubbed his head as if trying to scratch something inside. “I don’t think I have it anymore.”
    Kendall was disgusted. “Don’t tell me you left the keys in it again?”
    “Not hardly.” Josh patted his pants and felt the comforting bulge of keys on a ring. “They’re right here.”
    He pulled out a ring of keys. Dominant among the small, nondescript silver keys was a fat, black one with a shiny “H” on the back. Looking perplexed, Josh rolled it over in his hand. “So, why should this one look familiar?”
    Father and son stared at each other. Josh thumbed the
open lock
icon on the key. The bright red Honda, next to the Pastor’s car, cheerfully clicked its locks up and winked its running lights.
    Josh hesitantly walked to the driver’s door and delicately pulled it open. “Is your brain feeling itchy?”
    “Somethin’ like that.”
    Josh pulled the car door wide and looked inside. “I got things in my head that I don’t remember…remembering before.”
    Kendall blinked his eyes rapidly and looked startled. Something had just happened inside his head. “What kind of things?”
    “Like this red car. I remember buying it. But I didn’t. And I know I parked the Mustang over there before Mom’s funeral, but I remember I parked this one right here before the young adults’ meeting.”
    “We gotta get outta here!” The older man was suddenly frantic. He wrenched open the Honda’s other door and jumped in. “Right now! Hurry up! We really need to get home!”
    * * *
    The Honda raced down a tree-lined street and swiftly climbed a short driveway to a comfortable brick-faced suburban home. As soon as the car braked to a stop, both doors clicked open and father and son sprung out. They moved quickly toward the front door, Josh in the lead, and then awkwardly stopped.
    Josh shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped back from the three steps leading to the front door. “You first.”
    * * *
    Most large Midwestern homes have roomy