Free Dev Dreams, Volume One by Ruth Madison Page A

and sat back down on the
couch. Sophie came and sat beside him. As the movie started, Jake
said, “Whatever I have, I will lose. It is scary. It's scary to
think that I don't know what I'll be able to do and not do months
from now and years from now. I've always been the strong one, I
can't find my place any more.”
    “You're still you,” Sophie said quietly. “And
whatever comes in the future, you'll figure it out.”
    “Thanks,” he said.
    She nodded and eventually said, 'Thanks for
letting me stay over.”
    “No problem,” Jake said, “But next time you
talk to my brother you can tell him that if he doesn't mind his own
business I'll break his neck.”
    “I'll be sure to relay the message.”
    Sophie stretched out on the couch. She sighed
and pressed her head back into the couch's throw pillows.
    Jake watched the whole movie, and when he
pressed stop and turned off the TV he discovered that Sophie was
fast asleep. He shook her legs gently, but she just moaned and
pushed her head further into the pillow.
    He leaned over and touched Sophie's face
gently. He brushed her brown hair back away from her face. Sophie
didn't wake up. That medicine must have been the drowsy kind. Trust
Sophie to never read the label.
    She was an adorable walking disaster. He was
glad his brother had befriended her when she moved to town. His
life would not be the same without her daily mishaps.
    He put a blanket over her and went next door
to his father's study. Lately he had been sleeping on the couch
there.
    ***
    Sophie woke up uncertain where she was. She
had slept through the night and was wakened by the sun coming in
the living room window. She thought back and remembered starting to
watch a movie with Jake, but then her memory went blank. Oh dear.
Somehow she had fallen asleep and left him alone when she was
supposed to be keeping him company.
    She should do something nice to make up for
it. She wandered back to the kitchen and started poking around the
refrigerator. Sophie didn't really cook, but she remembered her
mother once told her you could make eggs sunny-side-up in the
microwave.
    She took a couple out and broke them into a
bowl. After the microwave was finished, she pulled out the bowl and
looked down skeptically. The eggs looked rubbery and there was a
crust over the yoke. She took a fork and started poking at
them.
    When the fork tine hit the yoke, there was a
sudden pop and Sophie shrieked and dropped the bowl. The egg had
exploded and pieces of it were covering the room. There were bits
of yoke in Sophie's hair, on her cloths, on the ceiling of the
kitchen, and the counters and floor and chairs.
    Moments later Jake was in the doorway staring
at her.
    “What on earth have you done?”
    “Sorry,” Sophie said, biting her lip. “I made
kind of a mess.”
    Jake laughed. “Well, let's just get it
cleaned up, then.”
    Jake's parents and brother all arrived in the
doorway at the same moment. “Are you all right?” his mother asked
Jake.
    “Do I look like the one in trouble here?” he
said.
    Everyone cleaned up while teasing Sophie.
There was no doubt that Sophie was a klutz. Jake had never been
clumsy in his life until recently. Sophie fell over for no reason
all the time, but no one had ever given her the excuse of a
progressive neurological disorder.
    She was foolish to think that Jake was ever
going to see anything in her. She always screwed things up. He
needed to be with someone who could take care of him as his body
weakened, not someone who was likely to cause more trouble. The end
of the year was approaching fast. They would all graduate and she
would probably never see him again.
    ***
    Jake was often alone in the hallways now, as
he took his time to walk between classes. Sometimes he took a
little more time than necessary. The teachers wouldn't complain
anymore. They had had some kind of secret meeting in which his
condition had been whispered. One day he was walking around a
corner when he saw someone