Did she just call me Jackie? Nonsense! She has clearly confused herself. The walk to John's was on 10 minutes. I glanced over to Alice as we walked out from my driveway. Her sunshine hair was golden with the sunset. I really thought she looked like the god Apollo from those Greek myths. I looked up to the sunset remembering the myth that Apollo rides his chariot of the sun daily so we can have sunlight. His shift must be over! I cracked a sly smile. Alice obviously notice because she asked me,
"What's with the smile peanut gallery?" I looked at her to see a smirk, probably from her recent joke.
"It's lame to laugh at your own jokes Alice!" I said, chuckling. She stopped and turned towards me with a laughing expression.
"I don't think you understand how funny that joke was!" She said laughing. Her laughter was sweeter than Roy's milkshakes. It made me almost forget about my fathers death. Almost. I immediately stop smiling and remembered the sorrow of my life. Self pity is what I needed to respect my father. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. We continued walking. We passed Jamie's butcher and Louella's Boutique where Alice works on the weekends. We reached John's pharmacy. Every single shop in our little town had a bell when you opened the door. We walked to see John with his glasses that were too big for his small cranium. He looked up at us and smiled, I could see the pain in that smile. John Day was an old fellow whose parents were slaves and his father fought in the revolution. His wife passed a long time ago and his son? Why he was at-Pearl Harbor...I looked around to see that American flag I despised so much.
"Mr. Day...have you heard from..." Alice said slowly.
"Why yes Alice, Sammy's gone," He said choking back the tears.
"Heavens no... he was only-," Alice started but was cut off by Mr. Day.
"Yes Alice, 18..." he grabbed a brown bag and walked from behind the counter. He gave me the brown bag. Then, he gave Alice his handkerchief. Alice wept silently, occasionally blowing her nose. I looked to the photo on the wall, the photo of me, Alice and Sammy all smiling. When their wasn't a war and it was all peaceful. I looked over to Alice and put my arm around her. I shook Mr. Day's hand and thanked him. Me and Alice walked out of the pharmacy that day broken. How do you fix a puzzle when your missing a piece?