Chapter 6: I'm Not Crazy

I should have paid more attention to the picture of the bar. Maybe I could have at least looked it up beforehand if I had at least the bar name. All she had shown me was the inside of the bar and it was only a glimpse not enough to remember every little detail. If it was a popular bar it shouldn't be that hard to find. From what I know the street that's known for its bar scene is 15th street which houses over 18 different bars. This would be a good place to start.

The walk to 15th street was straight torture because of how hot it was outside as the sun beat down my neck. It felt like the walk took forever but I could have sworn that I heard some horns announcing my victory as soon as I turned the corner alive. The plan would be to take it one bar at a time and to show her picture to anyone I could at the bar. My best tactic would be to start on the left side of the street and then I could make my way back to Main Street to catch the bus for my ride back home.

Once I made it across the street. I walked into the first bar that was named, ‘Pinky's’ and as I walked in, I noticed it had a bunch of Grease memorabilia which was probably the reason behind the name. This was not the bar and I knew for a fact that Willow despised grease movies because she hated musicals in general.

Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing, after all, I’m no detective. I also had no idea what I would do once I located the bar or once someone remembered her. However, what I did know were two things I was 100 percent sure of. One I'm underage and they wouldn't let me in under normal circumstances. Luckily, I still had the fake ID that Willow and I got from some sketchy guy at our school named Tyler. They're legit even though we only dared to use them once. Second thing is that most of the bars won’t even be open to the public. But most of the managers and some key players would be there helping with paperwork and getting the bar ready for the night. They say beggars can’t be choosers and I for one could take all the help I could get.

I went around like that for 8 hours. Yes, 8 whole hours. I’m not crazy. I’m just determined, and I made sure to eat once I was hungry and I even bought several water bottles, not by choice. There were a few bars that forced me to buy something or else they were going to kick me out. The crappy part was that none of the bars seemed to resemble the photograph. Only one of them came close but when I showed the manager Willow's picture, she told me that she had never seen her before. The manager’s name was Christy and she was nice. She even went so far as to send the picture to her head bartender who was on vacation and the bouncer who was running late but there was no such luck.

It was bar after bar of disappointment. I stood there staring at the other half of the street feeling defeated. This was going nowhere. What if it was one of these bars and I am just not remembering things clearly as I should be. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time but now I realize that the only way I was going to get the answers I needed was from Willow herself and to do that I would have to use my powers.

Impatiently, I glanced up at the street clock on the corner to see it was now 5:30 P.M. which meant there was an hour left for visitors at the sanitarium. There was no way I could make it there on time. Even if I took the bus it would be about 6:00 before I even set foot into the hospital. So, I decided if I couldn’t see her in person, I could at least see her tonight and talk to her then. As I headed back home the bus ride seemed longer this time but, it was only 30 minutes. I had to stop and take the trash out to the sidewalk for the trash company the next morning and then helped Mrs. Tulle with hers. I have been helping take her trash to the curb since I was 10 years old. She is the sweetest 81-year-old person that I knew so it was no problem to help her. Her husband died in Vietnam and she has been widowed ever since. I tried asking her why she didn’t date, and she just repeatedly insisted that she had met the love of her life already and that it only happens once.

By the time I walked through the door, it was 6:10 P.M. My mother was still not home and probably would be staying out working late again. Her boss often made her stay late which meant I often ate alone at the dinner table. Walking into my kitchen that housed every white appliance known to man and threw a veggie pizza in the oven to bake while I took my shower. There was still no one home after I ate dinner, flossed my teeth, put up the leftovers, and put on my pajamas for the night.

I made sure to leave a sticky note for my mother reminding her to eat once she came home and informing her that the pizza was in the fridge. As I walked upstairs, I decided that I would check my email and work on some homework to kill time. My teachers were only going to excuse me so much before they started failing me and I couldn’t afford to be put on academic probation. I couldn’t deal with that right now especially since I was still trying to get into Princeton and had to compete with 3 other students at school.

Once I was all caught up with my homework, I decided I would go to bed early even though it was only 9:30 P.M. I was a little too eager to be able to talk to Willow once again. The worst part about going to sleep is knowing that you need to sleep, being too eager, or having too much on your mind. That was me at this very moment all of them at the same time which made it that much harder. I stared at my ceiling for what felt like hours and then the black abyss made its appearance and I was dream walking once again.