A Jamie Day

What would you do if you only had one day left to live? It’s a hard question to answer. Maybe you would have a picnic in the park, go dancing with your spouse, or just head down to the river and spend your last day fishing with a close friend. See, it’s a scary thing to know what’s going to happen before it happens. It all started with a few words: “Jamie will be coming with us, pack a bag for him and be ready Friday morning.” These were the words I had heard the large man in the black suit say to my father Wednesday night. Jamie and I had each been tucked into our halves of the bunk bed and laid to rest some time earlier. I woke up, stomach gurgling from hunger. Dinner had been chop suey. Who in their right mind likes overcooked elbow noodles, pasta sauce, green peppers of all things, and onions? Jamie likes it, heck it’s his favorite. I just fed mine to the dog. Now here I was, sneaking down to try and get a snack when I heard it. They were taking Jamie, the other pea in my pod, my twin brother, my best friend!

I knew right away what this had to be about; a few weeks back we had taken tests in school. I remember it vividly. I was just getting up from under my desk, still humming “Duck and Cover!” from our drill when two men in black suits and fedora hats came into the room. They flashed badges and began placing test packets on each student’s desk. I tore a small piece off mine and popped it into my mouth. I chewed and sucked on it for a minute before I split it into two pieces. I lifted the top of my wooden desk and grabbed the straw from my milk, then carefully loaded my round. I peeked around the top of my desk trying to choose my target wisely. I could see Jamie over in the front. He always sat near the front on account of his eyes being bad. He was buried in a book the size of his head, blissfully unaware of the world around him. He was angle slightly and I decided to aim for his ear. I took in a deep breath, and like an elephant I blew as hard as I could. The spitball careened towards Jamie, but it went just wide. With a wet smack! It landed and stuck to the inside of his glasses. He calmly placed his book down, wiped his glasses clean, and turned to face me. He made a goofy face at me, and I burst out laughing, my teacher and one of the men turned to look at me. She gave a slight head shake and said “Thomas Fitzgerald, you knock off that racket!”

I slumped down in my chair and loaded my second spitball. One of the men stood up in front of the class and began speaking. As he spoke, I continued to look for my next target. I could hit Kathy in the front, she always was a goodie two shoes. Then again, Debbie was always mean on the playground and her mom had just curled her hair. If I hit her, they wouldn’t find the spitball for weeks. With the man jabbering on about “The blockade breaking”, “fighting the Russians with our minds”, and “President Nixon wants the brightest and best” I spotted a prime target. The second man had bent down to reach into a briefcase, I quickly took in a breath and fired at his bum. I watched as the spitball warbled through the air and hit its mark, cementing itself firmly on his buttocks. He didn’t even notice; he just took a large box and began winding it. He placed it down on the desk and I could hear that it began to tick. Looking back at the other man he was now silent as he stared at each of us. I peeked around at the others, all heads down looking at their packets, as I did the man shouted “You, boy! No cheating, keep your eyes on your paper!” I looked down at the sheet in front of me, it was plastered with math problems, the kind that a nerd like Jamie loved. I fiddled with my pencil a bit, drew a picture of Bert the turtle and tried to solve a few problems, but math wasn’t really my thing. For what felt like forever I sat there chewing on my pencil and waiting until the box emitted a loud Bzzzzzzzzz sound. 

The men went around grabbing our tests, and they said we could all go home. Jamie and I headed outside to begin our walk and we met up with Billy the boy next door. “Y-you guys know what that was about r-r-right?” he asked. Jamie and I shook our heads while we kicked a rock down the road. “That was a test to see who they’re gonna take away. My dad works for the police, and he said that they were gonna be testin’ us to see who they should take away. They only want the best and brightest, so they must be takin’ all the dumb kids away somewhere.”

“W-What’re they gonna do with ‘em?” I asked nervously, thinking back on how my test was mostly drawings and spitballs.

Billy looked at me and said, “My daddy said they’re gonna send ‘em to the farm!”

“They are gonna make ‘em work on a farm!” I said.

“No” said Billy, “Send ‘em to the farm, like what they do when an old dog dies.” 

Jamie and I looked at each other in disbelief. I stuck my hands in my pockets and said “Jamie, th-they wouldn’t do that would they?”

Jamie shrugged and said “I don’t think so Tommy, no need to worry. It was just a test, I’m sure they just wanna find the smart kids and give them more homework, nothing you want.” He smiled at me with his big, gapped tooth grin; it was the biggest thing that set us apart aside from his glasses. I smiled back and nodded.

So, there I stood staring at the man talking to my father, bewildered that they were taking Jamie. I always thought he was a smart kid, he got good grades and dad even bought him a baseball glove last year sayin’ that if he kept his grades up, they could go to a senator’s game together. I slowly crept back up to our room and climbed into bed. Jamie stirred and snorted, then I heard him meekly say “Tommy, what was that?”

I took a deep breath in, thinking of what to say. Finally, it hit me; if they were gonna take him to the farm, that I had to keep a brave face and make the most of our last day. “Nothin’ Jamie, I just couldn’t sleep thinking about all the fun we’re gonna have tomorrow.”

“What are we gonna do Tommy?” he asked.

“You’ll see buddy, you’ll see.”

I drifted off to sleep a while later having planned out the whole day. I got up early and brought Tommy a bowl of corn flakes with the sugar on top just like he likes. He smiled and dug in like an animal. I drank some orange juice and ate a piece of toast while he finished the milk. Then he turned to me expectantly. “So, what are we gonna do?” he asked. I reached under our bed and pulled out a small cloth bag, gently pulled open the strings and reached in to reveal Jamie’s magnifying glass that our Grandpa had gotten him last year.

“We’re gonna go look at ants and bugs, don’t you love that?” I asked. Jamie always said he wanted to be an Ent-uh-mall-o-jist, someone who looks at bugs. I saw his eyes light up as I said it, he ran over to our closet and grabbed the khaki-colored safari hat that he had been given with the magnifying glass and took off down the stairs.

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I could hear the tv in the background saying “atom bombs”, “eastern seaboard”, and “Baltimore under warning.” Everything at home seemed fine though, and we lived just south of Baltimore. I turned the corner and our dad looked at me and said “Hey sport, I just got a new pigskin, how about you and I go to the park and toss it around a bit? I’ll be Johnny Unitas and you can be Jimmy Orr.” My heart sank in my chest, I loved football and Jimmy Orr was my favorite player. Dad always worked on Thursdays, so a chance to play football was huge. I looked at Jamie, happy as a clam that we were going to explore the wilderness looking for bugs and I sighed.

“Thanks Dad, but Jamie and I are gonna go look at bugs, m-maybe another time” I said as I looked away.

He looked at me and said, “well alright sport, if that’s what you want.”

               Jamie and I ran off into the woods looking under clumps of moss, peeling back loose bark on trees and digging into small holes looking all sort of creepy crawlies hunkered down within them. We found families of rolly-polys, ants, a few caterpillars, and a really late season June-bug. He giggled and laughed when I squealed as ants crawled on my leg, and he gasped in awe when the June-bug started hissing at us as we held it in place with a stick. Jamie looked at me and said “Tommy, thanks for bringing me out to do this, you always hated bug and it means a lot to me.”

I teared up for a second and said “nonsense, I love bugs. I’m glad you’re having fun, but I hope you saved some for our next adventure!” I said. He looked at me with a puzzled expression, I let him stew for a moment and then I said, “Let’s go home and play risk!” His eyes lit up when I said that. Jamie had always been better at risk than me, heck better than most kids. He read books about war and the history of battles, and risk was his favorite game. He stood up and sprinted back to the house, with me following closely behind.

He threw open the front door and stormed upstairs to set the game up. I stopped for a moment and shut the door. I could hear my mom and dad talking in the kitchen, something about “making the most of today” and “enjoying family.” I thought yeah, that’s exactly what I intend to do. For Jamie. As I went to head upstairs my mom called to me, and I made my way into the kitchen. On the counter I could see eggs, milk, sugar, flower and several more ingredients, with white chocolate pieces displayed prominently by my kitchen apron. “Honey, do you want to come bake some white chocolate and cherry cookies with me?” My heart sank again, white chocolate cherry were my favorites and we only ever had them for special occasions. 

I put on a strong face and replied “No, thanks mom. Jamie and I are gonna play risk.”

She looked sad, but she sighed and said “Alright dear, well if that’s what you want to do that’s fine. Ill just go ahead and make these myself so you boys can have a snack later. What did you want for dinner?” she asked.

I looked at her and knew exactly what I needed to say. “A big pot of chop suey, last nights was so good “and I gulped, “that I just couldn’t want something more.”

My dad looked at me puzzled and said “Tommy, are you sure that’s what YOU want?”

I nodded and said, “Sure thing dad, mmm I can almost taste it now.” I turned around and ran off upstairs before they could continue to question me. As I passed the television, I could see the same man that had been in my classroom now speaking on the news. He looked concerned, but I didn’t have time to stand there and watch. As I ran up the stairs, I could just hear him say the words “seek shelter.” 

When I got upstairs Jamie had the game set up and was eagerly waiting for me with his dice in hand. I chuckled and we began to play. We spent the next couple of hours going back and forth across the board, but as he always did Jamie managed to pull ahead and after a while, he finally managed to claim victory over me and my armies. As we were putting the pieces away, he took a big sniff and said “ooh, it smells like its chop suey again, mom never makes the same meal twice in a row!”

I looked at him and said, “Sure is Jamie, I told mom that’s what I wanted for dinner.”

“But you hate chop suey” he said, frowning slightly.

“It’s your favorite though” I said, “and besides, mom made my favorite cookies, if we eat a dinner that I don’t like then that just leaves more room for me to eat cookies! C’mon, let’s go get some supper.” We finished picking up and ran downstairs. We helped mom set the table and we dished out the plates. We all sat together as a family and ate, the meal being strangely silent. I guess mom and dad were feeling sad too that the men were going to take Jamie. Once we had eaten, I snatched several cookies and we both headed up to bed. Mom came up and brought me a warm glass of milk. It tasted a bit funny, but it helped wash down the cookies.

Jamie and I laid in bed for a few minutes, just thinking about the day we had. He soon spoke up and said “Tommy, thanks for today. It was the best day I’ve ever had.”

I started to cry a little. I wiped my nose and said “I’m glad buddy, you’re always going to be my favorite brother. I love you.”

“I’m your only brother” he said. “Are you alright Tommy?” he asked.

“Of course I am” I replied, “lets get some sleep and tomorrow we can do it all over again.”

Jamie chuckled a bit and said, “Sure thing Tommy, but tomorrow, tomorrow let’s make it a Tommy day.”

I drifted off to sleep, and I dreamt that Jamie and I had the best day imaginable. We ate cookies, played football, watched a Baltimore Broncos game, and spent the night camping under the stars in our back yard. When I awoke in the morning, I felt heavy. My eye lids seemed like they were glued shut and my body wouldn’t listen as I tried to move. Eventually I made my way out of my bed and stumbled down the stairs to find mom and dad on the couch. Mom was crying softly, as they were watching the news. I could hear the man on the news say “and just as predicted the first missiles were fired in the dead of night, several making landfall in cities along the east coast, with more expected- “

I sat down on the floor in front of them and said “Did they get Jamie? Did they bring him to the farm?”

My dad hugged me close, and he said “Farm? What do you mean buddy? And how did you know about Jamie?”

“We took that test in school, Billy said they wanted to find the smart kids and take the dumb kids away to a farm like when dogs die. Then I heard you talking to a man the other night, that’s why I made yesterday the best day Jamie could ever have” I said.

“Oh buddy, they didn’t take Jamie away to the farm because he is dumb, he scored the highest in the class, so they took him to their bunker” my dad said through tear laden breaths.

“A bunker?” I questioned. I went to look at my dad but as I did there was a bright flash through our window and the television went dark. I covered my eyes for a second and looked out to see a large plume of smoke in the shape of a mushroom off in the distance.

What would I do if I only had one day left to live? It’s a hard question to answer. Maybe I would spend it giving my brother the best day of his life, but I’m not sure. See, it’s a scary thing to know what’s going to happen before it happens.