Happy Birthday to Me Again (Birthday Trilogy, Book 2) (29 page)

Sixty seconds. Fifty seconds.

It was anytime now. I looked one last
time at Liesel. She was sitting up. Hannah wasn’t strangling her anymore. It
looked, funny enough, like the two sisters were simply
talking
to each other, like they were gossiping about the cutest
boys at school.

Forty seconds. Thirty seconds.

I looked back up at the sky. The lights
were coming closer. I felt at peace, knowing there was nothing left to stop
what was about to happen to me. I had no idea what Liesel and Hannah were
talking about, but I liked to imagine Hannah had allowed Liesel to utter some
kind of prayer for me, one that would lift my spirits up past the dark skies
into the Heavens above for all eternity.

Twenty seconds. Ten seconds.

This was it. I could feel my mind fading,
my heartbeat slowing, my body coming to an infinite rest. They always said that
your life flashes before your eyes in the seconds before you die, and they were
right. Everybody that had ever meant something to me appeared in my mind. I
could see my parents, standing in the entryway of our home, waving at me.
Kimber was playing her violin in the living room, smiling at me, playing a
majestic melody. There was Liesel standing next to her, nodding, blowing me a
kiss, the biggest grin in the world on her face. Wesley stood on the far right,
a camera on a big, black tripod in front of him. He kneeled over and pressed
the red button, ready to film my life story.

I love you all.

I closed my eyes, took my final breath,
and laid my back against the ground, which in the last few seconds had turned
from muddy water to the warmest of sand.

Goodbye. Goodbye.

Good—

17.
 
Eighteen

“Cameron. Get
up.”

I’d heard that before. I blinked a few times
and let the world come roaring back into focus. Above me was no longer millions
of pellets of rain, nor a longwinded chorus of lightning bolts. All I could see
above me was a calm, magical sky filled top to bottom with shining stars.

I sat up and looked down toward my feet.
They weren’t directly in front of me like before. They looked far away, like
they belonged to a different person. I analyzed my arms and hands.

No,
I thought.
There’s no
way.

Then I caught sight of my diaper. It felt
really tight against my privates, and I noticed it was ready to burst. I knew
this meant two things: One, I was eighteen again, and back to a tall
six-foot-one. And two, that in a matter of seconds, I was going to be butt
naked at the top of this mountain, for all of L.A. to see.

Whatever. I’ll go nude. If it means I get
to stay alive… I’ll go naked forever!

I smiled and
looked to my left. But then the smile faded.

I thought I’d see Liesel to the side of
me, patting the top of my head, comforting me just like she had a year ago when
I survived my first aging disease.

But she wasn’t
sitting in front of me. She was sitting in front of Wesley.

“Wesley?” I
asked.

I jumped up to my feet—with ease,
thank God—and raced over to Wesley, who had his back slumped up against a
tree. He was breathing, but he had a large cut pierced through his chest, blood
spilling out and rolling onto the dirt.

“Cameron,” he
said. “Cameron… you’re back…”

He talked in a muffled tone that
suggested he was in pain. I brought my hands down to his arms “You’re gonna be
OK, Wes. Come on. Stay with me.”

Liesel had her hands pressed against his
wound, and I waited for the fast winds, the blinding lights, the magical sight
of a witch in progress. But there was nothing.

“Liesel…”

I brought my
hand up to her but she swatted it away. “Cam, run down to the house.”

“What?”

“Run down to the house and call 911. I
don’t think I have enough of my powers left to stop the bleeding.”

“Are you… are
you sure—”

“Cameron! Do
it!”
 

“OK!”

I looked down the mountain and tried to
remember where Hannah’s house had been. I hadn’t been planning on re-entering
the home with the rotting corpse, but I guess I had no other options. I started
running down the slippery slope, falling a few times, trying not to dangerously
injure myself. I had to get to a phone. I had to save Wesley.

My
friend is dying. Because of me. Because he came to my rescue. Because he’s the
best friend I’ve got.

I found the
house, ran inside, and grabbed the phone in the kitchen. I dialed.

Then I waited.

---

The rehearsal dinner was to take place
nine days later at a posh Reno restaurant called Trader Vic’s, but Liesel and I
ended up changing the venue at the last minute to the more casual and fun Uncle
Tony’s. I’d had a few conversations with my mom and dad about what to do about
the wedding, and we all felt it wise to postpone it to a later date, at least
six months or more, considering the eventful circumstances of the last few
days. But there had simply not been enough time to cancel all the pre-marital events,
as friends and family from all over the country were unable to cancel their
flights and hotels and were coming out anyway. So Liesel and I figured Uncle
Tony’s would be the perfect venue for a rehearsal dinner that wouldn’t include
any rehearsal at all, but a way to let down everyone easy that the wedding had
unfortunately been canceled.
 

Much of those last few days was spent
taking care of my dad, who had suffered a concussion in the car accident but
thankfully no permanent damage. He was taken to the local Bishop Hospital for a
few days, and then was transferred to Washoe County Med in Reno when he finally
started feeling better. It was unusual, to say the least, staying in Bishop for
a few days, my mom, sister, and I sharing a one-bedroom motel room. There
wasn’t much to do in the town, but Kimber and I played some miniature golf and
raided Denny’s at least once a day for a grossly unhealthy but delicious meal.
My mom spent much of her time in the hospital room with my dad. As soon as he
awoke, they talked and talked, for hours sometimes. What about? I had no idea,
as I wanted to let them be. I wanted to sit back and see if there was still the
love there that I knew my parents had for each other. As much as I hated that
my father was in pain, I knew that this unfortunate occurrence could maybe
bring them closer together.

Liesel headed back to Reno after stopping
in Bishop for half the day. She said she had things to take care of back home,
and that she wanted to let me be with my family while my dad recovered. Liesel
acted different in those days following what happened up top Griffith Park. She
seemed distant, almost melancholy, like she didn’t realize I had been saved,
for a second time, from an untimely demise. Here I was, back to normal,
eighteen years old again, with a new lease on life, and she didn’t even seem
that happy about it. I figured it had nothing to do with me. She spent days and
days in a torture chamber, locked up in a small cage, face to face with a
maniacal sister and the corpse of her dead mother. I assumed that would screw
up pretty much anyone for a couple of decades. I just hoped she would come
around sooner than later. I hoped she would still be able to see what she had
in front of her.

When we were finally all back in Reno,
four days away from what was to be the wedding, I sat down with Liesel at her
apartment and tried to make sense of what happened back in Los Angeles. But she
still didn’t want to talk about it.

“Soon,” she
said. “Cam, I promise. Soon. I’ll tell you everything.”

“Did she die?” I asked. The last thing I
had seen before blacking out at the age of one was Liesel and Hannah sharing an
intimate conversation. “Can you at least tell me that? Did she die? Disappear?
Just leave? What?”

“In time,” she
said. “I promise.”

The sadness was still there, present all
over her face. I knew I needed to do something drastic and unplanned, something
that would quickly bring the old Liesel I fell in love with back to me.

I knew what I
had to do.

---

The entire restaurant had been closed
down for the night to host our rehearsal dinner. Everybody chowed down on the
finest of pizza, pasta, salads, and soup, with the infamous chocolate cake with
vanilla icing and Oreo cookie crumbles reserved for last. Lots of people were
there, some whom I recognized, like Dom, Aunt Margaret, Darlene, and most of my
basketball buddies, as well as a few of my dad’s employees who put me under
last year when I received that controversial liposuction surgery. Others I
didn’t recognize so much, particularly many of my mom’s friends from her
bowling league, as well as some distant relatives of my father who insisted on
coming out to Reno, not so much to see my wedding, I presumed, but to gamble
their life inheritances away.

When I stood up in front of the packed house
to make my speech, I was beyond happy to see Liesel sitting at the front table,
smiling up at me, even though inside I knew she was still hurting from recent
events. I knew she wanted to be here, and that she wanted to spend this night
with me.

But at this moment, the person I felt
luckiest of all to see, sitting in the seat to the right of her, was Wesley,
thankfully all healed now, sporting a large stomach scar to impress the ladies
with, but no internal damage to cause long-lasting effects. The doctors
couldn’t explain how such a massive wound on the front of Wesley’s stomach had
managed to only scrape the surface of his body, and Liesel and I just shook our
heads with confusion, too. But Liesel knew that, while appearing ugly and
potentially fatal that night, Wesley’s stomach wound was merely a side blow of
Hannah’s powers, and that it could have been a lot worse. Within three days,
Wesley had been on the mend, and here he was in front of me, happy that he
helped save me, ecstatic that we were both still alive, ready no matter what to
be my best man.

Liesel tapped her spoon against her glass
of water, and everybody started to settle down. I looked out on a crowd of at
least a hundred or more, all turning their heads to me. I was never one for big
speeches, but as Liesel knew, as a waitress who put up with me at this
restaurant for many months before I began to notice her, I was always a fan of
attention.

“Hello everyone,” I said. “Thank you for
coming to this dinner tonight. I’m afraid I’m going to start with some bad
news. In light of some recent events, I have been told to tell you that,
unfortunately, there isn’t going to be a wedding tomorrow.” Everyone sighed and
started whispering to each other, as I put my hand out. “Liesel, can you come
up here, please?”

She sighed, took my hand, and stood up
next to me. I put my arm around her. “Hi everyone,” she said. “Yes, I’m sorry
many of you flew all this way, but as Cameron said, it doesn’t seem the right
time to have a wedding. Too much has happened, and we felt it best to postpone
it until a more appropriate date.”

I nodded and looked at Wesley, who
crossed his arms with a big grin, knowing what I was to say next. “So, yes,” I
said, “my parents might be giving you some grief about this very shortly. But I
have an even bigger announcement to make, one that I’m sure will leave all of
you pleased.”

Liesel turned to me, not having a clue
what I was about to say.

I turned to her, and got down on my knee
for the second time. “Liesel Maupin?”

“What?” she asked. “Cam… What are you
doing?”

“Liesel Maupin, will you marry me?” I
hesitated, then I smiled. “
Tonight
?”

Everyone jumped out of their seats and
cheered throughout the restaurant, Aunt Margaret and her wife Darlene screaming
loudest of all. My parents both had their mouths agape, just like they did last
year when they saw Liesel and I floating thirty feet up in the air at
graduation.

Kimber, dressed in a simple but stylish
pink dress, rushed up to the two of us and hugged us with all her might. “I
think that’s a
wonderful
idea,”
Kimber said.

Liesel nodded,
and smiled at my sister. “I… I…”

“You…” I waited
for her answer.

“I agree… I
mean, I
do
!”

I kissed my bride-to-be on the cheek.
“And so,” I said to more cheers in the room, “if you can all follow me and Liesel
down the street… There’s a church waiting for us. And the wedding will begin in
exactly
one hour
!”

I think my mom and dad were the last to
get up out of their seats, completely dumbfounded that their only son was
getting married not many months down the road, as we had originally discussed,
but the night before the wedding was originally going to take place.

Liesel and I made our way into the warm
night air and started heading down the sidewalk, multiple groups of family and
friends laughing and cheering as they followed behind us. The St. Thomas
Aquinas Church was just three blocks down the road, and the members inside were
waiting for us—I had already made up my mind and planned out everything
for tonight’s proceedings much earlier. This was a special church to me, the
same one I had stepped in a year ago when I needed someone to turn to when I
felt like I had nobody. When I thought I was days away from death, when I
assumed there was no turning back, He was up there, and He listened to me. I
don’t know what good I did to have Liesel in my life, but she was someone I
wasn’t going to let go of. Tonight we were to be married. And nothing, and
nobody, was going to stop us.