Robby unconsciously rubbed his sweaty palms against the legs of his jeans.  He felt hot and he couldn’t quite take a breath deep enough to calm his anxiety.

Standing there in the aisle of the Stop & Shop he tried to appear as if he was looking for a specific item.  He picked up a can of bean dip and pretended to read the label.  He glances over at Mr. Himani behind the counter.  He seems to be arguing with old Mrs. Kennings about something.

Good.  I might be able to do this.

Robby was scared of getting caught, but a dare is a dare.  And the reward that Tamara promised him if he succeeded gave him the courage to attempt it.

 

He put the can of bean dip back on the shelf and made his way toward the glass refrigerator doors lining the back wall where all the cold beverages are kept.  He walks past the milk and juices, past the soft drinks, and then slows to a stop as he nears the beer section.

The second from the last double-paned glass door displays various large bottles of beer.  Robby turns his head and peeks over at the store owner and sees him still arguing with Mrs. Kennings.

Robby opens the glass door and reaches in.  He grabs one of the quart bottles of Miller Genuine Draft beer and quickly closes the glass door.  A moment later he starts making his way toward the entrance doors.

He watches Mr. Himani as he approaches the doors, but he’s too distracted with the old woman to notice Robby.

He pushes the entrance doors open and steps outside.

Robby tries to walk naturally but gives it up as he rounds the building and breaks into a loping run.  After a block he looks back and sees no one is giving chase.

He basks in the moment of triumph and discovers he is able to breathe again.

He reaches the corner and turns down the street where he and Tamara live.

Tamara’s family moved to the neighborhood a year ago.  Robby could not forget the first time he saw Tamara: he was outside fixing the chain on his bicycle when she came out of her house wearing a bikini top and close-fitting shorts.  He sat mesmerized as Tamara washed her dad’s car.  The form and shape of her had him enthralled.

 

The day’s events recounted themselves as he crossed the street.

They had been hanging out all afternoon at the Rec-center with some of their school friends.  Tamara was unusually touchy with him, today.  She was always placing a hand on his arm, or draping a leg over his when they were sitting.  He could not help but notice how her breasts seemed to always be bumping into him.  The sensations he felt as parts of her body made contact with him was enough to drive any guy crazy, let alone an infatuated fifteen-year-old like Robby.

His mind did somersaults trying to decide if these so-called chance encounters were accidental, if they were innocent gestures, or if they were deliberate.  Robby dared to hope they were intentional – that would mean she liked him.  As to whether or not Robby liked Tamara, that was not an issue: she had become the sole sexual fantasy in Robby’s mind.

In the year that she lived across the street from him Tamara had become Robby’s on-going crush.  He just couldn’t figure out a way to approach her about it.  Fear of being rejected prevented him from saying anything to her.  Still, he made it his mission in life to be close to her as much as possible in case the opportunity arose.

They were headed home late that afternoon when Tamara asked him to hang out in the backyard of her house. 

Robbie was ecstatic at the prospect of spending time with Tamara - just the two of them!
"But Robbie, I want you to do something for me first.  I want you to get us some beer from the Stop & Shop."

Panic set in. How in the heck was he going to get beer?  He was no where old enough.
Thoughts racing he quickly ran through a list of people he knew that were old enough to buy beer.  None came to mind that would oblige him.

Six heartbeats later he heard himself saying, "Ok, but only because you asked so sweetly" 

She said she would be waiting for him.  Hurry, she said.

He shifted the beer to his left hand and reached for the wooden gate that led to Tamara's back yard. 

As promised, Robbie saw there, rocking back and forth on a hammock hung between two well-grown sapling trees.

 "You got it!"  Tamara's eyes were bright and excited at his apparent success.

He came over and let himself fall-sit in the hammock with her.
Robbie handed the quart bottle of beer to her.

"Here, you do the honors" he said.

Tamara gripped the cap and twisted it off.  The escaping gas brought a whiff of hops and barley to his nose, and the potential promise of Tamara to his reeling mind.

Things seemed almost unreal to Robbie as they both took swigs from the still cold beer.
Except for smiling and occasional giggles neither spoke between swallows of beer.

Robbie’s mind felt foggy.  He felt good.  Tamara's leg was draped over his.  And that felt good, too. 

The beer was gone; the empty bottle lay on the grass under the hammock.

Robbie's were closed as he reveled in the moment when he suddenly felt Tamara's lips pressing onto his, her tongue forcing its way past his partly opened teeth searching his tongue in turn.

His hand instinctively reached for her to touch her breast over the spaghetti blouse she wore.
She in turn pressed herself against his hand.

Robbie was drunk with the euphoria the moment.

The scream that tore from the open back window of Tamara's house snapped them both apart and on their feet.
Eyes wide and unsure Tamara and Robbie looked at each other, unsure what to do.

A second scream ripped from the house.  Both were galvanized into action; Robbie and Tamara ran to the back door and entered.

"Mom?" Tamara called out.

They went through the kitchen and into the hallway that led to either the living room or the bedrooms at the opposite end. 

Tamara called for her mother again.  No sounds now; the house had become eerily quiet.

Robbie followed behind Tamara as she made her way directly to her parents’ bedroom.
The door itself was not closed entirely.  It was opened about an inch.  What appeared to be nightstand and a chair could be seen through the cracked door.

Tamara placed a hand on the door and pushed it open.

Inside was Tamara's mother.  She was sitting all the way back into the far corner of the bedroom.  Her eyes wild and terrified did not register Tamara's presence.

Robbie took all this in.  He also took in the unknown man - was it a man? -  Standing over what looked like a spreading pool of goop at the foot of the bed.

"MOM!" Tamara screamed and bolted into the room passed the stranger.
Tamara fell to her knees and tried to hug her mother.  Her mother never even glanced at her.  Her eyes were riveted to the stranger standing there in the bedroom.

The stranger took a step toward the Tamara and her mother.   He began to reach out them with his left hand.

"Wh..why-why-why-whyyy!?"  Tamara's mother said over and over again as he neared them.

The stranger bent over and with an almost gentle gesture, brushed his fingers across the forehead of Tamara's mother.

She convulsed momentarily, eyes rolling wild and filled with fear.
The stranger stepped back from where she and Tamara sat.

"Mom?  What's happening?" Came Tamara's questions.

But her mother was now beyond hearing her.  She slowly slumped back against the wall.
She continued to slump down the wall.

Robbie stood rooted in place and bore witness to it all.

He watched the impossible take place as Tamara's mother began to...come undone, turn liquid, and lose her solidity.

Robbie heard a long scream coming from somewhere that seemed to go on forever.   He was too far in shock to realize it was he that was screaming.
With his hands on the sides of his head as if to keep it from exploding he watched the gruesome events unfolding.

Tamara at first thought her mother was collapsing in a faint and tried to hold her up.
Tamara felt the weight of her mother change, sensing something fundamental was being altered.
Her mother's upper torso literally fell back and draped over her forearm.
The impossibility of it all could find no foothold in her mind.

Tamara pulled away from her disintegrating mother.  Too shocked for anything beyond this simple act, Tamara sat there and watched as her mother's body distorted and undo itself.

Robbie had finally stopped screaming. His mind was trying to tell him something.  He needed to act.  Still, he did not know what it was he had to do.

He looked at Tamara, her face a mask of horror and disgust with tear-stained streaks on her cheeks.

He dared to look at what was left of Tamara's mother.  There was hardly anything left of her: what looked like a piece of hip bone was briefly visible and then even it became liquefied.
What did register in Robbie's mind was the fact the blood, the body fluids, everything, seemed to be evaporating.
The other puddle that had been by the foot of the bed was completely gone.

It seemed an eternity had passed since Tamara had pushed open the bedroom door.  Yet at most a minute or two had transpired.

Robbie took this in; some part of Robbie's mind was still working, trying to make sense of it all.

The last of Tamara's mother was disappearing, now.

As if on cue Tamara stood and turned to look directly at Robbie.  A question hung on her face.

And then Tamara simply faded to nothing.

Robbie opened his mouth to scream.

BUMP 

Robbie's face changed in that instant.
His reeling thoughts were gone.  As was his distress, his horror, his memory of what he had just witnessed.

He was sitting in his bedroom, doing History class homework.  A small television his parents had given to him the previous Christmas sat on a dresser.  Its channel depicted a music video and the volume was turned down.

Every experience he had that touched on Tamara was gone.  Every event that had occurred as a result of Tamara's existence

 

Robbie was utterly unaware that Tamara had ever existed.