Displaced Fairytale

Affairs

Dawn: We have the young love that will never die…
Kane recalls this memory with Dawn; hears her voice so crisply reciting these words as if she were with him again. He ponders where Dawn’s love for him has burrowed within her.

Argument from a few months prior…
Dawn: Kane, you’re driving me crazy!!
Kane: I’m scared for you Dawn! What are you doing to yourself?
Dawn: I guess you could say I’m livin’ the dream… (Fades with a giggle).
Kane: This isn’t funny! I love you too much to have you let yourself go like this!
Dawn: Oh you think your love is going to change me, change my opinions!? You are so vain!
Kane: Please listen to me Dawn! Try to connect with me again…
Dawn: We are nothing like we used to be! I hate you! I hate you! (Shoving Kane towards her front door) You used to support me and love me no matter what! It’s over! It’s over! Don’t come running back ever! (Shoves him out the door) I don’t want you! It’s all your fault. (Slams door)
Both slump to the ground Kane on the doorstep, Dawn in her front hall. Neither hears the other cry.

Later that night, Dawn is alone in her dark bedroom. She waits for utter silence at her house. She sneaks to her closet grabs out one of her gym shoes. From a tear in the fabric under the tongue she pulls out a small bag and sets up a line.

The next morning after sleeping only an hour she awakens to her door slamming open against the wall.
Dawn’s Mother: (sniffling, she had clearly been crying) You need to come with me.
Dawn: Jesus mom! I’m tired. Where the hell are we going??
Dawn’s Mother: It’s a surprise… you need to come with me…
Dawn: Dude, no! We can go later. It’s like six thirty on a Saturday.
Dawn’s Mother: But it starts at seven. Dawn it’s really important to me…
Scowling and with reluctance, Dawn makes eye contact with her mom and follows out of bed, into the car without changing from her pajamas.

Kicking and screaming, Dawn is carried into a six month rehabilitation center. Dawn’s mom had received an informative call from Kane earlier that morning.

Letters came and came from Kane to Dawn. Each signed with “I love you…” Kane never saw one in return.
Kane anticipated the day Dawn would get out or re-hab from the day she went in. He couldn’t wait for her to be healed again, for them to be together again, and for everything to be the same as it was. This expectancy should be forgiven in Kane for it is a common misperception of newly ‘sober’ drug addicts. When the day came he called and called Dawn repeatedly and received no reply. Finally, Dawn’s mom answered the phone late in the afternoon.

Kane: Hi Marie! Is Dawn home yet? I wanted to take her out to a celebratory dinner!
Marie: Kane…um…I guess she’s not feeling quite up to it yet…
Kane: (A little disappointed, but always understanding.) Oh…Okay! Well tell her to call me whenever she is. No pressure!
Marie: I sure will Kane…bye…
Kane’s farewell is interrupted by an early “click” of the phone.

A week and a half passes and Kane receives no phone calls, no visits, no nothing from Dawn. Even in the middle of summer, with so much fun to distract him, he can’t stop thinking about her. He wonders how she is, how the program went, and how she’s changed. He wonders why she doesn’t want to see him. He supposes she just needs more time to heal, but can’t help his feelings of resentment.

All summer Kane heard nothing from Dawn. He got over it as best he could, but still spent much of his days thinking of her. His phone calls to her stopped after the third empty promise from Marie. Tomorrow, he would be back at school again, he would see her face again. This tore Kane’s nerves apart. For the first day of school, no longer was his priority to pick out the best outfit, catch up with acquaintances, or make a good impression on his teachers. All he wanted was to have at least a short, sweet conversation with his Dawn. The one he honestly vowed his heart to so long ago.

Back at school, Kane is distracted from keeping his eyes peeled for Dawn all day. Finally, he sees her across the courtyard at lunch. He stalls his conversation with his friend and starts to walk over to her. Then from behind a crowd he notices who her company is, who she’s talking so lightly and enjoyably with. It’s Chastity, the girl who got Dawn into all the drug mess in the first place and who had certainly not quit such awful behaviors herself. Again, Kane found himself scared for Dawn; he knew what this meant… Immediately, he finds out what “that crowd” is doing this weekend.

On his Friday night, Kane prepares himself for a night of confrontation. He departs to a party at Sunny Side, the trailer park on the bad side of town. Dawn will be there tonight. He parks his car, gets out, and heads for the door, taking his time all the while for his nerves. As he’s about to knock on the door, he hears a moan. It came from the darkness, the bushes on the side of the house. Curious, Kane takes a few steps in the direction of the noise. He expects to find some drunken idiot trying to pee and balance up against a wall all at once. A rather impossible task for the intoxicated…

Again the voice moans, and whispers something under their breath. With the sound of that subtle whisper Kane realizes it’s his Dawn. He runs towards the bushes kicking beer cans and branches aside. Behind the shrubbery lies Dawn. She is disheveled to say the least; bleeding from many pricks in her arm, splattered with mud and her own puke.

Kane swiftly sits her up and moves her hair from her face. “Dawn? Dawn?” he almost yells, trying to get some kind of response out of this limp human being. Her eyes are rolling back in her head. She is pale, almost purple. This is not the glowing, radiant girl he was once in love with. He picks her up panicked and thinking, “I need to get her to a hospital! I need to save her!” In his arms, Dawn gasps and exhales once with deep emotion. She has stopped breathing. There is no pulse. Kane stares into her blank face and collapses to his knees, holding her tighter now.

After his continued efforts to apply CPR, after some submerge from the party, after they scream, after the cops came, after the ambulance came, after his love was pronounced dead, after his whole world came crashing down on him, Kane cried. After he cried, he blamed himself. After he blamed himself…he shot himself.