When I Close My Eyes (AKA:Kourting Kat)

This is a work in progress definitely! Please check back for additions as I continue to weave this tale.

********************

Prologue

"We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of a dear friend, daughter, niece and most of all a dear child of God. Elizabeth's mark on the world will never be forgotten and may God rest her soul.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.....", the preacher recited.

Part 1

Chapter 1

I can still remember the first time that I met her.
Correction, I will always remember the first time I met her.
Long brown hair in need of brushing, deep penetrating eyes that inquired and a smile that even the most impish of imps would envy.

“Uh hi. My name is Kat and you don’t know me, but my friends and I had a bet going about you” She said casually.

Her voice was so melodious. Now thinking back on the whole scene I find myself wondering if that was even a word I knew back then.
I stood there looking at her and not moving. I can still feel the heat that crept up the back of my neck as she seemed to scrutinize my face for a response.

“So aren’t you gonna ask me what the bet is about?”Kat asked, bringing me out of my reverie. Absentmindedly she twirled a strand of your nutmeg colored hair.

“Uh, so what’s the bet about?” I tried to ask as casually as I could. I was blowing it. I could tell by the snickers that came from a few lockers down from her friends. They were loving watching me squirm.

“Well, my friends and I were wondering if you wear boxers or briefs.”

A loud giggle came from one of her friends and she herself couldn’t help smiling momentarily as she bit her lower lip.

“Um, briefs. Uh no! Boxers. Yeah, yeah boxers.” I said stupidly. Why was I even answering the question?

By now the color of my face probably matched the color of her red sweater.
If I could’ve climbed into my locker at that precise moment I would have.
I sensed that she was becoming embarrassed as well, but why I had no idea. Hadn’t I been the one asked the personal question? And wasn’t I the one who had answered it?

“Um, I have to go now. Gonna be late for Chemistry.”, I mumbled while looking down at my feet. I turned to go when I felt her hand on my shoulder. My skin burned and itched in every place that your fingers laid on my skin.

“Hey”, she said softly, almost apologetically “ I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Well, OK maybe I did, but I get ten bucks for asking ya. You would’ve done the same thing. Wouldn’t ya?” she asked me. She was toying with her hair again.

“Yeah, sure, I guess I would.”

“Do you want to go to Maggie Moo’s after school and get a cone with me? We could use the ten bucks that my friends owe me.”, she asked almost pleadingly.

“Uh, I don’t know. I have a lot of homework to do in the afternoons, and you know, I have to let my parents know,” I trailed off.
“Listen, you can call them from the pay-phone in the commons and it’s not like I’m going to keep you out late. It’s just an ice cream after school.”

Sighing I replied almost sadly, “Yeah I guess I could go.” If I had known then what I know now, I would have never accepted her invitation.

“Cool, so I’ll meet ya out front of the school and we’ll walk the two blocks together.”, she said quickly. “I gotta go now to class, so I’ll see you at three.”

I watched as she turned on her heel and walked back to her circle of friends. Quiet giggles came from them as a few of them looked in my direction. I turned around to go to my own class.

All through Chemistry I could think about nothing but her smile and her voice. Man, if my friends had known that she was the reason that I had failed the quiz they would never let me live it down.

Yes I was a geek. I was a bookworm who tried my very best to excel in all my classes. I always did extra credit when not asked to and always read ahead in textbook assignments. I had a circle of friends who were into D and D and playing games on their computers. We always looked forward to class field-trips to the planetarium and usually got together to play chess on the weekends.

I looked up at the clock and noticed that it was only five minutes until the final bell rang marking the end of the day. I glanced around the room and wondered silently if any of my friends knew that I was meeting Kat. That was a ridiculous thing to wonder though because I hadn’t told any of them about what had happened earlier in the day. I had actually been avoiding them because I was sure they would ask me what I was doing after school and I wasn’t a very good liar.

As soon as the bell rang I dashed from my seat and clutched my books tightly to my chest.

“Hey Thomas! Wait up!” I heard my friend Will yell at me somewhere from inside the classroom.

I closed my eyes and ears and kept going. The floor gave way suddenly and I found myself stumbling blindly toward to the tiled floor. Opening my eyes briefly to see where I would land, I closed them tight again to keep from witnessing my own fall. Thud! My books landed first and then my head. Crack! Pain shot up from the side of my head to the crown of my skull and reverberated throughout my body causing my teeth to clack together.

“Oh my God! Are you OK?” an angels voice asked. Dying surely wasn’t what I was taught it was supposed to be in Sunday school. I had always imagined a gospel sounding choir of angelic voices singing Hallelujah and a bright light following and then my souls ascent to the pearly gates. How worried these angels sounded. Perhaps I was to go to hell instead and they felt sorry for me.


“Thomas! What are you doing man? Are you alright?”

Was that Will? What was he doing here? Had we died together? A powerful force rolled me over and beckoned me to open my eyes. Cautiously I opened my eyes and saw two of the most familiar angels standing over me. Kat and Will. Nervous laughter came from somewhere in the distance but most of the hall traffic had dispersed due to school being out. For that I was grateful.

“You totally tripped over my foot.” Kat said to me, responding to my questioning look. I gingerly touched the side of my head and brought my fingers away. No blood. There was however a pretty big lump forming just above my right temple.

“I guess you aren’t going to feel like that ice cream now huh?” Kat asked, winding hair once again through her fingers. I was quickly learning that this was a nervous tic she had.

“Well, probably not, but what you should be asking me is if you can help me up first.” I stated with a hint of annoyance. My head hurt something awful and she was worried about an ice cream social.

“Well what you should be doing is walking with your eyes open instead of pretending to be Helen Keller.”

I could sense a bit of hurtfulness in her voice and suddenly I was filled with remorse for being so short with her. I glanced over at Will and noticed the funny look on his face. His gaze continued to move back and forth between Kat and me and he reminded me of an eager onlooker at a tennis match.

“Tommy and I were going to meet up and go to Maggie Moo’s after school in case you were wondering. Which I know you were.” Kat informed my friend. So she had noticed his look too. It really wasn’t my style to go on “dates” with girls and to talk to them was even out of character for me. I could understand Will’s confusion at the whole conversation.

“Ah, ok.” Will said as if her statement had answered all of his life’s questions in seconds. “Well if you’re OK Thomas, I’m gonna go. You know how my mom hates it when I miss the bus.”

“Yeah sure Will, I’ll call you later OK?”

“Um sure.” he said hurrying off to the pavilion outside.

Reaching down for my hand, Kat smiled at me and I could tell she was trying to hide her laughter.

“You know, it really is quite funny once you realize your OK. You should have seen the look on your face when you were falling.”

“Yeah real funny I bet. No big deal.” I told her not hiding my own smile.

“You know, you’re right, I don’t really feel like that ice cream, but I could walk you home if you’d like.” I told her. Where was all this sudden bravado coming from. Maybe it was because I had already done the most foolish thing in front of her and nothing else really mattered now.

“Yeah sure, I’d like that. I only live like five blocks from here so it wouldn’t be a long walk. That is if you really feel like it.” Kat said. Was that longing I heard in her voice? Surely not. It was probably just concern for me and my injured head.

“I think I can manage a walk home.” We walked toward to the front of the building and all at once I wished that there were more people around to see me walking with her. I stole a sideways glance at her and my heart skipped a beat. Well, maybe not a whole beat, but she certainly evoked some sort of irregular cardio- rhythm in my heart. To this day I can’t pinpoint what it was that made me fall in love with Kat Buchanan, but it happened and I would never be the same from that moment forward.

Chapter 2

My full name is Thomas Charles Hamilton. I was born in 1978 in a small town just outside of Chicago called Sutherland. That’s where this story takes place. I currently live in New York. My mother, Eliza Ruth Hamilton, was born and raised in Sutherland and swore she would never leave that town. My father, Joseph Hamilton was born in New Jersey and constantly spoke of moving to the south somewhere where it was warmer all year round. If not for his love for my mother, he would have been long gone early on, but she wouldn’t budge so he was stuck. We had a quiet life in Sutherland. No relatives nearby and I was an only child so it was just the three of us. We had no pets and my parents had just a handful of couple friends that came over to play Bunko and Bridge on Sunday’s. I grew up in a three bedroom colonial house with more character than you could imagine. To this day I wish I could live there in that house, now that my parents have passed away, but I just can’t. There are too many memories there. For now it sits empty. Silently waiting for new owners to move in and restore it to a true home. I am not going to elaborate on my life and me. This story isn’t about me. It’s about deeper and more meaningful things than Thomas Hamilton. It’s about more than Sutherland, Illinois and Eliza or Joeseph. It’s even more than Kat Buchanan. This story is about what happened when I gave my heart away to the only person in the world that would ever truly understand me.

Chapter 3

Many days passed before I spoke to or saw Kat again. Our walk to her house had been pretty uneventful. My earlier bravado had disappeared the minute she had caught me staring at her.

“What are you staring at Thomas? Do I have something on my face?” Kat asked.

“No, I was just looking at you. Sorry.” I mumbled looking down.

“You’re pretty easy to embarrass aren’t you?”

“No not really.”

“Whatever.”

We had continued our walk in silence until we reached her house. She lived in a two-story brick home on Conch Street. All the houses were built the same and even had the exact same landscaping it seemed.

“A little story-bookish isn’t it?” she asked me noticing my expression. “You should see it during Halloween. Pumpkins on everyone porch with the exact same carving. It’s really quite eerie. I used to believe there was a pumpkin fairy that would come out at night and decorate all the porches with the same exact Jack-O-Lantern. Of course I know better now. I swear it doesn’t matter what design you pick each year. It seems as if everyone else picks the same one. Well, I’m rambling and your obviously bored with my story so I’ll go in now. Thanks for walking me home and sorry you tripped and hit your head.” she said walking away from me backwards.

Part of me wanted to call out to her and tell her that her little street and house didn’t look story-bookish at all. Actually it made me feel secure. There was something about the comfortableness of knowing everything was the same. The other part of me told myself to keep my mouth shut so that I wouldn’t say anything embarrassing.

“Thanks. Sorry your foot got in my way.” Too late. She was smiling again.

“You’re a hard nut to crack Tommy. You know that? See ya at school.” She quickly turned and ran up the front steps and put her key in the lock. I turned and hurriedly walked away. Scuffing at the leaves on the ground with my shoes, I shoved my hands in my pockets and slumped against the weight of my backpack.
Fall was here and soon it would Halloween. I fleetingly wondered if I would get a chance to see those pumpkins that she had spoken about.

********************

Two long weeks went by until I heard from her again. Contact came in the form of a note shoved into my locker.

Dear Tommy,

You’re probably wondering what happened to me. I have mono and can’t come to school. I had
Amy drop this note in your locker so you wouldn’t think I was ignoring you. Mr. Hill is getting my
last two weeks assignments together. Could you please bring them by my house this afternoon?
You remember where I live right? See you then.

Kat

P.S. Amy has band practice that’s why she’s not bringing my homework. Thought you might be
wondering.


A feeling, I can’t explain which one, began forming in the pit of my stomach. I had been wondering why Amy wasn’t bringing her work to her. I contemplated finding Amy and asking her to skip band practice just this once. Anything to keep from embarrassing myself again. I realized quickly though that I had no idea who Amy was and trying to find her before school was out would be futile. Resigning myself to the fact that I would have to be the one to bring Kat her work, I walked toward Mr. Hill’s classroom. He quickly went over the assignments and gave me instructions to have Kat write him back a note if she didn’t understand something, instantly ensuring that I would see Kat again. Everything should be straightforward though. I thanked him and bid him a good weekend and left school. I couldn’t understand why I was so worried about being around Kat. I could use a new friend. Kat certainly held qualities of a good friend, that I was sure of. I know she always had a gaggle of girls around her and I really did enjoy her company.