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Luke stood at his parents front door more nervous then he had ever been. He took a deep breath. God it felt weird to do that.
They had come back to life one day ago, it had taken them a while to explain what had happened to Julie’s father. And after that they had to form a plan as to where to go from there. They had not really come up with one yet, or more accurately they had not decided on one.
But Luke could not wait to talk to his parents again.
It had taken him a while to convince Mr. Malone drove him to his parents house. But eventually he had been able too.
It did not really matter though because he would have walked there, he was not driven to his parents house.
Luke knew that if any of the neighbors saw him standing here it would look pretty suspicious, he felt like he had stood in front of their door for a solid minute without knocking.
He wondered if any of their neighbors were the same as they had been back in the 1990s, there had to be a few, right? He thought back to Mrs. Hanson and her delicious chocolate chip cookies, and the Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and their son Mathew. His mom had been really close to Mrs. Johnson and as a result he had played with Matthew a lot when they were younger, but they had drifted apart as they got older.
He knew that the odds where a few of them were still here and a few of them were not. But he thought back to what happened to Reggie’s family's house and he was once again struck with how much had changed in the years since he had died.
He was glad that his parents had not moved away, he did not know if he would have been able to track them down to see them, then he would not have been able to see them again and Julie would not have been able to give them the song that he had written. He was glad that Bobby had not stolen that one.
Luke took another deep breath, it was now or never, he moved his hand to the doorbell and he pressed the button.
He heard the sound go off inside the house, he recognized it, they had not changed the door belle.
He was shortly greeted with the shocked face of his mother, staring at her long dead son.
“You can’t just throw your life away for some stupid dream.” Emily screamed at her son trying her best to make him see some sense.
This kind of fight had sadly become somewhat common in their household. Luke’s grades had been falling steadily ever since he had joined that damn band. It’s not like she was not grateful that he had a hobby, but it is not something that he should try to make a career out of.
But Luke wanted too, and she honestly did not want her son to go down that path.
It was a very hard industry to break into, and even if you did it is not like it is exactly a stable career path.
He needed to focus on school so he could get a good job in the future, he could still make music, it could be his hobby. But he had to stop making it the center of life which is what he was doing now.
So she and Mitch had decided to ground him, they would take his guitar away until he got all of his grades up to at least a C.
Luke had not taken this well.
“I'm not throwing my life away Mom, music is my life.” her son responded.
Emily stared at her son in shock.
No, it was impossible. Luke was dead, he had been dead for nearly thirty years.
But here he was standing in front of her.
How was that even possible?
She opened her mouth, but then closed it. She could not think of any words to say. She was afraid that if she were to say something Luke would just….vanish.
Eventually after what felt like hours of staring at her son she croaked out a
“Luke?”
Mitch watched as his son grabbed his stuff and stormed out of their house.
He and Emily had been fighting again, they had been fighting a lot recently and it was always about the same things Luke’s grade and his band.
Their fights had never gotten this bad though.
Mitch had thought that it was a good idea. It was not like Luke was going to lose his gauter forever. And it should not be that hard to move his grade up.
But that is not what Luke thought.
As saw the door shut he moved to confurt Emily, he knew that Luke was going to come back. He had too.
After she said her name her son did not in fact disappear, instead he looked up at her with tears in his eyes and said
“Mom.”
Then for the first time in over twenty years Emily hugged her son.
She never thought that she would be able to do this again. After Luke had run away she had never given up hope that Luke would come back home, but then he had died and that hope had been destroyed.
She had never gotten over that, although she supposes that no one ever truly does.
Every time she saw one of Luke’s former classmates around time, she would always wonder what Luke would be doing if he had lived to that age. Would he have children, a wife, would he have succeeded in his dream of being a musician or would he have given up and gone on to some other job.
Emily could not see her son being anything other than a musician and they were gaining some success when they were alive, he could have made it. He was right about that.
She had to see her siblings' children grow up, her nephew was the same age as Luke that was particularly painful. Almost every landmark that he had reached in his life, she could only wonder what would have happened if Luke had gotten to that point in his life.
“Emily, who was at the door?” She heard her husband say.
Luke looked up and said
“Dad.”
The day of Luke’s funeral was a day that they would never forget.
It had been a sunny day, that had been one of the things that had bothered Emily the most. Her baby boy was dead and yet it was still sunny.
They say that one of the greatest pains in life is having to bury your child, Emily could confirm that is true.
Mitch saw his wife and son embracing in a hug, something he had given up on seeing on a horrible night in the 90s.
And he called out his son's name. And for the first time in years, he heard his son reply back with
“Dad.”
The Patterson's had their son back, nothing else mattered at that moment.
Of course eventually Luke would have to explain what happened, but that was not this moment.
This moment was for a son, to be finally reunited with his parents.