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                       The Past is But a Prologue:
                           Sleepless Nights (1)
                              By Amy McGraw
                                  © 2001

	Jimmy Clayton couldn't sleep.  He had been tossing and turning 
all night long, which is pretty much what he had done every night for 
the last year.  He had just found it hard to rest after she had died.
	Callie was someone he never talked about.  Well, not anymore, 
and not with anyone who didn't get paid for listening.  He just couldn't 
bring himself to say her name around anyone who had known her.
	He and Callie had dated for almost a year before it had 
happened.  He had never been happier.  She was so different.  She was 
smart, beautiful, and a bit paranoid.  But she was strong.  He had never 
met anyone stronger than she was.  The longer they dated, the more he 
fell in love with her.  But he never had a chance to tell her. 
	Almost a year after she arrived in Swans Crossing, her father 
left town for a while.  Callie stayed in town, with Elizabeth, her new 
step-mother.  Callie wasn't too happy about the arrangement…while she 
was thrilled to stay in town, Elizabeth was far from her favorite 
person-then again, what 16 year old girl was fond of a new step-mother…
especially when the step-mother in question was the sister of her boss.
	It was about that time when Callie started to act a little 
strange.  It was little things at first…she got angry quickly, and 
didn't seem to have much of an appetite, but Jimmy had just thought that 
it was because her father was gone.  He had no clue of what was going to 
happen-the warning signs were there, he just didn't think that it was a 
possibility.
	One afternoon Jimmy and Callie had gotten into an argument-
nothing major, in fact he couldn't even remember what it was about now.  
But that was beyond the point.  Callie had told Jimmy that it was over 
between them, and that she wanted nothing to do with him.  When she 
walked out, Jimmy didn't follow her.  He thought she just needed time to 
cool down.
	It was the next morning when Barek and Elizabeth found her note.  
Her bike was found soon after at the sea cliffs.  Search teams were 
called in, but the currents were too strong, even for them.  After three 
days, the search was called off.  A small memorial was held for her, 
and a headstone was laid down in the Swans Memorial Cemetery.  
	A week later Jimmy came into work early.  Barek was out of town, 
so he knew he would have the garage to himself.  He walked over to 
Sophia's car, which was in for another tune-up, and quickly started up 
the engine.  He made a quick trip around the garage, checking the 
windows and doors to make sure they were closed tight.  He then went 
and sat down in the driver's seat of the car and waited.
	It would have worked, if Barek hadn't decided to come into work 
early that morning.  When he entered the garage, he immediately began 
to cough from the overabundance of exhaust, and he realized what was 
going on.  He pulled Jimmy from the car and quickly dialed an ambulance.  
	Jimmy arrived at the hospital just in time.  It took almost two 
weeks before the doctors released him, but after that he had to see a 
court-appointed psychiatrist twice a week.  Dr. Dean was the only 
person he talked about Callie with, and that was because it couldn't be 
avoided.  
	Amazingly, most of his comfort came from Nancy.  After "his 
accident" as his parents referred to it, Nancy had not left his side.  
At first, it was kind of annoying, but after a while it felt better and 
better to have someone at his side.  And now, almost a year after 
Callie, Nancy was still there.  He didn't love her, not like Callie, 
but she was there, so he felt better.
	Jimmy couldn't take the sleeplessness anymore.  There was only 
one thing that made him feel better when he couldn't sleep…something no 
one else knew he did, not even Nancy.  He quickly got out of bed, got 
dressed, and slipped out of the house. 
	He was going to visit Callie.


	Swans Memorial Cemetery was dark.  Supposedly there was no 
entrance after dark, so no one had bothered to install lights among the 
graves.  
	But this night there was light.  Someone was walking quickly 
down one of the paths that ran through the center of the cemetery, 
carrying a lantern that flew a beam of light that danced around the 
tombstones.
	Finally the lone figure stopped.  The light had hit a statue 
beside a grave, with a girl riding on the back of a swan.  When the 
light played across the stone, the inscription was easily read in the 
rich marble.
                           Helene Calliope Walker
                                  1977-1993
	The figure stopped and stared at the grave for a few minutes, 
then quickly removed a shovel from underneath its raincoat and began to 
dig.  It had dug a hole that was maybe a foot deep when Jimmy grabbed 
the shovel out of its hands and shoved the figure as hard as he could.
	"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jimmy screamed.  The 
figure began to run through the graveyard with Jimmy in quick pursuit.  
However, Jimmy had the advantage…he knew the graveyard like the back of 
his hand while the other didn't seem to know it well.
	Jimmy finally was able to grab the fleeing figure by the arm 
and swing it around to face him.  He reached up to grab the hat covering 
the persons head and ripped it off, then stood transfixed as the thick 
red hair feel softly around the figure's face.
	"Callie?"

************************************************************************
Ok guys, you know me.  How could I leave her dead?  You know you feel 
the same way, I've had sooooo many people email me about the intro last 
time in shock at Callie's suicide.  So email me again at 
amymcgraw@hotmail.com with any comments.  I know where she's been…can 
you guess?  Just remember, in Swans Crossing, nothing is quite the way 
it seems.