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"You played a good game today William.  I'm proud of you!"
William looked to his father from the back seat and smiled.
"What do you say we go for some ice cream?"
William smiled and cheered.
"Oh Ed, don't spoil him!"
Ed looked at his wife and smiled.
"I'll spoil the both of ya," Ed said, smiling at his wife.  "Now come on Rudy, let's go have us some ice cream."

The moon was high in the sky.  Ed looked into his mirror.  William slept in the back seat, his head on his ball glove.  Rudy watched quietly out the window into the passing woods.
This is it, Ed thought.  How could a man want more?
"You know what I was thinking, dear," Rudy started.  "Tomorrow we should go to the zoo.  I hear they just put lions out in the park.  What do you say?"
Ed looked at her and smiled.
"I'd say that sounds like a good time then," he assured her.  "We'll have some lunch down at the diner and head there at one o'clock."
Ed looked over at Rudy.  Her whole body was outlined in a brilliant light.  The light became blinding and there was a loud bang.

"...come on Ed.  Come on Ed.  You'll be late for school!"
Ed opened his eyes wearily.  He looked up to the face of a man with his hair slicked back and smoking a cigarette.  He wore a black suit and tie.
"You'll be late for school Ed.  You'd best wake up now.

"...come on Ed.  Come on Ed.  Ed, you're going to be late for school.  Ed?  Ed!"
Ed opened his eyes wearily.  He looked up to a face full of makeup and hair done up in buns.
"Ma?"  he said, trying to come to his senses.
"Come on now Ed, you're going to be late.  Get downstairs and eat breakfast," his mother said in a demanding yet loving voice.
Ed made his way downstairs to where his eggs and toast waited.
His father sat reading the paper with cup of coffee and a cigar.
"Come along now junior, eat up.  Your mother made you a fine breakfast," he said with a stern expression.  "You don't want to go hungry now."
After breakfast Ed got his things and went out to wait for the school bus.  A sweet young girl with curly brown hair was already there waiting.
"Ed, you have crumbs on your cheek!"  she said in a sweet and jestering voice.  She wiped the crumbs from his cheek and gave him a quick peck.
"Gross!"  Ed exclaimed.  The young girl giggled.  "Come on Margaret, what if mom were watching!"
The bus pulled up and the two got on and sat together as they did every morning.
"Ed, when I grow up I wanna marry a business man and have two kids.  Like in the movie I watched with my parents last night."
"Come on now, you're just a kid.  Besides, that was only a movie."
"Oh Ed, don't you wanna get married and have kids?"
"Nope, I wanna be an athlete."
"I'll come and watch you play, Ed!"
Ed watched out the window as the familiar houses passed them by.
Hm, he thought, I don't think I slept too well last night.
Ed stretched his arms out and began to yawn.  He closed his eyes and covered his mouth, trying not to be rude.
"Ed?  Are you bored?"
Ed opened his eyes.  He was still slow dancing with Margaret.  She looked great in her dress.
"Oh, I'm sorry Margaret.  No, I just don't think I slept too well last night."
Margaret reached over to adjust Ed's tie, which had become a little crooked.
"I told you not to stay up too late or you would be too tired to dance!" Margaret scolded softly.
"I'm sorry.  Come on, we still have another hour before the dance is over anyway!" Ed retorted.
Ed looked up at the clock to make sure.  Something about the clock seemed off though.  It seemed almost...hypnotizing.  He couldn't look away, no matter how hard he wanted to.  It was almost as if...as if...
"Ed!"
Ed looked back down at Margaret.
"Ed did you hear me?  I said I'm pregnant!"
Ed grinned from ear to ear and picked Margaret up and spun her around him.
"That's great honey!  We have to make the den into a nursery!  And a name!"  Ed was excited.  He was going to make his own family.  Isn't this what everybody wanted?  He was quite certain of it.  A name...what would be a good name?
"What do you want to name him, Ed?"  Margaret asked.
Him, Ed thought.  He looked down at Margaret in her bed, holding their son.
"How about James?"  Ed proposed.
"Ed, come now.  You can't name both of your sons James!"
"Yeah Dad!  That's my name!"
Ed looked down at James, who was about five now.
"Well then how about Peter?"
Margaret smiled.
"Peter it is then!"
Ed smiled.  This was his family.  A beautiful wife and two kids.  He was going to live a long and happy life.  After all, this is what a man truly wants in life.
"This is what a man truly wants in life!"
"You're right Ed.  Little Peter, all grown up and graduating High School.  And who knows, maybe he'll even be a great doctor!  That's what he wants to be in the Army, just like his big brother!"
Ed smiled.  His sons, successful Army doctors.  How happy could a father be?  Who knows, maybe they'll even marry and have kids of their own.  What would it be like to be a grandfather?  Why, good ole Ed would make the greatest of grandfathers wouldn't he?  After all, isn't this what every man wants in life?
"It is!" said James.  "This is what every man wants in life Dad!  I'm going to marry Jane!  We're going to be married this summer!"
How about that!  My little James getting married!
"I'm marrying Elizabeth!"
And little Peter too!  This is good.  This is definitely good.  This is too much excitement for one day.  I think I'll go to bed early.

"Ed?  Ed Sweetie?"
Ed opened his eyes to a face he woke up to for many, many years now.  It has been so long that he can't remember anymore what it was like to do any different.
"Your coffee will be done soon, Ed," Margaret said softly.  Her brilliant silvery hair was still as curly now as it was for as long as he could remember.  Her soft eyes were the eyes of a woman who couldn't have been happier having lived any other way.
Ed slowly slumped out of bed into his slippers.
"Oh.." Ed said cautiously and feeling a little wobblier than usual.  Thank goodness Margaret had left the room.  Wouldn't want her to worry.
Ed made his way to the kitchen and sat in his chair.  He opened up the newspaper to see if little Danny's baseball team had a picture in the paper.
"Little Danny..." Ed thought aloud.  "Hard to believe Peter's little Danny is going to be playing with the seniors this year."
Ed looked into his coffee and saw his reflection.  Something didn't seem quite right in the eyes of the man looking back at him.  Not quite right...
"Margaret...?"  Ed choked.
"Yes, I'm here dear.  I promise you everything is going to be alright,"  Margaret said, tearing up.
Ed turned his head slowly and looked at her.  She sat over him with deeply saddened eyes.  "What is it dear?"
"This can't be right can it?  After all...isn't this...what every man wants?"  Ed whispered.
This isn't right, Ed thought to himself.  It can't be!  It wasn't supposed to go this quickly!  What's a man supposed to do in as little time as this!  It ain't right!
Ed looked back to Margaret.  She fought to hold back her tears.  Good ole Margaret.  Who could've asked...for anything...

...better...

"It's time Ed."

Ed opened his eyes.  There was a man with his hair slicked back and smoking a cigarette.  He wore a black suit and tie.  "I think it's been long enough, don't you?"
Ed turned up his nose at the man.  "You!  Who are you anyway!  Where's Margaret?"

"Who are you talking about Ed?"
Ed opened his eyes.  A face that should've been more familiar looked at him, her eyes tearing up.  "Ed, it's me!  Your mother!"
Ed stared at her, not sure what this woman was talking about.
"Don't you remember Ed?  Your mother?"
"Where's Margaret?  And Peter and James?!"
Ed looked to the other side of the room.  A man was in a bed along the window.  A woman about the man's same age stood looking at Ed in confusion.  Beside her sat two young men, probably in their mid-twenty's.
"None of this is right!  None of it!" Ed stammered.  He got out of the bed with little strength.  He felt as though...he hadn't moved in a very long time.
"Ed?  Ed!  Please come back, where are you going Ed!"

Ed made his way out of the large building full of people in green and white.  He started walking, but he knew not where.  He just walked.  After he walked and walked until he could barely walk anymore, he sat down and tried to make sense of it all.
"This isn't the way it was supposed to be, was it Ed?"
Ed looked up and saw a man standing near him.  His hair was slicked back and he was smoking a cigarette.  He wore a black suit and tie.
"You again!  What is going on here!  Where's my Margaret!  Where's Peter and James!  I want them back!  I want them all back right now!"
"I don't think that's what you want, Ed," the man answered calmly and coldly.
"It is what I want!  You fix this!"
The man put out his cigarette and turned to Ed.  "Come with me," he said.

Ed followed the man.  He didn't trust him, but he was up to something.  He could tell.
After what seemed like a long time, they came to a house.  A house that looked familiar.  This was...this was his house!  Wasn't it...?

"Look there, Ed," said the man wearing black.
Ed looked through the window.  There was a family.  His family!  There they were!  There was Margaret and James and Peter and...a man.  A man sitting in a chair.  His chair!  Ed's Chair!  That's where he sat and...

"They're not yours, Ed,"  said the man wearing black.  "They're not yours."
"They are!  How can this be!  What have you done to me?  To them!"
"Ed, you've been gone for a long time.  It's been...probably two years now."
"Two years?  What are you talking about?"

"Can I help you?"
Ed turned and saw the man who had just been sitting in his chair.
"Uhh." Ed stammered.  "Is Margaret ok?"
"What?  Oh!  You were the man in my room!  In the other bed!  Yes yes, Margaret is just fine.  The boys too!  You should really see your mother!  She was worried sick about you, what being in a coma for two years and everything right?"

Two years.  It was true, what the man wearing black had said.  How could this be?  This was his family wasn't it?

Ed turned and ran.  He could barely move but he ran and ran.  After a long time he passed out from all the running.  and when he came to, he was in a familiar room.  In a familiar bed.
"Now you stay put this time ya hear?  You need your rest now," said a man dressed in all white.

Ed looked to this side of his bed.  There was the woman who claimed to be his mother.
"What about...what about mine?"  he asked.
"What about what now Ed?" she choked out, still sobbing.
"My wife...my wife and..."
His mother lowered her head.  "You don't remember...do you Ed.  How could you, you were out since the accident."
"Accident?"
"Your wife and little William...they died in that accident."
Lies.  Lies!!!! How could any of it be true!!  One day a happy husband and father of two boys and now a widower with no family left to speak of but this woman in worse shape than himself!
Ed's heart was pounding in his chest.  There was a loud noise in his ear, almost like a siren.  Everything seemed to tunnel out of sight for a bit.

When Ed opened his eyes, it was dark out.  The old woman wasn't in the room.  Perhaps now was his chance.
Ed got out of the bed and made his way to the front door again.  He walked out into the night for a bit.  He came to a few young men who had carelessly returned from the bar.  Seems as though they left the car running.  Ed got into the car.  He looked around.  Nobody.  He put the car into drive and pulled out, heading out of the city.

A good drive will clear things up.  It sure will.  After all, wasn't I driving when I met Margaret?  That seems right...eight year olds drive cars right?

Ed was being careless.  He was approaching 50 miles per hour on this windy road.

"You had better be careful, Ed"

Ed looked to the passenger seat.  There was a man with his hair slicked back and smoking a cigarette.  He wore a black suit and tie.

"You again!  Get out of here!  I don't want anything to do with you!"
"You're not paying attention, Ed.  You don't want to do anything rash."
"You give me back my family!  Give them back!"
"I can't do that, Ed."
"Well then I'll get them back myself!"

Ed turned an especially winding corner and put the pedal to the floor.  The road made a sharp turn, but Ed didn't much care for that turn right now.  He was a little more concerned with what came after it.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Ed," said the man dressed in black.  "Not much a man of flesh and blood can do at this speed when you're staring down a..."
Ed looked ahead and there was a loud bang.

"Ed?"
Ed opened his eyes.  There was a man with his hair slicked back and smoking a cigarette.  He wore a black suit and tie.
"You...what did you do?"
"On the contrary, Ed.  It's what you did.  You did quite a number on yourself this time."
"Are they here?"
"No, Ed.  It's just us here.  And It's going to be us for a long time.  A very, very long time."