Short: Back In Time, West Virginia
(This is a rough draft. When I complete the series, I’ll assemble all the parts into one cohesive story.)
Deeper into the mountains, snow covered most of the surfaces, masking the broken windows and sagging roofs. The trees were naked. And the sun dipped behind the western ridge, casting a gloomy gray shadow over the river valley. Brad began to talk about the architecture of the houses and boarded up store fronts. They reminded him of his native New Jersey and I understood. The homes closest to the road were narrow, two story row houses with stubby front porches and steep roofs. Of course, the frozen puddles and pock-marked jalopies did too. While I battled the dreary landscape, Brad smiled and craned his neck to drink it all in. Then he turned to me and said, “I think I’m gonna like it here.”
Around 3 PM, we pulled off Route 52 up the hill to Tom’s massive house. I’d told Brad about Tom, but not too much. Warned him really. No alcohol at the house or in Tom’s presence, and for the love of God, don’t talk about weed. Brad nodded. Good, I thought. He understands. And everything to that point led me to believe Brad would be a solid citizen, the one I knew from years back when he was a teenager.
David met us at the car to help us unpack. And after a bro hug I introduced the two.
“So you’re going to help Wes cook?
“Yeah man, seems like it. How long you been here?”
“Since the summer, when Jonathan got here. I came up a week later from Charlotte.”
“You lived in Charlotte? Where?”
“Fort Mill, really. Off the parkway. You know it?
“Yeah dude. My parents live across the line in Pineville.”
I felt my face and legs begin to freeze, so I asked about my room and went inside. Jonathon sat at the booth in the kitchen pouring over a pile receipts. He took off his glasses and gave me a quick hug.
“You hungry? We’re going to go to DB’s Exclusive for dinner,” he said with a sly grin.
The thing about Jonathan was he was willing to color outside the lines on occasion and the name DB’s Exclusive conjured up images of stripper poles and glittery plastic chairs. I’d not known him to go to a strip club, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
“What do they serve?”
“Oh, your typical steaks and chicken. Normal stuff.”
Just then Brad and David burst through the door, toting our bags and deep into a conversation on music. Jonathan smiled at Brad but Brad kept right on chatting with David as they strolled through the kitchen and down the hallway. Jonathan and I stayed seated and strained to hear the chatter, their voices fading until silence refilled the space. Jonathan chuckled and shrugged. I nodded in agreement.
“So? DB’s?”
“Sure,” I replied, unsatisfied yet stumped.
“Good. Go put your stuff up and meet me down here. I’ll get the boys. Remember, we’re only here for the night. Then all next week we’ll be in Gary.”
A few moments later, I was on the other side of the house, climbing the front stair case to the second floor. My bedroom faced the landing and through the heavy wooden door I found a large, empty room. Jonathan told be the previous owner, a doctor, used the room as an exam room for patients which left the space feeling institutional. The white walls and ceiling had yellowed and chipped, and rather than hardwood or carpet the floor was covered in green vinyl tile. Two single pane windows faced north and east. And in the corner near the door was a lumpy single mattress with fresh white sheets, my green sleeping bag, and a pillow. I slung my duffle onto ground bedside the mattress and rifled through it for my sweats and shoes. My teeth began to chatter and scanned the room for a space heater.
As I slid my sweats over my shorts, I began to laugh and shiver. And then I closed me eyes and drew a frigid breath. My dad had told me about this kind of cold, having grown up in western Pennsylvania. He said he hated it, hated how the wind nipped at his skin and nothing he did was enough to satisfy the chill. I didn’t believe him. I hated the heat and humidity of the South Carolina summer, how the gnats found your eyes and once outside you never felt dry. But, sitting on the that old mattress, with all my clothes on my body, I finally understood. My dad was right.
Before meeting up with Jonathan and the others, I nosed around the other rooms on my floor and found an old space heater. I took it to my room and immediately blew out a breaker. Using the light on my phone, I found the fuse box down in the basement. Inside were three breakers and again I laughed. This is a going to be easy I thought as I held my phone up to the fuse board. The switch on the top breaker was off and I flipped it back on with a hard snap. And because I forgot to unplug the old heater, it immediately snapped right back off.
