2005
“What
do you mean you’re moving?” Pete was chucking rocks at an old tombstone, trying
to lodge out ghosts. Fortunately for the sleeping dead, most of them missed.
“I
wish you wouldn’t do that,” John said. “It’s disrespectful.”
“What
are they gonna do? Haunt me?” Pete laughed but let the rocks tumble from his
hand and onto the ground.
John
shrugged. A haunting might do Pete some good, actually.
“This
place is gonna suck if you go,” Pete said, pulling down his zipper, looking for
a place to piss. He might have relieved himself on one of the headstones had
John not given him the disapproving eye.
John
took in the view of the cemetery. He and Pete had been coming here for the last
twenty years and it pained him a little to think that those days would soon
end. “I have to go. This place…it’s death to me. Death to my soul.”
Pete
laughed. “Death of your soul, man? What the hell have you been reading?” He
rubbed his nose with his hand, not caring that he had just held his pecker with
that very appendage. “You just need to get laid.”
“That’s
not what I mean.”
“Is
this about Mara? I told you, it was an accident. You didn’t want her anyway. My
dick‘s still burning.” If Pete were any other man in the universe John would
have hit him. Mara had been a girl he really liked, but of course, like all the
other women in Samson, she had a thing for Pete.
“It’s
not about Mara. It’s about living my life. I’m 26 years old, living in my
brother’s old trailer, working a dead-end factory job. I’ve never been in love.
I’ve never climbed a mountain. And the only adventure I’ve ever had was getting
lost in the corn maze at the state fair.”
Pete
snorted. “Yeah, that was funny. You cried like a little girl ‘til we found
you.” Pete let out a big laugh and slapped his leg. “You read too many books.
But whatever you want, man. I aint gonna try and stop you from following your dreams.” John found this
uncharacteristic display of Pete’s humanity creepy, yet touching. The two had
grown up together and Pete rarely supported anything that did not somehow
support Pete. “So where you gonna go then? Colorado?” Pete turned his attention
on John, his tone more than curious.
John
reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small section of the Samson
Weekly. “No. There’s a recruiter in Evansville looking for people with computer
graphics skills to work for a new company in Arizona. I might apply.”
“Arizona?”
Pete’s words were heavy with disbelief. “You know how fucking hot it is in
Arizona? Your pansy ass can’t take the Indiana summers, let alone an Arizona
summer. Besides, thought you wanted to be a real artist anyway.”
John
shrugged. “It’s a start and better than sweating away in a factory. And how is
it you know so much about Arizona?”
“My
cousin lives there. Remember Amy? The girl who finally took your virginity?”
John
blushed. Amy had been his first real girlfriend but before the end of their
Junior year her family had moved away. They say you never forgot your first
love. Amy had been his only love, if you could call it that. On some especially
lonely nights John still thought about her and wondered what she was up to.
“I
visited her a few years ago during the Fourth of July. You don’t even need
matches to start fireworks out there. They ignite all by themselves.” Pete
laughed again and almost chucked another rock. He caught himself and aimed it
at a scampering squirrel in the field instead. Fortunately for the squirrel,
Pete had a hard time hitting a stationary target, let alone a moving one.
“Well,
it’s gotta be better than this. You hear all anyone’s talking about lately?
Harnessing the power of corn and cow farts to save the world. I want no part of
it.” John looked past the tombstones, past the gate that opened to the park,
past the houses and farms that sat just up the road. In his mind’s eye he knew
every detail of this town: every house, every field, and every signpost. His
mother said that someday he would appreciate the security of the familiarity,
but he hadn’t gotten there yet.
Pete
roused him from his thoughts. “Wanna hang out at the VW tonight? Jessica’s back
from school and I bet she’s looking to get lucky. Can’t believe she went to an
all-girl’s college. Anyway, you can have her this time. I think she’s bringing
a friend.” Pete jingled the coins in his pocket and cocked a mischievous
eyebrow towards John.
John
cringed and shook his head. Pete had been with every girl in Samson. Twice. His
claim to fame was that he had, at one time or another acquired every venereal
disease the free clinic could treat, and a few they couldn’t. The last thing he
wanted was to touch anyone or anything that Pete had laid his penis on. That
was another good reason to move away. “No thanks. You can give me the details
tomorrow.”
“Suit
yourself,” said Pete, popping open the last of the six pack they had brought
with them. “More for me. But remember, man. You can’t find adventure. You have
to make it.”
John
nodded, gathered up the empty cans, and made his way home wondering if his TV
would be able to pick up The Wheel of Fortune or if it would be scrambled
again.
