No, Jim thought as he waited in line for his rental car, his leaving had nothing to do with his old friends and everything to do with him. He guessed he just wanted more out of life back then they did. Nothing against them or anything but staying in town just wasn’t for him. So he left. Unfortunately leaving didn’t do what he thought it would. He hadn’t found anything he thought he would. No great job, no great girlfriend, in short no great life. He doubted he would ever find those things. At this point he didn’t even think they existed. He tried to be an optimist and think his dream just hadn’t found him yet but that was quickly being proven wrong everyday he stayed in the city. He thought when he’d left he’d go out in the world and become somebody, then return home to the admiration of his friends but that wasn’t happening. Instead the only thing he got to come back to do was bury the people he left behind.
He dreaded coming back and seeing his friends again under any circumstances much less these, but at the same time he almost couldn’t wait. The line for cars was almost more than he could take. Jim didn’t quite know why but he was actually looking forward to seeing the old group. He’d had a lot of friends but none he was as close to as Tommy, Rob and Pete. They were always inseparable. It was always a good time as long as they were around.
Now one of their numbers was gone.
It would be a bittersweet reunion especially with Pete in the condition he was. But it was a reunion that was long over-due, failure or not. He was somewhat nervous about everything what with Tommy being gone, but he figured that was because of the simplest reason of all. It had just been too long since being home.
2
After the hassle of the airport the open road was a welcome relief. It gave him time to prepare himself for his arrival in the old home town. He definitely needed to get his head straight before he got there. It wasn’t a bad place, just a little different.
Before he knew it he was coming up on the last bit, drove over a small hill and there it was. The name of the place was Newton but you wouldn’t have known it since the name had worn off the welcome sign. It had probably worn off the maps leading to it too.
Driving into the town almost felt as if you were taking a step back in time. The place looked like it had tried to progress with the rest of the world but had run out of energy halfway through. Cruising down the road that passed directly through the center of town, which was of course called Main Street, he saw just how little the place had changed.
It was the type of place that if you saw a tumbleweed blow by you wouldn’t be surprised to see it. He smiled to himself none the less. He was happy to be back even for such a bad reason. Everything was as familiar as the back of his eyelids. Things he grew up with and thought would surely be gone were still there.
The old grocery store, bank, fire station and everything else he remembered was still the same as he’d pictured it on the plane ride out. They looked almost as if they were somehow suspended in time. Unfortunately seeing them like this caused them to look like exactly what they were. Old rundown buildings that needed to be either torn down or updated to fit in better with the rest of the country. The town looked as if it wanted to live in the past, and the people living there didn’t seem to mind letting its way. Otherwise things would be different.
Coming to where the main area of the town used to end, Jim saw that there were a scattering of things the outside world had been able to inflict on the old place. Surprisingly, a couple of new fast food joints had popped up. They looked as if they’d sprung from the ground already made and ready to serve like so many of the ones he was used to in the city. One day it was an empty lot, the next there was a new place to buy a burger on your way to work. A Wal Mart was probably being birthed somewhere nearby if he didn’t know better. Seemed like every place no matter how big or small had one of those now a days. Not seeing one immediately present he chuckled imagining his town just might not rate highly enough on the big organizations food chain to get one. Yup, he thought, the old town was quite a ways behind the times but it was very slowly catching up. Maybe too slowly.
Jim tried concentrating on his driving but found it difficult as he looked from one place to another, his neck on a swivel, remembering old times. He drove past the tree that he’d been standing under when he received his first kiss at the age of seven. Looking for another tree close by that he and his friends used to climb all the time, he was surprised to see it wasn’t there anymore. In its place stood a sign that proudly proclaimed that this spot and all the surrounding area was going to be the location of a new Wal Mart.
I guess we do rate, he thought sadly. That tree had been a great place to sit on hot summer days, of which there’d been quite a few, and just relax and enjoy the breeze. Whether they were sitting there reading comic books or just talking about anything that came to mind, they were always cool.
Thinking of comic books brought back memories of one of the places he’d already passed. The old grocery store. When he was little his group of friends would go there almost daily to buy penny candy from the wall behind the register or to read whatever comic books they might happen to have available which usually wasn’t all that many but for the four of them were enough. It seemed like they spent half the summers there. The owner never seemed to mind. It was the exact opposite in fact, she actually encouraged them. She always told them reading was good for them, even if it was funny books and that a little candy never hurt anyone. This last part she always said with a wink and a secret type of smile only reserved for the kids. Thinking about the little old lady brought another sad smile to his face. Everybody in town used to call her Grandma. It didn’t matter if you were an adult or child, she was Grandma to everyone. Whenever you went in the store, there she was sitting behind the counter on her little uncomfortable looking stool. She ran the place all by her lonesome. Jim’s smile slowly faded as he thought of her. She was just another part of his past he would regret not having had a chance to say goodbye to. She’d surely passed away many years ago. There was probably someone new sitting behind the counter who probably wasn’t near as nice as Grandma had been. He didn’t even think he wanted to go there while he was home. It just wouldn’t be the same. That was Grandma’s place and anybody else sitting there would just tarnish his memory of her.
Finally arriving at what was surely the new outskirts of town he drove only for a few more seconds before turning down the first street he came to that lead to one of the two main housing developments the town boasted. Jim never understood why people chose to live here. It wasn’t really close to anything. There were no car factories or plants or anything for that matter that needed a lot of workers and yet the town still seemed to somehow exist. The next closest town, or what passed for it anyways, was a good forty five minutes away. A few of his friends’ parents had commuted when he was little so maybe that explained it. People wanted that rustic feel or something.
Discarding the ‘why’ people lived here thoughts he turned his attention to the development itself. Everything he could remember of his childhood seemed to center around New Ways Estates. From the moment he was born until the exact moment he finally left. Tommy and Rob’s families also lived in the development not too far from Jim’s so it had been almost inevitable they would eventually meet and become friends.