The unsettling part though is the lack of people. Every time I’ve been here the entire community seems to be out getting their daily fill of gossip.
The day is cool, but not cold enough to prevent everyone from being outside. Seeing I only have so much gas left and want to be sure to save enough for the real reason I made the trip, I conclude I’ve seen enough of this little town. I do a quick illegal U-turn and make my way back to the exit ramp. As I do I take one last peek at the town, trying to see any form of life. I’m not 100% certain nobody is here, but I’m almost convinced. Now that I see this town is deserted I know it’s not just my neighborhood that’s acting strange today. The real truth though will be when I get to Chesterfield. If that entire city is deserted, I’ll know I’m in big trouble!
Chapter 5
As I pull back onto the highway, the anticipation builds inside me. In about fifteen minutes the world that I know could dramatically change. If everything is normal in Chesterfield, it will be a huge sigh of relief. If it’s like everything else I’ve seen today, things are going to get bad in a hurry. I’m usually calm, cool, and collected but seeing the entire city of Chesterfield deserted would be tough even for me to take. I say to myself over and over that there’s no way an entire city as large as Chesterfield could completely disappear. Somebody has to be there, and I’ll do everything I can to find someone.
I look down at the speedometer and notice I’m going over ninety-five miles per hour. At this point though if the cops pull me over I’d get out of the car and give them a hug. My car barely handles this speed, but I’ve never been in such a rush to get somewhere as I am now. Abby’s office is the third exit from the highway, and only a couple miles or so once you get off. You have to go through several different stoplights and what seems like an abundant number of stores to get there. Chesterfield is a city that’s unofficially divided into two parts, the north and the south. Thankfully she works in the north side of town where the middle-upper class elderly people are. If she worked in south Chesterfield, she would need to pack a gun in her purse.
The south part really isn’t that bad by big city standards; the people are friendly and there’s nice diversity. But, there are a couple streets and neighborhoods in that area where you can’t help but pray for your life while driving through.
This is exactly what happened to Abby and me almost exactly a year ago. Abby, God love her, is lousy with directions. I’m not exactly a human GPS but I’m much better than she is. We found ourselves at a charity event for her work to raise money for a new building add-on to the nursing home. It was a Walk For a Cure event on the south side in an area she wasn’t very familiar with. Afterward, we were trying to make our way back onto Main Street, a road that seems to stretch across the entire city, when we made a wrong turn. Of course, this just happened to be the one time we had left our GPS unit in the house to update the stupid maps. I would love to go back in time to see exactly what turn we messed up, because to this day I have no clue what we did to get so lost.
During our little side trip we made our way down the scariest neighborhood I’ve ever seen. Every house was in need of a paint a job, and there was graffiti and litter everywhere. We drove up to a stop sign on the corner where there were about eight guys who looked like gang members gathered together. One of them ran out in front of our car while the others started to gather around. I couldn’t help thinking we were going to either get our car stolen, get shot, or (most likely) both.
One of them looked in through the window and said, “What the fuck are you doing here?” I completely froze up, gave a blank stare and didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, Abby is much better at thinking quickly, so she smiled and apologized saying we were lost. The guy took a small step back, looked around at our car and said, “That’s a fine car there, don’t mind if I take it for a spin do you?” Everyone around them started laughing.
I should mention we were in Abby’s black BMW, another little gift we treated ourselves to with the eighty thousand dollars we received from Abby’s grandparents. If we would have been in my Cavalier, they probably wouldn’t have even bothered us. Abby later told me if we were in the Cavalier they probably wouldn’t have taken it if we had given it to them. Because we were in the BMW though, and appeared to be well off, these hoodlums took a strong interest in us driving down their street.
At this point, I decided to step in and say, “Look, we don’t want any trouble. We are lost and we’ll be sure to never return here again.”
Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say because the guy at my window said, “Boy, you better get the fuck out of the car right now.” As he started to reach down in his pocket for what most likely would be a gun, instinct took over and I stepped on the pedal not caring if I ran someone over in the process.
“Get down!” I told Abby as I grabbed her head and pushed it down. Meanwhile I ducked down too, getting as low as possible while still being able to peek over the dashboard to see where I was driving. I thought for sure I would soon be hearing gunshots, but they never came. I never looked back to see what kind of reaction those guys were having. Were they laughing? Were they chasing after the rich white kids that dared to drive down their street? I’ll never know and I don’t really care to know. After a few more minutes of wandering around, we somehow managed to make it back to Main Street and were on our way home.
I look over and see Exit 91A, which is Abby’s exit. This takes you right through the north and south division. The first couple minutes are technically the south side, but as long as you stay on Main Street it’s safe. I take the exit and make my way down the ramp with my heart rate starting to race even faster. This little area is filled with run-down shops, fast check stores, a few fast food places, and a couple gas stations. I look around, and at first glance it appears just like everything else I’ve seen today. There are a couple of cars here and there, but everything looks mostly deserted. It’s hard to tell because it’s mid-afternoon, but it doesn’t look like any lights are on in any of the stores. The streetlights are all off, and the most telling sign is that there are no cars on the road.
I glance around looking for any signs of life, and when my eyes turn back to the road I’m forced to slam on my breaks.
A little black cat jumps out in front of me and makes its way across the road. I put the car in park and get out, slowly walking toward it. The cat stops for a moment to look at me and see if I’m a threat to its survival. For all I can tell, this appears to be a normal-looking cat. Of course it’s a normal cat, why wouldn’t it be? Once it sees I’m not getting ready to pounce on it, it continues walking across the road, probably to go look for food somewhere. Based on its ragged-looking hair, I’m guessing it’s a stray. I wonder whether or not I have any reason to either follow the cat, or take the cat with me. I quickly dismiss both ideas. If it doesn’t have an owner, why should I care what dumpster it’s making its way toward? I also hate cats, so why would I take it with me?
Truth be told, I’m a little scared of them. Every cat experience I’ve had from friends growing up has been a bad one. I grew up with a dog and, for whatever reason, all dogs seem to love me. Cats, though, always give me that look that they’re going to attack if I come close. Because of this, I’ve always stayed away from my friends’ cats, which never drew any complaints from the cats.
By now, this cat is already across the street further erasing thoughts of taking it with me. It’s probably for the best; I could see it biting me and giving me rabies. I get back into the car and put my seat belt on… safety first. Then I continue my way toward Abby’s office.