anything there immediately turned to anxiousness, and I made my way back to the staircase, hunched over and loping like Quasimodo. On the way through the first chamber, I recoiled at the sight of the spiders again and jogged up the stairs.
When I eased the door open, I was still holding the glowing cellphone to my chest, trying to still my heart, and as a result, my face was illuminated from beneath. I scared the hell out of Noreen, who just happened to be standing next to me.
She punched me in the arm. “Where did you go? Did you find anything?”
“The key works on this door,” I said, excited. “I opened it and went down some stairs into some kinda burrow with a big nail in the wall. I think something used to hang there.”
“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Sawyer, shutting the camera’s viewfinder screen. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I got a huge case of the heebie jeebies.”
_______
It was raining in earnest again, and the water was beginning to accumulate in the culverts by the road, making for large puddles of standing water that roostered out from the car’s flanks. I took Sawyer and Noreen back to the Hampton Inn on the other side of town where they were staying and I stayed long enough to see her off.
“It’s too bad you can’t stay a couple more days,” said Sawyer, leaning into her car window. “Gonna miss ya.”
“You’ve got my email address?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“You’ve got my cellphone number?”
“Yep.”
She pulled him inside the car by his collar and gave him a long, sensuous kiss. They broke off and Sawyer just looked at her, dazed, still stooped over with his head in the car.
“We’ll see each other again,” Noreen said, smiling. She turned the engine over, putting on her seatbelt, then put the car in gear and eased away. Sawyer watched her dwindle away to nothing. I just stood there, too, letting the moment linger. Life is a series of moments like this. They are what make us who we are. I’d be a rude friend to take this one away.
Once the spell had worn off and the girl was gone, he turned to me and sighed, giving me unspoken permission to intrude. “I know, buddy,” I said, and tossed my arm around his shoulders as we walked away, giving him a commiserating pat on the back.
I treated him to dinner at a mom-and-pop seafood joint down the street from the Hampton. The sky was still a river of nickels, but the rain had ceased for the time being. The water standing on the street turned the headlights of every passing car into long-legged neon spiders that hissed and crashed past the windows.
I panned Sawyer’s camera away from the pale indigo evening and put it on the table. “So what do you do back home?”
“I used to think I was going to be a computer programmer, but a career in tech support didn’t quite agree with my sense of patience, so I’m going to film school at Full Sail.”
“Really? That explains the camera. I wondered what you were up to. I knew it wasn’t just vacation video.”
“Yeah. I’m making a sort of YouTube documentary about E. R. Brigham, but things are getting a little more...interesting, I guess you could say.”
“I guess you could say that.”
“I’m thinking of doing something a little more cinematic with it. So what are you doing back home?” asked Sawyer. “I haven’t seen much about you since you enlisted in the Army.”
“I used my G.I. Bill to go to art school. Right now when I get home I’ll be doing freelance art, and working for a little design shop in Kentucky that does things like T-shirts for ball teams, promotional office equipment for companies, coffee mugs, hats, that kind of thing.”
“That’s cool.”
“So you say you’re putting this on YouTube?”
“Yup. That is okay, right? Shit, I didn’t even think about a privacy waiver. I am such an asshole.”
“I don’t mind.”
We ate quietly for a few minutes, and then Sawyer spoke up, leading with a sudden inhale, a
When I eased the door open, I was still holding the glowing cellphone to my chest, trying to still my heart, and as a result, my face was illuminated from beneath. I scared the hell out of Noreen, who just happened to be standing next to me.
She punched me in the arm. “Where did you go? Did you find anything?”
“The key works on this door,” I said, excited. “I opened it and went down some stairs into some kinda burrow with a big nail in the wall. I think something used to hang there.”
“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Sawyer, shutting the camera’s viewfinder screen. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I got a huge case of the heebie jeebies.”
_______
It was raining in earnest again, and the water was beginning to accumulate in the culverts by the road, making for large puddles of standing water that roostered out from the car’s flanks. I took Sawyer and Noreen back to the Hampton Inn on the other side of town where they were staying and I stayed long enough to see her off.
“It’s too bad you can’t stay a couple more days,” said Sawyer, leaning into her car window. “Gonna miss ya.”
“You’ve got my email address?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“You’ve got my cellphone number?”
“Yep.”
She pulled him inside the car by his collar and gave him a long, sensuous kiss. They broke off and Sawyer just looked at her, dazed, still stooped over with his head in the car.
“We’ll see each other again,” Noreen said, smiling. She turned the engine over, putting on her seatbelt, then put the car in gear and eased away. Sawyer watched her dwindle away to nothing. I just stood there, too, letting the moment linger. Life is a series of moments like this. They are what make us who we are. I’d be a rude friend to take this one away.
Once the spell had worn off and the girl was gone, he turned to me and sighed, giving me unspoken permission to intrude. “I know, buddy,” I said, and tossed my arm around his shoulders as we walked away, giving him a commiserating pat on the back.
I treated him to dinner at a mom-and-pop seafood joint down the street from the Hampton. The sky was still a river of nickels, but the rain had ceased for the time being. The water standing on the street turned the headlights of every passing car into long-legged neon spiders that hissed and crashed past the windows.
I panned Sawyer’s camera away from the pale indigo evening and put it on the table. “So what do you do back home?”
“I used to think I was going to be a computer programmer, but a career in tech support didn’t quite agree with my sense of patience, so I’m going to film school at Full Sail.”
“Really? That explains the camera. I wondered what you were up to. I knew it wasn’t just vacation video.”
“Yeah. I’m making a sort of YouTube documentary about E. R. Brigham, but things are getting a little more...interesting, I guess you could say.”
“I guess you could say that.”
“I’m thinking of doing something a little more cinematic with it. So what are you doing back home?” asked Sawyer. “I haven’t seen much about you since you enlisted in the Army.”
“I used my G.I. Bill to go to art school. Right now when I get home I’ll be doing freelance art, and working for a little design shop in Kentucky that does things like T-shirts for ball teams, promotional office equipment for companies, coffee mugs, hats, that kind of thing.”
“That’s cool.”
“So you say you’re putting this on YouTube?”
“Yup. That is okay, right? Shit, I didn’t even think about a privacy waiver. I am such an asshole.”
“I don’t mind.”
We ate quietly for a few minutes, and then Sawyer spoke up, leading with a sudden inhale, a
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