Anthology by O Come All Ye Kinky

Author:O, Come All Ye, Kinky [O, Come All Ye, Kinky]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2012-11-27T05:56:55+00:00

Open Return

Elyan Smith

erry Christmas, buddy,” the bus driver muttered,

“M W “I D “A P

leaving Zach to fend for himself among the faint

carols and flickering decorations of the bus depot

in Nowhere, Il inois. All Zach could think in return was, “I

don’t want to fight tonight.” The incessant refrain from the

Ramones’ Christmas track had haunted him since Melbourne.

The bus pulled away, taillights disappearing in the gray of the

distance, and Zach wondered what the hell he was doing.

The shakiness had set in when his confidence had slipped

by the wayside somewhere over the Pacific. He’d spent most

of the flight turning his sunglasses over and around, until he’d pushed them into his pocket just prior to landing. Now they

pressed against his thigh, but they were more for hiding, and

nothing here was supposed to be about that. He hefted his

bag on his shoulder, pulled his hat low over his ears to protect against the cold wind and fal ing snow, and marched, well,

home, trying to avoid spinning into maybe s and what if s.

Fifteen years hadn’t left much of a mark here: the

decorations and signs in shop windows looked the same. The

shaky singular traffic light on the main road didn’t look like

it had ever been replaced. He followed street signs that had

been faded fifteen years ago toward the edge of the town.

207

Shop fronts stood empty now, though, and the diner at the

corner still proclaimed al -day breakfast in the window, but

the glass was broken. His group of friends had occupied a

corner of it most weekends, talking Pearl Jam’s latest and how

the world would stop in a massive crash of computers come

the New Year while “Mambo No. 5” played over the speakers.

When they’d ducked for a smoke, they’d gone just around the

corner into the alley, the same place Zach had first let Scott

fondle his breasts and pinch his nipples with cold fingers,

nails tickling as Scott ran them down to Zach’s stomach.

Zach thought he’d shuffled through whatever memories

lurked in the back of his mind when he’d looked through

the photos a few weeks ago, the ones in the folder crammed

underneath his books from college. But being here now made

him remember the summertime barbecues, wintertime roasts

and carols, Halloween in-between and never, never being the pretty princess.

Zach stopped at the rusting fence two houses before

Kevin and Elaine’s garden. He could turn back around now,

wait twelve hours for another bus and just go on to Kansas or

Oklahoma or Salt Lake City. He could pretend the nostalgia

had never crawled out of the photos to settle in with the

guilt over leaving he’d been carrying for years. He’d make the

same choice all over again, but that didn’t make it right or the regrets any lighter.

When he took a few steps closer to their house, he saw

his old bike still leaning against the side of the shed in the

yard, half-covered in snow now, and he was once more the

little girl his parents had shipped off to friends when they’d

needed time to sort themselves out and then had never picked

up again, leaving him to Kevin and Elaine.

208

Cars

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.