mountain

Awakening twelve minutes before the alarm sounds, Benny slips out of bed.

Boots laced and tied; ignition is turned to where the motor comes to life. Headlights on, his first stop is across the street from the Cadbury apartments. A cup of coffee close by, pressed between lips is a lit cigarette. Checking his watch, he’s got a handful of minutes left to himself. He thinks about Jane, the good parts anyway. Having a sip of coffee and another drag, Benny lets go of his idle thoughts of her as he sees Vincent walking up to him. Window rolled down, Benny pokes his head out and says, “Morning.” Stopping just short of his longtime friend, Vincent peers at his worn boots and lingering over the cost of new ones, he stares at Benny and says, “Lori said I should forget about doing this. Told me that I should stay home and not to worry about it.”

 “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Vincent levels his eyes on Benny, “I know.” Shared is a mutual understanding of what is at stake, and as Vincent turns away in looking towards the stacked apartments, he gives a deep sigh before walking around to the passenger door. Climbing inside, and after the seat is slid back, clicks the harness in place. Next to him, Benny takes in one more drag before making use of the ashtray. With the side mirror as his guide, Benny pulls away from the curb.

Driving along the main boulevard, what drags Benny down is him recalling Jane backing away from the letter while saying with disgust, “That is some creepy stuff. Get rid of it. Take it outside and burn it up. I don’t ever want to see it again.” He told her that he couldn’t do that. Wide eyed, her face was one of disbelief, “Wait, you’re not going through with this, are you?” Taught never to lie about the important things in life, his answer was out of his mouth before he gave thought to the implications. A heated argument ensued that ended with him watching her walk out the front door. Thinking he could have handled his part differently, his focus falls on the signal light changing from green to yellow and then to red. Pulling to a stop in front of a white line needing a fresh coat, Vincent looks over and says, “Did you hear about Philip?”

“Yeah, don’t they have a kid together?”

“Kelsey, I think he’s two, could be three.”

Giving thought to the kid, the signal light turns a solid green that has Benny shifting the rig into gear. Driving by park cars yet to be warmed up, Vincent is idling his time away by staring out the passenger window and having an idea that he is thinking about Lori, Benny slips back to yesterday when he heard a knock on the front door. Looking around, there is not a soul in sight but there is an envelope poking out of the mailbox. Thinking it junk mail, he was about to drop the envelope into the recycle bin when regret of doing this has him opening it. He read the letter twice, and then a third time. Afterwards, he called Vincent and found out that he got one too.

At first, they thought the letter was part of an elaborate joke and after running a finger down the list of those clever enough to orchestrate such a plan, both came up blank. That in itself completely changed the conversation. “Is this s**t for real?”
“Let’s go find out,” is what he told Vincent.

Making a right turn that has them out on county road number nine, caught in the headlamp’s glare is waist high yellow grass hanging around for the morning’s light.