Come Get Me Page 3

  After ensuring there were no lurking Goatmen, he quickly felt his head to make sure there wasn’t an axe or anything else embedded in it. Much to his relief he found no foreign objects of any kind sticking out from where they shouldn’t be and nothing else obviously wrong. His heart was slowly reaching a speed that didn’t feel like it was about to crack a rib as he closed his eyes, propped his head up and thanked God it was only a dream and he was still alive.

  When he had awoken from the nightmare his poor heart had been trying to pound its way out of his chest. It still felt a little sore. (Luckily he was still pretty young). If he was any older he might not have woken up at all.

  He swung his legs out from the tangled sheets but not before feeling a slimy wetness beneath them. Placing one hesitant hand on the sheets he quickly found out they were soaked through with sweat. Looking down at himself he found the sheets weren’t the only thing covered in sweat, at least that’s what he hopped it was.

  The ringing sound from his dream intruded on his self examination. Looking around he searched for its source, he was awake now but he still heard the ringing. After a few more rings he realized it was the phone. That was the noise that had driven him out of his dream. He’d never been so happy to hear that sound in his life. He fumbled the rest of his way out of the sheets and quickly located the phone underneath one of his pillows that had fallen off the bed during the night. Untangling the cord, he happily answered it.

  “Thank God you finally picked up!” his mothers’ worried voice just about shouted from the receiver.

  “Hi Mom!” he said as brightly as he could manage. “Boy am I glad you called. I was having the weirdest dream…”

  “Jim, I don’t know an easy way to tell you this,” she said cutting him off, “so I’ll just come right out and say it. There’s been a terrible accident out here son,” pause, “your friend Tommy was found dead in the woods. Nobody knows how it happened.”

  Jim didn’t hear most of whatever else his mother had to say. He didn’t hear her asking him if he was ok or if he was still there. He didn’t hear her asking if he could come home quickly or if he needed any money to do so. He didn’t hear any of these things because a few seconds after he’d heard his mother say Tommy was dead the phone fell from his hand and hit the floor. Not much longer after that he followed it.

  1

  If anybody’d asked Jim what had happened after he finally picked himself up off the floor he didn’t think he’d be able to tell them. All could remember through the haze that his days became was that he’d somehow managed to call his job at the electric company and asked for a leave of absence. Since this time of the year was just like any other his boss didn’t have a problem with it. He even gave Jim his condolences, but Jim wasn’t paying attention much after he’d heard what he wanted to. He mechanically said thanks and hung up already working on the next problem. As long as he kept moving he was ok. It was when he stopped to think about something that the memories of Tommy flooded in. One minute he’d be thinking about getting somebody to check his mail while he was gone, and the next thing he knew he was lost in thoughts of when he and Tommy had played mailbox baseball or how they used to go looking for frogs in the creek. Then he was just a bawling puddle until he pulled it together and started trying to get everything arranged for his trip.

  The last time Jim saw Tommy had been just shy of twelve years. It was just before he’d taken what he was sure were his first steps towards a life everyone back home would be envious of and talk about when he came to visit. Jim stopped by the hardware store where Tommy worked on his way to the airport to say goodbye. Tommy’d been stocking the shelves with different types of nails when Jim had walked up behind him and scared him so bad he almost pissed himself. Tommy was a little bitter about Jim leaving but he tried putting up a brave front for him so Jim wouldn’t feel bad. They said their goodbyes as customers passed by and that was about that. They said they’d keep in touch, but they never really did except for a Christmas card every now and then. They even planned at one point for Tommy to come out to the city so Jim could show him around but that never happened either. Now it never would.

  As Jim’s plane landed he realized he hadn’t seen anyone except for his family for quite a while. Whenever he’d gone to visit either he didn’t have enough time or his friends weren’t home. Something always came up. Thinking about it though, he hadn’t really wanted to see any of the people he’d grown up with. He wasn’t even sure what had happened to a lot of them. It wasn’t that he didn’t like them anymore; it was just that after he’d left they’d grown apart. It didn’t help that none of his grand plan came to fruition. He didn’t really understand why everything went wrong, it just happened. Out of sight out of mind really was true.

  Growing up in a small town hadn’t been horrible or anything like that. It was actually pretty fun now that he thought about it. When he left he thought of it as something he wanted to leave in the past where it belonged. All of his old friends were part of the past, so he had to leave them behind with everything else. Unfortunately he’d been friends with Tommy since he was old enough to walk so it didn’t work out that way. He, along with Pete and Rob had done everything together, from learning to ride bikes to getting drunk for the first time after the senior prom. But that’s where their happy go lucky times together pretty much came to an end. Even though they’d remained friends throughout the last couple of years of school, they each slowly drifted off to pursue other interests of their own. What once they would have done together without a second thought they were now doing by themselves, or with other people not part of their original group. It wasn’t purposefully done it was just something that had happened.

  Jim was the only one who chose to move after high school. But having big dreams he couldn’t just move to the next town over like most of the other kids. He had to move to the big city. Unfortunately none of the bigger companies saw things the way he did. They weren’t interested in hiring someone without any type of college background or experience. He ended up working at one of the local fast food restaurants for almost a year while he went and took a few classes at the local college. Even then the only place that would accept him was the electric company. He was a driver. All day long he drove other people from place to place and carried things for them. He was technically an assistant but he thought of himself as a gopher. The people he worked with were slowly teaching him the ins and outs of electrical work but not fast enough. After almost eight years he was just now hoping for a promotion. That, he thought sadly, was the high point of his life. He’d left with big dreams only to return empty handed. He hadn’t tried to see any of his friends whenever he was home mostly because he was ashamed of himself. They’d all thought he was leaving to go and do great things not to be somebody’s helper. If he’d taken the time to think about it he’d realize his friends probably wouldn’t have cared what he did. They liked him not his job but his mind didn’t work that way. Looking back he figured he probably would’ve been better off if he’d stayed home. Maybe worked at one of the local places or opened something up himself but no, he took the longer route. All his friends remained in the sleepy, boring, old town to this day as far as he knew. Except for himself and now Tommy, he thought sadly.

  Trying to get his mind off Tommy, Jim idly wondered what everyone he used to know had eventually grown up to be. Everybody had been full of high hopes about their futures after high school; some going off to college, some to the military, others God only knew where but Jim wondered if any of them had actually attained their goals. Sure, they all probably had jobs but did they achieve their dreams. Occasionally his mother gave him updates on what his old friends were up to, but since she was older then them she didn’t really keep up with them. They were nothing to her other than kids he’d grown up with. That is of course except for his little group. Those were different. Those were her boys. She felt as if she were just as much their mother as their own. The only thing she didn’t do was give birth
to them. Everything else she’d been there for. She tried to keep tabs on all three of them but it wasn’t always easy. From what she’d told him Rob had eventually become a police officer or as they were known in the town, a deputy. Jim was shocked when he’d found out. Rob was about the last person he’d expected to be an officer of the law. The four of them had secretly broken so many laws when they were little it was just inconceivable one of them would actually grow up to enforce them. Then again maybe it wasn’t as surprising as he thought. Rob had always been the type that liked to help out. He may have seemed like an obnoxious ass most of the times, but that was just his way of dealing with things. Once you got past that you could eventually see that deep down he genuinely wanted to help. He just put a show on most of the time to entertain. If what Jim’s mother told him was true Rob really seemed to enjoy what he was doing so he was happy for him. Rob seemed to have been the only one out of their group who had made any real attempt at making something of his life.

  His mom didn’t say too much whenever the subject of Tommy came up in their conversations. He became a somewhat touchy subject with her due to his exploits. Every now and then she would mention something about him being in the newspaper for some kind of hunting award or something of that nature. It always inevitably had something to do with shooting a deer with a big set of antlers or something else only other hunters would care about. She wasn’t a fan and was never really sure and Jim never thought to ask. That was one of the few things he and Tommy hadn’t agreed on. He’d never understood what the thrill of hunting held. Jim’d only gone with Tommy a few times and saw no real point in it. He didn’t like sitting around being still waiting for some dumb animal to come around so he could shoot it. Jim didn’t need the meat to survive and Tommy didn’t either, not with a grocery store and restaurants nearby. Plus he didn’t really like killing things, so he didn’t see the point in it. Jim didn’t oppose hunting; it just wasn’t something he enjoyed.

  Then there was ‘Poor Pete’ as Jim’s mother called him. Whenever his name came up in their talks her voice would get choked up as if just on the edge of tears. She didn’t know too much about him anymore either, mostly by Pete’s choice, but what she did know made her extremely sad and worried. She’d said when he was a young boy he so full of life and promise that seeing him the way he was now just broke her heart. Pete had slowly become what the town people nastily called a hermit and that was one of the nicer names.

  He kept to himself mostly but was occasionally heard from by his parents when he needed money or something else he couldn’t get himself. He never tried to talk to any of his old friends and was never seen out after dark except around his own house. When Jim asked what she meant she wouldn’t say anymore. From what little she would say he gathered Pete definitely wasn’t doing well and hadn’t been for a long time. He lived by himself and did a lot of things his mother and even Jim thought were strange. Mom always kept her comments vague but Jim knew something bad was going on with Pete. When pressed she would quickly change the subject to something not so depressing and acted as if what they’d been talking about was a closed topic.

  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.