Post by Steve on Oct 10, 2008 19:02:48 GMT -5
Chapter 7
Frank closed the store early to meet Michelle, his relatively steady girl, at The King's Table Diner around nine in the evening. He barely made the 329 bus and sat in the back sipping his flask, staring beyond the glass. The reflection seemed a better place than the restricting 3 dimensional world where he was sitting. A place in between the tiny stone wall by the creek, the trees and the seats behind him.
The bus pulled to a stop a crossed from the diner and Frank walked off into the darkness. He requested a table for two in the smoking section and followed the large, loud woman to a booth near the lavatories. He sat and stopped the woman who was silently walking away. "Could I have a pot of coffee, two mugs and two glasses of lemon water please?" He was polite enough but she rolled her eyes, large white egg eyes, and scribbled on her pad. The woman turned to walk and nearly toppled a thin stem of a girl. The large woman tore the sheet and pushed it into the small girl's chest. "Well, I'm Stacey; I'll be your waitress. Could I get you anything else?" "No. This will be all for now." She walked behind the counter and poured a pot of coffee into an insulated pitcher before gathering the other things.
The diner was a mess of college students screaming about drunk and keeping a steady traffic to the bathroom. One table to his left had a young man who incessantly said "Bro". It seemed he said that more than any other word when speaking. Frank began counting the number of times it was said. He adjusted himself in the red vinyl seat; his of course was torn, as Stacey brought his order to the table. As she emptied her tray she asked if he was ready to order. "There is a young woman coming to meet me. When you see a woman sitting with me I will be ready to order. If I need anything I will be sure to call you over. It's been a blue day." "I can do that for you. Wave and I will be here." She left to cater to the other tables and Frank sank into the corner, where the graffiti was hidden behind the sugar, and planted his feet against the bolted leg of the table. He sighed "time 43, 'Bro', or 44".
He dropped two quarters into the booth's jukebox and flipped through the selection. It was between Mr. Jones and Stormy Weather, in haste he tapped numbers into the machine. A stuttering A minor chord wheezed through the speakers.
The air was thick with the stench of liquor and the few sips he sucked down only blended with the already foul aroma. Frank up righted one of the mugs and poured until it blistered at the rim. He bent and sipped the coffee before looking around the place.
Every table had a group of young kids. Hip with their coffee and cigarettes. Slick and warm from trees and booze. The majority of them were fraternity and sorority sods clicking and mingling among other tables of Greek families. There were the few tables with the quiet couple or the two drunken friends. A dirty long-haired kid but 21 occupied one table. He wore a patched scruff on his face and throat. He sat sipping his mug lighting cigarettes, flipping through sheets of paper jotting and scribbling every so often. The kid looked up and caught Frank's eyes. He made a face by raising his eyebrows and cheeks saying "Hell if I know why we're here. Just try to make the best with what there is." and Frank nodded as though confirming the boy's belief, turning back to his coffee.
A woman slid into view on the red vinyl bench and immediately flipped the mug and proceeded to mix her coffee. Stacey arrived seconds later asking if she could bring anything. "Yes. A cup of ice; a B.L.T-no fries; and a strawberry-vanilla milkshake please." Okay. Have you decided sir?" "Why not? I'll have the melon half." "Will that be all?" Frank and the exchanged glances. "Yes, I believe that will be all. Thank you." Stacey smiled then went to deliver the order. The two sat watching their coffee for the better half of an awkward silence.
"So you're pregnant?" Frank looked at the woman but left his thoughts on warming his mug. She sat and said nothing. "Are you keeping it?" "Of course I'm keeping it. Why wouldn't I? If you want nothing to do with us we don't need you." She rattled off anticipating being abandoned. "Allison, wait. It is your choice. That's all the meaning behind that." Frank was staring at her with a saint smile. "You may not need me, but do you want me?" Allison bit her lip then cracked a smirk that said everything was going to be fine. "Can we celebrate a little, how many months are you?" "I'm barely a month; I suppose I can have A glass of wine."
The waitress brought the food along with a fresh pot of coffee. "Would you like the milkshake now or after dinner?" "We'll actually take two glasses of merlot, please, instead." "Okay, be right back.” The leek shaped girl blew off and returned shortly with the wine. The two toasted to the gamble of x and y chromosomes that would end up their child and to the love that would triumph endlessly then sipped their drinks.
Frank lit a cigarette and they small talked and flirted like they hadn't in a long while. Their conversation was exhaust from their running motor, combining with the pollution emitted from other tables. Everyone was idling here ready to accelerate into the night at any moment.
He flicked the ash into the tray and took a glance at Allison. Her brown hair was piled on the top back of her scalp and she wore a jade necklace. The grayness of despair and anxiety were fading to her normal powder blue eyes. The classic librarian that smokes too much began to come out again and covered the abused housewife persona like fresh snow. Frank felt the swoosh of her broomstick skirt through the holes in his dress pants and closed his eyes as he took a drag. Frantic voices and a mob of students rushing out of the diner caught his attention and he stared at the exodus. Allison turned to see what had stolen the light from their relieving evening. "Did you want to leave?" She didn't seem to take a position on whether or not they should and topped off her coffee. "We'll wait. It's the last week of summer which means first week of the university kids." Frank lit a cigarette to replace the one he had wasted. "I suppose we’ll have to choose non-smoking soon." He smiled at Allison and drank the last of his coffee, stabbing at the melon with his spoon. "They never give you a lot of melon, do they?" "Never dear."
Frank took out a twenty and a ten-dollar bill and tucked them beneath the pepper shaker. "That's more than enough, if she comes `round saying she'll bring change, tell her to keep it. Don't look at me like that. She was very nice and exactly what we needed." He walked towards the bathroom and went inside.
A screaming falsetto that everyone knew as Mr. Mercury crippled the jukebox where Allison was sitting and left her with only an earful of static.
The arcade games were reciting their gimmicks as they passed through the lobby into the night. A cool thickness, like silk, was carried in the air as they walked to the car. "This'll be one of the last times I'll need someone else to drive me home." "I'll make sure of that." Allison spoke with a determined punctuated confidence. Two silver doors slammed shut and a pair of headlights ignited a handful of darkness.
Chapter 8
The trees melted into the sky, barely silhouetted against the dark olive night, as we sped down the highway. I grabbed a seed from my lap and threw it out the cracked window. Derik kept jousting Liz, who we had picked up when her car broke down on route 17, about the bureaucracy of universities. I was licking the paper together when he turned his attention to me. "You smoke a lot man. Is that a joint or a cigarette?" He kept staring at the rolled stick instead of the road. "Do you want to find out?" No thanks. Open the window more if you're going to smoke." "Okay." I lit the stick and inhaled deeply the first drag of chemical and green. The inside of the car billowed with smoke. "I told you to open the window.” He was scoffing me none too severely. "I'm sorry, I forgot." I rolled down the glass as I smoked. "Can I get some of that?"
Liz was leaning forward a bit already assuming the answer would be yes. Between inhales "be careful it's just a little dusty" and I handed the twist over to her. We heard her cough and chuckled a little as I went back to staring out the window, this time through Derik's side, gawking at the motorists. A jaguar burned through a bend in the road scarring the tar and illuminating the distance ahead.
I was smoking a cigarette as we walked through the parking lot of TKT Diner, passing it off to Liz and I dropped the little bit into the ashtray as we went through the large glass doors. A large woman, who seemed to never have had a good day, seated us in the smoking section. Queen blared through the jukebox as we passed a table and I looked around to see who still had that kind of taste. Far on the other end of the corner sat a girl sipping the last bit of wine from her glass. She resembled Frank's sort of steady girl, before I could search for Frank I was pushed into the booth by an angry Liz who thought I was checking the girl out. "Sit down! You can stalk her later." It was the routine whisper that bit through your genitals if you chose not to argue. An image of Liz on her knees gnawing through my scrotum, which grew redder and pinker with every chew until they resembled a wilted flower in her yard, like it was a square of taffy, flashed through my head as I fell onto the bench.
"I think that was Allison." I was trying to seem sincere and honest, which only made it look like I had something to hide. "And who's Allison?" Now she didn't care if Derik heard us, I chose to pursue the topic so whispering was over. "Frank's girlfriend." I turned my attention directly to Derik to close the conversation and I heard her sigh the "I know I'm stupid" sigh. "No you're not" as I kissed her forehead and asked Derik if he knew what he was getting. "Chicken Death may be?" I was laughing and even Liz cracked one as he straightened himself out. "It's not chicken death or whatever that means, I'm not even sure why it bothers me." He began to chuckle as the waitress came over to take our order. "Hi, I'm Stacey; I'll be your waitress tonight. Can I offer you a beverage?" "Two coffees and a mountain mist please.” I looked around the table to see if there were any disagreements. "Okay, I'll be right back with those drinks." Liz lit a cigarette and wriggled herself against me. My foot slipped off the leg of the table and my forehead slammed the table. "Oh shit, how high are you?" Derik's face was a raspberry as he barely exhaled the question. Liz shot up and kissed my forehead and blocked my hands from grabbing my head. "It's okay." Liz sat forwards then repositioned herself against me.
Stacey came with the drinks and we told her we needed more time to think. I raised Derik's glass to my forehead and looked around. The woman sitting alone was gone, replaced with a group my age of college kids; drunk and high with kinks of their own they're straightening. I gave Derik his drink reassuring him that only the bottom of the glass was touching my skin. "I know dude, I was watching." He laughed and dropped his straw into the drink to sip a quarter of it in one breath.
I lit a cigarette and sipped my coffee as Stacey came back to take our orders. We went in a circle starting with Liz who ordered a garden salad and ended with Derik getting his chicken sandwich. She couldn't help but to gaze at the growing lump on my face as she took my order. The mood was light as she walked away and headed towards the kitchen. Liz and Derik were chatting about some class they both had in common while I was scanning through the music choices in the jukebox. I pulled a pocket of change dropping it onto the table and found a dollar in quarters, brushing the rest back.
The traffic at the light backed up onto the hill. The driver of an S.U.V was staring out the window as what I imagined as his wife was vehemently gesturing at him. Every now and again the man would turn to look at her and throw a hand in the air (which seemed to be done in mockery). As the light turned green he accelerated quickly, the woman backwards into her seat grabbing for her seatbelt but never ceasing her agitated topic. A few cop cars raced up the hill turning into the plaza where the bagel shop was and the traffic behind them was cautious and law abiding. A bus with a billboard advertisement about a new mini-series ached up the incline with a large blonde headed face. It looked like her entire face was proportioned around her teeth, hair and eyes. The bus moved further and her right eye blinked closed and her mouth twisted into an artificial emotion unknown to me.
"Right Stan?" I was torn from my slumber like a fish through its numbness and responded "sure". "See, he's gone." Derik had been throwing pieces of straw wrapper onto my plate, which had arrived sometime after the first cop. There was a pile of white wads against my egg and cheese sandwich. "Thanks man. I appreciate this." "You’re not upset about that are you?" He seemed offended and shocked at once. “No, it gives me permission if not reason to get revenge." I smiled something sinister. I drank my coffee and had it refilled when Liz called the waitress over to do the same.
I couldn't have been away too long, Ziggy Stardust was the second song and it was reaching the second chorus, I sipped the warm coffee before eating the sandwich. "So what's after this?" Liz was stabbing a sheet of Romaine and chewing a cherry tomato. I paused to drink more coffee then said "I think we're going back to my place to jam a bit. Care to come?" "If I'm not going to get in the way." Derik straightened up "if we record just be quiet." It was a couple weeks ago when Liz kept interrupting a song we were trying to lay down. She wasn't intentionally doing so but she would flush the toilet or open a new beer and the fishsheau would show up in the song. I personally didn't mind it. I thought it gave a feeling of life to otherwise dead notes and words. He told me it was because she was my girl and that I liked to be rougher than what recording should be. "She'll be quiet. Plus, you want me to record my songs and you're only going to mix them." "Well, yeah. May be we’ll do one of ours." It hurt him a little, just enough to put him into place of not insulting Liz. It was agreed that we'd go back, drink and record at my apartment.
The violins in Unchained Melody were shaving the last notes as we packed up the table and walked through to the cashier. The bill came to about seven bucks even a person, we all gave a ten piece and walked into the lobby. I felt concerned leaving the tip with the large unhappy woman, but no one else seemed worried so I shook it off and figured it was just me.
It was nearly midnight when we made the left to pass the college on the hill and an applaud of sirens were slapping the hollow night somewhere at the foot of the hill. We got the green arrow and suddenly the wailing woops were receding into the trees. There was a silence of inter-contemplation on all of our parts as we slid down the hill towards Haledon Ave.
Derik's uneasiness of having to drive in this neighborhood was one generation from locking everybody's door and just as apparent. We pulled up to the two story house and scuttled inside following Derik's haste to get inside.
Frank closed the store early to meet Michelle, his relatively steady girl, at The King's Table Diner around nine in the evening. He barely made the 329 bus and sat in the back sipping his flask, staring beyond the glass. The reflection seemed a better place than the restricting 3 dimensional world where he was sitting. A place in between the tiny stone wall by the creek, the trees and the seats behind him.
The bus pulled to a stop a crossed from the diner and Frank walked off into the darkness. He requested a table for two in the smoking section and followed the large, loud woman to a booth near the lavatories. He sat and stopped the woman who was silently walking away. "Could I have a pot of coffee, two mugs and two glasses of lemon water please?" He was polite enough but she rolled her eyes, large white egg eyes, and scribbled on her pad. The woman turned to walk and nearly toppled a thin stem of a girl. The large woman tore the sheet and pushed it into the small girl's chest. "Well, I'm Stacey; I'll be your waitress. Could I get you anything else?" "No. This will be all for now." She walked behind the counter and poured a pot of coffee into an insulated pitcher before gathering the other things.
The diner was a mess of college students screaming about drunk and keeping a steady traffic to the bathroom. One table to his left had a young man who incessantly said "Bro". It seemed he said that more than any other word when speaking. Frank began counting the number of times it was said. He adjusted himself in the red vinyl seat; his of course was torn, as Stacey brought his order to the table. As she emptied her tray she asked if he was ready to order. "There is a young woman coming to meet me. When you see a woman sitting with me I will be ready to order. If I need anything I will be sure to call you over. It's been a blue day." "I can do that for you. Wave and I will be here." She left to cater to the other tables and Frank sank into the corner, where the graffiti was hidden behind the sugar, and planted his feet against the bolted leg of the table. He sighed "time 43, 'Bro', or 44".
He dropped two quarters into the booth's jukebox and flipped through the selection. It was between Mr. Jones and Stormy Weather, in haste he tapped numbers into the machine. A stuttering A minor chord wheezed through the speakers.
The air was thick with the stench of liquor and the few sips he sucked down only blended with the already foul aroma. Frank up righted one of the mugs and poured until it blistered at the rim. He bent and sipped the coffee before looking around the place.
Every table had a group of young kids. Hip with their coffee and cigarettes. Slick and warm from trees and booze. The majority of them were fraternity and sorority sods clicking and mingling among other tables of Greek families. There were the few tables with the quiet couple or the two drunken friends. A dirty long-haired kid but 21 occupied one table. He wore a patched scruff on his face and throat. He sat sipping his mug lighting cigarettes, flipping through sheets of paper jotting and scribbling every so often. The kid looked up and caught Frank's eyes. He made a face by raising his eyebrows and cheeks saying "Hell if I know why we're here. Just try to make the best with what there is." and Frank nodded as though confirming the boy's belief, turning back to his coffee.
A woman slid into view on the red vinyl bench and immediately flipped the mug and proceeded to mix her coffee. Stacey arrived seconds later asking if she could bring anything. "Yes. A cup of ice; a B.L.T-no fries; and a strawberry-vanilla milkshake please." Okay. Have you decided sir?" "Why not? I'll have the melon half." "Will that be all?" Frank and the exchanged glances. "Yes, I believe that will be all. Thank you." Stacey smiled then went to deliver the order. The two sat watching their coffee for the better half of an awkward silence.
"So you're pregnant?" Frank looked at the woman but left his thoughts on warming his mug. She sat and said nothing. "Are you keeping it?" "Of course I'm keeping it. Why wouldn't I? If you want nothing to do with us we don't need you." She rattled off anticipating being abandoned. "Allison, wait. It is your choice. That's all the meaning behind that." Frank was staring at her with a saint smile. "You may not need me, but do you want me?" Allison bit her lip then cracked a smirk that said everything was going to be fine. "Can we celebrate a little, how many months are you?" "I'm barely a month; I suppose I can have A glass of wine."
The waitress brought the food along with a fresh pot of coffee. "Would you like the milkshake now or after dinner?" "We'll actually take two glasses of merlot, please, instead." "Okay, be right back.” The leek shaped girl blew off and returned shortly with the wine. The two toasted to the gamble of x and y chromosomes that would end up their child and to the love that would triumph endlessly then sipped their drinks.
Frank lit a cigarette and they small talked and flirted like they hadn't in a long while. Their conversation was exhaust from their running motor, combining with the pollution emitted from other tables. Everyone was idling here ready to accelerate into the night at any moment.
He flicked the ash into the tray and took a glance at Allison. Her brown hair was piled on the top back of her scalp and she wore a jade necklace. The grayness of despair and anxiety were fading to her normal powder blue eyes. The classic librarian that smokes too much began to come out again and covered the abused housewife persona like fresh snow. Frank felt the swoosh of her broomstick skirt through the holes in his dress pants and closed his eyes as he took a drag. Frantic voices and a mob of students rushing out of the diner caught his attention and he stared at the exodus. Allison turned to see what had stolen the light from their relieving evening. "Did you want to leave?" She didn't seem to take a position on whether or not they should and topped off her coffee. "We'll wait. It's the last week of summer which means first week of the university kids." Frank lit a cigarette to replace the one he had wasted. "I suppose we’ll have to choose non-smoking soon." He smiled at Allison and drank the last of his coffee, stabbing at the melon with his spoon. "They never give you a lot of melon, do they?" "Never dear."
Frank took out a twenty and a ten-dollar bill and tucked them beneath the pepper shaker. "That's more than enough, if she comes `round saying she'll bring change, tell her to keep it. Don't look at me like that. She was very nice and exactly what we needed." He walked towards the bathroom and went inside.
A screaming falsetto that everyone knew as Mr. Mercury crippled the jukebox where Allison was sitting and left her with only an earful of static.
The arcade games were reciting their gimmicks as they passed through the lobby into the night. A cool thickness, like silk, was carried in the air as they walked to the car. "This'll be one of the last times I'll need someone else to drive me home." "I'll make sure of that." Allison spoke with a determined punctuated confidence. Two silver doors slammed shut and a pair of headlights ignited a handful of darkness.
Chapter 8
The trees melted into the sky, barely silhouetted against the dark olive night, as we sped down the highway. I grabbed a seed from my lap and threw it out the cracked window. Derik kept jousting Liz, who we had picked up when her car broke down on route 17, about the bureaucracy of universities. I was licking the paper together when he turned his attention to me. "You smoke a lot man. Is that a joint or a cigarette?" He kept staring at the rolled stick instead of the road. "Do you want to find out?" No thanks. Open the window more if you're going to smoke." "Okay." I lit the stick and inhaled deeply the first drag of chemical and green. The inside of the car billowed with smoke. "I told you to open the window.” He was scoffing me none too severely. "I'm sorry, I forgot." I rolled down the glass as I smoked. "Can I get some of that?"
Liz was leaning forward a bit already assuming the answer would be yes. Between inhales "be careful it's just a little dusty" and I handed the twist over to her. We heard her cough and chuckled a little as I went back to staring out the window, this time through Derik's side, gawking at the motorists. A jaguar burned through a bend in the road scarring the tar and illuminating the distance ahead.
I was smoking a cigarette as we walked through the parking lot of TKT Diner, passing it off to Liz and I dropped the little bit into the ashtray as we went through the large glass doors. A large woman, who seemed to never have had a good day, seated us in the smoking section. Queen blared through the jukebox as we passed a table and I looked around to see who still had that kind of taste. Far on the other end of the corner sat a girl sipping the last bit of wine from her glass. She resembled Frank's sort of steady girl, before I could search for Frank I was pushed into the booth by an angry Liz who thought I was checking the girl out. "Sit down! You can stalk her later." It was the routine whisper that bit through your genitals if you chose not to argue. An image of Liz on her knees gnawing through my scrotum, which grew redder and pinker with every chew until they resembled a wilted flower in her yard, like it was a square of taffy, flashed through my head as I fell onto the bench.
"I think that was Allison." I was trying to seem sincere and honest, which only made it look like I had something to hide. "And who's Allison?" Now she didn't care if Derik heard us, I chose to pursue the topic so whispering was over. "Frank's girlfriend." I turned my attention directly to Derik to close the conversation and I heard her sigh the "I know I'm stupid" sigh. "No you're not" as I kissed her forehead and asked Derik if he knew what he was getting. "Chicken Death may be?" I was laughing and even Liz cracked one as he straightened himself out. "It's not chicken death or whatever that means, I'm not even sure why it bothers me." He began to chuckle as the waitress came over to take our order. "Hi, I'm Stacey; I'll be your waitress tonight. Can I offer you a beverage?" "Two coffees and a mountain mist please.” I looked around the table to see if there were any disagreements. "Okay, I'll be right back with those drinks." Liz lit a cigarette and wriggled herself against me. My foot slipped off the leg of the table and my forehead slammed the table. "Oh shit, how high are you?" Derik's face was a raspberry as he barely exhaled the question. Liz shot up and kissed my forehead and blocked my hands from grabbing my head. "It's okay." Liz sat forwards then repositioned herself against me.
Stacey came with the drinks and we told her we needed more time to think. I raised Derik's glass to my forehead and looked around. The woman sitting alone was gone, replaced with a group my age of college kids; drunk and high with kinks of their own they're straightening. I gave Derik his drink reassuring him that only the bottom of the glass was touching my skin. "I know dude, I was watching." He laughed and dropped his straw into the drink to sip a quarter of it in one breath.
I lit a cigarette and sipped my coffee as Stacey came back to take our orders. We went in a circle starting with Liz who ordered a garden salad and ended with Derik getting his chicken sandwich. She couldn't help but to gaze at the growing lump on my face as she took my order. The mood was light as she walked away and headed towards the kitchen. Liz and Derik were chatting about some class they both had in common while I was scanning through the music choices in the jukebox. I pulled a pocket of change dropping it onto the table and found a dollar in quarters, brushing the rest back.
The traffic at the light backed up onto the hill. The driver of an S.U.V was staring out the window as what I imagined as his wife was vehemently gesturing at him. Every now and again the man would turn to look at her and throw a hand in the air (which seemed to be done in mockery). As the light turned green he accelerated quickly, the woman backwards into her seat grabbing for her seatbelt but never ceasing her agitated topic. A few cop cars raced up the hill turning into the plaza where the bagel shop was and the traffic behind them was cautious and law abiding. A bus with a billboard advertisement about a new mini-series ached up the incline with a large blonde headed face. It looked like her entire face was proportioned around her teeth, hair and eyes. The bus moved further and her right eye blinked closed and her mouth twisted into an artificial emotion unknown to me.
"Right Stan?" I was torn from my slumber like a fish through its numbness and responded "sure". "See, he's gone." Derik had been throwing pieces of straw wrapper onto my plate, which had arrived sometime after the first cop. There was a pile of white wads against my egg and cheese sandwich. "Thanks man. I appreciate this." "You’re not upset about that are you?" He seemed offended and shocked at once. “No, it gives me permission if not reason to get revenge." I smiled something sinister. I drank my coffee and had it refilled when Liz called the waitress over to do the same.
I couldn't have been away too long, Ziggy Stardust was the second song and it was reaching the second chorus, I sipped the warm coffee before eating the sandwich. "So what's after this?" Liz was stabbing a sheet of Romaine and chewing a cherry tomato. I paused to drink more coffee then said "I think we're going back to my place to jam a bit. Care to come?" "If I'm not going to get in the way." Derik straightened up "if we record just be quiet." It was a couple weeks ago when Liz kept interrupting a song we were trying to lay down. She wasn't intentionally doing so but she would flush the toilet or open a new beer and the fishsheau would show up in the song. I personally didn't mind it. I thought it gave a feeling of life to otherwise dead notes and words. He told me it was because she was my girl and that I liked to be rougher than what recording should be. "She'll be quiet. Plus, you want me to record my songs and you're only going to mix them." "Well, yeah. May be we’ll do one of ours." It hurt him a little, just enough to put him into place of not insulting Liz. It was agreed that we'd go back, drink and record at my apartment.
The violins in Unchained Melody were shaving the last notes as we packed up the table and walked through to the cashier. The bill came to about seven bucks even a person, we all gave a ten piece and walked into the lobby. I felt concerned leaving the tip with the large unhappy woman, but no one else seemed worried so I shook it off and figured it was just me.
It was nearly midnight when we made the left to pass the college on the hill and an applaud of sirens were slapping the hollow night somewhere at the foot of the hill. We got the green arrow and suddenly the wailing woops were receding into the trees. There was a silence of inter-contemplation on all of our parts as we slid down the hill towards Haledon Ave.
Derik's uneasiness of having to drive in this neighborhood was one generation from locking everybody's door and just as apparent. We pulled up to the two story house and scuttled inside following Derik's haste to get inside.