“Slow down!” thought Dave to himself as he passed the Highway Patrolman pumping his breaks while not trying to make his speed decrease from ninety to the speed limit of 65 too obvious. When the patrol car made no attempt to follow them he breathed a sigh of relief, “phew.”
Dave combed the surrounding landscape looking for anything remotely familiar to him. He had driven this road probably a million times growing up and back then could take each winding turn without any hesitation or regard for the speed limit. Dave, now almost forty years of age, was having to anticipate the movement of the car across the terrain of the road and yet he still saw no landmarks that he could recall but figured that he would end up there eventually.
As the time passed Dave was left to think. It had been just over twenty years since he had been back to the town where he had grown up. Dave himself sometimes wondered why he had never returned. This always ended in painful thoughts and the reliving of once buried memories always bringing Dave back to the realization that he never had any intention of returning. Although there were times where he felt guilty, there was nothing drawing him back to the once quaint and quiet town.
Where most people his age had parents still alive, he had been orphaned when he was just a baby. No other family around to care for him, he was put in the local home for run away or stray children. It is here that he met Steve Philips. Not a day goes by when Dave does not wake up to the thought of his friend. Growing up together they shared almost every moment they had with each other simply because they had no one else. Whenever one came up in conversation, the other was always thought of, almost as if they were synonymous with each other. This continued till the two turned seventeen and Dave decided he wanted to enlist in the army. Steve on the other hand saw no life outside of his home. It was here they departed.
Dave went on to survive the war but a changed man. Growing up in a small town, one does not see the world as clearly as they think. More innocent and naïve about life he was not fully prepared for the rough and gritty lifestyle that was required of a soldier. There were times when a superior would get in his face and he wanted to break down right there, but he had set out on this mission and he was determined to make it through. After the war Dave never made contact with anyone from his hometown, not even Steve. He didn’t know what they thought happened to him, and he didn’t care. He had a different outlook on his childhood now. At one time thinking he was lucky, he now felt that living in such a place was more of a hindrance to a person, even feeling sorry that Steve could have no vision of any other life.
This idea had been planted deep within Dave. Any sense of guilt that he had was buried, deeper still, becoming but a mere prick that he had learned to ignore. Eventually he went on to start his own successful business in which he marketed vitamins and protein supplements. Eventually he found the love of his life, a beautiful woman named Dianna. Dave had all he had ever dreamed of. Although sadly Dianna was not able to bear any children, the paperwork to adopt an Asian baby from China was already approved. Things seemed to be perfect until Dianna was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was his worst nightmare come true the night she died. He tried everything but there was no amount of money social status that could save her. Even prayer, which he had given up on for many years, felt useless.
Dave snapped back to reality now as he saw that the town was the next exit on his right. Although the exit was getting closer the speedometer needle slowly started to rise as the pure emotion of being so close started to flow through him. As he took the exit he rounded the turn and could see the top of the chapel that Mrs. Withels, the caretaker at the orphanage, took him to every Sunday. Going over the hill, on his left he saw the baseball field that him and Steve used to play on till it would get late into the evening. Back then the field was brown and rocks took the place of sand in the infield compared now as the field looked green and a golden brown all the way across. Continuing down the main road he ended up in what would be similar to a city’s downtown area filled with little shops and home town restaurants.
This was all very different, magnificent though to Dave, having expected the town to be run down and empty. In fact there seemed to be more people bustling about than whenever he was there. It was time to find what he had come for, the little orphanage in which he had spent so very long in. He was pretty sure it was the next left and a little ways down the street from there. Before he could proceed though he noticed what seemed to be a big cement structure to his right. Immediately parking the car he burst over to it. It was a memorial to commemorate a man who had died in the war that seemed so very long ago. As he ran his fingers across the raised metal grooves that spelled his name he started to breakdown. As his eyes moved across the slab they caught another name, Steve Philips—In loving memory.
Looking up he saw that he was in front of an industrial shop that read Phillips Tools and Supply. Thinking there could only be one man with that name in a town this size he entered the store. A short young man with blonde hair down to his shoulders was standing at the counter. Turning to face Dave he saw that his name tag read Steve Phillips, but this could not be the boy he had grown up with.
“Can I help you with something sir?” the boy asked.
“Can I help you with something sir?” the boy asked.
Dave, without hesitation, asked who if his father was the one on the plaque outside the door. The boy replied with a nod.
Dave didn’t feel like hanging around any longer. So he went back to his car and started to drive. Where, he did not know or care. Everything he had ever known had been ripped from him, or he had given it up so easily to the point of having nothing left. He did not belong here in this world where they thought he was a mere ghost and he felt no reason to try and live in the cold place where he once called home. As he drove he realized it was not the town itself that he hated, but his old life that he dreaded coming to terms with. He fell in love with that which causes every man to fall and it has ended up leaving him alone.
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