Chapter 01
This summer is going to be hot, real hot. And I just know it… Why, last week, it was already ninety-three degrees plus the humidity, and in Southern Indiana, that’s humid.
This summer is going to be one to remember as well. Last day of school fell oddly on a Thursday this year. That was today, and as soon as I got off the bus, there was already something to remember forever; fire trucks, police, ambulance, they were all here.
When I first get off the bus, I’m not sure where the commotion is coming from. Auggie, my best friend, gets off the bus right behind me.
“God dang! What’s goin’ on?” says Auggie.
“I don’t know, but that’s a lot of flashing lights,” I say.
We both look at one another, delighted for the excitement and drama. We run into the trailer park we call home.
We get to a group of people that we have to work our way through near the back of the trailer court. As we finally see what the commotion is, I think about the oddities of us riding home on the bus.
If we hadn’t rode the bus we might’ve seen the smoke from way back near the school. Ya’see, we don’t normally ride the bus, we usually walk home, but like I said, it was hot!
A trailer we both recognized right away was burnt down to a crisp, white smoke still billowing from pieces of the fallen in roof near what used to be the kitchen.
“That’s Jerry’s trailer, where’s your brother?” I alert Auggie.
Auggie doesn’t say anything, but takes off running in the direction of his place. Auggie lives with his brother in a trailer a just across, and one down from mine. He’s been living there ever since their parents died in a boating accident on the Ohio River.
Naturally, I left the commotion to follow Auggie to his place. Auggie stops abruptly as he comes around the corner of his place. I came around the corner and stop next to him, seeing why he had stopped.
Auggie’s older brother, Kyle, is sitting on the stairs in front of the door, smoking a cigarette, a beer in his hand.
Kyle looks up groggily, “Jerry’s dead.”
Jerry was Kyle’s best friend, and although he wasn’t very kind to me and Auggie, we didn’t expect to hear the news and we didn’t consider it as good news.
“What happened?” Auggie muttered.
Kyle bursts out in frustration about having to talk about it, “He burned up alright! It was a damned fire! Can’t you see that?”
Auggie stands silently looking down at his feet, one hand in his jeans pocket, and one on his backpack strap.
I look back towards the direction of the burned up trailer, watching the people, seeing if I recognize anyone. I knew that out of all the people standing around watching the fire crews and cops take statements, my Dad wouldn’t be among them.
My Dad and I live alone together, my Momma left some time ago, about seven years now. I knew my Dad wouldn’t be out there watchin’ because he just isn’t like that. He might’ve watched the initial blaze through the trailer windows, but as soon as people showed up he’d be back to his work.
All my life my Dad’s been a workin’ man. For the longest time it was factory work, but four years ago his plant shut down; the people who owned it had gone bankrupt and had to close up shop.
“C’mon Cal, let’s go to your place, get somethin’ to drink,” suggests Auggie, still watching his brother sitting on the steps hanging his head in grief.
We walk on over to the dingy green and white trailer where I live. We walk in, my Dad sitting on his computer, a beer in his hand, he drinks.
“See the fire?” he says.
“Yup, it was Jerry’s place.” I reply solemnly.
Dad sighs, “Jerry was up to no good. Seems he burned right up where he stood. There were so many people around by the time the fire trucks arrived, they didn’t even wait for the fire to be completely extinguished before they rushed in and pulled out what was left of him.”
Auggie hangs his head down again. I stare at the back of my Dad’s head, wondering if she realizes how that might make Auggie feel. Although, there was a large possibility he was just dreading how his brother was going to be for the next while.
I walk into the kitchen, prompting Auggie to follow. I pull two cups down from the cabinet and pop open the fridge. Nothing cold except milk.
“Dad, we got any cool sun tea?”
From his computer, “Nope, got a warm jar on the porch though.”
I close the fridge, disappointed.
“Well, so much for that plan,” Auggie said.
“C’mon, let’s go down to the market,”
“Got any money?”
“No, but it’s better than sittin’ round here,”
As we start to walk back to the door, my Dad calls.
“Hey, you boys goin’ to the store?”
“Yeah?”
“Well grab me some sour candy, I’ve got a sweet tooth like nobody’s business.”
“Can we use the change to get us a pop?” I say, looking at Auggie hopefully.
“Sure,” my Dad says agreeable, holding up a five dollar bill over his head.
The walk down to the store isn’t a long one in this heat, thankfully. I like this store for the same reason my Dad does, its family owned. He worked here for a little while as a cashier, but it didn’t work out. When something ’round here is locally owned and operated, it means forming relationships. I understood that, and I like to imagine my appreciation for its existence shined every-time I walked through the door.
The familiar tinkle of the bells greets us as we enter. I look up to say hello to the cashier, it’s Maggie and she’s busy, so I keep my mouth shut as to not interrupt her. Auggie looks up at her and waves enthusiastically anyways. He always seemed to have a thing for the older girls he didn’t stand a chance with. Maggie dates a guy who rides a motorcycle and goes to college.
We head straight for the candy isle. This was a pretty familiar trip. Every once in a while, my Dad gets his cravings for something sweet and particularly sour, so I get sent to the store. With how much of my Dad’s diet was candy, it was a wonder he wasn’t a fat man.
I grab a bag of sour skittles of the rack, and then look at the five dollar bill in my hand, deciding I had better grab another one.
We reach the counter just as the man in front of us steps clear of it to leave. I set the candy on the counter; Auggie, the drinks.
“Hey Maggie!” Auggie calls to her as she picks up the candy.
“Hey August! Nice shirt!” Maggie says as she winks. Auggie’s cheeks grow very red and he can’t seem to udder another word.
His shirt was one she’d probably seen a million times before, the same faded black Led Zeppelin shirt. She rings us up and we leave without another word.
When we get outside, Auggie bursts with what he’d have said if he were half the man or twice as tall as he felt he was.
“Ooooh man! She just don’t know, Cal. The things I’d do to her, she’d leave that college-kid in a heartbeat.”
“Funny how he’s the kid, ain’t it?”
“Yeah, you laugh, but she’d be in a world of bliss forever. And she wouldn’t ever have to go after a younger man when we got older, cause I am younger!”
“Yeah, younger, too young and you know it,”
“Ha! Wait till she’s forty and alone cause of bad judge of character, I’ll be there.”
“You sure you weren’t her bad judgment?”
“Why you gotta rain on my parade?”
“It ain’t a parade, it’s a fairytale,” I say with a laugh.
By time we get back to my house, most of the emergency vehicles are gone, though some people are still outside their trailers chatting gossip about the incident. A fat woman in short shorts with tattoos covering her body, stands yelling into her cell phone about how there was a fire and how it’s just too much drama around here, cussing up a storm.
We get inside, deliver my Dad’s candy and go to my small room. Clothes, dirty and clean, litter the floor. Auggie sits on my bed, two mattresses on top of one another on the ground. I sit on a five-gallon bucket upturned that I use as a nightstand. In our candy binge, we skip the drinks and start with the hard stuff.
“Did you mix yours?” Auggie asks.
“I did this time; I saw- thought I’d try something different. It’s about three-quarters coke and one quarter red cream soda,”
“Yuck!”
“No, it’s actually really good!”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Auggie leans back on my bed and picks up an old comic, Captain America.
I think about my drink for a second, more specifically the girl who inspired it. It was the other night when Auggie was off fishing with his brother, I went to the convenience store.
She was definitely my age, standing at the drink machine, mixing her drink. She had a pretty white bow in her long blonde hair, down to the middle of her back, ribbon and hair just the same. She had naturally red cheeks and pale skin, she was lovely.
Auggie, exasperated, “Man! Jerry and my brother, holy crap.”
I sit thinking about the body we hadn’t seen, wondering how it might have looked all burnt. Was it like the bodies you see in some movies where the flesh is melting off, exposing still red muscle underneath, or was it a crisped skeleton like you see come out of acid or burnt buildings in sci-fi and horror flicks.
I look to Auggie, “What are we gonna do this summer?”
“This summer?” Auggie gets up and paces, “What about just tonight?”
I turn around and look out the window of my room. All I can see is the usual, the plain backside of the trailer next door.
“Y’know, I wanna see if we can find anything in that trailer.” Auggie says looking at the floor biting his inner lip.
“Like what?” I ask, throwing up my hands.
“I don’t know, but its probably creepy inside, all burnt and stuff. It could be haunted.”
I shrug my shoulders with indifference, “Okay, but we should probably wait until tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you think someone might say something if we’re in there hours after it was up in flames? It’s still not safe.”
“Ha! People ’round here, when will they ever think it’s safe?”
I could see his point.
