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"Did you hear?" said Dawn Trimbley.
Ramona Brinks was seated on a bench outside The Holy Grind, sipping from a cardboard coffee cup. It was late afternoon, so the coffee shop was closing in a half an hour or so, and the crowd was dwindling. A group of four people sat at the table next to Ramona. They were an eclectic bunch: each member sporting dread locks, torn fishnets, oversized ripped pants, Misfits t-shirts, or corduroy patches.
"No," she said to Dawn. "Hear what?"
"Garrett Hillard," said Dawn, "is coming back to town."
Ramona raised her eyebrows and took a sip of her drink. "The Garrett Hillard that raped Blair? That Zane and Owen and Ben kicked out of town?" she asked. "That Garrett Hillard?"
Dawn nodded.
"Oh my God," said Ramona. "Does Owen know?"
Dawn nodded. "He's pissed. He says that when Garrett left, they told him never to come back here."
Owen was Blair's boyfriend. He worked the counter at The Grind and sported three inch blue spikes on his head. Ramona could hardly picture him angry, however. He always seemed so laid back.
"But he's back," Ramona said. Despite herself, a little thrill went through her. She'd always been curious about Garrett Hillard. He was somewhat of a legend in Elston. The only guy she knew of that had ever been run out of town. "Blair should have him arrested," she said.
"I don't think she wants to involve the police," said Dawn. "But you're right. He should be in jail. When they threw him out of town, they let him off easy."
Ramona nodded. "I can't believe he's back. Why would he come back?" She wanted to meet him. She wanted to know why he'd done what he did. If he'd done it. Ben had always seemed pissed off about the whole thing. "Blair claims," he'd say, as if she might be lying. If she were still dating Ben, she would have asked Ben about Garrett. But Ben had left town years ago to go to grad school. Ramona was currently single, with no prospects, unless you counted the hopeless crush she had on a guy named Mason, who only saw her as a friend.
The guy in the Misfits t-shirt at the table next to them leaned back over his chair. "He came back 'cause he couldn't help himself," he said. "It's the vortex. You can try to leave, but you'll come back. Once this town gets its hooks in..."
"There's no vortex," said Dawn, glaring at the guy.
He shrugged and turned back around.
"I don't know," said Ramona. "I can't seem to get the hell out of here." Whenever people had problems leaving Elston, they always blamed it on the "vortex," which was supposedly underneath the library in town and emitted a supernatural beam that kept people from moving out. It was a joke more than anything.
Accordingly, Dawn smiled. "Yeah, well, there's that, I guess."
"Gosh," said Ramona, "what a mess. I hope he just turns right around and leaves." She hoped no such thing. Garrett Hillard returning to town was the most exciting thing that had happened since she'd moved to Elston. Maybe it was stupid that she wanted to meet him. Maybe she was just asking for trouble. That was okay with Ramona. It would be an adventure. "What's he look like?"
Dawn raised her eyebrows.
"So I can avoid him," said Ramona.
"I've never seen him," said Dawn. "I didn't live here then either."
That was funny, because... "I thought you lived with Fiona then," said Ramona. "You told me--"
"No," said Dawn. "That wasn't me. Fiona lived with Staci then. You remember Staci. With the red curly hair?"
Ramona shook her head. "No, I don't think I ever met her. But I remember, because when you were at Fiona's party, you told me this story about when the two of you lived together--"
"No," said Dawn, more forcefully this time. "You're thinking of someone else, Ramona." Dawn stood up, tossing her half-full cup into the garbage can. "I've got to go." She turned and hurried down the street. Ramona stared after Dawn until she disappeared around a corner.
That had been weird. Those river hippies. They were strange. Too much pot. Or maybe it was Ramona who was smoking too much. She could swear that Dawn had told her that story about Fiona, but maybe... No. It was definitely Dawn. How unbelievably weird.
Garrett Hillard drove his beat-up Ford Pinto across the state line into West Virginia at 77 miles per hour. He'd been away from Elston for five years. It was time to go back home. They'd changed the "Welcome to West Virginia" sign. Instead of blue writing on a white background, it was covered in photos with large white block letters. Garrett liked the new sign better. It said the same thing, but it was prettier.
Garrett began dialing on his cell phone and nearly swerved toward the lane next to him. Yanking the steering wheel back, he put the phone to his ear. It rang. He was just going to let his parents know that he was in the state, only twenty or thirty minutes from home. He'd been driving for two days, and he knew they'd be happy to hear he was close to home. Garrett was glad too. Not because he was excited to be moving back in with his parents at twenty-seven years of age, but because he was excited to be done with driving. His old car didn't have cruise control, and his leg ached from pressing in the gas pedal.
Green leaves streamed past Garrett's windows. He gazed at them as they passed and nearly swerved into the other lane again. He really had been driving too long. He'd broken the trip up into two days, because it was a twenty-four hour drive and that was too long for him to do in one sitting. He'd driven all the way from Austin, TX, where his girlfriend Carrie had decided the two of them weren't "good for each other." Four years of his life down the drain. He and Carrie had met in Washington, D.C., where he'd moved after leaving Elston. Carrie was attending college there. The romance had been whirlwindish, but Garrett had never been happier, especially considering his life hadn't been going too well before he moved to D.C. Within a few months, they'd moved in together. Within a year, they were talking about marriage.
Carrie graduated from college. She wanted to be closer to her family in Texas, so they moved to Austin. It was tough for Garrett. He had real trouble finding a job. He and Carrie had to depend on her parents for financial support. Once he did find a job, it didn't pay the kind of money that he'd hoped. He was always looking for other employment, simply taking jobs until something "better" came along. As a result, they never seemed to get on their feet as far as money was concerned. The wedding kept getting pushed back. Garrett couldn't even afford to get Carrie an engagement ring. At first, Carrie seemed to understand. She recognized the job market in Austin wasn't the same as the job market in D.C. She told him it would just take time. They needed to be patient. But as time slipped under doors and out windows and the situation didn't improve, Carrie began to blame Garrett, not the Austin job market.
They would argue, late into the night. Carrie would claim that Garrett wasn't trying hard enough. She would say he needed to look harder. She'd suggest he commute to Houston. Garrett resented her accusations. Sure, he was discouraged. Maybe he didn't have the illusions he'd had when they first moved to Texas. Maybe that looked to Carrie like he wasn't "trying hard enough." But he sure as hell was trying as hard as he could. Did she think he wanted to be poor? Did she think he wanted to scrape by paycheck to paycheck? When he couldn't stand her yelling at him anymore, he'd yell back. She was the one with the college degree after all. Why wasn't she making better money? Why was she working for twelve bucks an hour as a receptionist? Why wasn't she using her goddamned degree?
Carrie hated it when he yelled. She'd yell back at first, but he'd just yell louder. Eventually, he'd back her into a corner, the rage in his voice and in his body overpowering her, making her retreat. Her face would go white in fear. She'd cower. He didn't know why he needed her to respond that way. He felt sorry about it afterwards. It was as if the anger took over his brain, white hot flooding his head like lava, taking control. He didn't think. He acted. He demanded. He intimidated. It was like in The Incredible Hulk. Sometimes, a big green monster just took over his body and mind. He drowned in anger. He was a completely different person.
Carrie didn't like the other person. Was frightened of him. Said many times, "I just think one of these times you're going to hit me."
But he'd never even raised a hand to her. He wouldn't. He didn't think he would.
Didn't matter. She'd ended it anyway. She went back to her parents' house. He went back to his. Like they were kids playing at love and relationships.
He didn't want to go back, but he was flat broke. He and Carrie had bought themselves out of their lease. Carrie could have covered it. Offered to, actually, but Garrett's pride couldn't let her. No, he'd paid his half, but his half had been all he had. He was left with just about enough money for gas to get back to West Virginia. So here he was, crawling back to his parents' house and crawling back to Elston. A town that held so many bad memories for Garrett. A town he'd tried only to forget.
He wondered if Elston had forgotten him.
As the phone stopped ringing, and his mother picked up, he thought, "Not damned likely."
Copyright (c) 2010 Valerie Chambers