by Francis CoCo
“Ah crap, I’ve got a sweet tooth,” Angela said, slumping down in her chair.
“We can take a drive to the Tastee Freeze in Irondale if you want, I don’t think they close until ten...”
Angela looked over at me, “That’s almost forty minutes, we’d have time, you want to Paige?”
“Hmmm… a banana split would be nice. I haven’t had one of those in a very long time.”
The Tastee Freeze was in Irondale a tiny town with even less people than Fallcrest. I never went there because it wasn’t on the way to anything. Brian and I had gone two or three times. We’d sat outside at one of the little red Formica tables in front of the Tastee Freeze, eating ice cream and talking about our plans for the future. It seemed so strange to think back of him, then, full of plans for his life- having no idea that just like that– like a snap of fingers- just like that, it would be over and he would soon be dead and buried. I thought of the sad, gloomy cemetery by the truck stop on the outskirts of town. That’s where he was now. I’d only gone there once. I couldn’t go back. The idea that that was where he was, just horrified me. Maybe that was why I hadn’t been back to the Tastee Freeze. No reason to go really.
“We’re going to get so fat,” Angela said laughing, “all that junk at the party today and now more sweets...”
“Yeah, but, the stuff at work today was not so great, whoever brought that chocolate mousse put way too much milk or something- it was awful! And that coconut cake? Did you have any of that? It was so stale!”
“Yes!” Angela said, “I know, right? I think Beth brought that- I wouldn’t touch anything she brought anyway- she has like, a hundred cats- I think I saw cat hairs sticking out of that cake - Honestly, I didn’t eat much at that party- maybe that’s why I’m craving something sweet now. I think I just had enough to whet my appetite.”
“Lemme go wake up Lee over there and then I can lock up and we can head out,” Max said, getting up and walking towards the old guy, asleep on his arm at the bar. I watched as Max nudged him gently and told him he was closing up. The old guy mumbled something and then pulled himself up and wiped his eyes and looked around.
“What time is it?” he grumbled. Max told him it was well past ten o’clock. That wasn’t true but, he could have told him it was six in the morning and the old guy wouldn’t have known the difference. He stood up and stretched, then laid some coins on the bar (a tip for Max I guess) and began shuffling towards the door.
When Max came back to where we were sitting, Angela said, “He’s not driving is he? He’s drunk as a skunk...”
“No. He can’t drive. He’s had his license taken away for a long time now, he walks- he only lives about a block down the street.”
He turned and called out, “See you later Lee- be careful, going home.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the old guy said, waving him off and going out the door.
Outside, the Moon was lit up- full and bright. It was just beginning to get cold, the wonderful way it does in the Fall and a feeling of gratitude washed over me as we walked through the parking lot. I felt thankful for being young and healthy. I missed Brian, of course and that had been awful, but beyond that, I liked my life. I liked that I was still in my twenties- that I still had my whole life ahead of me. I think maybe, it was Brian’s death that had made me fully realize this. Before that, I’d never really considered my own mortality. But after his death, I’d realized just how fragile life was and when I thought of him, as terrible as it sounds to say, I couldn’t think of him without also being grateful that I was still here. Certainly, I missed him terribly, but I was alive and there’s nothing like the death of someone close to you to make you remember that. I even liked living in Fallcrest. It would have been wonderful if Brian were still here. We would have been so happy. I couldn’t understand why he’d died, why, at such a young age, he’d just died. It seemed like the most unfair thing in the world. He was such a good person, such a great guy, it really made no sense. I had been trying my best to come to terms with his passing but, there was really no coming to terms with it. The only thing I could do was to move on. There was no closure, that’s for sure. As much as I’d tried to get it, I just couldn’t and so, I’d found the only thing I could do was to try and not think about it and move on.
I hated being without him but I was glad I’d come to the Midwest. It was something different. I most especially liked the seasons. Seasons change no matter where you live but in the Midwest they are much more intense. The summer seemed to be more summer-y and the winter was much more a winter than I’d ever experienced. Sometimes when I talked to friends or family back home in Nashville they would say things like, “Boy, I bet you hate that snow!” or, “I’d hate how cold it gets there!” and I would tell them that, in fact, I loved it and it didn’t bother me a bit and they would always act like I was crazy. But I don’t think they understood how intense the seasons were in Fallcrest and in a good way- in a marvelous way. And maybe that was why I wasn’t ready to pack it in and go back home. Maybe it was just something as simple as the seasons that kept me here. Well, that and Angela and Max, who had turned out to be such good friends to me.
“I don’t have much gas and don’t feel like stopping for it,” Max said, as we walked towards his and Angela’s cars, which were the only cars in the parking lot, “mind if we take yours?”
“If you don’t care to drive,” Angela said, reaching into her purse and feeling around for her keys. She tossed them to Max. I’d left my car at work and rode with Angela to the bar. She was going to swing by my place in the morning and give me a lift to work.
“Not a problem,” he said, going towards the drivers side of her red Ford Contour. I’d expected her to get in the passenger seat since it was her car and she was the one with the crush on him, but she opened the door to the back and got in.
“I don’t mind to sit in the back,” I said, stopping and standing still a few feet from the car.
“No, Paige, it’s fine. You sit up front with Max,” Angela said, sitting down but with her car door open and her foot on the ground. Before I could answer, she’d pulled her foot inside and slammed the door shut.
“Alright,” I shrugged. I got in and reached for my seat belt. It was broken. It looked like it had been cut in half with scissors. I glanced back at Angela and she said, “Don’t ask.”
“Okaaayy,” I said and laughed.
Max started the car.
I looked up at the Moon, one last time, while it was in front of me, hanging over the corner of Stitches. The man in the Moon is smiling...for he knows what I’m dreaming of… ran through my mind then. It was a line from a Prince song. One that Brian and I sort of thought of as our song. The Moon. It always made me think of that line. I lost sight of it as Max reversed and pulled out of the parking lot.
I don’t know why I remember that- looking at the Moon then- but I do. It stands out, quite a bit. Which, in light of the story I’m about to tell you - will probably seem like the most insignificant part of our evening.
_____
We made it to Tastee Freeze just as they were closing up. It was fifteen till but a skinny guy with floppy hair that fell in his face was mopping the floor and the other two employees (two girls who looked like they were still in high school) were inside sitting on the dining room tables, talking.
When we walked in, the girls looked at us like they could kill us for coming in just as they were trying to clean up and get out.
Max could charm the daylights out of anybody and as soon as he smiled his big, broad smile, the cute red head jumped down off the table and went behind the counter and said, “I’m happy to make whatever you want, what’ll you guys have?” and her cheeks flushed red and she looked at Max like she was just glad he’d come in at all. He had that affect on girls.
We ordered our ice creams, (banana split for me and two chocolate dipped cones for Angela and Max) and when we left, the cute red head called out to Max, “Hey! Don’t be a stranger- okay?”<
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Max turned and waved and said, “I’m hooked. I’ll be back,” and the girl sort of fell onto the counter and watched him all the way out the front door, her chin cupped in her hand.
“I don’t know what you do,” I said as we walked towards the car, “but you’ve got something that drives girls’ wild.”
Max looked back. The girl was standing at the door then, watching him. He waved and, embarrassed, she pretended to be wiping a smudge off the glass. She rubbed at it with the sleeve of her cardigan then smiled sheepishly and turned away.
“Yeah, I’ve got something alright, it’s this handsome face,” Max said with a laugh.
“It’s charisma,” Angela said as we all got into the car, “Max has charisma.”
Max bit into the chocolate shell of his ice cream cone and said, “Aww, thank you, Angela, so do you...”
I looked from Max to Angela. Were they flirting? I knew she liked him but he had a girlfriend. And he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to disregard that. One of the things I liked about Max; he was a real down to earth, honest guy. He wasn’t a tool. As far as I knew, he didn’t seem like the type to run around on his girlfriend, either.
Max pulled out of the parking lot of the Tastee Freeze. A small cemetery sat up on the hill, behind the restaurant. Max drove around to the front wrought iron gate, which was open – a plaque on the gate said the gates locked at 5 p.m. but that obviously wasn’t the case, at least not on that day. He slowly pulled through the gate and drove up the hill.
He parked in front of a big mausoleum with a lady in a long robe holding a rose etched on the front and turned the car off. “Forrester,” was written in big letters over the top of the crypt.
“That’s beautiful,” Angela said, leaning forward and peering out the windshield.
“I know,” I said, “it really is.”
I looked around. The cemetery was small but it had some very nice statuary. I loved a cemetery with nice statuary and this one had some lovely headstones and mausoleums.
“I’ve never been here. I would love to come in the daytime.”
“You should,” Max said, “It’s nice. My aunt is buried here somewhere… She was a silent film actress in New York but she came back home when her father was dying and then she was killed in a house fire not long after. She was in her late twenties… her headstone has those masks on it- you know, the one they use in the theater? The one laughing and the other crying...”
“I know what you mean,” said Angela, “I’ve seen that- but never on a headstone- that’s cool! Can we see it? Where is it?”
“I can’t remember where it is,” Max said, glancing around, “we’ll have to come back when it’s daytime… maybe we’ll come back this weekend, like on Saturday?”
“Yeah, let’s come back on Saturday. I’d like to take some pictures.”
Just then, a small red fox ran across the graveyard and stopped in front of the car. It stood there. It didn’t move. It stood in front of the car and just looked at us.
We all stopped talking and stared back at the fox and then, it quickly turned and ran off, running behind a smaller mausoleum named “Lupton,” that had two long stained glass windows on the front.
“Super weird,” Angela said.
“That is super-fucking-weird,” said Max, “did you see the way he stared at us?”
“Is that unusual?” I asked. I didn’t know anything about animals and their behavior. I’d grown up in the city, I don’t even think I’d ever seen a fox before.
“Eh, maybe not,” Max said, “but, kinda cool anyway, to see a fox out here.”
I was looking out my window and I noticed some of the smaller headstones around us had fruit on them – sitting at the base of the headstones- apples and bananas and some oranges.
“Why do some of these tombstones have fruit on them?” I asked. I had never seen anything like that in a graveyard. I noticed that the names on the headstones were Asian names.
“I think that is an offering to Buddha, but I could be wrong,” Max said, “I’m not exactly sure, but I believe it’s a Buddhist thing...”
“I thought it was an offering to the dead,” Angela said, “right? That, when the food rots, it’s supposed to mean that the dead is eating it- isn’t that right?”
“I don’t know,” said Max, “that’s neat though, don’t you think? Leaving an offering?”
“It would be scary as hell if you found a bite in that apple,” Angela said, giggling.
The cemetery was dark and we were alone in it. I was starting to feel a little spooked. I looked down the hill at the Tastee Freeze. It was closed up, not a single car was in the parking lot. Everyone had gone home.
“Hey Max,” I said, “can we head back? I need to get home, I still have to take a shower and get ready for work tomorrow.” I did need to do those things but more than that, I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. I didn’t mind a cemetery in the day time but at night, well, I didn’t like them so much at night.
I took the last two bites of my banana split and then put the plastic container and my spoon into an old Checker’s bag, that I found sitting in the floorboard and closed it up.
Max chucked his cone out the window, “For the dead,” he said. He started the car up and headed back towards town.
The drive back to Fallcrest took about twenty minutes. It was a solitary road, a straight shot- not much on it except the occasional farm house and rows and rows of cornfields.
As we drove back, Angela falling asleep in the back seat and Max and I lightheartedly discussing Wilco’s new album of Woody Guthrie songs that had just come out, as we rode back to town, I stared out my window at the passing dark cornfields and star-filled sky. The land of many stars with only one Moon. Just a random thing that popped into my head- another Prince thing, something he’d said once, that, for some reason had stuck in my mind. I wasn’t thinking of anything much- not even what we were discussing- it was just mindless talk, really. I was just ready to get home, take a hot shower and get into bed so I could do the same thing tomorrow that I’d done today- more or less.
When we were about halfway down the long, desolate road, I saw- out in the distance- above the cornfields, some red lights looping around. I didn’t think much of them at first, but the more I watched them, as we got closer, and as we were passing them, the more I realized that it didn’t make sense- red lights that looked like lasers, looping over the cornfields, circling one another.
“Hey Max,” I said, leaning forward and pointing out my window, “Hey look! What are those?”
“Huh?” Max said, looking at me and not out my window, where I was pointing.
“Hey, stop! Stop the car! What is that?!”
Max looked out my window, to where I was pointing. He slowed down and pulled over onto the side of the road.
The lights were down the road quite a ways, zooming and looping and circling one another, about 300 feet over the tops of the cornfields. They looked closer, because they were so clear and bright and precise. It was sort of like watching a laser show. I’d seen one, once, on Stone Mountain in Georgia, when I was kid. I had gone with my grandfather and this kind of looked like that- only there weren’t so many of them (just the two) and they weren’t lots of different colors- just red. But the way they zoomed and chased one another, reminded me of lasers.
Max and I sat, leaning over in our seats, peering up out of my window at the lights in the sky. Angela stirred in the back seat.
“What’s going on?” she mumbled.
“Look,” said Max.
“What?” she said, but neither of us answered her. We were too absorbed in the light show. What the fuck? I’d never seen anything like it. There was nothing, that I could see, behind the lights. I mean to say, there was no aircraft behind them- it was just lights.
Angela grabbed onto my seat and pulled forward. The three of us sat, silently watching as the lights seemed to chase one another. After a few minutes, Angela said, “Pull down
the road, Max.”
When he didn’t move, again, she told him to pull down the road. There was a dirt road between the cornfields. I had a good view of it – there was no car that I could see beneath the lights. I didn’t see anyone standing on the road with any kind of device pointing up at the sky, didn’t see anyone operating any kind of laser beam. We were parked in the grass beside the entrance to the road. An old farm house sat way down at the far end of the dirt road. You could see the roof from where we sat.
“I don’t know,” he said, making no attempt to do so.
“Maybe we should pull down the road,” I said, as the
lights continued to frantically chase one another, up in the sky.
“Hmmm,” Max said, glancing to me and then back at Angela, “do you think we should? Is that a good idea?”
“Yeah, pull down,” Angela said, “why not?”
Max took a deep breath and then carefully backed up and pulled onto the road. The car sat idle for a minute, not moving, the three of us looking down the long, empty dirt road in silence.
Max looked at us one last time, a look that said, Are you sure about this? I looked back at him and shrugged my shoulders. Max drove the car slowly down the dirt road until we were just beneath the lights.
Max stopped in the middle of the road- right beneath the light show. We were all leaning forward, peering up through the windshield as the lights continued to zoom overhead.
“Is someone in the cornfields doing this?” Angela said, not taking her eyes off the red lights in the sky.
“No one’s in the cornfields,” said Max, “if someone were pointing some kind of laser at the sky they would have to be standing where we are.”
He was right. They were right above us.
“What the fuck can they be?”
Max shook his head, but kept his eyes glued to the softball sized lights above, “Fuck if I know. I’ve never seen anything like-” But before he could finish his sentence, we all let out a gasp, as the lights, now were coming at one another, just above our heads, and looked like they were going to crash. We all tensed and held up our hands and squinted our eyes, waiting for the crash- the explosion- waiting for something to fall down on us. But that didn’t happen because just at the very last millisecond, the lights stopped on a dime, precisely at the point of impact and hung in the sky, right above our heads.
