In the Midnight Hour

Chapter 1

It's another Friday night with all of my favorite people crammed into one car. The smell of cigarette smoke and spiked cherry slushies seeps out the windows as the radio echoes. We pass by the tiny welcome sign proudly displayed on the side of the road: Welcome to Gray Court, South Carolina. I wish I could add at the bottom "a town about as exciting as its name" in matching fancy letters.

We keep cruising along into downtown. It's only about eight o'clock at night, but I already know that all of the stores are closed. It looks like a ghost town at night, with so many old buildings and empty streets. As we ride past the storefronts, I admire the halloween decorations out for display. Little pumpkins, ghosts, and bats decorate the windows. I'm excited that Halloween is coming up; it's probably one of my favorite holidays. I love the thought of being something completely different for one night. The small strip of old stores prematurely comes to an end, and it wraps up our cruise of downtown.

We keep riding along after the short drive through downtown and I can see the Cannon Cemetery coming up ahead. I can't help but to think about how it's filled with all the people who never got out of Gray Court. Even in death here they remain, never to be free of this place. I'm brought back from my morbid thoughts as we bump over the railroad tracks. I start to think about how the car we're in gives us so much freedom. We're able to wander around our little town, doing whatever we want along the way.

Geraldine, or Deeno as we call her, was gifted her grandma's old 1974 Buick Electra for her 16th birthday a few months ago. Although the car is 15 years old and not in the best condition, we all loved it when Deeno first showed us. We all know what the car means...our freedom to do whatever we want, when we want. It seats the five of us pretty comfortably, or sometimes six if we need to squeeze an extra person in. We spend more time sitting on these velvet seats than we do anywhere else.

The air conditioning doesn't really work, but we make due. The windows are always down in the summer letting in any little breeze we can get, and in the winter we scrunch up together to keep each other warm. There's an array of stains on the seats and of course you can't miss the smell of cigarette smoke permanently embedded into the carpet, but we love each little imperfection. Deeno never passes up an opportunity to take it out either, which is good considering she's the only one who has a car to fit all of us.

The car belongs to Deeno, but her boyfriend Eddie always drives it. Even though Deeno passed her driver's test on the first try, she's still terrified to drive. She only actually drove the car once, which was for her driver's test. We all know that the Buick is basically Eddie's car though. Calvin especially gives her a hard time about it, and it seems tonight isn't any different.

"Deeno, y'all need to get Eddie's car cleaned soon before this cigarette smell gives me lung cancer." Calvin says.

Deeno always has the same comeback anytime someone says the car is Eddie's.

"I'm gonna make y'all start walkin' from now on!" Deeno says.

We all start laughing, but Eddie notices Deeno's disapproval of his laughter. So in redemption, he takes his right hand off the steering wheel, grabs her hand, and kisses it until she lets out a half smile.

"I guess I can let y'all stay," she says as she rolls her eyes.

I really admire their relationship. I can tell that Eddie really loves her and I know that Deeno is head over heels for him.

We have an official seating arrangement that never changes. It's always Eddie driving and Deeno in the passenger of course. Then, Angie sits behind Eddie in the backseat since she doesn't need that much leg room. I sit in the middle, and Calvin sits beside me behind Deeno. As I'm looking out the window, my eyes glance over to Calvin's knees. They're digging into the back of Deeno's seat even though she's nearly got her chair up to the dashboard.