have you ever passed through a town where it felt like all eyes were on you? stayed in a bed & breakfast that went bump in the night?
"this place haunts me." is a collection of short stories based on places i've visited that have never quite let me...
"I was on course to work in a skyscraper downtown until it happened. Damn near passed out from boredom in the middle of my Advanced Commercial Law course, and just like that," he snaps, "my school turned into a war zone." Aiden takes a drag of his spliff, before passing it off to the hostess.
"Shit man." The hostess kicks the dumpster. There's nothing more to be said.
"Had to see the bastard's face on the news every night for a year. No TV in my new digs though." He took the butt back and snuffed it against the brick wall.
"Well, we're going to miss you." The hostess replied, when she really meant, "I'll miss you."
"Almost forgot." He untied the dirty apron from his waist and handed it to her.
She nodded, and they both politely waved goodbye as he headed down the alley toward the forest-green converted Astro Van parked out front.
Aiden spent a year building it out in his parents' driveway. Working part time as a busser to pay for parts. Getting the same strange pitied looks from the neighbors all the time.
The counselor he went to see after the event called it "Uncomplicated PTSD," but that didn't make any sense to him because there was nothing "uncomplicated" about it. What's simple about having your grief televised, politicized, chewed to bits and then forgotten as soon as the next one comes along? Is helping your roommate's mother clean out the dorm he'll never return to not complex enough?
"It's time!" Aiden declared to himself as the engine roared to life, "for my grand exodus!"
He drove for weeks on roads less traveled; camping here, seizing a few hours of shut eye at a rest stop there. Making as little human contact as possible. He stayed south for the winter, as one does when living on four wheels. By the time May came around he ached for gloom; some rainy respite from cacti and the dust he couldn't get out from under his fingernails.
"To Sasquatch country!" He charged, setting his sights Northwest.
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It was purely by coincidence that Aiden found himself in Siskiyou County along the serpentine I-5 that stormy night. The thunder and slippery roads were agitating his anxieties, but when a massive flash of fur passed his headlights almost causing a collision, he took the next exit.
"The bears must be as freaked out as I am." He thought, trying to calm himself down as he followed the main road into the town of Dunsmuir. Something deep inside of him knew that what had crossed his path was too big to be the kind of bear you'd see in these parts.
Pulling off onto a side street, he parked and climbed back into his backseat bed, wrapping himself in a weighted blanket. When the thunder had gone and the rain slowed to a soft pitter patter, he was able to drift into a fitful sleep.
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