Middleton - A Little Slice of Heaven

Chapter 1: Celebrate!

George Hartman hadn't set foot on the Middleton campus since the day he parted ways with his precious Edith Martin. That's right, his. Well, at least, that's what he thought of her as. Sure they'd only spent one day together, but it had been the best day of his life, of that he was sure. No two people had ever had a connection like theirs, no matter how much time they'd known each other.

He'd been unable to get her out of his head since he had watched her car in the side rearview mirror disappear in the opposite direction of where he and his son were headed. He hadn't taken his eyes off of her car until it vanished from his sight, making their life-changing day nothing more than a distant dream that was bound to be forgotten.

But George hadn't forgotten. 

In fact, she was the first thing on his mind when he woke up the next morning. 

And every morning since.

He spent weeks - months - trying to get her out of his head. Yet there she remained. Every morning and every night, day after day. 

He had told Edith that they couldn't be together after the clock tower. But the second he got in the car, he began to wonder if he had done the right thing. It sure didn't feel like it... But maybe it was one of those things that wouldn't feel right, now, but would prove to be later on. 

Yeah. That had to be it.

So no - George hadn't been to Middleton since that day, even though his son had been attending the school since that following year. 

Conrad had invited his father to every parents' weekend, every holiday festival - every event that he hosted for the campus radio station. But George always found an excuse not to go.

"I'm feeling a bit under the weather."

"I'm on call for a surgery that weekend."

"The dog has worms."

He'd used every excuse in the book. The truth was - he couldn't bear to be there. The mere thought of it made him sick to his stomach. He knew that being there, being at the place where all those memories with Edith took place, would be too much for him. He already had to live his life without her - why torture himself even more?

However - there were no excuses for him to skip out on a visit this time. 

Conrad was moving into his new dorm - his last dorm - for his senior year at Middleton.

George's wife, now ex-wife, was off on a business trip for her start-up company. There was no one else to help him move in. So George didn't have a choice. His relationship with his son was already hard enough; him not visiting over the last three years hadn't helped either. 

George gave it some thought. 

He found out not long after Conrad's freshman year started that Audrey had took what Dr. Emerson had said to heart and decided to attend Middleton after all. This, of course, played a role in George's decision to avoid the campus at all costs. Conrad and Audrey had become pretty good friends. Not best friends or anything, but they still hung out a lot, which meant: there was a good chance that he'd run into Edith at an event, and maybe even just by chance while visiting at a random time. He couldn't go through that, he knew he couldn't. 

But - he had managed to avoid visiting for so long, over three years. So the chances of him running into Edith for a one-day move-in visit had to be incredibly low...right?

So there George was - driving his packed-to-the-brim car with Conrad in the passenger seat, trying desperately to alleviate any and all fears, nerves, and emotions of that one day, over three years ago. But there was still a knot in his stomach that just wouldn't go away. He swallowed thickly as he put on his blinker to take the exit to the college.

It'll be okay, it's been long enough. You'll be fine, he repeated to himself over and over again in his head, taking deep breaths.

It actually started to calm him down a bit, to his pleasant surprise. He only had to survive a few hours, tops. 

It wasn't long before he turned into the visitors' parking lot which was nearly full with almost no spots left. He pulled forward into a spot and turned around, one hand on the back of the passenger seat, to check behind him so he could do his little parking quirk that seemed to annoy everyone he met.

-

"Hi, excuse me, excuse me... Excuse me - hi. Good morning-"

"Morning."

"Uh, you took my spot."

He stared at her, trying to hide his annoyance. This was not the first time he had to confront someone who stole his parking spot; it wasn't the second, it wasn't even the third. He'd lost count years ago.

"I thought you were pulling into that one," she said innocently, pointing past him at his small little silver car.

"No, I was gonna back - you know, I was going to go like -" he said, beginning to demonstrate the entire action, which obviously wasn't necessary, but he apparently thought it was, "and then come in and back into this one, like that." 

"Ah...you're one of those," she muttered, her demeanor changing now that she realized she was talking to a Neanderthal.  

He wasn't in the mood for this today. He'd already driven hours having a one-way conversation with his son. "What does that mean?"

"Look, it's a parking lot... There's a space. Celebrate!" she replied with a small whisk of her wrist to downplay the sarcasm. It was still early in the morning - she had to have some self-control.

She gave him a tiny grin to signal to him that he wasn't going to win this before walking away, her daughter moving to walk by her side.

George stood there, watching her walkaway. "...Celebrate?" he asked aloud.

Just to make sure he understood her own annoyance at having to deal with this seemingly pointless conversation, she spoke to her daughter as they walked away, just loud enough so he could hear her: "Of course a guy who wears a bow tie would back into a parking space." She turned over her shoulder to shoot him off a less-than-polite look to punctuate her observation.

"Mom, just let it go."

"...Celebrate," he repeated under his breath before making his way back to his son who was still waiting in the car. He couldn't believe the nerve of this woman.

-

"Dad."

George turned his head to look at his son. "Huh?"

"I just said your name like 3 times."

"You did?"

"Uh...yeah."

George turned to face back around towards the front, his hands returning to the steering wheel. He stared at his hands for a moment. 

"Are you...okay?" Conrad asked a bit confused.

George took another second before shutting off the car, abandoning his ritualistic way of parking.

"You're not going to back in?" his son asked surprised.

George lifted his head slightly, looking into the rearview mirror at the empty spot.

"It's a parking lot...it's just a space."