Gray Goose Road

September 27th, 2017

Finally, our luck was turning for the better, I swear. I had purchased an old farmstead in the small town of Ellerton, North Carolina with the savings I held onto for years. Two deployments and I somehow talked myself into setting up an out-of-the-way savings account. Even after five years out of the Army, grew into a small fortune. I don't remember all of what I signed up for during that program, but it finally bore fruit and I would not waste it! I packed my wife Amy and our son Kellen into the car, got into the moving van, and we made our way from Springfield, Missouri. The move itself wasn't too bad. But then, I wasn't dealing with a fussy two-year-old.

The town of Ellerton was a cozy place. I suppose it would be forests that the main road cut through up and into town split open for us like I would imagine how today's Red Sea would have when God told Moses to part it. Quiet, sleepy town with a church nestled back into some woods off the main road. Past that were two gas stations facing one another across a street, lines of old buildings I could only assume were stores back in the town's heyday. They all looked abandoned, more or less, in favor of the dollar store that rooted itself next to the quaint grocery store.

We continued down the way, driving past one of the gas stations as we turned right down Butner, then another left down Firetower. At the end of that road, we met with a fork and a dirt road directly in front of us. I watched my wife wave me over and soon I was at the side of her little Nissan. "Where to now? The GPS tells us to go down there..." She pointed down the dirt road.

"Looks like it. But maybe I should take the lead now." She looked nervous as I talked, so I did what I knew best. I switched to a mock southern draw. "Y'all just follow me, ya hear?"

She gave me a halfhearted grin. That's all I wanted right now. I got back into the van and drove around her. We traveled a twisting path until we had to hang a right on Gray Goose Drive. As we drove, I noticed the trailers dotting the path on either side of the road until they became more and more sparse the further we drove. I didn't notice when they stopped appearing altogether. Twin lakes to the right of us smelled stagnant as we passed and the road twisted right past a small hunting cabin, then left.

The van halted suddenly. I pressed the accelerator, and I felt the back tire spin and spin. I curse under my breath. It had to have been loose sand over here. "Gah... Dammit!" I hopped out, slammed the door and looked down at the back left tire. It looked like it was trying to dig its own grave. "Sunnuva bitch..."

"Joe?" Amy called out from behind us, "What happened to, 'y'all just follow me, ya hear'?" She looked smug. Her brunette hair covered her left eye, and the sun shone hints of red highlights. She was... Healthy, for the lack of better terms, though she would call herself fat. I have disagreed with that notion, but it would only continue into a heated debate until I made her laugh. Had to make her laugh hard for her to forget the subject long enough to appreciate what we had. That was that she was my nerd. And I was her soldier.

"Hahaha," I started mockingly, "shaddap," she giggled as I used humor to hide my anger.

"Need some help, cowboy?" she asked. She strode to me and touched my shoulder comfortingly. I still feel the goosebumps when she does it.

"Honey, I don't think there's much you can do, much less we..." I said with a sigh. By then, we heard Kellen cry. "And now we have that to deal with..." He sighed harder.

She slapped my shoulder. "That has a name, and he's our son," she huffed. I made to apologize as she stormed back to the car and I felt my mind telling me what I already knew. As she handled our son, I looked up the rolling hills down the road. To the left of the hunting cabin they sat, climbing higher and higher until my eyes rested on it. It looked just like the pictures. Tall, two story hose sitting on acres of land. At least we're here, I thought. Then, just off to the left of the house, there was a large brown tractor, which was being driven by a man in overalls and a straw hat. He seemed to notice us. But the tractor disappeared behind the hill.

"Well, fuck... Amy," I called.

"Kinda busy here," she called back, holding our blond headed and tired boy in her arms.

"You two stay here. I saw someone with a tractor near our house. I think he can help us."

"What do you want us to do, then?" She asked.

"Just... Dunno... Stay here. Make sure the car and van don't blow away?" I tried to joke. Her features turned dark. I'd be hearing about that later tonight.

I headed up the way and found the old tractor again. The man driving it seemed like he was looking through the window at the front porch. He looked like he had seen some age, white short hair peeked from under his straw hat. He rested his hands on dirty overalls that seemed to swallow the red plaid shirt he wore under it. Each time he moved slightly, his heavy boots clopped on the old wood. I do not know what he was scanning for, but it looked like he was intent on finding something from the outside. I wasn't looking at where I was going. The twig snapped under my foot and I watched him spin. "You shouldn't be here, young man."

I gave him a look. "Um... This is my house. What are you doing over here?" I asked. I shifted my weight off the stick, and he straightened up from his crouched stance. He seemed to stare me down for some strange reason. At the least, it was creeping me out. "Anyway, yeah. My wife is down the road. Can you help us? Pull the moving van out of the sand?"

 That seemed to relax him. "Ah. You're the new house owners! The name's George Tillis." He came off the porch and shambled to me. "So you're stuck?"

 "Yeah. Can you help us?"

 "Sure can." He slowed his already crawling gait and turned sluggishly before he made his way to his tractor.