Milk Carton Boys

Early Sunsets over Monroeville

We were stuck in traffic on the highway down to Monroeville, and when we finally reached our destination the sun was already casting stretched shadows on the amber tinted streets. The cold weather frosted the glass of Kevin's car, a sleek silver car with a pale blue interior; cars no longer had wheels or the humming of the engines or the smell of burning fuel - instead they hovered on the metal roads, silent and smooth as if we weren't moving at all. Outside there practically no trees, even along the highway, the once rich green forests had been covered by giant billboards, the sky was still grey, light seeping down in rays through the concrete-coloured clouds. There was still a chill in the air, it wasn't noticeable, in a sense, more the feeling that the cold passed through your skin and chilled your bones but nothing else. Kevin was switching and pressing buttons on a large device at the front of the car, flickering blue and white lights behind glass. Volume spread through the car, the crashing of cymbals, snares and kick drums that sounded like they were made of cardboard, a static guitar and what sounded like a Johnny Rotten who smoked three packets a day.

"Seems your music changed hasn't changed since I last saw you." I laughed.

Kevin laughed back sarcastically, "right, Xav. And for you that was, what, yesterday?"

I smirked and sat back in my seat, looking back out the car window, "what happened while I was away?"

"Oh, y'know. Not much." Kevin grinned. "Same-sex marriage was legalized in close to every country. We got a black president back in 2008. Some guy made a wormhole in France, and his buddy in Switzerland made a miniature sun. Oh, and people live on Mars now."

I couldn't even blink, I turned back to look at Tyler from where I sat in the passenger seat - he gave me what was probably the same expression I had on my own face. Jesus, and I'd missed all of that.

"There's another thing too, y'know that kid we met at the part back in 1986? At the end of Summer break I think...what was his name...Billie? Yeah, the kid for California. Well he got famous with some friends of his, one of the biggest punk bands in history now, y'might want to have a look at their music, the both of you might like it."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Tyler was laughing at himself, head in his hands in the back seat. Under his breath Kevin whispered "language" under his breath.

"I, um..you alright?"

"Me and Billie made a bet that he'd never be in a great band, he kept on saying he'd be world renown, this fucking bleach haired kid with a blunt between his fingers. Hopefully he doesn't remember that bet."

"How much was it?"

Tyler shrugged, "eighty bucks."

Kevin snorted and let out a throaty chuckle, "oh yeah, he's gonna be laughing straight to the bank with that, Tyler."

"Shut up."

We'd just passed a sign saying 'Welcome to Monroeville : Population 4307'. The traffic had started to separate and our speed was gaining as we drove through to a city surrounded by slums and shanties and in the centre tall copper-coloured skyscrapers.

"And here I thought only our hometown was looking more miserable than usual." Tyler slumped in his seat, mopy and staring out the window.

"It's not that bad, Tyler. I mean, sure we're running out of oxygen but there's always a spare planet we can move to."