Can I Tell You A Ghost Story: The Collection

First Date Part 2: Henry

*This entry contains suggestion of SA. Please read with caution.

He opened his eyes to the fading sun that beamed through the dusty window illuminating the smoke that hung from the ceiling as he breathed it in. He couldn't stop thinking about that boy at the theatre. His blonde hair, his small waist, the way he moved. He wanted to talk to him but didn't know how. He probably had never noticed him in the large audience of last night's showing of The Karate Kid 2. He started thinking about his lips. His pink lips that probably taste salty from popcorn. He wanted to taste them, he thought of it as he tasted the dying cigarette between his lips.

He gazed around the room at the quilt covered tattered couch, thinking what it would be like to have him on it, at the clouded glass of the windows and the soiled fireplace, thinking about sitting by the fire with him as frost covers the windows, at the rotting floor and the cassette player that only just finished playing, thinking about dancing barefoot on a rug with him while listening their favorite tapes. He rolled his eyes at the thoughts. He doesn't even know the boy's name and still; he lays on the floor in fantasies that he's been told he's not allowed to have for sake of damnation. But there they are, and he is savoring them.

He gets up from the floor and reaches for the thin flannel draped over the back of the couch and throws his arms through it. He puts out what's left of his cigarette as he sits down to lace his boots. He stays sitting for a moment to breathe. Looking out the window he watches the trees sway in the wind and the light of summer breaking through the leaves. He doesn't want to go back home. He wishes he could stay here forever.

He walked past the broken bridge and down the path following the river thinking about the day his mother and him had found this place. It was autumn. He always remembers because he was wearing the new costume she had sewn him for Halloween. He wanted to be Scooby-Doo, so she made him a brown felt suit with patches and a hood. He was so excited he insisted they wear it on their adventure! When they found the house, it was like the ones you would see on the show, haunted buy some witch or zombie or ghost covered in chains. It was one of the last adventures he took with her before she got sick, and he was left with his dad and sister.

His dad didn't understand him like his mom and sister did. But why would he? He always new he was... different, and so did his dad, and so he treated him different.

As he walked into the parking lot, he saw the blonde boy he'd spent the last twenty-four hours fantasizing about. He was getting into a grey, two door Subaru. He thought about waving or saying hi, but just kept walking. The sun began to set as he turned down every other street, watching people in the cars as they passed by. He tried to guess what music they were listening to as they passed, oldies, rock, defiantly Fleetwood Mac, pop. It was a game his mom stared on their walks back home. He wandered and played for longer than he realized and soon he found himself on an unfamiliar road. He turned around to retrace his steps only to see he was completely lost.

He kept walking aimlessly until he found a gas station and could ask for directions. He went inside to ask the clerk for help, but the old man was useless. Wouldn't help him unless he bought something. He gave up and started to walk back out when a man spoke up behind him.

"Are you lost?" The man was about as tall as he was, scruffy and with a large belly. He looked worried.

"I am. I wasn't paying attention where I was walking and now, I don't know where I am."

"Where are you trying to get to?"

"You know the movie theatre in town?"

"I sure do. Would you like a lift?"

"That would be great! I've been walking for hours now."

"Well follow me. Vans around the corner." He followed him around the side of the convenience store to a red van that had wood paneling along the side. "Just wait here. The door is broken and I gotta open it from the inside." He went around to the driver's side and climbed in and started to bang on the passenger door. After a bit of wrestling with it, it finally opened for him to get in.