Life Is A Nightmare

Chapter Seven: The Scarecrow

(Gavin)

I step out of the air-conditioned car and immediately want to step back in. Prolong and delay the hot sun beating down on me and the humid air I can't escape. Just standing in it now for less than a minute is making me wish I didn't agree to this today. Out of all the things we can do today, Kalen decided to pick something that involves being outside.

"Why couldn't we stay at your place again?" I complain.

Kalen stops in front of me, his back facing the main attraction as we stand in the small parking lot. Not many cars are here like I expected. Everyone must be at the fairgrounds where we are going after our visit here.

"Because it's not the same." he takes my hands in his. "I want to create memories together out of the house. Though I will admit I do enjoy those memories too."

"I bet you do," I smirk glancing away towards the building to the left of us.

The building isn't the biggest but I didn't expect it to be for a small museum. The name on the building reads, 'American Gothic House Center' in black letters as the two iconic people from the painting by Grant Woods are in front of the side of the building from the entrance. "I can't believe you've never been here before," Kalen says changing the subject.

He's been excited to take me here for the past month while my interest to stop here and check it off my bucket list has gone down. I'm not like Kalen who loves to go out and explore what our state has. I guess my mind is set on other things or have been for the past month.

"We live two hours away from here."

"And?" he retorts.

"And unlike you, I don't have parents who want to go out and do summer trips," I reply a little harsher than I wanted to come across.

It's not like I'm mad or jealous of Kalen's childhood because I'm not. I had a good life with my parents if I discount my dad being there less and less through the years.

"I'm sorry." he apologizes.

"Don't be." I retort. "I'm not upset or anything."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Why does there have to be something wrong?" I ask avoiding eye contact.

I choose to look at the house behind him Grant Woods chose to paint after driving hours around looking for the perfect house. I can't help but come to the realization something simple as a house is what created a whirlwind of pain and brought bad memories my family continues to live with. Turmoil and utter disbelief from my dad whose life is forever changed and so is mine as a result.

To think, a house can change everything. I wonder what would have happened had Grant Woods chose a different house to paint? Would his life have taken a different path instead? Would this house still stand and the people he was inspired to paint in front of the house be known by many?

My mind quickly goes to thinking of another house that isn't as frequently visited but unable to be forgotten in my family. I remember seeing a picture of the house in an old newspaper article I found online. It was a small house with an attic and all I can think of as I looked at it is my dad spent months inside there. He probably stared out the attic window waiting for someone to find him until he gave up hope. And then slowly as days and weeks went by he believed everything he was told by a man he was scared of.

The house is abandoned now but it still remains in that small town not far from here now that I think about it. Less than thirty minutes away is the house where everything began. "....I wish you didn't go." Kalen says.

"Go where?" Is he talking about the house?

"You've been distant since you went to visit your brother. I don't know why you had to go, to begin with, Gavin. I told you it would mess with your head and get you nowhere."

Of course, he's not talking about the house he's talking about visiting Jayden. He's bringing up the 'I told you so' he gave me before I walked into the institution Jayden is in.

I hate Kalen. I hate him for being right while I wanted to believe life would be different. I wanted to do what I thought would change my dad's perspective on the situation altogether. I was motivated from a young age to do what I thought needed to be done but what was the point in the end? What did it bring in return by going through with meeting Jayden? What truth did I hear to help me because last I checked I gained more confusion and nothing else.

How foolish of me to think meeting Jayden face to face would help right?

"I'm fine." I lie as I pull one of my hands from his and begin to pull him to the house and away from the parking lot we're standing in.

Kalen doesn't say another word and every part of me hates myself for the way I'm acting. I need to leave the idea of the perfect family life I always wanted growing up. It's not going to happen and now eighteen that chance has evaporated. I need to let it go and move on. I don't want to become my dad stuck in a dark vortex of the past he can't leave. I have to live in the present despite how unperfect it is.

-------

After spending time walking around inside the center, to read about Grant Woods and taking pictures in front of the house dressed up, we're finally at the fairgrounds in town. And to say I'm impressed would be a lie but it's not completely bad.

This town is small, less than a thousand people, and apparently, it seems like the whole town is present and more. Too many people for a small fairgrounds. I can barely hear my own thoughts let alone hear what Kalen is saying over the car demolition show going on and the people.

As we walk through the crowd of people in our path I take in the fair. Eyes shifting from one ride to the other and one person to the next. Everyone is smiling and laughing. No one looks like they aren't having fun right now as I search the crowd. Everything is per-

In the blink of my eyes, I see something past the swing ride near the trees. There is a person standing over there looking directly at me and what makes it more strange is, he's wearing a mask.

-----

"Why are you here?" is his first question as we sit in a different room on the second floor. We're in Doctor Chamberlain's office today unlike the quiet openness of downstairs. I don't know if it makes me feel better when no one is in the room beside Jayden. No one is here watching except on the cameras staring down on us.

Should I be scared? Be frighten a hundred times more because I'm alone? Should I be questioning my own sanity after what I saw that forced me to come back?

"Why are you here?" he asks again.

Why am I here? Why wouldn't I be after what I thought I saw at the fair? "Because I wanted to talk."

"We already had our short talk two weeks ago Gavin. I'm done talking." He's done but I'm not.

"Then why did you agree to see me?" the words slip out before I can stop myself.

"Does it look like I have a busy life in here?" he retorts with a crazy smirk across his face.

Every part of me wants to leave. I want to forget about asking him anything and forget what I thought I saw. It was probably nothing but wasn't that what Jayden told himself before he found himself at the house? "I saw the scarecrow at the fair this weekend."