FOREST OF THE LOST

PART TWENTY TWO

38.

Odd, it is all odd to say the least; almost everything from the moment Terrence first stepped into a new town has been odd. If he could think about it, then odd has been with him for years. A kind of unseen and unheard calling chose this town for him. He had for a long time wanted to get away and this town was always going to be the place to go.

It felt right for many reasons, Terrence could not know. The want he had to get away from his life and even from his family despite everything being well and good, and as well and good as it really could be, was embedded in him, he never really knew why this exists. If he were to look back, he would be able to see what that want is, at least to some degree.

Over the course of his life, love had rarely visited with him, and he had never sought it out. The move had not changed that, well not completely. He still did not seek love but maybe it had always intended to visit with him. A visit is all it can take at that too. Finding an exit to the oddest of odd locations may be one thing, reconnecting with a brief love once again may be something else.

As much as he had been taken by her, she had been taken by him too. Neither had said it out loud to the other, and that doesn't mean it wasn't ever there. Finding, gaining, or regaining love and all that may come with such things is not the top priority; it may not even be a possibility. If memories of the past can echo into the present, then why can't future memories do the same, given that most odd of all places and all that it is.

Older Mary on that bridge, she ... obviously enough, still grieves the loss of her brother though she grieved for another too. And though she could not see him, she felt he was near, and he certainly felt ... felt something. Can he admit to that ... something?

Anyhow, first things first, get out of the park ... if making an exit is possible then see what indeed may come from such a thing. Determined to leave, Terrence has two people and a dog in tow, a small group who in any normal situation are separated by over thirty-six years, none of whom have come anywhere close to being of such age in their own lives, other than aging Jason up with what would be time spent in this most odd of odd places.

Sure, with what has been gained right now, Terrence might just get to do what he came to do, so shouldn't he at least have a quick look to see if this group could be extended, increased? Determination to leave is still present, but the reconsideration of what he had come to do well. ... Where he met the two boys, he should at least have a brief look there before making a way to either park exit. Yeah, he should at least do that.

The suggestion to briefly look for others is agreed upon. Terrence had previously met the fourteen-year-olds upon the horse chestnut trail and that trail is easily accessible from where he and present company currently are. The nearest path between trails is slim but easy to pass through and along. Terrence leads the way. In keeping with all things odd, Terrence for a moment is sure he can hear something quite odd; he is sure he can hear some kind of distant chanting.

'Anyone hear that?' he asks.

'Hear what?' asks Jason.

There is silence for a moment or two and it is clear that neither Jason nor Karen heard what Terrence thought he had and for Terrence the sound is gone.

'Never mind.'

'Nirvana, great album' Jason says.

Karen looks at Jason with a look which suggests a certain questioning as to what a state of mind has to do with albums or anything else. The group Nirvana of course would not have been around in Karen's present day of 1983. Odd continues for fourteen-year-old friends Jeremy Wright and Kenneth Torrance. They are indeed up on that Horse Chestnut trail as if Terrence had more than expected to see them there.