Absence (Night In The Woods)

Mae#1 Fireflies

In the year grandad died
We had the worst flood since 1998
Gregg got trapped on top of a dog house
The power was out for two days
Casey Hartley and Y/N Sollivano came by in his dad's boat
And I laughed when I saw them.

Grandad left me an apple crate of books
(He loved ghost stories)
And quoted them to himself in the hospital bed
"They went looking for the gods,
and died in lonely places."

On his last day
He sat up suddenly
And stared bug-eyed through the window at the old trains
Rattling to somewhere else, from somewhere else
He turned to my dad
Eyes still wide
"This house is haunted"
He said
And died.

...

Swinging her backpack over her shoulder and stepping off onto the train platform, the grey cat scowled as she studied the empty station with growing annoyance. Her ear flicked and she growled, pausing to grimace and talk to the desolate air.
"Well, this is great." A bug flew by. "I mean, I didn't expect a party or anything but I figured at least *someone* would be here."
Empty silence ensued and she sighed, whispering to herself. ".. Welcome home, Mae."

She set her bag on a damaged bench and found herself staring headfirst at a large poster, one she assumed to have been put up recently. Her nose scrunched up.
"Possum Springs has never looked more.. falsely advertised."
Her eyes trailed over the picture, blue sky leading to state forest and woods, all surrounding a statue of the founder and a floating train in the background. She took a long glance at the hills and the mine carts.
Look at that. That's all long gone. She raised an eyebrow.
Was this made by a time traveler?

"Visitors are going to be so let down when they see the actual town. Prepare to be disappointed, ye who enter here!"
Our town motto.
The cat snickered. Well, they got one thing right. State forest up top, regular forest everywhere else. Woods woods woods.

She went to reach for the payphone and stepped back in shock, scowling. "It must be such a relief to payphone companies that Possum Springs gets zero cell reception. It'd be cool to call my parents if some jerkhole hadn't taken the time to actually rip it off."
Her ears flattened against her head.
She added as an afterthought; "Who steals a phone?"

Grumbling, she snatched her bag off the seat and headed toward the exit.
Finally noticing the sound of a drill, she glanced at the large bird in the doorway.
"Excuse me, but where is everybody?"
His voice was low and scratchy. "It's ten forty five. It's closed. Not a lot of folks getting off the last bus to Possum Springs these days. Just you."
The TV flickered on, displaying a popular late night show she swore her dad was obsessed with.
Garbo and Malloy.

"So are you the janitor or something?"
"Looks that way." Her ear twitched. "What do you do?"
"I fix this door." Her face contorted into that of confusion. "That's it?"
"Nope."
She glanced around the empty station, social anxiety kicking in.

"Can I squeeze past you?"
He grimaced. "Nope." He popped the 'p'.
"Just broke the damn thing." She was starting to get annoyed. "When do you think it might be done?"
"Right after you go grab me a Fiascola from the machine."
Her ears drooped.
"Am I paying for this?"
"I always rig it when I'm here after hours."
The cat perked right back up. "Nice. Free as in free?"
"Free as in no one's here to say otherwise."

Grinning, the cat walked back over to the soda machine. She glanced at the broken payphone.
I wonder what they're doing with that phone.
Sleeping with it at night. Taking it for walks.
Holding it tight. Talking into it to nobody.
Smooching it so right.