Come Get Me (4 page)

“Thank God you finally picked up!” his
mothers’ worried voice just about shouted from the receiver.

“Hi Mom!” he said as brightly as he could
manage. “Boy am I glad you called. I was having the weirdest
dream…”

“Jim, I don’t know an easy way to tell you
this,” she said cutting him off, “so I’ll just come right out and
say it. There’s been a terrible accident out here son,” pause,
“your friend Tommy was found dead in the woods. Nobody knows how it
happened.”

Jim didn’t hear most of whatever else his
mother had to say. He didn’t hear her asking him if he was ok or if
he was still there. He didn’t hear her asking if he could come home
quickly or if he needed any money to do so. He didn’t hear any of
these things because a few seconds after he’d heard his mother say
Tommy was dead the phone fell from his hand and hit the floor. Not
much longer after that he followed it.

1

If anybody’d asked Jim what had happened
after he finally picked himself up off the floor he didn’t think
he’d be able to tell them. All could remember through the haze that
his days became was that he’d somehow managed to call his job at
the electric company and asked for a leave of absence. Since this
time of the year was just like any other his boss didn’t have a
problem with it. He even gave Jim his condolences, but Jim wasn’t
paying attention much after he’d heard what he wanted to. He
mechanically said thanks and hung up already working on the next
problem. As long as he kept moving he was ok. It was when he
stopped to think about something that the memories of Tommy flooded
in. One minute he’d be thinking about getting somebody to check his
mail while he was gone, and the next thing he knew he was lost in
thoughts of when he and Tommy had played mailbox baseball or how
they used to go looking for frogs in the creek. Then he was just a
bawling puddle until he pulled it together and started trying to
get everything arranged for his trip.

The last time Jim saw Tommy had been just shy
of twelve years. It was just before he’d taken what he was sure
were his first steps towards a life everyone back home would be
envious of and talk about when he came to visit. Jim stopped by the
hardware store where Tommy worked on his way to the airport to say
goodbye. Tommy’d been stocking the shelves with different types of
nails when Jim had walked up behind him and scared him so bad he
almost pissed himself. Tommy was a little bitter about Jim leaving
but he tried putting up a brave front for him so Jim wouldn’t feel
bad. They said their goodbyes as customers passed by and that was
about that. They said they’d keep in touch, but they never really
did except for a Christmas card every now and then. They even
planned at one point for Tommy to come out to the city so Jim could
show him around but that never happened either. Now it never
would.

As Jim’s plane landed he realized he hadn’t
seen anyone except for his family for quite a while. Whenever he’d
gone to visit either he didn’t have enough time or his friends
weren’t home. Something always came up. Thinking about it though,
he hadn’t really wanted to see any of the people he’d grown up
with. He wasn’t even sure what had happened to a lot of them. It
wasn’t that he didn’t like them anymore; it was just that after
he’d left they’d grown apart. It didn’t help that none of his grand
plan came to fruition. He didn’t really understand why everything
went wrong, it just happened. Out of sight out of mind really was
true.

Growing up in a small town hadn’t been
horrible or anything like that. It was actually pretty fun now that
he thought about it. When he left he thought of it as something he
wanted to leave in the past where it belonged. All of his old
friends were part of the past, so he had to leave them behind with
everything else. Unfortunately he’d been friends with Tommy since
he was old enough to walk so it didn’t work out that way. He, along
with Pete and Rob had done everything together, from learning to
ride bikes to getting drunk for the first time after the senior
prom. But that’s where their happy go lucky times together pretty
much came to an end. Even though they’d remained friends throughout
the last couple of years of school, they each slowly drifted off to
pursue other interests of their own. What once they would have done
together without a second thought they were now doing by
themselves, or with other people not part of their original group.
It wasn’t purposefully done it was just something that had
happened.

Jim was the only one who chose to move after
high school. But having big dreams he couldn’t just move to the
next town over like most of the other kids. He had to move to the
big city. Unfortunately none of the bigger companies saw things the
way he did. They weren’t interested in hiring someone without any
type of college background or experience. He ended up working at
one of the local fast food restaurants for almost a year while he
went and took a few classes at the local college. Even then the
only place that would accept him was the electric company. He was a
driver. All day long he drove other people from place to place and
carried things for them. He was technically an assistant but he
thought of himself as a gopher. The people he worked with were
slowly teaching him the ins and outs of electrical work but not
fast enough. After almost eight years he was just now hoping for a
promotion. That, he thought sadly, was the high point of his life.
He’d left with big dreams only to return empty handed. He hadn’t
tried to see any of his friends whenever he was home mostly because
he was ashamed of himself. They’d all thought he was leaving to go
and do great things not to be somebody’s helper. If he’d taken the
time to think about it he’d realize his friends probably wouldn’t
have cared what he did. They liked him not his job but his mind
didn’t work that way. Looking back he figured he probably would’ve
been better off if he’d stayed home. Maybe worked at one of the
local places or opened something up himself but no, he took the
longer route. All his friends remained in the sleepy, boring, old
town to this day as far as he knew. Except for himself and now
Tommy, he thought sadly.

Trying to get his mind off Tommy, Jim idly
wondered what everyone he used to know had eventually grown up to
be. Everybody had been full of high hopes about their futures after
high school; some going off to college, some to the military,
others God only knew where but Jim wondered if any of them had
actually attained their goals. Sure, they all probably had jobs but
did they achieve their dreams. Occasionally his mother gave him
updates on what his old friends were up to, but since she was older
then them she didn’t really keep up with them. They were nothing to
her other than kids he’d grown up with. That is of course except
for his little group. Those were different. Those were her boys.
She felt as if she were just as much their mother as their own. The
only thing she didn’t do was give birth to them. Everything else
she’d been there for. She tried to keep tabs on all three of them
but it wasn’t always easy. From what she’d told him Rob had
eventually become a police officer or as they were known in the
town, a deputy. Jim was shocked when he’d found out. Rob was about
the last person he’d expected to be an officer of the law. The four
of them had secretly broken so many laws when they were little it
was just inconceivable one of them would actually grow up to
enforce them. Then again maybe it wasn’t as surprising as he
thought. Rob had always been the type that liked to help out. He
may have seemed like an obnoxious ass most of the times, but that
was just his way of dealing with things. Once you got past that you
could eventually see that deep down he genuinely wanted to help. He
just put a show on most of the time to entertain. If what Jim’s
mother told him was true Rob really seemed to enjoy what he was
doing so he was happy for him. Rob seemed to have been the only one
out of their group who had made any real attempt at making
something of his life.

His mom didn’t say too much whenever the
subject of Tommy came up in their conversations. He became a
somewhat touchy subject with her due to his exploits. Every now and
then she would mention something about him being in the newspaper
for some kind of hunting award or something of that nature. It
always inevitably had something to do with shooting a deer with a
big set of antlers or something else only other hunters would care
about. She wasn’t a fan and was never really sure and Jim never
thought to ask. That was one of the few things he and Tommy hadn’t
agreed on. He’d never understood what the thrill of hunting held.
Jim’d only gone with Tommy a few times and saw no real point in it.
He didn’t like sitting around being still waiting for some dumb
animal to come around so he could shoot it. Jim didn’t need the
meat to survive and Tommy didn’t either, not with a grocery store
and restaurants nearby. Plus he didn’t really like killing things,
so he didn’t see the point in it. Jim didn’t oppose hunting; it
just wasn’t something he enjoyed.

Then there was ‘Poor Pete’ as Jim’s mother
called him. Whenever his name came up in their talks her voice
would get choked up as if just on the edge of tears. She didn’t
know too much about him anymore either, mostly by Pete’s choice,
but what she did know made her extremely sad and worried. She’d
said when he was a young boy he so full of life and promise that
seeing him the way he was now just broke her heart. Pete had slowly
become what the town people nastily called a hermit and that was
one of the nicer names.

He kept to himself mostly but was
occasionally heard from by his parents when he needed money or
something else he couldn’t get himself. He never tried to talk to
any of his old friends and was never seen out after dark except
around his own house. When Jim asked what she meant she wouldn’t
say anymore. From what little she would say he gathered Pete
definitely wasn’t doing well and hadn’t been for a long time. He
lived by himself and did a lot of things his mother and even Jim
thought were strange. Mom always kept her comments vague but Jim
knew something bad was going on with Pete. When pressed she would
quickly change the subject to something not so depressing and acted
as if what they’d been talking about was a closed topic.

No, Jim thought as he waited in line for his
rental car, his leaving had nothing to do with his old friends and
everything to do with him. He guessed he just wanted more out of
life back then they did. Nothing against them or anything but
staying in town just wasn’t for him. So he left. Unfortunately
leaving didn’t do what he thought it would. He hadn’t found
anything he thought he would. No great job, no great girlfriend, in
short no great life. He doubted he would ever find those things. At
this point he didn’t even think they existed. He tried to be an
optimist and think his dream just hadn’t found him yet but that was
quickly being proven wrong everyday he stayed in the city. He
thought when he’d left he’d go out in the world and become
somebody, then return home to the admiration of his friends but
that wasn’t happening. Instead the only thing he got to come back
to do was bury the people he left behind.

He dreaded coming back and seeing his friends
again under any circumstances much less these, but at the same time
he almost couldn’t wait. The line for cars was almost more than he
could take. Jim didn’t quite know why but he was actually looking
forward to seeing the old group. He’d had a lot of friends but none
he was as close to as Tommy, Rob and Pete. They were always
inseparable. It was always a good time as long as they were
around.

Now one of their numbers was gone.

It would be a bittersweet reunion especially
with Pete in the condition he was. But it was a reunion that was
long over-due, failure or not. He was somewhat nervous about
everything what with Tommy being gone, but he figured that was
because of the simplest reason of all. It had just been too long
since being home.

2

After the hassle of the airport the open road
was a welcome relief. It gave him time to prepare himself for his
arrival in the old home town. He definitely needed to get his head
straight before he got there. It wasn’t a bad place, just a little
different.

Before he knew it he was coming up on the
last bit, drove over a small hill and there it was. The name of the
place was Newton but you wouldn’t have known it since the name had
worn off the welcome sign. It had probably worn off the maps
leading to it too.

Driving into the town almost felt as if you
were taking a step back in time. The place looked like it had tried
to progress with the rest of the world but had run out of energy
halfway through. Cruising down the road that passed directly
through the center of town, which was of course called Main Street,
he saw just how little the place had changed.

It was the type of place that if you saw a
tumbleweed blow by you wouldn’t be surprised to see it. He smiled
to himself none the less. He was happy to be back even for such a
bad reason. Everything was as familiar as the back of his eyelids.
Things he grew up with and thought would surely be gone were still
there.

The old grocery store, bank, fire station and
everything else he remembered was still the same as he’d pictured
it on the plane ride out. They looked almost as if they were
somehow suspended in time. Unfortunately seeing them like this
caused them to look like exactly what they were. Old rundown
buildings that needed to be either torn down or updated to fit in
better with the rest of the country. The town looked as if it
wanted to live in the past, and the people living there didn’t seem
to mind letting its way. Otherwise things would be different.