Middle of Nowhere

Molly gets her first look at Westfield, as well as meeting her first hick.

Ask someone from California or New Jersey what Nebraska is like, and they’ll probably answer with things such as “little farms” “nothing but hills of corn and soybeans” or “in the middle of nowhere”. But where I come from, we consider ourselves pretty up to date. Skyview has all the common fast food places, a library, several strip malls, and a bar called Rusty’s for old-fashioned adult entertainment. The local Walmart stays on top of all the new release books, the clothes aren’t too out of date, and we’ve just added a Subway to the south end. Almost anywhere you go free Wi-Fi is provided, and even though the Verizon store is a bit run down, they’re never without business.

          Granted, Skyview isn’t any Chicago. Once you leave city limits you’ve got to drive for about twenty miles to get out of the dead zone. And the weather is known to go from sunny to stormy and back again in just a few hours. But it is home. Or, it was home. Westfield, over a thousand miles away from Nebraska, was going to be my new home. But the drive through town did little to impress me.

          Not only did Westfield, Georgia fit the definition of “in the middle of nowhere” but it was also old. The streets were paved with faded red brick, and in other places there was nothing but tightly packed down dirt to drive on. Sonic was the only chain restaurant for miles, and the building was so run down it could’ve been mistaken as vacant. The tiny shops had windows caked with dust, and most of the buildings were in desperate need of a paint job. Even the people were old. Two elderly men in overalls were sitting on a bench outside a hardware store. A woman with jowls, actual jowls, tittered down the cracked sidewalk carrying a paper sack of groceries. The whole place screamed of southern retirement town.

          I kept my opinions to myself though as I propped my head up with my hand and continued to scan out the car window.

          “Well, this is it,” my grandma announced from the driver’s seat. She was a tiny little thing, but she made up for it with a tongue as sharp as a whip. “Little ‘ol Westfield. May not look like much, but it’s home.”

          Even though I doubted this small place would ever be my home, I said nothing. Besides, it wasn’t like I could go back to Skyview.

          As the car passed a red brick church, probably one of the finer buildings in the whole place, a sudden flash of movement caught my eye. Up ahead alongside the road, a figure tumbled from the trees to the ground. After a few seconds I expected the person to sit up, but they laid still.

          Grandma’s sharp green eyes must’ve caught it too. “What in the- Well I’ll be. It’s Jeric Black.” She shook her head, and the chains on her bifocals shook. “That boy has no business climbing any trees.”

          When we were closer she pulled the car over next to the boy. I rolled down my window. Up close I could see he was definitely near my age. His brown hair was cut short, and his jeans and blue plaid shirt were torn and dirtied. Were those- yup, he wore a pair of brown cowboy boots too. Despite his obvious hick-ness, I was relieved to see someone under the age of fifty.

          The boy-Jeric- stared up at the cloudless sky and didn’t move. I could see his chest rise and fall, so his plummet hadn’t killed him.

          “Jeric Black!” Grandma leaned across my seat to yell out the window. “What in God’s name are you doing falling out of a tree?”

          He blinked, then slowly sat up and brushed some grass off his shirt. He grinned, revealing two pointy incisors, and nodded in our direction. “Afternoon, Mrs. Anderson. I had a craving for peaches, you see, but they’re a bit higher up than I thought.”

          “You keep that up and you’ll end up sick again. And Lord knows your mama don’t need that worry.” She frowned. To me she said, “Jeric comes around in the evenings to help out. Don’t know why I pay the boy- he’s about as handy as a back pocket on a shirt.”

This was another thing I was learning about the grandma I hadn’t seen since I was a baby. True to her southern roots, she had a wacky saying for just about anything. I only hoped I wouldn’t pick them up with time.

          “Aw, you know you love me.” He stood up, and I was amused to see he was barely taller than my 5” 5’. “Who else would cut your grass and pick your peas?”

          Jeric strode over and leaned down to rest his arms in my door. His eyes were a dark blue I’d seen in a painting of an ocean once. Ocean eyes. I looked away and inched away as much as I could in the seat.

          “This is my grandbaby, Molly. She’s coming to stay me, keep an old lady company.” I looked over at her, and she smiled encouragingly.

          “Nice to meet ya Molly,” Jeric stuck his hand through my open window.

          I tensed and kept my gaze on the fibers of my jeans. Why were they called blue jeans when most of the strands looked white? The silence stretched on, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Jeric pull back his hand. My shoulders eased up a bit.

          Grandma’s voice was quieter and sad. “Don’t take offense, Jeric. She’s just been real quiet lately. We’ll see you later tonight?”

          Real quiet? Why didn’t she use the official terms, the words the psychiatrist said? Selective mutism. It’s a condition that’s usually found in young children, not sixteen year-olds, she’d told my Grandma. Just because she had some licenses up on the wall didn’t mean she had the right to “diagnose” what’s healthy for me and what’s not.

          Without meaning to I glanced up at him. His eyes were studying my face intently and his brow was knitted. Something that could be described as mild interest swept across his face. “Yes, ma’am. Seven o’clock,” Jeric replied to my grandma, his gaze never leaving mine.

          He straightened and backed away from the car, shoving his hands into his pockets. I could still feel his eyes on me as we drove away. 

Reviews

[Daydreamer54]

Interseting beginng and I'd like to read more! msg me when u have the next chapter up! ^^