AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Ryder
I’m back.
I twist the single key in my hand and think back to the time when it used to mean home.
With my parents gone, now it’s only a shell of a house I’ll be passing over to a new family destined to relive my fate when they find there’s no growth in this small sleepy Vermont town.
I’m not sure how I feel about riding into the place I grew up in after nearly a decade gone. I had a good full day and a half ride up here from New York City to think about what I left behind.
I loved every minute of cruising the back roads of the Northeast far away from my Boston company. Riding through the reds and golds of the trees and breathing the crisp autumn air is just what I needed to clear my head of all I’ve lost this year. First, the family I thought I would have and then my dad.
Chilled wind snakes under my jacket. Over the scent of fresh pumpkin and the pine smell of rain, maybe even snow, lingers.
Looking around I honestly half expected it to be a ghost town by now. A place I would ride through, reminisce of in the three point five seconds it would take to cross both county lines and then be done. With its single grocery store it is nearly too small for the one flickering stop light swinging overhead.
Then again, I never imagined I’d be single on what was supposed to be my honeymoon, let alone relieved about it. Proof you should never assume shit in life because it can’t wait to prove you wrong at every bend. Trust me. My life is proof of it. After my ex confessed to faking her pregnancy, things between us ended abruptly, killing every plan of building my first crib and diaper shopping. Not many people label me as a homebody, but I am for the most part.
After three tours overseas, I looked forward to building something. A family.
That was six months ago and I can’t claim to be broken up about my ex, but I feel a pang of hurt dead center in the chest about what could have been. I felt proposing to the woman who I thought carried my baby was the right thing to do. As it turns out, the cute little gold digger wanted my last name and the bank account that goes with it by any means necessary. Lies included.
I have no time for that now or ever, so I broke it off and packed my shit. Her parting gift was the ring and a handful of memories of what it would have been like to have a Wolfe as her partner.
Looking around, I don’t see anyone out on the streets so I might not be too far off base about the ghost town theory after all.
Squeaks and groans pull at the rust holding my current ride together when the driver hits a pothole, pulling me out of my mental funk. I tap my fingers on my leg and issue a sigh that sounds pretty damn disgruntled.
Cracked streets and low rolling fog give off a spooky vibe movie directors pay millions to replicate, but a few seconds after crossing the town’s lines it’s the sea of orange that has me wondering what veiled portal I’ve stepped through.
I’ve never seen so many jack-o-lanterns amassed in one spot. I mean, I like Halloween as much as the next guy I guess. It usually means long rides with cool wind in my beard and the open road ahead of me, which got cut short when my Harley died five miles outside town.
But this takes spooksville to a whole new level. Jagged smiles with lit peepers flicker along the roadside as the old rusted beat-up pickup I’m riding shotgun in crawls to a screeching stop.
“Here we are, son.”
Lucky for me an old-timer from my parents’ days spotted me and offered a ride. Cell phone reception was a distant memory and I was glad for the help.
“Thanks, Tommy.” Never Thomas or Tom. The old apple farmer might be hitting eight decades on this earth, but he liked being called his childhood nickname I recall.
I look out over the hood. “Kandy Cafe, huh?”
As he nods, shaggy gray hair falls over the old man’s forehead. “Yep, she inherited and gave everything a little personal touch.”
Kandy.
Well damn. My one-time sweetheart was still here? I thought for damn sure she would have fled the small town right after me. So tied up in my own life, I never really looked her up after getting back from the Middle East a couple years ago. After that I threw all of myself into my new securities company.
This is the first time I’m coming up for air and I admit, I miss a lot about the old days.
Hand on the door handle, I take in my new surroundings. No Bentleys or Cadillacs here. Not that it matters. The car—or bike in my case—never makes the man, my dad would say.
In lieu of dirty street curbs and loud horns, there's only crickets and bales of hay lining the diner which overflow into the parking space of the gas station slash mechanic shop next door.
More pumpkins line the edges with ghost and goblin lawn ornaments scattered among them. Beyond the glowing decor the road stretches out to small single-story homes that have seen better days.
“Welcome home, boy.” Old Man Tommy turns to me, face crinkled by time and years in the sun working his apple orchard. His plaid shirt is faded and worn in the moonlight. A welcomed sight after hours straddling my bike.
