Chapter 16: This Thing Where I'm a Moron

I make it about halfway back to Robin’s Brook before Windy’s front left tire blows.

It startles the shit out of me, too. The sound is less a “pop” and more an explosion. Then there’s a terrible screech and a grinding noise as I start driving on the rim. Thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk. “Fuck shit fuck!” I yell pointlessly.

I pull onto the side of the road and curse several dozen more times before pulling out my phone. I can’t afford a tow with what little money I have on me. It’s late. Addy’s probably already closed up. I wanted to surprise her, but it looks like I’m going to have to call her. I hover my thumb over her name in my contacts.

Then I stop myself. She already gave me a place to stay, fed me, fucking clothed me. I know she said I was welcome anytime, but what if…what if she’s relieved I’m gone? I can’t imagine she’ll be thrilled having to come get me at this hour. Hell, she’s probably out with friends tonight—she hasn’t been able to do much with me around. I can’t keep relying on her. How stupid am I anyway, thinking she’d be excited to see me show back up on her doorstep?

I shake my head and try to get out of my brain. I’m my own worst enemy sometimes. Addy was sad to see me go, I have to remind myself. She’ll be happy to see me again. Right?

I hit the call button and hold the phone up to my ear. Come on, pick up. Pick up, damn you—!

“Hello? Lamb?” Addy’s voice is like a shot of adrenaline to my system. I was only gone a few hours and I missed her so much. How is that possible? 

“Addy!” It’s loud on the other side, way too loud. It sounds like she’s at a gathering of some kind. A party maybe?

“What’s wrong, Lamb? Is everything all right?” She says. I can barely hear her over the crowd. I honestly didn’t even know a tiny town like this could have parties. Why didn’t I know about this earlier? Was I going to be invited if I’d stayed?

“I got a flat tire,” I call out over the clamor. 

“You what?” She yells back, clearly unable to hear me over the crowd on her end.

“My car! I got a flat tire and I’m stranded!”

“Hold on one second!” There’s a loud sound like a scuffle on the other end, and I move the earpiece away from my ear. Finally, after some more muffled noises and some heavy breathing, the clamor of the crowd fades away and all I’m left with is Addy’s lovely voice. “Sorry about that. What’s going on?”

“I’m gone for less than a day and you’re already throwing a big ol’ party, huh?” I can’t stop myself from saying it. It’s like every time I open my mouth I roll a d20 and critically fail. I cringe along with the momentary silence on the other end.

“What? No, lamb, it’s not like that. This is—it’s not a party.”

“If you’re busy, I can call somebody else.” Oh, cool, another 1.

“Lamb, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

I slap my forehead and sigh. Stop being an idiot, Lum. Just tell her what’s going on. “I got a flat tire. I’m stranded on I-84.”

“Oh, shit.” Despite my prickliness earlier, her concern sounds genuine. “Do you have a spare?” 

“See, there’s this whole thing where I’m a moron?” In my defense, I hadn’t been planning on a road trip at the time. I kinda just picked a direction and drove.

“You’re not a moron, lamb.” Addy hums into the phone for a moment while she thinks. “Unfortunately, you’re a little far for Jay to come give you a tow…”

I recognize that name. Jay owned an auto repair shop that I spotted my first time heading into town. Jay’s Towing & Repair. I remember because it’s just down the block from the Rat & Raven. Now that I think about it, wasn’t there also a liquor store run by somebody with the same name? That can’t be a coincidence, can it?

“Actually, I’m not too far out.” I check my phone. 

“But…you left hours ago,” Addy says. “Did you stop for food or something?”

I take a deep breath. “I turned around.” 

“You turned…wait. You mean, you were on your way back here?” Her voice perks up excitedly. “Did you forget something?”

“Yeah. I forgot that I hated it at home and I want to stay.”  There’s a moment of silence on the other end. “Is…is that okay?”

“Yes! Lamb, of course it’s okay! It’s extremely okay. It’s just, umm…weird timing, is all. We’re kind of in the middle of a big, um, town meeting.”

A town meeting? So, not a party then? Of course. I’m such an idiot. But why would Addy be at a town meeting, and what is it about? I want to find out, but I don’t want to pry, so instead I work towards getting home. “That’s okay. Just give me Jay’s number and I’ll see if he can get me a spare tire or give me a tow.”

“Sure thing.” I type down the number as she feeds it to me over the phone. “I’ll try to be home by the time you make it back, okay?”

“Thanks, Addy.” The line quickly cuts out. She must have rushed back into whatever meeting they were in. I call the number she gave me and ask for Jay. Even though I’m not sure of my exact location, he says he’s happy to help—he’ll drive down I-84 until he sees my car on the side of the road. Thank the gods.

About an hour passes. I kill time on my phone by looking up more information on Robin’s Brook. I figure if I’m going to be staying here, I might as well learn more about this strange town. There’s very little information about it on Wikipedia—just the name of its Mayor, a Derrick Wellingham, and the date of its founding: 1820?! Holy crap, that’s old. I sure as hell did not expect that. Population: less than 2,000. Now that, I can see.

Eventually, a tow truck pulls up in front of me and I hop out of Windy to greet Jay. He’s a lanky, 40-something dude with short, windswept reddish-brown hair and laugh lines around his eyes.  He’s got a scraggly brown beard around his chin, and chestnut eyes. “Well kid, I got good news for you and bad news,” he says after inspecting the blowout.

“I’m not a kid, but go on.”

“Trust me, when you’re 44, you’ll look at everyone in their twenties like they’re kids. Now here’s the deal. I don’t have a spare on me that’ll fit your car. But I can give you a tow back to Robin’s Brook and order one. It’ll take a few days, maybe. And since you’re a friend of Addy’s, I’ll give you a discount.”

I sigh and cross my arms. “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

“Not unless you want your car stranded out here. Don’t worry, I’ll give you a ride back to Robin’s Brook either way, though.”

“I don’t have much money on me.”

Jay jams his hands into his overalls and gives a little shrug. “Hey, don’t worry about that. As long as you settle up before skipping town or whatever, I’m in no rush to collect. And any friend of Addy’s is a friend of mine.”

I wonder what Addy’s done to endear herself to all these people. It can’t just be the Rat & Raven, can it? Rey said it was like a safe haven for them. Safe from what, exactly? “All right. You got yourself a deal.” I shake his hand. He smiles warmly. I can’t help but notice how warm his hand is. Like Addy’s.

A prickle goes up my spine. There’s a feeling like a clenched fist around my body. The air around me constricts, whips into a frenzy, blowing my hair every which way, and then a sudden pop. My ears hurt as if from a change in pressure. Like I’ve just landed from 30,000 feet. Then, stillness. 

A shudder courses its way through me. What the hell was that?

“Well,” Jay breaks the silence. “I better get on it.” He strips my blown-out tire and sets to work hitching the front end of Windy to his truck, so that it balances precariously on its rear wheels. Once he’s all done, I hop into the passenger seat and we begin the trek back to Robin’s Brook. I watch the trees whip by in the darkness in total silence for about half the trip before finally asking the question that’s been eating my brain all this time. 

“Hey Jay—can I call you Jay?”

“That’s my name, so yeah,” he says with a chuckle.

“Do you own the liquor store next to your auto shop?”

He laughs. “I sure do. I co-own it with my brother, actually. Used to be entirely his, but ‘Phil’s Liquor’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?” 

“What’s he doing now?” I ask, mostly out of boredom.

“He runs the movie theater on the west side of town. Over by the bowling alley. The Riverside Theater.” 

I nod. I passed it a couple times when I went exploring around town. It’s a ramshackle place, just a couple screens and almost exclusively showing older movies, but in my experience those are the theaters with the best popcorn, so no complaints here.

“My turn to ask you a question,” he says, a toothy grin on his face. “What brought you to Robin’s Brook? We don’t get many newcomers here.”

I think for a moment before answering. “Well, at first it was just to get away from home.” I remember what it was like first arriving in town—no goal other than to see the ocean, no real hope of any solutions to my problems. Then, like something out of a dream, there was Addy. “I wasn’t planning on staying at first. But… I like it there. I like the people I’ve met.” I give him a smile.

“There are some good folks, that’s for sure,” he says. The way he says it, I can almost hear the unspoken follow-up: “and some bad folks, too.”

“When I called you, were you in that same place that Addy was in? Some kind of town meeting?”

He frowns and shakes his head. “Nah. Addy must’ve gotten called in or something.”

“Why would she get called into a town meeting?”

He strokes his beard, deep in thought. I get the feeling he’s not thinking about the answer why so much as he’s thinking about how to phrase it. “Addy does a lot of…community engagement,” he finally says. “She’s an important figure in town. Whether she likes it or not.”

An important figure. I mull those words over. She certainly seems important to a lot of people. 

I want to know what she’s done to become who she is now. I want to know about this meeting she’s in, about the entire town, about the Rat & Raven, about this feud she has with the Gelspers. I want to know everything. I just need to know.

Robin’s Brook finally comes into view on the horizon, barely lit but obvious from the way the valley swoops down from the dark, wooded hills. Something wells up in my chest. Relief? Excitement? I realize after a moment that I was homesick all this time. Driving east, I felt a sense of wrongness, like I was headed the wrong way, and now I’m finally almost home. I can’t wait to take in the scent of espresso beans and listen to the obscure punk records Addy puts on all the time. I can’t wait to feel her warmth when we hug. I can’t wait to bond over retro games with Rey, can’t wait to trade jabs with Laetitia. I can’t wait to unravel the enigma that is this strange town. More than everything, I can’t wait to leave Hannah and my old life behind and start a new one here. 

Maybe I’m crazy. I’ll concede that. But if I’m crazy, so be it. I’d rather be crazy here than sane.

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