Welcome Home

“Some welcome home, huh?”

I kicked a rock down the path, watching it bounce along until it caught a root and came to an abrupt halt. The smoke from Drew’s cigarette fluttered through the air and to my nose. I hadn’t seen him dressed up in years. His funeral best was better than mine, but in my defense I had only been back in town for a week. In that week, my best friend had died, I had crashed my car, and the hotel I was staying in had been shut down because of the drugs they were making in the basement. None of it I was prepared for.

“You could say that.” We had left the funeral half an hour ago. Actually, I had left the funeral half an hour ago and Drew had followed in his typical puppy dog fashion. With Sam gone, I was the new leader, despite having been absent from this hell hole for the past ten years. Yet…I feel like I didn’t leave at all. Nothing had improved or fallen apart. It had all stayed the same. I wasn’t sure if that was depressing or comforting. Without Sam though my previous opinions had changed.

“What are you going to do now?”

“What do you mean?” A cool breeze made its way down the path, catching my bare legs. My black skirt barely grazed my knees and my blouse was thin, meant for summer in the south, not fall in Maine.

“Come on, May. We all know he’s the reason you came home.”

“Would you stop saying that?”

“Stop saying what?”

My throat tightened around the word. “Home.”

He tilted his head to the side, holding his cigarette out to me as he considered my face. I took it and turned away, taking a log drag as I focused on the trail ahead of us. I hadn’t invited Drew on this voyage, he invited himself. Growing up, he had always been tagging along. Sam didn’t mind, I don’t think Sam even noticed. Sam didn’t notice much though, I guess that’s why he didn’t notice the man with the gun that took his life and his wallet.

“That’s where you are though.”

“Drew, we just buried my home in case you didn’t realize.”

He was quiet for a moment, following my gaze as he tried to figure out what I was focusing so intently on. I was still trying to figure that out as well.

“The rest of us are still here.” His voice was quiet, almost wounded. For a second I felt bad, but I spent my whole life feeling bad and I swore I wouldn’t do that again.

“The rest of us are still here, what the fuck does that mean?”

He jumped at the pitch of my voice. “I’m still here.”

“The two of us don’t make a difference.”

“And neither did the three of us.”

I dropped the cigarette to the ground and stamped it out with my foot. Drew stood behind me, keeping a safe distance between us. I suppose he was right. It wasn’t a difference that we made. It was an energy that existed around the three of us. But it wasn’t the three of us. It had been two of us, it had been Sam and I. Drew was an energy sent to dull us down.

“Maybe you’re right.”

I heard him sigh. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Doesn’t mean I like what you said.”

“Honesty is the best policy.”

“Honesty will get you killed.”

I turned around to face him, I stopped before walking on. In his hand was a knife. “We made a pact.”

I stepped back, slipping out of my shoes. “We were twelve.”

“You broke it. Sam was going to. You broke it first.”

I held up my hands in my peace, stepping further back, feeling the pine needles and dirt between my toes. It was a familiar sensation, one I had missed while away. “Slow down and explain.”

“You left. And Sam was about to.” He stepped towards me, not moving quickly. I could tell by his face that he was torn and unsure.

“How do you know?”

“He was going to leave, he told me. He had me help him.”

“We were twelve. We didn’t know what life would bring.”

“I knew. I always knew.”

“We were twelve.”

“It was a blood oath. We said whoever left would die.”

“We didn’t mean it. We were twelve.”

“You didn’t die.”

“No. Nope. I lived to come back. Just in time for Sam to die.” There was an odd look in his eye, one that made my fingers tingle and the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I heard a twig snap behind him. He spun around and when he did I took my chance. I ran at him with a branch that was on the ground and swung it against his back.

“Help!”

Drew fell, hard. He never had been good on his feet. Growing up he had lost every fight he had ever been in. I suppose that was why he needed a gun to kill Sam.

An officer emerged from the woods, his gun raised.

I dropped the branch, raising my hands in the air. “That was quick.”

The officer nodded. “Followed from the funeral. Evidence came together a lot quicker than we thought.” He snapped the cuffs around Drew’s wrists, his eyes never leaving my face. “You look familiar.”

“I should Bob, I was your girlfriend in 7th grade.”

His cheeks flamed. “Fucking small towns.”

“Tell me about it.”

When Drew, Sam, and I were twelve we promised to never leave one another. We had plans of ruling the town, but as we grew older those plans eventually vanished. We realized it wasn't in our power to change the way things had always been. There would always be rule; at the time we didn't believe those rules should have been in place. As we grew older, we knew they were there for a reason. At least, I did.

Drew, in his depseration to keep our town what we had wanted it to be as children had acted out. He killed his best friend. He killed his best friend's dreams, hopes, and desires. And with that best friend, I found a fraction of myself killed as well.

Katrina Thornley is a nature poet and novelist that resides in Rhode Island. She has two poetry collections currently published, a novel, as well as a short story anthology. Her poetry collections "Arcadians: Lullaby in Nature" and "Arcadians: Wooden Mystics" were inspired by a local park and life in her small rural town. You can find them on Amazon now!