PaulConventionWV
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If you're interested, here's the first two chapters of it. Do you think it's worth it? It's about a guy who likes to run, but his life sucks so he gets into some trouble. I haven't even gotten to the exciting part where he goes running on an old dirt road with his friend, farther out than he's been before, and they get stuck in a twilight zone-like situation where, no matter which direction they go on the road, then always end up at the end of the road. While he's there, he loses his friend, meets a strange girl that is also stuck, and eventually sees the mysterious dark figure and, in an act of desperation, chases it beyond the borders of the road into the forest and falls into a dark hole and suddenly finds him back at his car, where he started. Afterward, his life gets better and he meets the girl who was also trapped in the alternate reality type situation in real life. She thanks him for showing her the way out, and they fall in love. Do you think it's print-worthy?
Chapter 1
“What is your problem?” Maury said as he left the house through the front door. He was sick of his family’s lifestyle, the things they thought were good for them. It didn’t matter what his dad wanted; he was going to do what he wanted to do.
His mother was a thin, frail woman that always had an air of wisdom around her. Her name was Addara, which he thought was a very beautiful name, especially for someone so gentle and caring. Sometimes Maury wished he could see what it was that allowed his mother to stand by calmly as he and his father argued over Maury’s future and the future of his little sister. He wanted to know what it was like to be focused only on the things that are immediately relevant to him and those he knew, just as his mother only seemed to care about he and his baby sister, Sherry.
After all, it wasn’t like Addara could simply separate herself from reality—or could she? It’s a strange world, and Maury was open-minded to the point where he could acknowledge that someone could almost think themselves out of any situation they wanted. It was almost as if reality was no barrier. The mind was only a set path for what seems useful to the body. Who knows what could happen once the body was forgotten, left out of the equation?
It didn’t matter. “I’m going to show them”, Maury thought as he walked down their driveway, almost in a daze of thought, wondering what he would do next. He was dressed to go on one of his daily runs, but he thought he might go to Patrick’s house to ask him if he wanted to join. He needed a friend, there was no bodily doubt that it would do him good to talk about it to someone outside of him, someone who wasn’t as deeply connected to him as his family. It seemed he could never escape the ever-gazing eye of their constant care. He thought it was too much care.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
His father stepped out of the house, onto the porch. “I’m not done talking to you!”
Maury didn’t have time for this.
“Forget it dad, you’ll never know. Who do you think you are, talking to me like you know what my future should be… as if you had one yourself!”
He took off running, knowing Bruce acknowledged these words as a symbol of his failure. He never showed it, though. It was only in his head that he knew what was wrong with his life. He knew his son would never care about what he did or what he knew. It was only because Maury was growing up too fast for him to acknowledge his son’s independence. Of course that was it.
“You’ll come back! Don’t think you can ignore me, boy!”
He kept running. He would prove his dad wrong this time, he thought.
He ran to the end of the block, turned left, kept on running for another 3 miles, and stopped in front of the dirt road that led him out to nowhere. There was something eerie and suspicious about that road. He couldn’t understand the fear he had of going there all alone. He had to go to Patrick’s house first. He would stay with him a few nights until he could stomach going back to his place.
Maury pondered on what made his father like he was. At times, he could be a likeable man, but he had a creeping suspicion that he couldn’t shake. The worst thing was that he had evidence of what he knew to be true about him. He was bitter, and he disdained the behavior of children. Children couldn’t do anything right. It was almost as if he was trying to avoid giving the outward appearance of irresponsibility. He tried so hard that he insulted others for their incompetence, but he knew he had nothing to show for himself, and it only made him more bitter.
“For God’s sake!” he thought. His father’s children only did their best to please him, and it was tragic that he pushed them away at the slightest hint of something he perceived to be wrong with his life or their lives, even when nobody else saw it. The house was always a mess, and if his dad ever came to the realization that it was too much, he would explode into a frenzy of cleaning, the kind that made Maury fear he would say those words he was thinking because he knew it was true. Bruce thought his children were responsible for his stagnated life, the years of debt that came to him because he had tried his best to support them, and now he saw himself and his children as useless failures. It was almost as if his little family project wasn’t working out, and he had to find a new idea but couldn’t.
Maury knew it was a hard thing to accept, and that it was a tragic position to be in for his father, but he did not want to be like him. The thought of becoming a disinterested, occasionally violent deadbeat dad who had nothing better to do but toil in the same profession, the same life he had always had because he hated to please people and become successful because he thought success meant being like others, and that was another thing he and his dad shared in common, success was failure. Unfortunately, failure was also failure. It was either blend in or drop into obscurity, both of them a terrible fate, as far as Maury was concerned. He knew his dad had the same thoughts, but his age kept him from understanding what it was like for Maury to have his whole life in front of him, and yet being afraid of what he might do with it, lest he succeed.
The only thing that gave him comfort and solitude was running. It didn’t matter who he did it with because he felt freedom—pure, unadulterated freedom at the thought that he could keep running like this for miles and miles, and nobody could stop him if he wanted to keep running until he could run no more. He might get to Mexico or Canada before he stopped, but it didn’t matter because he would be far away from where he started, and it was oh so sweet to acknowledge that he had gotten there on foot. It was a freedom he had that he felt distinguished him and made him stand out. Any job he got would never fulfill him like the freedom he felt when he ran.
Maury knew where he was going this time, unlike so many times he had wandered aimlessly around town, thinking about what it would be like to escape this place. He reached the edge of town after walking about a mile from the dirt road to Patrick’s house.
He knocked on the door, and Patrick answered.
“Hey, dude, what’s up?”
“Not much”, he said and paused because Patrick already knew why he was there.
“I just need to get away for a while, you mind if I stay with you?”
“No problem, man. What did you have in mind?”
“I just need to cool down for a while. My dad’s being an asshole.”
Patrick chuckled, “I know what you mean, man. I would do the same thing… you wanna do something?”
“I was thinking we could go for a run. I’m already dressed… sorry, I forgot to bring anything else with me. I’m a real klutz.”
“Don’t worry, man, my house is yours. If you ever need anything, you know I’ve got your back.”
Maury smiled.
If there was anything worth the monotony of an eventless life, it was to step outside of it once in a while and wonder why you should go back.
“I was thinking we could go down Old Surry Road a few miles. It’s a great day for it. The landscape is beautiful.”
“Yeah, but that place gives me the creeps, Maury.”
“Me, too, but what’s the worst that could happen.”
“Well, a lot of things, actually. I’ll go get dressed.”
“You think too much, man” he said jokingly as Patrick disappeared into the dark house. He did sense the irony in those words, knowing he was usually the one to chase endless strings of thought, looking for meaning in his creative mind.
Nonetheless, it was good to be away from home. He felt it was just what he needed, whether he escaped his thoughts or not. He didn’t really care about that because he liked to think. In his young age, it was yet another venue to explore ways to escape the life he felt he had been cursed with, although he knew he should try to be more positive.
Life wasn’t a curse, it was a blessing. Maury silently shamed himself for letting the thought cross his mind. After all, he would never succeed in being what he wanted to be if he continued to think his life was already terrible.
At least, that was what Maury had been told in school. He would be damned if any of those people served as reliable models. They seemed like people destined to suffer the same fate as his dad, a debt slave to the creditors and the bankers who had promised them good things. Maury thought, if only he could escape the influence of those who said they could help him. He would be objective, stone cold in his judgment about who he accepted help from. It wouldn’t be hard since he was cynical of most other people in the first place. It seemed money was a curse in and of itself, but he knew he would think of it differently if he found a way to get more of it.
“Are you OK, man?” Patrick said as he walked back out onto the porch in the dim sunlight.
“We better get moving, it’ll be dark in a few hours.”
Maury snapped out of his thought. He had been standing on the porch the whole time. It was silly, he thought, how he could just stand there absent-minded, not even aware of what he was waiting for while he chased rabbits in his mind down endless tunnels of thought, all of them leading to a different end. If only he could bring them together, then maybe he would find meaning in all of those hours spent thinking about his life and the lives of others. It was time to stop thinking and start doing, he said to himself for the millionth time. He didn’t mind reminding himself because practice makes perfect.
“Right”, he said after a pause.
“I was just thinking. Let’s go.”
They took off down the road, pounding the pavement with their shoes, feeling strong and independent as they continued to push harder.
“I know how you feel”, said Patrick quietly, as if to break the ice between them. It was the kind of freezing silence that comes with every hard topic, but the silence needed to be broken.
“No you don’t”, Maury sighed. He knew it wasn’t Patrick’s fault if he misunderstood the struggle that Maury went through with his family. How could he know?
Maury and Patrick had been friends a long time, since they were little. They had been friends since Maury’s father had moved here to escape the IRS after their home had been foreclosed on. It was hard for Maury to accept, but he knew it was necessary. After all, his father was trying to do the right thing. He understood why it had happened, but he felt this burning inside, wondering why his father couldn’t be more like a “normal” person.
A normal dad. He didn’t know what it was like, but it was a good thing his father had taught him to be independent because it helped him escape his family sometimes, although he was ashamed to admit he needed to.
Patrick understood. He understood why Maury was unsettled throughout his childhood, and he understood why Maury had said he didn’t understand, but his understanding of Maury’s situation could only go so deep, and he knew it.
“I hope everything is okay”, said Patrick.
“I don’t know, man. I just don’t know…”
He hesitated, “I can’t forgive my dad for our situation because I know it’s his fault, but I can’t hate him either because I know why he did it.”
“I know man”, Patrick said as their breath became heavier from the effort of running. It wasn’t easy running on Old Surry with all the hills and the rocks that bit fiercely between the rubber soles on their shoes, their toes grabbing the hard ground through the bottoms of their shoes.
“I’m just saying, maybe you should try to move past what happened and appreciate him more. Do you think that would help him feel better about himself?”
“It hasn’t helped yet.”
Maury didn’t mind that Patrick was only trying to help, despite his lack of understanding. Their relationship was deep enough that it barely mattered what Patrick said.
It wasn’t as if he had an easy family life himself. His parents had divorced at an early age, and he lived here with his mom. However, Patrick was wise enough to know not to grieve for a father like the one Maury had. It may or may not have been a good thing. Throughout the years, Patrick and Maury had established a relationship around the idea that they were similar in some ways, and nothing could undermine that.
They ran on, briskly. It was a beautiful sunset on a windy autumn eve, the kind that will quell emotions almost immediately. Their hurt wasn’t so bad that they couldn’t enjoy themselves. It would be alright.
The cool wind shook the trees gently as they admired the nature all around them and gazed at the adjacent hillsides. The colorful autumn tapestry seemed to beckon at them, as if to pat them on the back and reassure their unsettled minds.
Maury was deep in thought as they came to the old bridge they usually turned around at.
They would soon be home.
Chapter 2
On their way back, Maury and Patrick felt relieved. There was no one around to criticize them or tell them what they could or could not do. This was the strength they found in running, the solace they longed and sought for whenever they got the chance.
They looked up at the hillside beyond the dirt road. They were almost at the ridge of the mountain; the road ran alongside the edge, over which they could see for miles. In the other direction, the green forest along the endless expansion of hillsides met the colorful sky calmly, with a transitioning shade of white that seemed so appropriate. The land was old, but it seemed such a perfect scene with so much to please the eye.
A fog was settling on the landscape. The road before their eyes grew darker, less clear.
“Do you feel that?” said Patrick.
“It’s getting colder.”
“Yeah, that was strange. It’s the middle of summer and it’s not even dark yet.”
“I’m getting kinda nervous, man.”
“Don’t worry, we’re only a couple of miles away. We’ll get their before the dark se—Wait! What is that?” Maury turned toward the top of the ridge and pointed.
A dark figure in a cloak and a suit with a top hat stood atop the ridge, the mist floating gently by as he loomed above them.
Maury and Patrick stopped dead in their tracks. The fog seemed almost chokingly thick now, but somehow they could see the figure about one hundred meters away. The figure waved what looked like a large, curvy walking stick in a side-to-side motion, like a pendulum over his head, to his side, and back again to the other side. The motion looked almost effortless, as if his hand was being moved for him by some force unknown to them.
The figure stopped, the stick pointed straight above his head, toward the sky. He pulled a small, golden object hanging by a golden chain. He held the object before him with one hand, the walking stick over his head with the other. The face of the golden object opened to reveal a white interior. It looked like an old antique stopwatch.
“I’m seriously creeped out right now man, I don’t like this!” Patrick said in a slightly shaking voice.
Maury was fixated on the figure in the distance. He was frightened, but somehow intrigued. He felt the cold get colder, and a gust of wind sweeping over their shoulders, chilling them to the bone. He wondered what the figure was, why it was there. Suddenly, a crack of thunder rang out, and they jumped in terror.
It began to rain, and the figure disappeared swiftly over the hilltop. Maury ran after it. He was agile, reaching the top of the hillside in a matter of seconds.
“Hey!” he shouted. He wanted to know, he must know why that thing visited them.
“Hey!” he yelled once more, as he reached the top of the hill and peered over the side into the gloomy darkness below. There was no sign of the dark figure.
“What are you?!”
Maury’s adrenaline was pumping, he was trembling with unsettled nervousness. He had to know.
Patrick called to him, “Let’s get out of here, man.”
Maury turned to walk. His feet came out from under him as he saw the sky suddenly turn brighter, and then darkness enveloped his mind; his thoughts went blank, and he slept for a little while.
He came to in Patrick’s bedroom. He recognized the blue walls, the window that looked out over the hills. There was something mysterious and intriguing about those hills.
“Ow!” he said as he tried to lift his head.
“Careful there, buddy. You better lie still for a while”.
“But—what happened?”
“You fell down and hit your head on a rock… pretty bad”. Patrick said, anticipating Maury’s next question.
“Patrick, what was that thing?”
“I don’t know, but it freaked me out, too. Don’t worry, though. We’re safe.”
“Dammit, he got away! Who the hell was that creep, anyway?”
“Probably some local yokel thinking it’s Halloween. The hicks around here hardly know what day it is.” Maury smiled. It was good that Patrick was having a sense of humor because he was not only shaken by what he saw, he was mystified. He wanted to know more about what happened.
“Am I gonna be OK, doctor?” Maury said sarcastically.
“I don’t know, man”, Patrick said in a sarcastic response.
“By the looks of it, you’ll be lucky to be out of bed by 2 o’clock.”
Maury chuckled as he grabbed the pillow from behind his head and threw it at Patrick as he stood to leave.
“Hey, man, you might need that”, Patrick said as he gently picked up Maury’s head and put the pillow back.
“So what did you do, anyway?” Maury asked Patrick in a more serious tone, truly curious as to the events of the night after he had blacked out.
“Wait, what day is it, Patrick?”
“It’s Thursday”, he said calmly.
“You slept through the night. You were barely conscious when we got back. Luckily, it stopped raining, and a guy picked us up in his pick-up truck. I paid him when we got back. He was a pretty nice guy.”
Patrick took on a more serious tone. “You were saying some things last night… I didn’t know what to make of it…”
“What?” Maury asked.
“You said you were lost. You were acting all frustrated and panicked, but you didn’t look like you were all there”, Patrick said, slightly disconcerted. These things disturbed him. He was a believer in seeing into peoples’ subconscious by listening to the things they didn’t mean to say.
“I don’t remember it”, said Maury, matter-of-factly.
“I figured that”, Patrick said.
“Is everything OK?”
“Of course, man. I was just talking nonsense. Don’t make anything of it.”
Patrick looked troubled, “OK, I guess.”
“I don’t mean to sound like your mom or anything, but that was kinda scary to me.”
“Don’t worry, man”, Maury said, dismissing Patrick’s concerns.
“Can you go get me a glass of water or something?”
“Will do, buddy”, Patrick said as turned to walk out of the room.
“Hey, Patrick.” Patrick turned slightly, acknowledging Maury as he hesitated and finally said, “Thanks man. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Likewise, my friend.” Patrick turned again to walk out the door.
Maury slowly stopped smiling as his thoughts turned back to that figure on the hill.
Who was that? He pondered. What was it?
He thought back to the events of the night. He was nervous. What if that thing had been there for them? Not just for the people who happened to be there, but them specifically? He was unsettled by the thought. What the hell was he doing waiting out on the hillside to scare people?
Too dramatic, he thought. He rested his head on the pillow. What was the worst that could come of it? Maury was full of questions, some of them rhetorical justifications for forgetting about the whole thing. He wanted to just forget about it and move on, but something about that figure captured his imagination. He imagined the thing pointing at him, looking at him under his hat with his shaded face, unrecognizable in the dim light and fog of the evening. It was as if the thing had something to prove to Maury. He shuddered at the idea that the thing knew him personally. He certainly didn’t know who or what it was.
“It”, he thought. The thing had no human identity as far as Maury was concerned. It was ugly and had a grievous figure for a human being. It was hunched at the back and short, but somehow so daunting. The way it moved in such an orderly and mechanical fashion disturbed Maury. The thing wasn’t human, he had convinced himself.
“Maury, it’s your mom”, Patrick called as he walked back in with the wireless receiver in his hand. Maury sat up on the edge of the bed and took the receiver from Patrick.
“Hey mom.”
“Maury, we’re worried about you. You need to come home.”
“You mean you’re worried, mom.”
“No, Maury. It’s your sister. She’s really sick”, Addara said in an uncomfortable and concerned manner.
“I’m sorry”, Maury said, realizing he had his responsibilities to his family despite how he felt about his father.
“We just need you home now. You can’t stay away so long.”
Maury could hear the concern in her voice. She was very worried about the future of the family. It felt as if too many things were going wrong at once. It wasn’t so much the things that were happening as it was the inevitable sense that too many problems could break them for good. Everyone was afraid, but they didn’t want to admit it.
“I’ll be back home soon, mom”, Maury said, trying to acknowledge her grievance and match it with a concerned tone that satiated her need for an understanding voice in the family, a voice that acknowledged her hardship and didn’t run away from it. That way, she knew she could survive. She knew she was still sane, just by hearing Maury’s understanding and forgiving voice.
“I love you, mom.”
“I love you, too, Maury.” He hung up. He didn’t want to upset his mother, but at the same time, it was hard to grasp the situation. Why must they struggle? Why couldn’t they just have what they wanted. Why couldn’t his family get along? He never underestimated the benefit of having a family, but this, he thought, was not family. There was little joy in their day-to-day interactions with each other, and it felt as if the love had grown stale between them.
At the same time, Maury thought, he didn’t want to hate his own father, but he despised his ways. His father would go out and get drunk at least twice every week. When that happened, it was like hell for he and his mother. He was disgusted at his father’s behavior, his lack of empathy for the feelings of others.
Maury’s father would speak as if he could do no wrong, and his tone was often condescending. It was bad enough that Bruce would try to control Maury’s future, just as he had tried to control the future of his immediate family. Now, he wanted Maury to give his earnings as a store clerk to the family. Even his car could be seized if his father so wished it.
That was where Maury’s father was wrong.
He hadn’t even started coming around to the fact that Maury could do what he wanted, even without his father’s consent, if he wanted to do it.
Maury got up and walked from the room.
