I followed as he walked down toward the car. I had a strange feeling about what was happening, but I didn’t say anything. The van itself wasn’t in terrible shape, all things considered. The green paint job made it blend into the forest, and it wasn’t too rusted. The tires were completely flat and I thought I saw plants growing up through the undercarriage, but the windows weren’t broken and the handles were all intact.
He grabbed the back door and pulled it open. It slid without any sounds.
“Are you sure this is okay?” I asked.
He grinned at me. “Look.”
Inside, there was a small, thin mattress covered in blankets and maybe twenty or thirty candles. Along the back side was a short bookcase filled with books and magazines.
I laughed. “What is it?”
“This is my special place. My hideout from the world, I guess.” He climbed in and I followed him. It was surprisingly spacious, though I was acutely aware of how close he was to me and how heavily I was breathing. Apparently, I was in worse shape than I had realized.
“Took me a while to build it. Had to caulk a few leaks.”
“It’s amazing, Reid.”
He moved closer to me. “I’m glad you like it.”
I snapped back to the present when he put the windshield wipers on. I hadn’t even noticed that the rain started up again. I watched the wipers flash back and forth across the glass, glad of the distraction.
I wasn’t ready to relive that entire memory. Especially not with him right next to me, barely inches away.
“How’s your mom doing?” I asked.
“She’s good. Looking forward to seeing you.”
“Yeah? Her hair getting longer?”
He laughed. “Yeah, actually. She stopped wearing those awful wigs.”
I smiled. Cora was absolutely stunning in a classical kind of way. Even at her sickest, she still managed to look completely perfect. When the chemo made her hair fall out, she had gotten a huge assortment of wigs, and she loved to send me pictures of her trying them on.
“They weren’t awful. She pulled them off.”
He grunted but didn’t respond.
Things were a little strained between us, and for good reason. I guessed the novelty of seeing me for the first time in a year was wearing off. I wouldn’t have been surprised if his mind was in the same place mine was.
We moved through a light and came into the heart of town. It wasn’t much of a city center, at least not like the towns out on the east coast, but it was home. Everything looked the same, more or less, and although that may have been depressing to some people, to me it felt right.
I wanted Ridgewood to be timeless. I knew it wasn’t, that there were problems boiling under its pristine veneer, but I still felt good every time I came back.
Reid suddenly slowed down and pulled over into the minimart’s parking lot.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
“Gotta do something real fast. You wait here.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Craving a Slim Jim?”
“I don’t think they even make those anymore,” he said, laughing.
“This is Ridgewood. This is the place time forgot.”
He nodded, smiling. “That’s the truth.” The car stopped in a spot and he put it in park. “Be back in a second.”
Before I could say anything, he jumped out and ran into the store. I watched him through the front windows, but he quickly disappeared behind a display. For a second, I wanted to follow him in, but I didn’t feel like getting soaked. I was finally beginning to dry off after all.
A few minutes later, he came back out of the store and climbed into the car. He put it in reverse, pulled out of the spot, and then headed back into traffic.
“Changed your mind?” I asked him.
“What?”
“You didn’t get anything.”
He looked at me for a second and then nodded. “Oh, yeah. They didn’t have it after all.”
I gave him a weird look but decided not to press. Reid could be mysterious when he wanted to be, after all.
I had learned not to bother trying to puzzle him out. If he wanted to open up, he would.
We moved back through town in a strained silence. I hated it, hated that he wasn’t teasing me mercilessly for being a science geek or something equally stupid and immature. Anything would have been better than the silence.
“What’s your plan for the summer?” he asked finally, breaking the silence.
“Not sure. Thought I’d look a few people up.”
“Like who?”
“Lindsey, for starters.”
He snorted. “She’s the waitress at the Blue, right?”
Blue was the Blue Light Diner. Most people just called it “Blue” for short.