Exploring the town

Scott woke up at 4:28 AM, just like always. He was the only one up in the house, so he decided to go for a run. He ran past the bike shop, some churches, saw the new sandwich shop next to where the old one had closed. . . it was surreal being back again. The town had some changes, but the biggest surprises were places that didn’t change, Franklin lanes, Food Mart, The Diner, the High School, the places he was so familiar with, they hadn't changed, but they looked very different now.

It was also strange to run through this town without feeling like he needed to run away from it. At least, until he reached Meadow Park, and saw the trailers. He stopped running, and started walking through the park toward the back, where the older and crappier trailers were. He’d stopped running but his heart rate was going up, not down.

There it was, beige and rust, half rotted boards around the windows, the cracked cement patio, the scraggliest flower garden imaginable. . .

He could walk up and knock, there was no way his father would be there, he had left a long time ago. Martha might be there still, if she wasn’t dead or in prison. He leaned on a nearby tree, staring at the trailer from a safe enough distance. It looked small and old. It used to look like home, and then like a prison, a life the world wanted to **** on him.

He stood there, working through his feelings as the sun rose. When one of the residents came outside, he turned and started running back.

Doug was already gone when Scott got back to the Carter house, he left a note for him with the phone numbers of his step-mom, cousin and aunt, and a reminder that they were going to the bar that night at 6PM. Scott chuckled to himself, Doug going to a bar at 6PM meant he planned on getting back home around 9.

Scott grabbed his last set of clean clothes and his shave kit and headed upstairs to the shower.

“Good morning, Scott.” Mrs. Carter called, “Did you go running?”

“Yes Mrs. Carter, is it okay if I claim the shower now?”

“Go for it, you don’t want to wait till Suzie gets up, she’ll be in there all day. Anything you can’t eat Scott? I’m about to make breakfast.”

“I’ll eat whatever you have to offer Mrs. Carter.”

“Well, if you’re going to do that, you’ll need to start calling me Anne soldier.”

Scott blushed. He had walked right into that one.

Mrs. Carter laughed and walked past him toward the kitchen, taking the time to give Scott a decent slap on his ass as she passed.

“Whew, God bless America.” She said as she walked into the kitchen.

Scott got a quick shower and was shaving when a knock came at the door.