The Long Road

By Ted Stetson

Eddie and Laura are sweethearts planning a wonderful like together. Then Eddie helps a friend move out of his dorm and disappears. He wouldn't leave. Where is he? Life, no matter what, goes on, but their love was more than a shoe box of memories buried in a closet. They missed chance after chance to reconnect.
Would love triumph?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ted Stetson
• Release date: Jul 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463948651

Ted Stetson

Ted Stetson is a member of SFWA. He was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island and went to Seton Hall and Hofstra. He graduated from the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas. He was awarded First Place by the Florida Literary Arts Council and First Place in the Lucy B. McIntire contest of the Poetry Society of Georgia. His short fiction has appeared in Twisted Tongue, MysteryAuthors.com, Future Orbits, State Street Review, and the anthologies; One Evening a Year, Mota: Truth, Ruins Extraterrestrial Terra, Ruins Terra and Barren Worlds. His books include: Night Beasts, The Computer Song Book.

Book preview

The Long Road

By Ted Stetson

Published by Three Door Publishing

Copyright © 2019 by Ted Stetson

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Cover art by Marcelo Silva

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Contents

Start

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Other stories

About the Author

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The Long Road

Chapter 1

Leonard Roth failed out of the University of Pennsylvania and had to pick up his things at the dorm. He asked Toby and Benny to go with him, but they didn’t want to go. Edward Lewis said he'd go. His foster parents wanted a break from his fighting with Laura Laskey. Lenny’s parents wanted him to hang around Eddie because Eddie was going to college on a track scholarship and was a hard worker. They hoped some of that would rub off on their unemployed son. Lenny picked up Eddie at his foster home in Wantagh and raced west on Southern State Parkway.

The drive was long, but comfortable in Lenny’s father’s big white T-bird. There was little traffic and they got there early. With few students about Lenny parked on the street in a no parking zone. He and Eddie carried boxes filled with Lenny’s belongings to the trunk, then piled book cartons in the back seat. Lenny found four green bottles of Rolling Rock beer under his bed.

This early? Eddie said.

Hell, we don’t have school.

But you’re driving.

Who’s gonna notice?

Lenny opened two warm beers and handed one to Eddie. He tilted his head back and drank half his beer and climbed behind the wheel. He belched and grinned at Eddie like he was so cool.

Let me drive? Eddie asked.

No way, Lenny said.

You know how you drive after drinking.

Gimme a break, Lone Ranger. It was just one beer.

Since it was a nice day, Lenny wanted to show off. He wanted Eddie to see the country house where the fraternity he’d pledged had a party. He drove the old T-bird west on a scenic state route, tossed his beer bottle at the side of the road and opened another. The second beer hit him so hard he couldn’t remember the way to the house. After an hour he turned off the scenic road and took a twisting county road to try and find some place he remembered.

Eddie asked to drive again. That angered Lenny and he stepped on the gas.

Lenny wasn't a good driver and the twisting narrow roads didn't make him any better, but with the powerful engine roaring and the eight-track blasting the beach boys singing, ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ what could go wrong? It was a great day to be alive and driving in the country on an empty twisting two-lane road. If Lenny hadn’t been going too fast, hadn’t been drinking, or was a better driver, it might have turned out differently.

Suddenly, the right front tire went flat and Lenny lost control. He stomped the brake, but the old T-bird skidded off the blacktop and hit a tree. The abrupt stop threw Lenny and Eddie forward. Lenny hit the steering wheel then bounced off and had the bruises to prove it, but he’d gotten worse playing touch football. Eddie hit the dash, and was recoiling back when the boxes of books flew off the rear seat into the back of the passenger seat, slamming Eddie forward. Eddie’s head hammered the dash, but when the car stopped and everything settled down, he didn't seem to be injured. He just sat there stunned.

They were both surprised and a little shocked.

As far as Lenny was concerned, it was no big deal. Yeah, they were lucky they weren’t really hurt, but he felt less lucky hitting the steering wheel. He sat there appraising himself. He glanced at the books spilled on the floor behind Eddie’s seat. What a mess! He'd been hoping to resell them, and make a few bucks. Now, he’d have to give them away.

Lenny frowned; why did everything happen to him? He checked the mirror to make sure his face wasn’t bruised. He turned left then right. His face looked fine. He turned to his buddy Eddie. You okay?

Eddie stared at him. Eddie’s forehead had a red welt on it. Later, Lenny would say that Eddie’s eyes were a little blank, but not like anything you should worry about. He’d seen worse at pledge parties.

Yeah, Eddie answered, but Lenny saw blood start to come from his nose and handed him a handkerchief, the white monogrammed one—‘LЯ’—his mother made him carry. Eddie put the white cotton handkerchief under his nose and, sure enough, there was bright red blood on it. Lenny told him to tilt his head back.

Lenny thought it was a little strange that he had to tell Eddie what to do as if he’d never had a bloody nose before. Eddie should have gone to Massapegua High School; he would have gotten an education in bloody noses.

Lenny climbed out of the Ford and walked around inspecting it. The right front fender had a ding in it and the headlight was cracked. His father would be pissed, but the car wasn't seriously damaged, so there would only be some yelling. As he walked around, he'd planned what to say: he was driving around in the mountains, Eddie wanted to see the countryside, when the right front tire went flat. It wasn't his fault. Freaking cheap tire! He hadn’t been drinking. It was those cheap tires his father got. Like his mother said, Save a few bucks and have flat tires. His father shouldn't have bought such crummy tires.

He backed up on the shoulder of the narrow tree-lined road. Then he set about changing the tire. He thought Eddie would help him. After all, Eddie had worked at the gas station on Jerusalem Avenue, but Eddie was a little out of it from the bloody nose. Later Lenny would use that term so much he’d get sick of it. Over and over he’d try to explain what he meant by, He was out of it.

Lenny was not a car guy. He knew where to put the key and sort of, where stuff was. Eddie was the car guy, but when Eddie stood up to help, he staggered as if he might fall. Lenny told him to sit on the log before he fell down and really hurt himself. He’d take care of it. Thirty minutes later, after much swearing, Lenny had changed the tire. He had almost failed Driver’s Ed because he couldn’t change a tire. Where was Mr. Weatherly now? His hands and his new short-sleeve plaid shirt were dirty, but he’d done it. He was smiling when he carefully, he wasn’t sure how to do it, lowered the jack. Then he noticed the spare was low and the smile disappeared.

Needs air, Eddie said and Lenny turned to him. He knew that. What was the matter with him?

Lenny scowled. I know, Genius, Lenny quipped and immediately felt sorry. Look at the guy; it was like he didn’t know where he was. He guessed it had something to do with him being away from Long Island. Then he thought, suppose Eddie got pissed off and sued him? His father would go ballistic. He quickly added, I was just kidding, Buddy.

Eddie stared at him as if he was wondering why he called him Buddy.

Lenny looked at Eddie sitting on the log in the dark green Hofstra College windbreaker. Why had he brought him? He was about as helpful as Benny or Toby and they were useless. He shoved everything in the trunk and got behind the wheel. He wanted to turn around and head back the way they had come, but the road was too narrow, so he drove ahead. He turned on the radio, thank God that wasn't damaged, and listened to the sweet sounds of the Mamas and the Papas singing 'California Dreamin’.

Around the next bend was a small white sign on the side of the road. A town was a few miles ahead. He couldn't read the name of the town; there were so many bullet holes in the sign. And he couldn't read how far it was.

Lenny figured straight ahead was the best bet. He hoped the town had a gas station; some of these small towns only had a store. He continued down the narrow winding two-lane. The right front felt very spongy and he kept the speed down. The road twisted right and left; the trees crowding the sides of the road cast deep shadows on the blacktop. The dark shadowy forest started to creep him out. He could not see into the forest and began to feel there was someone in there watching them. Large leafy branches hung over the road. Now he could barely see the blue sky. NO HUNTING signs were nailed to trees and hung on wire fences where old dirt roads curved back into the woods. Some dirt roads branching into the forest had rusted chains across them with a white sign:

Private Property

No Admittance.

A few miles later he came to a 'Y' in the road, a small town. There was a gas station up the street on the left side of the ‘Y’. On the right side was a diner and in the middle of the ‘Y’ was an old post office. The post office was in a red brick building and the diner had dented white and green aluminum siding, no cars in the gravel parking lot. Looked like it had been there since World War II. Up the road from the gas station was what had been a small store. Red brick walls, two windows boarded up, black soot on the red brick from a fire. Behind the gas station someone was playing a banjo. Lenny stared at the faded sign over the post office. Aintry, he thought it said, but he wasn’t sure. Lenny kept looking around for other stores, but there weren’t any.

Lenny got all choked up—they were saved. He glanced at Eddie to tell him they were safe now, they’d found people, but Eddie still had that dazed look on his face, like back at the accident. At least his nose had stopped bleeding. The radio was losing the signal, the Beach Boys harmonizing California Girls, and Lenny turned it off so he could speak.

I can get the tire fixed here, Lenny said.

That's good, Lenny, Eddie said, evenly and flatly.

Lenny turned and looked at him. Why was he talking like that?

That was another thing Lenny would remember. After the accident Eddie’s voice was so flat, so emotionless, it was like he was putting him on. And every time he answered a question it was a short reply followed by his name. ‘Yes, Lenny’ or ‘No, Lenny’ or ‘If you think so . . . Lenny.’

Lenny drove up the road, across the gravel and into the gas station. Old rusted trucks sat on each side of the station and thick woods surrounded the back. There was a small office and a corroded red, white and blue oval sign on a rusted pole with one word in the middle: STANDARD.

A mechanic in grimy faded blue overalls came out of the repair bay, the name E-RL stitched into the right breast pocket. A friendly smile filled his dark face. Can I help you?

Lenny climbed out of his father’s car. Eddie stepped out of the passenger door and looked around like he’d never seen a small town before.

My tire blew and I ran into a tree. Lenny said, like everything happened to him.

Earl walked over, looked down at the front right tire. By now the spare was almost flat.

I put on a spare. I think it needs air.

Lenny stood next to Earl and heard a chain moving on the ground behind him and turned to see a big black dog coming toward him. He was about to run, but the dog got to the end of the chain and stopped short.

Old Abe won’t hurt you, Earl said.

Lenny looked at the big dog, part police dog, not sure he believed