Hell (WIP)

When the Gleeman Corporation started to downsize last year, it offered most if not all of the engineers that ability to relocate to other facilities that were still open across North America.  The Gleeman Corporation opened in the early 1930’s and specialized in military contracts, there was one that was still open in a rural part of New Hampshire that did especially well and employed a good number of people from that state.

Mark wasn’t overly impressed when his father came in to tell him the news,

‘Hey Mark, so it looks like were going to be moving, they are shutting down my factory here in San Diego and that is the only place that has an opening.’

‘There isn’t anything around here?’

‘Well sure there is but I’ve been with this company 30 years, I’m ready to retire in 5 years and I’d be losing out on a lot of things if I left now, we’d be moving there finishing up my time and most likely be moving back but I have to finish my time out.’

Mark was clearly upset by this and his dad could tell.

‘Look buddy, I know this isn’t great but at least it is at the end of the year and you can finish up here and start fresh with some new friends.’

‘I don’t want to start fresh with new friends dad, I like the friends I have here.’

‘Lets get out there and see how things are, we still have family here so we’ll be back at least once a year - plus you have so many ways to stay in touch!’

‘Its not the same Dad and you know that.’

‘I know Mark, it isn’t. But I am excited about the fact that we’ll have seasons and we’ll see the Atlantic Ocean and mountains.’

‘Woo-hoo’

‘You’ll take a shine to it soon enough. We already have a house that was bought and paid for by the company which is great, you and I will head out there early once school is finished and your mom will hang back here to wrap up with the house here.’

‘Why can’t I stay here?’

‘Well I thought it would be nice if you and I could spend some time together, I have a couple of weeks off to get settled and get the house in order - I figured we could explore a little bit.’

‘Whatever Dad.’

‘That’s the spirit! We leave at the end of the month so that gives you at least 30 days to pack, anything you don’t need I recommend donating; toys and clothes and other stuff.’

Mark’s dad left the room - Mark shut the door harder than he should have and his dad yelled out in the hallway, ‘We’re gonna have a good time.’

Mark hated that his dad had such a positive outlook on things all the time, like he never got mad.  He dropped a jar of pickles once that they were going to use for burgers and there was glass everywhere, most people would have swore or gotten angry but his dad just said, ‘now we’re in a real pickle’ and started to clean it up; like he never showed any outward emotion.  All his friends loved Marks parents, they were so ‘relatable’ and ‘down to earth’ but to Mark they were just annoying but I guess everyone’s parents were annoying. Mark looked around his room and fell face first on his bed, he wasn’t in the mood to pack anything.

Two weeks had passed and he might have put one thing in a box, his mother came in the room.

‘Mark, the end of this week I’m going to drop some clothes off for donation - think you’ll have anything?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Did you want me to go through and find things to donate.’

‘No Mom’

‘Ok then, so we’ll see some clothes and possibly toys and stuff to donate by let’s say Thursday since I’m headed there on Friday - you and your father are leaving in a little more than 2 weeks - how exciting!’

‘So very thrilling’

Marks mom left, he look in his closet and spotted a box of toys, kicked it with his foot and shut the door.

Thursday came and Mark had filled up a bag with clothes and pulled out the box of toys he hadn’t looked in for about 10 years.  His mom asked him to bring the stuff downstairs and she looked at the sorry excuse for a pile and looked at him,

‘Mark, I believe there is so much more just waiting to be freed from the stranglehold you have on it - wouldn’t you agree?’

‘Mom, I don’t know, if you think so then why don’t you do it.’

‘I don’t think you’ll be excited if I get rid of your things, you may be leaving this house with just the clothes on your back’

‘You wouldn’t’

‘Well, there is only so much room for packing the truck so I most definitely would’ she said with a sly smile. Mark knew she was joking but he also knew that this was inevitable and needed to be done.

‘Fine, give me like a half hour and I’ll look’

‘That’s the spirit, Philip, did you hear that - at the last minute Mark has found the gusto to find some things to get rid of.’

Mark’s dad walked into the kitchen holding a magazine on some science stuff he had been reading, ‘what’s that Pauline, is Mark finally coming around after all?’  Philip tossed the magazine on the table, grabbed Mark by the shoulder and gave him a hug.

‘Did you want any help with anything?

‘Nah Dad, I got it.’

‘Ok, if you need any help with boxes just holler - i’ll be reading in the living room.’

‘Thanks’

Mark knew this was happening and couldn’t stop the move, he didn’t have any sentimental value on any of these clothes or toys.  He’d been growing so much he had to get new stuff anyway so about 80% of it all went into bags knowing that he would just need clothes to get to NH. This all took him about 20 minutes and he brought about 5 bags filled with clothes downstairs, he explained it all to her mother but she already knew.

The day had arrived, Mark and his dad had one suitcase each to bring on the plane. They had hired a moving company to bring all the bigger stuff over and marks mom was going to fly over after the sale was final in a week.

Pauline dropped them off at the airport, they said their good-byes and took off for their new home in Falls Hollow NH.

Mark and his dad arrived later that day, got a rental car and arrived at their new home.  It was a lot bigger than their other house, it was also in the woods and there were trees everywhere.  Mark had noticed on the way in from the airport that when they landed in a city, they meandered from city, to suburbs to even denser rural area.  He had never been this far away from a city.

‘Dad, we are so far from the city.’

‘Yeah Mark, about 20 minutes away is the town, there is a grocery store and a main st - it is actually pretty nice.  We can go check it out tomorrow or the next day.’

They walked up the front pathway and onto the large farmers porch, Philip opened the front door which opened into a large living room.  Mark walked into the living room and then the kitchen right off that.  There was a mud room off that which led to a back yard, Mark opened the back door to a giant yard that had a sloping hill out in the back and what looked like a path (which he was definitely exploring later). He came back inside and moved out of the mud room to a dining room.  There were large window all over the bottom floor which was also a nice touch.  From there he made it back to the front door and his dad was standing there texting with his mother,

‘Wow Dad, this place is pretty nice’

‘The pictures definitely don’t do it justice, there’s also a garage - let’s go upstairs and put our stuff down - I want to check that out - apparently there’s a work bench above the garage.’

Mark and his Dad went upstairs - right at the top was a linen closet, to the left was a spare bedroom then the primary bedroom.  Then off to the right was Mark’s bedroom and across from the hall was a study. Mark yelled out to his Dad,

‘Dad!’

‘Mark!’

‘This is really nice!’

‘I know right, are you looking out your window?’

Yeah, you can like, see all the way across the backyard, it looks like there might be a pond back there?’

‘I believe there is a pond somewhere around here, be careful if you go out exploring please.’

Mark was a little ashamed that he was so against the move but now he was really excited

‘Ok Dad.’

Mark and his dad made their way downstairs and to the garage, there was a door off the kitchen that led to the garage. Once Philip opened the door there was a light on the right hand side of the door - he flipped it on. It was a two-bay garage, in the middle was a stair case going up.

‘Jackpot!’ Philip said

Mark walked in with him but he noticed that there were two bikes hanging by the end of the garage,

‘Dad, help me get these bikes down - are they ours?’

‘Yeah, the house is ours now so I assume these bikes are too.’

They got the bikes down, one was a BMX bike, the front tire was flat.  The other was mountain bike, there was no branding on the bike but it looked like an 18 speed - perfect for the knotty terrain that NH had.

‘This is great Dad, would you mind if I took this out this week? We might have to get a pump if I can’t find one here.’

‘No problem, we’ll also have to get you a helmet too but we’ll make a list before we go into town.’

Mark was checking the bikes out while his father went upstairs,

‘Hey Mark, there is a workbench up here and it looks like a game room too!’

Mark leaned both the bikes against the far end of the garage and ran up to meet his dad,

‘Wow, this pretty cool, I guess we know where you’ll be spending your free time huh?’

‘Only if your mother allows it’ Philip said with a sly grin.  We’ve got more time in the next couple of weeks to hang out and explore this place - it has been a long day, let’s get some rest and we’ll get up go get a bite to eat and see what this bustling metropolis has to offer us.

Mark made his way to his room, there was a bed already in there. Mark got in bed and was almost immediately asleep when he heard the sound of kids laughing. It sounded far off but the sound died off right away, then he was asleep.

The next morning he got up to some noise downstairs, it was his father doing who knew what.  He got up, threw on the same clothes from yesterday, used the bathroom then, went downstairs.  His dad was moving the couch that was in the living room,

‘Hey good morning Mark’

‘Good Morning Dad, what are you doing?’

‘I checked to see when we are getting our stuff delivered and it looks like it should actually be here today so I wanted to move some of this stuff around and go out and get a bite to eat, get some food for later and get back - you want to go get some grub?’

‘Yeah, I’m starving actually.’

Mark hadn’t realized it but they didn’t eat since probably lunch the day before, with all the excitement going on it slipped his and his dads mind to grab something to eat.

‘Help me move this and then we can take off’ Marks dad motioned him towards the couch.  They moved it closer to the wall to make room for some of the other furniture that was coming in.

With that done, Philip grabbed the keys and said to Mark, ‘Hey, wanna drive?’

Mark turned to him, ‘you’re kidding right?’

‘Of course I am, you can drive in another 4 years!’

‘Let’s go Dad’

They made their way outside, his dad still laughing, they made their way into town to find a spot to eat.  According to GPS it was about 15 minutes away, not too bad. It gave Mark some time to consider when he was going to take that bike out and explore that path in the backyard.

Philip pulled into the Main Street of Falls Hollow, relatively quaint.  It had a hardware store, a grocery store, one gas station, two coffee shops, one large diner and 2 other breakfast nooks and some other little shops that made it a typical main street USA.  Mark looked at some of the reviews for the breakfast spots and chose ‘Breakfast Time’, because it was on the nose and he appreciated that.  They parked and walked in.

The hostess welcomed them to the restaurant and sat them immediately, it wasn’t terribly busy here until later in the week and they came at the right time.  It took them all of a minute to order, bacon omelette for Mark and a cheese omelette for Phillip, with bacon on the side.

‘Why don’t you just get a bacon omelette?’

‘I like to enjoy my bacon instead of having it wrapped up in the omelette, let me have this!’

Philip ordered a coffee and Mark got some juice.  While they waited they discussed some plans for emptying out their storage container when it came, what was important to get out before Pauline arrived - they both agreed that the bedrooms and the kitchen needed to be done.  After that breakfast arrived, they both agreed that it was the best omelette they had in some time and it truly was. Mark mentioned to his dad that he wanted to go check out the path behind the house at some point.  His dad was ok with it but they had to remember to get him a helmet before they did that.  Mark finished up first so he checked to see if there was a sporting goods store around.  Outside of town there was a department store that would have what they needed, Philip agreed to stop there as there was some things they got rid of he needed to pick up so it all worked out.  Philip paid the bill, they thanked the waitress and left.  On their way back to the house they stopped at the department store,

‘Ok Mark, we need to grab the helmet and bike pump, I need to grab a couple of kitchen utensils and other things.’

They made their way through the store, they had 2 helmets available - one was a blue helmet with a pony on the side that was Mark’s size and the other was a kids helmet that was way too small.

Philip was laughing as he picked it up and put it on Mark’s head, ‘well buddy, looks like we have a match.’

‘Not funny Dad, are there no other helmets here?’

‘Looks like this is it.  If you want to go riding I’ll absolutely buy this for you and we can order another one for you but the stipulation is I have to take a picture and send it to your mother.’

Mark really wanted to go exploring, he couldn’t explain it but something about that trail was calling him and so what, it was just a pony - he might be able to peel it off.

‘Whatever - its just a pony, as long as the helmet keeps me safe then what does it matter’

‘Mark, that’s a great attitude to have - I’m really proud of you.’

Mark looked up at his Dad, ‘i’m in no way excited about this but I’m not going to let a little thing like this graphic bother me.’ Mark held out the helmet, ‘plus, I might be able to scrape it off but what does it matter.’

‘Atta boy, ok, grab that bike pump there and let’s go get those utensils!’

Mark grabbed the bike pump, tucked the helmet under his arm and they made their way around the store and picked the rest of the goods they needed.  They checked out, made it to the car and headed back home. On the way back Philip’s phone beeped with a message,

‘Mark, can you check that - it might be the storage container company.’

‘It’s Mom, just checking in.’

‘Let her know how we’re doing.’

Mark typed back to his Mom about their night, the house, breakfast and everything else.  Mark asked how things were there, she said things were good, she was cleaning the house getting ready for the weeks’ end and excited to see the new place; she loved and missed them. She told Mark to tell his father to have him call her later, she said she loved him again and said good-bye. No sooner did Mark put the phone back on the holder did it chime again

‘Dad, looks like the storage company is messaging’

‘Whats happening?’

‘Looks like they are going to be at the house at 1 pm today.’

‘Excellent, it’s only 1030 now so we have some time.  I want to stop by the grocery store and get some food, lets do that and head back home.’

Mark confirmed the time with the storage company, he searched directions for the grocery store which was 10 minutes from their current location and they headed there.  Mark and his dad headed inside, Philip only got some essentials, lunch meats, food for dinner and some chips; enough to hold them over for a day or two while they unpacked; they left and headed back home.

They got back home and unloaded the groceries, Mark brought the helmet and the pump into the garage.  He pumped up the tires and took it for a spin around the driveway, felt like the chain needed some lubricant.  He brought the bike back into the garage, looked around but it was pretty sparse in there and then remembered the workbench upstairs.  He went up, saw that there was two large benches as well as two cabinets.  There were also some shelves with bottles that looked like garage liquids - he started there.  He saw car oil and chainsaw oil, he moved around some other bottles then saw a small black metal canister that said, ‘chain oil’,

‘Well if this isn’t it I don’t know what is.’

He grabbed the can and held the nozzle up to his nose, it had that oil smell so this must be it.

He made his way downstairs, took the bike outside and put the bike on the grass.  He remembered what happens when you oil a chain on the driveway and adults aren’t always happy about it.  He put some drops on the chain, got on the bike and started to shift the gears, like magic the clacking of the chain disappeared.  He laid the bike down, took the oil can and placed it inside the garage door for safe keeping.  Then his dad came outside,

‘What’s going on out here?’

‘I was just oiling the chain, pumping the tires.  I did find the oil up in the work area.’

‘That’s good, want to make sure things are working smoothly. Anything else good up there?’

‘I was just looking for this but it looks like there are some other ‘garage liquids’ up there so it would be good to poke around.’

Philip taught Mark early about shop safety, knowing your flammables and keeping areas clean so he felt comfortable that Mark was poking around in their new work area.

‘Listen buddy, its at least another hour before the storage container comes, did you want to take the bike out and check things out?’

‘Yeah, that would be great!’  Mark was going to ask but happy that his Dad offered

‘i’m going to make some sandwiches, just be back a little before one and we’ll eat then get things going.’

Mark ran and hugged his dad, ‘thanks Dad’

‘But before you go’ he pulled the helmet out from behind his back

‘Oh man really’

‘Well, you were going to wear it and I wound’t want to deny Mom this. Plus, it shows her that you’re being safe so a win-win.’

‘I guess you’re right.’

Mark put on the helmet, gave his best fake smile and a thumbs up and Philip took a picture.  ‘If we still framed pictures, I’d hang this one up for everyone to see.’

‘You’re hilarious.’

‘Ok, be safe, be back before one and you have your phone so call if there are any issues.’

‘Bye Dad.’ Mark jumped onto the bike, pedaled into the back yard and down the path.

Mark rode down the path behind their new house, it went down a slight hill, past a stream then over the stream which then led by another huge field that had a razor wire fence with cows dotted throughout the field.  He kept going and ended up going past a graveyard in the woods which he thought was really strange but figured that people have been on this side of the country longer than where he was before so it made sense.  He crossed another stream, but this one had a bridge across it - it looked like someone took some time to really build this up since the stream was pretty high.  After he crossed this he came to another large field and there were even more cows but this one had a large rock wall, he continued to pedal and the rock wall just kept going for what felt like like forever.  Then he came up to what looked like a bunch of new houses and the path twisted and the houses just disappeared but the path continued and lead up a hill.  Mark pedaled up this hill and saw a house, it was an old, grey house just sitting in this lot all by itself.  He was at the edge of the forest and looking out at this house and it reminded him of where he was living now, except this house was rundown and had no life in it at all.  He pulled out his phone, it had been 30 minutes since he left his house, he didn’t even realize it had been that long.  He needed to turn back around to help his father out but something was drawing him to this house, he put his foot on the pedal and started to push forward but then clamped down on the right brake depressing his front brakes.

‘No, I have to turn around - I can come back and check this out - it doesn’t look like it is going anywhere.’

He took one last look at the house and backed the bike up and pedaled back home, down the hill, past not one but two fields full of cows over the streams, past the graveyard and back to help his dad unload the trailer.

When Mark got back to the house the storage truck was backing up the driveway, he saw his dad standing there,

‘Oh good, I was getting worried that I would have all the fun unloading this without you!’

Mark rode past him and parked the bike in the garage, his dad poked his head in

‘Everything ok?’

‘Yeah, just been a while since I rode a bike so catching my breath.’

Mark didn’t want to tell him about the house, his dad would probably want him to stay away or give him some speech out being safe again which he got but didn’t need to hear it now.

The truck dumped off the storage container and drove off. The container was still open from when the driver had them inspect the contents - they took a cursory look inside, Marks dad spoke first,

‘Well, looks like we have some work ahead of us - I have sandwiches made - lets go eat those and get started- how’s that sound?’

‘Sounds good Dad’

After they finished eating they got started on the storage container, this particular container had  things sectioned off so they knew where they could grab things from; Mark made a bee-line for this room stuff while his dad got started on his and his wife’s room.  They discussed over lunch the goal was to just get the stuff out and into the rooms, they would unpack after - with just two of them they could probably get the storage container unloaded today and at least their personal effects taken care of.  Philip also asked Mark about his bike ride, Mark mentioned the graveyard in the woods and the cows and the stonewalls but omitted the house - for now.  There was something off about it and he wanted to go back there and didn’t want his dad worrying when he went out for another ride.

It was almost supper time, when a car pulled up the driveway

‘Dad, are you expecting someone?’

‘I didn’t tell you but I ordered pizza for dinner - figured once that got here it would be a good time to break for the night.’

Philip went out to the driveway, paid for the pizza and came back inside, they ate and discussed more of the plan for tomorrow but in the back of Mark’s mind he was thinking about that house and when he could get back there.

Toothache (WIP)

I think I’ve been chipped

Today was a big day for Shaun, he had been waiting almost 5 years for these implants, these dental implants.  He had been in an accident when he was younger, as a result 3 of his teeth got knocked out. It was a good thing they weren’t front teeth but it also sucked because they made eating a little bit harder and took a bit longer but all that was over now, he was finally getting the teeth back.  He was sitting in the chair after he got the posts put in 6 months prior, the dental assistant was talking him through the process of putting the actual teeth in which wasn’t as painful as the posts and they’d be done within the hour, then the dentist walked in.

‘Shaun, how’re things?’

‘They’re great, looking forward to eating something and not chewing 5x as long.’

‘What’s your first meal going to be?’

‘I was thinking tonight I was going to have a steak but right after this, maybe a steak and cheese sub - so steak is on the menu for today.’

‘I like it man, it all sounds great - well lets get started.’

The assistant showed him the teeth, everything was re-checked and they got started.  The teeth all went in in what seemed like 30 minutes, the dentist actually needed to use a ratchet to get the teeth settled in but it all worked out in the end.  They checked his bite out and took some measurements and finished up.

‘Shaun, how does that feel?’

Shaun opened and closed his mouth a bit, ran his tongue over the teeth, ‘it feels great.’

‘Now the tongue is going to take a couple days to get used to the teeth so be careful.  Also, be aware of biting it, otherwise you’re good to go, if you have any questions or concerns please call the office or the answering service.’

‘Thanks Doc, I’ll keep you posted on anything that goes on and I really appreciate your help with this,’

‘No problem Shaun, it’s my pleasure - I actually have a couple more implants to do today so I gotta run - take care!’

The doctor took off and the dental assistant helped Shaun up, she walked with him to the front and saw the other person getting ready to get the implants.  They looked exactly like Shaun, in fact if he had a doppelgänger than that was them.  He heard the assistant talking but was half not paying attention when he heard his name,

‘Shaun?’

‘Oh hey, sorry - that person looks exactly like me - I got lost for a second there.’

The assistant came back and looked, ‘oh wow, you’re right, you guys could be twins!’

‘Here, let me walk you to the front and we’ll go over aftercare.’

The assistant discussed the pain for the next couple of days that would dissipate, also the possibility of tongue biting and the tongue getting used to the teeth.  Shaun confirmed all of this and paid for the balance of the work and left.

He made his way out of the office and rubbed his jaw.  The pain actually wasn’t that bad but he’ll see how the next couple of days went.  When he got out to the parking lot where his car was there was a woman in a suit in a car next to his in dark sunglasses looking at him, actually staring at him, he acknowledged her,

‘Hows it going?’

She continued to stare at him, not averting her gaze.

‘Ok, have a good day’

Shaun unlocked the car door and started to get in when the woman spoke,

‘How’d the dentist go?’

He stopped his inward motion to the car and stood back up,

‘Excuse me?’

‘I just saw you walking from the dentist, just asking how it went?

‘Fine, I had some work done.’

‘What kind of work?’

‘Um, just some work that I had been putting off.’

Shaun didn’t even know this woman and she was giving off some weird vibes, he had to get out of here.

‘I’m out of here, see you later.’

‘Have a good day.’