Homecoming

I was within walking distance of a historic cemetery, a haunted section of town, and several UFO sightings. And, for the moment, I didn't care about any of that.

"You're going to feel a little ouchie," the nurse said,"And then...."

She withdrew the needle. Paul look up at her, and then at me, surprised. 

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," the nurse confirmed. "You just got your first COVID vaccine. We'll need you to wait fifteen minutes in the waiting room, and you'll be back in two weeks for your second dose."

Paul turned to me.

"Can we get McDonald's?"

"Grandpa's house is bigger than I remember it," Paul said, looking out the car window as we drove up the road.

"Well, it's been two years since we've been here," I said.

Michelle turned the Prius into the driveway, and we parked. Truth was, it looked a little different to me, too. One of the many things COVID had taken away was two years' worth of visits home for me. Last year, we'd painted a ladder as a substitute Christmas tree. With Paul half-vaccinated, we'd now decided we could get away with a trip back to the tree farm I'd grown up on.

We got out of the car, and I released Rosie from the back. My brother was waiting in the barnyard.

I gave him a hug. "Hey, Jon."
"Glad you could make it back," he said.

Rosie barked at him, retreating several steps. Jon laughed. "Are you suspicious of me?"

"She takes a while to warm up to adults," I said.

"Hi, Uncle Jon!" Paul said. "Rosie wants to play with Miles!"

"Let me walk Rosie around a bit," I said. "And then we'll be in. So where's the best place to find a tree this year?"

"Go on down in the back, past the barn," Jon said. "And take a walk down to the creek. We've done some work down there."

I walked Rosie around the yard, and looked toward the back of the garage. Drawn on the back of the garage wall, in white chalk, were Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and a Yeti, clearly labeled in a scrawling handwriting. I could still remember the day I'd put them there.

Six years old. I chalked the Yeti on the wall to join Bigfoot and Nessie, scribbling their names next to them. "It's a museum," I explained to my brother. "I captured these monsters and put them in the museum for people to see."

"Did you ask Dad if you could draw on this wall?" my brother asked me.

"Um," I said. "Maybe he won't notice."

"Would you like some coffee?" my father asked, settling himself onto the kitchen chair.

"No, thanks, Dad," I said. "I'm good. But thanks."

He shook his head. "Staying in for a while. The older I get, the less I can handle the cold."

"Yeah, I get that," I said. "I have less tolerance for it myself. I'm getting older, too."

I walked through the house a while. It was the house I'd grown up in....But it wasn't. The bedrooms on the second floor had been converted into offices. The bathroom had been redecorated twice since I'd moved to Lock Haven. The upstairs hallway was in the process of being repainted.

Downstairs, my brother's wife Amy was bringing out a backpack full of gifts for Paul. She said,"These are....Well, I don't know how long. It's been a while."

"Yeah, COVID," I said. "We didn't want to risk spreading it in either direction. But now that we're vaccinated, we'll be able to get away with a few more visits."

"I love this backpack!" Paul said.

"We can make that into a go bag for you," I said. "Like I have. Put some flashlights and stuff in it."
My brother appeared in the doorway. "We actually considered that," he said. "But I wasn't sure how you'd feel about giving the kid knives and lighters."

"I'm actually pretty okay with it," I said. "During our lockdown, I taught him a lot of survival skills. Gave him a Swiss Army knife for his birthday. He's learned to be pretty responsible."

"Colored pencils!" Paul said, delighted. "What's this?" He picked up a TV tray with Smurfs on it, and my name written carefully on it in my mother's handwriting.

"That used to be mine," I said. "I used that for homework and stuff when I was your age."
"It's Paul's now," said Amy.

"Well, I love it," said Paul. "I'm going to use it at home."

"I made a lot of plans on that when I was around your age," I said.

Seven years old. "I heard something," I said. "Let's check if there's a ghost in the closet."

"What if there is?" asked my cousin Jan. I pushed my way into the bedroom, followed by my cousins, Jan, Jim, and Pat.

"I'll find a way to catch it," I said. "Maybe I can make something out of the washing machine."

"Aren't we supposed to be in bed?" asked Jim.

"Well, yes," I admitted,"But we're the Ghost Gang. And we have to search if there's a ghost in the house."

"How about our house?" asked Jan.

"We'll do that next time," I said. "I'm working on a way to catch a ghost in a jar and freeze it."

"Thanks for getting together with me," I said to Resurrection Casey as we walked along the top of the ridge. 

"Thanks for giving me the chance, boss," she said. "Been too long."
I nodded. "How you been doing?"

"I'm holding up, I guess. Thought I might graduate this spring, but COVID messed that up. I'm vaccinated, though."

"Yeah, me too. Not due for a booster yet. But Paul's vaccinated now, which is a relief. We're considering sending him back to school in January."

Casey looked out over the fields. "You ever see Bigfoot out here as a kid?"

"Always hoped to. My dad made up a story about a cryptid called the Great Christmas Tree Goblin, kind of a green Bigfoot."

She nodded. "So, how are you holding up?"

"About as well as anyone. Which is to say, not great. I'm having some nightmares, and I've been about as stable as a Squonk. I read an article where people were crying in the shower, but I can't even do that because Paul and Rosie always come barging in there."

"You know, you ever need to talk...."

"I'll call. You, too."

"I know."

Michelle and I walked down the path, toward the creek. I looked off into the woods. Rosie was running around with us. Rosie sees no point in being very far away from her people.

"I had a fort over there," I said. "Built it when I was a kid. I thought it was a pretty good piece of construction. I started it myself one summer, and kept adding on, and Kline came to help out later on."
"Is this where you guys camped?"

"Sometimes," I said. "Down here in the meadow, a lot, in the summer. Up in the springhouse in the winter. Paul tells me I like nature better than he does."

"Well, maybe he'll grow into it."

We stopped by the creek, where my brother had constructed a stone bridge in a feat of engineering. I said,"We used to build dams down here a lot, and other stuff, from here all the way to the pond. It's grown up a lot more than it used to be. I had a thousand adventures in these woods."

Eleven years old. I took the hammer and whanged a nail into place on a large empty can, sort of compiling together the can, the nail, some metal mesh I'd found, and tied a rope around the whole thing. My father looked it over as he walked past.

"What're you constructing?" he asked.

"I am making," I declared,"A sea monster trap."

"I see. You're going to catch sea monsters with that?"

"Yep. See, the sea monster will swim in here, and get caught in this netting, and won't be able to get out."

"What are you going to do with the sea monster when you get him?"

"Keep it."

"Where are you going to launch your sea monster trap?" 

"In the pond," I said, naming the only body of water I had access to.

"I'm not sure there are any sea monsters in the pond," Dad said.

I picked up the trap. "Well, we're going to find out, aren't we?"

We pulled up on Hill Street, in lower Slatington. I said,"This here, Paul, is the Hundred Steps." There was a long, high set of concrete stairs running up the hill. "Every time you count them, you come up with a different number. I've been trying for years. People around here believe that if you ever count them and get to a hundred, you'll disappear."

"I don't want to disappear."

"Nobody ever gets to a hundred. You coming with me?"

"Do I have to wear shoes?"

"I suppose."

We got out of the car and headed up the steps. Paul counted aloud as we walked, and I counted silently. I could see him grinning as we walked all the way up to the top.

"Ninety," he said.

"I got ninety-three."

"Does it always do that?"

"Pretty much, ever since I was a kid."

"I had fun today," he said. "So did Rosie."

"Yeah," I said. "It's been too long since we visited. But now that we're all vaccinated....We can visit more."

Back in Lock Haven. I sat with Paul, who was happily drawing with his colored pencils, using the tray he'd been given while he watched TV. Rosie was curled up beside him, sleeping off her busy day.

"You know what my favorite present is, Daddy?" he asked.

"I'm going to guess the colored pencils."

"No. It's this tray. Because it's yours."

"Well, now it's yours, little man." I looked at my name on the tray in permanent marker. "My mother wrote that there when I was your age."

"Will you write my name on it?"

"Soon as I find a permanent marker, sure."

"That way," he said,"I'll give it to my kid one day. And I'll write their name on it, too."