The Yellow Pine

Chapter 10 - Anachronism

Pink, blue, green and violet neon lights glowed against the fog of a steadily cooling October night. Flickering once, twice... then... solid, blaring forth for all the town of Cambria to read: Laser Blast and, next door, 8-Bit Arcade. Lester sneered at the garish display as he drove past. The new business owner must not have bothered to read the pages concerning thematic suggestions for the intended overall appearance of the town, or if they had, they'd chosen to completely ignore them. Roland had just sighed sadly when he'd seen it, and the other residents had grumbled, but at the end of the day, there was nothing anyone could really do. The thematic suggestions were just that: suggestions. Business owners were legally allowed to do as they pleased with the buildings they owned, within reason and zoning laws.

Peter and Sandra Lowell were oblivious to the egregious faux-pas they had inadvertently committed. When reading the carefully written proposal sent to them from Estero Appalachian Development, they had, in fact, not bothered to read the pages concerning themes and appearance. Peter, in particular, had a deep aversion for being told how to run his own business, and, with a pitifully short attention span, never fully committed to reading much of anything. Sandra was only slightly better at keeping track of the family's financial and legal obligations when it came to the multitude of business they had opened and abandoned like orphaned children over the years. She called the banks, arranged for loans, and drew up contracts with the law offices they employed, but she had never troubled to question her husband's flippant and often arbitrary decisions. As long as they continued to make a profit, the Lowells were content to bounce from one hastily organized and poorly planned business to the next.

It was actually their fifteen year old twin sons, Kaiden and Cameron, who had come up with the idea for running the two youth entertainment establishments, primarily thinking of how fun it would be to have unlimited access to the games they would include, and, secondly, of how popular it would make them with their peers. It was one of the few things the identical brothers had agreed on in years. Kaiden, with his quiet hobbies of reading and musical theatre, had absolutely no interest in Cameron's obsession with sports and rare fungi. He had tried to learn a bit about mycology by reading several texts on the subject, but honestly couldn't see the appeal. How exciting could a bunch of slimy mushrooms possibly be? As for Cameron, he would rather pluck his eyeballs out than sit quietly in a theatre for hours watching people sing about a plot that could have been stated in twenty minutes of plain speaking. He did share his brother's love of reading, but they each preferred completely different genres, with the notable exception of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series. Cameron loved the fighting and the bloodshed, but Kaiden was more interested in the court intrigue and romance portions. The rest of their respective libraries were utterly divergent.

When their mom and dad had called them down from their rooms in their house in Whitesburg, KY for a family meeting, they knew what it would be about: yet another in a long line of short-lived business adventures. The popcorn shop they'd been running for the past two years was steadily declining as interest waned, and it was obvious that the time had come to move on to something new. "We gotta stay ahead of the trends," Peter said, in response to the boys' questions. The boys' faces were mirror images of angsty resignation. "Fine. What are we gonna own now?" Sandra and her husband shared a quiet look before continuing. Taking over where Peter had left of, Sandra quietly set forth the proposal they had already accepted, while looking down at the table to avoid her sons questioning eyes. The "family meeting" was only a farce, intended to make the boys feel as though they had a voice in the decisions being made for them. As she explained the benefits of the new town being built, how they would be founders and have a much better, brand-new home than the run-down 1970's fixer-upper they currently inhabited, she very carefully avoided any mention of leaving their school or of the relative seclusion of Cambria. The only question left to be answered was what sort of business in the fledgling town would be most profitable. In one of the few moments of twin synchronicity the two had shared since they had been toddlers, both Cameron and Kaiden called out in unison, "An arcade!"

The move went quickly and smoothly, and the entire family was pleasantly surprised at the warm welcome they'd received from most of the other townsfolk. Debra Jo had brought them a lovely welcome basket, brimming with freshly baked cookies, tins of tea and coffee grounds, and hand-written notes for each member with personalized quotes from the Bible, at which they had rolled their eyes and quickly discarded. When they saw Fiona jogging past their new business on Mimosa Trail on her nightly run, the twins each added the vision of it to their personal spank-banks, while Sandra opened the front door to greet her. Panting and sweating, Fiona gladly accepted the offer of lemonade and settled in at the half-built concession stand to catch her breath before heading back, and leaving the Lowells to get back to preparing the arcade for opening. During the course of conversation, she extended an invitation for the whole family to join her own for dinner one night. Roland and Maisie had been equally friendly when they ran into them at the Bear Paw Diner, and only Lester had been aloof, bordering on rudeness.

Hoping to catch the attention of the beautiful older girl, Cameron began taking nightly jogs at the same time as Fiona every evening. When Kaiden found out, he was angry at himself for not having thought of it first, but, deep-down, knew he didn't have any interest in running unless he was being chased. He also knew that she was far too old for them, and way out of their league. Let Cam make a fool of himself, he thought.

While the evening jogs did start with an ulterior motive, after a few days, Cam found that he really enjoyed running through the cool, fall air and mountain trails of Cambria. It was peaceful and left his body aching in a comfortable and satisfying way. Kaiden had eventually joined him a time or two, but had given up halfway through and walked back home, panting, to read or play video games. Cameron found that he was happier running alone, anyway.

A few weeks after he'd started running, as he followed the same streets and trails he had come to greatly appreciate, Cameron was shocked to see someone new. He was sure they'd met all the residents by now, and knew the faces, if not the names, of the locals from down the mountain who came up every now and then. So he was shocked to see a lone woman that he'd never seen before, stumbling around, turning in circles and gawking at the trees and buildings of Black Mountain Road as though she had no clue where she were. Her long, multi-colored skirt swirled around her combat boots, and her bare arms, sticking out of the lightweight, short sleeved peasant blouse, were prickled with gooseflesh.

Spotting him, the wild eyed woman started his way with a short cry. "Oh! Hi! Um... don't be scared. I'm scared, but you shouldn't be!" Her words poured out between her poorly tended teeth in a frantic rush, as her hands worried at her frizzled and roughly braided hair. "I'm Evie, that's me. That's who I am. Evie. Who are you, do you know?" Cameron blinked in surprise at this odd line of questioning. Of course he knew who he was, who didn't? The woman, Evie, continued shambling towards him, grinning and bobbing her head. "Do you know? Do you know? Do you? I do. I don't know this place, but I know my name. It's Evie, you know. Evie." She paused for a moment, as though she were carefully processing the next thought before speaking, something it appeared that she didn't do often. Dropping the forced smile and looking directly into his eyes intensely, she said, "Now, kid. Tell me the truth. Where am I?"