What the fuck?! Those were the three
words that kept going through Bryson’s head as he drove down Mason Street. One
moment he was mired in self-pity and the next moment he was confronting his
past, facing the moment his life had changed forever. He had pictured this
moment for a long time but never expected it to come. Hell, he thought, ten years
had gone by without a word, why now? Everything that he had thought about
the moment shit hit the fan dissolved and intensified in his mind at the same time.
What
would he say? If it was asked of him would he forgive? Or would he through it
back in the face of the accused? So many things ran through his head that he
didn’t know what to think. Then another surge of anger sprang through him.
Never once had either of “them” contacted him in ten years, and now the only
reason he was here was because he needed something. It was obviously huge if he
came all the way to Green Bay for Bryson’s help. But why should Bryson help him
at all?
Was
Ian in trouble? He messaged Bryson under an assumed name, so either he was in
trouble or he knew that Bryson would never answer a message under Ian’s name.
On top of that Ian requested a meeting in the middle of the night in a park
where they could avoid being seen. Bryson knew Ian must not know Green Bay that
well, if he did he would have known that they could have met in the middle
Wal-Mart and not been seen. But what did he need all the secrecy for?
He
had asked Ian while they were online, but Ian was in a hurry and wanted to make
the meet as soon as possible. He swore that he would explain as much as he
could as soon as they met but seemed to be leery of the idea of revealing
anything online. Bryson offered a meeting place in Colburn Park on the west
side of town. He knew it would be deserted, even if they would have been able
to meet a few hours earlier, and there was a pavilion they could meet under and
go for a walk into more wooded area than they needed to.
The other benefit
to meeting in Colburn Park was the fact that it was on the west side of town.
Sure he could hop on the highway and make it there fast if he wanted to, but he
needed some extra time to process what all of this meant. That’s why he
currently found himself at the intersection of Webster and Mason preparing to
cross the Mason Street Bridge into the west side while contemplating the idea
of forgiving Ian without provocation.
To be honest as
much as Bryson hated to admit it, and didn’t to anyone except himself, he
missed Ian and often considered the idea that they would make up if they ever
saw each other again. He spent most of his life being friends with Ian, and for
most of that time they were inseparable which made the last ten years somewhat
difficult. He still hadn’t found any friends that he had the same kind of bond
with. Often times he thought about seeking out Ian himself, but dropped the
idea from his mind when stubbornness kicked in; why should he be the one to
make the first step?
Now he didn’t need
to make the first step, but it happened so abruptly he didn’t know what to
think. At one moment an image of playing Jedi with sticks, Bryson as Darth
Vader and Ian as Luke Skywalker, popped in his head. They used to like to go
out into a patch of woods off Dixie Highway and have battles or try to see if
they could make things levitate using the force. He also thought of fashioning
big turtle shells out of old boxes and playing around with a pair of nunchaku
to become Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while Ian would
dawn a cardboard shell and carry a stick so that he could portray Donatello. In
that moment Bryson knew that he needed his best friend back.
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