Chapter 5
“I’m not so sure this is a good idea,” Luke said to himself as he took the winding twists of Fish Creek Road. “Do you really think Mikey’s gonna want to get together with you again?”
While his heart was imagining what it would be like to get with Mikey again, his head reminded him that pursuing something new with Mikey ran the risk of repeating the mistakes of the past.
What if he started to reach out to Mikey and he rejected him again? What if he got his heart shattered, just like he had as a teenager? He’d worked really hard on himself the past year, and he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his progress for anyone, not even for Mikey Smiles.
Why can’t anything with him ever be easy? He thought.
To distract himself from these troubling thoughts Luke turned his attention to the scenery around him.
No matter how many years he lived here and no matter how many times he drove these winding roads, the countryside out here on Fish Creek made him feel like he was always at home.
The road twisted and turned as it made its way through the hills looming above him, the creek winding right along with it.
Though West Virginia was beautiful at any season, the threshold between spring and summer held a particular magic.
Everywhere he looked there were the signs of growth: green leaves shimmered in a cool country breeze; cardinals and red-winged blackbirds trilled as they flitted from one branch to another; cattle grazed on the steep hillsides.
I wouldn’t trade being here for anything in the world, he thought.
Fish Creek Road finally met up with Route 2, and he started on the last leg of his journey to NACA.
The Ohio River flowed slowly on the left, the massive smokestacks of the various power plants and other factories thrusting up from the banks alongside it.
Luke had always thought they had their own strange sort of industrial beauty, though he tended to see such things a little differently when the road was constantly clogged with gas trucks.
Sometimes I think it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if we had fewer of them taking over the roads, he thought, even though such an idea was practically heresy around here, where the gas company tended to make big payouts to those willing to put up with them.
Luke pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as he approached the outskirts of Moundsville, driving past the shopping center with the Kroger, the CVS, and the apartment building called Golden Towers, until at last he turned up 10th Street.
The Northern Appalachia Center for the Arts was located just across the street from the giant Grave Creek Mound and the former West Virginia Penitentiary.
Luke had always been fascinated by the Mound, ever since his days in grade school when his teachers had taken him and his classmates on tours of both the mound itself and the nearby museum.
Even now he could remember what it was like to hike to the top of it, to see out across the river valley and over Moundsville itself.
No matter how many times he climbed it, he always found himself falling in love with his home all over again.
Wow, Brenda wasn’t lying, Luke thought as he pulled into the parking lot of the Center, this place really has fallen from its prime. He was glad he’d avoided it since he’d moved back here a year ago.
The paint was peeling off of its outside, and with his handyman’s eye he could see the way the recent hard winter had left its own fair share of damage. There were patches of moss growing on the roof and in the cracks in the brick.
Yeah, this was definitely a building that had seen better days. He found himself wondering whether it was even worth trying to salvage it at all.
Don’t be so negative.
Unfortunately, negativity seemed to be everywhere, because no sooner did he step out of his car than he was aware of who else was there, too.
Mikey Fucking Smiles.
He arrived, of course, in a Range Rover and, while he wasn’t exactly surrounded by an entourage, there were still quite a few people clustered around him, all of them clearly hanging on his every word.
Luke would never have admitted it, but he was a bit jealous, since it reminded him of the days when he’d also had a team, a group of people who were looking out for him and helping him to build up his career into something he could be proud of.
He also wouldn’t have admitted Mikey looked good.
The years had been kind to him; he could’ve passed for someone at least five years younger.
He was dressed as stylishly as usual–all slim cut jeans and tight button-up shirt–and Luke felt his lip curl.
He still had the same mop of untidy blonde curls he’d had when the two of them were teenagers and, even more frustratingly, he also had the same smile, a smile that said he didn’t take anything too seriously, the world was his oyster, he could do whatever he wanted, and no one was going to stand in his way.
It was always the thing Luke had both admired and hated about him, just like he admired and hated it now.
If he’d had any hope seeing Mikey in person would clarify any of his mixed feelings, he quickly realized it wasn’t going to be the case.
If anything, his head and his heart were in even more conflict, and he was tempted to get in his truck, throw it in reverse, and get out of there as fast as possible.
Unfortunately, he had already seen Luke and was walking toward him with an all-too-familiar fake smile, and it was clear he was going to either give Luke a hug or shake his hand. Neither was an option Luke wanted to take advantage of.
As it happened, however, he was saved from having to do so by the timely arrival of Brenda, who somehow looked exactly as she had all those years ago when she’d been Luke’s music teacher: same straight black hair; same blandly pretty features; same square-framed glasses taking up her whole face; same pantsuit.
She looked from Luke to Mikey and then back to Luke, and he wasn’t sure he liked the knowing look she had in her eye.
“It’s so nice to see the both of you!” she said, hugging them each in turn.
Luke wasn’t usually the hugging type, but somehow it just felt natural with Brenda.
She’d always been a warm and welcoming presence, someone who took her job at the Center seriously and did everything in her power to make sure her charges were welcomed and loved, no matter how old they were.
Breathing in her lilac-scented perfume, Luke was transported back in time to those first days when he’d stepped inside NACA, not sure he was supposed to be there but still going to do his damnedest to prove himself.
As she pulled away the spell started to evaporate, and his attention was drawn back to Mikey, who seemed to be observing it all with the ironic distance he took to everything. It made Luke’s hackles rise, but he pushed down his anger. He could play nice for today.
And for several more days, he thought. Even if it kills me.
“It’s good to see you too, Brenda,” Mikey said, and surprisingly enough he actually seemed to mean it.
“As you can see,” she said, “the Center’s in pretty bad shape.
However, everyone is buzzing about the concert you two are going to put on, and we’re hoping it’ll not just raise the money we need but also give us the momentum we need to keep going.
It’s certainly going to take a lot, but we all know how the people of our community are.
If you give them a reason to believe in something, they’ll believe in it, and they’ll make you believe in it, too. ”
Luke had no doubt about that. What he did have doubts about was whether Mikey Smiles was willing or able to see this through. Somehow, he doubted it very much.
“Why don’t you two come on in, and we’ll take a tour of the place. I’m sure it’s changed a lot since you were here.” She paused and frowned. “Mostly for the worse, I’m afraid.”
She then led them inside, and it soon became clear it was in even worse shape than the outside.
Everywhere Luke looked he saw signs of decline and neglect, from the way the carpet was starting to pull back from the walls to the undeniable water-stains on the ceiling.
His heart broke at the signs not just of neglect but of a building which seemed to have been totally left behind.
A lot like West Virginia, he thought sadly. Left behind by everyone who can’t be bothered to give a damn, let alone do anything to help.
He liked to think Brenda wasn’t responsible for the problems, but he couldn’t help but feel a flash of irritation that she hadn’t done more to keep the poor old building from falling into such a disgraceful state.
Something of what he was thinking must’ve shown on his face, because a flush of embarrassment crept up into Brenda’s cheeks.
“I’m sorry you have to see the place in such a state,” she said.
“I’m not trying to pass the buck, but the truth is my predecessor, well, he really fucked us, if you’ll pardon my French.
He made sure he took all the money he could and then left the rest of us holding the bag.
Then they asked me to step in and take up the position he’d left behind, and I did, and I’ve been doing my best ever since. ”
She rattled on. “Belive me, I hate to see it in such bad shape, too. A lot of the board…well, if you don’t mind me speaking ill of them, they don’t give much of a shit as to what happens around here.
You know me. I’m the type to shoot straight from the hip, and I’m not going to sugar-coat anything or pussyfoot around the truth.
NACA is in some pretty bad shape, and if you two don’t manage to pull off the concert, then I’m honestly not sure what we’re gonna do.
And not to pile on, but we’re hoping to have it in June.
I know it’s an expedited timeline, but I don’t want to give the board any more of an excuse to pull the plug on the whole thing. ”