“Hello?”
“That’s better,” he said, crystal clear. “My cell phone works better than the landlines around here in the winter.”
“Great. So, can you help me find Louisa?”
I heard breathing on the other end of the phone.
“I’ll let this slide because I know your father just died and you’re probably out of sorts.”
“How do you know that? Who are you?”
“When the richest man in Black Mountain dies, I hear about it. It was in the paper. Yes, I’m old fashioned and still read the actual newspaper. It’s the best way to know what’s going on in this shitty town.”
Sometimes I forget what a big deal my father was. To me, he was just my dad.
“You call Louisa North your best friend?” He continued. “Well then you should know she passed away years ago.”
Goosebumps rolled through me and my heart dropped to my knees. It was true that we’d lost some touch over the years. But it also felt like another knife twisting inside me, learning that she’d died so young.
“I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks.”
I desperately wanted to pry, but couldn’t bring myself to ask a follow up question related to her death. Morbidly, I thought, this is why her social media presence has gotten more scarce lately.
“And who are you?” I breathed into the phone, sounding hesitant. I was ninety percent sure I knew who he was now, but I didn’t want to assume anything.
After a dramatic pause, he finally answered.
“Shane.”
The hair stood up on the back of my neck when he said the one syllable of his name, and a chill started in my bones and rose up through my whole body.
Holy freaking shit.
My hunch was correct.
But it was hard to process this could actually be little lanky Shane, who I watched learn to ride his bike all those years ago.
“Oh,” was all that came out of my mouth. “Do you remember me?”
“Who could forget you, Dino?” he answered. The way he said it, I imagined him smirking through the phone.
“Dino? What does that even mean?” I wasn’t sure why he was being so combative, and I couldn’t shake the feeling he had something big on his mind. Dino…I racked my brain for the reason for that nickname. But everything from my childhood here had grown foggy through the years.
“Look, I’ll give you a pass on this,” he said, blatantly ignoring my question, “Because I’m sorry to hear your father died. I know how it feels to lose someone close to you. Obviously.”
Relief poured through me, and I also felt my emotions welling up thinking about my own father. I felt awful I hadn’t heard about Louisa. Why wouldn’t my dad had mentioned that to me? Mostly he didn’t like giving me bad news from Black Mountain, so maybe he’d kept it from me.
Something about the voice drew me in. My father always said you can tell everything you need to know about a person from their voice. It’s where they carry their pain. Shane’s was deep, fiery, sharp, and dare I say hot.
And not hot in the cocky, overcompensating way all of the hot shot Florida college boys are when they tried to hit on me. Hot in a calm, cool, you’re in my territory and I don’t understand why you’re here kind of way.
Yes, that attracted me and yes, I admit I most likely have some issues when it comes to men.
But that didn’t change the reality that his voice was so buttery he could probably narrate romance novels if he wanted to head down that route.
Just then, I got an idea. “Hey, so, what are you doing tonight?” I asked. Maybe if we met up in person some of my old memories about this town would flow back to me.
He chuckled, that low voice sending chills through me again. “Why do you care?”
“Do you want to...hang out?” My heart was thumping like mad. I hadn’t even seen Shane in close to a decade, but he was the closest thing I had to a connection to this town, since I’ve been gone so long.
Plus, the boys in Florida were so aggressive I never had to be the one to make the first move.
“I’m busy,” he quipped.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Florida comes back and she wants to hang. Well well.” I stared out at the well-below-freezing snow and stillness outside. His voice, full of life, was a contrast with the frozen tundra out there.
“I’ve come a long way since then,” I tried to reason.
“I bet. Look, great to talk with you. Now I’d appreciate it if you left me alone for the rest of the night.”
“What are you even doing?” I piped up “This town is dead in the winter.”
“I have plans.”
“Right.”
“Bye, Florida.”
“Well at least I understand that nickname. I still need to know what D—"
He hung up.
Wow.
What a dick…
I returned my attention to the room. The dead silence of the house creeped in once more, chillier now without Shane’s voice.
It was funny—the biggest difference between being in a big city in Florida and a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the winter wasn’t the temperature—it was the noise. In Florida, there was always some joker hooting and yelling outside my apartment. Here, I was pretty sure I could listen to the squirrels running up a tree.
I chuckled. I’d always wondered what people meant by the phrase ‘sound of silence,’ and now I understood fully.
Knowing that my father had been recently bustling around these creaky floorboards made me extra whimsical.
I thought about calling one of my college friends from Florida, but explaining small town winter life in the Upper Peninsula to them always felt futile.
I wasn’t one to drink alone, but I was really reeling from the death in the air tonight. Add in the oddness of that interaction with Shane and I was feeling very off. Loneliness crept in and I wished my parents had given me a sibling to share this moment with. But there was just me.
The heater cranked on again startling me, and a chill rolled through me. I said a prayer for my father, then added one in for Louisa, may she rest in peace.
After heading downstairs, I stared longingly at a bottle of wine on my father’s wine rack.
Yes, I felt it. There was something absolutely eerie in the way Shane handled that phone call. Above all, it was in his voice.
2
Natalie
I have a policy of not drinking alone. I decided instead to do my favorite substitute drinking guilty pleasure tonight: ordering pizza and watching The Office.
If I started drinking alone during my first night, that would set a bad precedent for the rest of the trip.
In spite of how small Black Mountain was, it at least had a pizza place, thank God. I ordered a large pepperoni pizza, cranked up the heat in the house and started with my favorite episode, the one where Dunder Mifflin has a fire.
After a few episodes, my phone buzzed with a message. I hadn’t saved it, but I recognized it as the cell number Shane had called me from.
Shane: Hey what are you up to tonight?
I nearly choked on my Diet Pepsi when I saw the picture that accompanied the text. Shane--I could only assume it was him--had sent a shirtless selfie. The picture was taken from a few inches below his belly button up to his chin, cutting off at the eyes. The lighting wasn’t even that good, yet his abs looked so appetizing I wanted to have them for dessert now that I was done with my pizza.