The City of Rossford

They both sat crosslegged on Robin’s bed while the old Mariah Carey CD played. The stereo was old and Meredith said, “I remember when we were little and used to sing:

‘And then a hero comes a long….’ Come on,” Meredith said.

Robin smiled and added:

“With the strength to carry on

and you cast your fears aside

and you know you will survive!”

The two girls exploded, singing into their fist:

And you finally know the truth.

That a hero lies in you!

As Mariah erupted into the bridge, Meredith said, “It’s all you, girl,” to the CD player.

As Mariah Carey sang on the tinny CD player, Meredith noted: “Sometimes, and I hate to say it, but you need a little Mariah.”

“Amen to that,” Robin said with a grin. And then she said, “I’m tired.”

“I should go then,” Meredith said.

“I guess you should,” Robin said, reluctantly.

Meredith got up off the bed and began gathering her things.

“I’ll leave the CD with you,” Meredith told her. “And that lip gloss. It’s better on you anyway.”

“Oh, Meredith, you keep it!” Robin said.

“Are you afraid?” Meredith said, suddenly. “Of the trial?”

“I don’t even care about the trial,” Robin said with a heavy seriousness.

“Alright,” Meredith shifted her purse on her shoulder. She opened her arms for her friend.

Robin embraced her.

“I love you, Meredith. Good bye.”

Meredith laughed, kissed her on the cheek, and then walked out saying, “It’s no need to sound so final.”

“That’s never happened to me before,” Sheridan said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Sheridan,” Shelley Latham put a hand on his shoulder. “It happens to us all.”

He looked at her.

“I mean it happens to all guys. Especially under stress.”

“I’m seventeen. It’s not supposed to happen to me.”

“You are under a ton of stress. And your cell is vibrating.”

“Uh?” Sheridan turned around and saw the phone shaking.

“How does it do that?” he wondered aloud as he flipped it open.

“It’s Chay.”

“You better answer it then.”

Sheridan obeyed and said: “What’s up?”

“Hey. Can you give me a ride to Casey’s?”

“Had you ever thought,” Sheridan began, “that I have better things to do than drive you around?”

“Harsh,” Shelley murmured. She took the phone from Sheridan and said, “Hi, Chay. This is Shelley. Sheridan has nothing at all better to do than drive you around, which he’s going to do, because he’s a friend.”

She handed the phone back to him, whispering:

“Nothing was going to happen now, anyway. Not the way you are right now.”

“I’m sorry,” Chay said.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” Sheridan’s voice was low and sullen.

Chay remained unconvinced. In the distance they heard the train wail, and then it let out a scream as the night deepened.

“Shit,” Sheridan said.

“I wonder how fast those things go,” Chay said.

“My dad said that they knocked a kid out of his Keds, that’s how fast they go.” Sheridan shrugged. “I guess that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Do they still make Keds?”

Sheridan started laughing and, encouraged by this, Chay laughed too.

“I wasn’t mad at you,” Sheridan said as they neared Casey’s house.

“I couldn’t get it up tonight,” he admitted.

“Oh.”

“I… that has never happened. I’ve been so fucked up since this thing happened to Robin. I haven’t been able to… to do anything.

“Well, here we are,” Sheridan said, looking at the large old white house with the lights on in the front.

“I’m gonna come in with you.”

Chay looked at him curiously, but all he said was, “Alright?”

They climbed out of the car and walked up the gravel to the house where Casey, in his glasses, was already opening the door of the screened in porch.

“It’s cold,” he said. “Hurry up.”

They got in the house, and after greeting Chay Casey said, “Sheridan, right?”

“Right,” Sheridan nodded. They were of a height.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Sheridan said.

“Chay, go put your things away,” Casey told him.

Chay looked between the two of them, and then obeyed.

“About?” Casey said.

“I know about you and him. He hasn’t told me, really. But I know. You’ve gotta be thirty.”

“Twenty-eight.”

“Well, he’s not even sixteen.”

“I know how old Chay is.”

“I know about you two,” Sheridan repeated.

“Whaddo you know, Sheridan?”

That was a good trick. It was harder to say than imply. Sheridan tried.

“I know you’re fucking him.”

Casey took a breath, but he didn’t seem to be very worried. He folded his arms over his chest, and that was when Sheridan realized that Casey was built. He had a body that sort of snuck up on you.

“Whaddo you want?” Casey guessed.

“I want you to hire me.”

Casey looked at him strangely, and then said, “Fine. Come by tomorrow. But… you have to go right now. Because despite what you think you know, this time belongs to Chay. Chay first and me second. Good night, Sheridan.”

Sheridan Klasko nodded, turned his back and left, hearing the door shut behind him. Why had he left knowing that his best friend was going to be having sex with a thirty year old pornographer? What was he?

He walked to the car. He should have threatened Casey with the police. Or with Noah. Or… something. He sat in the car before turning the key in the ignition. Coming down the long driveway, he stopped for the sudden whir of ambulance and fire truck, red and blue lights twinkling as they sped up the road. In the darkness again, coming out onto the state road, Sheridan knew that Casey had glamored him from day one, and he wanted to be in his world far more than he wished to destroy it.

Dena Affren gripped her stomach and got up.

“Put that damn cigarette out, Milo. You’re making me sick.”

“Since when?” Milo wondered, but he put it out as Dena went in the direction of the bathroom. She came back a moment later.

“I seriously thought I was going to throw up.”

“You’re as bad as Claire,” Mathan said.

Dena tilted her head.

“Maybe you’re both pregnant,” Meredith suggested from her seat on the edge of the sofa.

“You’re an evil bitch for wishing that on me,” Dena said. “I feel better now, anyway. I’m going to go make some popcorn.”

Meredith yawned. “None for me. I think its almost bedtime.”

The show was interrupted by a station banner reading: SPECIAL REPORT

“Oh, shit!” Dena put a hand on her hip.

Charlie Palmer materialized, and she said, “I’ve seen enough of him to last my whole life.”

“Good evening, Rossford,” Charlie said, soberly, “This just in…”

Face to face, Chay’s legs wrapped about Casey’s waist, they rose and fell together, bodies moist, Casey’s mouth was open, and so were his eyes as he held Chay’s face in his hands. They looked into each other, shaking and gasping before, with a gentle signal, Casey turned him around and pressed his stomach into Chay’s back. He pressed himself over and over against him, eyes closed, burying his face in Chay’s shoulder so that Chay could feel the stubble. He kissed him up and down, reaching under the boy to run his hands over Chay’s chest. Quickly Casey reached for the condom. Gently and with tenderness, he inserted his shiny finger, making Chay groan as Casey opened him. Casey’s hands lifted the boy by the hips and both of them gasped as, gently, he pushed his penis inside of him.

“Off of Old Hickory Road there was a train accident tonight. A freight train bound for Indianapolis was stopped in its tracks when it killed a young girl,” Andrew Palmer reported.

Meredith began to tremble, and she looked to Mathan while Andrew continued…

The bed creaked first a little, and then a lot, and then it groaned with the danger of breaking as Casey fucked him harder and harder. Chay reached his hand back to feel the solidness of Casey’s neck, the knot of his neckbone. He wanted to pull him deeper in while Casey kissed him over and over again, fucking him against the bed, sweat raining from him, Casey kept saying “I’m all for you, baby. I’m all for you. Everything…”

“What makes the accident that much more tragic is that by all reports the victim is one Robin Netteson, the same girl who only a few weeks ago was the center of media attention in the Rossford High School rape trial.”

They shook. He moved in him like a piston. He was one vibration as Chay’s body lifted and lifted up to heaven, the lights swirled, the bed shook, the world trembled and the lights went out. He shot out and out from himself, Casey’s hands were slick on his back, trying to hold him to earth as they both went into blackness.

Blackness and blackness, swirling in blackness, all the lights fainting as the couch, and the earth dropped from under Meredith Affren, and on the edge of everything she fell and fell, the scream of a train roaring in her ears.