"Gimme another cigarette here."
Mark extended his hand and waited as Jamie dropped a cigarette into
it.
"A Cancer," Dave said.
Mark didn't look up. "You don't mind, do you?"
"No, go ahead. But they're really cancers. That's what they should be
called, anyway."
"Yeah," Mark replied, legs shifting and hitting an array of bottles
and cans that they had laying there.
"Is there anything left in that bottle?" Dave asked him.
"No," Mark said, eyes focused outside on the snow.
They were sitting on the paneled floor of Dave's new apartment. Mark,
with his back to the droning heater, was closest to the balcony. The smoke
from his cigarette drifted to the ceiling, where it lingered and slowly ebbed.
Jamie was sipping a cola next to him. Dave was across from the two of them,
sitting Indian-style. The walls of his apartment were painted in bland colors,
centering on pale yellows and deep grays. They were in the living room, which
had Dave's extensive stereo already plugged in and playing his AC/DC,
but was otherwise completely bare. There were two doorways on the other side
of the room, one which led to the bedroom and bathroom, the other to the
kitchen, a small sitting room and eventually the front door.
They'd been cleaning the place up and moving things in since Jamie got
home from school, which was about four o'clock, and were taking a break. The bed
had been the hardest of all to bring in, for it had barely fit in the doorway.
After that, they had moved Dave's small fridge, the stereo, a dresser and an
assortment of breakables in.
Jamie turned and looked at Mark, whose eyes were still fixed outside.
It was late in the day and rush hour traffic was at its peak. Many of the
motorists, having a fourty-five minute trip into the city, drove impatiently
toward the highway ramp. Leaves, laying
in piles by the road, were motionless and smattered with snow. Across
the street, an ice cream shop, closed for the season, was flanked on both sides
by a sparse northeast Ohio woods. The large painted cone on the structure's
front, covered with a light sprinkling of snow on top, looked like it was
to be a celestial treat for the gods. About 100 yards to the left the big
rotating sign of a supermarket turned but went nowhere.
"This might be a bad one," Jamie said as the snow continued to fall.
"Yeah," Mark said between puffs. "It's been this way every year. The
first snowfall is always rotten. At least you have heat, Dave."
"Yeah, but you're going to have to show me how to use the thermostat.
You know how I am with these things. I couldn't figure it out on my own."
"Don't worry," said Jamie. "You know, I can't believe that
you've finally did it! Out of all of us, you've been the first to move away
from home. And this is a nice place, too. Close enough to your parents and
us that if you need anything.."
"..but far enough to get away from it all," Dave interjected.
They sat there for a while, Dave with his head in his knees,
Mark still gazing out the window, only moving to drop his ashes into the almost
empty pop can beside him. Jamie, staring at the two of them, started to feel
a bit uneasy and said something to break the silence: "You know, it seems like
it was just yesterday when we were kids. Remember Dave, the time when you
first got a skateboard? Mark and I had wanted so badly to ride it, and you
wouldn't let us - 'til we stole it and I fell and skinned my knee something
awful. Remember? I still have sort of a mark on my right knee.
Or how about when we'd all play tag in the woods? We were always too scared to
go near that old shack across the creek, even when we were twelve or thirteen.
Remember that?"
"Yeah," Dave said. "That was a long time ago. And if I remember
correctly, it was YOU that was scared to go near that shack. Mark and I hid
our Playboys there."
"You guys did not!" She smiled.
Mark laughed at the childhood flashback. "It was a good spot till that
Bryan Cummings kid - was that his name? - found them and took them home."
"Hey, I remember him," Jamie said. "He was a real jerk. I'm glad he
moved."
