As Old Hermon Road came into view, Julie found herself second guessing the decision to have Adam come visit.

...

Ever since that first Christmas when she returned home from Eden Hall, she couldn't help but notice how downtrodden Bangor looked. The same town that had once been perfect for riding bikes and sneaking out with friends at night now seemed to be coated in a permanent grime; from billboards advertising social security lawyers down the grocery store with wilted lettuce, the whole city seemed to sag under the weight of a region that had left them behind.

.

The Gaffney house, too, seemed more embarrassing by the day.

A sprawling four bedroom ranch, the house had been quite the showpiece in 1956. Twenty years later, Tom and Mary Anne Gaffney bought it off Tom's aging aunt for a good price, excited to able to afford such a nice starter home.

.

Unfortunately for the two of them, kids came faster than promotions, and every raise the state gave Tom got eaten up by hockey camps and piano lessons. Though the family was still comfortable, there was never room in the budget for new decor, and the whole house suffered from benign neglect. Now four decades past it's heyday, the residence at 1701 Old Hermon Road had become a mishmash of half-finished projects and rooms that hadn't seen a fresh coat of paint since the Carter administration; a pattern exemplified by the mauve carpet in the foyer and yellow sponge painted walls in the hallway.

.

Looking over at Adam, it just seemed wrong to bring him into such a place.

Sitting there in a crisp white oxford, and perfectly pressed khaki shorts, he just didn't look like the kind of person who would understand how cow-themed bathrooms happen...not that Julie herself was sure that she did, either.

.

"You're sure you're really brave enough for two weeks with us?" Julie joked, hoping that her voice didn't belie how insecure she felt.

Because I'm not sure I'm brave enough for this.

"You've met Scott..."

"Well, yeah, but he's pretty fancy other than always being in and out of jail and stuff."

"Yeah. Yeah, 'other than always being in and out of jail and stuff'. That's a pretty big caveat right there." Adam laughed, his eyes crinkling up at the corners as they sat in the back of Mr. Gaffney's old Honda Accord.

"I'm just saying. You have one of Scott. I'm stuck with three idiots, and way less house to hide them in!"

"Heh, I'm pretty sure Scott's in a league of his own. Besides, you've watched the Lifetime Movie that is my family. It's my turn now."

"You really are remarkably normal, all things considered."

Adam just chuckled, running a hand through his sandy shag.

"I'm so reminding you of that next time you make fun of me."

"I just said that you were normal, all things considered. Not that you're normal-normal."

"Whatever. You said it. You think I'm normal."

"Nah." Julie smiled, reaching over for his hand. "You're way better than normal."


"So how are the boys looking this season?" Guy asked, sitting back in his lawn chair as he took another drink of beer.

After the sun set, most of the Ducks had gone back inside. However, Adam, Charlie, and Guy sat out by the fire, catching up on days gone by as cicadas chirped in the background. Now past discussions of their own glory days, the conversation had shifted to their alma mater's prospects for the upcoming season as Charlie and Guy sat side by side; Charlie filling him in on the annual recruiting battle with their old rival, Shattuck-St. Marys'.

"Not bad." Charlie replied. "Shattuck's got better stars this year. Ostenkirk's better than anyone we have. But we killed it on getting the B-list recruits. They've got three solid guys and nothing else."

Guy nodded.

"Should make for interesting playoffs."

"No kidding. I'm sure they'll kill us the first shift, but unless they've got a plan for cloning Ostenkirk, we'll be playing Our Sisters of the Poor half the game."

"I wonder if there are any rules against cloning a player..." Guy chuckled, swatting at a mosquito.

"I guarantee they'll be trying."

"I don't think their science department is quite up to that."

"I don't think their science department knows what cell division is."

.

Adam sat a couple of feet away, trying to stay out of the discussion.

Fuck Eden Hall.

After twenty years, his thoughts on his alma mater had grown less than charitable, and as Charlie and Guy continued to talk, he looked down at his beer, fingering the colorful beaded bracelet his eldest son had made for him years before.

.

In two more years, it would be time to figure out where to send Tucker for high school.

Two more years until he'd likely be sending him off to Shattuck...once again saying goodbye to a son with whom he'd already missed too many years.

.

"Anybody get anyone else good?"

"Meh, Edina has a couple decent ones that weren't really worth recruiting. But that's about it."

"Figures."

"Yeah."

"How 'bout you?" Guy asked, looking over at his quieter friend. "Are your two oldest living up to the Banks' reputation?"

Looking up from his beer, Adam just chuckled, his thumb stroking a chunky wooden bead.

"Heh, they kind of do what they want."

"You sure they're yours and not Scotty's?" Guy joked, taking another drink. "'Cuz I'm pretty sure you never did what you wanted."

"Yeah, well, they both know how to read, and Will's afraid of hot water heaters, so yup. Poor kids are probably mine."

"Hot water heaters?"

"Yeah."

"Glad to hear that you managed to pass along both neuroticism and basic literacy."

"I did what I could."


"So this is what they do in Maine." Adam laughed, buzzed on cheap liquor pilfered from the Gaffney's liquor cabinet.

Around them, fireflies lit up the sky as the two sat atop a wooden platform, overlooking the miles of trees in every direction.

.

Determined to make the most of Bangor's limited entertainment options, Julie had decided that a certain preppy could use a bit of adventure in his life. Without fully disclosing what they would be doing, she packed a tote bag, and the two set off for a trail a couple of miles from her house.

When Adam realized that her plan involved sneaking up the Forest Service watchtower, he found himself thankful for the bit of liquid courage that had been consumed along the way. Still, as he stared up the rickety metal structure, he couldn't help but long for the relative safety of the ice rink. As he climbed it, he could feel his pulse racing in his ears as the tower shifted with the wind; no amount of grain alcohol enough to quiet his nerves. Now settled in atop the upper platform, he could finally release his grip on the railing and allow the evening sky to consume him.

"Well, it was this or ride a moose to Kennebunkport."

"Should have gone with the moose. It sounds safer."

"Don't worry." Julie chuckled. "We can still do that tomorrow night."

"Do we get to like, ride in the antlers?"

"Duh!"

For a moment, the two grew quiet, watching as shades of magenta overtook the hazy dusk.

Taking another drink from the repurposed Gatorade bottle, the symbolism of the night wasn't lost on Adam-he knew the sun was setting on more than just Central Maine. That all of the magic they were watching would soon come to an end.

Still, that time hadn't arrived yet.

And maybe it didn't have to.

"They really need to build these in Minneapolis."

"Why? So they can make sure Edina doesn't catch on fire?"

"Exactly!"

Julie sat back against the metal edge of the platform, fingering a pebble that she was about to throw over the side.

"That's probably what your dad's office was for."

"The Secret Suburban Forrest Service?"

"Yeah. He was the president of it."

"That would have been a nice job." Adam smiled, looking out over the tree tops. "He probably would have been in a lot better of a mood if he could have been president of the Secret Suburban Forrest Service."

"Agreed."

The thought still fresh in his mind, Adam pondered this magical alternate universe; one where his dad simply got to sit up in his high-rise office all day, staring out at sunsets and making sure Edina hadn't mysteriously caught fire. One in which his dad came home in a good mood every day, happy to report that no conflagrations had swept the western suburbs.

"Do you ever wish your parents could have like, done something different with their lives?"

Julie paused for a second, unsure of how to answer.

"Yeah." She began, looking down at a firefly that had landed beside her, his torso aglow as he signaled out to the other bugs that he was available. "I mean, I think my dad likes his job okay. He's not president of the Secret Suburban Forrest Service or anything, but he seems pretty happy. But I don't know. I think my mom wishes she would have done something different."

"Like what?"

Like not get married.

"I don't know. Like, I feel like my dad just kind of picked both of their lives. And I mean, he did an okay job, but I don't think this was what she really wanted."

"That sucks."

"Yeah.

"So how about you?" She continued, watching as the firefly flew away. "What do you wish your parents could have done?"

Adam just chuckled, looking down at the face of his Rolex.

"I'm pretty sure their best hope would have been never meeting one another."

"That's a happy thought."

"Heh, what can I say? They were pretty doomed."

"Good point."


"That's just the way things work."

As the fire burned down, Adam and Charlie still sat around the glowing embers, their voices rising as the pile of beer cans around them grew.

What had started off as a pleasant enough conversation about Eden Hall's prospects for the upcoming year took a turn for the worse once mention of the Hall of Fame came up.

.

Following the insider trading scandal five years earlier, both Eden Hall and U of Minnesota had tried to distance themselves from Adam's legacy. U of M had done so with a wink and a nod—a few mentions of him had been removed, but his number still hung from the rafters, and as soon as he got out of prison, his box seat passes were waiting on him. The athletic director had even taken him out to lunch to apologize; assuring him that he was still a valued member of the Golden Gopher family.

Eden Hall, on the other hand, meant it when they removed him from their hall of fame. No more banner. No more framed jersey in the hallway. No more plaque or senior picture in the trophy case. Even their list of Varsity captains past was re-done, omitting the 1999 and 2000 seasons from their 120-year history.

They fucking kept Riley on that list.

.

"Two national championships. I gave them two national championships—the only two they ever had!"

"Yeah. And you went to prison."

"It's not like I was out raping kids or something." Adam's voice grew louder, his eyes boring into the coach who had done nothing to stop this injustice. "Insider trading isn't really a crime."

"Nah, actually, I'm pretty sure that anytime you get sent to prison for four years, it's because it's because people consider it 'really a crime'."

"Bullshit."

"What?" Charlie argued back. "You think you can just do whatever you want and nobody will care because of who you were when you were 19?"

"I'm not saying that, but come on."

"Come on what? The whole point of the Hall of Fame is to honor people who've done things with their lives. You haven't done that."

"Fuck you."

For a moment, everything quieted, the only noise coming from the chirp of cicadas in the background. As Charlie cracked open another beer, Adam spoke again, his words softer this time.

"I gave them everything I had." His voice cracking, he shifted in his seat, trying to relieve the pressure on his back and hips. "They got two national championships out of me. I'm 38, and I'm already facing double hip replacement. I can't remember my kids' full names. I don't think it was asking too much for them to at least keep me on their plaque of past captains."

"You know as well as anyone how stuff works there."

"Yeah, and I also know that you're their head coach."

"You're putting this on me?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure you had more veto power over the whole thing than I did."

Yeah.

Because back when you had a say in things, you were always realllly interested in helping everyone else.

"That's rich of you to say."

"What?"

"What do you mean, what?" Charlie reminded him, his voice growing louder as twenty years of resentment started bubbling back to the surface. "Eden Hall. U of M. Sigma Chi. You never did shit for the rest of us."

"What was I supposed to do? Force people to be friends with you?"

"Well I just think it's really funny that you expect me to put my ass out there for you when you've spent the last 25 years basking in all of your rich kid breaks, never doing a damn thing to help anybody else into your perfect little circle."

Adam's eyes grew wide as he looked over at Charlie, his jaw agape in disbelief at the whole thing.

"You let them erase my legacy because you didn't get a fuckin' Sigma Chi bid when you were 18? Grow the fuck up."

"It's not about that, Dickwad."

"Then what's it about?"

"I'm just saying." Charlie pointed out, setting down his beer. "You were all about going with the status quo and not making waves when it suited you. Well guess what? Shit goes both ways. At this point, I'm a lot more concerned about improving diversity than trying to make sure some fat felon has his glory days properly enshrined."

Adam shook his head, his eyes turning cold.

"Go back to the fucking projects."

"What did you say?"

"I said 'go back to the fucking projects'. You don't belong in Edina."

"Why? Because I'm not as classy as you? Because I don't spend every day getting blackout in my fancy house that I bought with stolen money?"

"Fuck you."

"What? Is it that I don't have 15 illegitimate children running around the 'hood like Scott? Is it that I actually pay my child support? Is it that I don't shoot up in the bathroom at work? Because I really want to know what it is that I have to do to live up to your glorious Edina standards."

Adam just shook his head.

"You're bigger white trash than your mom."

"I'm not the one whose kids spent their childhood visiting daddy in prison."

"Yeah, well, speaking of prison." Adam shrugged. "I got to talking to your dad in there, and he says you're the reason he left."

Before they either one quite knew what was happening, both were on the ground, Adam's lip bleeding as Charlie tried to shake out the pain in his hand. In the background, cicadas kept on chirping.