Chapter 4: The Search for Trisha
Just as they promised Brady, Eric and Graham got up first thing on the next Saturday morning for their trip to Centralia to find Trisha. Contrary to the weekdays when Eric and Graham had to meet Brady at his dorm to wake him up, Brady already arrived at the front door of Eric and Graham's dorm room, fully dressed, bags packed, and ready to go. Brady was already excited to begin their trip to find Trisha.
Once Eric and Graham got fully dressed and fully packed, all 3 gentlemen got in Eric's car and left the campus. At first, the light fog the cool autumn air brought early in the morning made it hard to drive, but once the sun began to rise and cast away the fog, driving became much easier. The trip up took two hours. Eric drove one hour and Graham drove the other hour because Brady didn't have his license, but Brady didn't mind that at all. Not having to drive gave him the whole time to gaze out the window and watch the passing scenery. As they got closer, and as they got deeper into rural Pennsylvania, the scenery made it obvious that the fall season had come upon Pennsylvania. The leaves on the trees had turned a rustic red, orange and yellow. Some of the trees had already lost their leaves, leaving the trees bare and dry, like boney skeletons. Leaves covered the ground just as much as they adorned the trees. As they got even closer, all 3 men began to notice the fog was getting thicker again.
"That's odd," Eric remarked. "We're almost near noon and the temperature is rising, not falling. The fog shouldn't be getting thicker. It should be getting thinner or disappearing altogether."
"Well, remember what Professor Fritz said in class," Graham reminded Eric. "There's a coal mine fire going on down there. Coal miner fires can last for decades, if not centuries. Underneath us, there's tons of fire, as well as smoke. Smoke is hot air, and hot air likes to rise. It's got to go somewhere. So it goes up and out of any vents it can. I wouldn't be surprised if this fog is more like smog, a mixture of smoke and fog."
"Smog?" Eric questioned. "I thought that was only in Los Angeles." Graham could only shake his head at his roommate's stupidity. Brady was unaffected by his friends' quarrelling. He just got more and more excited as they got closer and closer to Centralia.
The 3 guys drove as far up of Route 61 as they could, until the ground of the deserted ghost town ate up the road. Realizing this was as far as they could go, they parked Eric's car right off the road behind some bushes where no one could see. Then they ventured down the once paved, now dirt road.
Not much remained of the ghost town. Most of the buildings were gone. Either the buildings were demolished by the state government or nature itself had overtaken the buildings. Luckily for the 3 boys one of the buildings still standing was the town hall. After much jiggling on the handle and knocking on the door, the old door finally creaked open. The inside of the building was very dark with no working lights and old a few, small windows. The gentlemen were smart enough to bring flashlights along, so with a click on their flashlight buttons, they began searching the place. Unfortunately, most of the files they were looking for gone. People took some with them when they left. Moths and other bugs ate away at some. Time had been the culprit of others, either fading or decaying away the documents and pictures. The few papers left that were visible provided no help. Neither Brady nor Graham could recognize anyone in the photos, nor could they recognize the event happening in the photo. Most of the documents were the ordinances and other legal documentation of the eminent domain, relocation contract and the evictions. Nothing about Trisha, Brady and Trisha's family, the people, or the town's activities could be found anywhere.
After a whole afternoon of tearing apart the town hall, the men agreed they should move on towards looking into other buildings, even though they had a few options left. They decided would try to get into the few remaining abandoned houses. Who knows? Perhaps they might accidentally find Brady and Trisha's childhood home. Maybe that's their special place. Sadly, the only house they could get into was a house with 5 chimneys as its supports. Yet all the guys could do was admire the architecture of house, for nothing suspicious could be found. By the furniture and other pieces found in the house, the family looked like an average 1900s family. Brady couldn't recognize anything in the house, so they concluded it wasn't his, and they moved on.
As the evening turned into night, the boys concluded they would look into one more building. It was an old warehouse in the southern neck of the abandoned village. The warehouse caused more frustrations than help. Boxes, crates, tubes, reels and other containers blocked several passageways, cutting off many wings of the warehouse. A lot of the doors were locked, and they visitors had no way of unlocking, leave many rooms out of reach, too. Frustrated over getting nowhere, the explorers returned back to Eric's car. Tired from all the walking, and with no affordable hotel in sight, the weary travelers treated the car like a metal tent. Eric and Graham fully reclined their bucket seats in the front to make their bed. Brady laid across the bench seat in the back. After locking the doors for security, all 3 of them quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, Graham got up first, shortly followed by Brady and then Eric. As they ate, Graham pulled out a map to look at other places to search.
"I see you have become the navigator," Eric remarked. "So what are we doing first thing this Sunday morning, navigator?"
"Going to church, of course," Graham said with a smile. Graham led to a church on the western side of the ghost town. As they walked, he explained, "It's called the Church of the Assension. The church was founded the same day the town was founded. It was the first building built, built before the houses, the warehouse, or even the town hall. In fact, some people say the church served as the town hall until the town hall was finished. If that's the case, then there's got to be something significant we can find at this church."
"Well how do we know there's going to be something significant there?" Brady wondered aloud. "For all we know, it could be more dead ends like it was yesterday." Doubt was beginning to creep into Brady.
"Wait, there's more to it," Graham informed Brady. "Other visitors who have come hear have witnessed shady and mysterious looking people come in and out of the church. It leaves a lot to believe this church is still in operation by some faithful members of long ago. There's got to be something more recent and up-to-date."
Just as Graham finished speaking, they arrived at the church, which had been built according to the Ukrainian Orthodox tradition. When they reached the door, Brady grabbed the handle. With the slighting push, the door opened. After all the struggles to get doors to open yesterday, the easily opening door seemed to beckon them in the church. The 3 walked in the door and took a good look around. It was not what they were expecting. Cultic graffiti covered the Christian artwork. The Catholic relics had appendages decapitated. The altar looked like it had animal bones on it. Candle wax covered the pulpit. It made them all wonder, "What kind of worship is going on here?"
Eric watched Graham move over to a podium with a guest book on it. He saw Graham begin to write in it. He said to Graham, "Are you seriously signing the guest book?"
"Of course I am!" Graham exclaimed. "I want to be one of the many various people who visited here. Look at all the various people who visited here who could be great in the future! There's a Harry Mason… he's a writer… there's a James Sunderland… he's a clerk… oh, look! Harry's daughter visited seventeen years after her father did… there's a Henry Townshend… he's a photographer… There's a Alex Shepherd… he's a soldier… I think… there's a Travis Grady… he's just a truck driver, driving through… don't you want to be a part of all these people in a whirlwind adventure? Besides, I should jot down all notes I can about my adventure here. Someday, someone may experience this bizarre town, and hopefully, they will find my notes useful. And also…" Graham paused, then let out a single, "Woah!"
"What did you find there, Joey?" Eric said, mocking Graham.
"Is my sister or my family's name in that book?!" Brady asked with anticipation.
"A lot of the pages are ripped out," Graham informed Brady and Eric. "It's like somebody didn't want anybody reading those pages. Perhaps it had some important, secret information." Graham smiled. "Gentlemen, I believe we found our first clue."
"How did you know it's a clue? Was there a blue paw print in it?" Eric mocked Graham once more. Graham was starting to get sick of Eric's tone; Eric was getting sick of dead ends, and so was Brady.
"Besides a church confused on its religious affiliation and member count, we haven't found anything here, either," Brady said with frustration in his voice. "Is there anywhere else we can go?"
"Yes, there is one more," Graham said with a nod. "Brady, you said Trisha liked graveyards. Well, there are 4 of them in Centralia. I say we start in nearby west one, we'll go clockwise, and we'll wrap up in the south one where we parked our car." Brady liked the idea and agreed.
And so the men walked clockwise around the town, from graveyard to graveyard, and looked at each tombstone. Some seemed worn down over time, while others looked like they were purposely scratched out to keep a secret, but none of them were legible enough to read. As the boys walked, they even found a few graves open, as if people were still using the graveyard. Alas, however, searching the graveyards also rendered useless. With no readable graves, the boys picked up no new clues.
"That was completely useless!" Eric yelled in frustration. "This whole weekend has now gone to waste!"
"Yes, it was," Brady sighed with disappointment, "but thank you for coming out with me for this long shot. I really do appreciate it."
"Well, it looks like the sun has begun to set," Graham remarked. "We better start driving back to Lancaster before it gets too late."
With that, the 3 gentlemen got back into Eric's car. Doing the inverse of the trip up to Centralia, Graham drove the initial hour and and Eric drove the final hour. The drive remained relatively quiet, as the men felt quite defeated on their quest. Not even music played over the car stereo. All the guys could hear was leaves and sticks crushed under the weight of the driving car.
The boys reached the college campus just before night had fallen. Eric dropped Brady off in front of his dorm. Brady took his bags and waved goodbye. Graham and Eric waved back, and then Eric drove the 2 back to their dorm room. Once in their dorm room, the 2 of them unpacked their bags in silence, still upset with the feeling of defeat. All that could be heard was the whirring of a hedge trimmer, which the campus maintenance crew was using to trim the shrubbery right outside their dorm window. Once unpacked, Eric and Graham got into their respective beds and drifted off peacefully into sleep. If only the men knew what followed them home, they would have not slept so peacefully…