Desolation Row

About ten minutes into his walk home, Jed notices a small group of people, probably around his age, standing in a circle around a lamp post. Being a member of this neighborhood for some time now, Jed notices when something is off, and a random group of kids standing around in the middle of the night wouldn't sit well with anybody. So, giving in to that curious teenager in his head, he goes to a corner of one of the apartments and watches. He's too far away to hear anything legible, but the group movement is rather suggestive. "What the fuck are they doing?" Jed whispers softly to himself. After a few moments of nothing happening, Jed decides that he's been there long enough. He turns the corner into his backyard, where his mother and father are anxiously awaiting his arrival.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" His father jaunts him.

"Yes, Dad. Me and Travis just got caught up in the music tonight is all."

His mom chimes in, "Well, we're glad you have good friends in this town, but you have to stay cautious in this place."

Jed, rather aggravated, says, "I'm aware mom. Trust me a little bit, won't you?"

"We do." His parents said, almost at the same time.

"Dinner's on the stove if you want some." His mom says. Jed walks right by it. He texts Travis about what he saw, but with no reply.

"Probably talkin' with that cute lil' thang he swears he's in love with." Jed mocks in his best southern drawl. He retires to his room, puts his phone on charge for the night, and wrestles with sleeplessness for what seems like hours before finally falling into the darkness.

~~~~~

Jed's awakened by the his dad knocking on his door yelling "Go answer your friend before I shoot him!" Jed leans over to his window, and sees Travis on his golf cart, honking the horn repeatedly.

He opens his window, and hears Travis yell, " Come on faggot!" He does this in the thickest drawl he can manage.

Jed groans. "Oh god man, really?" He gets dressed and on his way out his mom reminds him of his curfew. "I know," is his only reply.

When Jed makes it to the cart, Travis looks at him. He knows Jed hates that, and says "Do you know what today is, boy?" Jed gives him the same look, "No, and don't call me boy. I hate that."

"Fine then, but today is special for two reasons. REASON #1!," He shouts, "Today makes a year and 7 months me and Naomi have been together."

Jed starts clapping slowly. "Wow" He says, "I figured she'd have left your stupid ass by now."

Travis hits him in the side. "Not the best part. REASON #2!" He proclaims, "It's also our turn to watch the neighborhood tonight. Maybe that way we'll bust them 'drug dealers' you saw last night." Travis puts the golf cart in drive and they start down the narrow lanes.

"Maybe so." Jed says. "I really don't know what happened. It was creepy as hell though." Travis looks at him and asks where they were last night. Jed leads him to the spot, where there's a single light pole in front of a wall. Travis parks the cart, noticing that there's spraypaint on the wall.

"Well ain't that some weird shit." Jed walks up, takes out his phone, and takes a picture of the graffiti. "This a gang sign you recognize?" He asks Travis.

"Nope," Travis replies, "Gangs aren't real big around here, but hell, it's possible." The boys are dumbfounded by the symbol, which roughly depicts a 5 pointed star between the letters D and R. "Well dude, I guess tonight that'll be something we do." Jed gives him a confused look.

"What?"

"Ask people if they've seen anything out of place around here lately," Travis replies.

"Yeah. Makes sense, I guess," Jed says with a sense of rising dread. Travis gives him a gentle push.

"Come on dude, I'll take you home. I got a date to get ready for," he says while walking back to the cart, "unless, of course, you want to walk your ass home. That'd be cool too." Jed runs to the driver's side and jumps behind the wheel. Travis starts laughing. "Nice try, bitch, but I've got the keys."

~~~~~

After a long evening at a restaurant in town, Travis and Naomi come through the front gate of the neighborhood. Travis is driving his mom's car, a beautiful Dodge Challenger he begged really hard to drive tonight. It was part of his plan to really impress Naomi, and it was working perfectly. As soon as he put it in park in the driveway, she reached over, grabbed his tie, and kissed him repeatedly.

"I had a lot of fun at dinner," Naomi said with a dash of slyness, "but now what, huh?" The last line was said while biting her lower lip and smiling her sly smile that pulled Travis's heart strings every time.

"I don't know baby. Why don't you give me some ideas?"

With that, Naomi stood up, winked at Travis, and walked towards the front door, swinging her hips alouringly. Travis slowly shakes his head, smiling like a fool. He follows her up the stairs, paying close attention to how that short dress rides up her long legs. Travis opens the door and holds it while Naomi walks through, giving his tie a playful little tug and a wink at the same time. She walked through the living room, then after exchanging greetings with Karen, she walked up the stairs into Travis's room.

Halfway through the living room, Karen stopped Travis, saying, "I know what you're going to do, Son."

Startled, Travis turned just in time to catch a small box his mother threw at him. "At least be safe about it." She said with a half-smile.

"Thanks, Mom," Travis replied somewhat hesitantly. They exchanged nervous smiles as he started up the stairs. He opened his door to find Naomi standing there, stripped down to dark red lingerie, he closes the door behind him. Naomi walks up, wraps her arms around his shoulders, his around her hips.

She leans in and whispers "I love you, Travis." He replies, "and I love you, Naomi." With that, Naomi reaches behind him and turns off the lights.

~~~~~

When Jed walks around the house later that evening, Travis is laying out on the trampoline. They're both wearing the bright green neighborhood watch tee-shirts, waiting for something to happen. Jed hits one of the springs and says "You're lucky, you know." Travis gives him this stare.

"How so?"

"You got yourself a smart, good looking lady; I imagine the sex is great. And then you're talented."

"Trust me dude, it's not as great as it seems."

Jed just shakes his head in disbelief. He says, "I'll believe it when I get my own fame. You ready to start patrollin'?"

Travis leans up. "Does the pope shit in the woods?" Jed just looks at him. Travis pulls the golf cart keys out and laughs. "Come on boy, lets go."

~~~~~

They decided to go with the earlier plan of asking around about suspicious activity, but there wasn't much luck. The first few houses noticed a group, the number of people was around six. Other houses either didn't answer or just said they didn't see anything.

"Well fuck," Travis finally says, "so far no one has seen more than you, and we see how far that's gotten us." Jed looks around, he then sees a shadow move next to a group of apartments.

"Dude did you see that?!" Jed started screaming at Travis.

"Shhhh, Motherfucker. If he's still there you'll scare him off!" Travis jumps from the golf cart, running as quietly as he an manage, to get to the corner. Jed slowly catches up, to see a figure in a hoodie running between the buildings. He went to chase, but Travis held him short. "It won't do any good, he's already gone."

"You can't be serious! We could've caught him!"

"Stop it, bro. Even with the cart it's a no-go."

Jed sat down, a mix of fear and exhaustion fills his system. Travis speaks first, "I think it's time we called it a night, let the blue lights take this one."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, man. You mind if I stay at your place?"

"Not at all, dude."

So they make it back to Travis's apartment, and struggle for sleep.