Writer’s note
Not exactly a period piece, this story sort of edges its way toward the 1950s. The new boy in town is not part of the scene but random people draw him in. I found him struggling in a place that doesn't make sense to him, except how much he likes the boy who has likewise found him. The two of them are out of step with this town, a fact that opens up the question of when and where all this takes place. It takes place in an unnamed location at a time unspecified. That's the setting. Someplace USA.
Relationship To-Go
A boy moves to a town where his social life suddenly works for him, but the place feels lost in a cartoonish past. If love was easier then, then that explains how Wade's social life goes better than ever before - if only it holds. But things just keep getting stranger because the town must be following the ways of a nonexistent time zone, plus they've got these rumors about roller-skating.
Wade, 17, is not the type of boy who normally gets things to go the way he wants them to.
First date with your order... late-nite, burger and fries, pink Cadillac, AM radio, 4-wheel skates, milkshakes.
The beginning of the story…
The guy at the walk-up window was called Ryan.
That's what it said on his name tag. I didn't know him or anything.
The word below was Dovers. It could have been his last name or the name of this shake and burger place.
"Thank you," I said. I took the shake he mixed for me and balanced it with the French fries. He forgot to put it all in a bag.
"Wait," he said, and grabbed one. "You said that was to-go, didn't you?"
There was no lobby but there was a picnic table if your order wasn't to-go.
"Thanks," I said, and tried to smile. I was 17, the new boy in town, and there was one big thing I said was going to be different this time around. I was going to have a social life.
With the bag in hand, I made my way across the parking lot. I heard a screen door swing closed behind me.
"Hey." Ryan caught up with me. He was pulling a navy blue sweatshirt over his uniform. "I never seen you before."
"I paid you."
"No." He smoothed out his shirt. "I'm off the clock."
"Oh."
"What's your name?"
"Arthur." I should have asked him for his, but I already knew it.
He stopped next to the only car in the lot. Not only was it a Cadillac, but it was pink.
"I'm going for a ride." He dangled a set of car keys. "Are you in?"
I wasn't sure about the start of my social life. It wasn't like there was anything on TV, but it was hard for me to picture myself riding around in a pink Cadillac with a guy whose last name only might have been Dovers. I looked back at the white neon over the drive-in. Galaxy Burger-N-Shake.
"Okay." I went around to the passenger side. "Where do you go?"
"The river." Ryan came around with his set of keys. You could tell he had keys on there that he didn't even need.
I liked my social life. We were going to the river.
"Is it Ryan Dovers?"
He laughed real loud, but there wasn't anybody around to notice.
"You saw my name tag."
"What's at the river?"
"Nothing." He waited till I got in and he closed the door for me.