THE THRESHOLD
Installment Three
The man looked a little surprised that the boy was speaking to him. There was a pause and then he answered. “Uh, that book any good?”
This loosened Alex up a bit. Finally someone was asking him about something that he loved, rather than questions about homework, grades, or this week’s popular rock band. “Yeah, it’s great! It’s my favorite book,” he replied.
“Really?” said the man, now with a bit of a smile. “Will you tell me about it?”
“Sure!” And Alex went on to enthusiastically summarize the plot of the Threshold. How a man went on a journey after dropping out of college, hoping to discover a bit of the world, and maybe a bit of himself. He told how the character stumbled upon a doorway to another world, one where anyone’s dreams can come true without consequence, and how, in being in that world, the character learned that life just isn’t right without mistakes, without having to work for the things you want, and though the world gave him whatever he wished, it still didn’t feel genuine. He got no real pride out of the life he had because none of it was earned. He explained how the character decided to leave that other world and try to make the same life for himself, except actually take the journey to get there. It was the kind of tale that Alex wanted to live.
When he was finished there was silence between the two strangers. The man looked at Alex in astonishment and a glimmer of a tear in his eye. “…you get it,” he choked out.
Alex did not understand, and the man‘s apparent emotions made him suddenly very uncomfortable. He simply asked “I get what?”
“Will you come with me?” the man asked. “There’s something I’d like to tell you.”
“Uh, I don’t know you buddy, and in this day and age, I dunno if it’s too wise for me to do that,” answered Alex, now trying to discreetly but quickly gather up his things and leave the man behind.
The stranger chuckled quietly. “Ok, you’re probably right. You’re a smart kid. Tell ya what. I own this place, so why don’t you come by tomorrow, only if you want to, and you can have a hot chocolate on the house. I’ll talk to you here.”
“I don’t know,” Alex said slowly as he stood up from the booth. “Maybe, but I gotta go now,” and he was out the door, his payment for the drink on the table.
The next day at school Alex couldn’t get his encounter with that strange guy out of his head. Most of him was sure the man was a crazy drunk, probably a pedophile that escaped from the pen. But just a small bit of him wanted to go to that diner after school, just to see what was up. It’s a public place he thought the guy can’t do anything to me there.
Throughout the day, that little bit of Alex that contemplated another visit to the diner grew larger and eventually overcame his doubtful side. Alex decided he would see what this was all about. In fact, a sense of excitement grew in the boy, one of an awaited adventure. His logical side told him that the man would probably have nothing life-changing to tell him, but his heart he hoped for something beyond the mundane, something to take him out of the small town existence that represented his entire life so far.
Alex was the first student out the doors of Lexington’s single high school, he hadn’t even stopped at his locker to drop of his books, he simply shoved them in to his already over-stuffed back pack and told him self that the extra weight wouldn’t slow down his walk to the downtown diner. Not even the flurry filled wind in his face deterred Alex from reaching the diner, because something inside told him that he didn’t want to miss this meeting.
Finally, the boy reached the diner, opened the door with a jingle of the attached bell, and took a moment to catch his breath. He looked around and caught the eye of the stranger sitting in a booth in the back; the one Alex sat at the day before. The man motioned Alex over and the boy heeded the gesture. Now that he was here, nervousness was starting to creep into Alex’s consciousness. He wondered if this was a big mistake, or even some kind of joke playing on his insecurities, but he knew there was really no backing out now.
“I’m glad you came, Alex,” said the man as Alex slowly took a seat across the table. “My name is Joseph Griffin, but you may know me better by my pen name, Steven M. Butler.”
