“It’s
just this house with a red door and a big lock on it,” Frank said, turning down
the radio volume, “And no one’s ever been inside of it.”
“Someone’s been inside of it,” Bren
said, “People don’t just build houses for no one to live in.” Also, no one
would build a house entirely from the outside. It also seemed pointless to just
build a house from the outside and not put anything inside of it. Bren supposed
there could just be walls, a roof, and a big red door, and nothing inside, but
that was so purposelessly intricate that she simply could not believe it.
She’d been inside one of the other
houses at one time too. And at least from the outside, the houses were
identical. So she knew there was something inside of the one Frank talked about
too. “I mean, no one recently has
been inside of it,” Frank said.
“Do you know about the Red Keys?”
Bren asked.
“Some kind of society, right? Like,
a secret society like the Illuminati or something. Except I heard they were
into weird stuff.”
“That’s a really juvenile way of
describing it,” Bren said, “They were more like a group of explorers who
believed they’d discovered pathways to another world that could be entered by
going underground.”
“Weird,” Frank said, “I’m guessing
you’re going to tell me they built the house I’m talking about?”
“Right-o,” Bren said.
They were in Frank’s car, headed to
Downtown because Frank had asked Bren out on a date and Bren had said, “Sure”,
before she’d realized it was a date. They were going to head to a restaurant
that Frank said served the best pizza ever. “How do you know that?” Frank
asked.
“I just know a bit of local
history,” Bren said, “I grew up around here.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right, you told me
that already,” Frank said, “I keep forgetting. You don’t have the accent at
all.”
“Yeah I didn’t spend a lot of my
time around the kids around here,” Bren said.
“Were you home schooled or
something?” Frank asked.
“What would you say if I was?”
“Nothing,” Frank said, “I mean, I
don’t fucking know.”
“I wasn’t homeschooled; I went to
public school like everyone else. I just didn’t talk much to anyone,” Bren said,
“I was a quiet little dove.” Dove was a semi facetious term, Bren knew, but her
mother had called her that often enough.
“Shy kid?”
“Yeah,” Bren said, “I had a lot of
imaginary friends growing up.” Some of them weren’t imaginary though. She’d had
a lot of friends her parents had thought were imaginary but weren’t at all.
“I did too,” Frank said, “I guess I
was pretty shy growing up. I didn’t keep a lot of friends in High School. I
guess we have that in common.”
“That how you’re so popular now?”
Bren asked.
Frank chuckled, “I don’t know how I
got to be so popular. But it’s nice. I don’t really care though.” He was trying
to sound like a cool dude. Bren didn’t think he was really succeeding. She didn’t
know why he was so nervous.
“Where’s this pizza place?” Bren
asked.
“Right around here,” Frank said,
“Although seeing as you grew up here I thought you’d know.”
“Yeah,” Bren said, “I was worried
this was the place you were going to suggest.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Frank asked,
“I mean if you wanna go somewhere else…” “We’re
already here,” Bren said, “I’m cool with it.”
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