The Garage

Billy opened the door from the house to go into the garage. It was the only part of the house he hadn’t been in but it was time. His friends had garages at their houses. They had been in them and described them so why couldn’t he see this one?

He walked in the garage and closed the door behind him. It was much bigger and extravagant than he had expected. By the way his friends had described garages, he thought he’d just walk in, see a car or two of his parents’, then maybe a lawn mower and some other stuff like that.

There were two cars in there but he didn’t recognize them and they weren’t packed in right next to each other. There was plenty of space in the garage and there were actually two men that looked like mechanics working on the cars. They spoke to each other and didn’t seem to notice Billy.

He walked around curiously. He walked closer to the cars and he could hear the men talking more clearly. The first one was talking in car language that Billy couldn’t understand. The other guy said something that sounded to Billy like it might be a dirty joke. All Billy recognized was the cuss word that the guy said which made the other guy laugh loudly.

Billy looked past the two men and the cars and saw two smaller buildings, still inside the garage, almost looking like they were two small stores in a mall. The one looked like it might be some sort of cellular store. It had tinted windows and a glass door that was also tinted. It appeared there might be some sort of activity going on inside of there but he couldn’t be sure.

The building next to that one was completely boarded up. There was a noticeable door but that was boarded up as well. Billy was able to read a sign that was on the outside wall of the boarded-up building. It read: ‘COVID VACCINATIONS HERE.’ That seemed great. From what he understood, it wasn’t easy to get a vaccination so to have a place that was distributing them near his house – in his house really – was good information. Maybe if he told some friends, he’d be a hero.

He then read another sign on the same building right underneath that one: ‘DON’T BRING YOUR KIDS IN HERE. THE PEOPLE IN HERE AREN’T ONES THAT YOU WANT TO HAVE AROUND YOUR KIDS.’ He found that odd. COVID vaccinations were a good thing, right? So why wouldn’t you want to have those people around your kids?

He was fairly close to the two mechanics who still hadn’t acted like they noticed him. He decided this garage was creepy and he wanted to go back inside the house. As he walked back to the door leading to the house, there was something about the wall around it that seemed different to him, though he couldn’t tell what so he didn't put too much thought into it.

He walked through the door, back inside, only looking at the floor. But he was too curious and had to go back. Why would a COVID vaccination site look all boarded up like it was a closed business and why would it be implied that the people giving the vaccinations were bad people? He walked back out in the garage and looked over the mechanics towards the boarded-up COVID vaccination building. 

“I sure am glad to be getting this COVID vaccine!” said the woman.

All Billy could see of the woman was the back of her upper body. She had short curly hair and based on her voice and hairstyle and hair color he guessed that she was probably in her late fifties. He saw a grey overcoat on the top half of her body but one of the cars was blocking Billy being able to see her lower body.

Walking about ten feet in front of her was a man that Billy was also only able to see the back of. His gray, ratty hair made him look even older but it was the hunchback he had that made him look really old. The car was not in the way of Billy’s vision of him and he was able to see the blue sweatshirt and grey sweatpants the man was wearing. The man moved extremely slowly and even though the woman that was excited to get the vaccination was walking much faster behind him, the distance between the two of them did not change. He said nothing about her comment that she was relieved to be getting the vaccination and just continued to lead her towards the boarded up building.

Billy wondered if this was the man that was going to giving her the vaccination and he suddenly got a terrible feeling that the woman should not walk into that boarded up building with him. He wondered if he should warn her but he thought about how the mechanics didn’t notice him and he wondered if she would either. Plus, she seemed so eager to get the vaccine, he feared she would scold him if he dared try to stand in the way of that.

He looked back at the mechanics going about their business and joking around with each other, showing no awareness of the two older people walking towards the boarded-up building. He now decided that he didn’t want to be in this garage anymore and that he would go back to just staying in the rest of the house, never to come into this garage again.

As he turned around he looked at the wall surrounding the door he realized what had been different about the wall. It looked like a large portion of it that normally stretched out to the corner had worn away and was just gone. He walked through the door into the house and sure enough, he saw the large gap where that portion of the wall used to be with the noticeable wear and tear where it stopped. He saw nothing past the wall blank space and still couldn’t see into the garage but he knew exactly what was in that garage. He really hoped that wall would get fixed.