The Zoomer and The Boys

Hawkins Indiana (Present)

December 1985

Max skated away from school as quickly as she could during the hour of three stroke. It was a command signal to the students at Hawkins High to seize whatever pleasures awaited them this Christmas break. Not having to worry about a parent or a parked ride waiting, she simply set her ornate gray skateboard on the asphalt and kicked. Kicked the drudgery and routine that high school had set for her to the wind. Seemed like she was doing that with everything in her life.

As she skated along a road skirted with maple foliage and patches of snow from last week's brief fall, she looked up above the dusty green hill of tombstones. The cemetery was as lethargic and foreboding as ever, not unlike its residents. In a moment of apprehension, a car crescendoed past her, leaving the world in an oddly quieter state than Max had perceived as she slowed at the entrance.

She stood there a moment, regretting how she came to know of this place's existence. It had been 6 months and she still dreaded going up the hill again after seeing Billy's grave. She turned away from the hill as too many glints of tragedy and horror flooded her mind. She immediately hated herself for coming here, what made her do this day after day. Ever since her brother's death, it was as though all the badassery and spontaneity of her life had vanished.

It wasn't like this was the short route home. The left off of the police station led straight to Forest Hills trailer park, but she consistently remained habituated on the road that led to east Hawkins. She pushed on, kicking harder than last time.

*

Summer 1985

Lucas and Will met Max outside school during that bulldozing final week of May, just one week before school let out. She sat with them at the bench 15 yards from the entrance, and they were explaining their plans for the summer. Will and Lucas were going to join a D&D that was operating from High School, that Dustin said was run by very trustworthy people. He was here at the moment given that he was preparing at his house for some sort of science camp.

Will and Lucas now persuaded her to join but Max wouldn't hear of it. "Look, no one's asking you to liken it. Just play it with us on some occasions. You don't have to be a nerd to enjoy this."

"Uh yes I do. Uh yes you do." Max said. "And it's not like I have to play this. Mike, Will... Eleven. They can play too. Face it, i'm a level one Cleric or something. I can go to the arcade or mall with you." She recited the knowledge that Dustin had previously shoveled into her while explaining the game. She still thought it was madness; why were there 3 dice, why were there so many characters, and why was the entire thing embezzled in ridiculously detailed lore. The stuff of nerds, she thought

Will was about to confidently correct the mistake of my classification after I spoke, (fair), but then offered an alternative. "Well, maybe you don't need to. Lucas, Dustin's only gone for three weeks. Maybe we can look into this High School club and just spend more time with Max at the arcade. And that Starcourt mall place is opening a little before that right?"

Lucas nodded in agreement and smiled at the both of them. "Sounds good. Assuming of course Mike joins us. But he's gettin busy." He turned around and reverberated a kiss, while twisting his arms around his torso in a hypnotic fashion, much to her amusement. Lucas, like Dustin and Mike, was a dork, but he was a loving and loyal dork. A trait that her family undermined deeply. 

Will seemed a tad neutralized in contrast to seconds ago, as though a bird dropped its mail on him or it dawned on him that his mom's died. Admittedly, both those things would be level 10 misfortune for him, but Max wasn't about to let any of her friends get off to summer on a sobby note. "Hey, you alright?"

Lucas turned to his friend and Will, now conscious of his dispiritedness, eluded it. "Yeah I just. I miss Mike." He said after a moment. Lucas and her frowned. Although they didn't entirely understand, they were used to seeing their friend upset. After the past year, no one deserved it less than him. "He and El spend all their time together, my brother Jonathan has the reporter job, Dustin's leaving, and all I have is you two, who are now dating.... Don't get me wrong, i'm glad you guys...we're friends but, it's like, everyone's changing."

While Lucas remained silent to his friend, Max began to gain a better sense of Will's plight, and thought about it. She didn't know how to respond, Will wasn't a boy she knew very well, unlike the others who quite by accident, got caught up in her life deeply. There was something always different about Will from the others, maybe it was the fact he was kidnapped a year ago, or that he was just more reserved.

Regardless, he, like Lucas, was loyal and brave, and she tried to help him. "Well, Mike is still here. and Dustin will come back, and you can still play D&D."

Lucas snapped out of his phase and joined in. "Yeah. I mean, it's not like there' ghosts or anything. None of us are going to be like that. They just need time. It's summer." He finished ecstatically and Max smiled.

Will gave a small nod and smiled. "Yeah. I guess I was just a little worried about them being too grown up." He managed following a beat of silence. "Well, I guess we should go to the arcade about now. We deserve it after this week." He got up from the bench and walked to the bikes on the rail nearby. Lucas turned to Max as he left.

"Don't think too much of it Max. I mean our relationship is normal. It is normal. Mike's is too extreme. So maybe we just wait until they come back and then tell them."

Max thought he was right and grinned at her boyfriend. Their relationship was perfectly balanced, and always would be. He nodded to Will and the bikes and she followed. Max watched him, knowing things were swimming now, but something about Will's and Lucas's words made her dread change.

*

Present

If only she was more supportive of Will then. Maybe they would've got to know each other more.

She had been skating on the road for nearly 20 minutes now when she approached Hawkins lake. Banking off road, she barreled down through the trees, mindful of the breakneck trees and rocks that were shrouded through snow, thicker than ever during winter.

She jumped and the board flung up to her hand as effortlessly as gravity pulls on soccer balls. She got to the brim of the shore and found the log she recalled from when she first saw it. Snow had pasted it over a bit, and the lake was still unfrozen, yet this seemed more peaceful. She set her backpack and board beside her. It was going to be a while.

The silence that surrounded the lake was something Max didn't necessarily enjoy, but the probing offered something that nothing else had for a time. Most of her life she listened to the trivial recommendations and advice that never lead her to success. She had been forced to endure the inflammation and violence that never ceased to give her peace, often stemming from her stepfather. But it was not two years ago that she was given the luxury of companions who promised her loyalty and acceptance. But those were useless commodities now. Only solitude was needed.

Her backpack laid a foot away on the log she sat upon as she kept her hands folded and letting the hypnotic ripples of the lake absorb her. Sitting on the bank of the lake, no human influence disturbed the natural order that engulfed her and the unsteady water. An occasional duo of birds chasing each other and the fall of pizza sized snow plates from the trees was all that filled the world to Max. And yet, she had visited this place many times since her friends left Hawkins, and there was something missing, like a word or advice that you couldn't quite place.

She looked down to her watch displaying the hour of 4. Given that her mom was working her second job at Maxwell's Coffee in the center of town, it would be an hour at least before her mom had dinner ready. Although they had bought take-outs from restaurants the entire 4th quarter of the year, her mom promised that tonight's dinner would be home-made. Special as she called it. It wasn't special, she thought, just different. With her step dad gone, leaving little money for the two of them, things were immensely better. In the relief of it all, his discourteous voice continued to echo in her head, remnants of the threats I heard him make to his wife and son. The latter's voice was another echo that never rested. Billy's.

*

Spring 1984

Max recalled sitting on top of the truck that lazy afternoon where she first opened up to Lucas not two weeks ago. The vehicle was decaying, wrapped in gray color and vines corkscrewing and spiraling around the tires that seemed to be buried into the earth.

She did not hear Billy's car approach her until she heard him emerge out of the hatch. She thought she was going to be arrested for a moment.

"What the hell are you doing here? You were supposed to meet at the pool." Max rolled her eyes at the mention of his new summer job. Seemed as though Billy was robbed of his date once because of her, and now he needed to compensate by gazing at the place where all the bitches gathered. She got up, leaving her backpack on the cold metal roof and faced him.

"I do what I want. You're supposed to leave me alone, remember?" She said fearlessly to him, giving him the same stare she gave him that night months ago.

His heavy eyelids swung down as he recalled the same night. She could've killed him with that spiked bat, probably thinking he deserved it. On top of that, his father would probably take away his job if he ignored Max again. Ten years of violence and Billy still had no idea of the extent of his father's brutality. Yesterday was a prime example, after their freezer began to leak, his dad threw him in front of it, telling him to smell the reek of meat, the price of his ignorance. He hated it, but managed to clean the leak and find the source of the freezer problem, as he'd learned to do in the past without saying a word. He was fortunate enough to make it away from the house without further wisdom from his father.

Regardless, he wasn't about to sob in front of Max even if his father's knife was being lodged through his throat. That was never going to happen. "You're right." He said grinning down and pulling out a cigarette. Max looked into the eyes of her stepbrother, which seemed to be sucked dry of joy, so that all there was left to do was smile in acceptance. Intentional or not, that's how he always presented itself to Max.

After lighting it, he sent a whiff of smoke into the gray evening sky and looked back at Max, "So, you come here now after school with your friends. Is that it?"

Max scoffed and turned back to face the lake. "Non of your business. I'll skate home to your dad later."

Billy was about to step forward and seize her by the shoulder like the bitch she was until he stopped and reminded himself again. Restraint was a virtue his father had forced him to master, yet its difficulty never alleviated even with practice. Every time she intervened in Billy's punishment, however severe, her father let her have whatever was left of the stick he used. Be she got away with it more often than not.

"Well it's my business now if you're going to continue to be late for my job. What you do with your friends is one thing, but if you get in my way, then our dads gonna serve both our asses on a platter." He said, pointing to himself and slowly approaching Max. She huffed at the thought. Her stepdad was never one to seek advice from and he always detested her smooth untouched nature, but if anyone was going to be butchered up and served to the pigs, it was her brother.

In an act of mild callousness she warned Billy once more to leave her alone. "Dad's not going to hurt me. He knows what I do is normal and unselfish. I'll come home when I wish, now fuck off."

The roof abruptly creaked under Billy's white greased sneaker. Max heard a large huff respire and release before the bent platform became streamlined .

Another brooding thud snapped as Billy stood adjacent now to Max while clutching his white twig between his fingers. "You know, my dad thinks I spend most of my time on chicks and rebellious shit. But I used to spend time watching you. Weirdly enough, that's become even less true after you threatened to chop my balls off."

Max unconsciously let out a giggle, and the warmth of her skin immediately shedded. The same fear of Billy shot back into her spine, but something more: confusion. Nothing Billy ever said or did made Max laugh. He was always an asshole, but humor was something she thought was only a mask Billy wore.

Forgetting the consequences, she braced herself for Billys outrage. But after a moment looking up to him, he stared back down an icy yet reassuring face, like. Max likened it to the smile a snake or cobra would give after its owner once fed that was often shown on the wildlife channel.

"I don't blame you for it by the way." Max's blue eyes stared up at his own, unsure of how to respond. "If i'd have killed Harrington that night, I would've died too. Your friends aren't my business."

Max scanned for sarcasm but the flavor of his words was something she had not seen before. She regained her impenitence. "So...is this like an apology to me?"

Billy turned to face the lake. "I was never upset with you Max. My father's always pissed at me, alright. He and I are the same, guys who need shit to punch." Max jutted her head to the right to face Billy's ruminative expression. He continued. "I only took it out on you because I would never do it to mom. But now I've made you like her, alone."

Max's skepticism declined with every word he took. He obviously was apologizing, in a Billy sort of way. Maybe he wasn't saying these things, which by the way, were softer than anything he said before to her, just to cover his ass. "I have friends now, so you didn't make my life a complete hell if that's what you wanna hear." She said, trying to imitate his cold replies.

Billy pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and offered it to her. "Well, mom always said we should be a team. So how 'bout we agree not to bullshit each other and nurture a schedule or whatever to reduce the arguments in the damn house."

Max swayed her eyes down to the gesture which he held out like a gift. Although she never smoked, she figured a regular puff or two would give her some understanding of what went on in her brother's head. But Billy's 'apology' seemed far more genuine than anything he'd done, unless threatened of course. The swiped the stick from his hand, gave one puff and tossed it back to him. He caught it with a surprising dexterity and motioned for her to follow.

After Billy performed an impressive somersault off the roof and stuck the landing, he didn't look back and headed to his car, which Max was completely oblivious to the entire time. She looked up at the waning light of the sky once more and snatched her bag, with her skate in her clutch.

She'd drive home with Billy. But this time, she didn't give it a dreadful thought.

*