The Cavalier

Ask anyone in my year about the thing they all look forward to after graduation, and almost all of them will agree that they can’t wait to leave this place. To leave this town where our parents never tried to leave. To leave this town where anything possibly interesting and exciting can be done within less than a day. To leave, and hopefully never come back with the only exceptions being reunions or for family. I am one of these people. 

I graduate tomorrow, and although I’ve been looking forward to this day for years, my friend made it her mission to make sure that we’ve had one great memory in the small town we’ve had to call home. 

“We’ve had plenty of fun memories here,” I tell her, double-checking my cap and gown for tomorrow. 

Jude, my only real friend, has always been exciting and loud. That’s probably why I’ve always been drawn to her personality. Although I’ll never admit it to her, she was the main reason why I want to leave. 

I was on the opposite side of my room, but I could feel her fuming as she groaned, “Yeah, but come on. Have we done anything worth telling our children or about?”

“Aw, I never thought you saw me as the father of your children.” My response was met with a pillow thrown at my back.

“Haha, very funny. Come on, we don’t have anything exciting to tell of this town.”

“It won’t matter in a couple of weeks. We’ll be outta here and make worthy stories.”

Just like every time before, everything is ready for tomorrow. I’ll probably check again later, but I’m satisfied for now. I turn to Jude and ask,  “Why does this matter to you so much?”

“Why doesn’t this matter to you? You’ve been here all your life and can you honestly say that you enjoyed being in this town?” I’m almost offended, but I know she wasn't trying to be offensive. She’s always been truthful and isn’t afraid to speak whatever is on her mind, even if it was for the best.

“Because I know there’s something out there that this town can’t offer.”

I know she’s listening to me because her silence means she’s thinking about what I said. That’s also why I’m lucky to have her as my friend. People here are so worried that their voices will never be heard and often try to cut others to have their voice. 

I almost didn’t hear her, but she muttered, “There’s gotta be more to this town than small gossip and crappy tourist attractions.” I was about to say that there is nothing else, but she sat up was such speed that I jumped. “Let’s go to the Cavalier.”

The Cavalier sounds like something great, but it’s just an abandoned project that this town gave up years ago. Every couple months, someone hosts a challenge to break into the building before and get to the top to watch over the town. Everyone I’ve known has tried at some point in their lives, even my parents when they were younger. However, no one that I know has ever been able to claim the honor of reaching the top of the building. Is it illegal? Yes. Is it dangerous? Definitely.

“Again with the Cavalier? We tried that when we were Freshman.”

“Yes, but that was just our first time. We know how it’s like, and I’m sure now we’ll be able to do it.” 

“The next time is probably in a couple months. We’ll be-”

She pulled out her phone and cut me off. “Actually, the next event is tonight. I heard from so and so that one of our friends-”

“Your friends.”

“Our friends is hosting it as a farewell gift. I heard that a lot of our class is going too.”

“Which is probably why we shouldn’t go. I don’t wanna be one of those seniors who don’t walk the stage because they end up in jail or in the hospital. Both of which, are likely scenarios.”

“Come on, Luc. We gotta do it. Let’s have some fun before we part ways.”

“We can have plenty of fun staying indoors and watching some old Disney Shows.”

As usual, she throws her head back to my bed and I’m met with some inhumanely groan. She drags her next words like a child when they want a toy and their parents are at check out. “Lucas, pretty please. Let’s do it! It’ll be fun and I promise it’ll be worth it. If you don’t go, I’ll just go by myself.”

Contrary to popular thought, but Jude McCallister can actually act like a child. This is one of those moments. At this point in our friendship, I’m immune to her begging tactics, but the thought of her going in alone isn’t delightful. Yes, it would get her out of my hair for a few hours, but I don’t like the idea of her hurting herself. It’s not safe to go in the Cavalier solo, even if there will be more than a dozen people going in.

I know it won’t be a good idea, but if it’ll mean she’s safer, I’ll go. It’s what a best friend is for. I tell her, and she nearly lunges at me in excitement and there’s no trace of the puppy eyes that were there seconds ago. She tells me of where to meet, at what time, and what to bring and rushes out the door to get herself ready. As I watch her leave, she turns and shouts, “You’re not gonna regret it, Lucas!” 

I sure hope so, Jude. We can’t afford anything bad happening tonight. Not before we leave town. 

* 

The Cavalier building wasn’t impressive if you didn’t come from Roville, but to us townies, it was going to be the biggest building this town had ever seen. Most of the foundation was still standing, but the damage of years of rain and vandalism was overwhelming. Since it’s considered dangerous because of the weak infrastructure among other things, the town put up a chain-link fence to ward off troublemakers. As can be expected, the chain-link fence doesn’t hold up well against a good pair of bolt cutters. The city has to repair the fence every few months to make sure it’s still standing.

“All set?” Jude asked as she walked over to me. “ The guys over there tried the challenge and couldn’t do it, so they’re just gonna lay on their cars to watch the stars.”

“We’re pretty much all ready to go. Couldn’t get everything though, but we’ll survive. Watching the stars from here isn’t the worst option, and all I wanna say is that we could be doing the same thing.” She shook her head and looked like she was going to do everything in her power to conquer the Cavalier.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Within the several hours that she left me, was researching everything she could about the Cavalier building, from what it was made of, how it was built and was scouring the internet about any possible blueprints that would aid out adventure. She couldn’t find blueprints, but she did learn about the past experiences of the people who’ve attempted it. She vowed that she wouldn’t let the ‘insight of all who came before her to go to waste.’ 

Just as I remembered, the Cavalier was still the old, musty, and dark building from when I was a Freshman. Only this time, the smell is stronger and there was more light from the holes in the ceilings and the new cracks in walls. Walking around now, I don’t feel the same needle-pringling apprehension I felt three years ago. If anything, I couldn’t be more unimpressed with it. 

“Isn’t this place amazing? There’s so much history here. There’s gotta be a great story here!” She twirled and gestured at all the graffiti.

Near the graffiti, I motioned to the used needles and said, “Yeah, I’m sure someone had a euphoric time here.” She smacked my arm and brought me to a small opening in one of the walls. Confused, I asked her, “There is a door over here, you know. Shouldn’t we use that instead?”

Her blank look told me that what I said was stupid. “Of course we’re supposed to go through the very obvious door that everyone goes through and comes back unsuccessful. No, dummy. We should be exploring everything that’s not obvious.”

Oh, the things I do for friendship. For what seemed like hours, we explored what seemed like the darkest places in the world. The feeling that chilled me from years ago was settling in again, but I knew Jude wouldn’t turn back. If anything, she would drop me off to my house and come back here to complete the challenge. I checked my phone and the time read, “11:38 pm.” Only thirty minutes have passed. 

I waited for a few minutes before I asked her, “Hey Jude, it seems like all we’ve been doing is going down down down. Shouldn’t we be going up up up?”

“We should, but I don’t think it’s the time yet.”

“Not the time? Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Not really. That’s why it’s called exploring.” She said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. If I was calmer, I would have brushed it off and kept quiet. However, it was late and I wanted to be home, so my irritation levels were climbing with every floor we seemed to walk down. 

“Jude, we should really be going.”

“We’re not done yet.”

“More like you’re not done yet. Come on, we’re going home.”

She sighed, and for a moment I thought she was going to leave with me, but then she tossed my phone at me. “Here’s your phone. I’m sure you remember how to get back. Don’t worry, I’ll find a ride.”

Don’t worry?

“June, look, we tried, we’ve hit dead ends, we’ve tried again, and we hit more dead ends. We gave it our best shot, and now we should go home.”

She whipped her body to face me and looked me hard in the face, “Why do you give up so easily? Why is it that you always jump to the new places and not look for the good in the old? This is your hometown, Lucas, can’t you appreciate it?”

“That’s easy for you to say, McCallister. You’ve been to more than half of the world already. You’ve seen it all when all I’ve ever done is look at the world in pictures.”

“Go home if you want, I’m staying here.” 

I reached for her wrist and she brushed it off. Something new was rushing through me, like boiling water scalding my insides. My breathing was shortened and my veins pumped with anger. I did not like this feeling, and I certainly didn’t want to release my anger on her, so I did the only possible thing I could think of at that moment. 

I punched a wall. I punched, I kicked, and I hit it with as much strength I could muster from my usually weak body. Did it feel good? Physically, not at all. Mentally, it felt like a fuse releasing pressure. Was it a smart idea? No, because I didn’t notice the wood cracking. It wasn’t until the last moment that I realized something fall from the ceiling and bringing me down with it.

* 

I woke up feeling warm and shuddering. It was seconds later that my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and saw that Jude was crying. Her eyes were closed shut as she was rocked my body back and forth. She was literally holding me, and I still couldn’t understand the words she was mumbling. 

I called out her name, and she instantly opened her red eyes. “Lucas, oh thank god you’re alive. I thought you were never going to wake up again and I thought I was never going to talk to you again. I’m so sorry. Can you move? We’ll leave right now and go to a hospitable or something. Do you think your Mom will know what to do? Of course she will, Moms know everything. We’ll never come back to-” 

“Dude, stop talking. I’m fine. It didn’t my head, thank god, and I’m pretty sure I could move. It’s okay.” I looked at where I was hitting, and I noticed that I managed to crack a hole into the wall. 

“No, it’s not. You wouldn’t have gotten hit if it wasn’t for me. If we just left when you said, none of this would have happened.”

I would’ve expected the hole to show some dirt, but it showed nothing but darkness. The wall was hollow. “True, but then we wouldn’t have discovered that this wall is hiding something.”

She must’ve followed my gaze, and saw what I saw because she started saying that we were going to drop the challenge and go straight home. I put my hand up to stop her from rambling again and simply told her “Not now. There’s no way I hit my head for nothing.”

I stood up slowly because any faster and I would have fallen on my face. With the pipe that hit me now on my hand, I swung with as much force as I could at the hole I made. Jude watched the area around us to make sure I didn’t get hit by anymore surprise falling objects, and when I got tired, I passed it to her. She was more effective at swinging though because within four swings, the hole in the wall was large enough for us to walk through. 

“I made it easier for you.”

She laughed and teased, “We’ll just blame the injury.”

As I suspected, the wall was indeed hollow because inside it there was a staircase leading up. We grinned at each other and walked up the steps. The staircase led us up several stories, probably past the floor we were on when we arrived. It didn’t lead us to the top, but it did lead us to a ladder. This building is older than both of us and the look of the metal didn’t look like how it probably was twenty years ago, but for some stupid reason, we decided to climb it. We didn’t just tear down a wall for nothing after all. 

The climb up was probably harder than walking up the stairs themselves because there were times where I had to skip a ladder step because it simply wasn’t there. There were some close calls, but once Jude yelled that the ladder was coming to an end I hoped that she meant that there was something to climb into and not that there weren’t any more steps. 

As luck would have it, there was a floor we were climbing into, and poking our heads out of it, we realized that we did it. We were on the top floor, and probably the least finished one at that because there was only a partial ceiling. My friend shouted and I too yelled. I couldn’t believe it. For some reason, Jude McCallister and Lucas Bachman completed the Cavalier.

Jude tugged my arm and flashed her flashlight at something written on the flooring. In big bold letters, it read, ”From the 1st people who made it here, we ask that you not tell others how you did it or that you made it up here at all. Please keep this secret, so that the Cavalier challenge will continue to happen. Sign your name to document this moment. Once again, congrats future person, you did it! Welcome to the club, and enjoy the view.

Looking at it all, I realized that we were not the first people here. Not by a long shot. There seemed to be the names of maybe forty people here. Looking closely at some of them, I noticed that there was one dating back from the eighties. Wow, kudos for them to keep this secret going on as long as they did. 

“I was right, you know?” Jude said from across the floor. She too was reading the walls and floors. 

“About?”

“This place has a story, and now we’re apart of it. Come on, let’s sign our names and do what we came here to do.”

As a rule of thumb, Jude always carried a marker with her. She said she did it because she never wanted to be without one when art had to be made, but I always knew that that meant vandalism. I never liked the idea of degrading public property, but just this once, because I was with Jude at the top of the Cavalier where dozens of people left their mark before us, did I made an exception. The builders were never able to finish the building, so a large part of a wall was missing, but boy did it give a view of the town. I always knew the town had been small, but looking at it from way up here made me realize how small it actually is. However, seeing it from up here, I realized that from up here, I was able to see my entire childhood in one glance. The park, my neighborhood, my elementary, middle, and high school. 

High school… Oh my god. I’m graduating tomorrow. 

“I know what you’re thinking, Lucas. Don’t worry, we’ll climb down and go home soon. I just wanna enjoy the view.”

I tried to relax by focusing on what she said. She was right. I’m not going to regret this moment. There wasn’t anything that was going to stop the two of us from graduating, and we had most definitely done something worthwhile in this small town. There was a story to this old place, and we made ourselves characters. We did it.