Growing up in the city there were always people around.
The rare vacations we took were to amusement parks where there were even more people.
Got a union job for my 18th birthday. My dad gave me a cigar when I got my first paycheck. Puked in a trashbin.
I remember all the people laughing.
Twenty four years and the plant shut down, moved all the jobs to Mexico.
I was mad, bitter, I guess you’d call it, wanted to go the opposite way.
Went to Canada, up through Ontario, over to Manitoba.
Met a guy who knew a guy who worked for a guy who had a cabin for rent.
Not shit to do up there but fish, lay around.
It was the first time I had ever been in that much solitude.
Started to go a little crazy, but I paid for the whole month and wasn’t about to leave.
Took a walk one day, not knowing where I was going. Just walked and walked, and waded through creeks and saw a bear and a moose, and not much else but trees I didn’t know the names of.
I saw a guy.
He was sitting by himself, his back to me.
I started to call out to him.
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