Category Archives: Ravenwood

Ravenwood Chapter 4: Four Friends

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Excuses were made. Lies were told. The group made sure that they covered their tracks and they worked together well enough that their alibi was airtight.

Instead of going to any of their houses, they got on their bikes and started riding. The children rode their bikes as the town fell away from them as they headed along the streets to the northwest. There was a forest that bordered the town on the western side. Towards the north, the land curved upwards. Eventually leading to a large overlook. They had festivals up here sometimes. A fair number of the children of the town had been conceived there as well.

But tonight, a group of theater kids were gathering there. There would be four of them in total. Two girls, two boys. Ages ranging from fifteen to seventeen. The first to arrive was Robin, a tall, willowy young white woman with two toned hair, the left side pink, the right side black. She like to wear long fanciful dresses that she found while thrifting. People would ask her that night how she rode her bike with the dress on and she would simply say bicycle shorts and the conversation would end. The dress she chose for tonight was baby blue and had a great deal of lace on it.

The second was Michael, a young black man that rode with a guitar on his back. He was a bit overweight and dressed much more simply than Robin. T-shirt and jeans. When he got there, Robin was gathering up twigs and leaves for a fire. He helped dragged some larger pieces of wood for them to use throughout the night.

Two arrived at the same time, a slim young Asian man named George who dressed in hoodies and jeans as well. His hair was styled, he had eyeliner and black nail polish on. He was hauling a huge backpack of snacks. The friend he rode up with was a short, plump young white woman with jean shorts, a shock of red hair and wearing a flannel shirt. She had a large bag with all kinds of pins covering it. They brought up social issues as well as a number of indie rock bands. Robin clocked her arrival immediately immediately and went to give her a hug.

“Cheery!” Robin said in greeting. “I missed you.”

“I just saw you a few hours ago at school,” Cheery said.

“That’s long enough for me to miss you.”

Michael had gotten the fire going and they went to sit by it. He pulled out his guitar and started playing quietly. First things first, they discussed theater business. What they could improve, what they thought would be best to do in the show. Who they thought was secretly dating amongst the cast. Who had crushes on who.

Next came the songs. Michael, being a devil on the guitar could play almost anything they shouted out. There were some favorites of course from a variety of shows that they loved, Wicked, Rent and the like. Michael put the guitar away, which meant it was time for s’mores.

“God, I love nights like this,” George said.

“I like looking down at the town from up here,” Robin said. “Leaves all the boring down there.”

“It’s not that boring,” Cheery said.

“Yeah, the last place I lived only had like a movie theater with four screens. Plus the owner was obsessed with Titanic and always dedicated at least one screen to it at all times,” George said.

“How did he stay in business?” Michael asked.

“You would be surprised at how often people would just pop in and go see Titanic. It was actually comforting. Your life might change in all kinds of ways but that theater would still be showing Titanic.”

“God, Kate Winslet was so hot in that movie,” Cheery said.

“She’s still hot,” the rest of her friends chorused.

“Agreed!” Cheery said raising her soda to the sky.

“I know that there’s some things about Ravenwood that I’m going to miss but I have to get out of this town. The city holds my dreams for me,” Robin said.

The others didn’t say anything. They didn’t want to rain on her parade. But for them, they would only go as far as high school. Robin was a lifer. She was going to try and make the theater everything about her. To that end, she had started posting songs and line readings on her Youtube page. They had attracted the usual internet reaction. Some people calling her hot, some people actually talking about her talent and others saying that she was terrible.

“I don’t know if I could leave,” Michael said. “My family’s here.”

“You’re right, son,” a voice said from the woods.

Everyone’s heads turned and they saw a black police officer holding his flashlight emerging from the woods.

“Hi, dad,” Michael said nervously.

“Hi, son for whom I am well pleased and said that he was staying at George’s house,” his father replied.

“To be fair, Mr. Block, he is with me,” George said.

“Not helping, George,” father and son said together.

He sighed and pressed the buttons on his walkie talkie. He said that it was a group of campers on the ridge and it was nothing to worry about. He came and walked to the fire, he pointed at it with his flashlight.

“That should be smaller if you want to stay out of sight,” officer Block said. “You lit a signal fire for the entire town.”

“The beacons are lit,” Robin and Cheery said.

“Gondor calls for aid, yes, yes, Michael’s watched those movies a thousand times. I’m glad that you kids are having fun but you need to make sure that you put that fire out and spread the ashes. I would run you off here if you weren’t as good of kids as I know.”

“Sorry, dad,” Michael said.

“We’ll discuss this with your mother tomorrow, I’m not that angry and I’m not disappointed, just be smarter.”

“It could be in our favor that we are such good kids because we’re really bad at being bad,” George added politely.

“Still not helping,” the two Block men said in unison.

“It’s crazy the way you two do that,” Cheery said.

“Be home for breakfast tomorrow,” officer Block said to his son and started walking back to the woods.

“I love you, dad,” Michael said.

“I love you too,” his father said as he hit the tree line.

The group decided that it was time to turn in and got into their sleeping bags. Of course, that’s not where it ended as the minute there was silence someone would ask if they were sleeping and then they would start chatting again. Whispering secrets. Giggling. Laughing. Loving one another in ways that surpassed romance because they knew that those bonds would last forever.

The night didn’t though and soon the sun woke them up. They got on their bikes and Michael rode to keep his promise. Wondering what the talk would be like when he got home. But for right now, George wanted to race him and the city streets were empty. They pumped their legs, laughing for the sheer joy of it.

Ravenwood- Chapter 2: The Work Outing

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On the other side of Gregory’s while Bianca and David were getting to know one another, a group of about eight people walked in and took their seats at a large table. They ordered their first drinks and toyed with the idea of getting dinner. Gregory’s offered a great deal of meal options so there was a lot to choose from. There was one member of the team that was particular in their order so they spent a lot of time going over the menu.

They had come from a local IT company down the street. They had originally left their boss working late at his desk. He had bid them a fond farewell for the evening. It was about an hour later that he walked into the restaurant and went to the hostess’ podium.

She had seen him before as there were few food options in town. Still, every time he came into the restaurant it was shocking. He was so handsome, a tall darker skinned black man with a shaved head. His eyes were kind and he had an easy but subdued smile. He dressed professionally in buttoned down shirts with a tie when on the clock, a few buttons unbuttoned at the top when it was party time. The comfiest that anyone had ever seen him was when he was the gym in his workout clothes.

“Hello,” he said to her.

“Hi, table for one?” she asked.

“No, unfortunately I won’t be enjoying the ambience tonight, pick up, two orders for Patrick.”

She checked something on her tablet.

“They should be ready in a matter of moments,” she said.

“Thank you. Having a good night?” he asked.

“Not that bad. Kind of slow.”

“Hm.”

He looked into the restaurant and saw his employees. He let out a slow smile and turned to the hostess.

“I need to pay for those meals, don’t I?” he said.

“Yes, would you like to pay by cash or card?” the hostess asked.

“Card. That table of eight, would it be possible to keep my card on file so that I can pay for their meal as well?”

“Feeling generous?”

“They’re my employees. I think they deserve a free meal. Though don’t tell them until the end. I don’t want them taking advantage of my generosity.”

“That’s fair. Would you like to leave a tip?”

“Twenty percent of their meal. Don’t tell them that either, please. I want to see if they know enough to leave a tip as well.”

“I will make the arrangements. Thank you.”

One of the bus boys came out and handed him the meals in a to go bag. Patrick took it, thanked the staff for the food and left.

As he left into the night, Patrick left behind an existential crisis for one of his employees, Adam. He had looked over when he saw movement at the hostess stand and saw Patrick. His face went pale when he saw him.

“Shit,” Adam said dropping back into his seat.

“What?” Charlotte, one of his coworkers said.

“I saw Patrick at the the hostess stand. He knows we come here.”

“I mean, he knows we came this one time,” Trent, their other coworker said.

“And there’s no law against us getting together,” added Georgia.

“Yeah, but we like purposely excluded him,” Adam said.

“I doubt he’s going to care,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah, I’m sure he has his own life to live,” Melanie said as she stirred her drink.

“You need to calm down, dude,” Pablo said before taking a bite of his mozzarella stick.

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s fine,” Adam said.

“I mean, he might fire you but that’s to be expected,” Tabitha said.

“Don’t say that,” Georgia said.

“I’m kidding.”

“Not funny,” Arjun added staring at into his drink.

“Sorry,” Tabitha said sincerely.

“Let’s just enjoy the night and we’ll deal with it tomorrow,” Georgia said.

“Yeah, he’s a good boss anyway, I doubt he’s going to care,” Trent said.

“Eh, good bosses don’t make you work on your birthday,” Tabitha said.

“Getting your birthday off is not a thing,” Pablo said.

“It should be.”

That led them to another discussion while Adam had an internal conflict. After a little bit longer, they asked for the bill.

“A gentleman paid your bill already,” Heather, their waitress, said.

“Who did?” Adam asked.

“A man named Patrick.”

“Shit.”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, it’s nothing you did.”

“Well come on, we still have to put in a tip,” Georgia said.

Everyone shelled out enough for twenty percent and got up. They went home that night and Adam spent a fair amount of the night being worried. He eventually fell asleep and woke up on time for work.

His office was in the four corners buildings in the southeast side of Ravenwood. They were so known because they were four ten story buildings that were part of a larger office park. His office was on the third floor and looked fairly normal. There were eight cubicles in two little pods with Patrick’s office down a different hallway. He was near the offices of his assistant manager, Bobby and Katherine the HR lady.

Adam sat at his desk and the others filed in looking different levels of tired and hung over. Patrick allowed them to dress casually so most of them were in jeans. They kept buttoned down shirts at their desks on days that they had to have zoom meetings with clients and they only came in khakis when they met clients in the office.

When they were all in, Patrick called them into the meeting room. Adam felt a cold hand wrap around his heart. They all filed in and sat down around the table. Bobby was standing next to Patrick with a strange look on his face. He was looking up at the ceiling like his eyes had gotten stuck mid roll. Adam wasn’t sure what that was but he thought it wasn’t good.

“Okay everyone,” Patrick said. “We have a new client that wants us to do backups for them at the end of every week. They’re a pretty big client thus it’s a pretty big job. Now, what I want to do is have us take care of it during their downtime. So, either Friday night or Saturday morning. This won’t require us all to be part of it, just one. What that means is that the person for that week can either take four hours off at some point throughout the week and make them up pulling that shift or they can have four hours of overtime. It’s your choice. Questions?”

Georgia raised her hand.

“We’ve been over this, Georgia, you don’t have to raise your hand,” Patrick said exasperatedly.

“I know, I do it because it’s funny,” Georgia said. “When does this start?”

“It would start tonight. So, we’re going to need someone to volunteer for it.”

There were groans around the table that led to a standoff between the employees. None of them wanted to do this but especially because the local food festival started that night. Main street would be lined up with food trucks as far as the eye could see. Beyond that, there would be games and rides set up in one of the parks.

“Okay, it seems like no one wants to do it, so I’m going to take tonight,” Patrick said. “I kind of figured it would happen this way and it’s only fair.”

“I’ll take next week,” Bobby said. “After that, we’ll have a signup sheet for the next ten weeks. You are required to pull one shift in that ten week period. You can put in for your preferred week or you can just leave it up to fate and we’ll assign it randomly. We will not abide one of you taking all the overtime. That wouldn’t be fair either.”

“I think that covers everything, so let’s get back to work. If you have any questions, please reach out to Bobby and me. Also, I considering I have four hours to kill tonight, if you have any movie suggestions, please reach out to me.”

“If we make a suggestion and you choose to watch the movie, do we get a PTO day?” Tabitha asked.

“What? No. Tabitha, we’re not giving out a PTO day for a movie suggestion, I’ll be grateful that should be enough,” Patrick said.

They left the meeting room and went back to their desks. Adam tried to pay attention to his work but found his mind wandering. He kept thinking about how nice Patrick was for taking the first shift for this new client so that the rest of them didn’t have to miss out on the festival. He got up and walked over to Patrick’s office. His coworkers watched him go and rolled their eyes or sighed.

Adam knocked on Patrick’s open door. Patrick was typing something as he stood in the doorway.

“Give me a minute, Adam,” Patrick said without looking towards him. “Have a seat.”

Adam walked into the office and looked over at the books in a bookshelf along the left wall. There were several reference guides to systems. To the right were management books of all kinds. In the corner was a well taken care of leafy plant. Behind Patrick was a large window showing Ravenwood and the ocean beyond it. Patrick finished typing and hit the enter key with confidence.

“Now, what can I help you with?” Patrick asked.

“I just wanted to apologize for last night,” Adam said.

Patrick looked confused.

“What about last night?” Patrick asked.

“That you saw all of us out and we didn’t invite you,” Adam explained.

“Oh, Adam would you close the door please?”

Adam felt dread run down his back. He got up, closed the door and returned to the chair in front of Patrick’s desk.

“I just wanted to apologize for the fact that we didn’t invite you out. We do that every Thursday and I just felt bad that you were excluded. I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind if you came out next Thursday,” Adam said quickly.

Patrick stared at Adam for a long time. He had hired the young man directly out of college about two years ago. He had been taken by Adam’s enthusiasm and knowledge. He learned though that Adam was not as knowledgable about being an adult and had done his best to guide him as gently as he could. He decided that today he would have to be a little more direct.

“Adam, if you had invited me when this started, do you know what my answer would have been then?” Patrick asked.

“Yes?” Adam answered cautiously.

“It would have been the same then as it would be today. No, thank you. I think that it’s great that my employees are that cordial with one another. It helps with team building and camaraderie.”

Patrick stopped speaking for a moment and hit a few buttons on his phone.

“Yeah?” Bobby said through the speakerphone.

“Was the word, camaraderie?” Patrick asked.

“Goddammit, yes! Thank you! That was bothering me to no end.”

“Yeah, you looked weird in the meeting.”

“Ah, well. That’s what happens. Thanks.”

“Welcome.”

He hung up the phone and looked back at Adam.

“Anyway, the fact of the matter is that you all also need time to air your grievances about me when I’m not around,” Patrick said.

“We-” Adam started to say.

“That’s your time. I don’t want to know about it. Don’t betray your coworkers’ confidence.”

“Understood.”

“Besides, I hope this doesn’t come through as too offensive but if it comes down to my employees or my wife, I’m going to spend time with my wife.”

“That makes sense.”

“I’m not Michael Scott, so desperate to be everyone’s friend.”

“You watch the Office?”

“Yeah, it’s a good learning tool. Whatever Michael Scott does, I do the opposite.”

Adam smiled.

“Is that everything?” Patrick asked.

“Yeah, thank you,” Adam said.

“Adam, on a personal note. If you exclude someone from a weekly thing, maybe try and not let them know that they’ve missed multiple events.”

“Makes sense. Thanks.”

“You’re a good person, I sensed it when I hired you. Just don’t get in your head too much.”

“I will, thank you.”

“Any suggestions for me?”

“Ah, I really like the movie Stepbrothers.”

Patrick wrote down the name on his notepad.

“Sounds good,” Patrick said.

“I’m going to get back to work,” Adam said.

“Good talk. Door open please.”

Adam got up and returned to his desk.

That night the employees left giving a wave to Patrick as they left. He explained to the others what had happened and they both told him it was unnecessary and appreciated.

“I give him credit, any other place I’ve worked, they would have made one of us stay,” Trent said.

“Yeah,” Georgia agreed.

“I feel kind of bad that he has to spend his Friday night alone though,” Adam said.

“He just told you he can handle it,” Tabitha said.

“It’s just-”

It was then that he saw a beautiful black woman approaching them. One he only recognized at their yearly Christmas get together. She strode with the purpose and strength of a woman who knew who she was.

Her long hair cascaded down her back. She was dressed as she always was, stylish. She smiled at them as she passed, recognizing her husband’s employees. She held two takeout containers in her arms. She strode to the doors of the office building, pulled them open and walked through.

“Well, never mind then,” Adam said.

They headed for main street.

What the ding dang heck am I doing with Ravenwood?

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When I made the first post on my blog about it, I had no idea. I was just thinking about writing up a little story about a town from a bird’s eye view and that was going to be it. But then I started thinking about it and my thoughts turned on the idea of Springfield.

The Simpsons having been around for decades at this point, has arrived at a place where their named characters at this point could be the population of a small town. Let me just head over to the Simpsons wiki and see how many characters they have on there. Nearly six thousand! That’s more people in my old hometown currently.

But that got me thinking about how they got that accidentally. They just kept building and building their world. So, I thought what if I do that purposefully. Could it work? To build a town of people that felt real and vibrant and had lives. That they could mesh and feel alive.

The other part of my plan was to start making up a map as I introduced things to further the feeling of being alive. I would make it in pixel art because I need to practice that art and I think the firm clean lines would work for it. When I had that idea, I immediately thought about what Terry Pratchett said about fantasy maps:

“You can’t map a sense of humor. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know that There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs. ”

Maybe there are dragons outside Ravenwood. I don’t know yet. I don’t write many stories where there are no science fiction, fantasy or horror elements. I’m going to keep it cozy and modern for as long as possible.

My other thought was that I was worried that I could run out of ideas for other stories if I’m using them all up in Ravenwood. I dismissed that idea after some thought because unless it’s a really good idea, I shouldn’t be hoarding them. Also, let’s face facts as writers there are only so many ideas out there. We’re all just redoing Shakespeare continuously. My hope is also that as I develop and think of new characters, their personalities and interactions will help spawn new storylines. Matt Arnold from Dungeons and Daddies said that an industry professional once told them that if you have an idea where you keep coming up with new storylines based on different character combinations and it feels endless then you have a TV show. If you start sputtering out, then you sell that idea to Netflix because you’re probably only getting one season out of it.

If I had to say what this was exactly, I would consider it a literary webcomic. Instead of five comics a week, you get one sizable story each week.

With the first chapter out, the Newcomer, I’d like to think we’re off to a good start. I have the second story already thought up. Let’s see where it goes.

Ravenwood- Chapter 1: The Newcomer

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Gregory’s walked the line steadily between dive and family restaurant. It was well kept with red wallpaper and split into a restaurant on the right hand side and the bar on the left. They were equal in size given that it was the largest bar in town as opposed to the true dive bar and the higher end bar up on the hill. The walls were a deep red and the floors were a dark brown. In the restaurant there were booths and tables and it served American bar food. That food could also be brought into the bar if you wanted to experience it standing up for the most part. Unsurprisingly the bar on the left hand side was far stickier than the right no matter how much they cleaned.

A young woman stepped into the room wearing a short dark blue dress and black heels. She had tanned skin and her hair was long, curly and blonde. She stopped at the hostess’ stand and then made a left into the bar. The reaction was one of wonder as the woman walked into the bar. She was stunning. People got a good look at her and if they were sensible went back to their drinks. Three men started talking about which one of them would approach her when she walked across the bar to man sitting in one of the booths. The man was looking at his phone.

“Hi,” she said to him and he looked up from his phone.

He was a handsome young man about her age of twenty-six with stubble dotting his face and his hair a light brown. He looked at her through a pair of thick glasses. He was dressed simply in a buttoned down shirt and jeans.

“Oh, hello,” he said.

“I was wondering if you wanted to share a drink?” she said.

The man looked at her and went to run his hand through his hair. He had been sitting with his right side facing her so when he brought up his left hand up, she saw the flash of a gold ring on his hand.

“Uh, I’m willing to have one platonically,” he said. “I’m married.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m just new in town and I thought you looked cute. I’ll leave you be.”

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I’m more than willing to make a new friend.”

She slid into the booth opposite him. The waitress, a young white woman named Samantha walked up to her and the blonde woman ordered a Manhattan.

“So, what’s your name?” the man asked her.

“Bianca,” she replied. “Yours?”

“David,” he said and offered his hand for a friendly shake.

The two shook jovially and Bianca let out a sigh.

“Of course the first guy I hit on as a single lady would be married,” Bianca sighed.

“I want to say that I’m flattered but I’m so married and happy that nothing would ever happen,” David said.

“Is your wife at home?”

“Yeah, she’s getting off of work a bit later than me plus she’s pregnant so it takes a bit of time for her to get here.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your date night.”

“Well, it’s not interrupted yet, I wouldn’t even call it a date night. We don’t have kids yet, so it’s just us being social while we still can.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“We’re often joined by friends who happen to come to the bar. Let me just call her.”

David’s wife was getting changed when she got the call from him. She had been staring at her stomach in the mirror, running her hands over it. She smiled at the prospect of her future daughter. Her black hair was tied in a loose ponytail. She had started dressing even more so for comfort than before. She unabashedly stuck her feet into a pair dark blue crocs to finish getting ready.

She looked at her phone and saw the call coming in from her husband.

“Hey, honey, I’ll be there in a little bit, just gotta waddle my way down the street,” she said.

“Hey, Marissa,” David replied. “I made a new friend named Bianca. She just wants to make sure that she’s good to hang out with us.”

“Why would she worry about that?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll be there in a bit. I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

She started her waddle and as she did, she got a text from her friend, Ajanta.

Ajanta Looks like David is stepping out on you.

She knew that Ajanta was half joking. She had always liked David but she had always been protective of Marissa. She had included a picture that it seemed like Ajanta had taken in secret. Marissa had to note that Bianca was hot as hell. She also knew her husband.

Marissa: Yeah, I know. He told me that they were having a drink together. Want to join us?

Ajanta: Sure, I’m already here and I want to see what her deal is.

Marissa shrugged and kept walking.

David saw Marissa come into the bar and him and Bianca stood up when they saw her. Ajanta joined up with her as she stepped in, giving her a quick hug and the two walked to the table. Ajanta was an Indian woman with long black hair and an athletic figure.

“Hello,” Marissa said to Bianca. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too, please sit down,” Bianca said. “Wait, I’m sorry, it makes more sense for me to get in first so that you can look at your husband.”

“Oh, I’d like that to do that.”

“Let me get in the booth and you can get off your feet. Those are cute crocs.”

“Thanks,” Marissa said noting that she sounded sincere when she said it.

Bianca pushed farther into the booth and Marissa slid in next to her. Ajanta followed on the opposite side before David sat next to her. They ordered their drinks and Marissa ordered food. Some mozzarella sticks and chicken wings.

“How far along are you?” Bianca asked.

“I’m about six months,” Marissa answered.

“Entering the home stretch.”

“My stretch marks be stretching.”

“So, Bianca,” Ajanta intercut. “What brings you to town?”

“I just moved here,” Bianca responded. “I, uh, got divorced.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s fine. He was… he was cheating on me.”

“Sounds like a scumbag,” Marissa said.

“He was. He kept some pretty garbage opinions hidden for a long time. Along with his affairs.”

“Multiple?” Ajanta asked.

“Yeah,” Bianca sighed.

“Where did he find the time?”

“Oh, that was the other thing, he had quit his job and was pretending to work and taking money from his parents.”

“What a loser.”

“Yeah, I know how to pick ’em.”

“You can’t tell what a dude is going to be like after years,” David said. “You just try and hope for the best.”

“Thanks,” Bianca said.

“What’re you going to do while you’re here?” Ajanta asked.

“I’m a lawyer, I got a job at one of the local firms. But I’ve been talking about myself for a while. What about the rest of you?”

They started talking about their various professions for a long time and the drinks started flowing among them. Marissa kept to her water but chomped down on her food when it arrived. By the time she was done, everyone else was a little bit tipsy. David got up and left for the bathroom. The women watched him leave.

“I have to admit something to you,” Bianca slurred.

“What’s up?” Marissa asked.

“I have to admit that I talked to your husband because I wanted to hit on him.”

“I knew it!” Ajanta said pointing.

“I’m sorry. But he was like I’m so in love with my wife. I just wanted to be honest because you’ve been so nice to me. And now that I know he’s married, it’s hands off.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Marissa said. “I know he’s hot to trot.”

“Yeah,” Ajanta said. “I thought you were scummy too. I sent Marissa a text, being all like, look at this Jezabel with your husband. But you’re so sweet.”

“My name’s not Jezabel, it’s Bianca,” Bianca said.

“Sorry.”

“But you don’t have to worry about that. I get it. A lot of people think that I’m making moves on their men.”

“It’s probably because of how hot you are.”

“You are very beautiful,” Marissa said. “You’ve raised the average hotness of this town by several points.”

“You two are so pretty too,” Bianca said. “Like your tummy is the only fat part of you.”

“Thanks, I do yoga and go for runs. Well, I used to do those things but the little one gets in the way. When I’m healed up do you want to join me?”

“I can?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“We can be friends? Even though I hit on your husband?”

“Sure, you haven’t been weird and I feel like the fact your inhibitions are down and your main focus is telling me that you’re not going to hit on my man means a lot.”

“Yeah, let’s be friends,” Ajanta said.

“I’m so happy. Thank you,” Bianca said.

The three women tried to hug each other but the table got in the way. When David got back, he saw the strange tableau before him. He offered to take a picture of the girls and picked up his phone off the table. The girls smiled as he snapped several pics of them.

At that point, they decided to call it a night as it was getting late. Marissa and David walked their friends back to the house and then Marissa drove them home. She sang along to “Shiny, Happy People” on her way home.

Ravenwood Prologue: Welcome to Ravenwood

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The history of Ravenwood was long, it had been founded by Charles Smythe back when him and a group of colonizers had arrived in some territory and had decided that this was as good a place as any to try and figure out living in early America. They had started with the usual colonizer bullshit and didn’t often talk about their travesties. It had been out of the way to the point that they completely missed the early witch hunts. They sent boys to fight in the various wars and remembered what few they could.

The town was located on the ocean but had never quite made it to the point of massive tourist spot. They still got some visitors but they were less than what the shops wanted. The town was large about eight square miles and was about three miles from any other town in the north, south and western directions. There was a great deal of forest and national parks around the town.

It had its usual share of rumors and ghost stories but they never attracted any ghost hunting shows or even a bored Youtuber who might want to make a name for themselves. There was little crime and the police were mostly bored and didn’t do much else besides write speeding tickets and hassle skateboarders.

The kids went to the elementary school until sixth grade and then moved up to the high that was seventh through twelfth grade. There was a main street that had several shops on it. What few speciality restaurants that could keep up with the local fast food joints. There was a eight screen movie theater, an arcade and a few other shops that provided entertainment. There was a smoke shop and diner that shared the same characteristic of continually changing ownership but never changed anything else really. Except for the one set of smoke shop owners that sold overly powerful weed and they eventually left town to find their success in a larger location. The local stoners held a candlelight vigil when that dank kush left.

They were close enough to a train station that people could go to larger cities when they wanted.

The seasons came through in their endless cycles. There was almost always snow at Christmas and the leaves satisfyingly crunched underfoot during autumn. The kids spent their summers at the beach and everyone sneezed their way through spring.

It was a good town. Things worked there. There were people with stories there.

Here they are.

(This is a project I’m going to have going on for when I can’t think of anything to write for fiction Fridays or just in general if the muse takes me.)