The Ghost of Gary.

Rusty Green's tires hummed a low, steady tune against the asphalt as the road stretched into Gary, Indiana. It was late afternoon, and the sun cast long shadows over the broken buildings. Bella leaned forward in her seat, feeling pressure in her bladder. “Can we stop soon?”

“Do we have to?” Sam joked.

“I can go in the seat.” Bella said urgently.

Sam slowed the car as they entered the side streets. The town felt like stepping into a memory. Same had been here before when he was riding shotgun with his dad on one of his long haul trucking trips. He remembered seeing a grand theater. “Gary Place theatre?” he thought. The theatre marquee in his memory clung to its older heyday. He could almost hear the faint echoes of music and laughter of another era.

“Pull over,” she said. “I need to go now.”

“There’s nothing here.”

“It’s perfect, then.”

Sam hesitated but complied, the tires crunching against gravel. They stepped out into the stillness, the heavy air with the scent of rust and rain. A few blocks away, there was something, a long figure pushing a cart. They ignored him and continued to find Bella some relief. It had been a long drive, one that Bella had slept most for until her body nudged her awake.

They pushed toward a chain-link fence wrapped in weeds. Beyond it was an empty lot where grass grew wild around the skeleton of a playground. “I can go behind that shed.” He pushed her over the fence. Sam stood guard. He did not like being there.

He thought about the theatre, and his dad. The place had not changed since he last came to Gary. Gary, of what it was before he was born, was long gone. Gone like his dad. It was eerie because it was like everyone left in a hurry and forgot to tell their stories. Echoes of memories, just like things our minds forget, but are there waiting to be brought forward to live again.

“Let’s go.”

As they got back into the car, Bella looked over her should at the silent town. The road out of Gary felt like a tunnel back to reality. The hum of Rusty Green’s tires drowning in their shared, reflective silence.

“Do you think it can come back?” Bella asked softly.

Sam shrugged. “Maybe. If someone remember it.” Sam knew he needed to visit his father’s grave. He needed his father to live again, at least in his memory.