Along Came a Spyder

“Little James Dean up on the screen Wonderin’ who he might be Along came a Spyder, picked up a rider, Took him down the road to eternity.

Cal had played the troubled son card for years. His suck-up older brother Abe - always his father's favorite. "Abe this and Abe that. Why can't you be more like your brother, boy?"

There was no mother to bear the brunt of his father's scorn. She'd taken off shortly after he was born. There was no doubt his father blamed Cal for her departure, but he suspected she just got the hell out of Dodge.

So,no one was surprised when he dropped out of school. "Once a loser, always a loser," they said. His good looks hurt rather than helped. Plenty of girls turned it loose when he looked into their eyes and whispered, he loved them. So far, no unpleasant surprises, but it was only a matter of time before he was hustled down the marital aisle.

Which is why he decided to leave. Hop on a train to the West Coast, the land of milk and honey. Hadn't it worked for James Dean? He had more than a passing resemblance: lean, pretty, sulky face. He certainly had the troubled part down.

A poster in his room showed Dean sitting on a train track, hunched over with smoke in the distance from an oncoming train. He loved that movie, the troubled boy gaining his father's love, a fresh take on the old Cain and Abel story. For years Cal had worked on the look - white t-shirt, jeans, and black leather jacket unzipped just enough to keep it sexy and mysterious. He practiced staring into the distance while grabbing the belt loop on his pants.

And now he is on his way. The train travels slowly across the plain, the sky so vast you could lose your soul in it.

He glances around the car, mothers with shabby children, tired-looking businessmen, and an old woman holding a basket of eggs. One young girl sits across the aisle, staring forlornly at her saddle shoes. Her long limp hair frames a thin face.

She looks up and sees him standing by the train door. She stares until he grows embarrassed and looks down. When he glances back up, she is still staring. He unconsciously grabs a belt loop on his pants and then drops his hand to his side.

"What are you looking at?" she asks, her eyes never leaving his.

"Nothing," he stutters. "Just wondering why, a pretty girl like you is sitting by herself on this train."

"Probably the same reason as you mister. No where to go but down, if I stay here. So, I'm going anywhere else."

He walks over to her seat and sits down. His pretty sulky face gazes into her plain one. The train continues to travel slowly across the plain as both young riders mull their uncertain futures on this road to eternity.

— opelikakat