“Jake, do you think we’re ever going to be successful?”

“Well, that depends on what you consider success. If you enjoy dead-end jobs with no benefits, then we’re already living the dream.”

I raised my sail and let the wind carry me off into the sandy American ocean towards the sunshine beckoning me from the East as the rain began to patter behind me and wash away the world I knew.

All of the reviews for the club culminated in only two stars and mentioned repeated stabbings and gang activities happening right outside the front doors.
It was perfect.

I was a few beers deep watching Seinfeld reruns when someone knocked on the door to my apartment. The local Missionaries usually came by with pamphlets to spread the gospel once a month, but they seemed to have taken a special interest in me after I made the mistake of answering the door in a Slayer t-shirt.

Somewhere in that sky is Tommy heading off to a brave new world while I’m still here on the ground waiting to learn how to fly, but I didn’t how or where I’d even go.

I was beginning to get the itch that maybe I should do something with my life one afternoon when I was woken up by a call from a friend I hadn’t heard from in a year.

The few months I’d gotten to be in California had been a strange period, but I’d still have these memories, fond or otherwise, to look back on.

My move-out date was only a month away and I still had no idea where I was going to go, but I knew I couldn’t stay in California

Nothing extraordinary ever happened in this small town, and subsequently, no one ever had any reason to question anything.