They found themselves in a town called Sturbridge. They got a quick meal at a Friendly’s. Even though Ted loved himself some Fribble, it paled in comparison with Mariana’s offering. Ted helped his father bathe and get ready for sleep. They shared a room with twin beds. They watched some local broadcasts discussing the upcoming one-game-winner-take-all playoff. It was all anyone was talking about up here. The Curse of the Babe and 1918. Ted tucked Marty into bed, turned out the light, and got into bed himself.
“That was a fun day, Teddy, thank you.”
“Sure thing, Dad. Walking around that town today, I remembered this recurring fantasy I had when I was a kid.”
“Yeah?”
“Remember we used to take the LIRR out to the island in the summer sometimes and we’d head back on those hot summer Sundays and the AC was always shit and I’d stand between the cars and watch the sleepy little Long Island towns slide by.”
“I remember those days.”
“Mostly Indian names—Islip, Wantagh, Massapequa. And of course the always mysterious and alluring Babylon. Sometimes the train would be moving so slowly, like three miles per hour, I felt like I could just step off unharmed and keep walking. And I’d think about you and Mom back there in your seats oblivious, and I could just step off and walk into a new town and become a new person. Walk up to some nice-looking suburban home and say, Hi, I’m Ted, can I be your son? You don’t have to call me Ted, either, you can call me whatever you want. And I’d become new. They’d give me new clothes and I’d have a new mom and dad, and you guys wouldn’t know I was gone till you hit the city and by then it’d be too late, you’d never find me.”
“That’s not a very nice bedtime story, telling me how you wanted new parents.”
“That’s not it, Dad. I never stepped off. Did I? I never got off the train. I always stayed with you.”
“That’s true.”
They lay in silence, readying for sleep.
“And you know what, Ted, that’s gonna be enough for me. That you never left. That’s more than a man could ask of his son.”
“And you never left me, Dad.”
“No, I guess I didn’t.”
“That’s enough too.”
Marty flicked on the light. “I don’t wanna sleep, Ted.”
“I get it. What do you wanna do?”
“I wanna look for trouble.”