A Road Called Marietta

Marietta Road 

This road got stories that never been told. They always say that once you take Marietta and travel beyond where the trees meet at the end, you ain't never coming back. You done decided that you ready to embark on a new life. I always scared to go to the edge but I been close to it. Sometimes I get on my bike and travel half way up Marietta Road. Then I just stand there, wait, watch and listen. Sometimes when I stand there, I feel like somebody watching me. It's like this little road got eyes and you can hear it whispering when the wind blows.

One day when I stood there, I heard this rumbling noise coming to the right of me. It sounded like a tractor. I hid in the bushes and waited. I was right when I said it was a tractor but I was surprised who was driving. It was my cousin Sammy. He was driving about as fast as that tractor able to go. I look at his face and his eyes look fixed on the direction he was going. Then as he almost get to the end, Sammy pull the tractor over. He just sit there for a while like he thinking. He have me worried because I dont know what's gonna happen. I've heard so many stories but never seen until this moment how Marietta Road affect people. Sammy sit there for a long time and then he pull out a cigarette. He light it and start smoking. I stepped out from behind the bushes and start to walk toward Sammy but I dont say a word. I walked carefully so as not to startle him. Sammy just staring at the opening formed by the trees touching each other. And because it get so dark that opening seem like a white light leading you to the promised land. Only trouble with thinking about the promised land is that it means you gotta make a choice to do something you ain't never tried before. I thinks about it all the time and that's what Sammy was doing while sitting in that tractor. He knew that if he go through that opening, he done commit himself to a whole new direction in life. If he come back right away, we all gonna talk about him. But if he stay gone then he just gonna fuel all the old stories that we constantly heard. Travel up Marietta and pass through that opening, you ain't never coming back.

Sammy tossed his cigarette to the ground and started the engine back up. He finally noticed me standing there watching. Sammy waved and told me to be good.

"See you on the other side!" Sammy said.

He disappeared into the light and that was it. Sammy was gone and I wanted to go too but I knew I had to wait for my time. I couldn't just do it because I'd seen someone else. I wasn't ready yet. I was too young and hadn't listened to enough stories to prepare myself for what's on the other side. My day would soon come...