I. Sapsorrow Lane

We had been driving down the highway in silence for at least five songs when Luke took the off-ramp to his parents neighborhood. He turned to me and grinned. "Almost there," he said.

It was the first Christmas of my life I'd decided not to spend with my parents back in Yuba City.

What luck to have been roomed with a rich boy in the dorms. But Luke was not some old money dickhead. He was a genuinely fun guy with whom I'd spent the first Semester of college bonding over long, stoned conversations and late drunken nights. He recognized his privilege and had used it to get the best education possible. Despite how handsome he was, and how naturally cool and gregarious he came off at parties, at heart the guy was a total nerd. When we weren't out tearing up campus we were back in our dorm playing board games or watching anime or talking about books. We both got good grades and actually went to college to learn, despite what fun we managed to have in between. Finals had been a grind, and it was a more than welcome escape to accompany Luke to his family home, to vacation in his nostalgia and leave the familiar disorder of my own home life back up north.

Moreso, Luke had promised me genuine adventure, of a type which he would not explicitly name but which hovered in his words with illicit promise.

I remembered the late, drunken night when he'd first brought it up, him laying above me in the top bunk, his echoing words whispering down from the ceiling; "I grew up with these neighbor girls...three of them...they like me to...bring them friends..and man...I don't want to say too much...with them...with them I've always been a gentleman but...it's not all the time...but...around Christmas they really go...they really show..." and he'd fallen asleep.

The next morning he'd stared at me across his bowl of cereal at the cafeteria table and said "I'm serious man, you should come home for Christmas with me, my parents would love to meet you..." with no further mention of the neighbor girls, but the promise still there lingering. I agreed.

"So..." this was the first time I was bringing it up again, not since we'd started packing, not the whole time we'd been on the road, but as we'd pulled off on the exit a nerve in my stomach had alit, had throbbed, fear and curiosity. "These neighbor girls you mentioned," I said.

He laughed. Any worry I'd had that he'd forgotten mentioning them or made them up faded.

"I was wondering when you'd ask," he said. "Don't worry man, it's the best part of Christmas but you've just got to be patient."

The clicking noise of his left-turn signal marked the car's broad sweep into a hidden cul-de-sac between tall, bare willows.

And my eyes reeled back at the sight of many lighted houses, each lawn marked by mannequin Santas and Smurfs and Charlie Browns, Reindeers, Elves, and fake Snowmen (it was Orange County after all.)

He pulled into the driveway of the biggest house in the cul-de-sac. I heard a dog barking. The front door opened. A woman rushed out, smiling. His mother I assumed.

We stepped out of the car, stretching our road legs and smelling the crisp evening air.

His mother wrapped her arms around me before him. "You must be Nathan!" she cried, and held me tight. She smelled like cinnamon apple, and there was a warmth about her that made me feel sleepy. She was wearing a green, wool sweater that cushioned her soft breasts as she squeezed me tighter. She kissed my cheek.

"Welcome! Let's get you boys inside."

We dragged our suitcases through the front door and into the foyer.

"Your dad's not home yet," she said to Luke. "And your friend? Where will he be staying. In the guest room? Or do you want him next door in Mia's room?"

Luke shrugged and then looked at me.