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[Music]
the iron gate by talen to me
[Music]
the order I get the more I realize how
much I’ve forgotten
do you remember being a kid on a long
car ride how the road would stretch on
and on and your grandparents house was
only 20 minutes away but it felt more
like two hours some kids would watch a
movie or play a game on some half-broken
old tablet but I get carsick
so sometimes all I could do was look out
of the window and imagine it was easiest
to play the game at night do you know
the game I’m talking about I don’t know
if it has an actual name but I just used
to call it the car chaser game when I
first started playing it on car trips I
felt like the smartest kid alive I would
imagine the chaser a little differently
every time but no matter what it was it
followed alongside the car as the trees
and houses sped by it would jump
effortlessly from power line to power
line across street lights the chaser
would follow along beside the car and
the game was to see if it could keep up
the whole trip my friend Joey got
carsick too and on the bus we weren’t
allowed to use devices anyway so I guess
it all started because we were bored I
told him about the car chaser
when I finished though he just looked
smug said he already knew that game and
that I wasn’t doing it right when he
looked out the window
the OI sore a white dog we started to
argue and some of the other kids sitting
next to us leaned in to listen when they
heard what we were fighting about some
people said that they pretended it was a
cheetah and some said they just saw a
really fast man when we realized we had
all played the same game though everyone
leaned back into their own seats to look
out the window Joey and I talked about
what path we thought the chaser would
take as it ran we pressed closer to the
window and imagined the chaser jumping
across the cars we passed long legs
stretching out behind it
when we passed a gated driveway though
we got in another find I said the chaser
would jump from one side of the iron
gate to the other Joey said the gate was
its base though and since the car chaser
had made it to the base before us it had
won the game this time I told him I
thought that was a dumb rule
but Joey stopped playing after that we
talked about video games the rest of the
trip I thought that was the end of it we
all got off the bus me and Joey and a
few other kids and we started walking
home but when we passed the big iron
gate
Joey stopped picked a leaf off a nearby
tree and placed it on the ground in
front of the gate he said the leaf was
really money for the kart racer from the
game to say thank you for playing with
us the rest of us thought it was funny
and being kids we would pretty much take
any excuse to pull the leaves off a
train so we each picked a leaf and left
it in front of the gate too and we just
started doing that it kind of just
became a habit we all rode the bus
together and so whenever the group of us
passed by the iron gate we would always
end up leaving something in front of it
it didn’t always have to be leaves just
anything interesting we found sometimes
we would leave plastic bottle caps
sometimes Joey would even leave a small
piece of candy if he had one and then
there was the time we made Nico leave
some of the money his mom had given him
I still feel bad about that Nico had
been given a couple of coins by his mom
and he had been talking all day about
how if he brought the money back to her
at the end of the day she would take him
to get some ice cream it was supposed to
teach him about responsibility or
something Nico and I were sitting next
to each other on the bus ride home that
day we were both looking out of the
window
Nicko told me that this time he saw a
long white dog running next to the bus
and when it was running it picked up all
its legs off the ground like a horse its
body scrunching together and stretching
back out as it followed we got off the
bus and when our group came across the
big iron gate we all stopped beautifully
picking leaves off the nearby plants
only this time Joey didn’t put his leaf
down instead he looked at Nico and told
us that Nico had to leave some of the
money his mom had given him Nico didn’t
want to he said he was going to leave a
leaf like he always did because that was
the rule but joey said that that wasn’t
good enough he said that the chaser knew
Nico had something better and if it knew
you had something important you had to
share and because Nico played the game
on the way home he had to give up the
money or else
the rest of us didn’t know what to do
but Joey seems like he knew what he was
talking about so one by one we left our
gifts and waited to see what Nico would
do he goes cheeks were red his chubby
fists clenched at his side Joey looked
serious he seemed reluctant to say
morbley said if Nico didn’t leave the
money the chaser would start chasing him
and it wouldn’t stop not until it caught
him I still wish I had said something
but that was a long time ago nowadays
Joey lives across the country and I
commute to and from work on the bus to
be honest I hadn’t thought about the
game in a long time
but then last Friday I missed my stop I
think I just spaced out my company’s in
crunch right now so everyone’s working
long hours to meet the latest upcoming
impossible deadlines so running on two
hours of sleep I must have missed when
they announced my stop by the time I had
realized what happened we were ten
blocks away
I knew this route looped around though
and I didn’t want to walk that far at
night so I decided to just ride it out I
stared out of the window into the
darkness my tired eyes appreciated the
lack of scenery
I don’t know when exactly I noticed ed I
was just about to drift off I think when
I realized there was something moving in
the dark alongside the bus I assumed it
was some reckless cyclist their long
legs pumping the pedals as they matched
the busses unhurried rumbling in the fog
I watched the pale legs going up and
down in a fluid motion somewhere in the
back of my mind I think I even noticed
the cyclist must have been really
hunched over their handlebars their
torso almost parallel to the ground my
eye is closed there was a gentle tapping
on the bus window and the vibrations
knocked against the side of my head
irritated I opened an eye glaring at the
other passengers to see who was tapping
along to their music there are only five
other people is far along the route and
everyone was facing forward either
looking at their phones or sleeping
themselves open my other eye look at the
window outside it was so dark that I
could hardly see anything past the
lighted interior of the bus the window
rattled again they looked flower
down by the pavement running alongside
the bus was a dog
it was a greyhound I think at first I
thought it must be a lost dog and I
looked at the back of the driver’s seat
considering how to tell her to stop I
was worried if she stopped suddenly she
might over it then I realized the dog
was keeping up with the bus I looked
down again and the pale dogs stretched
out its neck wrapping its nose against
the bus window its eyes sparkled orange
in the light it’s long long snout opened
and ii thought the tooth cleaned in the
dark too many more than any dog has
the bus driver announced the final stop
and as I watched the thing started to go
faster its long gangly legs stretching
out behind it its head staying in place
the whole time its eyes didn’t blink its
mouth hung open jaws gaping in a dumb
toothy doglike expression then I saw
what it had seen coming up further along
the road an iron gate I act the cord but
the bus didn’t stop of course not there
wasn’t a bus stop to get off at I sat
frozen as both the bus and the dog raced
toward the gate the bus slowed as it
approached an intersection the dog did
not the bus stopped shortly after the
doors opening with a hiss the bus driver
looked back told me I had to get out I
didn’t move I asked her didn’t this
route loop around apparently not on
Fridays I got off the bus
I wanted to walk the other way I really
did but as I turned to walk away I could
feel the gate on the road behind me lit
a muddy yellow by a streetlight I walked
towards it
I didn’t remember any of it that night
especially not what Joey had told Nico I
tried I really did but all I remembered
was kids putting leaves by the gate so I
picked a leaf and I stepped up to the
gate I bent to set my offering down my
fingers brushing against the cold metal
I looked up at the gate as I stood in
the darkness behind it just out of reach
of the streetlight a pair of I is
gleamed back round and shiniest coins
they were at eye level
for a moment the only thing that moved
was the heart
wet hair across my face I ran I ran down
the block didn’t stop running till I ran
out of breath must have gone for an hour
before I finally called a cab to come
pick me up I don’t think it followed me
I swear if I had remembered I would have
left something better I haven’t taken
the bus the past few weeks I have to
work again on Monday it’s going to be
another long night this episode is
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