CHAPTER 1: ROAD DOWN THE ROAD
longer than most roads, this particular road crept across block by block and many more until disappearing into the hill your eyes cannot see past. road himself isn't long, though. just on the shorter side, he's found the top of his head failing to have chalk marked above his brothers and sisters, a doorframe an unwitting competition between siblings. his brothers and sisters all also have stupid names like road, but they aren't in the story so you don't have to worry about them. now, there is someone to look out for: porch, and she's just past that view blocking hill. road isn't aware of her, of course, instead expecting to be greeted by his brother, who cares, and maybe his sister, don't worry about it. imagine the surprise when road stops walking on the road and looks up to find porch on his porch. well you don't have to imagine it, because that's exactly what happens: road's on the road, porch's on the porch.
"your pace is really slow, really. i mean really, you snail your way down the road every single day, road?"
road's eyes squinted. as if the hill and attempting to look over it hadn't proved enough of a challenge, he was now being faced with a voice he could not identify, the setting sun's rays bouncing right off the porch and straight through road. beyond serving as an annoyance, this was never a big issue considering he knew how his big brother and big sister sounded... but who was this? no seriously, who the hell is this? the familiarity struck road odd, and he worked through it in his brain while returning fire.
"do you stand out on other people's porches every single day, too?"
"so you do remember my name!" she celebrated. road frowned. why was there a stranger in front of his house and why was she spinning riddles under the safety of the sun? "can you get off my...? actually, i don't know why i'm standing here. i'm coming to you." road took one step. just one. "are you sure you want to do that?" the voice asked. "yeah," road said, hesitant again. "i'm sure i want to walk towards my house." in place of a proper response came a giggle, so he continued: "are you a robber? is my family safe? are you going to shoot me or something?" in place of a proper response came a sustained 'hmm', but she relented: "why would i shoot someone who's already dead?" road pulled out his phone threateningly. "it won't be that much trouble to call the police. they've been here before, you know." the voice started getting closer. "okay, okay! wow! you're not as fun as you used to be, you know."
to who we know as porch but to who road knew as a mystery troublemaker and/or robber stepped forward. the sun on her back, porch was lit, and she bent her neck just a little to look at her old grown friend. "you didn't grow as much as i thought you would, road." road scrunched his brow and scanned the girl in front of him, the girl with the hair and arms and legs familiar but unidentifiable.
"how do you know my name?"
"i've already said it once."
"sure, but how do you know it in the first place?"
"well, you said it already."
"huh? i didn't."
"well, you said it a long time ago and i still remember it."
"i'm going to call the cops..."
"porch!"
"...what?"
"who lived in that house behind you?"
after one last good look over the strange girl, road turned his head over the road and past a house just about identical to his own. there were windows... certainly a door... if you were there and asked to choose which house between the two that road lived in, it'd certainly be a coin flip. oh, and the house featured a porch, too, but that one didn't feature any of the lights his own porch did given no one had turned them on and no one was going to, either. he turned back.
"no one lives in that house, anymore."
"yeah, i asked who lived there. previously, right?"
"previously...?"
"before. a precursor. the prologue. a--"
"i know what previously means."
"do you?"
"i know what previously means!"
"porch!"
"w-what?"
the strange girl became the strange girl capable of lifting a shorter boy as road felt his feet lift off the ground. then came the violent shaking. "porch! porch! porch! porch! porch!" she repeated, road flailing about somewhat helplessly. somewhat, because he quickly regained composure and shot a foot out towards her chest: an instant release. the two collapsed to the ground, road on the road and porch on the sidewalk, the former rubbing his cheek and the latter coughing. road stuck a hand down his pocket, then freed it and reached out towards his phone face down. an attempt was made to press it to life. do you think it turned on? "are you going to pay to fix this? huh?" road asked, jamming his shattered screen into the face of a girl in the middle of a coughing fit. she stuck her hand out in response, the universal signal of give-me-a-minute, and let out a couple more coughs. cleared throat. ahem. "why would i fix a phone for someone who's already dead?" road slammed what was left of his phone onto the ground before them, teeth grit: "i'm not laughing, damn it." the girl looked at him blankly, coughing again a little. "well, i'm not either." she rubbed her arm, continuing, "sorry. i can get you some money if you'll need it." he sighed, conceding, "so, you're not a robber." she smiled.
"of course not... i'm porch!"
porch? porch...? she's who...? wait. and you can probably guess he'd do this, but road looked porch over again another time, turning back towards the old home across from his identical replica save for the lights only offered on one side of the street. and then he faced her. but he was undecided, so he looked again at the other house one more time and back again. he scratched the back of his hair.
"you show up again after ten years just to break my phone?"
CHAPTER 2: ROAD DOWN THE HOLE
by the time road had dumped his bookbag back at the house, swiped some snacks, swapped his shoes, and emerged onto his lit porch to meet porch again, the sun had given up its strength for the day and relented to the purple sky's approach. "you could've come inside, you know," road reminded, handing a microwave pastry or a pop tart over to his reunited childhood friend. his childhood friend smiled back, accepting the toaster item or a pop tart: "you always came over to my house anyway." road scratched the back of his head again, perhaps in search of a bug or lyme disease carrier. "you really haven't eaten all day?" porch led road across the road, responding with a mouthful: "well, i was holding out for tomorrow's continental breakfast."
"uh huh. so... is today the first you've been in town?"
"wise guess, road. it's the truth!"
"did your folks get a nice hotel or..."
"huh? why do you ask?"
"just gauging if i'll be able to get them to pay for my phone repair or not."
porch whirled around to meet road face to face, the best track off discovery. "i told you, i can get you the cash--and it won't have to come from my parents." road lowered his eyebrows. "so you're a robber after all." porch smiled, turning back around and leading her reunited childhood friend to the other side of the street. "that's not quite true... but i will be becoming a breaking-and-entering-er." the two made it to the other side.
"wait, what?"
"or a breaker-and-enterer?"
"we're not going to break into your old house."
"oh, please... can you really be a b&e when you have.... THIS?"
road looked at what porch flashed in her blueberry pop tart stained smile and in her fist, then folded his arms. "there's zero chance that still works." his skepticism did little to dissuade that smile. "why don't we find out? huh? huh?" her enthusiasm did little to dissuade his folding. "why don't you chew with your mouth closed?" porch trotted along the steps of her old porch and up to her old door, looking back at road with a thumbs up, then jamming the old key into that old door. she turned the knob, and...
"see? look, let's just hang out back at my house. you can meet my new siblings."
porch gazed upon her failed key, enthusiasm and smile drained.
"i never met your old ones."
"then they're all new to you."
"well, i don't want to meet any of them... follow me around back."
"porch..."
porch shambled ahead of road with a face of pathetic dread, like a sad puppy who had just been informed of a lupus diagnosis. they rounded the house and came up to the back, this side absent of a porch save for porch herself. she stopped, so road did, too, so road spoke: "you don't even have a backdoor. neither of our houses do. so what are you looking...?" his words trailed off as he observed what a silent porch did as well: a shattered window. he hadn't even noticed at first given the lack of cartoonish shards sticking out, the base of the window having been ostensibly sanded down somewhat. porch face to faced road once again, although perhaps high life is the best, explaining "i tried my key earlier and it didn't work, so i just smashed a window and sanded it down somewhat!" road backed up, freaked. "y-you what? porch, you don't live here anymore, you can't just..." she closed the growing distance with her face. "but i did. you're saying i can't, but i did do it." road shoved her back. "you can't, as in you're obviously not supposed to, dumbass. did you hit your head a few times in the ten years since you lived here?"
a big smile returned to porch's face. "ten years ago, i remember a certain asphalt named individual smashing a window himself." she brought her face close again, adding "gleefully, even." another shove, another road retort: "you're talking about the baseball thing. the accident. you're talking about when i accidentally broke someone's window?" her smile was undeterred. "someone's? i seem to remember that house being abandoned, too... and i seem to remember someone suggesting we go check out the inside..." a big folding returned to road's arms. "i wanted the baseball back. it was signed by potty thampson." porch laughed in the increasingly growing dark. "i wonder if you'd beat him in a stupid name competition". no smile could be seen on road. "i wonder if you'll get beat in jail when you're arrested for trespassing." despite the night around them, porch's pearly whites were unbelievably undeniable. "hmm... i dunno, why don't you come with me and find out for yourself?"
and with a suddenness, porch was upon road, lifting him up in the air and tossing him straight through the window.
"AUGH... what the... porch, what the hell is your problem?" road yelled through the window, or the sanded down gap in the window, rather. he checked himself for any cuts, and thankfully found nor felt none. porch's head poked out the top of the sanded down gap in the window, and her smile continued with a failed infectiousness against road's annoyance. "what's your problem, huuuuh?" she began to crawl through the window, continuing: "i seem to remember a more adventurous road, a road who'd go down any road. what happened to that road, huh?" road's forehead had never wrinkled so hard. "he grew up, which not everyone is capable of doing, apparently." porch, halfway through the gap, laughed. "i grew up. i just didn't let my curiosity die--ouch!" she winced as her finger sliced open off a rogue shard, the gap in the window losing its ability to be called sanded down, or at least sanded down well. road stood completely up to face a sucking-on-the-side-of-her-index porch.
"you deserved that, you know."
porch lowered her finger, flashed another smile, then continued sucking.