Free Admission by Travis Thrasher Page B

of work.”
    I looked in their family room and heard Tracy talking with Bruce about video games.
    “She’s awesome. I’m glad you found someone.”
    “Yeah, me too. Come on—we should babysit Bruce. There’s time to talk later.”

    Sometimes I think that half of the stunts I pulled back in college were done just so I could sit around a dinner table years later with friends recounting the memories with tears of laughter in my eyes. For an hour Bruce, Shane, and I told an interested audience of Tracy stories from our Providence days. Most of them involved me. Driving on the soccer field. Decorating half of a dorm hallway with shaving cream. Pulling off the mattress stunt. Getting kicked out for drinking. Stealing the stupid college mascot.
    I couldn’t help but laugh and try to think of something else to top that last story. But Bruce, already good to go from the steady flow of alcohol in his system, managed to top everyone.
    “How about the time on spring break when you stole my car and spent the night in it? When all of us thought you were dead or something.” He laughed and kept eating.
    I couldn’t help but glance at Shane, but neither of us said anything.
    “What was that?” Tracy asked, humor still filling her pretty face.
    “That was just like any other story,” Shane quickly said. “You add a bunch of guys, a lot of booze, and the next thing you know you wake up wondering what happened.”
    “Jake used to have a lot of those stories.”
    I nodded and only smiled at Tracy.
    Bruce looked and acted as if he hadn’t said anything. I don’t think he knew. I think somehow he had managed to forget all about that spring break. He’d surely forgotten talking with the police and the campus buzz. He’d surely forgotten why that was the last thing any of us would ever bring up. Maybe even why Alec had gone missing in the first place, and why we might be looking for him now.
    It was the story we all shared, this specter that hung over all of us, waiting to block out the light and stop the laughter.

    It was around ten o’clock when the power went out. Shane and Tracy didn’t seem too bothered.
    “This happens all the time,” Tracy said.
    “Can I smoke?” Bruce asked.
    “Yeah,” Shane said. “Take it outside.”
    “Let me get some candles.”
    Shane got on the phone to report the outage. I followed Bruce outside onto the back deck. We sat in wooden chairs overlooking the large lake.
    “I didn’t know Jacksonville was by water,” Bruce said, lighting up.
    “Pretty nice, huh?”
    “It’s sticky and hot,” he answered.
    “It’s going to get sticky and hot inside if they don’t get the power on.”
    Bruce seemed lost in his thoughts. I decided to bring up his earlier comment. “What do you remember about that spring break?”
    “Huh?”
    “The last spring break. The camping trip.”
    Bruce shook his head. I could barely make out his face in the darkness outside.
    “We should’ve gone to Cancun. Or Florida. Maybe down here.”
    “None of us had the money,” I said. “Well, Franklin did. But he was the only one.”
    “Why’d we go camping?”
    I shrugged, not really remembering whose idea it had been. “You don’t remember anything?” I asked again.
    “Not really. I just remember looking for you that last morning.”
    I waited, but he said nothing more. Maybe that was all he really did know.
    Crickets droned on, but otherwise it was quiet. Woods surrounded us.
    “Think we’ll find Alec?”
    I noticed the way he said
we
. “To be honest? No.”
    “What’re you gonna do if you find him? Handcuff him and take him back?”
    “This guy just wants to know if his daughter is okay. That’s all.”
    An hour later, we all sat in the living room lit by flickering candles. Bruce had drifted off due to a lack of interest and a stomach full of red wine. In the middle of telling a story Tracy stopped talking and looked at one of the back windows.
    “That’s odd,” she