Because of Haven Beach

12 | anachronistic

anachronistic (adj.)

old fashioned and antique in a way that blatantly clashes with the surroundings; belonging to another time period

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SUNDAY afternoon, Ethan finally showed me around town. I suspected that Aunt Kelli had something to do with him finally getting his act together. He was super busy with football the past week, so we kept delaying my mini-tour.

"I was thinking of starting on Main Street, unless there's somewhere else you want to see," he said as we hopped in his car.

"Sounds good to me. I don't really have a preference."

He put the key in the ignition and started the car. "Any music you want to listen to?"

"I don't really care," I lied. I definitely had a music taste but was semi-embarrassed by it. Most of the kids my age—especially the guys—listened to rap music, but I hated it with a passion. Pop and 80s music were more my thing.

"You know it's okay to have an opinion, right?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm just not used to being asked. My old friends were kinda controlling." I laughed humorlessly, "Wow, that sounds super depressing."

"That sucks. You can pick whatever. I won't bite."

I searched a few radio stations as he pulled out of the driveway. We fell into an easy silence as I looked out the window to gain some semblance of a bearing. My car was arriving from Chicago soon, and I didn't want to remain reliant on my GPS. The cell service in Haven Beach was spotty enough.

After driving down unremarkable roads for several minutes, we pulled into another parking lot in front of a small strip mall. There were seven distinct stores in front of us, all with signs above their doors. The buildings didn't look recently constructed, but they weren't at the point of falling apart.

"So that's the grocery store," he gestured towards the small shop titled Haven Deli on the far right. "Then there's the hardware store, coffee shop, library, and a few clothing stores." He pointed down the line of similar-looking stores.

"It's a lot smaller than I expected," I said as I stared at the storefronts.

"Yeah, this is actually the main area in town. About three thousand people live here year-round, so we don't need much." He gestured to the park on the opposite side of the street. A few kids were playing on the playground while their mothers sat under the gazebo.

"What do you do if you want to go to a Target or a big retail store?" I made Target and Starbucks runs weekly back in Chicago and was already starting to go through a withdrawal. I couldn't grasp how people in Haven Beach survived without them.

"You have to go to Mashpee Commons, which is like thirty minutes away. There's not much to do around here... Boring, I know."

"I think the small-town feel is nice. It sure beats the noise of the city."

"You'll get bored of it soon enough. Just wait until the dead of winter," he scoffed. "Pretty much everything closes at the first snowfall."

"Doubt it. I love how charming Haven Beach is. Makes me wish I grew up here."

He nodded. "Yeah, that would have been nice. Although, I'm not so sure about how Grandmother and Grandfather would have felt about it."