This is the second of two excerpts from an unpublished novel by Joshua "Skip" Alexander, a former friend of my youngest brother. This work is copyrighted to Joshua Alexander.

In this excerpt, the main character Nathan is going to a party with a waitress from the restaurant he works at.

Julie picked up Nathan in her Chevette and drove him to the party in Kilar Mills. Along the way, she told him a little about herself and asked him some questions about himself. It was a standard part of the human mating ritual called getting to know each other. Nathan mechanically answered the questions and feigned interest in her stories, doing his best to act like he imagined a normal person with a personality might act.

“I have to warn you about this place we’re going to,” Julie said as she drove the car over the Blue Creek Bridge and entered Kilar Mills, a small town about five miles south of (Newton), where Nathan lived and worked. “A friend of mine brought me out here about two month’s ago and I’ve come back a couple of times since. It’s a lot of fun once you get past how strange it is. The guy who lives here is sort of wacky, but he’s mostly harmless.” She parked the car in front of a tall, blue house with a field of waist-high grass stretching out behind it. In the center of the field there was an old red barn. “This is it. Doesn’t look like the party is that big tonight. There’s bound to be something going on though. There always is.”

She looked at Nathan. “If you get so you want to leave, just say so and we’ll go.”

“That’s all right, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” he said as he stepped out of the car.

Robert Woods was the name of Julie’s friend, the one who was throwing the party. The top floor of the barn behind his house had been renovated into an apartment of sorts. There was no running water and the only heat came from a portable gas stove, but there was electricity and furniture, and that was enough because the barn’s only purpose was to serve as a place to throw parties.

There were already six people there when Nathan and Julie climbed up the rickety ladder that lead to the loft; seven if you counted Robert. Four were men dressed in dirty jeans, plaid shirts, and work boots. Nathan had seen their kind many times before. They were the primary wildlife (in rural portions of the Northeastern U.S.)- civilized rednecks. The kind of people whose lives revolved around car engines, drinking beer, hunting, and women – in that order. Nathan’s father had been one, and he would be too if it hadn’t been for all the craziness and the detention homes and Otto. The other two party-goers were female. One was what could be classified as a Civilized Redneck’s woman. She was dressed in spandex pants, a sweater, and a jean jacket. She sat next to the Redneck she belonged to. His arm was thrown over her shoulder and his hand rested on her breast but she didn’t seem to notice it. At the far end of the room, next to the stereo, was a ramshackle lazy-boy recliner, and like a king in his thrown, there sat Robert Woods. He was a tall, skinny man, but well muscled. He had a long blonde hair that he liked to keep in a ponytail until a good song came on, at which time he would undo the rubber band and let those golden locks fly while he headbanged.

Headbanging was something that Civilized Rednecks liked to do almost as much as they loved talking about cars or shooting deer.

Robert didn’t wear a shirt, only a ratty pair of jeans with no knees and no butt left in them. This was the same outfit he had worn all summer long. He had shirts and other jeans somewhere, but he never bothered to change into them. He liked what he had on just fine. Sitting in his lap with her legs thrown over the arm of the chair was sixth member of the party, a chunky blonde girl wearing a pair of shorts and a lace bra.

“Jules,” Robert said warmly as the two newcomers entered the loft. “Who’s this you’ve brought with you?” he asked pointing one skinny finger at Nathan.

“This is Nathan Bluth.”

Nathan waved.

“Nice to meet you Nathan. I’m Rob, the master of ceremonies. This is Donna, “ he said patting the chunky girl on her wrinkled belly. “That guy over in the corner is Reggie Porter, and that’s Steve Duchovney and his girlfriend Corey. These other two guys I don’t know so you’ll have to introduce yourself.”

Once again Nathan waved.

Rob motioned for them to come forward. “Have a seat.”

The civilized Redneck named Reggie cleared out a space on the couch for them to sit, throwing a pile of coats onto the floor. Donna climbed out of Robert’s chair and strutted over to the cooler in the center of the room. She grabbed a couple of beers, brought them back, and handed them to Nathan and Julie.

“Thanks,” Julie said and turned to Nathan. ”Don’t worry. I know I have to drive, but I’m only going to have this one.”

“That’s fine.”

“Good,“ she said with a smile, popping open her can of Milwaukee open and setting one finely manicured hand on his thigh. He was a little surprised she had done it but he liked it just the same. Some women took forever to get comfortable with him. He was glad she was coming along so quickly.

Nathan looked from one Redneck to the next but there wasn’t much to see. They were all slumped forward lifelessly in their seats, like poorly crafted statues. Even the girl with her boyfriend’s hand on her breast seemed dead. They looked like Nathan felt most of the time. Much more interesting to watch were Nathan and his lap pet. Nathan had never seen anything like quite them. Robert’s eyes were full of life, he was singing along enthusiastically to the tune coming out of the speakers, whipping his head around wildly as if in ecstasy. Donna, the girl in the lace bra sitting on his lap, was the only person at the party without a beer in her hand, but Nathan could tell she was far from sober. On her face was one of the most drugged expressions he had ever seen.

“So Nathan,” Robert said, ”what do you do?”

“I’m a short order cook. I work at Helio’s diner. Why, what do you do?”

A few of the Rednecks managed to break from their trances long enough to laugh at the question. Robert and his concubine also had a healthy laugh at his expense.

“This is what I do. I party. I don’t need anything else.”

“I wish I could live like that,’ Julie said, “I hate having to work all the time.”

“So all you ever do is party?” Nathan asked, intrigued by the thought. It sounded so nice – total escape.

“Sure, why not? What else is there worth doing? I mean what do you want out life, Nathan?”

The question flustered him. After nervously gulping down half his beer he hesitantly answered, “I just want to be happy like everybody else.”

“So what are you saying? You ain’t happy?” Robert asked.

Again Nathan chugged down a good portion of his beer. If people kept asking him such difficult questions, he was going to need a lot more to drink. He wished he was back at the restaurant. The hardest things they ever asked him there were “Is the order up yet?” or “Can you stay a few hours late tonight?”

“No. I guess I’m not happy most of the time. It really doesn’t come naturally to me – being happy I mean.”

“No shit?”

“It may sound ridiculous to you since you’re always happy, but it comes hard for me.”

“So when was the last time you were happy about something?”

He thought back and the answer came to him pretty quick. The last time he was really happy was when he was with Isabella, but that had been years before. He didn’t like thinking about her anymore though and he didn’t’ want to tell her story to a whole bunch of strangers. “I honestly can’t remember.”

“Wow. That’s not the kind of thing I like to hear,” Robert said shaking his head. “We’ve gotta do something about that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m gonna figure out some way to cheer you up. You just give me some time to think on it and I’m sure I can come up with something.”

For a second Nathan was excited. He wanted to believe that this stranger might hold the answer for him; that he might be able to give him the antidote to all his years of built-up despair. Then his common sense took over. What were the chances that some half-dressed oddball would be able to help him turn his life around and find the path he had lost so long before. No, if there was a solution it was unlikely that it would be found in a renovated hayloft full of statue-like Rednecks.

By the morning most of the Rednecks were gone. Only the one called Reggie was still there sleeping on a mattress on the other side of the loft. Julie was also asleep, sprawled out across the couch with her feet in Nathan’s lap. She’d only planned on having one drink, but the mood of the place had swept her away. Six beers later, she’d decided she was going to need a little shut-eye before she drove anywhere. Nathan didn’t mind: he was beginning to like that barn. Donna was also out cold, but she was lying face-down on the floor at the base of the recliner. Except for Nathan the only person still conscious was Robert Woods, who looked as alive as he ever had, sitting in his throne and singing along with the stereo. By that point he had let his hair go free and it bounced chaotically as he swung his head to the music. Drunk and drowsy, Nathan thought all those strands of whipping hair made it look like Robert’s head had caught on fire.

“You know something?” Robert said.

“What?”

“I’ve been thinking on what you said about happiness.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You know how you told me I wouldn’t understand where you were coming from because I’m always happy?”

He nodded.

“Well you were wrong man. Sure I’m happy most of the time but even I have my bad moods. Can I tell you something about myself? Would that be all right?”

“Go ahead.”

“In this place I am God, Nathan. I had no idea what this barn would become when I fixed it up four years ago. I spent an entire summer putting in walls, patching up the roof, and bringing in furniture. It was just supposed to be a cool place to hang out in. Pretty soon people started showing up here every day, and they brought me beer and food so they could use the place for the night. Eventually, I just stopped going home at the end of the party and stayed out here. When everybody leaves I sleep and I wouldn’t wake up until more people start showing up. And everybody who came brought me some kind of a gift so I’d let them hang out here. I decided that as long as I was getting everything I needed right here there was no reason to be anywhere else, so I quit school and quit my job and moved out here permanently. Whatever I want just comes to me – booze, drugs, women – it all comes right here. I’ve got this guy who shows up here just about every other night with a big fat bag of weed, and some other guy who brings speed most of the time, and sometimes even LSD. And whenever I want women I have that too, because they just show up every night. Of course I’ve always got this one right here, “ he said, tapping the sleeping body at the base of his throne with one foot. “She ain’t the brightest creature on the face of the Earth, and she ain’t no swimsuit model, but she’s got a kind of prettiness about her that I like. Plus she’ll do whatever I want her to, whenever I want, and she doesn’t get upset when I go after some other girl. She does it because she wants to stay here in my temple with me.”

He paused to pull his long, blonde hair back into a ponytail and bind it with a rubber band. “So you see what I mean when I say I’m a God here?”

Nathan nodded.

“Cause right here I get whatever I want and everyone obeys my every command. Hell, sometimes I get to thinking I could walk across water if the urge struck me."

It was odd, but Nathan could almost picture Robert striding across a river or lake with his hands spread wide and his hair flapping in the breeze behind him.

“That sounds nice, “ he commented absently.

“Yeah, it’s all wonderful being God until I try to leave and find out that I’m not. I’m here ninety percent of the time, and I haven’t been inside my parent’s house in years – actually I haven’t even seen my parents in over two years. They pay the electric bill and the phone bill but they don’t come out to visit. Most of the time I don’t even remember that they exist. Wonder how they’re doing anyway. The only places I ever go are to girlfriends’ houses. I’ve got a little bedroom around the corner I take them to, but some of them don’t like to do it in the barn. They think it’s crude or something.”

Julie began to stir and mumbled a few incomprehensible words in her sleep. Nathan put a hand on her back and gently stroked her, trying to sooth her as he would a cat or a dog.

“You know what happens to me every single time I leave? Every time I go beyond the walls of my temple?”

“What happens?”

“I look at the world and I see that nobody in it gives a shit about me. If I am God then they sure don’t know it. About a week ago, I went out with this one chick to a fast-food place and ordered a hamburger, and you know what the guy behind the counter said to me? He said, ‘Thank you. Come again.' I don’t know why, but that made me as sad as hell. All I wanted to do was come back here and be God again.”

Robert took a long pause and gave Nathan a chance to wonder at the meaning of all that he had just been told.

“Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to tell you Nathan is that I’m not sure how to be happy without lying to yourself. If you wanted to, you could out here and live with me and be Jesus Christ or something for a while, but I don’t think that would do for you. You don’t exactly strike me as the type of person who handle an existence like that. Seems like you’re looking for something more.”

Nathan nodded, “I think so too. I just don’t know what.”