Page 55 of The Long Way Found
“Nope, never made it. They wouldn’t let me anywhere near it, of course. So I decided to explore Manhattan for a few days. I was working out at a gym in Greenwich Village when this very nice-looking, polite man approached me. At first, I thought he was hitting on me, but he told me he was an agent and that I had the right look for his agency in L.A.”
“Please.”
“I know. Serial-killer vibes, right? But he was legit. That’s how I got started. Next thing I knew, I was in Hollywood with a stack of headshots and a list of appointments. They put me in an apartment with three other guys who all looked like Ken dolls on steroids.”
Luke shook his head. “Suddenly, I was surrounded by guys who looked just like me or better. Taller, more sophisticated, gorgeous, all of them.”
“That’s not true, you—”
“It was,” Luke said easily. “It’s Hollywood. Everyone is next level. Anyway, I did some test shoots. Commercial work. Smile. Flex. Jobs came easily, and it was fun to go to New York and Europe to see how things work at that level. Easiest thing ever.”
Jack stayed quiet.
“But,” Luke continued, pausing to form the next details of the story into words. “I reached my peak pretty early and then … drifted. Fewer jobs, more parties, but still maintaining… And then… I blew that audition for ‘Survivor’ I told you about, and my agent was done with me. He told me to go home and get sober, that I wasn’t cut out for L.A. I got pissed, but … he was right. It really wasn’t for me. And, luckily, that was my rock bottom, which wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been if I’d stayed. I mean, I had no direction. Plenty of distractions, but… I don’t know. Does that make sense?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So, I came home, got sober, started training a few people, and put in some time to get my sense of direction back here.”
The sun dipped behind a cloud again, and the warmth faded quickly. Luke pulled his jacket back on.
“All because you wanted to see me and couldn’t,” Jack said. “Is that what you mean?”
“Yeah—what? Wait, no! I don’t mean it’s your fault,” Luke said. “That’s just the way it happened.”
He walked to the overlook, his back to Jack, as if taking in the view.
Luke turned around and lifted his chin. “I followed my heart back then, not a strategy,” he said. “Still do.”
“And now I’ve come back here looking for a sense of direction, too,” Jack said. “Crazy how we go through cycles.”
They sat there a while longer, talking about nothing and everything, old teachers, dumb high school stunts, and how the town had changed and how it hadn’t.
Eventually, Luke stood and brushed his hands on his jeans. “We should head back before it gets too cold.”
Jack nodded. As they walked to the truck, he glanced once more at the mine entrance. Luke caught the look. The mine did have a certain eerie presence.
“Some things can stay in the past,” Luke said. “But I’m not afraid of it. Just part of the story.”
Jack smiled. “Some things can come back from it.”
“Can they?”
They drove back toward town, the road rattling beneath them.
“Is that what we’re doing?” Luke asked after a few minutes of silence. “Digging up the past for something we lost?”
“Maybe,” Jack said. “I guess we’ll see. But… I don’t want to trade on the past, either way.”
“Right. Same. What do you want?”
Luke meant “from me,” but he sensed Jack was referring to the bigger picture in his life and chose not to press the point.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. For the first time.”
“Fair enough,” Luke said, and they drove a while longer in silence as Luke wondered what they were digging up.
CHAPTER 20
