Ted Gahl

Collinsville, CT. 11/05/14, 9:03 PM

I would get up early in the summer and Ryan would pick me up in his mom’s Chrysler convertible. We would drive through Norfolk, which would eventually turn into Egremont and then Great Barrington. We’d spend the day painting and scraping houses and smoking.

I used to see her driving down the road a lot. She was very short, so it was just a small head popping up over the wheel of a speeding car. I would often see Morgan in his van as well. He would usually take the shortcut to go down to Ken’s house to avoid the main roads. Charlotte was often around too, and her mother was rarely home, so we would sit by her pool.

Then they started building lots of new houses. Families moved in and the road got busier. The two neighbors on each side of our house passed away. One was a hermit with a very long beard who used to draw cartoons for magazines in New York. The other was a real Yankee, and he kept an immaculate lawn and walked into town everyday. My dad used to take breaks from writing and take long drives. He would always offer the man a ride back from town, but the man always kindly refused.

These days, I don’t see many people I know anymore. But I still drive down that road, and it still feels the same.

Ted Gahl was born in 1983, received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2006 and his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2010. Gahl lives and works in Connecticut.