Every time I walked by the house it haunted me. The run-down brick house at the top of a hill, window frames rotting, trim crusted with flaked paint. It showed no evidence of life, no evidence of ... [+]
I practice law in Boston. I'm happy with my life, but whenever someone asks "Trevor if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" I always answer Idol, Ohio.
Idol was where my cousin Bradley lived. Bradley used to live just down the road until we were sixteen. After my Aunt passed, my Uncle had to get out of the state. Idol was only an hour fifty from Erie, Pennsylvania, where I lived. Idol was where my Uncle grew up.
There was only a three month age gap between Bradley and I so we were very close. We both had an older sister and older brother. Our older siblings were at least eight years older than us. The age gap was noticeable and only Bradley and I could relate on most things. We were more like brothers than cousins.
Thankfully, the move happened when we both had our licenses. We made a sort of oath that we would go no longer than a year without seeing each other. We decided to always plan these trips near the end of summer. The first summer I made the trip to Idol and the next he came to Erie.
My visits to Idol were the first time I felt at home away from home. Idol was a cozy little town, I always felt safe there. The only danger in Idol was a traffic light that never worked, so the residents always treated it as a four-way stop. My Uncle worked as an Over-the-Road Truck Driver, so on my visits, Bradley and I were home alone a lot.
That third summer visit to Idol was the most memorable. We were both eighteen. I was set to go to Bowdoin College. Bradley wasn't going to college. He was a smart kid and got good grades, but he found school to be one of the most boring things. The only way he was going to go to college was if he could keep playing baseball, but an injury brought those plans to an end.
It was the last weekend of summer before I had to move in to Bowdoin the following week. Bradley wanted to make this trip extra special. Sure, we could always continue our summer plans, but during the school year, we acknowledged we weren't going to see each other much or at all.
Bradley and I were good kids. We never sent to the principals office, never drank, smoked, anything like that. We were seen as the "boring one" in our respective friend groups, but we preferred that.
When I arrived to Idol, Bradley instantly greeted me with a plan. We got in his beat-up 2003 Chevy Impala and headed to the store. On the way, he informed me of how we would be spending our two nights, "Friday night, we're going to fill the memorial fountain with bubbles. Saturday night, we're going to move the mannequins around." So what was considered routine by middle school pranksters became a big event for two eighteen year olds.
Filling the fountain with bubbles was an ancient prank. The Union Solider Fountain Memorial stands tall in the center of Idol Square. Bradley got the idea from his father who would constantly pour soap into the fountain with his buddies growing up.
The mannequin idea centered around several mannequins that were also positioned in Idol Square. They served as a way for the local clothing store to display their new items for back to school shopping. The town, found the mannequins to be extremely creepy. Bradley thought we could move them and give everyone a good scare. "We've spent enough time being goody two-shoes," Bradley told me. "Before you go off and become a preppy liberal, let's go do something we shouldn't do." We bought five things of dish soap.
At midnight we reached the fountain. The coast was clear. We poured all of our dish soap and watched as the fountain soon overflowed with bubbles. When we were done with our harmless crime, we sprinted back to Bradley's house close by, no witnesses.
We created quite the conversation the following morning for all the residents. Maybe the town thought the bubble prank would be a one and done thing, because once again the following midnight, there was no one around. We moved the mannequins around town. We had some of them peer through people's windows. Safe to say, you could hear plenty of screaming in the morning.
In the end, the majority of residents abandoned their frustration and decided to laugh the pranks off. Bradley and I were never caught, and we never felt guilty since no one got hurt. I think those nights may have been the hardest I've ever laughed. It was the perfect summer sendoff.
The first semester at Bowdoin started off fast. As I was about to leave campus for Thanksgiving break, I got a call from my mom. Someone from out of town had driven through Idol and gone right through the broken traffic light, severely hitting Bradley in his Impala.
Bradley's presence remained after his death. If I ever had a bad day, I just thought of our crimes in Idol and would instantly burst into laughter.
After Bowdoin, I went to Harvard to study law. I met my wife at Harvard and eventually we found ourselves going from Trevor and Caroline to mom and dad.
I got to the point in my life where I had once again gone long enough being a goody two-shoes. I told Caroline I'd be taking a trip to Idol to visit Bradley's grave. I got to his grave and oddly enough started laughing, and my laughs soon turned into tears.
After visiting Bradley's grave I didn't know what to do. I thought about stopping at the local theater or grabbing a bite to eat.
Instead, I found myself at midnight standing in front of the Union Solider Fountain Memorial with a thing of dish soap in my hand.