Streetview Movie

Streetview Movie

My brother and I rarely get together, and don’t have much in common; he’s a music promoter, and I’m a bond trader. But we had a close family, before mom died in a car accident, and we have lots of good memories. We were talking about our grandfather, mom’s dad, the other day. Grandpa Ken lived out on a farm way out in the country, in a beautiful place out at the end of some road in eastern Kansas. We both had a good memory of the place itself and the road to it, as we had been there many times as kids. There was a lake that you’d travel along, and some milo fields, dark red in the late summer sun, and some wooden fences, and this one bridge you’d cross, over a little creek where we used to play, before you got there. And there would be his farm house, wooden, shining in the afternoon sun, and his chair. He was always in that rocking chair, out in front, looking out over a slight valley, and he’d greet us as we drove up the gravel lane.

But, as our parents grew older, we went out there less, and then mom died, and then, about four years ago, he died. We weren’t really able to say goodbye to him, and, when we went to his funeral, we were very sad about that; everyone was, as he was a very well-loved man. It was just that he hadn’t told us even that he was sick; it was rather sudden; one day he was just gone.

My brother and I lead busy lives; I live in Denver and he lives in New Orleans. So even we don’t get together very often, but one day recently we both happened to be in Memphis, so we got together. I was there for a basketball tournament, and he was there for something related to music, so he came over to my hotel. We started talking about all kinds of things, the parents, our sister, Grandpa Ken, the farm in Kansas, all kinds of topics came up.

Well, the more we talked about that farm, the more we were curious. We’d had a lot of good times out at that farm, and we remembered them clearly. Sometimes we were down in the creek, with Grandpa Ken himself, as he liked to explore around old wooded areas and find arrowheads and things. Other times we helped him with the milo, some of which was his, and I remember its deep red color and Grandpa Ken’s face as he inspected it. We’d swim or fish in the lake; it belonged to someone, but Ken knew the guy, and nobody minded his grandkids. Even mom would come along and once she actually caught a big fish.

I had my computer with me, so we just loaded up Google Maps, and started looking at the area on the map function. It was easy, and, using street view, pretty soon we were seeing those same old roads that you use to get out there, the lake, the fields, the bridge, all of it.

Now here’s the weird part. One day, I’m sure, some Google streetview car and driver went out that same road, the road we used to take as kids. That streetview driver went out past the lake, past the old milo fields, past the wooden fences and over the bridge. Remember that Grandpa died four years ago. But the streetview driver had probably gone out there before that, and, the way streetview was in 2017, they weren’t going out on that road every year. They had to choose which roads to update, and, if a road was in the country, and didn’t affect many people, well, it would just wait five or ten years before it was updated. So my guess is that when we were on streetview that night, that driver had gone down that road maybe five or six years earlier.

Anyway, when that streetview driver got out to that old wooden farmhouse, there was Grandpa Ken, sitting on his chair, in front of the house, as he would generally be when we got out there. That chair had a pretty good view, considering that Kansas is overall pretty flat, but in the afternoon Grandpa would always sit on that chair, and he was there when that driver got there, and he waved at the driver, just as he would, to us.

So maybe you can guess what happened. My brother and I took the streetview camera option and went down that road like we always used to, as kids. We saw the lake, the milo fields, the wooden fences, the old bridge, and the creek; we remembered every tree that we used to climb on.

When we got out to the old wooden house at the end of the road, there he was, sitting on his chair. The Google streetview camera preserved him, just as he always was, sitting on that chair.

So my brother and I were watching street view, in order to remember the place, and to get some memories of what it was like to go up that road as kids. And we saw our Grandpa waving, right there, when we got up to his house. But here’s where you’ll never believe me. We could swear he was saying goodbye to us now. We knew he was in that image, in that little movie that streetview made, because we could feel him in there.

I actually don’t believe in the supernatural. I’m a bond trader, and a math person, and I believe in principles of math, but I don’t believe in ghosts. If you asked me if dead people could still be alive, or if their ghosts were around us, haunting our old houses, I’d say no. And I believe my brother would say the same thing, though he’s more of a musician by nature. We in our family never actually believed that the dead could come back and speak to us from the images on Google or anywhere else. But we were both there in that hotel room when we saw that. And the strange thing is, we both feel that, now, we’ve finally been able to say goodbye to him. We said goodbye when we saw him in that image. We were both affected in the same way.

Streetview, by now, has changed; he’s gone. We had our chance, we went out there, and we saw him. We both know that was him. If you don’t believe me, ask my brother. I still shiver, just when I think of it, and I think he does too. But I’m glad it happened. We loved him a lot, and we needed to see him one more time.

2-2020 This story will appear in the next collection of short stories, which will be marketed soon. -TL