where is the first place mike goes when he leaves derry and what does he do? also do you think he ever settles down again?
See i am TEMPTED to say Florida for obvious reasons, however Florida sucks. Maybe he DOES go to Florida and then he realizes that Florida sucks, and I think after leaving Derry he isn’t ready to stay in one place yet so I like to think that he has his “student on a gap year” hot girl summer and does a lot of traveling, I love the idea of him just out of nowhere texting the Losers group chat a picture of him like. on top of Machu Picchu like “just finished hiking!” and everyone’s confused because last they heard he was in Italy. So I think he does a lot of traveling (which is financed by all of the rest of the Losers because they’re RICH and they should be paying for every single whim he has forever probably.) He gains an appreciation for cultural food and dishes, and gets REALLY good at cooking, which is a passion he continues even when he stops traveling so frequently. I think towards the end of his traveling he convinces Bill to come with him, and they do something cliche and cheesy like Paris but they don’t care because Mike has never been ABLE to be cliche and cheesy and they have a blast and if they take way too many pictures kissing on top of the Eiffel Tower? That’s their business.
But they eventually decide to settle down somewhere. I CANNOT see Mike in a big city, but I think they move somewhere quiet-maybe a little beach town in California because Mike decided during his time abroad that he liked warm places and the ocean, and since Bill, along with all of the Losers bar Stan, is in California already it makes sense. So they move somewhere by the ocean, far removed from the chaos of L.A., and it’s not like the 7 of them are next door neighbors but they’re close enough to take a day trip and have brunch, or game night, or show up unannounced as it eventually becomes common to do. During the holiday season, The 6 of them descend on the Uris’ peaceful little Georgia town like bats from hell, and after the first year it was established that they could not all stay IN their house for the duration of the trip, because the house couldn’t stand up to the fact that all of them brought out the most chaotic energies in each other. But they stay in town every year and celebrate Hanukkah with Stan and Patty, and eventually the Uris’ move to be closer to the rest of them, a 20 minute drive from Mike and Bill. Mike, after years of being the only one who really paid attention to the kids of Derry, is EXCELLENT with kids, and the two of them frequently babysit for Stan and Patty after they adopt their two daughters.
The town they move to is quiet and peaceful, and Mike reads at the library weekly, and maybe volunteers sometimes (he doesn’t ever have to worry about work again because his husband is rich and again, the Losers owe him for life so he’s Set.) But he likes working with kids and he likes working with books so he does it for fun. And in a callback to the book he spends a lot of time getting to know his neighbors and people in town, drinking iced tea on lots of porches and just talking without having to worry about getting secret info about the evil entity haunting the town (because there isn’t one.) He and Bill still take trips because Mike doesn’t ever want to forget what it feels like to fall in love with new cities and new adventures, but they’re very happy in their little house, and the kitchen that Bill had renovated for Mike, and the huge book room that they fill up with an amalgamation of both of their interests, and Bill never learns how to write a good ending but it’s okay because the only happy ending that REALLY matters to him is Mike’s, and Mike wakes up most days thinking he couldn’t possibly be more content than he is at that very moment.
