Highway Part 20

Highway Chapter 14(continued)

“Veronica, it’s time to wake up.” Matt called softly, interrupting my sleep.

I made a noise, indicating my disapproval of the situation. He placed his hand on my shoulder, gently shaking it.

“Come on. It’s already seven. We need to get moving.”

I lifted my head, confused for a moment as to why we were on a hill. The events of last night flooded into my mind. First the nightmares, but then the wonderful rest of the night. If it was seven, I had only had about two hours of sleep. We usually woke up at six though, so I suppose another hour of sleep was good.

Sitting up, I moaned to Matt, “Why do we have to wake up so early?”

I drew out the early, and he laughed.

“It’s just how it is. Sorry. Now, come on. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today, and we slept in an hour.”

With an exaggerated sigh, I heaved myself up from the ground. Swiftly getting ready, I joined Matt where he stood waiting on the other side of the hill.

We set off, the morning sun already out from behind the mountains. Sleepy animals had emerged from their burrows and nests, and were now taking on their daily tasks. A furry chipmunk scurried along a tree, gathering nuts. A blue jay sang above, perhaps engaging in a mating call, hoping to attract a mate. I noticed these little things lately, and it only made the outdoors even more tantalizing. Matt and I sang songs as we walked along the road, swaying in unison. We laughed at ourselves.

“Matt,” I called to him. He gave me his attention and I said, “As with the octopus, if you tell anyone that I sang and danced, I will legitimately hurt you.”

He smiled, saying he wouldn’t dare. I was so tired from last night, but I tried my best to stay active. When we stopped at a stream, I splashed myself in the face with the water, the icy water invigorating. Matt stood a ways away, looking at the map. There was a fork in the road, and he was figuring out which way to go.I decided to test out the walkie talkies, and then lure Matt over to the stream to splash him as payback for the other day.

I filled up my bottle with water, and left the cap unscrewed. Smirking, I pulled the black communication device out from my backpack.

Pressing the button on the side I said, “Excuse me, Matt? Can you hear me?”

He paused, mid-read, and looked confused. After a moment it dawned on him that he was hearing me through the walkie talkie

“What are you doing?” he called from across the street, where he was standing.

“Just trust me!” I called back.

He looked at me oddly, then shrugged and pulled out his walkie from the side pocket of his backpack.

“Hello?” I heard him crackle through the device.

“Houston, we have a problem. Could you come over here? Over.”

Again he looked at me, then replied, “What seems to be the problem, command?”

Snickering at his response, I teased him, for he had not said over.

“Command what? Over.”

He paused and then spoke into his, “What? That’s your code name.” 

I laughed again.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. You have to say over at the end of the transmission, Houston. Didn’t they teach you this in school? Over.”

He appeared to understand, and rose his eyebrow at me, putting a fist on his hip.

“All right,” came the voice over the walkie, “What seems to be the problem, command? Over.”

He put emphasis on it this time.

“My bottle doesn’t seem to be functioning. Could you come check it out? I also can’t find the tablets. Over.”

I couldn’t quite see, but it appeared he rolled his eyes. As he came over, I tried my hardest to be casual. He looked at me strangely, and I was glad my plan wasn’t elaborate. He turned to get the tablets from beside some of his stuff, and I prepared the bottle. As soon as he turned back, saying something, I launched the water bottle’s liquid at him.

“Ha! Take that!” I shouted in victory, “that’s for the other day!”

He was silent for an extended period of time, and I became worried I had made him mad. Then, out of the blue, he started laughing. A boisterous roar, it filled the air.

“You,” he said, still chuckling, “You are a sly one, my friend. I knew something was up, but I didn’t expect that. You are such a devious teenager!”

He chortled, shaking out his clothes and running his hands through his sopping hair. I smiled at him, glad he wasn’t mad. I basked in my victory. Attempting to air dry his clothes, he shook his shirt.

“I really should’ve seen that one coming,” he said, giving me a wry look.

I laughed at him, and went over to the stream, crouching to fill my bottle back up.

“I’m sorry, but it just had to be done. It’s really your fault for not knowing me well enough to not stay on guard.”

He didn’t say anything, and I looked over to see him gone. What? I thought to myself. Suddenly I felt a force push me forward, and I landed in the river. Right. In. the. Freaking. River. The stream was shallow, but it was still deep enough to get all of my clothes wet.

I looked up to see none other than Matt, smirking like he had just pulled off the best prank ever.

“You jerk! You’re such a snot! You can’t get revenge on me for getting back at you! That just doesn’t work!”

He shrugged, looking as innocent as possible.

“I’m sorry, but it just had to be done. You should know me well enough to stay on your guard.”

He snickered as he repeated my words from several minutes ago. Standing up, I despaired at the sad state of my clothes. They were even wetter than Matt’s and I whined as I examined them.

“I’m never trusting you again!” I said to him, although I didn’t really mean it.

Still, I wasn’t going to let him get away with this. Trudging to the edge of the stream, I leaned against the side melodramatically. I gave him the glare of all glares and moaned about my clothes again.

“You’re so mean,” I said, drawing out the last word.

Sighing out loud, I looked up at him pathetically, where he was still smiling, but with a look of pity for me too.

Using the most pathetic voice I had, I weakly said, “Could you at least help me out? You shoved me in here and now I’m stuck.”

He snorted, and I reassured myself he deserved what was about to happen.

“All right,” he said, still smirking, “I guess that would be fair.”

He knelt down, offering me his hand. Planting my foot on the wall lining the stream, I gripped his hand and proceeded to pull. My body was supported by the wall and his center of balance was off, so my plan went perfectly.

He plunged into the water, getting completely drenched.

“Ha! I win! Mwuhahahaha!” I crowed in victory.

Matt looked at me solemnly, not expecting this development. He rushed into the stream, and splashed me with an excess of water, surprising me. With a cry of indignation, I splashed him back. We attacked each other with the water, exclaiming every time an icy wave hit us.

Soon we were laughing at each other. We broke down, having to lean on the edge for support. We were laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe, and my eyes started to tear up. We managed to disrupt every creature around us, and if any person were to come by, they would think us mad.

We eventually calmed down, although my sides still hurt. Huffing and puffing, Matt heaved himself out of the water. He was taller than me, and when I attempted to do the same, I found myself too short. Matt was leaning his hands on his knees, still out of breath.

“I’m stuck, Matt.”I said, this time serious.

He looked at me as if I was crazy.

“Do you really think that I’m stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice?” he asked.

Oh, no. I tried again, seeking to gain a foothold in the wall, but finding none.

“I’m serious, Matt.” I whined.

He watched me struggle for a moment, then approached cautiously.

“I swear, if you pull me in again I am going to tackle you.”

Looking at him in annoyance, I snapped, “Okay, okay! I won’t, just get me out of here. It’s cold.”

He braced his foot on a nearby rock just in case, and offered me a still wet hand. He pulled me out of the water, leaving me huffing on my hands and knees.

“Maybe next time you won’t splash me and then pull me into some water. Without me, you couldn’t have gotten out.” He commented offhandedly.

“Well maybe next time you won’t dump water on me while I’m sleeping, causing retaliation, and then get pulled into water for pushing me. You wouldn’t have ended up in there at all if you hadn’t pushed me.”

He scoffed, but still smiled. Both soaking, we gathered our stuff and headed down the road, making a path with the water droplets that fell from our clothes and hair. We must have looked so ridiculous.

We air dried after a few hours, but our hair was intensely ruffled. I ran my hands through my hair in attempt to tame it, but I was no use. My hair wasn’t going to look normal down, and I had nothing to put it up with. Bemoaning my fate to Matt, he looked at me strangely.

“Why does it matter?” he said, obviously bemused.

“It’s all over my face! And I just look ridiculous! It’s easy for you to say it doesn’t matter, all you have to do is ruffle your hair a little and it looks fine!”

I reached up for his hair and ruffled it, to make a point. He tried to dodge my fluffing, but it was too late.

“See?” I said grumpily, “Your hair is just like it always is.”

He shrugged, rolling his eyes. He thought for a second, looking around, and then stopped in front of a plant.

Peeling off a piece he explained, “This is called Dogbane, you can use the vine part to make ropes.”

He worked on the plant for a moment, then produced a small circle of vine. Perplexed, I asked him what it was for.

Sighing, he said, “It’s to put up your hair silly! You complain about not having a hair tie, and then don’t know one when you see one.”

Feeling silly, I took the circle from him. Smoothing back my hair into a ponytail, I used the loop to tie it back.

“Thanks.” I said.

He smiled at me and said, “Anytime. Nature has a way of giving you exactly what you need. Everything has a use, right down to the littlest speck.”

Feeling better now that my hair wasn’t in my eyes, I continued walking again. After another long day, we reached our camp.

“We’re going to town tomorrow right?” I asked, wishing with all my might for a shower and a soft bed.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling, “We are. Missing a bed?”

I nodded enthusiastically. We set up, and Matt supervised me as I started the fire again. It made me happy to see the fruits of my efforts literally ignite.

It was getting darker now, and the sun had almost disappeared, only a slice in the sky now. I felt a strong sense of dread towards the coming night. Last night’s nightmare had been terrible, and I didn’t know how well I could cope tonight. I wandered around the camp, finding sanctuary by the side of a hill overlooking the pond nearby. Matt was settling in for the night, having already changed. He yawned, and I was reminded of how he was up late last night with me. He watched me pace to the hill, and padded over to me.

“Hey,” he said drowsily, “You coming?”

There was no way I was going to admit I was scared to sleep, but I didn’t have any other excuse to avoid it.

Making it up as I went, I said, “Not right now, I’m not very tired.”

I tried to make my voice nonchalant, but it was a terrible lie. Anyone who hadn’t slept the previous day would be tired, and he knew just how little sleep I had gotten. He didn’t say anything, but I knew he didn’t buy it for a second. He knows, I thought. Even so, I wouldn’t bring myself to say I was scared. I would keep the façade going for as long as possible, no matter how weak it was sometimes. It was the only thing I had left.

Matt spoke from his position next to me, saying, “I’m not that tired either. Let’s stay up for a little while and talk. We can do some I Spy.”

I knew it was only for me, because he was just as tired. I felt the urge to snap at him that I didn’t need company, but I didn’t want to shun him away. I resolved to say I was going to bed before it got too late. Just because I wouldn’t sleep didn’t mean he couldn’t.

He stayed up with me for a while, and we played games. We ran out of things to spy, however, so we ended up talking about life. He told me about his friend we were meeting, and I told him a funny story about a lizard jumping on this girl’s nose that had been mean to me. She freaked out, even though it was harmless. It was getting late now, and I decided here would be the cutoff.

I faked a yawn, and rubbed my eyes.

“I think I’ll head to bed now,” I said, making my voice sleepy.

He agreed, and we strolled down the hill together.  As we snuggled into our respective sleeping bags, Matt called out to me.

“Hey, Veronica.”

I looked to him, only to find his eyes directly staring into mine.

“I just wanted to say that you can tell me pretty much anything. It’s your choice, of course, but know that I’m always here. Okay?”

I didn’t know what to say. I went for a mix, putting my tough and soft sides together.

“You’re so weird,” I said, starting with tough, “But thanks, I guess. I understand.”

I made my voice softer the second part, so that it seemed more gentle. He bid me goodnight and I did likewise, lying down in my bag, Ozzie snuggled in the crook of my arm. His crooked smile was endearing, and I held him just a little tighter.

I lay in the most awkward position I could find, hoping the discomfort would keep sleep away. I lay awake and listened to the bugs, focusing on different ones so they didn’t blend. I listened to the birds, the bugs, the bees. I thought about anything that would keep me awake. I felt my eyes start to get heavy several times, but I pinched myself as hard as I could, almost crying out.

I could feel the dreams lurking there, deep in my subconscious, but omnipresent and ready. I knew I would have to face them eventually, but I sure as hell would make it as hard for them to get me as possible. I hadn’t been worried about nightmares since I was a kid, and none of them had been this serious.

At first, they were of things kids are usually scared of. Monsters, aliens, zombies. But then, as I was left in solitude, they were all about having no friends, or parents. Of course, these were more painful, for they didn’t disappear when I woke up.

With the things before, I woke wake up and they wouldn’t exist. But these other dreams were, in fact, very true. I would wake up and I wouldn’t have anyone to comfort me. I would go to school the next day and have no friends. There was nobody to eat lunch with, nobody to partner up with in class. I was paired with the teacher or the kid who had been missing a friend that day, who proceeded to avoid me like a plague. It wasn’t that they hated me, at least not at that time, it was more that I was different. Their parents didn’t like such an anomaly hanging around their kids, and so they told them to only converse with me when necessary.

I had nobody on parent teacher conference day, nobody in the PTA, and nobody to chaperone for our field trips. I was in elementary school, higher up in the grades.

I remember this one time we all had to bring snacks to school, and we were all assigned a date. When the child brought snacks, they were rewarded with a beanie baby from on top of the bookcase in our homeroom. The teacher had so many, in so many colors. Many students had a hard time choosing, but I knew exactly which one I wanted. There was a small little lady bug, wedged back into the corner by the other animals. It was a simple little thing, with a red torso and six black string legs. There were eight spots sewn into its back, and it had two little bead eyes on its small head. It was never chosen by anyone, and I felt like that was because it was made for me.