Highway Part 10

Highway Chapter 10(continued)

The sun was beating down now, for it was about 4 in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day here. I could swear I was losing pounds of weight because it all came out as sweat. I had also begun to feel light-headed, and I didn’t understand why. I started to lag a bit behind the man, only a step, but always one behind.

I heard the man clear his throat, only to look over and see him take a large swig of the water in his bottle. Feeling stupid and moronic, I tried to convince myself he hadn’t cleared his throat to draw attention to the fact I wasn’t drinking water. But no matter how hard I tried, I knew that was what had happened. At least he didn’t bother me about it.

I retrieved my bottle from my pack, still feeling embarrassed, and downed about half of it. Probably not the best idea, but I didn’t really care at the moment.

Feeling much better, I resumed the pace he was keeping, staying alongside him this time. The road was quiet, and I had started to feel unnerved. The man was completely at ease, but I had never had such silence before. So to fill it, I began to talk to the man. How long was I going to keep calling him the man? It sounded like a bad eighties band name. Now introducing Katy Larson and The Man! Here to perform their new hit, “You Don’t Know My Name.”

“So,” I started awkwardly.                                             

I waited for him to say something.

“So” he replied.

I guess I would be doing the talking.

“Um,” I stammered for time, “I didn’t quite catch your name back there. I’m Veronica, as you know, and you are?”

He seemed surprised at my question and then shrugged.

“I don’t really have one. I used to, but I don’t remember it.”

Nonplussed, I couldn’t even speak. Who the hell doesn’t have a name? Maybe no middle name, sure, but everyone has a name.

“What am I supposed to call you then. Hey, you? You there? Hey guy that I’m traveling with?”

He again shrugged noncommittally, no doubt thinking it strange I cared.

“You can call me whatever you want I guess.”

This was just ridiculous.

“I’m going to go insane if I can’t use a name to talk to you. If you don’t care what it is, I’m just going to give you a name.”

He looked at me peculiarly, but seemed okay with the suggestion. Another few minutes passed by in silence as I thought of a name for him. Studying him from top to bottom, many names came into my head. Casey? Nah, that’s not it. Jason? He wasn’t that kind of guy. Brian or Charles? Wrong hair. Finally a name popped into my head, and with nothing better, I decided that was what he was going to be called.

“I got it!” I exclaimed, almost making him jump. “Your new name is Matthew! But I don’t really like the full name for you so I’m just going to call you Matt. Okay?”

He pondered the name for a moment.

“Matt? Why Matt? I mean, it’s a fine name, but I never thought of myself as a Matt.”

I gave him a glare, saying tartly, “Because I think of you as a matt and you ‘didn’t care’ as you said so I gave it to you and now it’s your name. You can’t do anything about it.”

I was offended at his mockery of my name. I crossed my arms and turned my head away.

“Matt huh?” I heard him say.

He said it a few more times.

“I kind of like it actually,” he said to me.

I turned away from him, my arms still crossed, and gave him a harsh toned, “whatever.”

Even if he was lying, he was still trying it. Another minute passed.

“Do you really kind of like it or are you just lying? If you were, don’t do it now.”I asked quietly.

He looked at me with a slight smile and replied, “Yeah I do. It’s as good a name as any other. I think I could be a Matt in real life. I have the Matt hair too.”

I hid my smile at the hair comment. I didn’t want him to think he had won.

“Well good, cause it’s what I’m going to call you, Matt.” I said, putting special emphasis on his name.

He smiled once more and we talked to each other on and off again for the rest of our walk.

It was surprisingly easy to carry on a conversation with him, and I found myself gabbing on and on while he answered my questions. Despite the constant stream of my voice, he didn’t seem to mind it at all. We talked about many things. The Way, at first for it was a common topic with him. But then it turned into thing like his favorite color, purple. Cats or dogs? Dogs. Right handed or left handed? Right. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what would you want with you? A toolbox. Why? So he could build a boat. He asked me back all my questions, and by the end of the night, we knew all the little things about each other.

When we weren’t talking, I was admiring the scenery. We were always on the side of the highway, but that didn’t mean we missed any nature. There were omnipresent mountains to the west, amethyst and sapphire. They loomed over the rest of the natural world, but they were kind. Wild flowers of all kinds grew in patches around the street. Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes sprouted from the sides, joining Daisies and brown-eyed Susans. I didn’t know the names of the flowers, but Matt did, and he answered all of my questions with amazing accuracy. Of course, I wouldn’t know if he was wrong, but he seemed sure enough about his answers that I had to believe he knew. He seemed to be enchanted with everything wild, just like I was. We passed a gurgling brook, and a trickling stream.

At the latter, we stopped to refill our water bottles, or rather just mine mostly, for I had drank it all at an unwise pace. He dropped little purifying tablets in the bottles, and I watched as the tablets fizzed away. With trepidation I tried the water, and it turned out to be absolutely delicious.

We saw anthills as big as my leg, which I steered away from, for I did not want to provide them with an afternoon snack. Matt laughed at me, but shut up when I glared at him. We passed countless lakes, baby ducklings trotting after their mother.

Maybe I was like the cygnet, mixed in with baby ducklings when I was meant to be with the swans. Perhaps Matt was a swan? I burst out laughing, but wouldn’t tell him what I was laughing about. Swan Matt, the new ballet.

We also got to see a turtle crossing the road, a painted turtle I was informed. I was worried he would get hit by a car, for he was crossing the street, but Matt said cars hardly ever used this highway and to not interfere with his crossing. The birds chirped overhead, singing in harmony like a well practiced choir.

I was getting really tired at this point, but I pushed onward. One, because Matt wasn’t going to stop, and two, because of all of the wonderful things I was seeing. By the time we reached “base camp” where we were setting up for the night, I didn’t ever want to move again.

I dropped my bag, and then promptly collapsed to the ground.

"Oh sweet grass,” I moaned, “I will never leave you again.”

Matt snickered at my affection towards the ground.

“Oh, and there’s one of those anthills about a foot away from you.”

I jolted up to look, but I only saw Matt smirking at me.

“You jerk!” I admonished him, “I thought you were serious! One day I’m actually going to get attacked by ants because I won’t believe you!”

He faked an apologetic look, and I reminded myself to smack him in the arm later. I lay back down again, because I didn’t want to move.

“Even if that had been true, I wouldn’t have cared. I’m so tired I would have let them eat me alive if it meant I didn’t have to move.”

Matt rolled his eyes, mumbling something about being overly dramatic. Yes, I would definitely have to smack him. I stared at the sky, streaked with fiery rays of red and soft  glows of a pleasant pink. As the sun went down and the evenings gave to twilight I decided to get up.

After I had regained feeling in my feet, I limped over to where he had built a fire. I pulled out my sleeping bag like he did, and laid it out away from the fire, just enough to stop myself from being hot but not far away enough I was cold.

We had discussed my supplies easier, and it was decided I had pretty much everything I needed except maybe a few more pairs of clothes and some “basic” things I needed, like water tablets, and a first aid kit, and flint and steel. All things we could get in the next town, only about 4 miles away from here.

“My feet are killing me!” I exclaimed, “Why did we walk so much?”

I sank down to the ground again.

“You said five miles” I commented accusingly, “we walked, like 25!”

I shot him another glare when he scoffed.

“Please!,” he said with an attitude, “try 10.”

I didn’t have the strength to argue, but I mumbled in rebellion, “You still said 5.”

He threw me a MREA, and I hastily wolfed it down. It was pretty decent in many senses. Matt took pity on me and suggested I go down to the stream a few meters away. I hobbled over there, and sat down taking off my shoes and stuffing my socks in them.

As I submerged my feet, the water was freezing. But after the initial shock, I got used to it. It was an amazing feeling, the muscles relaxing after a hard day, the water lapping gently against my ankles.

This was a world that was so magical and awe filled, one could live in it every day for the rest of their life, and they would still see something new each and every single day. I sighed in content.

Twilight was fading away, and it was getting dark. Deciding it didn’t want to fumble around for my shoes in the dark, I ruefully extracted my feet from the river.

Leaving the shoes off but putting on the socks, I limped up the hill again, although this time with a much less noticeable disability.

“Have fun?” Matt asked as I appeared again.

“Actually, I did yes. No thanks to you though.”

I reached over and gave him a light punch in the arm.

“What was that for?” he asked, mildly victimized. “That’s for making fun of me earlier!”

We settled in our sleeping bags, and I watched the stars. After several minutes of star gazing, I rolled on my side to face Matt. His face was turned upward, still looking at the specks in the sky.

“Hey,” I called softly to him.

He didn’t roll to his side, but he twisted his body so he was leaning on his arm, his eyes directed towards me.

“What’s up?” he asked with attentiveness.

“Look, I , uh,” I stuttered, unsure how to put it, “I don’t do this very often, so don’t expect it okay?”

He nodded his agreement, although he looked quite confused.

“I just, I just wanted to apologize okay?” I said, my voice speeding up with embarrassment.

Matt sat up a little more, giving me a clear view of his bewildered face.

For what?” he asked.

“Today, at the bar, I said some really not nice things to you. And, I just don’t think you deserved that because all you are is nice to me and I am just mean but anyway it doesn’t matter cause I wanted to apologize and I did. Sorry, that’s the end of it.” I started to ramble.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, okay?” He soothed, his hands up in a placating manner. “It’s very nice that you apologized, and I really do thank you for something so heartfelt. But really, you don’t need to apologize. You were upset, and we all do things we regret when we are upset. New things are scary, especially things like this and how fast it happened. All that matters is that you chose to come anyway. But still, that’s a very nice gesture. Thank you.”

I looked at his face, for some sign of insincerity, but it was not there. He was looking at me softly, now, so I turned away slightly.

“Do you want a hug?” he asked playfully.

“No.” I replied a little forcefully.

“I’m going to come over there, I’ll do it, I’m going to give you a hug.”

He was messing around and I knew it. I turned to him and said in mock anger,

“If you hug me I’m going to hit you again.”

He chuckled and I couldn’t help but let out one of my own. Our laughter filled the air, mixing with the sounds of other nature, out of place, yet somehow completely cordant with the other sounds.

After we had calmed down, we lay in silence again. At first, I thought Matt had fallen asleep, for he was turned away, and very silent. I wished I could have asked him something.

“Matt. Are you awake?” I asked in a whisper so soft, he might not have heard it even if he had been awake.

I didn’t think we was, so it startled me when his figure replied with a sleepy “mmhm.” Now I felt bad, interrupting his sleep. I was quiet for a moment.

“Is everything okay?” he asked with sleepy concern.

“Is it worth it, Matt?”

He turned over, so I could see him.

With bleary eyes, he asked me, confused, “Is what worth it?”

I gestured to our little camp and the surrounding area.

“All of this. Is it worth it?”

Understanding dawned on his face. He yawned, and then gave me a brilliant smile.

“Oh yeah. It’s worth every second.”

With that I turned the other way, pretending I was falling asleep. I heard him shuffle in his sleeping bag.

And then, with a gentle voice similar to mine, he softly said, “Goodnight Veronica.”

I lay for a while, still, and calm.

Then, with that same softness, I said, “Goodnight Matt.”

With the owls hooting, the fire crackling, and the river gently gurgling, it created a nature-made lullaby. I looked one more time at the stars before my eyes closed. And then, I let sleep overcome me and welcomed the land of dreams.