Highway Part 17

Highway Chapter 12(continued)

He looked at his watch, and then the sun, and then at me. He thought for a second, and then began singing.

What was going on? Had he gone crazy at last? He was singing a crazy song that I remembered from long rides on buses or trips to places. He was singing, and it was the most bizarre thing ever. Here was a grown man, tough from long days, stubble shading his chin, singing to a kid’s song. He crouched in front of me now, swaying in a ridiculous way. I realized that he was gesturing me to join him in his absurd endeavor.

“No way,” I said, scooting away from his outstretched hand. “I said no! Stop trying to get me to do it!”

I exclaimed as he moved again, still holding out his hand.

Sighing with exasperation, I complained, “You aren’t going to leave me alone until I sing with you, isn’t that right?"

He laughed, interrupting his song, and agreed. 

“All right.” I said, mildly annoyed but finding his antics just a bit amusing.

“Hey now, hey now, here’s what I say now,” he sang the first line.

Looking grim, I sang the next line.

“Happiness is just around the corner.”

He continued, and I began to fall into the routine of the song. I felt myself become more energized as I sang the silly song, and I put more into it.

“Hey now, hey now, here’s what I say now, we’ll be there for you!”

At this point, we were shuffling along the road, dancing in time to our tune. Without even realizing I had left the spot we were in, we finished our song quite a ways away from the place I had wanted to rest.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked Matt, surprised I had had more energy now.

He glanced at me and then, covering a smirk, said, “A magician never reveals his secrets.”

I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn’t remove the smile that had attached itself to my face. We took turns singing the stupidest songs we could think of, to pass the time and help us ignore fatigue and pain. Matt was a horrible dancer, but I couldn’t have been much better. 

When we finally reached our camp spot, I felt giddy and silly. Matt and I set up the camp, telling each other really bad puns.

“All the toilets in the police station were stolen. Police have nothing to go on.” Matt said, snorting.

I laughed, and countered with, “ I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.”

He chuckled. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his flint and steel to start our fire.

“Wait!” I said hurriedly.

He paused, looking up curiously.

“Could I,” I said awkwardly, “I mean you, could you teach me how to light a fire?”

He looked surprised, but seemed happy to oblige.

“Come here,” he said, a friendly smile upon his face.

He gave me the flint and the steel, telling me which was which. He demonstrated how to strike them together to create sparks, and told me to gently blow on the tinder when the sparks caught.

I tried several times, creating a shower of sparks, but never catching.

“Slower,” he said, observing, “If you strike it too fast the sparks won’t hit the tinder and will go out before they can catch on fire.”

I grew frustrated until I said, “I am going slow! The stupid thing is just broken.”

I huffed, and turned away from the fire.

“Never mind, this isn’t worth it," I grumbled.

I heard a sigh from behind, before Matt called me back.

“What?” I asked, peeved he was making me think of this.

“Come here.” He said with authority.

Sitting back down, he handed me the tools. Before I could protest, he shushed me.

“I’ll help you, okay?” he said.

He scooted behind me, then used his extra height to reach over me, his arms creating a circle looping down from my shoulders to my hands, which he held. I was very aware of his closeness, and I could smell what I assumed was him. He smelled like minty gum, which I thought odd because I had never seen him eat a piece.

Pulling myself away from the strangeness of being so close to a person, I tuned into what he was doing. He brought the steel down on the flint at a 30-degree angle. Quick, but not jerky. Sparks showered from the tools, and we almost caught the tinder on fire. When he gestured for me to repeat the action and get it started, I gave him a doubtful look.

“You can do it, I promise. Just give it a try.” He urged gently.

Sighing, I attempted to recreate the action. Bringing it down with swift but accurate precision, I struck the flint at a perfect angle. The sparks flew away from the tools, burning embers glowing and hot. They landed on the tinder, and started to glow against it. A small line of smoke rose from the material.

“Blow on it, quick,” Matt instructed, “But not very hard.”

I bent down to see better. Blowing softly and with gentle care, I fanned the fire. It grew, and soon caught on to the wood. And just like that, I had started the fire.

Matt gave me a cheer and a high-five.

“I knew you could do it!” He said.

It was such a simple task, but it made me feel more accomplished than I ever had before. I hadn’t ever really followed through on anything that didn’t work right away for me, but here was the product of my efforts. I smiled at Matt, who gave me a brilliant grin in return.

We sat by the fire, and talked as we ate. The sun had gone down, and we could see the stars that were coming out. We stargazed for a while, following shapes in the sky. As we settled in for the night, I unzipped my octopus, who I had decided to name Ozzie, from my backpack, hiding him hurriedly in my sleeping bag. Matt hadn’t seemed to notice. I would accept the animal, but I wouldn’t want anyone to know I slept with it.

I said my goodnights to Matt, and sank into my pillow. I would sleep tonight, I hoped, for I had no contact with sugar or scary things.

The exertion of the day, along with a lack of sleep,  caused my eyes to feel heavy almost immediately. I felt myself slip into sleep, and hoped for a night of quiet and dreamless sleep.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Highway Chapter 13

            Smack! Was all I heard in the middle of the night. What the…? I thought to myself. I had gotten up to get a glass of water, when I heard the noise from next door. I wondered if Veronica was okay.

I pressed my ear against the door, for I didn’t want to barge in and suffer her wrath. The rooms were connected, and the walls let through almost all noise.

She was cursing quietly, and I raised my eyebrow at her colorful language. Where did she even learn those words? She was seventeen, of course, but I had met teenagers before and none of them knew as many curses as she did. It occurred to me, through her string of obscenities, that she had hit her head against the backboard on her bed. That would explain what that noise was.

Reassured, I almost pulled back before I heard her voice again. She had started singing softly. Why would she be singing so early in the morning? It looked to be about 4:30 outside, which wouldn’t have been the time I chose to sing.

The words were gentle and soft, a lullaby. The more I listened, the more I heard the lyrics. They were rather haunting, appearing to be about a woman who had to watch over another child as her own baby cried for her. She sang, a voice surprisingly beautiful, and the lyrics came streaming through the wall.

Hush-a-bye

Don't you cry

Go to sleep my little baby

Go to sleep my little baby

When you wake

You shall have

All the pretty little horsies

All the pretty little horsies

Dapples and grays

Pintos and bays

All the pretty little horsies

Way down yonder

In the meadow

Lies a poor little baby

Birds and the butterflies

Flitting round his eyes

Poor little baby crying

"Mommy"

I wondered who had taught her the lullaby. She had no parents to speak of in that town, and I could tell that nobody had befriended her. I figured that someone in her family taught it to her when she was young. I didn’t know what happened to them, but I didn’t ask. If she had wanted me to know, she would have told me.

Her voice was shaken, and I became concerned about her. Perhaps she had a nightmare? She would never admit that to me, so I decided not to ask her. As I said, if she wanted to tell me, I would be all ears, but until then I would respect her privacy. I was just starting to get her to open up to the world, and I couldn’t jeopardize her trust. Everything we did here was crucial to her awakening.

Returning to my bed, I went back to sleep.

I woke again a few hours later, rising with the sun as I always did. I  dressed in a purple shirt and beige but light pants. I got ready and begrudgingly knocked on Veronica’s door, preparing myself for another battle of wills like yesterday. She didn’t respond.

I called her name, asking if she was awake. She groaned, and I sighed, thinking another morning of issues was about to arise.

“Let’s not have a repeat of yesterday, okay?” I said, hoping to avoid catastrophe, “I don’t want our mornings to be like that.”

I heard her roll out of bed, and she opened the door.

Her appearance gave me a bit of a shock, for she looked terrible. Her hair a mess from sleeping, she was hunched over and tired. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, with dark circles shadowing them.

Rubbing her eyes, she gave me a sleepy “What?”

I told her we needed to get ready, and then added “is that okay?” concerned she was unwell. I was ready for her to argue with me again, but she only mumbled. I was even more concerned now, but before I could ask if she was okay she closed the door to get ready.

Deciding to be thankful we didn’t have a situation, I finished packing the rest of our supplies.

She strolled out of her door irritably saying, “Are you going?”

Reassured that she had her usual attitude back, I nodded. We resumed our journey out on the road.

Veronica waited while I checked the map to see our destination route. She asked me where we were going, and I told her the next town was just a stop before we went into a town called Thicksville. I wanted her to meet an old friend of mine, one I had met just before my awakening. I felt like Veronica would learn something from him, as I most certainly had. Plus, we were already relatively close to the area. It was only about two days travel. I laughed to myself, thinking Veronica would strongly disagree with me that two days travel was relatively close.

She said that she sounded kind of like him when I described him to her, and I laughed. I told her I could agree with that, because he was just as crazy. I snickered, to show her I was joking, and she pushed me, telling me I was a jerk. She asked me more questions about our surroundings, and then asked me if owls really ate lollipops.

Surprised by such a silly question, I snorted, chuckling at the thought. I said, “I can’t say I’ve ever seen one doing such a thing, but I also can’t be sure it doesn’t happen.” We stopped by a stream to fill up our bottles, and Veronica sat down with a resounding thunk!

I glanced at her, not originally planning to stop, but took a long time filling up my bottle and looking at the map. She must have not fallen back asleep after waking up this morning, and I could tell the fatigue was affecting her.