"Mom, we've been driving around for hours and I'm
pretty sure we've passed that tree before,"
Erica complained. "Are you sure you aren't lost?"
"Erica, I am not lost. I used to come out here every
year when we visited my cousins."
"How long has it been?"
"I don't know; twenty years," her mother Monica
answered.
"And you think nothing has changed in twenty years.
Mom, we haven't passed any houses, towns or even signs for towns in hours. When
was the last time you gassed up?"
"I have a very fuel efficient car young lady, don't
worry about it," she said as the low fuel warning light came on and the
familiar 'bing, bing, bing' sound came out of the dash.
"Uh, huh," Erica grunted. "I suppose we're
all out of snacks too." She leaned over the back of the seat and flipped
open the lid to the cooler. "Yep, hallow as my stomach."
"You just ate," Monica chided, her nails biting
into her hand from gripping the steering wheel a little too tight.
"Mom, it's almost six and it's getting dark. We stopped
at noon to eat at that diner and then we had salads, remember, because you
didn't want me to eat all that heavy, greasy diner food and then try to ride
all afternoon."
"Erica, please stop complaining. All you've done is
complain since we left Cincinnati."
"You dragged me away from all of my friends in the
middle of summer to go Phoenix and drove through the mountains off the main
roads to get there. Did you really expect me to like it? No wonder we're
lost," Erica muttered. "Dad wouldn't have gotten lost."
"That's enough, Erica. He's not here, and just for the
record, your father is the first one who would have gotten lost. He can't read
a road map."
"Why did we come out here again?"
"To get away from the memories," Monica answered.
"Our stuff should all be moved into the new house by the time we get back."
Monica pulled the car over to the side as it 'dinged' for the last time. They
were out of gas and the cell phones had no signal.
Erica tilted her head down and rolled her eyes up at her mother
angrily. "I told you."
"Yes, you did Erica. What was I supposed to do about
it? The roads have changed and they circle around for no apparent reason. Most
of them aren't even on our map. I didn't think anything of it because they
never were. My cousins do still live around the area somewhere. They will look
for us eventually when we don't show."
"Mom, you told them sometime this week and you would
call before we arrived. They won't look for us anytime soon."
"We'll aren't you just full of sunshine?" She
pulled out her cell phone and searched futilely for a signal. She shook her
head and opened the car door.
"Where are going?" Erica asked.
"I'm going to see if I can find a signal outside the
car or maybe see a house. Stay in the car; it gets cold out here at
night."
Erica jumped out of the car. "You are not leaving me
here alone, and you are not going out there alone. I don't care if you did
visit once a year when you were a kid," Erica stated. "You do not
know your way around. Something might get you."
"You are not the adult here Erica; I am. It's my
responsibility."
"Why didn't you just send me to Canada with dad and his
girlfriend when he moved? You don't really want me anyway. You just wanted to
get back at dad."
Monica cried. "That is not fair. I didn't start this
whole mess in motion and you know it. He
wanted to go to Canada with her and that's fine. But he is not taking you out
of the country. I'd never get you back. He can visit you back home if he wants
to. He is the one who called to beg off." A second later she tried to take
it back, but he damage was done. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that.
You're father loves you, he really does."
Erica wiped the tears from her face. "No, you're right.
He wants her more than me. I know that. He could have stayed here near
me." She sat silent for a few minutes. "You still can't go out there
alone. Turn your phone off so it doesn't go dead trying to find a signal and I
think we should wait to see if someone comes along. They built this road for a
reason so someone must use it."
Monica shrugged and ruffed her daughter's short cut hair. "How
did you get so wise?"
"I don't know." Erica pushed her ear buds into her
ears and turned on her I-Pod, reclined her seat and closed her eyes.
Monica decided that wasn't a bad idea and leaned her own
seat back and followed suit.
At midnight Erica shook her mother. "Wake up. I need a
bathroom really bad."
Monica sat up and shook her head. "What?" She
looked at her surroundings and remembered where they were. "Oh, you'll
have to go beside the car of behind a tree honey. As you can see there aren't
restrooms available."
"What if something gets me?"
"Scream real loud and I'll come running." Monica
fished a small pen light out of her purse. "Here, use this to find your
way and leave the car door open so you can find it."
A few minutes later Erica returned and Monica declared it
her turn. "What? You couldn't have gone when I did?"
"Go back to sleep. You can't do anything else
anyway," her mother said.
Morning came and went and no one showed. Noon came and went
and still no one showed. Erica was about to forage for food or tree bark. She
had heard one could eat tree bark, but her mother reminded her that she didn't
which tree bark to eat, so she just sat there in the car with the windows down
because it was hot and they had no water. Erica was getting more scared by the
hour and Monica was ready to set out on foot again, but to find a town more
than a phone signal.
Around four an old truck rattled to a stop beside the car.
An old man who looked vaguely familiar to Monica stepped out. His back was
stooped and he walked with a shuffle. His short cut hair showed white as snow
as he removed his hat and wiped his brow.
"Looks like you've had a bit a car trouble there young
lady." He said.
"Yes, I have. I'm lost and I ran out of gas,"
Monica answered. "Can you give a lift to the nearest town?"
"Oh, I wasn't headed to town." He reached into his
truck and pulled a couple of bottles of water out of an old Styrofoam ice chest
and handed one to each of them. "You look a bit parched. How long you been
out here?"
"We headed out here about noon yesterday and broke down
sometime around six."
"Boy, you are good and lost if you drove around that
long. I can point you in the right
direction to town but you have to follow my instructions exactly or you'll get
backwards again."
"Thanks, but were out of gas so it won't do a lot of
good."
"Oh, right. We'll I usually keep a can in my truck just
in case." He pulled a red five gallon can out of the bed of his truck and poured
it into their car. "I'll bet you're hungry too." He pulled a couple
of sandwiches out of the cooler and handed them to them. "It's only peanut
butter, but it don't spoil out here like meat would. I always pack too much for
some reason. I guess it was a good thing today."
Erica hated peanut butter but she thanked him and dug into
it anyway. The old man laughed and motioned for her to wipe a smudge off her
face. He drew a map for Monica and told her exactly how many roads to pass
before she turned warning her that he had lived there his whole life and he
knew she would get lost again if she didn't follow those directions.
She thanked him and they were on their way. He drove off
ahead of them over the rise. When Monica reached to the top of the hill he was
nowhere to be seen. She didn't see any side roads so she didn't know where he
went.
An hour later they were in the small town where her cousin
lived. She called and she met her at the McDonald's where Erica was loading up
on hamburgers, fries, and soda pop.
Back at the cousin's house Monica recounted the tail of
their rescue. "I swear I've seen him somewhere, but I just can't place
him."
Erica wandered around the living room looking at the
pictures of family members. She was very excited when she saw one of them. She
pointed. "Mom, Mom, Mom," she repeated.
"What is it Erica?" she asked. "I'm
sorry," she apologized. "She hasn't quite gotten the point of not
interrupting people."
"Look, Mom. It's him; it's the old man who helped
us."
They all got up to look. Her mother gasped and agreed. The
old truck was even in the picture with him.
"That can't be," her cousin said. "Monica,
Uncle Charles has been dead almost thirty years. The last time you saw him you
were probably seven. His son still has that truck under a tarp in his
shed."
"Did he live out there?" Monica asked.
She pointed to the map where they were stranded and her
cousin nodded and told her the house was long gone, but that was where he had
lived.
Erica hummed the theme to Twilight Zone.
