mgowriter's note: This was written quickly, to get myself back to writing. It helped me start on a couple of other Uncharted stories, but the pace on those is closer to molasses :(
Under the Magnolia Trees, One for You and One for Me
Elena frowned through the windshield at the fork in the road. The clump of reddish-gray dirt on the right looked suspiciously familiar. Either the beating sun was giving her a heat-induced hallucination, or she had been driving in a big circle. She opened the glove compartment of the rental car and fumbled for a map that appeared to be from more than a decade ago. Unwrapping the paper gingerly to avoid the folded seams from ripping, she searched its contents without much hope.
No luck.
Even the most detailed map wouldn't have the dirt roads of central Florida on its grids. Placing the car in drive again, Elena inched forward and gambled towards the left.
After another half hour of searching, she finally parked with a sigh of relief. The slightly slanted, broken-down trailer was for once a welcome sight. She turned the engine off, took a deep breath, and stepped out onto the patch of dirt that was the front yard.
She studied the dusty exterior with one hand at her waist and the other shading her eyes, remembering a time when the color used to be white.
The steps to the front door sagged under her feet with rotting wood. Window screens lay broken, caving inward into pieces of dark fabric that blocked her view inside.
Pressing on the uncapped doorbell didn't elicit any noise from inside. She knocked on the door and waited.
Silence greeted her. She knocked again, this time louder.
"Nate?" she called out. There was no answer.
She knocked harder. "Nate, come on, open the door."
She tried the handle, and wasn't surprised to find it unlocked.
The artificial darkness inside took her eyes a minute to adjust as a strong smell engulfed her senses. Alcohol and decaying food mixed with the stale, humid air.
Elena tripped over an empty bottle on her way to the window. She pulled down the makeshift curtain, and coughed at the large cloud of dust that tumbled down with it. The light that streamed in illuminated half of the trailer.
She turned to survey the rest of the interior. The beer bottle was one of many that littered the floor, dining table, and counters. Unwashed dishes overflowed in the kitchen sink while plastic frozen dinner containers stacked high on one of the counters.
Elena turned toward the small living room area, where a figure lay motionless in the easy chair. She made her way through debris to the front of the chair.
"Nate," she whispered, staring at the man she hardly recognized.
He groaned at her voice, but his eyes remained closed.
"Nate, wake up."
The hand that was wrapped around a bottle of whiskey pulled itself away in an attempt to rub his eyes. He gave up halfway and leaned back into the chair.
"Nate," Elena said louder, as she pushed his arm. "Wake up."
Nate smiled sleepily and caught her hand. "You're home early."
Elena started to pull away, but paused as the wedding band on his left hand glistened in a stray sliver of sunlight. He pulled her onto his lap, surrounding her waist with his right arm.
"Where have you been?"
His breath reeked of alcohol, and a month's worth of beard growth scratched her skin. His hair almost touched the collar of his shirt, long overdue for a cut.
Elena pulled away from his grasp. "Hey, wake up," she said loudly.
Nate blinked a couple of times and squinted up at her. He finally rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
"Elena? What are you doing here?"
Elena sighed. "You know why I'm here, Nate."
Nate searched for the whiskey bottle with his hand. He took a long sip as he sunk back into the chair. "You're early."
"I'm right on time. I see you haven't changed much since last year. You need to get up if you're coming with me."
He tried to stand with the help of the armrest, but caught his footing on an upturned piece of rug and fell to the ground.
Elena stared at the man at her feet with disgust.
"Forget it. He wouldn't want to see you this way, anyway." She turned to leave.
"Wait."
Nate sat up slowly, closing his eyes against the vertigo. "Please. Give me half an hour. I'll make some coffee, take a shower. I'll be good as new."
Elena crossed her arms with a frown.
"Half an hour. I promise."
"Half an hour," she repeated, getting her point across. "I'm leaving with or without you."
He flashed a smile, a relic of a past she could no longer imagine.
He dragged his feet into the bathroom, stopping to collect a stray towel on his way. With a heavy sigh, she searched for a garbage bag and began tossing empty bottles inside.
Thirty minutes later, Nate emerged from the steaming bathroom drying his hair and dressed in a reasonably clean change of clothes. His freshly shaved face was a stark contrast to the messy beard.
He surveyed the room and smiled in appreciation.
"You didn't have to do all this. I would've gotten around to cleaning up."
"Ready?" Elena replied, ignoring his remark.
Nate nodded. "Let's go."
. . .
Silence filled the car during the hour-long ride. Nate fidgeted relentlessly in the passenger seat until Elena finally told him to stop.
"Look, we're almost there. Can you stay still for one minute?"
He stopped the tapping of his leg against the floor.
"Where are you coming from?"
"What?"
"I mean, where are you based out of, these days?"
"Bangladesh," Elena replied.
"Bangladesh? Isn't that a pretty unstable area right now?"
Elena shook her head. "Nate, I'm not here to do this. It's not your job to look out for me anymore. I'm only here for Sully."
Nate looked down at his hands. He turned his attention to the passenger window and remained quiet.
Elena parked the car near the top of a hill that overlooked the ocean. Two magnolia trees were in full bloom at the apex of the hill. Their pink and white petals carpeted the grass underneath.
"You coming?" Elena asked as she opened the door.
"In a minute," Nate replied, staring at the twin trees. "You go ahead."
Elena walked the short distance to the single headstone at the base of the tree. She brushed away the petals to reveal the writing underneath.
Victor Sullivan
1947 – 2010
We only part to meet again
Your memory will never fade
She sat in front of the headstone and stared beyond it into the Atlantic. The sky was crystal blue, with the kind of white, cotton-candy clouds that only appeared in postcards. It was a perfect day.
"Hi, Sully," she said, touching his name on the cool granite. "It's been awhile. Another year."
She paused. "I'm doing well, I guess. Still traveling a lot, relocating every few months." She laughed, turning to look back at Nate inside the car. "Maybe I'm running away from something. Isn't that what a good therapist would say?"
Elena lowered her head. "I'm worried about him, Sully. He hasn't been the same since… He's lost, and I can't get him back." She closed her eyes and tilted her chin up to the sky. The sweet smell of magnolia flowers surrounded her. "When he talks to you, tell him to find his way back, okay? You're the only one he ever listened to, anyway."
A couple of seconds elapsed, and she heard footsteps approaching. Nate sat down beside her on the soft grass. He stared at the headstone in front of them.
"I'll give you some privacy," said Elena as she stood. She returned to the car and turned on the radio. Her focus shifted beyond Nate and the trees, and lost itself in the gentle waves of the ocean.
A knock on the opposite window made her jump in her seat. She turned to see Nate motioning for her to unlock the door. Less than five minutes had elapsed on the dashboard clock. The last time she was here, she remembered waiting for well over an hour.
"You okay?" she asked Nate as he got in.
Despite the warm sun, he visibly shivered in the seat.
"I need a drink," he said through gritted teeth.
"No, you don't," said Elena.
"Elena, I don't need the lecture right now, okay?"
"When was the last time you had something to eat?" she asked.
Nate shrugged. "Yesterday, I think. I don't know."
Elena started the car. "Well, it's time for lunch. My treat."
. . .
They emerged out of the drive-through with a double cheeseburger, a large order of fries, and two cups of coffee, extra strong. Nate cringed at the smell of the food, but accepted the coffee without comment. He drank both cups on the way back to the trailer, and at Elena's badgering, ate half of the burger.
The car stopped in the same makeshift parking space in the dirt. Elena slipped the key out of the ignition and turned to face Nate.
"It's been three years. You have to stop blaming yourself for what happened to Sully. You have to stop drinking, or you're gonna kill yourself."
Nate set down his coffee cup angrily. "You gave up the right to tell me what to do when you left."
"Sully wouldn't have wanted you—"
"He wouldn't have wanted to be shot in the head by someone to teach me a lesson, either. Looks like we don't always get what we want, huh?"
Elena sighed. "Nate, it wasn't your fault."
Nate turned away from her. "Well it sure as hell wasn't his fault. He paid the price for a stupid mistake that I made."
"You couldn't have known he was going to be at the house. He said—"
Nate held up his hand. "I don't want to argue with you. We've been through this before."
Elena nodded. "I just want to know you're going to be okay, Nate."
He considered her words for a minute. "I'll see you next year. That's all I can promise for now."