Preface
When you were born, you cried
and the world rejoiced.
Live your life
so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.
June
Virginia Madison was crazy.
If there wasn't enough evidence back home to have her committed, her agreeing to accompany her two friends – Bethanie and Georgia – on this trip would've done it. Leaving New York City was cathartic. Nia sat backwards in Bethanie's wheezing Ford Galaxie as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and left everything behind.
The night prior they had been feeling sorry for themselves and the bottle of tequila had convinced them that they needed to leave. Break away. Start over. And this wasn't necessarily untrue. But Nia couldn't help but feel - as she watched the city disappear into the horizon without a drop of sadness in her heart – that maybe their drunken actions had been made in haste.
Did they need the fresh start? Certainly. Dead end jobs, dead end room mates, dead end boys, dead end lives. They'd decided – as they packed the car notorious for regular breakdowns every 500 miles – that they would each get one suitcase and pack it full. They'd stash the car with some food and they would leave. They would see what their country had to offer them, because until this point they had given all they could and just wanted a little something in return.
They didn't look unhealthy, deprived or malnourished but they were tired and life had beaten the three of them down. Bethanie, Georgia and Nia would take their time and cruise the highways of America in search of something that meant more to them than good rent and cheap cigarettes.
September
On the way they'd stopped at iconic points. They stood like tourists in their homeland as they kneeled before the gates of Graceland. They rode to the top of the Saint Louis Arch turned their backs on the east and never looked back. They drove Route 66, shouted into the Grand Canyon, saw the world's largest ball of string, were in four places at once and Bethanie even blocked an intersection in Las Vegas so Nia could hop out of the car and kiss the pavement where Tupac was shot.
December
They had spent six months traveling the continental US – experiencing each state one at a time. In certain states - looking for basement cleaners or weekend waitresses - they picked up odd cash. What they didn't use on food or gas was stashed. In Bethanie's bra. In Georgia's shoe. In Nia's back pocket. They decided they would end their journey at the Seattle SeaTac airport. It would be the last stop and they would say goodbye and start their new lives. They would each get on a plane – back to the state or place they loved best and they would begin again. After their crash course in domestic territory they would dive head first into a place where no one knew them. It was scary but Georgia, Nia and Bethanie agreed that starting a life worth living was a good thing.
They had cell phone numbers. Maybe they'd call each other on holidays to check in. See how the new jobs were panning out. If that boy had really been all he seemed. If the kids were happy and healthy. There are certain things you go through in life that unite you and no matter how hard you try or how infrequently you see or talk to each other, you hold that common bond.
Nia, Bethanie and Georgia had that bond though they never explicitly deemed it so. They just knew. Each girl was in this car, on this road in search of something.
March
Bethanie wanted a home; in a person, in a place in an idea or dream. She was looking for somewhere she could live her life and not be afraid to just be. The rush of New York had molded her from her youth and tossed her into life she never really enjoyed. The cycle of it was so rapid and repetitious that it took her until that night nine months ago to shake herself from it.
Georgia wanted peace. She wanted quiet free emotion, where a routine was welcome not a grinding hinderance. She wanted non-judgmental warmth. The city was the last place to ever offer a being peace. Whether you liked the city or not, you couldn't call it a tranquil place. Georgia was a calm soul and the Big Apple never fit her.
Nia didn't know what she wanted.
May
Nia didknow she was going to North Dakota.
She had taken the longest to decide and informed both Georgia and Bethanie as they crossed into Napa Valley. They both thought she was crazy. They'd spent two weeks in North Dakota and there wasn't much there. At all.
But that's why Nia liked it. It was almost untouched by time. It was unassuming, rugged, raw, unpretentious and not pretending to be something it wasn't. It was real and natural. Nia would go to North Dakota.
Bethanie was going to Texas. She wasn't sure where in Texas. She said she wanted to find a city or town smack dab in the middle and settle there. Georgia was headed for the peace of the Green Mountains in Vermont.
But before the girls went their separate ways, they had one last child-like wish to fulfill – despite the fact that they were in their early twenties. Well Bethanie and Georgia had one last wish to fulfill. Whenever they started in on this line of conversation Nia was convinced she was crazy to join them.
August
"Nia!" Bethanie sighed, "Come on! It's practically on the way. If you would simply indulge your romantic side or grant yourself a guilty pleasure you could have so much fun with us!"
"No thank you," Nia said pointedly as she rolled over in the back seat. "I do not want to be lumped into the group of mindless, screaming, girly minions. I have to maintain some dignity."
Nia, Bethanie and Georgia had got on remarkably well since grade school. More so than any set of three girls could. But this is where Nia had never really understood. Beth and G had their one crazy love and Nia didn't mind – after all they did block that intersection for her in Vegas even though they both thought she was loopy. But, she hadn't tried to get them to kiss the pavement too.
"There's nothing wrong with living in a relative fantasy world for a while," Georgia pointed out. "Remember in Junior High? You were convinced you were descended from Elves?"
"Yes, G," Nia mumbled into the seat cushion, trying to extinguish the conversation and go back to sleep. "I remember it quite vividly. However. I was twelve at the time. Not twenty."
Georgia and Bethanie shook their heads in surrender. Georgia went back to the map and Bethanie began looking for their exit.
November
"We're here!" Bethanie squealed. Georgia hopped enthusiastically out of the car taking a deep breath of the ocean air. Nia had just come off her allotted sleep time and felt a monstrous headache brewing.
"Remember the deal?" Nia said as she stretched her legs to the gravel and sat up on the old leather seat. "I drop you two off in the middle of nowhere for the day and I get the car."
"Whatever you say," Georgia agreed.
"You can leave us here," Bethanie acquiesced. Nia looked around. They were on the side of a road, parked beneath a single blazing sign, announcing their entrance into some godforsaken town.
"Are you sure?" Nia asked.
"Beth and I'll be fine, Nia. Go ahead, we know you don't want to be seenwith us," Georgia teased as she roped her arm around Bethanie's shoulders.
"Okay. Keys?" Bethanie tossed her the keys as she slid over the hood to the driver's side. "That never gets old," she smiled. "I have my phone so call me, okay?"
"Sure thing!"
Nia turned the car on and pulled out onto the road as she watched Beth and G skip – arm in arm – into their own real life fantasy land.
. . . . . .
Nia was pretty sure she was lost. Either that or this was one of those places where they didn't expect many outsiders and didn't really care too much about putting street and highway signs up. Either way, Nia didn't really know where she was.
The road was smooth, endless black top and on each side evergreens older than the Galaxie shot dozens of feet into the sky. It mimicked New York so well. Roads, closed in on all sides. But it was so much different.
It was overcast and Nia had given herself another five minutes of driving before she turned back and asked for directions at the shady garage a few miles back, when the tree line split open to a small town. Nia sighed in relief as she saw the small houses and shops that began to crop up beside her. She pulled into the parking lot of a small general store and hopped out.
November continued…
Nia found it bittersweet that she only had to pack the trunk for a week's worth of food. Normally on these pit stops she would jam the trunk with all it could carry, but now her time with Georgia and Bethanie was down to days.
She shook the thought from her head and slammed the trunk. She climbed back in, turned the key and was not surprised but still unpleased with the engine's whining wheeze as it refused to turn over. Nia laid her head against steering wheel. "Great," she mumbled, "You know we've got less than a hundred miles left?"
She looked at the odometer. "Well, I suppose you deserve some credit. You made fifty miles more than last time." She patted the dash and dragged herself out of the car. She reached under to pop the hood as some guy trotted over to her.
"Come on dude," she heard his friends yell from their car on the other side of the lot. Great,Nia thought caustically,just what I need. A hero.
"You need some help?" he asked as he reached her. Nia looked up, from his jogging towards her moments ago he didn't appear this tall. He towered over her five foot six height. Maybe even by a whole foot. He had dark skin and high, square cheekbones. His face was soft and friendly though. They were in public and Nia was pretty good at reading people. So she'd give this one the benefit of the doubt for now. He didn't seem predatory.
"Just remember you're the one that offered," Nia told him as she fiddled beneath the hood for the latch. She extracted one hand. "Nia Madison."
He took her small hand in his. It was so big and broad it could've closed entirely around hers. "Seth Clearwater."
"Pleasure to meet you Seth," she said as she finally lifted the hood. "You've got some special friends over there."
Seth just shook his head. "They're idiots," Quil and Embry had never been ones for subtlety. Or manners in general. God forbid a mechanically inclined human being try to help a frustrated individual out. True enough, there were few strangers around here. And they usually ran away from any of the crazy Quileute boys due their size or stupid brothers. But he wasn't opposed to trying to help.
"They don't want you helping strangers." Nia quipped, "Clearly I look dangerous." She reached inside under the hood and pulled out a large, flat aluminum foil packet. "Here. Just toss it on the roof."
"What is this?" Seth asked in a slightly confused voice - momentarily distracted by Nia's acceptance of his help. What could mystery woman Nia be keeping under the hood of her decrepit Galaxie?
"You can have a piece if you want," he heard her as he placed he thing on the roof. He peeled up a corner dubiously.
"You're cooking pizza on your engine block?" Seth asked in a mix of shock and awe.
"Yep," Nia agreed promptly. "And," she added as she threw a smaller package over the pitched hood, "hotdogs. Might as well make my gas worth it, right? Like I said: have some. It's the least I can for your help. My friends aren't with me today and I'm certainly not going to eat it all." Seth folded two slices of pizza together. Who was he to refuse free food?
"Friends?" Seth asked. There was a group - not just one - of strangers wandering around La Push?
"Yes," Nia said as she peeked around the hood. "So no abduction attempts okay?"
Seth thought she was mostly kidding. "So what kind of noise is it making when you turn the key?" he asked as he rejoined her in front of the car.
"It's the starter," she told him matter-of-factly. When he looked quizzical of her ready assessment she clarified. "It was the starter in Bangor, Chicago, Baton Rouge, Little Rock, Kansas City, Reno and Venice Beach. I'm willing to bet it's the starter again here in Northwest Nowhere."
She uttered a growl of frustration and stalked around the car kicking a tire as she went. She regretted that instantly as it just gave her physical pain with the mental anguish. She just wanted the car to chug along for a bit longer. Was that too much to ask?
"LaPush," Seth said as he peeked under Nia's hood to see if any other problems stood out - in a car this old who knew.
"What?" she asked bluntly as he reached inside the open driver's window and turned the key.
"You're in LaPush." Wow, he thought. As the car's ignition stuttered. She was right. It probably was he starter.
He pulled his head out of the car and clicked the hood down. He saw Nia sitting on her trunk. He walked around and joined her. She had lit a cigarette and was clearly stressed out. Not the kind of stress that shocks a person. No, Nia looked like she was always stressed. She had these faint creases at the corners of her eyes and her mouth and brows were tense. She wore more tension than her age should've known.
"I told you," she said to Seth, as she stared straight ahead without seeing.
"Well I can still help you if you like?" Seth offered. She looked doubtful as she tore her face away from the nothingness. "See that garage down the street?" he jerked his thumb behind them, "I know a guy."
"Seth I have no money," Nia knew this was not strictly true but the money she had she needed for a ticket to Fargo in one week. She couldn't afford to be patching up Beth's shitbox. For all she cared they could all hitchhike the rest of the way.
"We can work something out," Seth shrugged. And Nia was put of for a moment wondering what kind of deal he'd want, but she let him continue because he'd been a genuinely nice guy up to his point. Nia knew the difference between the true and disingenuous at this point in her life. "I know the guy that owns the place."
"Okay," Nia agreed. "And the nose of my car is conveniently pointed directly at it. This street looks low traffic. Will it be an issue if we push it across? Diagonally?"
Seth smirked, "Nope."
"All right, Popeye," Nia said as she dropped her cigarette stub on the moist gravel and slid off the trunk. "Let's start pushing. You get the back, I'll get the driver's side. Too bad we don't have those surly friends of yours anymore."
November continued…
The Galaxie had made it to LaPush Auto Repair (See us and you'll never have to La Push that car again! – Nia hoped that slogan was true) and only clipped the wall of the bay as it came in. No harm done.
Seth had introduced Nia to Jacob, the slightly distracted owner and she took to wandering around. Jacob was in and out of the place every ten minutes. "Is it just the two of you here?" Nia asked as she wandered around the office.
"We've got some other friends that put in some hours when they need the money," Seth responded from beneath the hood. The garage was quiet for a while.
"So where are you from?" Seth asked, trying to make small talk as Nia took the opportunity to clean some trash from the car.
"The school of hard knocks, m'dear," Nia responded dryly as she dumped a pile of junk into the large industrial trashcan. "Where the longer you avoid getting scammed the harder it bites you in the ass in the end."
Seth peered around the hood, "How old are you Nia?"
"I'm twenty one."
"You don't seem twenty one," he noted sadly. Again, Seth got the impression that Nia was a little more bitter and battle-worn than most.
"How old are you?" she asked quietly.
"I'm nineteen."
"You don't look nineteen," Nia noted. Seth looked much older. The harsh lines in his face and enormous stature belied the easy-going nature that Nia had seen thus far.
"Looks can be deceiving."
November continued…
From the looks of it, LaPush Auto Repair's office and back room might've once been part of a house. Maybe the garage had been added on, Nia thought. Either that or they built half a house on the side of a repair shop.
Nia wandered behind the front desk and into the back room. Their "break room" – as it was labeled - looked as if it might've once been a full kitchen. Now it was just lonely. The barrel had fast food bags in it and boxes of cereal and Doritos littered the counter top.
"Are you just wandering around?" Seth asked.
"Yes," Nia said returning to the grease smell of the garage. "I'm being nosy." She marched over the car. Nia perched herself on the edge, "Do you guys still barter?"
Seth thought for a moment. "Is that racial?" he asked partly amused.
"What?" Oh right, thought Nia,Native American kid. "No, Seth. Working out a payment plan. I don't have money but by the looks of your break room you boys live off empty carbohydrates. I can cook you and your friends some food. Real food."
"On a stove? Not an engine block?" Seth quirked a brow at Nia. He was not opposed to food at all – truth be told her Galaxie baked pizza had been pretty good. He just preferred she use the stove.
"Yes the stove," she mocked. "Do we have a deal?"
"Food for car repair? Deal," Seth agreed. "I'd shake but…" he waved a greasy hand in the air.
"I'll take your word. I'll be back," Nia nodded.
November continued…
Nia spent the next half hour opening all the cabinets and assessing what these boys had in their half garage/half home. Again, Nia was reminded of a house because they actually had some 'house' food (who had three pounds of ground beef in break room?). She formulated a plan using as much of what they had, to make as much as she could. Nia hadn't cooked on a real stove with a real oven in almost two years.
Jacob and another boy wandered in after she started slamming pots, pans and ingredients around. They just sort of stared at her. "Can we help you?" Jacob asked.
"Hi Jacob," Nia greeted him without a hint of awkwardness. "Nope, I'm all set. I'm making you boys some food. It's the only way I can pay Seth."
"Oh," that seemed to clear everything up for Jacob. As long as he knew whya stranger was banging around his business. And food was always welcome. "Okay, if you need anything—" he shrugged.
"Shut up," the other boy told him, "she's making us food. Do not disturb." The other boy braced Jacob's shoulders and began to lead him from the room.
The swinging door swayed as they left. Nia could hear a scuffle of feet, a "Quil – for the love of God – stop being such a tool!" from Jacob and then the ring of a phone.
Nia had noticed that Seth had eaten at least two slices of pizza in a three minute span of time back in that parking lot. And judging by his friends Jacob and – Quil she supposed it was – they needed a lot of food. They were big guys. So she mentally doubled everything she'd make for her, Beth and G.
Nia made a week's worth of sandwiches. She had used that three pounds of ground beef to make three separate meatloaves currently in the oven. Nia had at least five pounds worth of potatoes mashed and in the fridge. She had found chicken in the back of the fridge, battered up and fried them in some oil. There was a tray of macaroni and cheese – made from all the leftover cheese she found in a drawer – cooling off.
Nia was kneeling on the counter top trying to reach the dozen or so cans of peaches on the top shelf when Seth moseyed through the swinging door. From his spot on the ground he was able to reach up and pull a few cans down for her. "Thanks, Shaq" Nia said. "Can you open these while I knead out the dough?"
"So," Seth began as he popped each can open. "What makes you – and your friends – drag a single car around the country?"
"Roadtrip," Nia replied as she tossed the ball of dough on the counter top. "My friends and I started in New York City and are on a mission of sorts. We're all kind of looking for something."
"Really? Well, I hope you find it. You're reaching the end of our dear country" Seth told her. A roadtrip and a mental journey? He supposed it made some sense. "What are you looking for?"
"I think my friends just want some peace of mind. Me… I really don't know. Purpose? I guess. I don't know if I'll ever find that."
"We all have purpose, Nia," Seth said. "I mean you might not be curing the diseases right now, but you're certainly making at least three people happy for the next week or so. Acts of kindness are never forgotten."
Nia smiled and it felt strange to her. For one, she didn't pick Seth for a philosopher. Secondly, she hadn't really been smiling much – despite her leaving the city she assumed caused most of her misery. "This is true. I guess I just never felt like I fit anywhere. I can live somewhere and be happy but not feel right. I just don't want to feel like a visitor anymore, you know?"
"That's rough. I have the opposite problem, though. Sometimes I feel like I'll never be able to leave the res. I mean, I don't think I'd leave forever but I know I'd feel like I was abandoning a lot if I were to leave for a while."
"Isn't it nice though," Nia continued, "knowing you always have a place and people to come home to? I guess that's all I'm looking for. When I leave, it'd be nice if someone missed me."
"I'll miss you when you leave," Seth told her. She smiled. She'd known this guy for a few hours and had grown to like him. She knew he wasn't lying because she was pretty sure she'd miss Seth when she left as well.
"Thanks. And your small part of the world is the last stop before I finally find a place to settle down. You see, my friends insisted we make a stop here before Seattle. They're…" Nia stopped rolling her eyes, she didn't' know if she wanted to explain the embarassing truth to poor Seth.
"It smells amazing in here," Quil exclaimed as he pushed the door open. Nia laughed a bit and the smile continued to feel foreign. He cheeks were beginning to cramp up a bit. She hadn't smiled so frequently in months.
"Quil, we really need to teach you some social skills," Seth sighed. "Hopefully you don't start rubbing off on Claire."
"At any rate," he shrugged, "The Ford-Beast is all set."
"Really," Nia asked. "Every other time I've had that thing in for the stupid starter it's been at least a few hours."
"Well that's just people ripping you off," Quil told her as he wandered around the room. "We Quileute boys are better than that."
"Or maybe garages in Chicago are a little busier than the one in LaPush?" Seth threw an oven mitt at Quil's head.
"I'm done as well," Nia wiped her hands on the paper towel she held. "There's meatloaf and mashed potatoes in the fridge. The mac n' cheese needs to cool. Those two pies in the oven will need to come out in about ten minutes. A cbunch of sandwiches are in the fridge. Oh, and some fried chicken too."
Jacob had joined them as Nia was talking and they just sort of looked at her. "Sorry, I know it's a lot of really random food but I had to work with what you guys had."
Far from being disappointed Seth was quite sure that Nia had pulled some kind of Mary Poppins act and made food materialize out of nowhere. He had no idea how she possibly made all that food with what the crap she inevitably had to scrounge from this measly room. Quil looked towards him, "Where have you been keeping her?"
"Dude," Seth said in disbelief, "you're the idiot that wanted me to leave her in the parking lot."
"That was you!" Nia scoffed. She wasn't really that angry; she actually found Quil to be comical. "You were the one honking?"
"Had I known of your culinary expertise I would've returned with a grill."
Nia narrowed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "Wow, you've got a way with words, man," Jacob told him.
"Thank you, Nia," Jacob said honestly. "We haven't eaten good food in a few weeks."
"Yeah," Seth agreed. "The starter-for-meals trade is way better than the money. We would've just bought more cereal."
Quil just looked up with an impish grin, "I'm sorry, Nia. You surprised me is all."
Nia got the feeling that Quil just did this all the time – because the responses from Seth and Jacob were almost automatic. He didn't have much of a brain filter but he seemed like a nice person. Nia was actually quite surprised to find that all three of them were nice guys. It wasn't something she was used to. Genuine people were hard to come by. True, these three were definitely still boys – with idiot boy tendencies – but they weren't dangerous.
She walked back out the garage and sat just inside the car. She bit her lip as she turned the key. The Galaxie roared to life and Nia smiled. "Yes! Thank you," she said to Seth as he leaned against the car door.
"No problem. What was it you were saying about your friends? It's just that we don't get too many out-of-towners here, so I'm really curious what brought them." Seth really wanted to know what would drive someone to come out here when they were headed to Seattle. Unless you were coming from the Pacific Ocean LaPush was kind of out of the way.
"Well, they're not in LaPush," Nia qualified. "I got a little lost. They're in the next town over. Spoons? Sporks?"
"Forks?" Seth asked through a small laugh.
"That one! Yes. Well, there's this book out that they picked up in our stop in Boise. Apparently it takes place in Forks." Nia shrugged, "They just really wanted to see the town where their new fave book is set before we leave. It's weird." She just rolled her eyes, "They were ogling the trees and squealing like fangirls. But they let me stop in Lyncheburg, Tennessee so I suppose it's only fair."
"Wait, what's in Lyncheburg, Tennessee?"
"It's the home of Jack Daniels," Nia answered like it was common knowledge.
"Oh. Poison in my blood," Seth said. Also, he had definitely not heard about a book that was set in Forks. That was weird. Who would write a book about Forks? The place was about the size of an oriental carpet and about as interesting. "What book is this?"
"I don't know. Never read it. Something about vampires falling in love with humans? I don't know. Those two really killed the whole myth for me," Nia laughed a little.
Something about vampires falling in love with humans? Seth just nodded, "Yeah… weird." He looked back at Jacob and Quil in the door. They just stared back. His brain came to a grinding halt with that one. All that was coming out was Whaaaaaaaat?
"Maybe you should take it for a spin sometime," he remarked absently.
"Excuse me?" Nia said slowly.
"It's good to keep an open mind, Nia," Seth said.
She smiled, "Thank you Seth." She was thankful for more than just the starter, but after talking with him as she paid her debt to LaPush Auto Repair, she knew there was a lot more in that thank you. Seth was a honest person and he was certainly deeper than his oil tray. Him and his friends were nice to be around for a few hours. Despite Quil's foot-in-mouth tendencies and Jacob's general distraction. The garage felt like a home and Nia was a bit sad to leave it.
December
"Where have you been? We were worried?" Georgia asked as Nia pulled into the town now known as Forks. "I'm sorry, but your baby here had a few hiccups at the store."
Nia didn't know why she didn't tell Beth and G about meeting the three boys or how the car had killed another starter. She just curled up in the passenger seat as Georgia drove and her and Beth recounted their day in Forks. They'd walked the whole town and relayed every detail to her. Nia played the good sport and looked at some of the pictures they'd taken.
"Wow, there's a vehicle within a ten mile radius that's worse off than Ye Olde Ford Galaxie?" Nia remarked when she came across a photo of beat up, tin can of a truck. "Imagine trekking in that?"
Beth stuck out her tongue. G took the camera, "Yeah, we'd have to take turns in the bed, not the backseat."
The deep red sun began to set as Georgia coaxed the car along the highway in the other direction. Beth fell asleep and Nia closed her eyes as she leaned against the cool window. She couldn't get the day's events out of her head. There had been times on the road where her, Georgia or Bethanie had traded clothes for some canned food or had worked for a few meals. Bartering goods and services wasn't new to any of them.
However, the three of them had been chasing a few demons this past year and half and Nia supposed she simply felt odd about leaving a place that seemed to chase those demons away for a few hours.
G, Beth and Nia fell back into their regular routine – or as routine as you could get with such a lifestyle. They talked, made up stories, played games, ran around in a few open fields, watched the stars from the roof of the Galaxie one last time, sold the wheezing beast to a junkyard in Seattle, split the funds and made it to the SeaTac only four days after they'd left Forks.
Bethanie's flight to Houston left at 11AM. They spent the last hour together on the floor of the airport playing poker. When they called for boarding Bethanie stood and gave them both the biggest hug her small freckled arms could handle.
"Okay, call us when you get there?" Georgia reminded her.
"Who? We'll all be separate by then."
"Both of us," Nia said. "And get us your address ASAP."
"Oh you guys," she said as the tears welled in her eyes. I can't believe after all these years and the past two especially, that we're just going to not see each other tomorrow. Or the day after."
"We'll keep in touch," Georgia assured as they huddled, heads together.
"After all this time," Nia added, "I feel like we have something bigger tying the three of us together than simple distance. I'm always going to have sympathy nausea when G forgets her Lactaid. You and I are still going to end up calling each other at exactly the same time. We're only one flight away."
G and Nia finally bodily pushed Bethanie to the flight attendant taking tickets and waved a tearful goodbye. The last two returned – arm in arm - to the pre-formed plastic waiting room chairs. G's flight was scheduled for 1PM. They sat with their legs interwined and their backs against the arms of their chairs. For a while they were quiet.
"Do you think," Nia asked, "that all this was worth it?"
"Yeah, Nia. I do," she responded.
"Do you feel like… I don't know. After all this, that you found what you were looking for?"
"I don't think so," she answered honestly, "but I think part of the journey is learning that you probably won't find what you're looking for. If we all found just what we wanted and needed in a nice neat package there wouldn't be much else worth living for. I think our trip helped chip away a bit of it though."
Nia nodded. She supposed this made sense. For a long time Nia imagined herself parting ways with her friends a wiser, happier, smarter woman. But she still felt like the same old Nia. When she voiced this to G, she just thought for a moment.
"Well, you're still Nia, but you are a little different. I mean think about the day we left New York? That was still you, but don't you feel like we've moved so far from that? It feels like it was a lot longer ago than a year and half. That makes me think that I've changed a lot." Nia couldn't really deny this logic. It felt as if decades had passed since New York. Maybe that meant she'd changed more than she thought.
"Do you think you'll be happy in Vermont?" Nia asked.
"I do," Georgia smiled. "Something about our time there just made me feel like we'd pressed pause on the whole world. For a while I thought that this whole trip was like our 'pause' but after Vermont… I don't know. I guess it was like our trip was slow-mo and Vermont was really through the looking glass. I was happy there. And that's all that mattered to me. The people, the place… it all just puts a smile on my face."
When Georgia finally stood to board her own flight, Nia remembered one last important question. "G! I was wondering, could I borrow that book you and Beth were going on about? The one from our trip?"
"Sure," she smiled. "What made you change your mind?"
"A friend told me I should be more open-minded," Nia grinned.
Georgia rolled her eyes and smiled too, "Nia I've been telling you that for years."
December continued…
Nia had three hours before her flight left. So she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and tried to fight the bittersweet loneliness she felt crawling up her throat. She missed her friends already but knew they were off to so many better things. She'd never truly lose them.
She dragged her one duffel bag and tossed it in G's empty chair. She'd given Nia two - telling her the second was a sequel and she'd just loveit. Nia curled up in a chair and opened the thick tome to its first page.
An hour and a half later she'd finished the first book.
An hour after that, she'd read enough of the second.
Ten minutes later and she knew she would not be going to Fargo, North Dakota.
An hour after that she hopped out of the cab and swung her duffel bag over her shoulder. She banged on the door, "Seth Clearwater! Open this door right now!"