"How long until we stop?" I asked from the back seat.
"We'll stop for lunch," Daddy said.
"When's lunch?"
"Not for a while," Uncle Sam turned to look back at me. "What's up?"
"I don't wanna be in the car any more," I complained. "I'm bored."
"Charlie, we've only been in the car for a couple hours," Uncle Sam said with a chuckle. "Find something to do."
"Kiddo, this is nothing. We used to be in the car all day and night with our dad." Daddy said over his shoulder.
"You've got the book of word searches and stuff, do one of them," Uncle Sam suggested.
"I don't want to," I grumped.
"Play your 3DS," Daddy said.
"It doesn't have that much power left, I forgot to charge it."
"Then draw. Or read."
"Don't wannaaaaa," I whined.
"You just want to be out of the car," Daddy said. "Well, it ain't happenin' right now, kiddo, so deal with it. Find something to do. Look out the window at all the stuff we're driving past."
"Cars and the highway, whoopee," I said in a bored voice.
"See how many license plates you can find from different states," Uncle Sam said. "Or count how many red cars you can see in 20 minutes. There's lots of stuff you can do. Look, I see a license plate from New York and one from Pennsylvania."
"That seems boring," I said.
"Suit yourself," Uncle Sam turned back to face the front.
"I like being on the road," Daddy said. "It's fun to be on the highway with the sun shining down, and a full tank of gas, not sure where you're gonna end up."
"We grew up that way though, we're used to it," Uncle Sam said.
"How about some tunes?" Daddy asked, turning on the radio.
"Classic rock is bor-ing," I said.
Daddy gasped and said, "How can you say that?" in a teasing way.
I sighed and pulled out the coloring book that Uncle Sam had gotten for me, and the crayons. I colored three pages, and by then my hand was hurting.
Daddy got a call from Grandpa John and said, "We're going to pull off for a rest stop, do you need to use the rest room?"
"Uhhh, yeah," I said. He pulled into a gas station, and all of us got out of the car. Daddy walked me over to the women's bathroom.
"Go on in, I'll wait here," he said. When I came out he walked me back over to the car, where Uncle Sam and Grandpa John were standing.
"Be right back," Daddy said. Uncle Sam and Grandpa John had coffee.
"Can I have some?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's just what you need, coffee," Uncle Sam said. "I don't think so. You'd be bouncing around in the back seat."
"How's it going?" Grandpa John asked.
"She's not used to being in the car for long periods of time," Uncle Sam told him.
"It's boring," I said.
"We'll have to see if we can find a motel with a playground or something," Grandpa John said to me.
Daddy came back to the car, and we got in and started driving again. It got warm in the back of the car, and I fell asleep. I woke up when the car stopped. My face felt hot and sweaty.
"We're going to get some lunch, Charlie, are you hungry?" Daddy asked.
I opened the door and saw a big fountain in front of the restaurant. The sun was high overheard and made the water falling down look like diamonds.
"Look at that, it's so pretty!" I said, and I ran across the parking lot towards it. I wanted to put my hands in the sparkling water and play with it!
"Charlie!" I heard Uncle Sam yell as I ran.
I leaned on the edge of the fountain and put my hand in the cool water. Then there was a hand on my arm, and I was jerked to a standing position, and then my butt was stinging because Daddy gave me a couple of swats.
"Oww," I whimpered, reaching back to rub the sting out.
Daddy turned me and bent down to look me in the face. "You do not run across the parking lot like that, little girl," he said angrily. "That's how you get hit by a car!"
"I'm hot," I whined. "I wanted to see the fountain!"
He gave me a little shake. "I don't care, you stay right by the car after you get out from now on. You got it?"
"Yes, Daddy, sorry," I said. He straightened up and let me go, then took my hand.
"I'm gonna get gray hairs from this," he said to Uncle Sam. "Do I have any yet?"
Grandpa John came over to us and followed behind us as we went inside.
I sat in a booth next to Daddy and Uncle Sam and Grandpa John sat across from us. The waitress gave me a paper placemat and a couple of crayons.
"We came through here a while ago, do you remember?" Grandpa John said. He snapped his fingers. "No, that's right, you two were with Jim."
"Which time that we were with Pastor Jim?" Daddy asked.
"Sammy was still in diapers, so it was longer than I thought, geez!"
"Isn't the memory the first thing to go in an old person, Dean?" Uncle Sam said with a grin.
"Yeah, you better hang up your gun and move into a rest home, Dad," Daddy teased.
"Hell no, I'm not stopping until I get that yellow eyed bast-" Grandpa John stopped talking, and coughed. "Never mind."
"Who is Pastor Jim?" I asked.
"He's an old friend of mine," Grandpa John said. "The boys used to stay with him from time to time when I was hunting."
"You'll probably meet him someday," Daddy said.
"You trained Daddy and Uncle Sam to be hunters," I said to Grandpa John, "Will I get trained to be a hunter?"
"Not if I have anything to do with it," Grandpa John said.
The waitress came over and handed out our drinks.
"I think that's something we're all in agreement of," Daddy said. "You need to have a normal life, going to school, and then college, and find a career and all that."
"But I'm already not normal!" I protested.
"What do you mean?" Uncle Sam asked.
I looked at all of them. "I can tell things about people when I touch them, and I have people in my family with weird abilities and you guys all hunt monsters! None of that is normal!"
"Well, she has a point," Uncle Sam said.
"It's still no," Daddy said resolutely. "I don't want her in the hunting life, it's too dangerous."
"But what if I want to?" I asked.
"The answer will always be no," Daddy said in a hard voice.
"But when I'm a adult, you can't tell me what to do! I can decide-"
Daddy interrupted me, leaning over to me. "NO, little girl, now drop it."
I closed my mouth with a snap. Everyone took a drink of their drinks.
"Stubborn all the way, she's a Winchester, all right," Grandpa John chuckled, shaking his head.
I colored on my placemat and did the mazes that were on it while they chatted until the food came.
The waitress came over with a big tray and started to put plates down. She leaned over and said to me, "Careful, honey, the fries are hot, they just came out of the fryer. And these plates are heavy."
She handed me a plate and put her hand on top of mine to steady it. I got a flash of a baby standing up in a crib, and I knew that she was leaving her baby alone when she was coming here to work.
"You can't keep leaving her alone, she's learning how to get out of her crib," I blurted.
The waitress stopped and stared at me. "What did you say?"
I almost dropped my plate, and Daddy grabbed it and set it on the table. I shrank back, feeling scared and embarrassed. "N-nothing," I said.
She shook her head. "Did Jimmy put you up to this? I'm gonna kill him," she muttered.
She finished handing out the food and walked away, still shaking her head.
They were all looking at me.
"What did you see?" Daddy asked.
"She leaves her baby alone in her house when she comes to work," I said. "I saw a baby- well, a older baby, 'cause she was standing up in a crib, and she was lifting her leg up to try and climb out." Tears filled my eyes and I still felt scared.
"What's wrong?" Daddy looked at me. "Are you still worried about getting into trouble?"
I nodded. " 'Cause I would get yelled at every time I said something when I was little." Daddy put his arm around my shoulders and hugged me.
"Remember, that's not going to happen any more," Uncle Sam told me.
I nodded and wiped my eyes with my napkin.
After we ate, it took a while for them to get the attention of someone so that Daddy could ask for the check. A waiter brought our check over, and Daddy left cash on the table.
As we were walking out, I looked over the counter and saw our waitress standing there holding a tissue. Her face and eyes were red. She said something to the waitress standing next to her when she saw us.
"Little girl," she called. "How did you know?"
I stopped, and felt my face get red. "I—I-" I stammered. "Know what?"
Daddy put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him.
Her face got red. "Look, I don't got a lot of money, right? So I been leaving my baby girl in her crib when I have a short shift, thinkin' that she's okay. After you said that, I called my neighbor to check on her, and...my girl had gotten out of her crib and was in the living room about to pull the t.v. down on top of herself." She shuddered and started to cry. The waitress next to her squeezed her shoulder.
"She...knows things when she touches people," Daddy said.
"Well, thanks, hon, you saved my baby's life, ya know?" she smiled at me, and then walked over to a clear glass case on the counter. "I know this isn't much, but take this as a thank-you." She opened the case and took out a pie, sliding it into a cardboard box.
"It's apple, hand-made by one of the chefs here," she smiled at me.
Daddy's face lit up. "Great, thanks!" He took the box.
"Thank you," I said.
"No, honey, thank you!" she said as we walked out.
"Well, how about that?" Uncle Sam said, turning to me. "You've always felt bad about what you can do, and something good came from it."
"And Missouri will teach you how to control it, so that you don't just blurt things out," Grandpa John said. He ruffled my hair. "That was pretty amazing."
"And we got some free pie!" Daddy said happily.
"It should be for Charlie to eat, since it was a reward for her," Uncle Sam teased.
"You'll let me have some, won't you?" Daddy asked me, batting his eyes at me.
I laughed. "Yeah, we can divide it into four pieces for all of us!"
We got into the car and Daddy put the pie in the trunk, then he got back on the highway.
I leaned forward and put my hand on the back of the front seat. "Can I sit up front with you?" I asked them.
Both Daddy and Uncle Sam said, "No," at exactly the same time.
"Aww, why not?" I protested.
"Because there's a law that says that kids have to be in the back until they're a certain age," Daddy told me. "You should know this already."
"Mommy would let me sit in front when she drove me to school," I said.
"Well, she shouldn't have done that," Uncle Sam said. "Are you bored already?"
"Yeees!"
He sighed and shook his head. "You've got to find something to do, Charlie."
A couple minutes later, I unbuckled my seatbelt, turned around and got on my knees to watch out the back window. I folded my arms on top of the seat and rested my chin on them. At least I could watch the cars go by from a different angle this way.
"What- what are you doing?" Uncle Sam said. "Charlie!"
"Hey! Sit your butt down in that seat right now!" Daddy yelled.
I turned, just as Uncle Sam was reaching back to smack my behind.
"Ow!" I whined, turning all the way and sitting down.
"Little girl, you do not take your seat belt off when the car is in motion!" Daddy yelled at me.
"You know better than to do that, young lady. Get buckled," Uncle Sam said curtly.
"Okayokay," I grumped.
"Hey, knock it off with the attitude! If you pull something like that again, I will pull this car over and spank your butt, you hear me?" Daddy asked, glaring at me in the rear- view mirror.
I gulped, and looked at Uncle Sam. He looked stern too. "Watch your mouth," he said in a hard voice.
"Uh, yes, Daddy, yes, uh, Uncle Sam," I said. I didn't want them both upset with me, I didn't know if they would both spank me, but I didn't want to find out if that would happen. I unzipped my backpack and pulled out a coloring book.
What seemed like hours later, I had done 3 word searches, two crossword puzzles, and colored three pages. My hand was tired and my crayons were getting dull.
"Can we stop?" I asked. "I'm hungry, I gotta go pee, and I wanna get out of the car!"
"All right, we can stop," Daddy said. "Call Dad and let him know," he said to Uncle Sam.
Daddy pulled into a gas station and stopped at a pump. He turned to me as I opened my door. "Stay by the car," he said sternly.
"I knoooow," I rolled my eyes and slammed the door shut.
He got out of the car and looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Attitude, little girl," he said. "That's all I'm going to say."
Uncle Sam walked me to the bathroom. "I can go by myself ya know, the car's right over there," I pointed at the gas pump on the end where Daddy was parked.
"What are the rules? You don't go anywhere by yourself, and you stay with an adult when we're out somewhere," Uncle Sam reminded me.
"I'm not a baby!" I complained.
"It has nothing to do with that, it has to do with keeping you safe."
I huffed at him and went into the bathroom.
When I came out, we went back over to the car. Grandpa John was standing there talking to Daddy.
"Can I go and run around somewhere?" I asked.
"There isn't really anywhere for you to do that, so no," Daddy said.
"Are you hungry?" Uncle Sam asked me.
"Yes...can I get some candy?" I looked up at Daddy hopefully.
He glanced at Uncle Sam, who said, "That's the last thing you need right now, pick something healthy."
"Not fair!" I stomped my foot. I was getting annoyed. I didn't like being cooped up in the car, and if I had to be in the back seat for hours and hours, at least they could let me have some yummy stuff to eat!
"I need a cup of caffeine, I'll take her in. You boys want anything?" Grandpa John asked. He held his hand out to me and I took it.
"No junk food either," Uncle Sam called.
When we went into the mini- mart, Grandpa John went over to the coffee machines and started to get himself a coffee. A man that was standing there said, "It that your Impala out there?"
"It was mine, but I gave it to my son," Grandpa John said. "It's been in good working condition since I bought it..."
I tuned him out, because he was talking about the car, and cars are boring. I turned and my attention was caught by all the brightly colored candy wrappers on the shelves. I walked down the aisle and started looking at all the different stuff they had- fruit rings, lollipops, gummy worms, bubble gum, chocolate bars, mints, gummy bears...
I heard the bell over the door ring and then Uncle Sam's voice.
"Dad, where is she?" and then Uncle Sam was standing at the end of the aisle.
"Charlie, get over here!" Uncle Sam pointed to the floor right in front of him. I scurried over and stood there, putting my hands behind my back.
He leaned down to look me in the eyes. "What are you doing?" he asked. "What did I tell you outside?"
"Uh, you didn't exactly say no to the candy," I said, and he straightened up, shaking his head, and took my hand. "Come on, out to the car," he said.
"I was just looking!" I protested, trying to pull away. Uncle Sam walked us back over to the car and then turned me to face him.
"What's going on?" Daddy asked.
"I just reminded you of the rules not less than 10 minutes ago!" Uncle Sam scolded. He looked at Daddy. "She was down at the end of the candy aisle!"
Daddy looked at me. "You walked away from Grandpa John?" he asked me.
"He was getting coffee and talking to a guy about the car," I explained, trying to sound reasonable.
"That doesn't mean it's okay for you to leave him!" Uncle Sam said.
Grandpa John came walking up to us. "What's wrong?" he asked, looking at all of us.
"Dad, she walked away from you again in the store! You can't let her do that!" Daddy said angrily. "I have rules, that she's supposed to stay with an adult when we're in public, and she's not supposed to wander off by herself! For God's sake, do you remember what happened with her aunt?"
"You remember how you were with us?" Uncle Sam asked.
Grandpa John rubbed his forehead and glanced at me. "You're right, Dean, I owe you an apology. You made rules for your daughter, and I need to abide by them. I was pretty strict about the two of you going off by yourselves too, but I knew you'd always look out for each other. I'm sorry, Dean. I shouldn't allow your kid to break the rules that you made."
Daddy sighed heavily and rubbed a hand over his face.
"And you," Uncle Sam turned to me, "need to apologize to Grandpa John for walking away from him when you were with him, not once, but twice now. You broke two rules with him, two times, young lady!"
I looked up at Grandpa John. He looked serious, and he raised his eyebrows.
I felt my face get red. "I, uh, I'm sorry, Grandpa John. Are you gonna spank me? I didn't mean to break those rules, I wasn't thinking about it!" I said in a rush, feeling tears come to my eyes. I stared at the ground, feeling embarrassed.
"No, I'm not going to spank you, that's your dad's job. It's all right, little one," Grandpa John said, stepping forward and hugging me. He ruffled my hair after he let me go.
Daddy opened the back door. "Get in the car," he said tersely. I got in and he shut the door. They stood there talking for a couple of minutes, and Daddy went back into the store. Uncle Sam got into the driver's side and turned around to face me.
"Get out some paper and a pencil," he told me.
"Why?" I asked.
"You're writing lines," he said. "'I will stay with an adult when we are out', and, 'I will not wander off by myself', 50 times each."
"No fair!" I exclaimed, crossing my arms over my chest.
"The alternative is a spanking," he said, "so I suggest you do what I told you."
I sighed and pulled out my drawing pad and found a pencil.
Daddy got into the passenger seat and turned to me. "I got a snack for you, which you can have after you've finished your lines," he said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Chocolate chip granola bar and yogurt covered raisins. And juice."
"Do I have to do the lines now?" I whined.
"Yes," they both said at the same time.
I sighed again and started to write. Uncle Sam started the car, and pulled into traffic.
Daddy leaned his head against the window and napped. It felt like it took hours to finish my lines, but I finally wrote the last one. I handed the pad up to Uncle Sam, and he glanced down at it.
"Good job," he said. He passed back the bag of food, and I got my snack out and ate it, looking out the window.
Someone was shaking my shoulder. "Wake up, Charlie," Daddy said. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.
We were parked in front of a hotel, and two doors that were next to each other were open. Grandpa John's truck was parked next to us.
I got out of the car and Daddy pointed at the open door on the right. "We're in that room," he said. I walked into the room- there were two huge beds! I ran over to one and got on it and started to jump- it was like a giant square trampoline!
"Look- at these- big—giant- beds- Uncle Sam!" I called to him when he came in. He looked over at me, slung the duffles on the floor, and walked over to the bed. He grabbed me right in the middle of a jump, and I shrieked.
"Jumping on the bed is not a good idea," he said, and put me on the floor.
"You're no fun!" I pouted. Daddy came in with another couple of bags.
"Dean, she's wired," Uncle Sam said. "We need to find a playground or something, soon!"
"Nah, she can run laps," Daddy said. "That's what Dad used to have us do, remember? Come here, Charlie."
I followed him back outside, and he said, "Run to the end of the sidewalk and back to me." There was a long sidewalk in front of all the hotel room doors, and I ran down and then came back.
"One more time," Daddy said. I ran down to the end, and then came running back again. Grandpa John and Uncle Sam were standing with Daddy when I came back.
Uncle Sam had something in his hand. "You bought her candy, Dad, after I said no?" he asked, frowning.
"I didn't buy her anything," Grandpa John said. All three of them turned to look at me.
I was breathing heavy, and my throat was dry. All of a sudden, it became as dry as the desert as I tried to swallow nervously.
Uncle Sam held up a small package of gummy bears. "Charlie?" he said. "I just found these on the floor next to the bed, where you were jumping. These were the kind that were in the store where we stopped. Do you have something to tell us?"