It was a yellow cab that smelled heavily of cigarette smoke and several parts of the seats and door were repaired with duct tape.
"Where to miss?" The taxi driver asked in between chewing his gum.
"Great Leap National Park."
"Ah, gonna do some sight seein, huh? I don't blame ya. Being around that freak show would cause anyone to need a vacation." The driver referred to the school as the freak show, obviously.
"The whole world's a freak show," Nanny muttered.
"Ahhh, ya, suppose the rest of us aren't any better, eh? So, what'd you have to do with the place any how?"
"I was an art teacher."
"Oh ya? My sister in Brooklyn was an art teacher for a while, til' the mob started threating to hurt her family is she didn't stop shoving all this "equality crap" down their kids' throats. They killed her cat to let her know they were serious."
Nanny tried to listen as best as she could, but she wasn't really interested; she didn't want to be rude after all.
"So ah, why'd you leave?" The driver peeked into his rear view and noticed a fresh tear tip-toeing down her cheek. "Oh now, don't cry." He handed back a box of Kleenex. "I'm sorry, I won't talk about it anymore."
Their conversation ended there. Little bits of jazz played through the two hour trip to the park, and the cab driver took the liberty of serenading Nanny, much to her discomfort.
"That's ah, 150."
"Keep the change."
"Miss, are you sure?" Nanny didn't answer as she shut the door and walked away. She had handed him 200. He waited in his car, watching as she walked off towards the Gift Shop/Information Center/Cafeteria building.
"Nuts, all of em'." He quickly drove off before she had a chance to change her mind. Nanny had been stashing some money in a jar she kept under her bed for no particular occasion, but she had envisioned spending it slowly on movie nights and taking some of the kids to a mall, or even to the theaters instead of renting all of the time.
She sat down at a table and read over the small menu about four times before a waitress noticed her and came over.
"So what can I get ya hun?"
"Can I get some hot cocoa and hash browns?"
"Sure thing. Is that it for ya then?"
"Yep. Thank you."
"All right. I'll be back in a jiff." The waitress walked off and Nanny glanced out of the wall sized window. Just beyond the Information Center was a rickety bridge that lead to the look out point. It was a photographer's haven; from there you could see into the valley, and over the town just beyond the valley and further into the mountains. It was a beautiful place to sit and watch the sun set, or rise, which it was getting ready to do. Nanny drank her cocoa slowly and nibbled at her hash browns. When she was finally done eating an hour and a half later, she wandered over to the wood and rope bridge, only wide enough for two medium sized people to walk side by side. She stood in the center of the bridge and looked into the canyon below, watching the river glisten in the early morning light.
" . . . there's only one solution," she whispered, leaning on the rope railing. Her gaze was fixed on the river as her heart sank into her stomach. "I won't have to worry about fitting in, or screwing up. No more politics, no more papers . . . heh, I won't even have to worry about whether or not I'm being petty."
She quickly glanced around. It was still early enough that only a handful of visitors were around, and most were in the information center, reading brochures and listening to audio tours of the history of the canyon and valley. She carefully climbed over the railing, keeping her back tight against the railing and her arms holding on. Her heart raced as a few second thoughts tried to coax her out of it.
"No, not this time. It'll be better this way." Her heart pounded and she clenched her eyes shut as she finally leaned slightly forward and let go with both of her hands at the same time.
Her last thoughts and tears, as she began to fall, focused on the people she wished she didn't have to leave behind- her new found friend in the faith, Nightcrawler, and now the man that slowly begun to take up the majority of her thoughts; the handsome and strong, Wolverine.
She was free falling in the air for mere seconds when something caught a hold of her around her waist, jerking her to a sudden stop, though her body flailed in the wind. Her stomach lurched at the sudden stop. Her head spun and she was slowly pulled upwards and she closed her eyes from dizziness. Blood rushed through her ears making it hard to hear the muffled voices now surrounding her.
Meanwhile-
Wolverine didn't know what to do when she left. Was it a big enough deal to wake the Professor up so early? She was an adult and able to make her own decisions, thus Wolverine waited until everyone was up to inform them.
Wolverine was zoning off in his own little world, sipping at his coffee, now exhausted from getting up so early, getting very little sleep, when Jean and the others came down for breakfast.
"So what do we want for breakfast?" Jean asked, smiling.
"Hmmm, how about pancakes? I'm getting a little tired of eggs." Cyclops wrapped his arms around Jean and they kissed shortly and Cyclops raised his eye brows to Storm.
"Would you like to make breakfast?" Storm offered as she made her way over to the coffee pot.
Cyclops shook his head and smiled, moving out of the way of the cooking women.
"Is this fresh?" Storm inquired about the coffee, turning to the others and noticed Wolverine staring off blankly, a steamy cup of coffee in his hand.
"Guess so."
"Wolverine, you shouldn't be staying up so late. You really need you're rest."
"Mmmmm. Just can't sleep. Haven't had this much trouble sleeping in a while." He peered up from his coffee and caught Jean's eye.
"How many pancakes do you think I should set aside for Nanny?" Jean asked. Everyone knew that they wouldn't see her emerge for several hours. She slept in real late on the weekends.
"She normally eats 2 or 3."
"You won't need to save her any." Wolverine said as nonchalantly as possible.
"Oh?" Storm moved closer to the island and awaited Wolverine's explanation. Jean continued to get breakfast ready, still listening. Cyclops leaned in the door way.
"Nanny," Wolverine cleared his throat and continued, "left really early this morning."
They all stared in shock. The first words were Jean's. "Does the Professor know?"
"Did she say why?" Storm chimed in.
"Well I didn't tell him. She can take care of herself and I didn't think the issue was pressing enough to wake him up at three in the morning." He hadn't heard Storm's question.
Storm sat down and rested her head on her hand. Nightcrawler walked in sniffing the air and in his rob.
"Beautiful morning." He declared. He slowly noticed the gloomy faces and moved around to grab some toast. He smiled warmly at Storm, but she didn't notice.
"What are all of the glum faces for?"
"Kurt … Nanny left in the middle of the night."
"What do you mean, left?"
"Is it possible she's coming back? Did she take any suit cases with her?" Jean questioned optimistically.
"No. But from what she said before she left, I don't think she'll be back any time soon."
"You talked to before she left?"
"I was outside smoking my cigar when she tried to sneak out unnoticed. I asked where she was going, but she never responded."
Kurt's eyes lowered to the floor and he made the sign of the cross. Nanny and he had really become close friends. Their shared faith was a great link between them and they often enjoyed discussing and arguing over theology in the TV room late at night.
After a few moments, the Professor rolled into the kitchen. Somehow, the Professor already knew.
"I'll see if I can locate her using Cerebro. Storm, will you check her room to see if she left anything behind."
"We're pretty sure she left all of her luggage." Wolverine said, turning around to face the Professor.
"Oh really? Well perhaps she left a note." Storm nodded and headed up to the room.
"Cyclops, once I've located her, you and I will go and see if we can talk to her."
Jean started serving up the pancakes and Wolverine grabbed the syrup out of the fridge.
When Storm entered Nanny's room, the whole place looked empty, but clean. She noticed a suit case slightly peeking out from under the bed. Carefully lifting the sheet up so she could see, she saw both of Nanny's suit cases, packed full, just sitting under the bed, and beside it was an empty jar- the jar Nanny had been using to store money. The only other thing that remained in the room was the small sticky note attached to the window. Storm took the note down to the others.
"Hmmm. Well at least it's not a school day or we'd have to get someone to cover her art classes."
Wolverine laughed but quickly turned it into a cough, though he couldn't suppress his smile. He straightened up a bit and asked, "How hard can it be to replace an art teacher?" Don't take Wolverine wrong; it wasn't that he didn't appreciate art, he simply thought art was as simple as eating or sleeping.
…………
Nanny's eyes flickered open but she still couldn't focus. Her head felt like a million pounds that wanted to fly away and her stomach wanted to crawl out of her body. Her limbs ached immeasurably and she coughed from the thick, damp air. She quickly noticed a weak rotten egg stench that did not mix well the damp, moldy smell that already permeated the air. She forced herself to focus as she squinted around the dim cavern she found herself in. The stone floor she was lying on was cold and damp, she thought. It was so cold that it was hard to differentiate between simply cold and damp. Looking around she noticed that the walls were a light, jagged stone and there were prison bars blocking the only entry or exit to the small hole in the wall she had found herself in.
Beyond the bars was a man crouching on a small hill of rock only 20 feet away. He watched her intently; his wide eyes filled with a curiosity that sent the chills up and down her spin.
She couldn't figure out why she was here. She remembered letting go, and then, something grabbed her. She only faintly remembered being lifted up into, a helicopter, maybe? She remembered muffled voices, but no faces.
She put her hand to her stomach; she could still feel where it had grabbed her and her neck ached from a small form of whip lash. She heard something like a whip snap outside. She turned her head in time to see Toad's tongue recoil back into his mouth. She grimaced and turned her head back to prop it up against the wall.
"Dear God, please say that it wasn't his tongue that grabbed me!" She clenched her eyes shut for a moment and opened them to stare at the cavern wall.
"What do they want with me? … They should have just let me die! Who are they anyway? I'm of no use to anyone …" a single tear bounced off her checked and shattered to the ground.
Her eyes struggled to focus, and lulled by the faint sound of dripping water and this man's soft breathing, she feel asleep again.