Hi guys! So Anna's Infinity is now finished (if you guys had been keeping up with that one). Please be sure to check out my Holiday Special based on Anna's Infinity called 'All I Want is You'. If you're a fan of the tv show Sherlock please check out my other Holiday Special Fanfic called 'Merry Murder'. Hope you all like this chapter!:)
Okay?
~Wallflower95
6
Of course, to keep the location a secret from Hazel Grace I had to drive which meant she was subjected to my torturous driving all the way there.
"You nearly charmed the pants off my mom." Hazel Grace said in the passenger seat. We jerked forwards. I smiled.
"Yeah, and your dad was a Smits fan, which helps. You think they liked me?" I asked her.
"Sure they did. Who cares, thought? They're just parents." She said.
"They're you're parents," I said, glancing over at her. "Plus, I like being liked. Is that crazy?"
"Well you don't have to rush to hold doors open or smother me i compliments for me to like you." I slammed on the brakes which cause the both of us to fly forwards until our seat belts caught us. I definitely smelled the burn of rubber. As we drove on, I reached into the center console for my pack of cigarettes.
"Do you ever throw them away?"
"One of the many benefits of not smoking is that packs of cigarettes last forever. I've had this pack for almost a year. A few of them are broken near the filters, but I think this pack can easily get me to my eighteenth birthday." I held the filter in between my fingers.
"So, okay. Okay. Name some things that you never see in Indianapolis."
"Um, skinny adults." She answered. I laughed.
"Good. Keep going."
"Mmm, beaches. Family owned restaurants. Topography."
"All excellent examples of things we lack. Also, culture."
"Yeah, we are a bit short on culture." Her expression changed which made me think she figured out what I was planning.
"Are we going to the museum?" She asked.
"In a manner of speaking."
"Oh, are we going to that park or whatever." I literally felt like a balloon that just got popped or maybe a kid who just got their lollipop stolen.
"Yes, we are going to that park or whatever. You've figured it out, haven't you?"
"Um, figured what out?"
"Nothing."
See there's park behind a museum where a bunch of artists had made these big sculptures. I used to go with my half sisters when I was younger. The sculpture is an over-sized skeleton. The bones are waist high and a lot of fun to climb. I remember climbing and jumping from bone to bone when I was younger and free of cancer. As we walked down the hill I felt that pain in my hip again but I ignored it. I wouldn't let it ruin this for Hazel Grace.
"Funky Bones. Created by Joep Van Lieshout."
"Sounds Dutch."
"He is. So is Rik Smits. So are tulips." I said. I settled on a spot that had a perfect view of kids climbing and jumping on the sculpture. I slipped my backpack that held all the food and set the picnic. I had to admit, I may have overdone it with all the orange.
"What's with all the orange?"
"National color of the Netherlands, of course. You remember William of Orange and everything?"
"He wasn't on the GED test." Hazel Grace said with a smile. I couldn't help but marvel her smile. I could look at it all day.
"Sandwich?"
"Let me guess." She said, taking it.
"Dutch cheese and tomato. The tomatoes are from Mexico. Sorry."
"You're always such a disappointment Augustus. Couldn't you have at least gotten orange tomatoes?" I laughed and bit it in to the ridiculously dry sandwich. Down the the hill we could hear children laughing and calling out to each other as the jumped and played on Funky Bones.
"Two things I love about this sculpture," I said. I had an unlit cigarette in my hand. "First, the bones are just far enough apart that if you're a kid, you cannot resist the urge to jump between them. Like, you just have to jump from rib cage to skull. Which means that, second, the sculpture essentially forces children to play on bones. The symbolic resonances are endless, Hazel Grace."
"You do love symbols." She pointed out.
"Right, about that. You are probably wondering why you are eating a bad cheese sandwich and drinking orange juice and why I am wearing the jersey of a Dutchman who played a sport I have come to loathe."
"It has crossed my mind."
"Hazel Grace, like so many children before you- and I say this with great affection- you spent your Wish hastily, with little care for the consequences. The Grim Reaper was staring you in the face an the fear of dying with your Wish still in your proverbial pocket, ungranted, led you to rush toward the first Wish you could think of, and you, like so many others, chose the artificial pleasures of the theme park."
"I actually had a great time on that trip. I met Goofy and Minn-" I cut her off.
"I am in the midst of a soliloquy! I wrote this out and memorized it and if you interrupt me I will completely screw it up. Please to be eating your sandwich and listening." Hazel Grace smiled and continued chewing that awful sandwich.
"Okay, where was I?"
"The artificial pleasures."
"Right, the cold and artificial pleasures of the theme park. But let me submit that the real heroes of the Wish Factory are the young men and women who wait like Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot and good Christian girls wait for marriage. These young heroes wait stoically and without complaint for their one true Wish to come along. Sure, it may never come along, but at least they can rest easily in the grave knowing that they've done their little part to preserve the integrity of the Wish as an idea."
"But then again, maybe it will come along: Maybe you'll realize that your one true Wish is to visit the brilliant Peter Van Houten in his Amsterdamian exile, and you will be glad indeed to have saved your Wish."
"But I didn't save my Wish." She said. I smiled.
"Ah," I paused for a dramatic effect.
"But I saved mine."
"Really?" She seemed surprised which I don't blame her. I would be 'Wish eligible' considering I was in school and about a year into remission. I got it in exchange for the leg though. See? Some good things come out of losing a limb.
"I got it in exchange for the leg." I explained to her.
"Now, I'm not going to give you my Wish or anything. But I also have an interest in meeting Peter Van Houten, and it wouldn't make sense to meet him without the girl who introduced me to his book."
"It definitely wouldn't." She said with a smile.
"So I talked to the Genies, and they are in total agreement. They said Amsterdam is lovely in the beginning of May. They proposed leaving May third and returning May seventh."
"Augustus, really?" And then I reached over and touched her cheek. I couldn't help myself. I've been wanting to do that since the first day I met her. I felt her tense under my touch and I pulled my hand away.
"Augustus," She said. "Really. You don't have to do this."
"Sure I do. I found my Wish."
"God you're the best." She said.
"I bet you say that to all the boys who finance your international travel."
Only a day went by since I broke the news to Hazel Grace about Amsterdam. I couldn't get over her tensing up after I touched her. Of course, it was way to early for that kind of stuff. That's when she texted me.
Hi, so okay, I don't know if you'll understand this but I can't kiss you or anything. Not that you'd necessarily want to, but I can't. When I try to look at you like that, all I see is what I'm going to put you through. Maybe that doesn't make sense to you.
Anyway, sorry.
Believe it or not, I knew what she was trying to say to me. She wanted to save me the pain of loss. She didn't want to be my Caroline Mathers. I texted back.
Okay.
She texted back.
Okay.
I replied.
Oh, my God, stop flirting with me!
She said:
Okay.
I responded.
I was kidding, Hazel Grace. I understand. (But we both know that 'okay' is a very flirty word. Okay is BURSTING with sensuality.
She responded moments later.
Sorry.
I clicked my phone off and moved off my bed. I gasped. That pain in my hip was back. Something didn't feel right... at all.
"Mom?" I called. She poked her head inside my doorway .
"Can we please go see Dr. Morrison? Now?"
Oh dear here comes the hard part of this story... :/ will update soon! Please comment and review. Thanks!
Okay?
~Wallflower95