Chapter 2: Heading Out

At 8:00 AM the next day, Ricky and Dawn had said their goodbyes, complete with numerous goodbye hugs, to their parents and siblings and had their bags packed for what Ricky proposed would be a roughly 29-hour road trip from Denver to the Florida Everglades. Ricky was seemingly always pre-prepared for anything, a quality which was sometimes to the chagrin of the more fun-loving and spontaneous Dawn.

The siblings would be making the trip in Dawn's white 2018 Chevrolet Traverse. The vehicle was Dawn's pride and joy, what with it being the first major purchase she had ever made with her own money after about 7 straight months of assiduously saving up small portions of her paychecks from Get Sporty, even to the point of bugging Tom and Anne for the money to buy new shoes and equipment for the various high school athletics she was involved in at the time.

"Okay," Ricky said as he hopped up into the Traverse's passenger seat, "So, we'll be taking Interstate Seventy East, and then Interstate Twenty-Two, and finally Interstate Seventy-Five South. We should pass through Kansas City, Missouri, Atlanta, Georgia, and Orlando, Florida before reaching the camp in Alligator Alley."

Dawn, meanwhile, climbed into her driver's seat and put on her seatbelt before turning on the ignition and pulling out of the Harper driveway. "Atlanta, huh?" she inquired to Ricky without taking her eyes off the road.

"Yep," Ricky replied, "You think it's a good idea to crash there before heading through to Florida?"

Dawn sighed. "I don't know yet," she candidly said, "And I know it goes against everything you stand for, but I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves too much on this trip of ours."

The very mention of Atlanta made Dawn think of her longtime boyfriend, Mack Jansen. The young couple had been officially an item since way back in the eighth grade after Dawn very bravely admitted her true feelings to him following a year-long crush.

They remained a couple through all 4 years of high school before deciding to break up not long after graduation. Mack had been accepted to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he planned to study chemical and biomolecular engineering while also playing small forward on their basketball team. Though she put on a brave face for her other friends, parents, and siblings, Dawn was still reeling from their recent split.

"Are you okay?" Ricky asked as he noticed the somber look on his sister's face.

"Fine," Dawn replied with a halfhearted nod, "Turn on the radio, would you please?"

An unconvinced Ricky leaned over and turned on the radio. After briefly flipping through stations, he landed on a public radio station that was apparently beginning its daily weather report.

"This just in from the Florida office of the National Weather Service," a male reporter's voice announced, "a tropical storm advisory has been issued for the most rural parts of Southwestern Florida, as a severe storm system is expected to hit the remote areas of the Florida Everglades in approximately two days' time. Expect two concurrent torrential downpours with strong, gusty winds of approximately sixty to seventy miles per hour."

With that, a now miffed Dawn pulled the vehicle over at the end of their street, turned the radio off and stared daggers into her brother. "Seriously?" she barked, "You're sending us to the Everglades on the heels of a goddamn storm?"

Ricky shrugged his shoulders. "What?" he said, "It's not like I had a crystal ball or anything."

"What did I just say about not getting ahead of ourselves?" Dawn asked.

Ricky sighed deeply in response. "Look," he replied, "This storm's supposed to hit in two days, right? This drive's only going to be about twenty-nine hours, so if we don't make too many unnecessary detours, we should be there just in time to see the camp and find shelter from the storm."

Dawn took about 45 seconds to ponder what Ricky had said. "Alright," she said, "We'll keep on trucking. But, if this ends up going sideways in any way, shape, or form, your ass is mine, Richard." She had only ever previously called Ricky by his birth name when she was angry at him.

Morton's Rest Area
Olathe, Kansas
8 Hours Later

By 4:00 PM, Ricky and Dawn had stopped for gas, dinner, and bathroom breaks at a small family-owned rest area outside Olathe, Kansas, just 30 minutes from Kansas City, Missouri. This vast facility came complete with a gas station, convenience store, and restaurant. Ricky emerged from inside the restaurant carrying a paper takeout bag in each hand, while Dawn shut the gas cap on the Traverse before placing the gas pump nozzle back on its hook.

"It's certainly not McDonald's or Burger King," Ricky bluntly said as he set Dawn's takeout bag on the hood, "But it's going to have to do until we get to the hotel in Kansas City."

Though her brother's very outspoken assessment of the food quality had been less than inviting, Dawn picked the bag up off the hood and peeked inside. She briefly shrugged as she saw what was inside. "Eh," she said, "What the hell. It's better than vending machine junk food. Did you get any drinks?"

Ricky grimaced in retort as his mistake dawned on him. "Oh shoot," he said under his breath, "Sorry. I forgot." He then turned around and caught sight of two soda machines directly across from the gas pumps. "Ah, my dear sister" he continued, "Ask and you shall receive." He pointed to the machines with a cheeky smile.

The siblings made their way over to the machines and mulled over their respective choices. "By the way," Dawn asked as she selected a Pepsi, "Have you heard from Mae before she left for California?"

Mae Valentine was Dawn's best friend since childhood, but she also maintained close friendships with the other Harper quads over the years. Regarding Ricky, this blossomed into a "friends-with-benefits" type of situation during their junior year of high school, with Mae having been the one who took the normally intellectual Ricky's virginity on the night of their Junior Prom. Mae was Ricky's date that night, despite having transferred to a private school a few years before.

Though the two had never made things official as a couple, Ricky and Mae would find time to go on dates and have sex whenever possible, and this arrangement suited the pair just fine until graduation. The two then amicably parted ways when Mae departed for California, where she planned to study atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UCLA.

"No," Ricky replied, "I wanted to give her space to get adjusted to LA without any pressure. Besides, it's not like we were in a conventional 'boyfriend-girlfriend' relationship or anything." He then selected a Mountain Dew from the opposite machine and bent down to grab it from the bottom.

"But you still miss her," Dawn inferred between sips of her Pepsi.

Ricky cracked open his Mountain Dew before nodding as he sipped. "Yeah," he said as he swallowed, "Do you miss Mack?"

Dawn briefly entertained thoughts of Mack once again before nodding herself. "Absolutely," she replied, "I hope you get to find the kind of connection with someone like Mack and I had. It was electric."

Ricky chuckled. "Hey," he said, "You don't have to tell me that, sis. Don't forget who did you a huge solid by keeping Mom and Dad distracted that one night while you and Mack were out in the backyard getting it on up against that tree in full view of our living room windows."

Dawn laughed. "Yeah," she replied, "I do owe you big for that, huh?" She then wrapped her free arm around her brother before Ricky did the same to her.

The siblings returned to the car and had their dinner. "Do you think we'll be able to beat the storm to this camp of yours?" Dawn asked.

Ricky wiped his face with a napkin before giving an unsure shrug in response. "I hope so," he replied, "We'll get some sleep at the hotel in Kansas City, obviously, but we should probably be awake, checked out, and gone no later than eight a.m."

Dawn rolled her eyes, not at all excited to be waking up that early during what was supposed to be a leisurely road trip, but also wholeheartedly knowing that her well-prepared brother was right. She started the ignition, pulled out of the rest area, and headed in the direction of Kansas City, Missouri.