Chapter Two

Maybe driving cross-country in my current state wasn't such a great idea. I knew the road in front of me was empty, so my eyes couldn't help wander to the enormous hills in the distance. A thin layer of fog gave them a beautiful hazy blue shade. It was only when I drove closer that their natural brown color revealed itself. I sighed a slow pathetic sigh.

A million things were rushing through my mind. When I finally came to terms with moving back home, I didn't realize it would be this hard. I was so fed up with overdue bills and my failure to tie down a job that I couldn't have been more ready to make the trek home. But, something had happened. Celeste. Celeste happened. Damn her! Every other song on the radio clouded my eyes with tears as I thought about my best friend that I was leaving behind. Was I really making the right choice?

Of course Celeste supported my decision, but she thought I could have stuck it out a little longer. She didn't understand though. As determined as I was, I wasn't like her. I couldn't just wiggle my way into any situation. I mean, maybe I could have taken any odd job, but I didn't spend thousands of dollars in loans to attend the college of my dreams just so I could be a barrister. I knew the right job was out there for me somewhere. It just wasn't in Los Angeles as I'd originally hoped.

My eyes jolted back to the road when a Mercedes whizzed past my car. There was a faint sound of the driver's angry curses. I threw up my hands, as if he could still see me. There wasn't much I could do about my slow speed. My car was over ten years old and filled to maximum capacity. It was dangerous enough that I was even on the highway.

I rolled my eyes and continued staring at the scenery around me. Of course the East Coast had it's own beauty, but nothing could compare to these California hills.

Ka-thunk.

My car shook in mid drive. I gripped both hands onto the steering wheel. What was that? My eyes instinctively darted to the gas meter. Of course I still had gas, I just filled up before leaving L.A. There was no way I could be out so quickly. Maybe I ran over something on the road? I looked in the rear-view mirror, but there was traffic coming up behind me so I couldn't tell. That must have been it. I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

A few seconds of honking cars and trucks zoomed past me before I was left on an empty road again.

I vigorously cranked the handle to lower my window. My arm rested on the sill as the muggy air drenched my face. I reached for a hair tie sitting in the console and tied my hair into a messy bun. I might as well look the part.

I shouldn't have stayed at Celeste's as long as I did. I could already see the sun getting ready for it's descent in my side view mirror. I had planned to be a hundred miles further than I actually was. My calculations were all wrong and now I didn't know where I would be staying for the night. As I picked up my cell phone to Google nearby hotels an incoming call popped up on my screen.

I hesitated to answer the phone. “Hey Liz.”

“Hey Harp!” My little sister, Elizabeth, immediately chirped back. “What's going on?” She asked suspiciously.

I hadn't exactly told her about my move back home. I'd already gone through enough. I couldn't bear to sit here and listen to one of her lectures. I mean the nerve she had to scold me when I was clearly the older one.

Elizabeth was more of the cookie cutter daughter that any parent would pray to have. She aced all her classes, went to a great college and graduated with a combined Bachelors and Masters. I mean, who does that? Anyway, she landed her dream job and shortly after settled down with her dream guy. To say she has a picture perfect life would be an understatement.

“Nothing...What are you up to?” I tried to divert the conversation.

“Oh nothing...” Her voice sounded annoyed, “Just wondering why you didn't tell me that you're moving back home?”

I grunted for a good five seconds. “Mom! I can't believe she told you!”

“What I can't believe, Harper, is that you told mom and not me!” She was talking in a low and firm voice. Mark, her husband, must have been home from work.

“Can you blame me Liz? Let me guess, you're calling me to tell me how much time I've wasted out in L.A, right?” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. God, I wish she could see how annoyed I was.

I heard her inhale a deep breath and sigh. “Harper, you're my sister. I just want the best for you. I want you to be able to support yourself, get married, and live a happy rest of your life.”

“Liz...”

“I don't want you to be worried about where your next pay check is going to come from.”

“Liz...”

“Look, I even found a class you could take. It's a community college course, but I know a few people who know a few people that have taken it and had success finding a stable job.”

“LIZ!” I finally had enough. “This is exactly why I didn't tell you, okay? I've had the shittiest last few days, I'm having to pack up my life and move back home to my parent's house, and I'm driving at least 30 miles slower than everyone else because my car is a piece of junk. So please, please for the love of God spare me this one time!”

For the first time Elizabeth was silent. She wasn't always like this, the nagging I mean. We were inseparable at first. Even when she was the cheerleader in high school and I was the nerd hiding out in the journalism lab. Even when she was invited to all the cool kid parties and she had to drag me along because our parents wouldn't let her go out alone. Somewhere in between her graduating college and landing a job with pretty figures and me still broke and looking for work she became an annoying concerned mother.

“You know, Mark and I could have come out there to help you move back. I'm worried that you're still driving that thing.”

I sighed when I realized by Elizabeth's tone that she had given up on her reproach. “I know, I know. I just needed the time alone I guess.”

“When do you think you'll get here?”

I watched as another set of cars raced past me. “To be honest it might take me a month driving this thing.”

We both laughed.

Ka-thunk!

The car jolted forward again. My eyes widened as I gasped loudly.

“Harper?! Is everything okay?” Elizabeth's voice grew louder

“Yeah, yeah!” I lied. “I almost hit a squirrel.”

“Really? There's squirrels in the middle of the desert?”

Shit, I thought to myself. “Maybe it was an armadillo...”

“Are you sure? That's quiet a bit of a size difference Harper.”

“Oh, hey, I gotta go. I'm getting another call!” I lied again.

“What? Uh, okay. Drive safe and don't push your limits with that car! Make sure you get a hotel before sundown and call Mark or me if you need anything...like money or anything. We can always wire it to you. Okay?”

“Okay, okay! Bye!”

Ka-thunk! Ka-thunk!

My car was starting to slow down. Please don't die, please don't die! I whispered to myself. I banged my hand against the steering wheel in desperation. To my surprise it worked! The odometer began picking up speed even going faster than I originally was. I clapped my hands in excitement. For once something went right.

I made it past two stinking exits without any luck of finding a hotel sign. There had to be something. A tiny sliver of the sun was still showing and if I didn't find a place – Oh no...No! No! No! No! No!

The lights on my dashboard shut off as my car declined in speed. I shook my steering wheel. Nothing. I gave it a couple of good punches. Nada.

That's when all the tears I'd been holding back the last few days finally exploded all over my face. It wasn't a normal sob, it was more of a violent-screaming cry. The kind where you almost instantly get a leaking nose with snot hanging out, but you could care less because you're experiencing one of the worst cries on the cry meter.

“Why! Why did this have to happen to me?” I shouted. “Haven't I been through enough?” I stared up at the sky. The sun had already set and night fallen. I had never been out of the city to see such a sight. The sky looked so beautiful filled with layers upon layers of stars, but even that couldn't distract me. I felt so alone and scared.

I punched my steering wheel again, this time with anger. The car shook and I thought by some miracle it had turned on again, but then I realized it was just another car passing me by at a totally unacceptable speed.

I looked out of my window and saw nothing. It was so dark outside and there wasn't even a single street light. I shivered wondering what could have been out there. I picked up my phone and went back to my attempt of Googling a place to stay.

“Okay Harper, woman up!” I whispered. “You can do this. You made it this far in the shit-show. You can totally do this.” I stared at my phone waiting for the screen to refresh. A few seconds had passed. Come on. An error message popped up: No Service.

I wanted to throw my phone out of the car. How can the Taliban send videos from a cave in God knows what country and I couldn't get service at the California border?

I tossed my phone to the ground and exhaled. My hand wiggled down between my seat and pulled the recliner lever up. I pushed my back to move the seat, but it didn't move. When I turned around I realized the junk in the backseat wouldn't even allow me to move an inch. I pulled the lever and repeatedly slammed the seat until it fought back and hit me in the face.

This was how I was going to die. I just knew it. The article practically wrote itself. It would be titled, “Hoarder Found At Border.” and it would read, “A woman was found cuddled up in the driver seat of a broken down Civic near the California border. Her car seemed to be filled with literary work holding on to it's binding by a single thread. Eye-witnesses claim they saw her violently beating her steering wheel and smearing a mixture of nostril fluid and mascara over her face. Investigators are still shuffling through the endless pile of her belongings to locate her ID. They have reported her as a young woman that could possibly be in her late forties by the deep bags under her eyes.”

How ironic. I spent my whole life trying to get my name published and yet a story would be written about the unfortunate events of my death. I smiled to myself. At least I could finally be recognized for something.

Maybe it was the hypnosis of the dark zen sky, or maybe it was just my body giving up, but slowly I felt my eyes drifting as my breathing slowed down into a slumber.

*** *** ***

“Hello?”

I gasped for air when a pounding shook my car.

“Hello? Are you alive?” I heard the deep voice again. “Hello?”

I rubbed my eyes and looked out of my window. There standing in front of me was a tall man with a nervous look on his face. His piercing blue eyes hidden under his tensed brows radiated in the moonlight. His lips were moving, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I was too busy wiping the drool off of my face.

Did I actually die and go to heaven?