Chapter Nine

“A little to the right…A tiny bit more…There!” Nolan shouted from a distance. 

We stopped in the middle of our drive to take a picture with the a structure of the world’s biggest cowboy boot. It was odd yet intriguing and completely unnecessary, but Nolan insisted we pull over so I could take a picture with it. Something about having a physical memory from our trip.

We were four days into our cross country drive and we’d only made it to the Midwest. Of course stopping from city to city for Nolan’s meetings and our nightly hotel stays were causing us to lag a bit. Sure, I could have been back at my parent’s place already with home cooked meals and a nice warm bed, but I wasn’t complaining. I was right on track with writing my article. I’d even picked up a notebook from a gas station along the way. I needed to write down all my encounters to make sure I had enough juice for this thing.

I felt like Kady Herron every time I wrote a new detail. “On February 23rd Nolan Fletcher stared into my eyes.”

“Got it!” Nolan waved his hand. There was a good fifty feet between us. 

“Great!” I huffed as I did a slow jog over. “Now it’s your turn.” I took the camera from his hands and waited for him to switch spots.

He stared at me questioningly before laughing. “What do I look like? A child?” 

“Very funny.” I rolled my eyes. Nolan was already crossing the road over to the tiny restaurant where we’d parked our car.

The place looked like it was owned by the couple sitting at the hostess booth. They were an older couple. Maybe in their 60’s. “Welcome to Aubrey’s!” The older woman chirped. She was a lot more animated than I was expecting her to be. “Table for two?”

“Yes, please.” I smiled. 

The older gentleman struggled to bounce off his raised chair. He grabbed a couple of menus and guided us, “right this way.” He smiled. “Some privacy for the couple.” He winked.

“Oh, no.” Nolan and I both shook our heads. The old man looked at us with squinted eyes as his smile grew. He nodded and quietly left.

We opened up our menus and with drool filled mouths looked over our options. 

“You said you have a sister, right?”

I looked up from my menu interested in why Nolan was asking such a random question. “Yeah, why?”

His eyes were still glued to the menu. “Nothing. You just haven’t had much communication with anyone.”

Great. Nolan could see right through me. Aside from the occasional text from Celeste I’d only used my lifeline to call my mom. On the other hand Nolan spent most of our driving breaks yapping away on his. Whether it was business or family, at least he had someone to talk to. “Yeah, we aren’t as close as we use to be, I guess.”

He set his menu down and looked at me. “Is it because you moved?”

“No,” I shook my head. “We just grew apart when she got married. Her life is like a perfectly wrapped gift box.” I went back to grazing the menu. I couldn’t decide between a steak and the kid’s meal.

“So you think you’re more of a free spirit than she is?” He was a lot more interested in this conversation than I was. 

“I don’t know if I’m free spirited.” I furrowed my brows as I thought about it.

“You joined in on a road trip with a stranger, didn’t you? I think you have some potential.” 

“Are you free spirited?” 

“Of course I am! It’s why I love to travel.”

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t sound like me, you know? Maybe I’m a Type A…and a half. Almost there, but not really. Law abiding citizen that occasionally breaks the rules.”

Nolan’s eyes narrowed as he looked over my shoulder. His attention was no longer with our conversation. “Wait a second.” He whispered as he lunged out of the booth.

He walked around to the other side of the restaurant and pulled a flyer off the community bulletin board. I watched as a smile crept on his face. He swiftly paced back to the table. “We should do this!” He proclaimed as he slammed the flyer onto the table. 

I picked it up as I read it out loud. “57th Annual Founder’s Day Festival.” Below the title was an outlandish cartoon of old men in southern attire. “Come one come all. Join us as we celebrate the birthday of our beautiful little town. Plenty of food, games, and fun for everyone. Don’t forget your dancing shoes. The couple to stay on the dance for the longest will win a mega prize.”

I laughed as I pushed the paper away, but Nolan’s expression remained serious.

“Wait, you actually want to waste your time with this? You have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning. There’s no way you’re going to make it in time if we stay here all night.”

“Come on.” He pushed the paper back towards me. “Aren’t you curious to see what the prize is? I mean it’s not just a prize according to the flyer it’s a “mega” prize.”

“I don’t know how to dance.”

Nolan sat back in his seat and looked me dead in the eyes. “You don’t know how to dance? Or you don’t know how to have fun?”

I sighed. It wasn’t like I had much of a say. After all Nolan was driving. “I guess I’m a little intrigued.”

“Great!” He smiled. “It starts in a couple of hours in the center of town. Where ever that is.”

After dinner we drove around aimlessly trying to figure out where we needed to go. There weren’t many people out. The streets were dead silent and all the shops along the road were closed. It was eery yet charming at the same time. the quaint architecture of the town almost looked like a movie set. There was no way a place this cute and tiny actually existed. 

“Look!” I pointed to a family crossing the dark street ahead of us. “People!” 

Nolan followed behind them to figure out where they were head. A slight turn in the road and our scenery completely changed. There was a huge park lit so brightly I could only imagine why the rest of the town was dark and shut down. 

Just about everyone was here. It was mostly families, but a crowd of people nonetheless. Nolan and I looked at each other amazed. This almost looked unreal. A giant gazebo was set in the middle of the park. It was as large as a two bedroom home. There were people dancing inside while others stood around socializing. Two large barbecue smokers were off to the side. There was a long line behind it. The sound of laughing children filled the air as they ran weaving in and out of the crowds.

“Shall we?” Nolan asked as he stepped out of the car. I followed behind him. Every person we past in the crowd stopped and looked at us. It was almost as if they knew we weren’t one of them.

“Well, hello!” An energetic voice from behind surprised us. We turned around to find a rather tall looking gentleman. He was skinny with big teeth and an even bigger smile. “I don’t think I’ve seen you two around town. I’m Jesse.” He said as he stuck out his hand.

“Harper.” I smiled and shook his hand.

“Nolan. We were just passing through the city.”

“Oh, what a great night to pass through!” He clapped his hands together in excitement.

“I have to say, I’ve never seen anything like this.” Our eyes looked up at the hundreds of twinkling stringed lights above us.

“We have neighborhood parties like this almost every weekend. We just need any excuse really.” He spoke through the side of his mouth as he held his hand up to his cheek. “If you stay till Saturday we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Day.” He laughed.

Nolan and I watched Jesse with pure joy. He was springing with life and it was almost impossible to look away.

“Clarissa! Clarissa!” He hissed to get her attention. His hand frantically waved. “Come here!”

A young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, came prancing over. She had silky blonde hair and envious long lashes. Her A-line dress hugged her nicely. 

“This is Nolan,” He talked slowly as he introduced us. “And Harper. They were passing through town and decided to stop for the fun.”

She smiled and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Clarissa, Jesse’s wife.” She tugged on Jesse’s arm. “Come on honey bee, the dance is about to start!”

“You two should join us!” We formed a train as Jesse grabbed Nolan’s arm and Nolan grabbed mine. “I heard the prize is the best one yet!”

We stood in the gazebo and watched as an older man explained the rules. No leaving the dance floor and no stopping. Simple, I thought.

There were about thirty other couples participating. Jesse, Clarissa, Nolan and I all wished each other luck and began. 

The first hour was the easiest. The music was fast paced and Nolan and I certainly had enough energy from all the excitement to keep up. 

The second hour things slowed down, including the music. My spastic dance moves were no longer useable. 

“You weren’t kidding when you said you couldn’t dance.” Nolan joked.

As time went by we lost a few couples and were down to eighteen. Clarissa and Jesse were still in the running.

It wasn’t until the third hour when things were getting a little uncomfortable. The music died down with each couple that bowed out. There were only three of us left. We slowly waddled around as a crowded gazebo full of people watched. 

That’s when I remembered my next question. I cleared my throat to get Nolan’s attention. Ironically as close as we were standing he was looking around at everyone else. “What do you think a perfect day would be?” 

There was silence as we let the music sway our bodies.

“I’d say this was a pretty perfect day, don’t you?”

I laughed and nodded. “I guess you were right.” I lifted his hand and spun beneath it. “Maybe I do have the potential to be a free spirit.”

“I can’t, Jesse, I can’t do this any more. My legs are jello!” Nolan and I looked over to see Clarissa and Jesse forfeiting the competition. 

We were one couple away from actually winning. The last couple looked like they were holding strong, but it was just a matter of time. 

“Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?” Nolan whispered so quietly that even standing so close to him I just barely heard him.

I looked in the distance to see what Nolan was talking about. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I looked up to see his eyes on me. I fell silent as I was caught by surprise. Nolan quickly looked away.

I felt an arm pat me on the shoulder. “Congratulations! You won!” 

We looked over and notice that we were the only two left on the dance floor.

“Here’s your prize!” The old gentleman from earlier handed us a couple of baked pies. “Two baked pies from Anna’s Bake Shop!”