Énouement: Chapter 2

     The sound of tires against gravel alerted me to the fact that we were pulling over, but my body physically wouldn't move or wake up and I figured why fight against that?  I could hear the clinking of gas pumps and whatever is on the current Top 40 softly playing over the outside speakers. Several minutes passed before the noise and odd sense that someone was going to just steal the car and I didn't want to be in it when it happened were enough to wake me up and get my body moving outside the car.

      Joints popped and cracked at a seemingly unholy rate across my body. As comfortable as the car was apparently that sleeping position isn't the best. I glanced around with no idea in hell where we were, I didn't do much travelling which wasn't an asset to my navigational skills, but there were also no discerning markings in the middle of Where-ever-the-hell-we-are, USA. Standing outside trying to discern our location was pointless and thus began the begrudging walk inside, hands shoved deeply into my zip-up's pockets.

      A nice breeze was enough to tousle my hair, requiring manual repair as I hunted down Sam. Upon finding him I lazily ran my chest into the side of his body like a drunk ram trying to fight a wall. As much harm as it might bring to us, after I straightened back up and stared down the side of his face, the interrogation had to begin.

     "Well we are a good," a quick pause to check my watch, "Six hours into...whatever the hell it is we are doing, so that begs the question. What the hell are we doing?"

      "Adventuring..." his response was non-nonchalant with a tinge of terseness as he moved down the aisle searching for his breakfast.

       "Mate, don't bullshit me. No one wakes up their friend who lives across campus at 2 AM on a lark." I continued after him, but only got a shrug in response.

        The silence continued for a moment before I saw Sam reaching for a breakfast burrito, "Put that down!" I slapped his wrist giving him the scolding look of a mother, "If I allowed you to eat that it would be a greater offense than you pulling this stunt on me."

        He looked like a puppy getting yelled at and reluctantly moved over to grab a cereal bar, looking in my direction for approval. I gave it begrudgingly. Answers had yet to come, but I just followed him as I grabbed a few things for myself. It was hard to find anything particularly fulfilling for a gas station breakfast, but we made do and were soon enough back on our way.

        I leaned the seat back again and hung my feet outside the window. Wherever we were it was beautiful: blue skies passed against green trees creating a harsh line dividing the earth and sky. It was thousands of miles from my home, Australia not Pennsylvania, yet I was reminded slightly of it. Of course, it's a lot greener out here, but something about the air smelled familiar. It's hard to describe the feeling. Sam didn't seem to be taking it in as well as I was though, still white-knuckled and staring forward,

        I wanted to let the silence linger for awhile hoping that maybe he'd be the first to break and begin pouring out all the details of this trip and finally tell me why we had departed. It might not be such a big secret, but I am of a much weaker will than Sam and he won out. Silence is not my friend and I felt the need to break it, however, it was also useless to try and make small talk. Ingenuity would be key to crack this egg, I'd need help.

       If words wouldn't work, music might. Reaching back, I grabbed the guitar and took a few moments to tune it, all the while looking over at Sam with a smug grin on my face. I went with If It Means A Lot To You by A Day To Remember, a favorite of his, and a few strums in I thought Sam might just join in right then and save me the work. When that failed, in the hopes of comedy, I tried singing the female vocalist's part in a higher voice.

And hey sweetie, 

Well I need you here tonight, 

And I know that you don't wanna be leaving me

Yeah, you want it, but I can't help it. 

I just feel complete when you're by my side, 

But I know you can't come home till they're singing

        Instead of joining in with the traditional 'La, la la la, la la la' refrain Sam remained quiet, with teeth clenched. It almost looked like he was about to shatter them from sheer pressure. The strumming slowly died down as the realization came that he wasn't going to join in. A decrease in strumming seemed to match up with a decrease in teeth clenching.

        "Sam..." I began slowly, "Why are we making this road trip?"

        "Because," there was only a small pause between the start and follow-up of his answer but it felt like an eternity, "I just need some answers."

         Don't we all....I let the thought trail off in my head as I looked out the window. There would be no follow-up to any other questions, but there's been some progress. It's a small victory, but one I'll have to take for now.