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Dean handed me the map and backed the car out. “And now we just have to figure out how to get there.”
He said it like it was going to be so easy.
I knew it was going to be anything but.
One thing was for sure, though, it was going to be an adventure.
Our adventure.
Dean
We stopped for the night in a small town in North Carolina.
So far our trip had been pretty uneventful.
Most of the towns we passed through shouldn’t even really be considered a town. I was positive the number of cows surpassed those of the people.
We stopped a few times and explored a few of the places, but never lingered long.
The most exciting thing we found was an abandoned building with a dragon sculpture out front. Willow took endless pictures of it and then tossed her camera at me and proceeded to climb up the dragon to sit on its back. She’d then tossed her hands in the air and ordered me to take a picture of her.
Once we got back on the road we speculated about the dragon—why it was there, who had made it, and why it ended up abandoned.
When we crossed the line into North Carolina shortly after, Willow made me stop once again. This time so she could have a picture of herself standing in front of the state sign. She’d even dragged me into one of the photos. I pretended to be irritated, but I was secretly happy that she was so intent on documenting everything—even scribbling in her notebook all the time. Any time I tried to get a peek she slapped it closed and glared at me.
The sun was just beginning to set when we pulled into the motel.
It wasn’t the nicest place in the world, but it would do.
I grabbed our bags and my guitar and headed into the small office to check-in.
Willow had her backpack slung over her shoulder and her baseball cap on backwards. She’d grown tired of her hair whipping against her face and put the hat on to help.
“How many rooms?” The bored receptionist asked.
I turned to Willow, not sure what she’d want to do.
“Would you mind sharing?” She asked.
I shook my head. I’d rather share. If she was in another room I’d worry endlessly about what she was up to—because Willow could get into all kinds of trouble if released into the world alone. This way I’d know she was safe and not up to no good.
“One room, two beds,” I told the receptionist.
“I need a credit card and ID.” Her voice was monotone—about as dead as her personality.
I handed it over and she sighed heavily, like it was such an effort to enter our information into the computer and give us our room key.
After we had our key we headed out to our room.
We entered from the outside and I was glad we’d been given a room on the lower level near the car.
I slid the keycard in and held the door open for Willow to enter first.
She hurried inside and collapsed on the bed, her limbs spread out like a starfish.
I couldn’t help but laugh at her as I set our stuff down.
“Tired?” I asked her.
