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Amelie scooted over in her seat until she was so close he could smell the jasmine in her hair. Oddly enough, it smelled of jasmine, and not vomit as he would’ve thought. “All right… I called Camp Hope and pretended to be my mom. I told them I picked Amelie up… and by that I meant me, last night… because she… or I… whatever… you get what I mean, right… was sick. I said that Amelie called from a pay phone crying, and I just took her not bothering to check her out because, for one, I was worried and two, because all of the lights in the counselors office were off. And guess what, Jack? After giving me… who they of course thought was my mom… a very stern lecture about safety, and the importance of following procedure… they bought it. They freaking bought it! I’m free! We’re free!” Amelie was grinning from here to ear. She was apparently so pleased with herself that she practically hurled herself into his lap. Her enthusiasm was so contagious that, for a brief second, Jack forgot to be mad. She studied his face, leaned up, and kissed him. On the mouth this time. And then, for reasons even he couldn’t explain, all of sudden Jack forgot he was supposed to be mad at all.
SIX
Jack drove to a campground that a gas station attendant had said was located on the outskirts of town. “What we need is… sleep. And showers,” he remarked as he pulled in.
“Definitely showers.” Amelie smiled. It wasn’t a bad place to stay. But it wasn’t great, either. Jack parked the car and shuffled through his backpack. “Wait here,” he ordered before disappearing inside a building clearly marked “Business Office.”
Amelie opened the door, walked around to the rear of the car, and surveyed her surroundings. She stretched, undid her hair, brushed her fingers through it, and retied her ponytail. She rubbed her eyes. The day was wicked hot, the heat seemingly endless, and there didn’t seem to be a breeze in sight. Jack emerged from the office, frowned when he noticed she wasn’t in the passenger seat, and tossed a set of keys in her direction. She caught them mid-air. “Get in.” He motioned to the door. “We’re in number nine.”
Amelie climbed back in the car and pulled her shirt over her head. It was just too damned hot. She shut her eyes and hung her head out the window as they made their way down the endless gravel road letting the warm air rush across her face. “There it is.” Jack said, interrupting her reverie. She opened her eyes to see that he was pointing at a small travel trailer. “Our place for the night.”
Her eyes lit up. “Whoa. That’s awesome. I’ve never stayed in a camper before...”
Jack shook his head. “I guess there’s a first time for everything, kid.”
Amelie fumbled with the keys and unlocked the door as Jack hauled their things from the car. Inside, she proceeded to open every nook and cranny within the tiny space. “This place is so cool. There’s like… everything a person could possibly need in here.” You would’ve thought she was visiting the Taj Mahal and not some shithole campground, Jack thought. This would be the thing Jack would remember about Amelie for the rest of his life. No matter where she was, she always made it seem as though it were the grandest place on earth. When he was with her, she had a certain effect on him that made him question whether or not it might be true. This must be as good as it gets, he’d shake his head and think. For the rest of his life, he never met another person who made him believe that more than she did.
Jack sank backward onto the tiny sofa and tried to tune her out as she rambled on. “Amelie, I have to head back to Dallas in a few days, at minimum. So I need you to consider what your plans will be when the time comes, all right?”
Amelie turned and looked at him nonchalantly. “All right.”
“In the meantime, I need to get some sleep. You should do the same. I plan to head out pretty early tomorrow.”
She opened and closed another drawer. “It’ll be like a real road trip!” she exclaimed a little too enthusiastically. “Where to…?”
“Where is it you want to go? You know… with all of your ‘freedom,’” Jack said as sarcastically as he could manage.
Amelie considered the question for a moment. “I don’t know,” she said and smiled. There it was—that smile again. Her smile faded just a little, and then she shrugged. “I was thinking… somewhere with you.”
When Jack woke in the dark, it took him a few seconds to remember where he was. He squinted as he checked his watch, but in the pitch black of the camper, it was too dark to read the time. He pushed himself up and felt his way to the tiny bathroom. He flicked the light switch. Damn. Too much. He flicked it back off.
He fumbled around the camper a bit, and with no sign of her anywhere, he made his way to the door in search of Amelie. Except for the stars, he found that it was nearly pitch black outside, too. He stepped out onto the steps and stretched, allowing his eyes to adjust.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” he heard her voice say. Jack turned his head in search of it. “Over here. To your right. In the hammock.” Jack walked in the direction of her voice until he touched the side of the hammock. “Can you believe these stars?” she whispered. She patted the space next to her and scooted over. Jack hesitated, so she reached for his hand. “Here. Get in.”
He climbed in next to her, trying not to touch her body to his. He adjusted his position several times trying to get comfortable before finally ending up on his back, his hands resting behind his head. “Doesn’t it all just make you feel so small, Jack?” He didn’t answer. She didn’t give him time. “This, I mean.” she continued, motioning upward at the sky. “It’s hard to believe we’re just these two tiny specs in the entire universe. It’s kind of crazy when you think of it that way, isn’t it? Sometimes it seems like our problems are colossal and then… this… and you realize that in the grand scheme of things… maybe they’re nothing at all.”
“Hey. You think I can get that on a pillow somewhere?”
She punched his arm. “Geez. Why do you always have to be so serious? What is it with you? Really… Would it kill you to indulge me just once?”
He laughed. “Maybe. But isn’t that what we’re doing here, anyway? Indulging you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Good one, Jack. You should try stand up comedy sometime.” She let out a long sigh. “Anyway, while you were crashed out, I went for food. I left you a sandwich in the fridge. Did you see it?”
There were so many things Jack wanted to say in that moment, things that he couldn’t quite spit out. If his father weren’t right about him, then these were the things Jack might’ve said: He would’ve told her that he hadn’t seen the sandwich because getting to wherever it was she was at, was all he could think about. He would’ve thanked her for this, for being here, for everything. He would’ve told her that she was the first person he could recall in a very long time that made him feel wanted. He didn’t say any of those things though. Instead, he pushed himself up, threw his legs over the side, and ran toward the safety of the camper. “Food? Did you say we have food?” he called back.
Inside the camper, Jack literally stuffed himself on all of the junk Amelie purchased. Junk, by the way, that he never would’ve eaten had he not been so hungry. His father always said ‘you are what you eat.’ Since he’d already consumed a candy bar the night before, this would have to be his last indulgence, he warned himself. Satisfied with his resolution and determination, he popped the tabs on two coke cans and made his way back out to the hammock. He found Amelie sitting up this time, her legs swinging back and forth over the side of the hammock. Jack could almost recognize the little girl in her, the little girl he’d met that first summer. Although hardly a little girl now, he knew she was still in there somewhere. He handed her one of the cokes and plopped down beside her. “You know, Jack…” She started and stopped, before starting again. “I’ve been thinking…”
“Oh, shit.” Jack chuckled interrupting her. “You? Thinking? That’s pretty much guaranteed trouble.”
Amelie frowned and then bit her lip. She straightened and shifted to face him. “Are you going to let me finish or not?”
He chugged his coke. “Finish.”
“So… I’ve given this a lot of thought. And… I think you and I should just have sex and get it over with.”
