The Road You Can Take

Evelyn only had three bags, which somehow struck Garrett as surprising. Luggage was piled around her feet, and a huge brown purse was slung across her body. She was sipping out of an economy sized plastic container of Arizona Iced Tea when he pulled up to the curve.

She smiled at him when he put the car in park and moved to get out. He shut the door behind him and waved. She held up the bottle in greeting.

“A dollar for thirty-two ounces at the Dollar Tree. I picked up four for the road.” She opened her purse and stuck the bottom of the container in the middle pocket.

Garrett popped the trunk with the function on his key ring and moved to put her bags in the trunk. He was surprised there was enough room, but he only brought his old soccer duffle and a tent he found in the back of the family shed. He vaguely remembered her mention something about camping along the way.

“I also got a huge bag of Costco trail mix. You like trail mix, right? If not, I’ll eat it. I could probably live off of that shit. That, and avocado. When I was in the hospital -,” she caught herself and cut the sentence off abruptly. Garrett watched her carefully for a second, waiting for a blush, or a shaking hand. Some type of gesture that showed she was embarrassed or ashamed. He saw nothing. Instead, she hoisted her bag into the trunk, pushing it all the way back. When all of her bags where in, there was still about a foot and a half left of room. She smiled triumphantly.

“Just enough room for some Target bags.” She smiled. It was six thirty in the morning and she was more energized than he would be after a Red Bull.

“We need to stop at Target?” Garrett asked, slamming the trunk down.

“Yeah, if that’s okay. I have a couple last minute things I need to pick up. I was hoping we could do it in a couple towns over, though. I kind of want to get out of here already.” Evelyn adjusted her bag strap, moving it to another section of her shoulder. Garrett imagined that the thing was heavy.

“Yeah, sure.” He nodded, letting out a breath. He looked around the parking lot. There were a few cars scattered here and there, but other than that, it was empty. Even the early teachers didn’t get here until seven or so.

“So, is that it?” Garrett asked. “Anything else?”

Evelyn shook her head. “Nope, I’m good. I left my mom an e-mail of where to pick up the car, and told her to not get too mad at me. She probably won’t get it until tonight, so we should probably get out of Arizona before then.”

“You left her an e-mail?” Garrett was surprised. Evelyn seemed like the type to leave a letter. A real, hand-written letter, with a neat signature and an addressed envelope.

Evelyn shrugged. “I had a lot to say and I type much faster than I write.” She left it at that, moving to open the passenger’s side door of the car. She swung her bag in first, letting it rest at her feet.

Garrett took one last glance at the lot, at the high school, before walking over and getting in the driver’s side. He closed the door with a firm slam and strapped himself in. This was it, he though. If he wanted to get out of it, he had to do it now. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel any regret for making this decision. In fact, he was kind of looking forward to the weeks ahead.

Besides the fact that his mother was going to be livid (he left his dad the note, because he would understand. He was a spontaneous kid back in the day.) and the band was most likely going to kick him out, it seemed worth it. Maybe it was because she was dying. Or maybe it was because she made him curious. Whatever it was, he made it exciting, and that was somehow worth it.

They were barely out of the parking lot when Evelyn set her humongous bag on her lap and started digging through it. When she withdrew a large stack of homemade mix CDs, he grew hesitant. Yammering he could handle. Snoring he could handle. He could probably also take it if she smelled for a few days or had dirty feet that she set on the dashboard. He couldn’t handle bad music, though. One of the main parts of a road trip was the music.

Garrett started thinking of ways to tell her about the “good music only, must be approved by me” music policy in the car, and wondering how she was going to take it.

“Do you mind?” She asked, reaching forward to press the CD Eject button. Garrett nodded for her to go ahead, mainly because she was polite enough to ask.

Maybe if the music sucked, Garrett thought, he could tell her that his CD player frequently ate homemade CDs.

Garrett heard a harmonica, and some of his fears started to melt. Guitars charmed in, and there were a few seconds of intro before he heard a voice.

The male voice was partly singing, partly talking. It wasn’t bad. It was a little folky for Garrett’s taste, but it still wasn’t bad.

“What is this?” He asked, turning left towards the highway turn off.

Evelyn’s eyes instantly brightened, somehow happy that Garrett was interested.

“It’s 1997!” She was kind of almost bouncing in her seat.

“Nineteen ninety-seven? Like the year?” They were officially on the highway. Somehow, it was then that he finally felt free.

“Yeah, but they’re a band based out of Chicago. Probably my favorite band. I was even on their street team for a while.” She laughed, her eyes lighting up as she recalled the memory. Garrett thought she looked cute right then. He almost asked why she still wasn’t a part of it, but he caught himself. It was kind of hard remembering that she was dying faster than a lot of people.

“Why do you like them so much?” Garrett hadn’t meant the words to come out rude, but they almost had an accusing, disapproving edge. He didn’t mean it, though. They weren’t that bad. Just not necessarily his taste.

She shrugged. She shrugged a lot. “I don’t know. The layering of the voices, maybe? They’re always changing, too. They have a different lead female singer for their next album. They’re just one of those bands.”

He nodded, because he got that. Garrett had those bands. He hoped to one day be in one of those bands.

After that, Evelyn grew silent again. Garrett kept his mind focused on the road, time slowly ticking away. The sun was rising higher in the sky. It was about seven fifteen now, and they had another forty-five minutes to kill before Target was open.

“So where do you want to go first?” Garrett asked, a few minutes later. They could go left, to California, taking the 10 all the way until Coachella, or they could go right, taking the 60. Or, if she really wanted, they could turn around and go north, taking the 101 until Nevada.

“Um, surprise me?” She shrugged. “Right now, I don’t care. I just want to go and get far, far away.”

“Okay.” He said. “We’ll stop at the Target in Phoenix, and then we’ll just go somewhere.”

Evelyn nodded. She didn’t say anything else.

Phoenix was another twenty minutes away. Garrett knew these highways well. Every Christmas, trips were made to Phoenix for the shopping and for the excitement. When he was a kid, it used to be a big deal, but as he grew older, the trips grew less and less frequent, and his excitement shrunk. Now Phoenix was the closest airport to fly out of and the place to go if you needed a Nordstrom.

Time passed quickly. Roads whizzed by. Evelyn’s eyes were glued out the window. Garrett couldn’t really tell what she was thinking about. He didn’t know her well enough. He was hoping that by the end of the trip, he might.

If that was the only thing he got out of this, it would be enough. He just wanted to know her. Would he feel the same way if she wasn’t dying? He didn’t know. It was a question he contemplated almost every night, right before he fell asleep.

The moral thing to say is that no, he was just curious anyway, but he knew that was a lie. Part of her intrigue was her numbered days.

“Is this how it’s going to be the whole trip?”

Evelyn’s question caught Garrett by surprise. They’d barely been in the car for a half an hour.

“What?”

“Are you going to continue to be this quiet? Do I need to buy some road trip games?” Her voice was joking, but he could sense that she actually would buy road trip games.

“I was just letting you think.” He was letting himself think too.

Evelyn shifted in her seat. “I don’t want to think. I just want to live.”

Maybe her words were supposed to be spontaneous and poetic. They sounded like a quote you’d see on some bright photograph on Tumblr, rather than something that a teenage girl said.

But maybe a dying teenage girl was different.

Garrett angered himself when he constantly thought about Evelyn’s death. He didn’t mean to, but it was always hanging around, skirting on the back roads of his mind.

“Okay,” Garrett nodded. “But before you quit thinking all together, we need to establish some stuff.”

Evelyn turned towards him, at full attention. “Like what?” She seemed very interested. He guessed that she just didn’t like silence.

“Back roads or high ways?”

“Both. High ways before a big city, back roads in country towns.”

“Do we stop at every town?”

Evelyn shook her head. “Only the ones with interesting names.”

Garrett looked at her. She explained. “Surprise, Youngtown, Goodyear, places like that. And occasionally places with a cool history.”

“Are we camping?”

“I hadn’t thought about camping. Do you want to? We’d have to buy a tent.”

Garrett shook his head. “I brought a tent. We’ll just have to get everything else. If you want to, I guess.”

Evelyn looked enthusiastic. “Yeah, sure. Camping should be fun.”

“Lastly,” Garrett cleared his throat. “Is there anything specific you want to do? Do you have a list?”

He thought that maybe Evelyn would get offended, but instead, she laughed. “A list?” She giggled. “Holy shit, man, this isn’t A Walk to Remember.”

Garrett shrugged. “Hey, I was just asking.”

“I don’t have a list.” She smiled. “I’m just going to do what I want, if I have the urge, y’know?”

Garrett nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay. We good then?”

“Yeah.”

And they were good. And then, they were gone.