The Bridge

They had been on the road for 2 hours. Natalia had stopped paying attention to where they were going and had been staring out of the window. She regretted leaving her parents but she didn’t regret going with Matt. She closed her eyes just thinking how worried they were going to be. She wished she had seen them one last time or had told them where she was going so they wouldn’t worry, at least not too much.

“Regret your decision?” Matt asked. Natalia jumped not expecting him to say anything. She had been so consumed in her thoughts she had forgotten where she was for a moment. She looked over at him and sighed.

“I regret making my family worry about me, but I don’t regret leaving with you." She looked out of the window. "But now I’m more worried about where you’re taking me.” She didn’t recognize where they were. It was too dark to see much of where they were besides trees lining the sides of the highway which were only illuminated by the headlights of the car. There was no one else on the road except for the two of them. He glanced over and smiled at her.

“We’ll be there soon enough.” He said. She rolled her eyes at him and stared out of the window. 20 minutes later he turned off the highway and headed to a heavily wooded area. She was still confused until his headlights lit up a familiar house. She hadn’t been there since they were teenagers but it hadn’t changed during the years. Even without the porch light to welcome them there it still looked like the same house and brought back so many memories for her. This is the house that the two of them had grown up in. They would come here every summer and every break. Even weekends to give their parents a break, especially when they were teenagers. They had walked in these woods thousands of times and knew them like the back of their hands. They had learned most everything they knew at this house.

“Your grandfathers house? Why are we here? I thought your aunt sold it?” Natalia asked him, she had so many more questions running through her head.

The house was a quaint ranch style house and surrounded by woods with neighbors a half mile on either side. Matts grandfather loved being surrounded by nature and bought the land to be close to it. His grandfather would always take them for walks in the woods and teach them about different plants and tell them stories from when he was younger. There was always a lesson to be learned with each story he had told. Matt pulled into the garage, closed it and turned off his car and sat there. He ignored her questions and turned around to grab some of the things from the back seat.

“You might want to go in and change first, I promise to explain everything later.” He handed a pile of clothes to her and she got out of the car slowly and waited for him. He grabbed the rest of the stuff from the back seat and got out. He came around the car and led her inside, she followed behind him. He turned on lights and pointed off to the right.

“The bathroom is still down the hall, go ahead and freshen up. I don’t know when the next time we’ll get to be all nice and clean.” Natalia walked down the hall to the bathroom. She walked in and closed the door. She leaned against the door and took a moment to make sure she wanted to help him with this. She couldn’t back out; she knew he needed her. When she decided that she was ready, she turned on the shower and stripped down. She waited for the water to warm up and stepped in. After 30 minutes of washing and making sure she was extra clean she got out and put on the clothes she had been given. She pulled on the skinny dark green cargo pants that had pockets all along them and a black tank top. She grabbed the lace up boots and jacket and carried them out of the bathroom with her. Natalia walked into the kitchen to see Matt packing food into the backpacks. Natalia was perplexed to how it all fit but she decided to save the questions she had for later.

“Alright, I’m ready. What are we doing? Where are we going? What’s go-” Matt cut her off.

“We're staying here for until the sun comes up then we’ll go out. Where we need to go is close to here. But until then you might want to get some rest. I’ll explain everything when we go, I promise.” He says with a tired sigh.

“Ok” Natalia said dejected. She turned around and walked into the living room and found some pillows and blankets on both sofas for them to rest on. She picked the smaller sofa, set her stuff on the floor next to it and made herself comfortable. She rolled onto her side so her back was towards him and closed her eyes. She heard him zip up the bags and turn off the lights in the kitchen. He walked toward the sofa and set the backpacks on the ground by them and got comfortable on the larger sofa. After a few moments, she heard him start to snore softly she smiled to herself and shook her head. Same old Matt, always falling asleep within minutes. She relaxed and felt herself start to drift off.