Journey to the Unknown

by Jacqueline Francis

  “Oh, yeah,” she said sheepishly. “Safety first. For a moment I thought you were coming on to me.”

  Like that would ever happen. “Highly unlikely.”

  She turned left onto the road and went straight through the first traffic light.

  Kevin quickly glanced back. “Hey, aren’t we supposed to be taking the I-90 East?”

  “I-90 West.”

  He was almost positive Brady said I-90 East. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. That’s what my GPS said before I lost satellite reception.”

  They stopped at the second traffic light and as if to rub it in his face, the GPS dinged. “Turn left.”

  “Well, thank you, GPS. Thank you for finally doing the only thing you were designed to do,” Jasmin said and then gave him a smug smile. “See? I-90 West.”

  Kevin rolled his eyes and turned to look out of the window, not really wanting to talk to her anymore. Yet even though he was facing the other way and his arms were crossed over his chest, she didn’t take the hint that he wanted to be left alone.

  “So how come you’re not in college? Aren’t American semesters running right now?”

  Explaining why he wasn’t in college would inevitably lead to Perry and it was none of her business. “Off limits,” he replied, still looking out the window.

  “Okay. Why are you going to Florida?”

  “Off limits.”

  “Ooh! The strong, silent type. So mysterious. You must be Scorpio.”

  He groaned inwardly. Another person with a star-sign obsession. His mother was the same and he hated it.

  “I’m a Virgo.”

  For a brief second, he thought there might actually be some truth to star signs. His brother, Shane, was a Virgo and he also didn’t know when to shut the hell up.

  She cleared her throat like she was getting ready to tell a really long story. “Okay, I’ll start then. It will be like a trust exercise. Once you see that I’m willing to share my secrets, you might be more inclined to share yours, so I’m going to tell you why I’m going to Georgia.”

  “I didn’t ask and…I don’t care.”

  She ignored him and carried on. “I’m going to meet my mother…for the first time. I don’t really know anything about her, because my dad doesn’t like talking about her and he gets really defensive when I bring her up. I don’t even have a picture of her. My aunt is the only one who ever spoke to me about her. She said my mom left my dad and me, but in actual fact we left her. We moved to another country. So…I want to meet her and…maybe find out what really happened. Maybe she didn’t abandon me at all and we can put the past behind us and build a relationship. The only real mother figure I’ve ever had was my gran. I mean, I’ve had lots of nannies, but none of them ever stayed longer than a few months. My dad’s hardly around and I think a lot of them left because having a twenty-four-seven job hampered their social lives. So, yeah, it was just my gran. She used to live with my cousins, but I still saw her all the time. She died last year and I guess I’m just…I’m just yearning for that motherly type of love.”

  Kevin let out a loaded breath. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but…I still don’t care.”

  Somehow she still didn’t get the hint and on and on she went.

  First hour: Jasmin talking about her entire childhood, recalling every detail of her upbringing in South Africa. After discovering the root of her thick, muddled accent, nothing else she said really mattered, but she didn’t stop. No. She told him all about her home-schooling and her escorted trips to the mall. She told him that she never really had any friends and she still didn’t, except for Rachel. She spoke about the two years she’d gone to a traditional school and how it was the best two years of her life.

  Second hour: Jasmin talking about every single person she knew. It shouldn’t have taken long. She only knew about eight people, but she still didn’t let up. For someone who had such a sheltered life with such limited life experiences, she certainly had a fuck load to say about all of it. He heard so much about Prenisha and Pratisksha and Rachel and Jitesh he felt like he knew them. And he didn’t want to know them!

  “Do. You. Ever. Stop. Talking?” Kevin said, hitting his head on the window with every word as an attempt to numb his brain to the sound of her voice.

  “When I sleep,” she responded. “Though, Nish has told me that I talk in my sleep, so that may not be entirely true.”

  Right now he’d rather have an elephant fucking him in the ear than listen to her for one more second. A big, ol’ elephant dick trying to squeeze into his tiny ear canal…Yeah, that seemed less painful. He tried using the outside landscape as a distraction, but all he saw was the great openness of Montana. Just trees and land and more trees and more land. Nothing riveting enough to keep his interest. She was like a goddamn mosquito. No matter how many times you fan it away, it’s always just there, zinging annoyingly in your ear until eventually you just want to smash it! But you can’t, because then you’d have to find another way of getting to Georgia.

  Third hour: Jasmin talking about Rachel’s party, the only party she’d ever been to. This one got her really excited, because she’d tricked her nanny and snuck out of the house to go to it. What a rebel. Half an hour into the story and she was still explaining what she’d decided to wear.

  “So generally, as you can see, I’m a track pants and T-shirts kinda girl. I don’t like wearing dresses. They don’t suit me, because I’m built like an ostrich. You know, skinny at the top, skinny at the bottom, but gigantically huge in the middle. But this dress looked surprisingly good on me. And I had makeup and heels and everything. I’m not a pretty girl, but that night I kinda pulled it off. So we get there and as soon as we walk in, this guy shoves a drink in my hand. It smelled awful and I guess a part of me wanted to try it, but if my dad found out that I drank alcohol, he’d kill me, so I just left it in the kitchen, and do you know that if I were a guy, I’d have a super huge penis?”

  Kevin’s head snapped sideways so fast, he felt like he sprained his neck. “What?”

  “Just checking to make sure you were listening.”

  “Fucking crazy,” he muttered to himself.

  “Anyway, as I was saying, I walked outside to the patio and everyone was dancing and I was there, you know, getting my groove on and this guy comes up to me and asks me to dance. He was so cute, so I knew it had to be some kind of prank. There were some girls in my class and they always used to play these silly pranks on me. Like this one time, they were leaving these cute little love notes on my desk each morning and they signed it from this guy, Dylan, who was uber-hot. And then they told me to speak to him and tell him that I liked him too. I worked up my courage and did just that and well…you can guess how that ended. So I assumed this was just another prank, but I went along with it. We danced and we spoke for hours and that’s when I knew for sure. I mean, the few people I do know don’t really like being around me for too long.”

  “I can’t imagine why,” Kevin said with fake shock.

  “But then he went overboard and started telling me how pretty I am. He said I look like Priyanka Chopra. He could have at least come up with something believable. I was just like pfffft! Whatever. I’m not that dumb. And then all of a sudden, he tries to kiss me. I had to shove him off me.” She snorted her irritation. “I mean, I know he wasn’t interested in me. It’s just disgusting how far some kids will go to make a fool out of someone.”

  Kevin looked over at her then. This girl had issues. She was just a walking basket of issues and insecurities. In the three hours they’d been driving, he’d picked up at least…ninety. It actually sounded like the guy who’d tried to kiss her was very interested in her, she just refused to believe it. She wasn’t seeking pity or wallowing in low self-esteem. She genuinely and absolutely had no sense of self. She’d been locked away from the world for too long.

  He didn’t spend too much time analyzing it, because…well, he didn’t care. He had his own shit to deal with. />
  They were in West Yellowstone now and he reset the GPS to look up the B&B they had selected to stay in for the night. It was almost five. She’d told him that she didn’t want to drive at night and considering his recent experience on dark roads, he hadn’t argued. They had looked up classy three-star and low-priced four-star motels and B&B’s to suit his budget, and as they pulled into the parking lot, he concluded that they’d chosen well.

  Kevin carried his bags and two of hers inside and stopped at the reception desk. It looked like a home that was converted into a business. It had a cozy cabin sort of vibe, wooden floors and a rock-faced fireplace. It was owned by an elderly couple and a woman who looked to be in her early seventies, greeted them at the desk with a warm smile. “Good evening.”

  “Hi. Kevin Shepard. We called earlier.”

  She seemed startled by him for a few moments. Again, he blamed it on the beard. He really needed to shave.

  “Ah, yes. Two single rooms?”

  “Yes.”

  They got their keys and paid, and Kevin started feeling antsy. All he wanted was to go to his room and have some peace and quiet in his own personal space.

  “Dinner is at six-thirty,” the old lady said, handing them their keys. “Breakfast is at seven tomorrow morning. It’s a limited menu, so I hope you’re not fussy.”

  Jasmin smiled. “Not at all.”

  Kevin picked up four out of the five bags again and headed down the narrow, carpeted hallway to the rooms. He left her bags outside her room and quickly opened the door to his. It was small, but quaint. A clean bathroom. A single bed with crisp white sheets. He didn’t need anything more. He was just about to shut the door when he heard her voice behind him.

  “Hey, Kevin, you wanna have dinner together?”

  The tips for hitchhiking said that he shouldn’t be rude to the driver. So how was a nice way to say hell to the fuck no? “Um…I’d rather do…anything else.”

  “Oh. Okay. Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow…at around seven? We might as well have breakfast before we leave.”

  She appeared to be unfazed by his rudeness, but something in her eyes told him that he might’ve just dropped issue number ninety-one into her basket.

  Bob: You’re right, Dan. This guy really is a dick!

  “Fine. See you tomorrow, Jasmin.”

  He shut the door, tossed his bags on the floor, and immediately went to the bathroom to have a shower. The warm water instantly relaxed him, soothed him. He dropped his head, allowing it to hit his neck and roll down his back. He’d wanted the solitude, but now that he was alone, he heard it. The screams that had echoed down the street that night, his screams, screams of desperation and despair.

  “Perry! Perry, where are you, man?”

  He pushed his head under the spray, hoping the sound of running water against his ears would drown out his cries. It didn’t work. Nothing ever worked.

  He shut off the water and made a quick job of drying and dressing himself. Dragging his weary body to the other side of the small room, he dropped belly first onto the bed. He probably wouldn’t sleep, but today he was exhausted enough to give it a try. He tried to shut it out of his mind, yet even as his eyes drifted closed, the images appeared with utmost clarity.

  15 years ago…

  Kevin sat down at his allocated seat in Miss Woodslow’s class, staring up at the artwork plastered across the walls. Modes of transportation was the theme for the week and colorful busses, airplanes and even firetrucks were the different array of drawings his classmates had come up with. His eyes roamed over each picture, the colors keeping up the pretense that this was a happy environment. It wasn’t.

  He was grinding his teeth again, willing and willing and willing the tears not to come. It was the fourth week of kindergarten and he hated school. He hated that he was too short to reach anything. He hated that Miss Woodslow gave him special attention because he was just a tad bit slower than the rest of them. And he especially hated Dennis and his stupid friends. They always called him a baby, picked on him, pushed him to the floor like he was nothing. Right now, there was dirt and little tears on his pants from when Dennis had shoved him. His knees had hit the ground first and then they crowded around him. Dennis had straddled his torso and tried to shove a pacifier in his mouth. He’d felt so helpless, it was unbearable. But he wouldn’t cry. If he cried, the teacher would call his mom again and that would just give them more reason to call him a baby.

  He wouldn’t tell his mother anything. It was better to keep it to himself, because, if anything, she made him feel more incapable. He was the youngest in his family and sometimes she made him feel more like a baby than Dennis did. He wouldn’t tell anyone, not even Max. Max wouldn’t care that Dennis and his goons were six years younger than him. He’d pummel them into the ground. Dom and Shane would probably do the same. No, he needed to keep them out of it and handle this himself. He wasn’t weak and he wouldn’t show any sign of weakness.

  “Hey,” someone whispered from beside him. “Psssst!”

  Kevin turned to face the other boy who was trying to get his attention.

  “Here.” He slid an Oreo across his desk. “It’s my last one, but you can have it.”

  There was lint on it, probably from his pocket where it’d been kept, but all it needed was a good dusting or a hard blow. “Thanks.”

  “I saw what they did. Those guys pick on me too.”

  Kevin stared at the chocolate treat on his desk. At first he was reluctant to take it, but eventually he reached for it and opted to pick off the lint with his fingers.

  “I’m Perry,” he said, and Kevin wondered why he was still whispering. The other kids were still out for recess.

  “I’m Kevin,” he whispered back, and it started to feel like it was a secret between them, something everyone else was excluded from. He liked it.

  “Why do they pick on you?” Perry asked.

  “Because I’m small. Why do they pick on you?”

  “Because I’m black.”

  His eyebrows creased a little. “That’s a stupid reason.”

  “I know. It’s ’coz they really stupid,” he replied with a shrug.

  “Yeah.” And from beneath the stifled tears, Kevin felt a small titter burst out of him. “Their stupid could fill a whole bus.”

  “Their stupid could fill the Empire State building.”

  They were talking a little louder now, excitement filling their voices as they talked about Dennis’ crew and their stupidness. “Their stupid could fill a blue whale.”

  At that point they debated whether or not a blue whale was bigger than the Empire State building. After Kevin told him that a whale could probably eat the Empire State building in one swallow, they unanimously concluded that a whale was bigger.

  Perry decided to pull out the big guns. “Their stupid could fill the Grand Canyon.”

  “Whoa.” Kevin sat back because he truly was in awe. “That’s a whole lot of stupid.”

  “Hey,” Perry said, talking a bit faster when he saw Miss Woodslow walk in after recess. “Do you wanna come to my house after school? My mom got me a new Batman and it’s really cool. I also got some cool video games.”

  “Uh…I don’t know. I have to ask my mom.”

  “I’ll ask her.”

  And just like that, the matter was settled. The day seemed to go by much quicker after that and when the last bell rang, Perry waited for him as he slung his backpack onto his shoulder. They walked side by side to the school gates. Kevin was excited and also a little nervous. He was a quiet child and no one in his class ever really spoke to him. No one understood him, but Perry didn’t seem to care about any of that. They had one thing in common and that seemed like it was enough for him to build a friendship on.

  His mother was already at the gates by the time he reached it. Kneeling down in front of him, she kissed his forehead. Kevin felt a bit embarrassed that she’d done that in front of his new friend, but, once again, Perry didn’t seem to ca
re.

  “Hi, honey,” she said sweetly. “How was your day?”

  “Okay.”

  She noticed his ripped pants and her hand went to his knee, rubbing it like she knew it hurt. She always knew. She couldn’t take away the pain, but that never stopped her from trying. “What happened here?”

  “I fell.”

  He glanced at Perry and he seemed quite fine with not revealing the truth. It was their little secret.

  “Hi, Kevin’s mom,” Perry chirped before she probed any further. “Can Kevin come over to my house today? He really wants to. He likes Batman as much as I do and I really want him to see my fortress…and my treehouse. Is it okay, huh? Can he come? Please. Can he come?”

  Watching him, Kevin understood why Perry had volunteered to ask. His brown puppy-dog eyes were pleading with her and he could see his mother soften. She didn’t have the will to say no.

  “Now, why are you harassing this poor lady?”

  “It’s quite all right,” his mother responded to the other woman as she stood up. “He seems very excited to have this playdate.”

  Kevin looked up and saw Perry’s mother. She was a beautiful woman, almost as pretty as his mom, and she had the same warm brown eyes as Perry. She leaned over and kissed his head and Perry didn’t waste any time trying to convince her too.

  “Momma, this is Kevin. He wants to come over and play. Can he, huh? Can he? Please, mom. He really wants to.”

  The two women looked at each other, knowing full well that it was pointless trying to argue. They discussed pick up times and exchanged addresses, only to find out that they lived four houses down the street.

  His mother knelt down in front of him again and Kevin expected her usual bout of overprotectiveness. He waited for her to tell him to be careful when he climbed up the treehouse and not to run too fast, but she didn’t say any of that. She just smiled and gently brushed his brown hair off his forehead. “You’re happy you made a new friend, baby.”