America Falls (Book 3): Cold Comfort
Page 16
“I wonder where he’s going in such a hurry,” said Luke as he dusted himself off.
After the near miss we left the road and travelled across the countryside, taking a direct route over the hilly landscape to the road that led to Moultonborough.
“I think we better find somewhere to hole up,” said Paul, about 30 minutes after we left the road. “Ava is starting to struggle and there are still 20 miles to go.”
“Okay.” The sun was getting low in the west by that time anyway. “The 175 shouldn’t be too far now, as soon as we hit it we’ll find a house.”
An hour later we were settled into a small cottage and after eating another unappetizing cold meal we bedded down, exhausted from our days walk, as the sun set.
I awoke sometime after dawn but let everyone else sleep. There was no hurry now, I had looked at the map again and estimated we would be there in about six hours, even walking at a leisurely pace.
We set off mid-morning. We were all excited, now that we were so close to our destination, but, for me at least, there was also an undercurrent of apprehension that something would happen to upset our plans.
The sun was out that day and the fields were green and welcoming even though winter hadn’t quite finished.
We stopped for a good half an hour or so when we reached a large body of water called Squam Lake. We sat down, enjoying the long absent sunlight on our skin, sharing laughs and a few more tins of the food we had scavenged from the house.
Finally, as I sat there in the grass with Indigo next to me, I began to let myself believe that we might actually be okay.
Four hours later we topped a rise and came upon a picture book, red painted farmhouse. It sat in a small valley upon roughly six open acres of softly undulating, overgrown fields with a large pond at its lowest point. Adjacent to the farmhouse was a fenced off paddock that had six or seven cows lazily grazing. I also spotted a pig pen at the rear. I felt a sudden wave of euphoria wash over me. I wasn’t the only one.
With a whoop Ben jumped in the air and ran down the hill towards the farmhouse with Brook and Allie in hot pursuit. Ava, clearly delighted, grabbed Paul’s hand and then Beau’s and began skipping down the hill, laughing in delight when a worried Paul asked her to slow down. I watched them, a huge smile on my face as Indigo joined me, her hand taking mine.
“We made it,” she said simply.
I felt another hand, this one bigger and rougher, take my other hand and looked up to see Luke gazing down at me with a romantic expression that quickly turned into a wicked grin. I shook off his big paw and gave him a punch in the shoulder of his good arm.
“Oh dude, the rejection…”
The three of us laughed and set off down the hill to what would become our new home. For the first time in a long time, I dared to hope that things would work out for us… that maybe there really was a ‘happily ever after’ waiting for us there in the valley.
End of Episode 3
America Falls continues in Episode 4 – Rude Shock - coming May 11th, 2018, sign up for notification here.
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Thanks, Scott