Uncharted

by Nikki Thornton

  “What are you talking about, Kennedy?”

  “You just met Tyler six months ago! How could you be ready to move across the country for him already? You! Of all people!”

  “Kennedy,” Abbey pleaded, “can’t you just be happy for me?”

  “Of course I’m happy for you, Abs. I just want to make sure that it’s really what you want before you quit your job and turn your life upside down.”

  “Well relax. It’s definitely what I want.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Sometimes you just know, ya know?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” There was a pause and Kennedy shifted the phone to the other ear. “I’m just gonna miss you. You’re the one person I can count on to keep me sane.”

  “It’s not like we’ll never visit each other or call each other,” Abbey reminded her.

  “It won’t be the same.” Kennedy frowned. “But I am happy for you. Truly I am.”

  “Good. Because that’s not all.”

  Kennedy gulped. “It’s not?”

  “No. There’s just a bit more.” Abbey paused. “I leave in two days.”

  “Two days! Are you kidding me? And you’re just now telling me!” Kennedy complained.

  “You’re happy for me, Kennedy,” Abbey reminded her.

  “No, that’s not it. It’s just, how are we supposed to give you a proper going away party with such short notice?”

  Abbey was relieved. She knew Kennedy would take the news harder than Jen, who would merely tease her incessantly until the second before she left.

  “We’ll have to get together tomorrow after work. Do you need any help packing?”

  “I’m already done packing. The moving company is coming tomorrow to load up the truck so that they’ll already be there when I fly in,” Abbey explained. “Hey, listen. I gotta go. I have a few loose ends that need tying before I go.”

  “All right, but tomorrow after work. I’ll be at your place, and you better be there ready to go out.”

  Abbey laughed. “Sure, Kennedy. I couldn’t deny my maid of honor from taking me out on the town.”

  “Wait. What did you—?”

  Abbey cut her off. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Kennedy heard the click of her hanging up. Surely she did not just imply that she was marrying Tyler.

  The microwave dinged and interrupted her train of thought.

  She grabbed her leftover Chinese food and headed back to the computer to finish researching for her next destination. She couldn’t decide where she wanted to go and continued looking until she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

  The next day, she called Jen and told her when to meet at Abbey’s house. When Kennedy got there, Jen had already arrived. True to form, she was supplying a steady stream of playful insults at Abbey.

  Kennedy wanted to ask Abbey about her last comment on the phone but didn’t think it would be smart to bring it up in front of Jen. She definitely didn’t need any more ammo.

  “Seriously, Abbey, how much is he paying you to move down there?”

  Luckily Abbey knew Jen well enough not to take her comments to heart. “Are we ready?” she asked Kennedy.

  “I know I am.”

  “Good. Let’s go.”

  They headed downstairs and saw the cab waiting.

  “Uh oh,” Abbey murmured.

  “Awesome! You know it’s going to be a great night when Kennedy has a cab waiting!” Jen said as she slid in. “Long time no see, Mitch. How ya been?”

  All of Kennedy’s friends knew about Mitch.

  “Pretty good,” Mitch replied. “Girls night out?”

  “Yeah. Abbey’s leaving us.”

  They continued their exchange all the way to the club.

  Kennedy was the last out of Mitch’s cab. “See you at two. And thanks again.”

  “No problem, sweetheart. You know I want you to get home safe, even if it means I have to stay up late.”

  Kennedy laughed and closed the door.

  They headed straight to the bar once they were inside, and from there the night was a blur. Kennedy was pretty sure there was dancing and flirting and a lot of drinking. She only vaguely remembered getting into Mitch’s cab. When she woke the next day, her head was throbbing as though she needed proof she had drank too much.

  She wandered into the living room, headed for the kitchen in search of food, and was surprised to see Jen asleep on her couch. Moving carefully so as not to wake her, Kennedy managed to start toasting some bread. When she was pouring her juice, she noticed a note from Abbey. Apparently she had stayed the night as well.

  Kennedy,

  Thanks so much for the night out. I really needed it and had so much fun. I’m going to miss you guys so much. Had to leave early to make my flight and didn’t want to wake you. Promise I’ll talk to you soon.

  Love,

  Abbey

  Kennedy fought back the tears as she gulped down her juice to put out the fire in her throat. She took her dry toast into her office and booted up the computer.

  She posted a note on Abbey’s Facebook page saying that she would be expecting her to keep her promise, and then she changed her status to “finally had a night of drinking I can’t remember…weird…” before deciding the monitor light was too bright.

  Still not wanting to wake Jen, she finished her toast and headed back to her room. Four hours later, Jen knocked on her bedroom door.

  “Hey.”

  Kennedy rubbed her eyes before opening them. “Hi.”

  “I just wanted to let you know that I was taking off so you wouldn’t wake up and freak out when you couldn’t find me.”

  “Thanks,” Kennedy muttered.

  Jen closed the door and Kennedy rolled onto her side. She heard the front door close as she drifted back to sleep.

  It was nighttime when she woke up again, this time from a disturbing dream. She had been driving, trying to make her way up a mountain. The car kept stalling halfway up and would start rolling down the road backwards. Just as her car started falling off the edge of the cliff, a motorcycle zoomed past. The driver grabbed Kennedy’s hand and hoisted her onto the back of his bike. When Kennedy woke up, she still had the scent of the man’s cologne burning in her nose.

  She stumbled out of bed and into the kitchen.

  As soon as she finished downing a full glass of water, she wandered to her bookshelf.

  Kennedy browsed until she found her photo album. She hadn’t looked at it in ages. She turned each page slowly, taking in the scenes from her road trip as though she had never seen them before. After a few minutes, she came to the picture of her and Emmerick. She had forgotten how attractive he was; the image in her head was fuzzy.

  She continued through the album remembering the scent in her dream, the scent from the trip. She touched the photo of him lightly with her fingertips before closing the album.

  After returning it to the shelf, Kennedy wiped her hands across her cheeks and went back into the kitchen. It suddenly occurred to her how hungry she was.

  Not wanting to cook, she poured herself a bowl of cereal. Before adding the milk, Kennedy put a comedy movie into the DVD player in the living room and grabbed a blanket from her bed. She definitely needed a laugh. After she poured the milk, she curled up on the couch, ate her late-night breakfast, and zoned out to the movie.

  The next day she woke up bright and early, and well rested. She had time to clean up before heading to work, but all she did was return the blanket to her bed.

  Kennedy walked into the building smiling. She said her usual hello to Irene, who picked up on the extra cheeriness but did not comment on it.

  After climbing the two flights of stairs, she ran into Mary in the hallway.

  “Hey Mary! How’s it going?”

  “It’s going…you’re awful cheery.”

  “Yeah, I slept almost the whole day yesterday,” Kennedy replied.

  “Oh, that’s right. How did Abbey’s going away party go?”r />
  Kennedy laughed. “I wish I could tell you, but I really can’t remember very much of that night. I drank way too much.”

  Mary shook her head and laughed.

  “Yeah, you should’ve came Mary, if for no other reason than to keep me in check.”

  “I don’t think Dave would have appreciated it if I stood him up on our anniversary.” Mary smiled.

  “Details, details,” Kennedy joked as she set her laptop on her desk.

  Kennedy spent the morning putting the finishing touches on her most recent article. She had just gotten back from Fort Lauderdale when Abbey called her to drop the bombshell about moving.

  When it came time for lunch, Kennedy insisted on taking Mary to Angelo’s in downtown Ann Arbor. Mary tried to protest, but it was no use. Kennedy was determined. They got back to the office just before one o’clock. On the way to their desks, they saw Julie putting her things into a box.

  Mary glanced sideways at Kennedy. “Did she quit?” she whispered.

  “No idea. I was about to ask you the same thing.”

  “What are you two whispering about?”

  Neither of them heard Paige approach, so the sudden sound of her voice made them jump.

  “We were just wondering what was going on with Julie,” Mary responded.

  “Oh. Well, I’m not actually supposed to tell you this, but she was let go.”

  Kennedy’s curiosity flared. “They fired her?! Why?”

  Paige laughed at her enthusiasm. “I’m not positive on all the details, but it sounds like her writing talents aren’t what got her the job, and now that she has a new supervisor, it became obvious.”

  Kennedy’s eyebrows rose involuntarily as she tried not to smile and say that she wasn’t surprised.

  “Oh, wow,” was all Mary could say.

  “Yeah, but keep that to yourselves.”

  “Of course,” Kennedy answered.

  Paige quickly turned the subject to work. “When can I expect your Florida piece?”

  “I’ll get it to you before I leave today.”

  “Perfect,” Paige said on her way into her office.

  Kennedy couldn’t help but watch as Julie finished emptying her desk. It took a total of ten minutes, and then security came and escorted her out of the building. Although Kennedy had nothing to do with it, she felt like it was a small success for her. Julie was out of her life for good, not that they ever spoke during their time working together. Good riddance.

  The rest of the afternoon went by without incident, and, as promised, Kennedy left her article on Paige’s desk before leaving. She also stopped in the mail room on her way out to pick up her fan mail. Every week there seemed to be more than the previous week.

  She planned on spending her nights during the upcoming weekend reading through them and writing responses. She had talked to Paige about it a few weeks ago, and they agreed to publish a few letters and responses in the paper.

  Kennedy wanted to do it because she thought it would thrill the readers to see their letters in print. Paige agreed to it because she thought it would a good way to give Kennedy’s column a small hiatus without much reader complaint. She wasn’t comfortable with the closing gap between Kennedy’s trips and her articles.

  During the first few nights of reading the letters, she managed to find three that she felt were worthy of printing. One asked why she decided to be a travel journalist, the other asked which trip was her favorite, and the third wondered how they picked her destinations.

  She really had to think about her answer to the second letter. There were so many to choose from, each great in its own way. She ended up giving her top three: Road Trip for One, Vineyard Voyage, and Mackinac Mayhem.

  She laughed when she thought about her Mackinac trip. It was a disaster, but she still loved it. The ferry worker who had offered to help carry her luggage dropped one of her bags into the water. Luckily he was able to retrieve it, but everything in it was unusable for that trip. Then, when she made it to the hotel safely, she sprained her ankle while climbing the steps. Shortly after that, she went out for lunch and got food poisoning. Despite how horrible it was, it taught her a lot about herself. She was hundreds of miles away from home going through what was practically a crisis, and she took it all in stride. It surprised her to find out she was capable of staying so calm through that sort of ordeal.

  By the end of the week, Kennedy had selected ten fan letters to publish. She spent Saturday morning responding to the most recent picks. She went out for lunch that afternoon, and on her way back into her building, she checked the mail.

  She had an envelope from Abbey. Excited to see what it was, Kennedy rushed back to her apartment and ripped the envelope open. She nearly fell over in shock when she saw a “Save the Date” card. Kennedy hadn’t imagined things. Abbey really had said something about a maid of honor.

  The card had a professional picture of Abbey and Tyler on the front. It was one of the cutest couple shots Kennedy had ever seen. As unusual as this behavior was for Abbey, Kennedy understood why when she saw the photo. They were so obviously in love and so obviously perfect for each other.

  She attached the card to her fridge with a ladybug shaped magnet before going into the living room and picking out a movie to watch. It wasn’t long before she drifted to sleep.

  She dreamt that she was in her seventies, sitting on a rocking chair and watching a movie. Only it wasn’t a movie. It was her friends, living their lives. Abbey and Tyler raising their children; Jen sending RSVPs to an outrageously large stack of party invitations; Mary growing old with Dave, surrounded by grandchildren. She just rocked back and forth slowly, observing.

  When she woke up, she felt slightly horrified. It had been years since she’d had such vivid dreams. Why were they suddenly back? She tried to shrug it off by telling herself it was only because her life had become boring.

  She laughed to herself. Boring, right.

  If she tried to tell someone that she lived a boring life, they wouldn’t believe her. They would look at all the traveling she did and all the new things she experienced during her trips and call her crazy. Truth is, they would be partially right. Her life wasn’t boring when she was working, just when she was stuck home for an extended period of time.

  After forcing herself to crawl out of bed, Kennedy cranked up the radio and spent the day cleaning and doing her laundry. She wanted to catch up on everything that she had let build up before going to Florida.

  Monday morning finally came, and Kennedy was happy to get back to work.

  Paige liked most of the fan questions Kennedy had picked to publish and was surprised Kennedy had already managed to write responses to them.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t have a lot going on during weekends,” Kennedy said sheepishly.

  “Huh. Guess that explains why you’ve never asked for a break from the traveling.”

  Kennedy laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”

  “All right, well, I finally got around to editing a few of your pieces. They’re on your desk. Once you make the changes, email them to me.”

  “Sure thing.” Kennedy went back to her desk and started on the articles. She hadn’t realized just how many of them were backlogged in Paige’s office.

  She filled the rest of her week by catching up on her fan mail. She liked to stay on top of it, thinking that if she didn’t respond they wouldn’t continue to read and she would be out of a job.

  * * *

  Before she knew it, Abbey’s wedding was around the corner. While rushing around her apartment finding a few last minute items to pack, Kennedy called Mitch for a ride to the airport. She asked him to pick Jen up first to give herself more time to gather her things.

  They barely made it to the gate before the door was closed after running through the airport holding the shoes they had to remove at security. The moving sidewalk was too crowded to help in their rush, and Metro Airport had a large terminal. They were breathless as they handed the atte
ndant their tickets.

  Five and a half hours later, they touched down in Santa Fe. Their luggage was the last to come out on the carousel.

  “That always happens to me,” Kennedy told Jen.

  “Man! You’re bad luck then. Maybe on the way home we shouldn’t check our bags.”

  “That’s a little hard with the dresses,” Kennedy pointed out.

  “Well maybe we’ll get lucky and they will let us carry it all on.”

  “I hope so.”

  Abbey snuck up behind them while they were grabbing their bags. “Hey guys!”

  Kennedy jumped and dropped her bag, causing it to take another trip around the carousel. Jen spun around and hugged Abbey.

  “I’m so glad you guys came!” Abbey was glowing.

  “You scared the crap outta me, Abs!”

  “Sorry Kennedy, I couldn’t resist.”

  “Where’s Tyler?” Jen asked. “He should be carrying our luggage.” She winked at Kennedy.

  “Oh! Right! Luggage.” Kennedy turned back to the carousel just in time to grab her bag.