Heartbreak Highway 1

by Harper Whitmore

  “Jeez, the old man was crazier than I thought,” Marshall said, rubbing his hand across the ever-present five o’clock shadow on his face. Vierra handed them separate envelopes, presumably with the cash inside. The front of Eva’s said,

  “Travel safe my beauty, you were the best granddaughter I never had.”

  The front of Marshall’s said, “You made me proud…mostly. I gave you an extra fifty. Please use it to get a haircut and a shave.” Marshall couldn’t help but laugh when he read it. He looked over at Eva; she still looked like she was trying to process it all.

  “What do you think?” he said.

  Eva looked up at Vierra and said, “When are we supposed to do this?”

  Vierra said, “He’d like you to leave within twenty-four hours of his death. So that would be by nine p.m. tonight.”

  “Oh my God,” she said, feeling like she was caught in some weird movie or sitcom. She looked at Marshall and he said,

  “You know, it might be fun. I haven’t been on a road trip in a long time.”

  “Yeah, I guess I don’t really have a job to hold me back, and Granddad took care of the finances.”

  “So, are we going?”

  Eva looked at him and nodded, and then she giggled. This was crazy, only something that Henry could have come up with. But, that was what made it so great. Then she had a terrible, awful thought….

  “What about Simone?” she asked. Simone was Marshall’s girlfriend. She was a dancer with a perfect body, a perfect face, perfect hair and teeth, fake boobs and the worst personality of practically anyone Eva had ever met. She couldn’t stand her, and when Henry had been alive, neither could he. Henry knew that Eva was in love with Marshall, he told her a few years back that he’d known all along. Eva had made Henry swear that he would keep it between them, because somehow, Marshall didn’t know.

  He had promised, and he never broke a promise to her but he encouraged her all the time to “Go for it,” especially once Marshall started dating the superficial, narcissistic, loose morale woman that was Simone. Eva loved Marshall beyond reason, but she feared that if she told him how she felt, it would change their relationship. She couldn’t bear to lose him, and she’d rather have him as just a friend, than not at all.

  Marshall looked like he was pondering it and then he said, “I’ll just ask her to go with.” Eva forced a smile that she hoped looked more real than it felt and said,

  “Oh, good idea.” The both looked back at Vierra then and said, “Is that it?”

  “That’s it….Oh, except that he said to tell you that he has a lot of surprises for you along the way. You just have to look for them as you go.”

  Marshall and Eva thanked Vierra and left the office. They walked quietly to the car, both of them caught up in the silent thoughts of a crazy old man who had made both of their lives bearable for so long.

  * * *

  When the kids were gone, Vierra shuffled his walker over to the door in the far corner of his office. He pushed it open and said,

  “They’re gone.”

  The man who had been hiding inside stepped out and said, “It looks like they bought it, huh?”

  “It looks that way; I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “Oh lighten up; this’ll be an adventure they’ll never forget.”

  “But when they’re done, will they ever speak to you again?”

  The other man shrugged and said, “It was a chance I had to take. Those two kids belong together. I could tell ‘em that, but it won’t work unless they both see it for themselves. Ain’t nothin’ better than a road trip to put things in perspective.”

  Vierra shook his head again and said, “This is your ruse, Henry, I guess you’ve thought it through. By the way, whose ashes are they picking up?”

  Henry looked sad and then he said, “Granny’s. She always wanted to be buried in California. I was too selfish to let her go so far from me when she died, so I had her cremated and kept her captive. As long as the kids are going on the road to discovery, they can set Granny free for me at the same time.”

  Chapter 3

  Marshall and Eva picked up the ashes from Larry at the crematorium. Larry issued his condolences as Marshall reverently carried the sealed urn to the car. It was brass, significant of his grandfather’s balls, no doubt. The lid was held on by some kind of sticky glue and there was a note attached that told them how to open it when the time came. Marshall laid it in the backseat carefully and they both stole glances at it over their shoulders on the way home. When they got to Eva’s house Marshall turned to her and said,

  “Is your Mama going to give you a hard time about this?”

  “No, she’s too busy planning her wedding to notice me these days,” Eva told him with a smirk. Marshall tried to keep a straight face, but finally he said,

  “She’s not getting married in the next two weeks is she?”

  “No,” Eva said, “Not unless she’s afraid he’ll back out, and then she’ll drug him and prop him up with a broom or something.”

  Marshall had to laugh at that. Then he said, “Well, that’s good. You’ve been at all the weddings so far. I’d hate for you to have to miss one.” Eva had told Marshall a long time ago that her mother had been pregnant with her when she and her father got married. It was always the source of one of their biggest fights, her father would scream at her that she had “trapped” him and her mother would scream back that she wasn’t the one who had stuck his dick in her pussy without a raincoat. It was quite disgusting to listen to when you were ten years old. Eva had learned to laugh at it all, without a sense of humor, life would have driven her mad by now.

  “Yes, I’d hate to miss one,” she said, “I still have space for photos in my “Ma’s wedding’s” album.” She stepped out of the car and said, “What time will you be back?”

  He looked at his watch, it was just after six p.m. “Eight?” he asked.

  “Perfect, see you then.” Eva watched him drive away. She was heartbroken over the loss of Henry, but she couldn’t help wondering if Granddad had done this specifically to get them to spend more time alone, together. She turned to go in the house and let out a little laugh. Poor Henry would turn over in his urn if he knew that Marshall also planned on taking the evil Simone along.

  When Eva walked into the house, her mother who was sitting at the dining room table looked up excitedly. Once she saw it was her daughter, she looked disappointed and went back to her text message. Eva sighed; there must be trouble in her mother’s new found paradise.

  “Hi Mama,” Eva said.

  “Hey baby,” her mother said, without even looking up.

  “You okay?”

  “Doin’ fine, honey. I ain’t had time to fix any supper” She jerked her head up and looked at Eva then and said, “Wait, why are you home so early? You usually don’t get home ‘til eight. You didn’t lose your job did you? Honey I’m gonna need your part of the rent money to put towards my weddin’ dress.”

  Eva usually controlled her impulses where her mother was concerned. She’d discovered long ago, and again with Granddad’s help that arguing with her mother was a waste of time and oxygen. She just couldn’t control herself though as she heard herself say,

  “Henry died last night Mama, so yeah; I kind of lost my job. I probably still have enough in my savings to give you, but here’s an idea…How about you actually pay the rent with it this time so I don’t have to give Miss Jones more cash when she knocks on the door on the tenth and wear one of your four previous wedding dresses instead?”

  Her mother was looking at her like she had two heads. Then suddenly, she jumped up and threw her arms around Eva and squeezed her. “Oh honey, I know how much you loved that old man. I’m so sorry for your loss. When are they reading the will?”

  “What?” Eva said, pushing away from her. “Are you kidding? You think he left me money and that makes you happy? Guess what, Mom. We already went to the will reading,” she lied, “He didn’t leave me a
dime.”

  Her mother looked like she wanted to cry. Instead with a snarl she said, “You should have set me up with that old man years ago. We’d be set for life.” Eva opened her mouth, and then she closed it again. Turning on her heel she forced herself to go into her bedroom. She slammed the door behind her and locked it. One of these days, her mother was going to be the death of her.

  Eva only allowed herself a few minutes to stew over her mother’s ugliness before she pulled it back together and started packing. Two weeks was a long time, she would have to take a lot of clothes. She began laying her things out when her phone beeped. It was her Facebook notification. She checked it and saw that she had one new message waiting and a friend request. She checked the friend request, it was from a woman named Helen and the message said,

  “Hi Eva! I’m a friend of Henry’s that lives out West in California. Henry asked me to friend you before you go on your road trip. He said there might be questions I can answer for you along the way. I’d love to be your friend. Henry speaks very highly of you. I hope you post a lot of happy pictures as you make your way across this great country.”

  On Facebook as in real life, Eva didn’t have a lot of friends. She’d stayed in touch with a few girls from when they lived in the city, but she hadn’t seen them face to face in fifteen years, so technically they were probably acquaintances. She had Marshall, of course and some of the staff she’d gotten to know well who worked for Henry and a small handful of people she’d gone to school with here on Kure Beach, but all totaled, she still had less than fifty “friends.” She thought about Henry again. He was always after her to “go out” and “cut loose” and “be young, make friends.” She hit accept on Helen’s request and smiled. Anyone that Henry recommended had to be a good person. He was an amazing man with an amazing ability to see through the facades that people wore throughout their lives.

  She got back up to finish her packing with tears in her eyes. What her mother had said crossed her mind and she got angry all over again. Yes, Henry was loaded. He had money because he had worked for it and then he had invested it. He’d started out as a United States Marine. When he came out of the service, he went to work building airplanes. He told Eva once that when he was about thirty five and he was already feeling old and tired, he’d decided he’d had enough of this day to day drudgery that working for someone else involved. He attended a seminar about how to invest your money, and then another and another…he eventually ran up on one that Warren Buffet was guest speaking at and he’d been spell bound by everything the man had said. Buffet was only a millionaire back then, but by the time Granddad was telling his story to Eva he was a multi-billionaire.

  Granddad said that after talking to Annie and being given her “full blessing,” he took all of their savings and bought a struggling aircraft parts business. From Buffet he’d learn to “Buy cheap compared to the companies intrinsic value.” He knew airlines were only going to get bigger and in order for airlines to expand, they would need airplanes. Airplane builders would need parts. Henry made that business a success, saving it from bankruptcy and saving a lot of people’s jobs in the process.

  Henry followed those principles the rest of his life, investing more, buying more, and making more. Henry had taught those principles to his son. He would eventually teach them to his grandson and Marshall who lost his parents in a tragic fire when he was just a baby would go on to be wealthy in his own right. Eva wasn’t sure how much Henry was worth when he died, but Marshall shared most everything with her and he’d told her that he was worth tens of millions at only twenty-five. Eva hated to say it, but it was a huge part of why Simone was with Marshall and it seemed everyone could see that except him.

  Her phone beeped again, snapping her back to the present. It was another Facebook message from Helen. It simply said, “I wish you and Marshall the best and safest of trips.”

  Eva smiled and sent a message back that said, “Thank you. It will probably be me and Marshall and Simone.”

  “Oh dear,” Helen’s message said, “Henry said Simone is a….well, I’m too much of a lady to repeat it.”

  Eva laughed and then wrote, “LOL, Henry was right…about most everything. But, Marshall likes her so what can I do?”

  “Nothing dear,” Helen sent back. “I believe Henry is watching out over you from Heaven. Maybe he’ll talk God into sending her in another direction.”

  “We can hope,” Eva sent back, “Thanks, Helen.”

  “Go with love,” Helen sent back. It was likely proof that she was a good friend of Granddad’s. That was one of his favorite sayings.

  Eva finally finished her packing and began dragging her heavy bags out into the living room. Her mother still sat at the table, texting madly. She looked up and saw Eva with her bags and said,

  “You’re leaving?”

  Eva realized that even her mother knew she had taken it too far. “I’m not leaving for good, Mother.” Eva went to her purse and took out two hundred dollars cash. She thought about the money Henry had left her and she took out a hundred more. She went over and gave the money to her mother. “Here is the rent, plus a little extra, Mama. Please try to pay some of the bills with it.”

  Her mother jumped up and hugged her again. Eva stiffened, but she didn’t pull away this time. When her mother was finished she said, “Thank you, sweetie! You’re a peach!”

  Eva smiled and rolled her eyes, “Thanks Mom. I’m going on a road trip with Marshall to California. I’ll be back in about two weeks.”

  “Marshall! Way to go girl!”

  Eva only sighed and shook her head again. “I’ll see you in a couple weeks, Mama. I love you.” Her mother was already back to her texting. She didn’t look up as she said,

  “Love you too, baby.”

  Eva dragged her bags outside and waited for Marshall out front. He was there right on time and helped load up her bags. Eva was deliriously happy to see that Simone wasn’t with him. She waited until they were on the road and then she said,

  “Where’s Simone?”

  “She has work, a photo shoot tomorrow that she can’t miss. She’s going to meet up with us day after tomorrow.”

  “Oh…good,” she said, sarcastically. Marshall didn’t even seem to pick up on the tone. He went on talking. He said,

  “I found the map Granddad left for us. You’re not going to believe it.”

  Eva laughed and said, “Knowing Henry, I just might. Where is it?”

  “It’s back in the glove box,” he told her. Eva opened the big glove box and pulled out the map. It was leather bound and it appeared to have been specially made. The front was inscribed in gold lettering: Marshall and Eva’s Road Trip to Self-Discovery. Eva laughed at that and Marshall said, “Trust me, that’s only the beginning.”

  Chapter 4

  Eva opened the leather binding and looked inside. The title page said:

  Wilmington North Carolina to California.

  The next page was titled: What to expect. Eva laughed again,

  “Wow, he put a lot of thought into this,” she said.

  “You think?” Marshall asked with a grin. “Leave it to Granddad to leave the most elaborate road map ever made to tell us where to spread his ashes.”

  She turned the page and read aloud:

  “You’ll visit the largest family home in America, you’ll be tempted to climb the Appalachians, you’ll learn what you should have learned in school about the Manhattan Project and then you’ll visit and be awed by a Presidential Library. This map will guide you through many points of interest that will chronicle the development of this fine nation. You’ll get to experience places and peoples who were here long before the arrival of the “white man.” I’ll show you a volcano and a meteor, cliff dwellings and petroglyphs. I’ll take you to frontier forts and you’ll be able to see both native and pioneer artifacts. As you drive through the desert, don’t just glance out the window and see dirt and cacti and sagebrush, see the beauty there. Stop at a cas
ino when you get to Vegas, or better even along the Mississippi, lady luck is on your side.”

  “Wow,” Eva said, with another laugh. “This is…wow! I wondered how it would possibly cost us three thousand dollars each to take a two week road trip.”

  “Yeah, we might need to stop in Vegas and try to double it.”

  Eva sat the map book down and said, “My brain needs a break. Is there even a real map in there?”

  Marshall nodded and grinned. “Yeah, I had to really look for it, but it’s there. When we get to Wilmington, we’re going to head North to Raleigh on I-40 or East to Charlotte on US=74.”

  “Either, or?”

  Marshall smiled again, “My Granddad made the map, remember? He says that both routes will take us to Asheville where we’re supposed to spend our first night, and then get up in the morning and visit the Biltmore Estate before we get back on the road.”

  “The largest family residence he was talking about.” Eva had spent most of her life living in a two bedroom, one bathroom house with a hallway that you almost had to walk sideways to get down. She would love to see that estate. Unless she saw it with her own eyes, she’d never even be able to imagine it.

  “Yeah, he has a history in there about it being built by the Vanderbilt’s in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s…History isn’t really my thing. Anyways he says the house had 255 rooms. It should be quite the lengthy tour. I’m not really sure how we’re going to do all of this in two weeks.”

  “Oh well, I’m not in a hurry, are you?”

  “Not really. I’m sure Simone will have to get back for work though.”

  Now Eva really hoped it would take longer. She couldn’t help herself though, she had to ask, “Do you really think this trip is her cup of tea?”