Let’s Go

After wandering up one row and halfway down another Rachel paused. The tenuous misting of morning dew on the cars reflected the first rays of the sun, making it hard for Tim to judge much of the vehicles around him beyond their basic shape and color. Apparently, that had not been how Rachel was searching, because she starting moving towards a car that just looked like a luminous blob to him. She approached the rear of a blue crossover and ran her finger through the fine layer of beaded moisture that hovered over a Creed bumper sticker.

“Oh you’ve got to kidding me.” He hated Creed.

“Nope. And I like Creed!” finding this car seemed to have elevated Rachels mood. “Help me find the key!”

Tim joined her in checking around the wheel wells to no avail.

“Hmmm…” She pursed her lips and angled her hips; a very obvious and exaggerated thinking pose.

She tried the door. It opened to her touch and she grabbed the key fob from where it lay in the center of the driver’s seat in victory.

“Lets go!” she crowed “I’m driving.”

Rachel got into the seat, immediately flicking the key from its housing and feeding it into the ignition. She turned the car on while glancing at her mirrors, shutting her door quickly. Tim followed suit and scrambled into the car, closing his door right after Rachel did. Tim felt a deep unease sitting in a complete stranger’s car. With a different complete stranger. This couldn’t be real. The accident had shattered him. Destroyed him. There was no way he could be up and walking effortlessly. Was this a dream like he first had thought? A drug reaction? Was he dying and was this his white light? A journey to nowhere with someone he didn’t know seemed like a pretty disappointing final experience.

Rachel snapped him out of his reverie by asking him to look in the glove box. He opened the tiny storage compartment directly in front of him and saw only the owner’s manual and a small envelope.

“Open the envelope.” She instructed.

Tim shrugged and took the envelope out. It was a standard 4x11 business envelope, moderately full of paper. The sort of thing most people kept their insurance and registration in. He pulled back the un-glued flap and thumbed through the contents.

“Some money…a couple coupons…two gift cards…and a few pieces of notebook paper covered in gibberish.” The contents were uninspiring except perhaps the few hundred dollars in various bills stuffed in. Then he remembered what she had said about needing money.

“Whose car is this, Rachel?” he closed the glove box with the envelope and its contents back inside, uneasy.

“Someone who is willing to help.” She had finished adjusting her seat and mirrors and sat staring at him earnestly, hands on top of the steering wheel, “You don’t think this is real anyway, do you? So what does it matter?”

He actually couldn’t argue that. She knew this car would be unlocked, keys inside, with an envelope full of money. Even if this had been real it seemed like more of a “borrow” then a “steal” scenario to him. Slightly anyway.

“Now check the middle please.” She asked, making her final minute adjustments before backing out.

He pulled open the compartment between their seats and looked inside.

“Two packs of cigarettes. Two lighters. A few charging cables. A zippo. Three tubes about the size of magic markers.” He called out what he found as he pawed through the pile, he could feel her grin before he even looked back up at her when he was done.

“Fuck yeah, they came through.” She laughed as she put the car into reverse, its backup camera replacing the screen in their console with a picture of what lay behind them.

“So…you wanted this stuff?” Now he was confused all over again. Cigarettes and power cords? Gross and mundane. Respectively.

Rachel backed out and made her way to the side of the lot to leave. Tim didn’t see any movement in the parking lot, but he swore he could see shadows passing behind the molten golden glow bouncing from the hospitals wall of glass doors. Rachel took a right at the auto attendant and towards the highway. Tim looked back towards the hospital as she drove, wondering what he was leaving behind. They drove past a small playground adjacent to the hospital, a few slides and swings in a small enclosure of trees. Tim pictured the people who may have used this spot. Small children waiting to hear about a sibling or parent. A young couple meeting here in secret to avoid prying eyes… that thought made him smile involuntarily. He wasn’t quite sure what this was all about but it didn’t make sense to turn his back on the possibilities. Rachel had bluntly told him that she was trying to save his soul. Nothing he had seen so far made him doubt that she believed what she was saying.

“So, what are we doing? What’s the plan here, the goal?” he decided to swerve right into this for now. He buckled up to stop the car from bing bonging him while she composed her answer.

“There is something I need to see. And I need you to come with me. This working depends on both of us, so you can’t fuck this up!” At this last she was kidding, he hoped.

“Ok, what is it you need to see?” A destination may help him decipher this out a bit.

“There is a doorway at Naupa Iglasia in the Andes.” Her voice changed as she said this, there was a familiarity with the words as they formed in her mouth. She had clearly been over this a lot in her mind. “I have to walk through it, if I can.”