All In

She pulled into a CVS and parked at the far end of the lot. As seemed to be her MO, she left the car on and slipped out. Tim joined her outside, this time standing nearer her at the hood of the car.

She sparked the zippo with shaking fingers and lit a cigarette. The flash of light from the flame threw her features briefly into contrast. She was still scared.

“Hey. I don’t know what happened back there but you did great. Tell me what was up with that.” He gestured vaguely outward to encompass all that had just happened.

“Just like there are people who will help us,” she inhaled needily on her cigarette, no joint in evidence. “there are people who want to stop us. I’m not sure why, if they’re evil or just dicks.”

“You said it probably wouldn’t come up then we didn’t even get out of the state before our lives were in danger!” This was very concerning to him.

“I told you this may happen!” she was almost finished smoking her cigarette and Tim could tell she was contemplating another. “We got through fine. We should be good the rest of the way.”

Tim didn’t quite trust her accuracy on this but it really didn’t matter. They had to get to the end of this no matter what kind of resistance they faced. The only way out was through. He would much prefer if she were right and it was a Sunday drive the rest of the way.

Rachel ended the cigarette she was smoking by flicking it towards the empty end of the lot. It spun end over end before dying in a brief flurry of sparks about twenty feet away.

Rachel grabbed the front of her layered hoodies with both hands and shook them, as if airing them out, then stepped back into the car. Tim followed her lead and got in, buckling his seat belt as she backed out of the spot. Rachel drove from the CVS and meandered around the town, driving south but avoiding getting back on the highway.

“Back on track. You have a route yet? What’s our first stop?” Belying her highway etiquette, Rachel drove slowly down the side streets, braking well ahead of any stops she needed to make and coasting oh so slowly to a halt.

Tim popped open the phone again. He was glad it had found its way back into his pocket after the last time he was interrupted using it.

“Our first stop is Roanoke, Virginia. We should get there around seven.” This he had already decided very shortly before getting into the first high speed police chase of his life.

“Perfect. Punch it in.” she pointed to the electronic dash dead center in the console.

Tim simply put the town as the destination and hit go. He could research a place to stay when they got closer. They still had plenty of time.

Rachel wandered through the town, the GPS trying relentlessly to make Rachel take the highway. She studiously ignored it and stayed on side streets. The town turned into country, a sparsely populated area with long sightless roads.

After about twenty minutes Rachel finally heeded the sirens call of the British GPS and merged onto the highway.

“I’ll tell you what I know. It may help you. May help you make the right decisions I guess.” She glanced at him, earnest but hesitant. “I won’t be able to explain this very clearly. The how of all of this is beyond me.”

Rachel slipped into the middle lane and let the car travel at the speed limit.

“When we die, we shape a new reality. Our memories, experiences and connections transcend this life.” Here she paused, grasping to give words to the concept. “Our…soul…lives on in this place. Slowly learning and growing…”

She shook her head here, a physical expression to correspond with her switching tracks.

“Imagine a perfect day.” She gave him a moment to try and do just that. “You’re probably thinking of one from your past. Instead imagine a perfect day in your future…there are an infinite number of them…”

Rachel was starting to have trouble choking the words past the emotion that was swelling her throat. Whatever she was thinking about was crushing her. Tim wasn’t sure how to proceed. He had seen Rachel angry and scared…despair was a new look on her. He didn’t know if he should prompt her further or offer some bland platitudes.

“Not everyone moves on. I don’t know why.” She continued on her own, a few blinks releasing pent up tears. “I’m in danger of losing that. And so are you.”

Put that way Tim was starting to think he should take this very seriously. He had ruined his life. And others. There were still memories he would do anything to keep. Memories he would do anything to be able to make.

“I’m in.” he was very confident.

“You’re in? In on what?” His confidence did waver in the face of her overwhelming sarcasm. “You were in when we left the hospital. You were in when we evaded the police together. Glad you’re in.”

“Ok, ok” He was beat. “What do we have to do again?”

“I told you.” Exasperated, she started to speed up, switching to the far-left lane when the middle could no longer contain her. “We get to the door. I go in. You wake up.”

“So, this is a dream?”

“Treat it like it’s not.”