Headlines & Head Wounds

Bracelet

Theodore gave a long yawn. "I'm getting tired, Rhiannon," he warned. "I can't keep driving forever."

"Yes, I understand that," Rhiannon said with a sigh. "Here, you pull over and I'll drive."

Theodore glanced out the window. The long road seemed to extend as far as he could see; it wasn't exactly straight, but wound towards the horizon in alternating curves just gentle enough that it never really passed out of his field of view. There was a sharp drop-off on the right side, where a hill peppered with small, straggling evergreen trees sloped down to a bubbling, rocky creek; and on the left side, a wall of lofty pines extended towards the top of a steep incline and into the wilds. "There's nowhere to pull over," he reported.

Rhiannon leaned forward, staring out the windshield. "There has to be somewhere," she said vaguely. "This road can't go on forever." The very fact that she was saying anything of the sort was, to her, an obvious indication that she was feeling nervous.

Ever since they'd left Skybrook, Rhiannon had kept her hands trapped under her knees to stop herself from fiddling with anything in range. Her foot was tapping out a rapid rhythm and her mind was practically buzzing with energy, even though she'd been in the car now for several hours. She'd already burned through almost all of Theodore's mints and, at his sharp discouragement, had barely managed to refrain from diving into the luggage for a peek at her current read. He was right, of course- she shouldn't be reading in the car, as it had a notorious habit of making her carsick- but nonetheless, she desperately wanted something to do. Driving, she thought, might just be perfect.

"Come on," she repeated impatiently, "there has to be somewhere to stop." She drew her eyes across the vast landscape outside the window, but couldn't make out a refuge among the trees.

Theodore flicked the GPS in irritation. "Do you see anything?"

Rhiannon squinted, trying to make out the dusty screen. All it displayed was a thin yellow line wending through a flat expanse of pastel-green, the little blue arrow representing the car forming the only break in the scenery. But as she watched, a tiny white word blipped into being along the top. She brushed off a bit of the dust and leaned toward the screen, trying to make it out. "Pine," she reported. "It says, 'Pine'."

"Well, that's obvious," Theodore grumbled, his eyes on the trees.

"What's 'Pine'?" Rhiannon chattered. "Is that a park, or something? A town, maybe? A rest stop, I hope it's a rest stop."

"Don't be silly," Theodore scolded. "There aren't any rest stops around here, it's just plain forest. Do you see anything?"

"No," Rhiannon answered immediately. She wasn't looking out the windshield anymore, but at the GPS. "I don't see anything, no roads or anything, it just says 'Pine'." Her head snapped up. "We should stop."

"There's nowhere to stop," Theodore said flatly. There was a truck ahead of them now- it had been driving in the distance for miles, and the car had finally caught up to it. It was hard to see anything around the truck, which was moving so annoyingly slowly that Theodore felt compelled to honk. But after a few moments, his manners got the better of him and he simply swerved around the truck, stepping on the gas and rocketing past it. As the truck disappeared from his field of view, he caught sight of something in the distance.

"That's it!" Rhiannon squealed. She immediately felt self-conscious; she almost never squealed if she could help it, and never bequeathed such an honor to a rest stop. "That's it, that has to be," she repeated in a normal voice. "That's Pine."

Theodore squinted. "I don't see much of anything," he relayed. "There are one or two cars in the lot. Looks like one of those rest stop restaurants or something." He cocked his head. "Who else comes up here?"