Mateless and Home Bound

Chapter 13: Memories

"Are you sure this is it, sir?" the driver asked.

"Positive," Sage said. "It's just a bit hidden behind the wall of trees right there," he pointed towards it. His home was always difficult to get to. It really made him wish that his grandma had left her old beat-up truck at Gila or something. "Just park right here. I can walk this stuff the rest of the way."

"Are you sure?" he asked again. Sage was lucky that he even found someone who was willing to drive him all this way. Thankfully the taxi service also had some jeeps for some off-roading in case someone wanted to travel through the forest.

"Yup!" he assured him. Sure enough, right when the man parked, he could see it. The hut wasn't as nice as it had been when he was younger. His grandma had gotten too old to really maintain it. But it had no leaks in the roof and it still held its charm. No matter how beat up it was, it was still home.

He remembered so many times of coming back from school. His grandmother would pick him up from Gila and drive him the long path that it took all the way back home. Every time he saw it back then, he just saw how isolated it was. Now it was like a wonderland of memories that he wished he could relive.

The driver helped him take all of his stuff out of the Jeep at least. He didn't have much, as he had just lived in a tiny apartment before all of this, but it still took a while to get out of the Jeep. He thanked the driver and watched as he drove off before he started to bring all of the things he owned inside. The first thing he had was an urn. He had just picked it up early that morning. He was going to go with Snake or one of the others, but they were busy preparing for the memorial in their own way. He still needed to get it all set up. He hadn't even figured out a date yet.

He wished he would have sent Reggie a text or something before he left. There was no cell service when you were this deep into the forest. His grandma had a landline that barely worked, but that was just about it.

A part of him didn't really mind. He kind of wanted to disappear off the face of the earth for a little bit anyway. He placed the urn that was his grandmother's ashes on a tree stump that she had used for many things when she was alive. That was where it would stay until he was ready to spread her ashes. He still had to think of the right place to do that. Knowing her, she would have wanted her ashes spread on the land around her house, though, to ward off evil spirits.

She always talked about that stuff. That was why she had such a strange garden all around the house. There were even garlic and wolfsbane there. The garlic was so annoying to smell in the morning, and kids used to bully him for smelling like it when he was just a boy. But she was adamant about keeping the plants. Them along with lavender and sage helped protect the house, according to her. She even had salt rings along the perimeter of the house.

It definitely did it's job though. No soul ever came to their hut, not even lost hikers could seem to ever find it in all the dense greenery that she had grown over the years. It made this place such a beautiful little hideaway from all the craziness that was the rest of the world.

"You'll always have a home, Sage," she said over the phone. "If nothing works out over there, you can always come back."

"Grandma," he rolled his eyes. "You act like I'm not even going to visit."

"You better!" she laughed. "There's too many things to talk about over the phone."

He did visit her a lot once he said that he had wanted to move. It wasn't really supposed to be for too long. Truth be told, he just wanted to stay over there until he was done with schooling. Then he was eventually thinking about moving back here and getting a job as a nurse or doctor in one of the cities.