a totally normal road trip

part 4- jack, the llama, meet jack, the human

"Who knew that we would have to take a significant detour to see the 'World's largest ball of Twine." Jack sighed, exasperatedly, playing with his stuffed T-Rex, which he had named Bruno.

Kansas was exactly how one may expect. Endless open fields with nothing else in sight for miles around with the exception of the occasional cow or barn.

"At this point," Adam, who was clearly starting to get bored with the whole excursion, added. "We're just taking random exits hoping that we find something interesting."

Ryan's bad feeling was only getting stronger. He wanted to tell his brothers so badly while they were at the World's Largest Ball of Twine, but he couldn't really catch a moment alone with them. Hanging around with his brothers in the car improved his mood slightly, but now he really really really really wanted to tell them, although for some reason Ryan couldn't get himself to.

They opened the windows of the car and started blasting 'County Roads', singing it together at the top of their lungs. Due to the lack of human beings in the surrounding area, no one could hear the angelic sounding chaos.

Their small party suddenly grinded to a halt, however, when the front tire started to lose air pressure. Adam, who was driving at the time, had pulled over.

"Shit." Adam cursed.

He got out of the car to inspect the damage. There was this a rusted metal... thing, approximately 5 inches long, that was half way into the tire, rendering it halfway flat already.

Jack and Ryan had also gotten out of the car, curious as to what had happened.

"Can either of you check the back for the spare tire? We're gonna need it." Adam said, sighing heavily.

Eventually, they found the spare things among their luggage and other random things they had in the trunk and quickly realized none of them had any mechanical skills whatsoever so, of course, Ryan started to panic.

While Ryan was panicking, this farmer man was driving up the interstate. He was driving a pickup truck and he seemed to be carrying a bunch of chickens. Like, at least 35 chickens.

The farmer guy pulled up next to the three very confused and panicked brothers.

"You look like y'all need some help." The farmer guy, sounding highly country.

"No shit." Jack mumbled under his breath.

"Yes, sir we need help." Adam said, while giving his brother a death glare.

"Why don't you fellas come to my ranch, and I can help fix your car. I only live a few miles down the road. What do you say?" the farmer guy suggested.

Adam, Jack, and Ryan huddled together.

"So, what do you think of this guy?" Adam whispered.

"I think that this is the author's way to create a filler chapter because what is coming next on this trip is what the author has been waiting to write since they started the book. They also cannot come up with any new ideas so they're just doing a kind of ripoff of what happened in Ohio." Jack said, confidently.

"You really need to stop drinking that Red Bull." Ryan sighed.

"N E V E R" Jack whisper-shouted back.

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, are we going to take this guy's offer or not?"

"Oh yeah, definitely." Jack said. "We are a-okay at the start of the next chapter."

"Somehow, that is not at all comforting." Adam rolled his eyes. "Also, you actually do need to stop drinking Red Bull."

Jack, Ryan, and Adam accepted the farmer guy's offer, and got in his truck, with their flat tired car trailing behind.

The farmer guy's name is James and, apparently, his family has lived on his farm for the last 5 generations. They pulled up to his house when he suddenly said "Oh, I almost forgot! Before you do anything else you have to meet my llama."

They really couldn't say no to that so they got out of the truck and followed James to to the llama. When they saw the llama they physically could not contain themselves. It was a baby llama and those are pretty fucking adorable. The three of them played around with the llama, and the llama clearly enjoyed it. At some point Jack asked James,

"What's the llama's name?"

"By pure coincidence," James said, laughing "his name is Jack."

There was a brief pause as the three of them registered what James had said, until it finally clicked and Ryan and Adam started bursting out into laugher.

"Oh my god- Jack you're a llama!!" Adam wheezed.

"Shut up." Jack was not amused.

"With that hat on you have to admit he even kinda looks like one!" Ryan wiped a tear from his eye as he continued smiling.

"Ryan if you don't shut the fuck up-"

Five minutes later, Jack was tired of the llama jokes and went inside James's home. It was a nice place. James offered for them to stay for dinner and then stay for the night. They agreed. Eventually, the trio settled down in the guest room, where Jack had claimed the entire floor to himself, leaving the bed for Adam and Ryan to share.

They were just about to go to sleep, when Ryan decided that now would be a good a time as ever to talk to Adam about how he was feeling. He would have talked to Jack too but he was already passed out.

"Hey Adam, can I talk to you about something?" Ryan softly asked Adam.

"Yeah, sure Ry. What's on your mind?" Adam whispered back.

"I know this sounds pretty stupid but I've been having second thoughts about this trip." Ryan started. "I've been having this strange feeling since we left New York and I've been pushing it off as paranoia but the feeling hasn't gone away. It just keeps getting stronger as we head west."

"Ry," Adam said quietly, trying to comfort his brother. "that's not stupid, that's anxiety."

"I don't know." Ryan sighed. "It doesn't feel like all the other anxieties I've had."

"Don't worry Ryan, nothing will happen to us on this trip. Nothing inherently dangerous, anyway." Adam said reassuringly.

"When you say it, it almost seems true." Ryan chuckled slightly.

Then Adam and Ryan drifted off to sleep. They both had a long few days ahead.