Anima's Ghost: The Summer Before (Song Line Echoes, book 2)

Chapter 5: Fall River

It takes a few days to get to Massachusetts. I'd never much liked road trips, being confined to a vehicle for so long. But I don't feel trapped while travelling across the states with Spyro. It feels like less an imprisonment and more like the beginning of an adventure. We spend the days talking and blasting music on the radio, sometimes singing – probably badly – at the top of our lungs to the lyrics. Sometimes Leylina even howls along with us.

Then I spot the sign just ahead of us, saying "Entering Fall River". Spyro turns the music down until it's just background noise, but I barely notice. For a moment, it seems like all that exists is that sign, as we roll closer and closer to it.

When we drive past it, it's like driving through some kind of barrier. I'm not sure if we're exiting or entering, but it feels like something that can't quite be felt whooshes through me, almost taking my breath away, and suddenly the world around me feels so different, in a way I can't describe.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Spyro look at me. But he doesn't say anything, and I don't know what to say.

Spyro grabs his phone from the otherwise unused ash tray and makes a call. It only takes a second for someone to answer. "Hey, Daisy," Spyro smiles. "Yeah, we just got to town. Where are we going? ... I'm not driving my loaded truck to the pond. ... Everyone's!" I can hear Daisy laughing through the phone from here, and it almost makes me laugh too. "Some, yeah. ... Oh for the love of..." Spyro shakes his head hopelessly. "Okay, let's just meet at Grandma's house. ... Okay, see you soon." He hangs up the phone, putting it back where he got it.

"We're going to your grandma's house?"

Spyro nods, "She'll feed us, and she'll love you. The others are going to meet us there. Apparently they forgot we'd be arriving today and went down to the pond," he rolls his eyes, but he's smiling.

It only takes a few minutes to drive through the small town of Fall River. The window's been rolled down practically the entire trip, and now I cross my arms over the opening in the door and lean on them as well as I can with the seatbelt cutting into me. There's a click, and the seatbelt loosens suddenly. I glance down to see Spyro had unfastened it for me.

"You're probably safer hanging out the window than getting strangled by the seatbelt," he comments with a smile. I can't help but smile too, as I turn away again to look out the window, leaning forward so that I can stick my head out the window and look around with almost no restriction.

When we exit the main part of town, we're surrounded by trees of the forest. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, basking in the scent of the woods. But after only a moment, I open my eyes again, wanting to see the trees for myself.

I untangle myself from the loose seat belt and pull myself up and partway out of the truck, sitting on the base of the window's opening. I keep one hand gripped on the emergency grab bar inside the truck, resting my other hand on the edge of the truck's roof.

The wind rushes past me, blowing my hair, pulling strands free from my braid. Spyro turns a corner and the rest of the world disappears. All I can see are trees, everywhere, all around me. And above me, a strip of open blue sky showing between the masses of green leaves. In some places, the trees closed in so closely around us that I could reach out my hand and feel the leaves slapping against my skin.

When I finally see houses ahead, I lower myself back into the truck, letting out a breath that it feels like I've been holding for months.

"Doing okay?" Spyro asks, glancing at me.

I nod, and realize I'm smiling. "I'm good," I tell him, the truth tasting sweet and almost soothing my throat as I say them. "I'm good," I repeat, whispering it this time. Spyro looks at me for the few seconds his position as driver will allow, and he looks so happy. Truly, blissfully happy. The kind of happy I forgot even existed.