rag doll | TWD

[3] cherokee rose

peace of mind --- boston

♮♮♮
[JJ]

Maggie and I were catching up, well, manly talking shit and sitting on the front porch like we used to in the summer.

I spent many summers here once Maggie and I became friends. The memories here ranged from rope swinging into the lake, to sleeping on the pool table at the small, downtown bar Hatlin's.

I loved spending summers here. The Greene's treated me like their own. 

"It's interesting. Seeing the family you'd always talk about." Maggie told me, talking about Rick. "I know so much about your brother and he doesn't know shit about me."

"Yeah. Well, technically, all the talk about him and Lori was shit talk." I pursed my lips, "Even after not feeling like family, I still love 'em. I was so mad at him, but now, it's like I can't even remember what I was mad about."

"Oh, I do. It's all you used to talk about when throwing darts." She joked, "But the world's changed. Need family more than anything."

I nodded, watching as part of the group gathering around an old, blue, pick-up truck. 

"Guess JJ Grimes has a good ring to it, too."

My head turned toward Maggie, "Yeah, sorry about lying."

"Was that legal?"

"What?" 

"Signing the lease with a condensed version of your name."

I scoffed, shrugging, "no."

Maggie shook her head, laughing. 

My eyes wandered back to the group, "What's going on over there?"

"One of their group member's daughters is missing. She's Carl's age. We told them we'd help where we could. Patricia's getting that map out now."

"Hope they find her. Must be terrifying for her, and her mom."

"Me too." Maggie looked over, "Speaking of, you suck at directions, how'd you find this place without your GPS?"

I rolled my eyes and deadpanned, "a damn paper map. You know how hard it is to drive and try to find directions on a paper map?" Maggie laughed. "I mean, shit. It was worse than when we got lost going to that new venue we were playing at."

"And we ended up in some po-dunk town in only God-knows Alabama."

I scoffed, "bet that's where Daryl's from."

Maggie loudly laughed at my remark.

"Here you go, Maggie." Patricia walked out the door, handing her the folded-up map. "Hi, JJ."

I softly smiled, "Hey. Sorry about Otis. I always liked playing guitar with him."

"Yeah, you two could play a great rendition on Bless the Broken Road. Always loved it when you two played that one."

"Yeah. That was one of my favorites."

Maggie stood up, holding the map, "Come on. Let's go see if we can help with that missing girl."

We walked up mid-conversation to Hershel asking, "how long has this girl been lost?"

"This'll be day three." Rick informed. 

Maggie outstretched the map on the hood of the truck, "county survey map. Shows terrain and elevations."

"This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organized." Rick said. "We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."