Preacher's Daughter - Ethan Jailer (First Draft)

6. Thoroughfare (pt. 1)

"And you said, 'Hey,
do you wanna see the west with me?'"

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    Ethel looked up at the voice she had heard through the truck window. Her eyes met a normal-enough looking man; he looked a little older than her with a bright gaze and soft demeanor.
    "Hi..."
    Ethel replied softly, her hand gripping the handle of the pistol stuffed into her pocket. She had learned to not trust anyone.
    "Well don't be scared of me," the mysterious man said with a smirk. Something about him peaked Ethel's interest; he was something different.
"The name's Isaiah. What's yours?"
"It's Ethel. Ethel Cain."
The grip her hand had on the pistol weakened as she stepped closer to the open window of his truck.
"Whatcha doin' out here all alone? You alright?" He asked, his brown doe eyes staring into Ethel's in a way that brought a strange sensation upon her.
"I'm— I'm alright, just trying to get somewhere," Ethel said, her lips twisting into a small smile as she looked out into the otherwise empty road ahead of her.
"Why don'tcha hop in? I'll take you anywhere you need."
Every fibre of Ethel's consciousness told her that getting into a stranger's truck was a god awful idea, but Isaiah was so strangely charming. His truck beats walking.
With only a moment of hesitation, Ethel opened the truck door and got in, tossing her backpack on the backseat. Isaiah reached his hand out for hers and shook it firmly.
"It's very nice to meet you, Ethel."
His voice was soft and tender; it was the first time a man had spoken to her with such ease and calmness in a long while. She felt something she has strangely felt very rarely— trust.

    Riley wiped the dried trail of tears on her cheek as she held a polaroid in her hand depicting her, Ezekiel, and Ethel when they were kids. The pain of loosing her 2 closest friends in the span of a year was almost too much to bear. She fell to the ground softly on her knees, pulling a stack of more pictures out from next to her.
Her hands spread the deck of photos she had of the three of them. Some of them when they were 12, swimming out in the lake behind Jimmy's house, all the way up to when they were 18, drinking for the first time after Riley's birthday.
She sighed for a moment before picking them all back up and putting them back in the small wooden box she kept everything she loved in. The polaroid struck the small bag of ashes before she shut the box closed.
The light calling of the neighborhood collies rang through the sky. Riley stepped out onto the decaying porch and looked out at the road, praying and hoping with every fiber of her being that Ethel was okay.

clink

The sound of something small and hard falling to the concrete caught her attention. She turned her head towards the Cain's house and saw a small shiny dot right outside the kitchen window.
Riley stepped forward and bent down, realizing the ring was a sort of engagement ring. She looked up into the window, checking if the coast was clear, before reaching for the ring and walking back to the house.
When she got onto the porch again, she looked down at the small ring on her palm. It was beautiful; woven pieces of silver wrapping around a tiny gemstone in the middle. It felt— and very much looked— expensive. I bet whoever lost this is worried sick.
As she held the ring up to the light, she noticed a small engraving in the inner side of it. The mud from the morning grass made it hard to read, so she washed it off in the kitchen sink before walking back outside and pointing it up to the light. The carefully-carved letters shone back to her, reading DAUGHTERS OF CAIN.

Ethel smiled as she reached her hand out of the truck window; the cold, evening wind weaving through her fingers as she sung her heart out to Isaiah's radio. She almost felt deja vu when she had this moment.
"I like your truck," Ethel said with a smile as she turned to Isaiah, fixing her wind-blown hair.
"Thanks, my pop gave it to me when I was 17. By that age I already knew I wanted to see it all," He said with a grin.
"Where 'ya from?"Ethel asked, his history starting to peak her interest.
"Florida, it's been a long damn time since I left," he said as he turned back to face the road.
"Why did you leave?" Ethel asked.
"I didn't have anyone left to leave," he said, a droplet of sadness emerging from his dulcet voice.
Ethel sat back, feeling a sort of connection she had with this man she just met. Both runaways from a family that no longer needed them.
"Hey... do 'ya wanna see the west with me?"
Ethel turned, staring at Isaiah for a moment as she processed the question.
"Love's out there, 'ya know. And I gotta find it," he continued, a smirk forming from his lips. Ethel had felt that this was meant to be; everything that happened happened for the sole purpose of bringing her to this person.
"I'm bad at love," Ethel said as she looked out of the window, her eyes meeting her reflection as she thought about the previous lovers who got away.
"But I'll come along for the ride if 'ya want me to," she continued with a smile as as she turned to him. He paralleled her grin as she chuckled and sped up, and they began their journey to the city of angels.

Her fingers twiddled around the ring as her free hand rung the doorbell to the Cain's house, returning back to her other as Riley stood patiently. Her eyes wandered around the porch, looking around the peeling mint-colored paint and finding their way to the doorbell itself. She noticed a small symbol engraved on the top of it, that looked so strangely familiar. She leaned a little closer into the frame of the button; it was mainly rusted over but the symbol still appeared very deeply carved in. Where have I seen this before?
Just then, the preacher's wife swung the door open. Her eyes were glassy and tired, as if she had been crying them out all night.
"Hello, Riley."
Her voice was cracked and hurt.
"Hello, um... I was wondering if this belonged to you."
Riley watched as the preacher's wife stepped closer to the palm she reached out. Her eyes widened as she turned back up to Riley.
"Where did you find this?"
"I- I found it outside your kitchen window."
The preacher's wife snatched the ring from the girl's hand before stepping back.
"Thank you, I was wondering where I- I left this..."
The older woman's eyes glistened down at the ring in her hand, admiring it closely. The confused girl had her mouth slightly agape as she looked up.
"It- was no problem."
Without a goodbye, the woman shut the door on Riley, as the younger girl stood there for a second. She then turned her attention back to the doorbell, realizing that the symbol engraved on it was the same symbol formed from the strings of silver on the ring she just gave back.

As the night sky approached, Isaiah pulled into a small motel in the town of Lubbock, Texas. They had driven the entire day, reaching closer and closer to the destination of their dreams.
"Well, first stop 'till paradise."
Ethel grinned at his words, stepping out carefully. She grabbed her backpack from the backseat, swinging it over her shoulder as the two stepped into the front lobby. After checking in, Isaiah grabbed the keys and led Ethel to their room.
Ethel had felt she had made the best possible decision she could have on that thoroughfare. Her new friend opened the door wide as she walked into the room and jumped onto her designated bed. She melted into the sheets, feeling tiredness overtake her entire body.
"Goodnight, Ethel Cain." Isaiah said with that same giddy expression as he got into his own bed, and Ethel drifted off as she looked out the motel window. A dead tree's branches in the distance wove at her under the moon's pale light as she fell asleep and dreamt of California.

The next morning, Riley woke up to the sound of rain crashing down onto the roof. She rubbed her eyes, peering out into the foggy, early morning through the window. As the days grew longer, her worry only intensified. Where are you.
She sat on the side of her bed right next to the window, giving her a view of the Cain's house with a beautiful skyline behind it. The skies were a muddy blue with hints of faint sunlight trying to beam through the clouds. She sat there, listening to the droplets come down sharply, when her eyes suddenly wandered to a figure staring back at her through the bushes behind the Cain's shed.

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