Short and Sweet is All that's Necessary

Car Trip Wednesday

"Nathan," said a blonde teenage girl. She was sitting in the backseat of a white sadan, looking expectantly across the leather seat at a blonde boy.

"Yes...." mumbled Nathan, whose face was smushed against the car window.

"Nathan," she said again, this time leaning over, against her seatbelt, to shake the little boy awake. "Nathan, wake up!"

"Go away, Enn. Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?" replied Nathan. He turned his face slightly to glare at his sister, revealing the large red mark on the side of his face from leaning against the window for too long. Then, he let his face slap back on to the window and closed his eyes.

The girl rolled her eyes, and then jumped when the car ran over a particularly large pothole that caused the whole car to lurch.

Suddenly, Nathan's eyes popped open like a light being turned on--they were wide and angry.

"Cheyenne, what do you think you're doing? Can't anyone just get some sleep around here anymore?" Nathan said, his eyes flaring and mouth turned down in what was supposed to be a menacing frown, but it just didn't sit well on the little boy's chubby cheeks.

Instead of being intimidated, however, Cheyenne smirked, and pushed down the cowlick sticking straight up on her brother's head.

"That wasn't me, silly," she said. "The car just went over a bump."

"Oh," said Nathan thoughtfully, and then turned his head to look out the window.

"Anyway," Cheyenne prompted, "Mom wanted me to wake you up because, apparently, we're going to see something very important."

"Yes, sweetheart, it's very fascinating," said the woman who had just twisted around in the passenger seat, her blonde hair falling around the side of the seat, and her deep blue eyes twinkling brightly as she looked at her children before her. "I think you'll enjoy it. It'll be the coolest thing you've seen on Car Trip Wednesday!"

"Car Trip Wednesday?" said Cheyenne, frowning.

"Yes," confirmed her mother. "You see," she reasoned, "we're going on a car trip, and it's Wednesday."

"Cool, Mom."

"The only fascinating thing I'd like to see right now is the back of my eyelids," muttered the little boy under his breath. Unfortunately, even though his mother had not heard him, his sister had caught it and shot him a glare.

"Be respectful," she hissed. Nathan shrugged and looked out the window, just to have his breath taken away.

His eyes started at the base of the gigantic--mountain, was it?--and traveled up and up until they reached the ridged top that was meters and meters up in the air. It seemed to be made of layers and layers of different kinds of rock, creating a cool, rippling effect. Different shades of red and brown, separated by layers of other shades, piled on top of one another. It was like looking at a cake made by using different types of batter for each part.

Cheyenne smirked at him, clearly believing he was amazed by the view, therefore proving that it truly was worth waking up. Even though it had been worth waking up for, Nathan could never give his sister the satisfaction of being right.

"Yeah, it was okay, I guess, but I'd rather sleep," Nathan lied, and smacked his face against the window again. There was a moment of total silence. It was almost eerie.

Almost the second Nathan's eyes snapped closed, the car swerved way to the right. He could hear his sister and his mother screaming in his subconscious, but other than that, he was dead to the world--he was paralyzed in fear.