I'm Comin' Home To You

Chapter Six

“Lucille?” I whispered, tapping on her window. I stood on a pile of crates outside her room, a cigarette in one hand, my pack on my back and my guitar in it's case, in my hand. “Ready?”

“Hold on.” She hissed, and then “Catch!” A bag flew out the window, and I caught it. “Got it?”

“Yep. What else are you bringing?”

“My guitar and nothing else.”

“All right, we had the same idea – pack light.” I let out a soft chuckle and moved off the crate, grabbing Lucille's guitar as she passed it through the window. Next came Lucille, hair tied back in a ponytail, a few strands falling into her face as she quietly grunted through her window. When she was out, she straitened up. She was wearing all black and I chuckled.

“What?” She looked up at me from smoothing out her shirt.

“Just thinking that if we were in a better neighborhood, someone might think we were robbin' the place.”

She gave me a look, cocking her head to one side. “You truly are a weird one, aren't you?” She giggled and picked her back and guitar up.

As we started walking, I finished my cigarette. “You sure you're ready? Really wanna do this?”

“No going back now. And yes, even if there were going back, I wouldn't want to. My dad... My dad hit my mom again tonight. That solidified this idea in my mind.”

“I'm sorry.”

“It's fine. She'll either leave him or he'll die. I love him, he's a great guy. But when he drinks...”

“I know. My step-dad is the same. I have called the cops on him more than once. And yet, my mother still takes him back. Accuses me of trying to 'ruin her family'.” I scoffed. “Yeah, coz that is what my life centers around. I am so tired of them drinking and smoking, telling me I can't smoke, and then getting into fucking fights.” I sighed.

“I'm sorry hun. At least we are out now. Now,” she stopped and I turned to face her.

“What?”

“Where are we going?”

I thought about it. We had our guitars so our way of earning money would be a big city. We had narrowed our options to 3 cities – Seattle, Portland, and Eugene. Now to choose one.

“Well, we are closest to Portland, so let's head there first.”

“All right.” It was going to be a long walk, of that I knew. We started walking in silence.

§§§§§§

After about 3 miles, I stopped and sat down, right on the edge of the highway. “Fuck I am tired. My feet hurt, I am freezing my ass off, and I am thirsty. How much water did you bring?”

“Just a couple of water bottles. It's all I could get. You?” Lucille sat next to me.

“Same.” I pulled a bottle out of my pack and took a small sip. “We have to conserve it because we don't know when we will get more. Here,” I handed the bottle over. She took a small sip too then handed it back to me. “All right, how about this. We are here, on the edge of the highway, in the middle of the Oregon woods. Let's hike in a little ways and take a nap. I will set an alarm on my watch for 3 hours. We can take shifts maybe, each sleep for 3 hours?”

“Sounds good to me, I'm beat.”

“I'll take first shift.” I stood and helped Lucille up. We turned around and hiked a few minutes into the woods. We could still hear cars as the, sparsely, passed by on the highway. Lucille settled onto the ground. I pulled out a silver blanket, the kind NASA used, and laid it over her.

“Whoa, good idea! Where'd you get this?”

“My good friend, Marcus.” I smiled. “Now shh, sleep.” I let out a croak of a laugh.

“All right. We'll have to make sure to thank Marcus when we get back. If we get back.” She set her pack under her head for a pillow and was asleep, softly snoring, within minutes.

I slipped off my shoes to massage my sore feet.

§§§§§§

Three hours later, the beeping of my alarm woke Lucille up. She sat up, rubbing her eyes with her fingers and stretching. I reached over and brushed some hair behind her ear.

“I made you breakfast.” I handed her a bag of trail mix and some beef jerky. “Well, I pulled it out of my bag.” We laughed together and sat watching the sun peek through the trees on the horizon. “I'm tired, I'm gonna take a nap. Only an hour though; we need to get walking soon.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” I curled up with my pack under my head and the blanket over me. I was out the second I closed my eyes.

§§§§§§

I woke to the beeping of my watch. Lucille was sitting under a tree, reading a book – Girl, Interrupted.

“You brought a book along?”

“Yeah, a few. How'd you sleep, love?” She looked up from her reading, dog-earring the page she was one.

“As good as one can while laying on rocks and sticks.” She laughed. “Glad you find my discomfort amusing.” I glared at her, but smile played at my lips.

“Always.” she smiled back at me. I felt an overwhelming urge to kiss her. So I did.

I stood up and walked over to where she sat, sat in her lap, and kissed her. She kissed back, setting her book blindly to one side. I ran my fingers through her tangled hair. She wrapped her arms around my waist, sliding her hands lightly up and down my back and digging her nails lightly in. I moaned into her mouth.

“If you don't stop now” gasp “we aren't gonna stop at all.” I pulled away. “WE can't have sex in the middle of the woods.”

“That's right you can't.” Growled a man from behind us. I heard a shotgun load and put my hands up. I stood up, carefully and not without difficulty, my heart pounding for an entirely different reason than it had been 30 seconds ago.

“Sir, if we can just grab our stuff, we'll be gone. Swear.”

“Get it. And go. And if you queer bitches ever trespass on my property again, I will call the police and press charges.”

We hurried and gathered up our stuff and rushed towards the highway, the man following us with the rifle the entire way. Once we got out to the highway again, I spoke.

“Shit, that was close.” We both dissolved into nervous giggles and I noted the red “DO NOT TRESPASS” sign stapled to a tree. I made a mental note to look out for them in the future. “We need to find a ride.”