The Fugitive Grandma

Chapter 55 - Postcards from the Edge

Johnny lay awake at night in the mountains, warm in his sleeping bag, scanning the sky’s sea of stars. He used to imagine himself being transported to a faraway galaxy where anything was possible.

Now he was in the faraway galaxy, and anything was possible.

In the past week his dream had come true. He’d seen the unthinkable happen right before his eyes. He laid claim to a new reality. There was no turning back. And yet, he wondered about the people who hadn’t made the journey with him.

Johnny thought about his father and realized that he missed him. He wished he could see him again.

He also thought about Sabrina, the only kid who had ever cared about him.

Johnny was still awake when the birds in the forest started chirping, just before the first light of morning. His grandmother was sleeping in Elmer’s RV nearby and he guessed she wouldn’t be awake for another hour. He got up and walked along a dirt trail that led out to the main campground, noticing that the ranger’s station at the entrance was empty. Finally, he reached the two-lane asphalt road that climbed up from the freeway and spanned the mountain.

A half mile farther down the road, he peered through the window of the local general store next to a gas station. On the porch beside the store entrance he noticed a vending machine with postcards depicting scenic views of the mountain and lake, and a smaller machine with postage stamps.

Johnny dug into his pockets for change, selected a postcard and a stamp, and then scrawled out a quick message. He addressed the card and slipped it into the old-fashioned blue mailbox nearby.

Checking again to make sure no one was around to see him, he dashed down the dirt trail and back to the RV. To his surprise, his grandmother was not only awake, but already cooking pancakes on the Coleman stove.

“G’morning, Johnny, where’ve you been off to so early?”

“Just a walk in the woods. I wanted to get out and make sure we were still alone.”

“Good.” She flipped a cake on the griddle. “It’s the off-season, but I’m glad you’re taking proper precautions. You never know what might bring someone back to these parts.”

Johnny sat at a fold-out table and Stella set a stack of pancakes on a paper plate in front of him.

“Eat up. It’s going to be another busy day. We have one last job to do, Grandson, and then we’re home free. This last one may be the toughest yet.”

Johnny grabbed a bear-shaped plastic bottle and squeezed honey on top of his pancakes. “What do you have in mind?”

“Johnny, in football this is what they call a Hail Mary. It’s late in the game, the home team is down by less than a touchdown, and a few seconds are left on the clock. The quarterback has to pass the ball the length of the field and hope a receiver’s there to catch it and score. We’re the home team, Johnny. We have to think big, even though the odds may be against an underdog like ourselves.”

Johnny frowned. “But we already hit the store, Grandma. We hit the trucks. We still didn’t find any Helixin. What can we do that we haven’t already done?”

“There’s one play left in the playbook, Johnny. And based on what I’ve seen so far, I think Lowry’s too dumb and arrogant to see this one coming. So we can catch him by surprise one last time.”