Love Thaws: Melting

A New Home

Elsa jerked awake as the car hummed to life. She groaned and sat up before collapsing back into the seats and hiding her face.

"Sorry, I tried not to wake you," Jack apologized as he shifted the car into reverse, pulling back onto the highway.

Elsa didn't reply. She groaned again and resigned herself to look out the window. There was a stout cement wall in between the two main lanes of the highway. Planted on the cement walls were tall metal poles, splitting into two bright yellow lights, one per lane. Elsa watched as the asphalt below went from a yellow and faded to black then back to yellow with each light whizzing by.

Elsa stared up at the inky black sky above her, pierced with pinpoints of starlight. The sky never failed to amaze her, filled with mysteries and endless amounts of space. Overflowing with wonders, yet so much space, so void. The sky was ever-changing, its various colors of navy blue, black, lavender, robin's egg blue, turquoise, and a fiery tangerine painting the dome above her. Sometimes the clouds were puffy and tall, other times they were no more than mere wisps, dashed across the sky by some divine paintbrush.

Sometimes twinkling stars dangled from the heavens, sometimes the luminescent, white moon, and other times the blindingly radiant sun. Elsa observed the stars, wondering just how far away each one was. Sometimes, she caught a brief flash of starlight from a shooting star or the red pulsing lights from a plane or a constant pinpoint of light, sliding across the sky, presumably a satellite. Eventually, the sky lightened before it was illuminated by a brilliant gold. Elsa's breath hitched and her façade temporarily vanished in her awe.

Jack pulled to the side of the road, getting out. He had a screw driver and a rectangle of metal in his hand before disappearing around the back of the car. Elsa twisted in her seat, curiously observing him. He unscrewed the license plate, replacing it with the one he held in his hand before sliding back into the car seat.

"What was that for?" Elsa asked.

"Makes us harder to track."

"Is it a copy of someone else's license plate?"

"Nope."

"So the license serial number doesn't exist?"

"It does. I just, uh, created different profiles. Basically."

Elsa glanced out the window again, watching the rising sun. It was low enough that it wasn't too bright. It looked like a juicy, glowing tangerine. Elsa touched her fingertips to the cool glass, wondering how it could look so close and small, yet be so far and gargantuan. Jack let out a long yawn before restarting the car and pulling back onto the highway. Jack stopped by a gas station and they shared a packet of peanut M&Ms for breakfast. Elsa was able to drift off to sleep for a good hour. The blaring of a car horn startled her awake. She glanced out of the window. A red car whizzed by them, cutting into their lane.

"What's his problem?" Jack muttered.

Elsa glanced up at the sky, as was her new habit. It was a cornflower blue, not a cloud to be seen, the sun rising higher. Blue was such a lovely color. She watched a wooden Cracker Barrel fly by, its parking lot crammed with cars, glistening in the sunlight. She looked at the gentle rolling hills whizzing by, coated in a green forest of trees. The grass covering the ground was a blur of brown, with an occasional patch of green. A black and yellow billboard passed by, advertising the Conrade Insurance Group, Inc. With a fancy medieval 'C.'