Static

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Imogen's point of view

As it turns out, we weren't headed for Order.  The roads we took led us South, yes, but it was far too South to be Nebraska.  I hadn't wanted to ask, though.  I asumed Charlie and Corey had everything worked out and I was just being paranoid, like usual.  Also, I didn't want to stop talking to Charlie.  I hadn't seen her in three years and the reality of that had really set in deep when I wrapped my arms around her. 
      She didn't have much to say about what had happened at Order in addition to what she'd already admitted and I didn't press her.  She would tell me when we settled everything once and for all and I could focus better without the hazy fog in my mind.  The pain was gone but I felt like I was dreaming.  Everything I heard sounded faint and far away, everything I touched felt like air.  Perhaps I wasn't reacting to everything the way I would if I were totally sane.  Corey has a variation?  I felt like I got over that in a way that seemed like I didn't care at all.  But I wanted to care, I felt like I had to. I just didn't.
      Charlie and I relived memories of the past, laughing and chatting away about the time our parents forgot us at the grocery store and we raided the candy isle.  We talked about the time when eight year old Charlie won a statewide art compition and had been on TV for an interview that we still had taped.
        We talked and talked and talked and yet still, it felt like I didn't have much to say.  The zone had hollowed me out, made me emotionless except for fear and hate.  But they had forgotten to scrape the edges, and slowly, those feelings were growing back, the normal ones, like love and joy and even defiance.  But it would take time and lots of catering before I slipped back into my old self.  But I had told Blake, maybe I didn't want to become something I was before all this.  If I remembered, I might become something better, someone with a purpose cultivated from experience.  Or maybe not, but it was worth the go.
         "Corey, remember the time you watched every single Harry Potter movie in a row and tried to kill Ms. Evans with a ruler at school the next day?"  I said, laughing at the recollection.  Corey had been ten and in that Harry Potter phase where he'd read the books in a month and watched the movies in a day.  He'd been delirious the next morning.  You can imagine what happened afterward.
        "First of all, it was a wand, not a ruler," Corey objected from the backseat.  "Secondly, I didn't try to kill her, I was speaking parseltongue cause I wasn't exactly thinking straight and she looked an awful lot like a snake."  Charlie laughed and I rolled my eyes. 
        "Where are we going?"  Taylor spoke up for the first time in a while, despite the occasional chuckle at the events we shared from years past.  I had been avoiding this question but only because I didn't want to be the one to ask it or the conversation to die.  But Charlie didn't look sullen or upset at all like I thought she might.
       "I was waiting for someone to ask that!"  She called, a smile tugging wide on her lips.  I missed her so much.
        "I think it's time we go back home."  She said, tilting her head just enough to catch my eye and see the reaction I gave. 
        I smiled so wide I thought my face would be stuck there, forever grinning.  Home.  I wanted to go so bad, to see Daisy, to run up the driveway, to kick up dirt in the road, to head over to Corey's house after school, to ride rollercoasters with Charlie, to go to school, to see mom and dad.  My smile fell.
        Mom and dad. 
        "What about, we can't-" I didn't want to say it but Charlie already knew what I was talking about, clearly.  She took my hand in hers and smiled sadly.
        "We'll try to talk to them, if they're even still there.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."  She assured me but it didn't comfort me in the least.
         "Ok so...  Are we gonna drive the whole night or stop somewhere?"  Blake asked. 
        "We only have three more hours, we'll make it."  Corey says. 

          Three hours later, the roads started to thin.  Chatter in the car had died down and the wind outside had picked up, whipping against the car as we drive along.  Out the windows I see the distinct gold of dried and dead corn stalks blur as we pass.  Fields of coppery plants that hadn't made it through the winter, trees bare with branches that wound upward in skeletal forms.  Colby Kansas was much more fun in the summer, when everything was lush and green, but winter had its own kind of beauty.  Everything was exposed, not hidden behind an emerald cover.  Somehow it was prettier like that.  You saw the backbone first, what everything is really made of.
          I had my face inches from the window, my breath clouding the glass, searching for some familiar landmark so I'd know how much longer we had until my home rolled into view.
          "Charlie, is that Mr.  Scotts house?"  I asked, jabbing my finger at the glass to point out a small, flat, house painted a faded blue.  It was partially hidden by trees and tall grasses but I could make out bits and peices. 
           "Yeah.  You used to be obsessed with watching his cows after school."  Charlie said, watching me through the rearview mirror. I smiled at her and she looked away.
           "Five minuets, girl."  Corey assured.