A few weeks went by and I tried to put Hailey out of my mind. I tried to put everything out of my mind, actually, and just focus on Hank, because he made me happy. We spent every day together, working in peoples' yards, mowing their lawns, tending their gardens, trimming their trees and shrubs. Some days we spent at home, working in Hank's gardens, planting and watering, or harvesting fruits and vegetables for his stands. My favorite days were the ones we spent driving. Sometimes we would have to drive for an hour or more just to reach one of the stands. Those were my favorite times. I'd have two uninterrupted hours with him, and we could just talk.
"So," he said one day when we were driving home after visiting one of his far-off stands, "I have a little surprise for you today." He looked over at me, eyes twinkling.
"What kind of surprise?"
"Just a surprise. Forget it, forget it, I shouldn't have even said anything." He slapped the steering wheel lightly. "I wasn't even gonna say anything. Just whatever, just wait and see ok? But we're not going right home, if that's ok."
"Ok." I looked out the window, at the rolling grasslands I had become accustomed to and had even grown to love.
"You're gonna love it, though."
I looked over at him and he was shaking his head and trying to contain his grin. "Do you want it to be a surprise or do you want to tell me right now?" I asked, feigning annoyance.
"No, no, I want it to be a surprise. It's just cool. I'm excited for you to see it." He ran a hand through his hair, which had grown a little longer since I'd first met him.
"Oh, so it's something I see?" I prodded.
"No. Yes. Just forget it ok?" He let out a loud laugh that filled the cabin of the truck. I reached over to turn on the radio, knowing that he would flick my hand away as soon as he saw me going for it.
"Leave it."
"Why can't we ever listen to anything?"
"Because it doesn't work right!" He shouted. I knew he wasn't mad, though. We'd had this conversation a dozen times. "I gotta fix it, just leave it!" He shoved me away playfully and my body slammed hard into the door. "Oh! Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to-"
"Sure you didn't," I said sarcastically. "Suuuuuure ya didn't." I turned back to the window, looking out, trying to see an end to the great expanse of land that spread out on all sides of us. I loved the Nebraska roads. They were always empty. It was easy to imagine we were in a post-apocalyptic world, speeding toward some unknown destiny-death or salvation. I could have rolled the window down, stuck my body halfway out, and screamed at the top of my lungs, and no one would notice, except maybe for Hank. It was nothing like Evanston, with its big box stores and fancy downtown shops and restaurants, or its beautiful sprawling Northwestern campus. It was certainly nothing like Chicago, with its traffic and bums and towering buildings. Sometimes I missed Chicago, the way I could walk around for hours, ducking into bookstores and gift shops and museums, getting lost in them, or watching tourists take pictures in front of city landmarks and feeling like, in some strange way, I was a part of the memory they were making. I missed looking out at Lake Michigan, watching the ships come in and out in the summer or watching the huge chunks of ice bump up against each other in the winter. But there was a different beauty to Nebraska-it was beautiful the way a house, when it gets quiet in the afternoon and sunlight slants in through the window illuminating dust particles in the air, is beautiful. It was peaceful.
"Are you ok?" Hank asked, distracting me from my thoughts.
"I'm fine." I sighed deeply and leaned back into my seat, closing my eyes and focusing on the motion of the truck.
YOU ARE READING
Nebraska Stars
Teen Fiction"It was just one kiss. It only lasted a moment, and when we pulled away, reality came rushing back. I could see it on his face. He stepped away from me and even though we were only inches apart, I felt like I was standing across a raging river from...
