Vanagon

Life

Sun rising, another morning with the noise of traffic in the city. Lucy begins to wake up in her empty apartment. A deep sigh and a tear, yesterday was her nineteenth birthday. Another birthday spent alone with weed, molly, xanax, coke, and a razor blade. Her arm covered in fresh stinging tally marks. Her body tired from the drugs, she gets up. Changing into the only other pair of clothes she has, swallows a pill, packs her clothes and leaves. This will be her last drug bender. She begins her walk to a bone yard. It's been weeks since she had bought an old 1970's Volkswagen vanagon. The only thing she could afford as a "new" car. For months she had planned a trip around the U.S. in a hopeless way to get clean. She procrastinated the trip till she finally set eyes on the van. As she arrived at the bone yard the gate was closed. Annoyed she pulled out her phone and dialed Frank.

".....Frankie here" He answered tiredly

"Yo, it's eleven dude. I'm outside-"

"Oh shit-" *beeeeep*

He hung up, now what was Lucy to do? She did what she new best, swallowed another pill and observed her surrounding.
"Last one....maybe" she told herself.
Cars piled on top of each other, rusted, old, new, crashed, all sorts of cars. She looked at it, as if it was a canvas, someone had taken bright colors and just mixed till it became muddy. That's what this was, a muddy canvas that was once beautiful vibrant colors. Each car with a different life, now she would be giving the Volkswagen a new one. As the pills affects her senses she floats. She had forgotten her feet, the cold day, the backpack hanging on her shoulder. She wasn't staring at the bone yard anymore, but a memory in the distance. Her on a paddle board, in an endless lake. The warmth of the sun kissing her face. The sound of children giggling, splashing in the water-

"Morning Lucy"

A voice interrupts her memory, she blinks a few times. Feeling the weight of the world again, she responds.

"Hey Frank, what happened?"

"Sorry about that Luz, had one to many drinks last night"

He said as he walked towards the gate, the clanking of metal made him wince. The smell of alcohol seeping from his pores.

"If you need any spare parts for the car you can grab, or anything you want from the bone yard for your art."

"Thanks Frank I'll hold that offer for later on."

"No problem, no one uses this shit either way."

"Like my new van?" She said jokingly

"Oh you know what I mean Luz."

He struggled with the gate further more, till the rusty lock gave in with a few tugs.

"I moved it so it would be easier to drive out, I think I brought a tank of gas too."

"You didn't have to do that Frank."

Lucy began to pull out her wallet.

"Don't Luz, the gas is on me. I would prefer one of your famous massages than cash. I'm all knotted up from last night."

Frank said as he rubbed his neck to relieve the pain of the result from sleeping on the floor. Being fifty-one didn't help much either. They began to walk, Lucy following Frank to her new car. Well new to her, the perfect car to travel in. A mobile home to sleep, to call her home for the next few years perhaps. The Volkswagen started to come into view, she smiled.

"Here are the keys."

Frank began to fumble once more with the chains of keys. Lucy walked around her van, finding a triangle window that could be opened from the outisde by pressing her hand in the lower corner. She reached her arm in, unlocked the passenger door. She stared in awe, a bit of cleaning and decoration would make this old van perfect.