A Road Less Traveled.

7 minutes

7 minutes. That's how long we sat there in silence, waiting for Danny to respond to what he just heard. It was pretty agonizing. Devon and I were both afraid to speak after the tape ended. I'm pretty sure DAnny needed time to process what he just heard, but 7 minutes was too long. I swear, I thought he grew some chin hairs in that amount of time.

"So that was dad"?

My jaw dropped at his question. He seemed more so confused than shocked. "Yes, you idiot!" I said a little louder. Maybe I should try to be a little more nicer, but his stupidity amazes me sometimes.

"Hey, chill out, I'm just trying to figure this out". We both took a deep breath.

"Well, maybe you guys should try figuring it out a little faster", Devon suddenly intruded.

"What do you mean? Oh and why the hell are you here"? Danny asked sitting up and glaring at Devon.

I held a hand up at each of them. "Hey, be nice", I said to Danny. "He was with me when I found the tape. It's not like I could of hid it from him. His Aunt Lea had it in her file cabinet. It also had files of Dad and.... mom", I mentioned with a gulp as I said those last words.

"Mom? Why her?", He asked suddenly a lot more interested. Danny had always been closer to mom, while I was a Daddy's girl.

"I don't know. I couldn't really understand what it was saying, and I didn't have much time to look through them".

"Speaking of time, you guys should really decide what you are going to do about this. Eventually my Aunt will notice that the tape is missing and she'll come after you guys. What's on that is pretty serious". Devon had a good point. There was no way we could stay here. When Lea finds out the tape in gone, then it would be obvious that I was the one who took it, considering she caught us in her office after the drill.

"Devon's right, Danny. We have to do something", I explained.

He stood up and started pacing. He was a Pacer. I wanted to complain, but in difficult situations, so was I.

"Well, what should we do?" He asked seeming lost.

"In, the tape, in mentioned a location. The cabin. Remember that cabin Danny?" I asked. I knew of the cabin, but getting there was another thing. Though Danny had been there a lot more than me, considering he spent weekends out there with grandpa often in the summer.

He shook his head. "Yeah. It's in Missouri though. Were all the way across the country. We could never make it. Besides we've never been out of Westward without Dad, and have never gone farther than a few miles".

I groaned at his negativity. "Well we have no choice. We have to find him!"

"It's been three months, Rainy. How do we know he is still there"?

"I don't know". It was true. I had no idea if my dad was still there. But I had hope that something would be there that would lead me to dad. Hopefully life could make it easy on us, and have him there sitting on the couch with a bag of cheetos and a beer.

"This is so difficult. Dad isn't a traitor? Right?"

Devon stepped in and put a hand on my shoulders. "Guys, I understand how confusing this must be, but it will be dark in couple of hours, and my suggestion is to leave tonight, before my Aunt can even get to you".

"Tonight"? Danny looked at Devon. "We can't? We have no weapons, no car, no map and certainly no way out of here"!

"Stop yelling at him"! I spit at Danny.

"Well, you're little boyfriend is a little unrealistic right now"!

"At least he's trying to be helpful. Instead of saying a million unhelpful excuses, you've been a complete ass. Don't you want to find dad, or would you rather stay here with your little Lexus." I was fed up with him. I loved him, but he was always trying to take the easy way out. He made excuses on why not instead of having hope.