Priest

Moving On

"Just so you know, I don't hear random voices."
The Priest zipped up his bag with a finality that told Blu it wasn't open for discussion. His comment came out of nowhere, and despite the fact that she knew he had heard the voice earlier she didn't see the need in questioning.
"Okay," shouldering her bag Blu watched as the man straightened out his bed for the hundredth time that hour.

"Why are you so uneasy then?"
He paused, hand hovering over the pillowcase, "I'm..."
Her eyebrow cocked expectantly, "not?"
"Exactly."

Some fifteen minutes and a surprisingly pleasant check out later, the two were standing on damp earth outside the hotel. As Blu looked back over the building, the fear it had once conjured in her was suddenly silenced, something flickering in the sunlight above the rooftops filling her with a sense of calm instead of dread.
"So where to now?"
"Well," Blu adjusted her bag, "I've got a date with a friend in New Mexico."
Stay with her.
"New Mexico? I've never been," the Priest gave her a lopsided smile as he looked around for the taxi that had been called.
"Are you hinting at something Preacher man?"
The laugh that barrelled out of him was startlingly warm and welcoming, and much to Blu's surprise she found herself smiling at the sound of it.
"Preacher man? That's new. Not so much hinting, just general conversation, I guess. We've been through quite an ordeal in the last fourteen hours."
"Need me to hold your hand a bit more huh?"
That laugh again.
"I can't help but think that our journey isn't over."
The quintessential yellow taxi came rolling up beside them, the driver wearing mirrored glasses and a snarl to rival even the angriest of spirits.
"Well, I guess that means you're going to see New Mexico then," Blu nodded to the driver as he hauled her suitcase into the back with a carelessness only someone who was overworked and underpaid could possess.
Good.
"So," the Priest slammed the door of the cab shut as Blu climbed into the backseat beside him, "do you have a car?"

-

"You have got to be kidding me."
Blu looked across to where the Priest was staring, beaming at the car glinting in the carpark in front of them. The dirt cloud had barely cleared from the taxi and he was already marvelling at the matte black monster standing proudly before them.
"A Dodge Challenger?" his blue eyes sparkled with barely concealed joy. Something in seeing the proper, perfectly presented man before her giddy with a childish happiness made Blu feel somewhat triumphant.
"Yeah," she opened the boot, hauled her suitcase in and waited for him to do the same, "need anything out of your bag before we get going?"
He checked the pockets of his clean-cut black pants before shaking his head.
"Alright, let's do this then."

He'd never much considered himself a car man but sitting in the clean leather seats, listening to the rumbling of that engine soaring down the interstate made him realise that cars were a very special type of luxury.
"So, tell me then, Blu," the name still felt funny in his mouth, "how exactly did you come to be in possession of this car?"
She cocked an eyebrow, "what are you, a cop now?"
He smirked, settling into the seat and looking out at the vibrant land flying by, "definitely not. But this is quite the car, not exactly something that you just happen across, especially not if you're renting a car for a temporary trip."
"Quite the detective," she shifted gear, hit the gas, "I've always wanted to do an interstate trip in an American muscle car and this was just too darn pretty to leave at the hire place."
"Well, that I can certainly agree with you on."
"Alright, I have a question for you Priest. How is it that you've just suddenly decided to come on a road trip with me? Don't you have an itinerary to stick to? Some sort of God conference or something?"
There was that laugh again, provoking a grin from her as she pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes.
"God conference, I like that. No, actually I'm here of my own volition. I was on a retreat before we met, the Grand Canyon was my last stop before having some time to myself to do as I please. I have a flight out of New York in a few weeks but I left everything sort of open ended to do as I wanted."
"And road tripping with a magician is what you wanted?"
"Ah, you are a manipulator then?"
"Sorry?"
"Magicians manipulate the minds and directions of others; you call yourself a magician?"

Blu sighed heavily, over the decades there had been a number of names for what she did. Magician felt fickle, but easy to run with, especially in the situation that they were in.
"Look, I don't call myself anything. Magician is very rudimentary, trivial if you will, what I do is more than that."
"Yeah, so I've seen," he mumbled.
"Back here again are we?"
"Where?"
"Disbelief, fear..."
He interjected, "it's not fear."
"What is it then?"
The aggression in her tone was palpable. Obviously the two, despite having managed to meet on some sort of agreement, were back to the same level of caution and mistrust as when they first spoke.
He sighed heavily, arguing wasn't in his nature.
"It's just... you've just..."
Speak honestly child. You have nothing to fear.
"Unhinged your perfectly preserved bubble?"
"Not exactly," he scratched his forehead, watching as the shrubs rushed by and letting the smell of clean air fill his lungs.
"If we're going to spend the next few hours alone in this car together, I recommend speaking a bit more freely," she glanced at him, "or don't speak at all."
She was right, of course.
"Okay, everything on the line?"
"Hit me."
"You have, thrown, my understanding of the world that I thought I knew. But. I think in some ways it was what I needed. Complacency isn't a good thing and I certainly have become somewhat complacent in my lifestyle. You're a lesson for me."
"I'm a lesson? Are you kidding me?"
"God gives and he also takes away, it's not for me to question what he's teaching me but rather to just go with what he's showing me and trust the process. All in His time."

God.
Not something Blu had ever had the mind, nor the intent, to consider properly. Hearing the preacher talking about it like it was an actual living, breathing, intervening person was unsettling at best.
"Doesn't that kind of unnerve you though?" she asked shifting in her seat.
"What?"
"That everything in your own life is planned by some... some..." she couldn't even find the right word.
"Deity," he proffered an easy smile.
"Okay, deity, whatever. Isn't it weird?"
"Not really. I think it's quite comforting to know that there is a higher calling, a predetermined way of living. It gives me peace."
And there it was, peace. Peace in perfectly manufactured perceptions.
Blu had never had that. Her life had been anything but planned and peaceful.
"Well," she clicked her fingers, sparking the radio into life, "each to their own I guess."