Minna

Chapter 8

~ In which Patricia and Minna walk along a lonely road

Minna smelled warm, like the sun. Somehow the scent stuck to him even though he had been in a dirty old train car for practically three whole days. That was amazing, wasn't it? It was like the sun loved him so much it couldn't help but stick close by...

     It occurred to Patch that she had been - was being - held in Minna's arms. She figured it probably wasn't intentional, but she still didn't want him to let go. He was just as warm as her mother was, maybe even warmer... But Patch didn't want a remake of what had happened with that...

     Instead of giving Minna the opportunity, Patch pulled away first.

     She stood up straight and tall. Smoothing out her clothes, she tried to avoid looking directly at Minna. She couldn't imagine what she would see. Eventually, she just looked up. Minna was looking at her in confusion.

     "You're a lot lighter than I thought you would be." He said nonchalantly. Patch frowned.

     "Do you mean to say that I look heavy, or I lack muscle mass and am generally weak?"

     And just like that, whatever Patch had been feeling before disappeared so quickly that she thought she might've just been imagining it. She forced out a small smile.

      The train whistled. Wow, that was fast. The train was already beginning to leave. Slowly, it chugged away. The two young people watched it leave. But somewhere along the way Patch stopped looking at the train and started looking at Minna. His eyes never wavered. He stood firm, moving only his head to watch. But they couldn't stand there forever.

     Patch tugged at Minna's hand. The older boy glanced at her and then allowed her to pull him away.

     "Time to get going."

     They didn't want to go along the train tracks so they found an old, pavement cracked road parallel a little ways away. On their left side were fruit orchards while on their right side there were various fields. In the distance ahead there seemed to be a small town, probably service to the people who lived around the area.

     Birds were chirping happily on both sides of them. Was it cicadas that Patch heard? The air was musky and sweet. Patch was happy that she wore a hat. The hot sun beat onto their heads.

     "How many days?" Minna questioned as they walked along the lonely road. No cars had passed them yet. The only sounds were from the chirping and buzzing.

     "What?" Patch asked.

     "How many days have we been together?" He clarified.

     "Oh," Patch replied. "It feels like an eternity to me but it was only five days."

     "And eternity? I feel like I've known you for an eternity, but I thought we've only been together for four days." Minna squinted up at the true-blue sky.

     "Eh, no. It's been five days." Patch glanced up to where Minna was looking.

     "Oh."

     "Mhm."

    Minna was quiet after that. Patch didn't really feel like talking either.

     "Fifty-five." Minna stated eventually.

     "Fifty-five what?" Patch asked.

     "Fifty-Five days left."

     "Yep. Still a long time left. Where do you think we are in America? It would be pretty bad if we were still close by L.A." Patch thought about it. She wasn't sure, but she guessed that they were somewhere a little farther east then the state border.

     "When you said sixty days did you mean sixty days to wherever, and then sixty days back? 'Cause that would be one hundred and twenty days." Nice math, Minna.

     "What? Um, sixty days... Well I think we can do wherever it takes us. I don't really need to go to New York though," I only need to find my family, she thought to herself. Then something else occurred to her. "Minna, why do you care so much? It's only been five days..."

     Minna was quiet and didn't look at her.

     They continued to walk in silence.

     The road was pretty much deserted except for the two of them, but strangely enough Patch didn't feel lonely.

     It was such a nice day. Sure, it was hot, it was summer. Patch loved it. She felt like she was in such a good mood! She could just start spinning and dancing.

     The walk seemed so short. Every so often Patch would go over to the fields or orchards and pick some fruit. She made sure it was a small piece or slightly damaged piece and always shared with Minna. They both liked the strawberries the best.

     They might've gone miles but Patch wouldn't have realized it. They didn't talk too much. It was a soft and peaceful day. She didn't want to ruin it by quarreling.

     At the end of the road there was a town. Or a city. It was like a big town. It probably had more than one main street and even had a medium store sized Walmart. Patch found the Walmart sad.

     The two of them walked kept walking down whatever road they were on. The town was apparently called Oakville. There were tall trees on all the streets. The houses were big and nice. Cars started passing on the road more and more often.

     It wasn't a quiet, peaceful, lonely road anymore.

~~~

A bit shorter, this chapter. It's also filler preparing for the next chapter. I could've thrown it out but... I'm pretty sure that there's some kind of character thing going on here. I don't know. You tell. Me. I'm only writing it. There's really no editing going on here whatsoever.

    I got my bio grade back up. Phew. Now if I can get that extra credit song done by Monday I'll have some leeway for the next test.

Lwnichi (I have nothing more to say)

     Oh wait, I do. Yay! Second fan! This chapter is dedicated to her!