Mountain of Memories

5. The Beginning

Billy and Charlie had come outside to say goodbye to Winston as he got ready to leave. 

The caravan was packed with extra supplies and Charlie's bags. She still hadn't told Billy she was also planning to leave. The three of them stood outside by the caravan. 

"Remember Winston. You're uncle left you the caravan because he thought you could do great things with it." Winston doubted that. He was closer to his uncle than he was to anyone else in the family, but they would often go months without seeing each other. She pressed a light pink stone into his palm. "This will bring you good luck. Keep it in your pocket always. If you feel like you need more good luck, stick it into your mouth and suck on it."

Winston wrinkled his nose, thinking of the number of people who must've sucked on this rock before it landed into his hand. 

"Thanks" He didn't really feel thankful, but he felt like it was the right thing to say. His eyes flickered over to Charlie. 

She was shifting her weight from foot to foot and biting her lip again. He caught her eye before she quickly looked away and back to Billy. She took a step forward and quickly blurted out, 

"I'm going too. You can't stop me - I packed my stuff." Billy's face turned almost as red as Charlie's hair. 

"Young wizard, you will not be leaving this island."

"Yes I am. I'll be back soon, my family doesn't need to know. Goodbye and thanks for everything!" 

With the note of finality, she grabbed onto Winston's hand and dragged him after her into the caravan. 

Billy called after him, "Winston, don't you dare leave this island with that girl!"

He mouthed the words "sorry" before Billy shut the front of the caravan door.

"I didn't even get the chance to say 'thank you' before you, oh so rudely, dragged me in here"

"Winston you said I could come. If you don't fly this thing right now she's going to barge in here and drag me out by the hair. It's time to go."

With a sigh, he dropped himself into the driver's seat and fastened his seat belt. She followed suit in the passenger seat. 

Winston quickly powered up the caravan, flipping switches and turning on the engine. A minute later, they were jerking violently in the air, suddenly switching from going left to right before Winston was finally able to level the caravan and fly smoothly. 

"Great Wizard! If I knew I was going to die by your terrible driving I never would've asked to go with you! Do you even know how to fly this thing?" Charlie gripped the seat belt that crossed her chest so hard her knuckles had turned white. 

Winston felt heat rise to his cheeks. She had a point, his take offs and landings were very janky, he suddenly regretted not practicing more before leaving his home. His parents were right, he had no where near enough experience. 

"Where exactly are we going?"

"You haven't thought about it yet? This is your adventure. Have you even picked a task to complete yet? Growing Up or Dog Memory."

Winston felt more heat rise to his cheeks as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn't thought about it at all. He had been too busy last night thinking about what it would be like to live with a girl. 

In a panic he blurted, "Growing Up. Obviously. I just don't know what memories need to be collected for that."

She nodded her head at that. 

"Right well. How much growing up have you done? I've done lots." She stared at him expectantly and he gave her a half-hearted shrug. 

The more he talked to her the more he realized he really had no idea what he was doing. He was just some nonmagic believer who had suddenly decided three months ago that he would go on a wizarding adventure regardless of not knowing anything. 

"Am I going to have to do all the thinking?" She rolled her eyes and picked at a fingernail. "Obviously, the most important part about growing up is about finding a job so you can be independent and live by yourself. We need a good memory for making a career path. Duh."

Winston nodded. Sounded like sound logic right there. 

"Ok, so maybe we should go to a city. A big city. A city like..." Winston stalled, thinking about his studies of maps and cities. "Nilngroth." 

"Nilngroth? Why there?" She wrinkled her nose. "Nilngroth is dirty and filled with thieves."

"Well, it's a big city and isn't a thief exactly what we want? There has to be a reason as to why they got into thievery." Charlie looked at him very intently. 

"That wasn't really what I was going for when I said we needed a solid memory about finding a job, but ok. Nilngroth it is. I just hope we don't get robbed."

She started to unbuckle her seatbelt and get up. "Can't you enchant this thing to fly on its own? Like an autopilot of sorts?"

Winston shrunk lower into his seat. 

"I'm not exactly sure how to do that"

She gave him an incredulous look. 

"Ok, if you teach me which button does what, I can enchant it for you, then we can get to figuring out where I'm going to sleep."