Don't Forget to Write

Have You Ever Read "The World is Yours" on a Blimp?

The day after Christmas I took the Chevelle to the DMV and got it registered. That night, when I left for New York City, I hugged my mom, kissed her on the head, and told her I loved her.

I pulled into a parking spot near the apartment, making sure that there was nothing in it that somebody would break in to steal, like loose change or electronics, and walked home. All of my friends, including Milo, were still out of town. I was the only person in this crowded city. I drank whiskey and ate pizza while I finished reading The Alchemist. Karen had scribbled a note at the end of it. First, she had written To Peter, my favorite Grinch, then two quotes from the book: "It is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting," and "The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and get up eight times." Then underneath, May the universe guide you to wherever you're meant to be. You are meant for greatness, I'm sure of it, as long as you allow yourself to make it there. Love always, Karen.

Whenever you finish a good book, you must sit back and reflect on the work. On the quotes that made you think deeply about life and your place in it. On the characters who we wanted to meet. On the places from the book that we wanted to see and travel to. On all of the small details that make a story so great. So I was lying there, thinking about all of it, and things became clear. I needed to be more like the boy from The Alchemist.

I opened an old journal I kept from when I was 16, I had found it in my old bedroom, and flipped to my favorite page:

"Places I Will Go When I Get My License"

Asheville, The Everglades, Boulder, L.A., Montreal, Austin, Yellowstone National Park (if the volcano hasn't erupted), Seattle, Savannah, Mt. Rushmore...

The list went on and on. I had this idea as a teen that once I had a car I would jump out into the world and travel, without fear of being broke or being in danger. Somehow, I had let that dream fade away.

My life in New York had been completely different from the one that I knew. Everywhere else must be different, too. There was so much to see, so much to learn that no book or professor could ever teach. I thought of that sprawling underground spiderweb of Penn Station, with its hundreds of trains, all ready to take you anywhere in the whole damn country within hours. And the roads and highways going in and around the city, they could all bring me just about anywhere on the continent, if I wanted them to.

When Bruno and Moose got back to the apartment, I walked them out to the street, now damp from the light drizzle that was falling, and I held my hands up in front of the Chevelle.

"...A car?" Bruno asked, eyebrows skewed.

"Yes!"

"But... why? The subway terminal is like five blocks away."

"It was my dad's."

"Oh, man Pete. That's amazing. It's a cool car too man. Some classic American muscle, eh?"

"Real fucking cool," Moose agreed.

"Moose, have you found a place yet?"

He was thrown off by the sudden change of topic, then said "Nothing in my price range."

"Take my room."

They both looked at me. "What do you mean?"

"Look, I can't go back to this school. I have no idea what I want to do with my future. My life is a fucking mess right now. I'm hitting the road. I've always wanted to, and why not now?"

"I thought you were going to go to a different school? You were doing great! You made the Dean's List before all of that honors system nonsense!" Bruno said, "You're just gonna stop pursuing it?"

"Good grades don't necessarily mean I'd make a good engineer, you taught me that," I said.

He squinted and pointed a finger at me, and held it there for a brief moment before realizing that I was right. "But... what are you going to do?"

"Drive."

"Where?"

"South, somewhere warmer."

Bruno's jaw was gaping. "'Somewhere warmer,' he says. Are you fucking with me?"

"I am not."

He shook his head. "You're seriously just going to drive off?"

"Yes."

"No plan? No itinerary? No food? No idea what the fuck you are even doing?"

"I have some food, and the plan is to cross some of these off of the list," I showed him my old journal entry. He looked at me for a while. "I just gotta Bruno, ya know? I just gotta."

"Alright, alright. Man knows what he wants, I guess. But let me ask you..." He asked a million questions, interrogating me as if he were my older brother, asking how I would afford it, what would I eat, what was my plan, what if it got too cold, what if I got to hot, on and on and on. "And what about mileage? This car gets like 8 miles to the gallon."

"My dad modified it to get about 20."

"And there's no room to sleep in there!"

"The back row is pretty comfy, besides there will be campgrounds and AirBnBs and motels."

He refuted me on every point. I explained (a few times) that I could continue my business from my laptop through a handful of referrals that had landed me clientele in other colleges, and that I had a safety bundle of cash from all of the papers I had written during finals, and that I was tough enough to rough it on the road.

"Okay. Alright. I can't change your mind. I still think it's a crazy to be doing right now, in the middle of the god damn winter, but hey, to each his own."

"Right now might be the only chance I get."

"You sure this thing will make it? Seems a bit, uhh," he looked at the rust on the fenders, "outdated."

"It'll be fine."

He let out a sigh. "Listen, if you change your mind I'll kick Mustafa out any day."

"Yeah, yeah," Moose said. "You done with the questions dad? Geez. Let the man chase a dream, let him frolic in the gardens of his youth, damn it. When are you leaving, Pete?"

"I think I'll stick around for New Year's, and head out the next day or so."

"It's settled, then. New York's adopted son is leaving our fair city, off on a perilous adventure in search of things unknown," Moose said. Sometimes, he had a real knack for words. I feel like I didn't appreciate that enough about him.

"Yeah. Something like that, anyway. I'm gonna get some booze, need anything?"

"Just enough alcohol for the three of us."