Verial 147

Chapter 6: William Greenburg

"Jupiter, come on!" Will yells out at me from his tiny blue bike. His feet are rotating on his broken plastic petals a mile a minute. He turns his head to me quickly to look back, causing him to shift onto the road a little bit, but as he turns back forward he returns to the gravel. 

I smile to myself, "Will, try to stay on the road!"

He turns around to me again as he gets off his bike to walk it up the hill in front of us. His toothless grin makes mine widen. "I'm trying Jupe. It's not my fault you're so slow!"

I laugh at his words and inhale a deep breath of damp fall air. It stirs in my lungs, making a sense of peace flood over me. "Almost there buddy, just a little farther."

He starts to speed up his walk and finally pushes his bike to the top of the hill, stopping to take it all in. The colours of the trees before us are like fire, seeming like a vibrant painting. I hear the wind whistling in the trees and a small gasp escapes his mouth.

"Jupiter, look, look how pretty it is!" He starts jumping up and down.

I nod my head, "Isn't it. Think about how crazy that is, it's like someone's painted a picture just for us."

"Is it always like this?"

My smile widens, "Every year."

"Can we come back here every year to look?"

I laugh again, "If you want to, sure."

"Forever?"

"Absolutely."

"Promise?"

"I promise Will."

I shake my head out of the memory as a loud voice rings through the airport speakers. I ignore the standard voice, explaining what planes are taking off. I've already heard it a thousand times before. When we arrived in Hong Kong I was done with flying, when we left on a different plane again to Australia I was tired of this. Now, as I sit in the stuffy, overfilled airport, I can definitely say that I am done with flying. We landed at 11 in the night thanks to the time change. You would assume at this point we would be tired, but we all slept enough on the plane.

I feel a tap on my shoulder, "You ready to go?" Matthew yawns down at me. I nod, moving towards the exit and walking in a trance all the way to our next taxi. Once all of us pile into the taxi, I push in my earbuds and start up a podcast. I have no shame in doing so, I find them soothing. My mom suggested them. It's all really deep shit. The kind that makes you stop and question everything.

Each podcast has a topic, like earth, sometimes fire, sometimes random things, like brain waves. The writer has tied each in with a lesson, I use them to drive me. They're my source of therapy in a way. I don't have much time for therapy with my lifestyle.

We get out of the taxi at a store. After checking that it's open I motion for everyone to come inside. Once there, I send Ian and Matthew in to find some food, while me and Turner head to the clothing section to grab some clothes. I would normally grab a gun on our way out but some countries have laws, and Australia seems to have a bunch about guns, so instead, we're going to be bare. 

When we are on our way to the clothing section Turner turns to look at me, "What are we supposed to be buying?"

I pause for a moment, "Warmer clothes, hats, and gloves. The ones we got from the airport aren't really great."

She nods and we continue down the aisles.

When we meet Ian and Matthew at the checkout and I gasp at the amount of food in their cart, then let out a smile seeing it filled with 3 bags of chips, as well as a jumbo box of sugar cereal, plus a large tub of bubble gum ice cream. Turner looks about to laugh out loud as well. Ian looks almost scared. "I know its a lot, but I was hoping we could stay here for a bit and I really wanted a good breakfast and I re-"