Subjects

45 - Like Riding A Bike

Roger is chatting quietly with the nice person driving them the last couple of kilometers. Suddenly, a voice from the back of the truck shouts, "home!"

That voice happens to belong to Angie. She ignores all the safety rules as she pulls on her seatbelt to get a better look at the city through the front window. "Wake up!" Angie makes sure that everyone gets to enjoy the view, "we're almost there!"

Ben is the first to come to his senses and pull Angie back to the seat, only to lean forward himself. Emily smiles at the outline of the place she dreamt of for months. Eva doesn't smile. According to her, she is physically incapable of smiling right after waking up. By the time they get into the city, though, Eva gets over her technical issue and smiles as well.

The plan is easy, relatively. Emily, Roger, and Angie are team number one, and Ben and Eva are team number two. Or maybe Ben and Eva are number one, depends on who you're asking. Anyhow, they split up. Each team goes to ask someone for their things (Ben and Eva exchange nervous glances). Then they meet up at Angie's mom's workplace, also known as Ruth Bright Law Firm.

For team number... Number... The smaller team, the first station is Ben's house. At this time of the day, both of his parents are at work and the house is empty. Ben easily finds the spare key in the- oh, you almost got me there. Of course, I am not going to tell you where it actually is. They walk into the house and Ben smiles at the familiar sight. It feels, for a moment, as if he never left. Eva lets him have this moment, even though she still thinks they need to hurry up. She peeks outside the window and to the street, just in case.

Ben is a quick packer. In less than three minutes (I'm not exaggerating) he has a bag with enough clothes for a month. One more minute and the basic equipment he needs is packed as well. Eva manages to convince him they will not be needing sleeping bags. He scrapes the bottom of the wallet he left at home and gathers a total of 4 dollars and 25 cents.

"My house isn't too far from here," Eva says. "If we walk super slow it can take maybe half an hour."

"I have a better idea," Ben grins.

"Better for who?"

"You'll like it," he promises.

Eva sure does not like it. When Ben opens the garage and pulls the plastic cover off two old bikes, Eva likes it even less.

"Can't we walk?"

"It's faster," Ben says. "And it's an easy road, you practically have to do nothing, just not fall off the bike."

"You see, that's exactly the problem."

"Come on, don't tell me the riding lessons I gave you on midway were for nothing," Ben starts to untie the bikes.

"Don't tell me you didn't think I was a lost cause," Eva answers.

Ben stops for a second, then says, "you got better."

Eva snorts, "even if I did, I didn't train since then."

"It'll be fine, it's like riding a bike."

Eva smiles at the ridiculous answer, "fine, but if I fall because of you..." she tries to think of something bad enough, "you're eating only VEPP for a month."

"Deal."

As promised, the way is, indeed, very easy. Not that it helps Eva in any way. She has to try four times before she can get on the bikes. Ben has two huge bags on his, and he is riding in circles around her, which isn't helping either. Lucky for her, the street is empty now so nobody saw how she scraped one of the cars parking there.

The faster they go, the easier it gets. There is not a lot of traffic in this area so they can ride in the middle of the road and just enjoy the wind in their faces. It takes about six minutes before they get to an alleyway that looks very familiar to Eva. They turn and ride all the way across and at the very end they see it, Eva's apartment complex. Just to clarify, she doesn't own it (at least I don't think she does), she just lives there.

They park the bikes next to the building and walk to the front door. Eva can see her reflection in the glass doors of the building and at first, doesn't recognize herself. She is wearing a weird looking combination of clothes, and it has been too long since the last time she took a shower. She tries to make her hair seem a little less... Bad, but pretty much fails at it. Eventually, she decides to walk in. Her neighbors can handle her suboptimal appearance.

The place is exactly how she remembers it. Big, and clean. She says hi to the guard and asks him for the spare key to her apartment. Ben is a little nervous at the luxury of this place but he hides it well, at least until they get to the elevators.

"Are you sure it is okay to walk in here like that?" Ben asks Eva.

"I live here," she shrugs.

"I know, it is just very..."

"Alienating?" Eva shows half a smile.

"Exactly."

"I never liked this place that much," she says.

They get to the apartment and Eva walks right in. Ben stays at the door, his mouth agape.

"Come on, we don't have all day," Eva calls from her room.

The apartment is very impressive. Ben is not overreacting. He tries to remember if Eva told him of any family besides her father. The few pictures on the walls prove that they really are only the two of them. There is a huge living room (Ben actually missed the second one they have) and an even larger dining room. Tall windows show the view of the city and let in natural light.

Ben slowly walks to where Eva's voice came from, scanning the place as he goes. Eva already has half her wardrobe on her bed and she is now looking for a bag big enough for at least some of it.

"There you are," she says when Ben walks in. "My dad always has boxes of energy bars in the kitchen, you can get some of them. In case we can't get normal food."

Ben heads back to look for the kitchen, the frighteningly large and clean one. By the time he gets back Eva has packed most of her things and changed into her own clothes. She is feeling a lot better now. There is something about home that can just make you feel like you again.

"There is one more thing I need to get, and I wanted to leave my dad a letter," Eva says.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Ben asks.

"Who's going to read it beside him? It's not like I am going to say where we are or anything, just to let him know I'm okay."

"Alright."

They walk to Eva's dad's home office and she heads straight to a picture of her mom. She takes it off the wall, revealing a small vault.

"My dad told me this is for emergencies, I think this counts as an emergency," Eva takes out a pack of money too large for Ben to estimate and then hangs the picture back on the wall.

Ben feels uneasy taking the money, but he knows that it will make things so much easier for them. "What do you want to write to your dad?"

"I don't know, there are so many things I want to say," Eva sits in her dad's chair and takes a pen and paper.

Ben sits in front of her, "tell me what you want to say and I will write it down."

"Good idea," Eva gets up and hands him the paper. "I want to tell him that I can't go back home because it's too dangerous. But I am okay, I will talk to him when I can. I want to tell him that I'm sorry for how I acted before I left.

Ben scribbles something on the paper and shows it to Eva, "What do you think?"

Eva reads it out loud, "Dad, I got back here today but I am going to a friend's house for a while. I had a great time at midway and I will tell you about it when I can. I am sorry for how I acted before. Love, Eva."

Eva looks up at Ben and smiles, "this is great."