monday - five

12:36 AM.
The moon had dissolved into the velvet night sky; the sun hovered just below the horizon. They sat in the nonexistent shadow of the giant sign, looking up at it, looming above them, quiet, resting in the cool night air with them. Welcome to the City, it proclaimed, Population 3,589,692. Their breaths hung on the air, white dragons of mist in the night. They were laying against the small bluff underneath the sign, tired from the long walk that had been from the city interior to the edge. A sign of their eaten dinner – a few sandwich wrappers and a couple of empty soda cans – rested, buried in the dust, behind them. They drifted in and out of sleep, often waking to the sight of an infinite sky above them, their only pillow their hands and Maura’s bag, their only source of warmth from the cold desert landscape was the blanket that Maura had brought; they shared it between the two of them. The air was cool, but crisp and clean, and easy for them to breathe.

5:47 AM.
As the sun rose above the edge of the world, the sign was illuminated in no blinding glory, faded and grey against the vast desert landscape. Houses twinkled beyond, the suburban city limits.She reached into her handbag and pulled out a can of spray paint, popping the cap off. Rhys stirred and sat up sleepily, rubbing at his eyes. She grinned and handed the can to him. He looked confused. She dropped it in his hands, and he shook it instinctively, listening to the ball rattle around. He shook it for awhile, and then stopped."Now what?"She pointed at the population."It’s says 3,589,692. We’re the two. And we’re not there anymore."He stood up and fixed it, crossing out the two, a sloppily placed 0 hung over it. "3,589,690," he said to himself. He stepped back and examined his handy work."It’s the crappiest piece of work I’ve ever seen."He laughed and agreed. He dropped the can into the dust along with the cap. She folded up the blanket and put it into her handbag, and they stepped onto the main road.The sun cleared the horizon, and morning light flooded the eternal sky.

9:32 AM.
He was walking backwards, his thumb out in space, she walking face front and looking towards the nowhere they were headed.
"Are you sure this works?"
She nodded. "They always did it on TV."
"But this isn’t TV. Look!"
She turned.
A pick-up truck was approaching fast, light glinting off the windshield. It bounced on the road and emitted a sick grinding sound. It passed them quickly, the air nearly pushing them over, but it somehow stopped a few feet ahead of them.
Rhys jumped into the bed. Maura climbed into the passenger seat and waved happily at their driver, an old man of about 70 years of age. His furrowed brow was wrinkled, and he had a tired weary face, but he still smiled happily. He looked like a mole, or a small cute gleeful rodent.
"Wher ya goan?"
She shrugged. "Where ya wanna go, old timer?"
He laughed and turned around to make sure Rhys was securely sprawled out in back, and Maura turned too. Seeing him flounder, the old man slammed on the gas pedal and the truck bolted back into the road. Rhys, trying to maintain a butt-ing, or at the least a firm grasp onto something securely fastened, slid back into the tailgate and stuck there, dazed. Maura laughed and turned back to the crazy old man. They barreled towards the horizon, riding a bullet to vanishing point, and Rhys held on for dear life to the sides while Maura and the crazy coot were safe inside the cabin.
"So wher ya two from, if ya’in’t goana tell me wher ya goan?"
"We’re from the city. And we’re going to wherever you’ll take us, or at least as far as you’ll take us. We don’t want to be an intrusion or anything. "
"Nah pra’lum."
"Why are you driving so fast?"
"I gah’ places tah go, an’ not enough time."
"Of course you have enough time.""Nah I, li’l missy. My time’ near, an’ I gotsta make it to the ol’ gas station a’fore it’ all over."
"Before what’s all over?"
"My time, li’l missy."
"Aha." She turned and rummaged in her handbag and pulled out a air freshener – a random trinket she had in her handbag, one of many. She handed it to him.
He turned and took the air freshener, wondrous, overjoyed to the brink of tears. He grabbed her hands and thanked her profusely, and she tried to grab onto the steering wheel so they wouldn’t veer off the road, but the alignment stayed true, and they continued on their straight and narrow path.
"Oh, I don’ know what tah say..." he examined the tree through his thick glasses and laughed happily and looked back up at her and said in a clear, strong voice: "Thank you very much." He took the foot off the gas and they began slowing down. Maura held his hands and saw as his eyes wandered from her face to the sky behind her. His eyes filled with a warmth that was only hinted there before, and she knew that it was coming.
The truck rolled to a stop in front of an abandoned gas station.
Rhys jumped out. Maura had opened the passenger door and had laid the old man in her lap. He stared up at the little air freshener and held it above his head and spoke quietly, clearly, not in his wily-old-coot voice he had before. "I was born by Yosemite in California. Merced. It’s nice there, but it’s in the middle of nowhere. In winter it would always smell like pine trees. I don’t know why I left home. I..." He drifted off, and Maura stroked his hair, shushing him and calming him down, and he looked up at her and Rhys standing over her shoulder, looking at an old quiet dying man. "I haven’t seen my home in a decade. I don’t have any family. My wife’s been gone for years. I don’t have anything now but this gas station. It’s as old as me. And I just..." He drifted off again and shuddered. "It’s funny how places become you, and how hard we try to break away from them, but in the end we always come running back. I was afraid...I was afraid I wouldn’t make it here." He tried to sit up, and Maura helped him up and out of the old truck and into the empty gas station, in the middle of Nowhere with the great expanse of Sky capping the dustbowl that was their world. He looked up and tried to lean on Maura, but was too weak and ended up falling down to his knees. Maura supported him as he lay in the dust and looked up at the clouds passing overhead. "I used to lay in my front yard and watch the clouds and smell the pine trees and wonder what it’d be like to live and die and just be. And I think I know now." He glanced at his wrist, but realizing he had no watch, he asked Maura for the time.
She glanced at her watch. "10:30". Somehow an hour had passed.
He shook his head vigorously, the only remaining sign of life besides that in his eyes. "Life never happens at 15's, 10's, and 30's. I’ll wait a few more minutes." He turned to Maura. "Thank you very much for the present. It’s the best thing I’ve ever gotten." He grasped her hand weakly and smiled, and looked back up at the clouds passing overhead. "..."
"..."
"..."
"What time is it now?"
"10:31."
He smiled and closed his eyes. She saw a glint of hope in them before the eyelids slid shut, securing them forever and ever. "Good."
They waited in silence, a tired old man and a girl and a boy in the middle of nowhere.
"What’s your name?" She whispered.
He didn’t respond, and held tightly onto the small pine tree in his weary lifeful hand.