8

A Chapter by Bob

John’s mother had made some sandwiches for their ‘trip’ and for the first time in her life had given him the ‘be safe son’ speech. For John it made leaving things ten times worse but she’d pull through, maybe it was wishful thinking but somehow he knew it was true. She watched him drive away, waving and smiling. He was beautiful, got the best of her features and the best of his father’s. She knew he was special so that must be why she’d bought that nonsense about him just sight-seeing with Jim, she knew there was more to it. It would be tough not having him around. When her husband left she didn’t cling to John, emotionally scarring him but instead they had their own peculiar relationship. Just knowing the other was there was what comforted them. Sometimes she hated the way he was, the fact that he didn’t really act out from his father abandoning him, that he never really needed her or worst of all, in his own way he sometimes took care of her. His charisma was infectious and his embrace life attitude had even rubbed off on her. His job, his car, his woman companions and partying was something she overlooked because of that infectious personality of his. He would be something great she just knew it, after everything he went through he would come out victorious, he would be that beautiful treasure. Despite all the pride and love she felt for her son at that moment deep down inside she couldn’t help but feel regret. Regret that she didn’t tell him but that smart a*s probably knew already. “What did you tell them? Did you tell them we are going to Mount Doom,” John turned to him widening his eyes, “Our quest is to be done in the shadows, we know not who follows us.” Jim burst out laughing, “What you talking about man, they’re all smiles.” “Your dad looks pissed and your mom looks worried, I think she’s gonna cry as soon as we drive.” “Music festival man.” “That explains it.”

The radio in the rust bucket picked up stations both of them didn’t know. It played hip-hop, classic rock, indie and even bluegrass but somehow it always played the right thing at the right time. With acoustic guitar, it set a beautiful scene for John as he watched his beloved town in the rear view mirror. With a plane it would take them 8 hours to get to the beach house, the bus would take a day and a half and with the rust bucket, well no one really knew. Jim was visiting his sister at her husband’s beach house. John thought it would be best to drop him off somewhere. You could see him as baggage but that wasn’t what he was. He was amazing to have around and John knew he would be better off with Jim alongside him. However, that was selfish the guy had a life, plans maybe not that much plans but nevertheless John couldn’t just drag him along on his escapades. They would take turns driving, John drove most of the time because of his impeccable concentration and that neither of them approved of driving under the influence, something Jim was most of the time. John never knew how much he loved the road. Like something, he had been doing his whole life but forgotten. Sometimes he’d lay in the back of the truck, in the open. He did this at nights and watched the stars. He would look down at towns when they drove up the mountain and all those lights would make him feel like an astronaut. Jim wasn’t a speed freak so he could enjoy every little sight along the way and somehow every route they took was the scenic one. His mind was clear, a weight lifted from his chest and John would lie on the grass wherever they would pull over. The two making jokes, chatting with strangers and enjoying every attraction every town had to offer. It truly was the honeymoon period and both of them knew it would eventually end but it didn’t feel that way and they made sure they enjoyed every bit of it. The world is full of weirdo’s and everywhere they went, they would attract them as if they’d sent out a signal calling them. Days melted into one another, everything flowed beautifully to the rhythm set by these two larger than life characters.

It wasn’t just roads and parties on their travels but towns too. They came across different kinds of towns each special in their own way but special doesn’t always mean good. Special bad isn’t really special at all, it’s what they’d call a drive through. The name says it all, these towns were boring, lifeless, and monotonous it went against everything they came out here to do. They would spend a day driving through these towns looking for fun people or fun places, anything at all but to no avail all they would find was half dead people looking for the exact same thing but never able to do anything about it, it was depressing to be honest. Both of them knew however that everything couldn’t always go well so they’d make as much fun out of these places as humanly possible and head on out to greener pastures. The special kind was magnificent it was a town that already had people like them. Drifters that were grounded there for a while or people that were fun but wasn’t planning on leaving. It was magical, they would show up and the next thing they’d know they would be on a beach around a bonfire singing and dancing and ingesting party enhancers and sometimes this would go on for days. It wasn’t all party and drugs, the rock star lifestyle but rather enjoying the company and the locale because wherever you were there was still the beautiful nature all around. John had come for the experience and the sites but the people took him by surprise, there wasn’t a word to sum them up. They were fun when he needed fun, listeners when he needed to talk, teachers when he wanted to learn and they were everywhere with so much more to offer, it was beautiful.

They embraced experiences. Jim’s most uncomfortable period was when they went cliff diving, bungee jumping, rafting and learnt surfing (in his defense he thought it was shark infested waters). This was when they’d traveled with a crew of adrenaline junkies, it was new which most times spelled fun. They embraced religions, which just confused John. He was Buddhist, catholic and a new age religion that wasn’t really recognized by anyone. He didn’t go to their places of worship or take part in a ceremony to induct him but rather he embraced some of their philosophies and tried to live his life by the teachings that he liked and understood. His favorite was when they travelled with a mystic, he was an Indian guru, the living embodiment of Osho himself and to make it even weirder he preached Osho’s message. He fit in with the two effortlessly because despite his appearance, he was just as nutty as they were, humorous and embracing everything life had to offer all the while implementing a diverse understanding of it which showed in the message he was preaching. Coincidentally enough this was the one person that the sub hated. You could understand his aversion to the mystical because he spoke of the mind as merely a tool for us to use, it doesn’t experience things like joy it instead thinks about joy but we live and we need to live in the moment. Everything made sense in its own way and the best part was that they were already living this way without even knowing it they had belonged to this church long before they even left their home.

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