willowjadeflower
the storyweaver's apprentice
A family heads off on their summer vacation, unwittingly entering a strange phenomenon that forces them to confront their own fears.
I looked up at the ominously rumbling clouds ahead as my brother slouched by, heaving a very heavy-looking duffle bag.
"Jordan," Talyn said, shoving the cooler into the trunk, "you already have a backpack and a second duffle bag, so you really need all that stuff?"
Jordan just threw her a nasty look and tried to cram said duffle bag into the car.
"Dude, it's not gonna fit -"
"Imma make it fit -"
"Just lose the bag, what do you even have in there?"
"It's important -"
"Just let me -"
"HEY WATCH IT -"
I grinned at them - god I missed them so much - and looked over at my mom, who was a little ways away on her phone, her voice slowly rising in frustration.
"No, Janice, I can't come into work today - no, I understand that Carlos and Owen are out, but - I'm sorry, but I'm taking my kids out to Yosemite - yeah my youngest just graduated from high school and his sister is finally home for the first time in - but I already asked for the time off -"
I inched closer, worried.
"Listen, this is the first time we're together, as a family, ever since my - since Cassidy -" her voice dropped as she faces me, eyes tripping over my face.
I shuffled my feet and hurried back to the car, feeling weirdly intrusive, and began to busy my hands with rearranging the trunk, huffing at the overflow. Jordan's backpack nearly smacked me in the face, balanced precariously on top of the pillow stacked on top of Talyn's single suitcase. I nearly got a mouthful of anime and pride pins as I stuffed it back in.
A collision of voices yelling "Shotgun, shotgun, sHOTGUN" and a smack on a windshield had me peeking over around the side of the jeep.
"But you'll have to be navigator as shotgun and you suck as navigator!" Jordan was shouting.
"No no no you can't ride shotgun if you want to play the switch, mom won't let you play it in the car," Talyn was saying, "but if you sit in the back she won't see you, right? Right?"
"... Fine."
"Boom."
"But I ride shotgun on the way back!"
"Deal."
I snickered as I tucked the bag of snacks in a nice little corner and patted it when it sank neatly into place. Jordan threw open the passenger door and plopped himself inside. I happily clambered over the top of the passenger seats and slid into the middle seat like I used to.
"Gah, the stuff's all sticking into me!" Jordan complained as he squirmed, trying to get a sleeping pad out from his side.
"That's what you get for trying to bring your entire room," Talyn said as Mom opened the driver door, looking annoyed and flustered as she tucked her phone into her pocket.
"Aiyo, why can't you pack light like your sister?" Mom sighed as she sat down ("Uuugh," goes Jordan), only to scramble back out again. "Shoot, I forgot my keys in the house, you didn't lock the door did you?"
We all unanimously groaned as she rushed back up the stairs to the apartment. "Mom hurry it's like 7:15!" Talyn yelled out the door.
"Aw, come on, is it raining?" Jordan said, sticking a hand out the door. "Dude, it's raining."
"Shit, some of the roads might get closed down," Talyn said with a frown, whipping out her phone.
Jordan tried to adjust himself more comfortably, then gave up with a frustrated huff. "Do we really have to go?"
Talyn looked back at him with a look of disappointment. "Jordan, come on. Mom's planned this forever, just - just go with it, okay?" she said under her breath with a pleading look as Mom came running down the stairs, keys in hand. "Just be pleasant for the next six hours."
"Six hours?!" Jordan groaned just as Mom came back into the car, magazine over her head.
"It's started raining, did anyone bring an umbrella?" she panted as she brushed raindrops off her coat.
"... Yes?" Talyn said.
"Aish, the weather says it should be sunny," Mom said, sounding a little petulant as she glared up at the clouds accusingly.
"Don't worry, Mom, maybe it'll clear up by the time we get there," Talyn said reassuringly as she clicked her seatbelt in place.
Mom tsked her tongue. "If you kids hadn't been fighting it still would've been sunny."
Jordan stared at her through the rearview mirror. "... Yes, the clouds were totally attracted to our negativity, Mom."
"Ya, what did we say about that tone?"
"Mom, don't worry about it, just drive."
Mom started the car and slowly began pulling out, muttering under her breath. "I take a whole week off for you kids, I plan a whole week's worth of vacation for you kids -"
It started raining harder.
"Can't believe summer vacation's already ruined, and we haven't even left the apartment complex," Jordan droned as we finally started making our way off.
Three hours later, it's raining steadily, giving the atmosphere quite the gloomy look.
"That's a weird-ass tractor," Jordan said.
I sneak a look past him and out the window only to catch a brief glimpse of the glint of broken metal. When I look back at Jordon, he's tightly wound, hugging the jacket in his lap to his chest.
"Ah-ah, we do not use that kind of language in this car," Mom said.
Jordan groaned and leaned back, hitting his head against his seat. "I'm an adult now, I should legally be allowed to swear."
Mom's eyebrows knitted together. "You really shouldn't be getting into the practice of swearing, what if you're in the workplace and you swear in front of your boss?"
"Uh, I'm not dumb enough to swear in front of my boss," Jordan said, an edge to his voice.
I wave my hands a little, wanting to diffuse the situation, but no one noticed.
"I'm not saying you are, but if you're used to swearing it could just slip out," Mom protested.
"It's not going to slip out!"
"You don't know that -"
"Okay, okay, let's just agree no swearing for now, okay?" Talyn said.
"Yes, I like that," Mom said.
"You can't control every little thing I do, Mom," Jordan said.
"Snacks! Who wants snacks!" Talyn said, a little desperately. "Jordan, could you pass me something?"
Jordan made a face and twisted back to reach over the seat into the trunk. "Some bosses swear too, Mom," he said as he dug through the pile, seatbelt straining. "It's not like every workplace is the same. Where the fuck are the snacks?"
"You always want to be professional," Mom said firmly. "You're going to college now, you've got to practice for an actual job now."
"Oh yeah, what college are you going to?" Talyn said, twisting in her seat.
"I can't find the fucking snacks," Jordan said. "Who moved them?
"What did I just say about swearing," Mom said.
I jostled the snack bag towards Jordan, feeling a bit guilty. When it fell over and nearly spilled everywhere, Jordan very nearly caught it with a shout. "Okay, who put it over there?"
"Oh, Jordan, did you respond to your acceptance letter to Berkeley?" Mom said. "They have a deadline, don't they?"
"I'm not going to Berkeley," Jordan said grumpily as he fell back properly in his seat, chucking a fruit snack at Talyn's head. "I'm taking a gap year."
"What?!" Mom shouted.
"What?" Talyn fumbled with the fruit snack. "But you got into all those UC's!"
"You got into Berkeley!" Mom said.
"I didn't get into Berkeley!" Talyn said.
"And I don't care," Jordan said. "I have no idea what I'm going doing, and I'm not going to change my major a bajillion times before figuring out, like a certain someone."
"I only changed it like three times!" Talyn protested.
Mom smacked her shoulder. "That's right, what are you doing after college?"
"Me?"
"That's right! Are you doing any internships this summer?"
"Uh...."
"Know what company you want to work for?"
"Uh........"
Mom smacked her shoulder again. "Come on! What have you been doing all these years?"
"Wha -" Talyn threw her hands in the air. "I don't know! I'm figuring it out!"
"Aiyo, you kids!" Mom said in frustration. "What are you going to do in the future, ah?"
The cows rolled by.
"You don't want to end up like your dad, no job, no idea where he's going - and where is your dad, ah? Leaving me in a boring job with terrible managers - if I could do it all over again I would go to a good college, get a good degree, and get a good job - and you kids have that opportunity and you just -"
"What the fuck?" Jordan said.
Mom hit the steering wheel. "What did I say about swearing!"
"No, Mom, look! The tractor from before!"
"What? Where?"
"Mom watch the road!" Talyn shrieked.
"And look!" Jordan cried. "The same pear trees!"
"What are you trying to do? Scare me half to death?" Mom demanded.
"And the cows! Look, there's the black and white one, the only one cause the rest are brown!"
"What?"
"No, wait," Talyn said, slow realization in her voice. "We passed those before."
"And - wait for it..."
The country road zoomed past.
"There! The weird-ass tractor!" Jordan said, jabbing his finger against the windowshield.
And there, I finally saw it un its entirety - a looming, rusted thing that had long brokn down, abandoned on the side of rhe road. In the pouring rain, it looked hauntingly beautiful.
"Now we're passing the pear orchard again - Mom, what is going on?" Talyn said.
Mom was glaring at the GPS on her phone. "Stupid thing keeps recalibrating," she said. "Old thing."
"Mom, we're just passing the same thing, over and over!" Jordan said.
"It's a long road out in the middle of nowhere, of course it will look all the same," Mom said.
"The same exact tractor?" Jordan demanded.
"Yeah, that's weird," Talyn said. "We've been going straight ahead this whole time."
"Not just weird, it's creepy," Jordan said.
"Jordan, please sit down," Mom said as Jordan turned around and kneeled up in his seat to look out the back window.
"Mom, come on, we've been driving for what, an hour? And we haven't gone anywhere," Talyn said, sounding way too worried for the tension in the car to handle.
"Can you kids please stop fussing?" Mom said. "We're going to go to Yosemite and have a nice, happy family summer vacation that we're finally going to have, all together, as a family -"
"Can you PLEASE stop acting like Cassidy never fucking existed?!"
Jordan's sudden yell silenced the car.
He's shaking. I try to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but he didn't notice. "We're not going to be all together, we're not going to have a family vacation, 'cause our family's not all here."
"Jordan…" Talyn said, sounding terrified and grief-stricken and guilty at once.
"Stop pretending like nothing's happened," Jordan said. "It's been years since it happened."
In the rearview mirror, Mom gritted her teeth. "It's only been two years -"
"Yeah!" Jordan said. "Years! And you're so caught up in it you couldn't bother to make any time for us!"
"Hey, that's not true," Mom said fiercely. "I've been doing my best, I've been working every single night to make sure you kids get a better life, a happy life -"
"What happy life?" Jordan said. "Whatever makes you happy? You haven't listened to either of us! Why - why'd you get us all on this happy family vacation on this exact day, huh?"
Mom stuttered for a moment. "I -"
"Huh?" Jordan's voice was reaching a breaking point.
"Jordan, Mom -" Talyn said.
"I thought we'd all be together again."
The car quieted again. Mom was staring straight ahead, at a road that remains unchanged. "You know… on that day that… your loved ones pass away, they can come back again. As ghosts - a presence - something. And I. I just thought…."
The tractor re-emerges from the darkness. Mom slammed on the brakes.
"MOM!" We all screamed in unison.
"I'm going outside," Mom said, taking her phone and flipping her coat hood over her head.
"What?" Talyn said.
"I'm going to see if… if moving somewhere off the road helps the GPS recalibrate," she said, shutting the door.
"What, standing two feet away's gonna help?!" Jordan yelled at the closed door.
Talyn is sitting low in her seat, arms crossed, eyes glassy and staring out the window. Jordan leaned back and buried his face in his jacket.
"... She's trying her best, you know," Talyn's voice comes, hesitant.
"Oh, now you're taking her side?" Jordan shot back.
"There are no sides! I -" Talyn stared out the window hopelessly. "I'm just trying to help, okay?"
"Could've used that two years ago," Jordan mumbled.
"Okay, that's not fair -"
"How is that not fair -"
"I wasn't here -"
"Yeah, you LEFT us -"
"I was stuck at college, Jordan! What was I supposed to do? Preordain that I had to head back to California and hold a funeral for my sister?!" Talyn's voice grew higher and higher until it became a scream.
"YOU COULD'VE BEEN HERE FOR THE FUNERAL!" Jordan screamed back. "SO WHY WEREN'T YOU? WHY WEREN'T YOU HERE?" He's panting, violently wiping his eyes, energy draining. "Why weren't you here, you're never here, why …"
Talyn's starting to cry. "I'm sorry."
Jordan's voice is cracking. "Why'd you never come back?"
Talyn's mouth is open, but she couldn't speak. Jordan doesn't bother hiding it, he cried openly into his jacket, turning away from his sister. The rain thundered up above.
"I miss her."
Came Jordan's whisper.
Talyn's reaching for him, but drew back, hesitant. "I miss her too." A beat. "I missed you."
Jordan saw, and is hugging her back, hugging her tight. "Why wouldn't you come back?"
"I…" Talyn stared above his head, staring at me, where I would've been, the seat I used to take. "I was scared. I changed my major five times, Jordan -"
"Five?"
"- and I was... falling behind," she said. "I felt like I was playing catch up - to everyone. Some of my friends are - are directing plays, or doing research, and making games, and I'm… still taking lower divisions. I felt like I didn't have time for anything else other than school, all the extra classes, I didn't want to waste money, and - and I still don't know what I want to do when I graduate. I still have no freaking clue. I'm scared. And I'm stuck."
A pause.
"That sucks."
Talyn giggled. "I know." A breath. "Why do you want to take a gap year?"
"... I'm scared too," Jordan said. "I've been doing to same things over and over again until I suddenly need to make all these decisions and I keep holding onto stuff, I don't know, I don't feel like an adult, Talyn, I still feel like some stupid kid who doesn't know what he's doing and I think… I think I'm stuck too."
Talyn laughed. "And we all miss Cassidy."
"Fuck yeah, we do," Jordan said. "I'm so angry. I'm still so angry. At you, at Mom - man, she's fucking in denial, bruh."
"I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you," Talyn said. "I just… I wasn't there for Cassidy. Stuck at college. And I couldn't face you - knowing that -"
"And you feel so guilty about it," Jordan said.
"Of course I feel guilty," Talyn said.
"Great," Jordan said, "the great trifecta: Mom's stuck in denial, I'm stuck being angry, you're stuck being guilty -" he suddenly pulled away and opened the car door wide open to stick his head out and yell at the rain "- and, because the universe has a SICK sense of humor, we're going to be STUCK here too!"
"Jordan -"
Jordan hiccuped. "We're probably gonna die here."
"No, we're not," Talyn said. "I'm here. I'm here now."
Mom, hearing Jordan shout, had rushed back in, staring at the two's teary faces. "What happened? Are you two okay? Don't cry - don't cry alright?" She leaned over to brush Jordan's face, and he lunged forward to snatch her in a hug. Talyn fell upon her too, crying even harder. "Hey - hey, it's going to alright, okay? Listen to me - it's going to be okay. Please don't cry." She tried to hide it, but I could see the tears welling up in her eyes, the tears clogging her throat. "Please don't cry. I'm here. It's okay. I'm here."
She hugged them tightly, and they hug her back.
I hovered anxiously over them, still, still, feeling like an intruder. But, those feelings are silly, aren't they? They're here. I'm here. I wrapped my arms around them, burying my face in Jordan's collar, almost feeling the ragged breathing of Talyn's back against my arm, Mom's hair against my fingers. I held them tight.
The rain's stopped.
"We need to move on," Talyn said.
"Right," Mom said, pulling back. "Get your seatbelts on. It looks like the GPS is starting again."
Talyn sniffed as she clicked herself into place, Jordan settling back in his seat. The car moved forward.
The tractor passed.
And the pear orchard.
And the cows.
And -
A park ranger. A white truck and a sign in the middle of the road.
"... That's new," Jordan said.
"Yeah," Talyn said, breathless.
"... Hold on," Mom said as she slowed to a stop, rolling down her window.
The park ranger ambled up to us. "Well, aren't you a lucky pack of peaches."
"Sorry, what's going on?" Mom said.
"Road's flooded," the ranger said. "We gotta close it down. Safety rules, you know. You're lucky we got here in time, you might've found yourselves driving right in the face of some rocky rapids. Gotten yourselves washed right out."
"Jeez," Jordan said. Talyn looked unsettled.
"Thank goodness," Mom breathed. "Is there another road I can take? We're going to Yosemite."
"Yeah, right down along here," the ranger said, pointing. "You can follow me, if you'd like. This back road leads right up to the west entrance."
"Thank you, thank you so much," Mom said.
"You've certainly got someone to thank," the ranger said. "I'll bet you anything you've got a guardian angel watching over you, yes siree."
Jordan looked over at Talyn. Eyebrows rose meaningfully.
"Yes," Mom said, looking back at us. "We certainly do."
"Right this way, ma'am," the ranger said, heading back to his car.
We all looked at each other. Mom looked at her GPS. "... It took over seven hours to get here," she said.
"An hour sooner and we might've been inhaling water forever," Jordan said.
"Well," Talyn said, still a bit shaken. "That certainly made our summer vacation gone awry."
"But we're okay," Jordan said. "We're here."
Mom looked back at us. She's smiling. She reaches all the way to ruffle Jordan's hair, despite his protesting squawks, and squeezed Talyn's shoulder. "Let's move on."
-fin-