Magnum Opus I

PART TWO CHAPTER ONE FULL

Throughout Octavia's life, her mother had raised her as a Lutheran. She had gone to church almost every Sunday after she moved away from her father. She would put on her lacey blue sun dress, tie her hair up, securing it with a blue ribbon, slip on her white ballet flats and once she arrived at the church, would gaze in awe up at the beautifully designed stained glass windows that illustrated a caucasian version of Jesus holding a lamb with two more at his feet. He always looked so beautiful but being so curious, she always had questions, always was confused as to why the Bible preached that God loved everyone no matter what, but if they were to commit a sin against him, they would be sent to damnation. She grew ever more curious as the years went on, however, being so afraid, she dared not to speak out against the Church... or even worse, her mother.

When Octavia had turned 14, she started opening her eyes to the real issues of the world. She took off her rose-colored lenses she had been raised to wear and realized that there were so many issues, so much hate and anger in the world and she realized that most of these issues were being caused by Christians not getting along or accepting others. She slowly began to drift away from the Christian faith and started to lean more towards Buddhism. The Buddhist faith was solely about love and that was something she could go after.

Octavia sat in her truck, thinking to herself about how religious Gigi had been. She would always sing hymns while she was cooking or gardening and hadn't missed a single sunday of church in 20 years. She lived to meet the angels at Jesus' door one day and Octavia could only hope that she was right. Whether she believed in angels and heaven and the whole shebang or not, she wanted her great grandmother to be somewhere happy, where she could feel warm and had no pain.

Turning the key and hearing the engine start brought Octavia back down to Earth. She took a deep breath and wiped the warm, salty tears from her face. "I have to do this for her. She needs me to..." She pulled back on to the freeway, turned up the music and it was only ten minutes into her driving again when she noticed she was almost out of gas.

Shit... why didn't she fill up this morning? Or even last night? Thoughts clouded her mind and she couldn't think straight. As she drove, her mind had set to autopilot until a bright blue sign on the side of the road caught her eye. "Big Bill's Gas Station... take exit 23A and turn right on Lee Ave. Two miles down the road, she saw the exit and made the right turn.

Big Bill's Gas Station looked like it had jumped right out of a horror movie. The windows of the shop were barred up, the 'Open' sign was flickering, the gravel on the driveway was falling apart and the gas pumps themselves look as if they hadn't been used in centuries. She contemplated using the last couple miles of the gas in her tank to find another station but this had been the only one that was listed on the sign. She sighed heavily and walked up to the glass door that held the extremely faded sign boasting something about having the best coffee in town.

As she opened the door, it triggered a small bell signaling that someone had entered the building. She was expecting a man larger than the one at the last station to come out, smell worse and have a worse attitude. To her surprise, it was the opposite. A girl who looked about her age walked out of from the back. She had long brunette hair that was slightly wavy, green eyes and they shared the same freckles. "Hi there," the girl said with a smile on her face.

It took Octavia a minute to comprehend that this extremely pretty girl actually worked in a place like this. "Uh... hi." The girl just stared at Octavia waiting for her to say what she wanted.

"... is there anything I can get for you?"

"Oh, yeah, he- twenty on..," she glanced outside to see which number was on the station. Before she could say anything, the girl interrupted.

"Six. Got it." Her smile was astonishing, it was brighter than the moon and more beautiful too. "What are you doing in this place anyway?"

Octavia laughed, "I could ask you the same. What's up with this place? It looks like it hasn't been touched in years."

"Yeah my grandpa opened this station and after my dad died, my brother and I took it over and now this is all we do all day. He runs the garage while I run the shop. Now, your turn. What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Well... long story short, I'm returning an old journal to whoever it's original owner was."

"...So... you don't know who it belongs to. Nice. Do you at least have an address?"

"I have a city and a name. Winchester Bay, Oregon"

"Oh yeah I've been near there. It's directly on the ocean. There's a cute little store where all of the locals like to hang out. I know exactly how to get there if you want me to draw you another map." The girl glanced up at Octavia. Her eyes were such a piercing green and popped against her deep brown hair, almost the color of one-hundred-percent cocoa dark chocolate. Her dark brown freckles made her eyes pop even more and to Octavia, it had felt as if they could see right through her.

"I planned a route already, but if you know any shortcuts maybe you could add them to my directions or even point them out on the map in the journal?"

"I mean I do know a few shortcuts but I'd have to see them in person to remember exactly where they are."

Something took over Octavia. With all thought slipping from her mind, she blurted out, "Well you could always come with." It wasn't until this moment that she realized how creepy that must sound to this girl. They don't even know each other's names and she just invited her on this several day road trip to a place she had never been to? What was she thinking? She wasn't thinking. She tried to justify it to herself, telling herself that Gigi would have totally been for it. She always was telling Octavia to meet new people and go on adventures but this felt weird. She probably sounded crazy to thi-

"Hell yeah I'll go," the girl interrupted her thoughts.

"You'll what?" Octavia opened her mouth slightly, trying to silently comprehend that this girl had just agreed to travel with her, a complete stranger.

"I haven't been out of this place in years. It's the same old stuff every single day, I'm sick of it. You seem nice enough, so let's do it. I'm Kijani, by the way."

"Kijani? That's a pretty dope name."

Kijani laughed, "Thanks. And I don't know what it means so don't ask."

Octavia laughed, "Alright well Kijani it is. Are you gonna grab your stuff? I'll meet you out at the car, yeah?"

"Yeah, for sure just give me ten minutes."