Magnum Opus I

CHAPTER 4 PART TWO FULL

Octavia awoke to Kijani pushing on her shoulder. "Seriously, dude wake up right now. You have to see this." Slowly, she opened her eyes, having to blink a few times to bring them completely into focus. When she sat up, she gazed upon a crystal clear lake resting about 50 feet in front of her. Bold orange and pink colors danced across the water as the sun was beginning to rise. 

"Holy sh-" 

"That's probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," interrupted Kijani. 

Octavia got up out of the truck and made her way to the shoreline where the small lake waves were kissing the rocks that constructed the ground. She walked into the water just enough to it to cover the tops of her feet. The lake was on fire with all of the colors that were becoming even more bold and beautiful, in the distance the mountains were also on fire. It was a scene that was taken right out of a default computer wallpaper. 

About two minutes later, Kijani came and stood next to her. "This is what we needed. Every single sunrise represents a new start, a breath of fresh air... a chance to change your own life. We stand in the fire now because the universe is burning off our old selves, and giving us a chance to create new ones." 

Tears rolled down Octavia's cheeks as she closed her eyes and inhaled the morning air. She wasn't completely sure as to why she was crying, but she was pretty confident in saying it was because of what Kijani had just told her. It all made so much sense. Octavia had been through so much in her life and Gigi dying just marked the time for rebirth. She pulled her phone from the pocket on her tie-dye oversized hoodie and took a picture trying to capture the scene with her camera, but nothing could compare to seeing it with her own eyes. 

She sent the picture to Derek who had to be still asleep and returned the phone back to it's original location. "We should probably eat something before we leave today, I have food in the truck. We need gas so hopefully there's a station nearby... and we can't pick up any more people; we'll run out of food before we reach whatever's waiting for us in Oregon," she laughed. 

"I agree; three is a crowd," Kijani smiled at Octavia and started making her way to the truck. The pinks and oranges were beginning to fade away as the sky began to turn a bright blue, matching Octavia's eyes. She packed up her blankets and pillow that were still a mess in the trunk and opened her hiking backpack that only held food (mostly fruit (mostly grapes)), six and a half water bottles, enough ibproufen to cure the world's headaches and the clothes she packed. 

Octavia pulled out the grapes and tossed the backpack over to Kijani, who grabbed an apple and a granola bar. "Sorry... I'm kind of a health freak, it's all organic too. There's a few meat sticks in there and I have like half a muffin left from yesterday morning if you want... although it might be stale... I don't know just take whatever you want." 

Kijani laughed and took a bite of her apple. It was the most perfect apple she had ever bitten into; perfectly crisp, juicy and not too sweet, but not too sour. She closed her eyes and smiled, "mmm"ing as she chewed. "This is so good," she said with her mouth almost overflowing with apple. 

"Yeah, I got it from the farmers market about a week ago. I've already eaten like 5 of them myself. Something about them just makes them soooo perfect." 

Kijani took another huge bite of the apple, half of it was already gone by now. "Well then, let's get gone, lady." 

Octavia jumped in the front seat and pushed a handful of grapes in her mouth to last her the first couple minutes on the road. She started up Bruce's engine, it sounded as if he was saying goodbye to the campground himself. Once the girls reached the highway, it was a bittersweet goodbye to the campground. The sky was illuminated with shades of baby blue and speckled with ivory clouds. It was a new day; time for Octavia to start over. 

*** 

Nine hours later, the girls saw the sign "Winchester Bay, OR., Population: 382". They had finally made it. The pee stops, window issues and music arguments finally paid off and they had made it. Now all they had to do was find the house. They began in the first neighborhood they saw. The houses looked exactly as you would imagine them to look. The wind from the sea had taken it's toll on the sides of each house. The wood had began to fall apart and the doors looked as if they would fall off the hinges at any given moment. 

As the girls were driving, they came across a woman sitting on her front porch, reading a book accompanied by a mug of tea and an old Basset Hound at her feet. "We should ask her if she knows anything about the person who wrote this," Kijani spoke up, breaking the silence. At this point, they had nothing to lose. Octavia pulled over to the side of the road and shut down Bruce's motor. The woman hardly did as much as glanced up at the two girls approaching her steps. 

"I'm not interested in whatever you're selling," she grunted and looked back down at her book. 

Octavia spoke up, "No no, we're not selling anything. We just wanted to ask you a question." This sparked the woman's attention. She pulled her glasses back up from her nose to her eyes and looked at the girls. They didn't look very dangerous, just a couple of teenage girls carrying something that looked like a large Bible. 

"What question can I answer for you, then?" 

"Do you know this person, by any chance?" Octavia handed her the book with the name signed at the bottom. The woman's face dropped. 

"I do... did. We actually went to Woodstock together. But she's here? In Winchester Bay? I didn't know that. Her and I were wonderful girl friends back in the 70's. We parted ways after I had moved off to college. I was going to Berkeley and she wanted to go to NYU. I haven't seen or talked to her since... Is this thing hers?" She was flipping through the pages, now. The illustrations in the book seemed to have an effect on whoever touched it, as if they were put in a trance by the intrinsic designs. 

"We believe so... now we don't mean to intrude, we just thought she would like to have it back." 

The woman nodded slowly. Raindrops had began to fall around them and the woman offered to bring the girls inside. 

Her house was small, but cozy. The interior was mostly white and outdated light brown wood. Along the ceiling , she had hung coffee mugs. The living room had a wood burning fireplace that rested between two outdated recliner chairs and sat across from the same outdated couch. The living room window was looking over the entire bay. Waves crashed along the shore and everywhere you walked, you could smell the salt that made up the air. 

"You're welcome to stay for dinner. I have either chicken or fish, whichever you prefer and I'll be making chicken and dumplings and I have a pie I made earlier that we could eat for dessert." 

Kijani and Octavia accepted the offer as they hadn't had a full meal since they left Idaho and Utah. 

Over dinner, the woman who had introduced herself as Alayne, talked about how she had dropped out of college to explore. Her husband had died of cancer when he was 35 and she never fell in love again. She moved to Winchester Bay after his death. She wanted a small town where she knew everyone, "...well almost everyone. I had no idea Alice lived here too. You would think that in a town that was so teeny tiny, I would have ran into her at some point... I guess our paths just never were fortunate enough to cross." 

Their conversation went way into the night and Alayne let both of the girls stay. In the morning, they would continue their journey to find Alice and hopefully, go back home.