Running On Empty

Chapter 10~ Jaylin

"It's peaceful, don't you think so, Jay?" She wasn't looking at me, but I had still noticed the nervousness in her voice.

It was the first time she had called me Jay. She had looked completely different during the night, so quiet and timid like a lost puppy that let its mind wonder off whenever their eyes spotted something peculiar. I nodded slowly as I saw her eyes shift slowly to look at Madeline and Garrett. She chuckled softly to herself, her smile buried slightly in the palm of her hands.

"They look like my parents had many years ago. I remember many nights when I was a little kid how the two of them would sit in the rocking chairs on our porch and let me sit on their lap as they pointed out the constellations in the sky. I hardly remember much about what they would say because I was still around six. But I would at least remember that I had the kind of parents that told many stories to their kid and spent many years truly in love." Her eyes had shifted towards the ground.

She grabbed the marshmallow bag that had been by her sleeping bag and offered me to take one. I grabbed one of those soft, puffy white, cubed sugar treats and popped into my mouth. I had never tasted marshmallows in my entire life. I had heard about them from the stories that Madeline had me read. This time, my taste buds had been engulfed with sweetness. It was quite chew too, the white part was quite stretchy as it took the shape of my whole moth as I continued to chew on. Silya took another from the bag and told me to wait to eat another one and that she would be right back. Her sandals crunched on the gravel ground as she ran over to where Madeline and Garrett were sitting. I watched the way all three of them stood together, smiling and laughing. I saw Madeline get something out of the trailer and I saw Garrett bending over the fire as he and Silya roasted their marshmallows together.

I put bag of marshmallows to the side and decided to go back to lying on my back and gazing at the stars. I heard Silya's cheerfully thanking both my servants as she ran back to see me. She plopped herself next to me once more and handed me something that looked like a small dessert sandwich. It had a gram cracker on both the top and bottom and in the middle was part of a chocolate bar and one melted marshmallow. As she handed it to me, she licked off the melted chocolate and marshmallow on her fingers.

"This is called a S'more...and trust me... you will fall in love with it. I don't even have to say how good it is to have this!" She took a bite out of her S'more.

"Alright, if you say that it is good, then why don't I try it?" I took a bite of it and instantly felt the honey coated cracker crumble inside my mouth. The chocolate and the marshmallow had combined into one messy and slimy mess. "You were right, "I admitted as we both finished up our S'more. We both were licking the chocolate and melted marshmallows off our fingertips.

"Never doubt my taste in food," she laughed, her head tiled backwards slightly and her feet shooting little up in the air.

I never doubted you from the start.

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The next day, Madeline and Garrett drove us to a place where we could rent a boat that would allow as to go out and sit in the vast lake. On the boat, we would eat our sandwiches that Silya and Garrett had packed during the time we had eaten breakfast in the morning. The boat was a regular size white and blue boat. It had a blue stripped roof that provided us all shade from the sun and it also had a steering wheel that had captivated my gaze. I wanted to drive it for a little bit.

Unusually, Garrett and Madeline were both dressed up in t-shirts and shorts. They wore sneakers and Madeline's hair was neatly pulled back in a ponytail that made me see the shape and wrinkles on her face a little more than I had ever saw before. Garrett wore a bright green hat that said, "Fishin'...Not Worth Missin'" Silya wore a long summery dress that had blue and black polka dots, she wore white sunglasses and she had braided her long black hair to the side. She wore light blue sandals that made everything else about her glow as bright as the sun. I found myself unable to speak much when she came on the boat and commented on the breeze that blessed all of us when we stepped on the boat. What a dork it made me look like compared to her. Garrett had made a secret trip over to the store yesterday night because Madeline had told him that I needed more clothes that were for hanging out camping. So here were the two of them throwing clothes on me and ripping off the tags like a well-oiled clothing machine. I ended up in a red t shirt and black shorts that went down to my knees. I also had a dorky cap that Madeline told me would block the sun from my eyes and she went and put on tennis shoes that were black and red. Where in the world they raid a clothing store that just happened to be a few miles off a camping site?!