Her Last Words

Into the Forest

It took Anna's expedition team just twenty minutes to travel from Lawndale to Harrisburg, where they stopped for some time just to get pizza for everyone, the city was calm and they all enjoyed a view of the distant State Capitol as they traveled along peaceful streets with bright gardens, stylish shops and elegant houses everywhere.

The weather so far was very nice, so Anna decided to open her window all the way down since now the entire SUV smelled of grape pop and pizza...

"Hey! Joey, Jeffy and... What was your name, young lad?"

"Jamie!"

"That! Well, Joey, Jeffy and Jamie, we have rules" William explained in a cheerful voice, and at this point they had almost left Harrisburg behind- "You have a huge camping tent! The girls sleep in a tent of their own, I do not want anything strange to happen, and I'll be very vigilant!"

"Yeah, no problem! You can trust us! Fine, thanks for the pizza Mr. Coulthard!"

"Excellent!"

Even the calorie-conscious Quinn and Stacy were enjoying the pizza in cheerful spirits, there were now huge empty boxes of Pizza Forest everywhere and yet Anna had only eaten two slices, choosing to enjoy some Pasta Arrabiata instead since she had never quite loved pizza.

"Yeah, thanks Mr. Coulthard!" Larry added, having already finished half a pizza all by himself- "My parents would sometimes take me to that Pizza Forest exactly, when I was little..."

"Call me William..."

"Great! Hey, Anna... Now that I think of it, I have never seen you around at Pizza King!"

"Oh, I do like pizza" Anna explained, now enjoying some White Zinfandel straight from a transparent, plastic container in her hand- "But Pizza King? I mean, seriously!? I prefer the real thing, true Italian pizza! And even then, a good pasta is always better..."

"Anna is quite a gourmet, you shall keep that in mind..."

"Oh, I will for sure! Thanks Mr. Coultha... I mean, thanks William!"

William beamed in amusement as they finally left all of Harrisburg behind, the J triad were now arguing about who would be the best of them all to set the girls tent up so that Quinn would sleep safe and sound and it was then when Larry, quite happy and surprised, finally noticed that Anna was wearing brand new Jeep footwear.

"That's cool, Anna!"

"Yeah, my mother just got them for me! Perfect for the forest..."

"Feli loves purple..." William added.

"I'll keep that in mind!"

The orange, dazzling SUV now advanced on a lonely road through forested areas and fields, William followed unusual paths around the place and soon they were into a deep Pennsylvania forest, which seemed so distant from the more well-known areas that surely few people would even know about that particular campsite.

It was an entire hour after leaving Harrisburg that the expedition finally reached what seemed to be a desolate parking area in the middle of nowhere, William paid a few dollar bills to a cold, lonely thirty something woman that clearly recognized him from past visits and they parked at last between the trees...

They all jumped out of the SUV and William was delighted to see that all of these teens, except for his daughter, were clearly impressed at the beauty of all this great wilderness around them.

"It's so beautiful!" Stacy exclaimed.

"Wow, we are really far!" Larry said- "I thought that it would be, like a more civilized place..."

"It's still a one hour walk from here..." Anna replied to Larry.

"What?!" Quinn and Stacy cried out together- "No, really?"

"Oh, no worries Quinn! I'll carry you, if you feel like it!"

"Hey, what?"

"Feli..."

Anna laughed at the confused look in Quinn's beautiful face, the four boys got ready to carry all of the heaviest gear, William was happy to lead the way and soon after that all of them just marched together and disappeared into the vast, cold and wild forest ahead...