If At First

Part 17 - Chapter 16

Oh. I scowled, "Sure thing, not at all intimidating or anything. But why do I have to go?"

"Tabitha, don't you ever get tired of all your ceaseless and absurd questions? You're going."

I was quiet then, outwardly succumbing to the fact that I would be participating in this bizarre reality until I could come up with a satisfactory answer to my grandmother for my evidently unclear desire to leave as soon as possible.

The following day Andy was due to leave for Nevada. I decided to accompany him to the train station and ensure he actually did what he was supposed to do. By some stroke of providence, we found ourselves in the same cab that dropped me in Townsend when I arrived.

"He-hey! Lookee here, it's Princess Nobody!" Jim-the-cabbie wheezed, unaware of just how accurate the nickname was.

"Impressive memory." I said, shaking my head to Andy in silent appreciation of the entertainment he found in our pungent host. "Could you take us to the train station please?"

"Whatever you say."

Andy rolled down the window so he could breathe.

"Careful there buddy!" The cab driver said into the rearview mirror, "don't want you ruining the ambience in here. That kind of magic doesn't just happen overnight, you know."

"How could it?" Andy retorted, and leaning a little closer to the air wafting in, whispered, "how far is the station again?"

"Doesn't matter, it'll feel like three days."

"So once I'm at the airport, then what?"

"Really Andy? Is this your first flight? You go to your gate and get on a plane. How is that complicated?" I wondered if maybe my grandmother's impatience was beginning to rub off on me, and realized I was really far more annoyed with myself than by anything Andy did.

"Are there layovers? Connecting flights? Anything?" He asked, unfazed.

"No, when you get there, just get on the plane. When it stops, get off. And then find Thumper."

"Sara."

"Find Sara." I confirmed.

We stood together on the platform for a few minutes before I finally saw Andy safely onboard. "You're sure you're okay with this?" he asked for the hundredth time, hugging me. "It doesn't feel right, my taking off."

"Yes, already!" I smiled, "Just go. Help Thumper make good choices."

"Do you think you'll ever call her Sara?"

"No, probably not." I answered, and blew a kiss through the window as the train pulled slowly away. I watched it puff into the distance before returning with any degree of confidence back to Townsend.

I asked the driver to stop at the edge of the town so I could walk, thinking I might take the long way home through a new garden I'd seen on one of my evening runs. In the heavy dusk it was difficult to picture just how it would look in sunlight, and hoped it was as beautiful as I thought it might be.

I didn't cover three blocks before I spied Jack on a leash, straining toward me. It was plain that he did not at all approve of such a restricting form of mistreatment, and he greeted me with the assumption that he had finally found a sympathetic friend.

I kneeled to the ground and scratched the scruff of his neck before noticing that Greenleigh, whom I expected to see on the other end of the leash, wasn't the person holding it. "How's it going, Gree— Oh!" I blinked into the face of a young, handsome man, who, though familiar, was a stranger to me. "I'm sorry, I thought you were Greenleigh."