The Wilde Expedition

28. old wolfish friends

Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

WARNING: Play the song in the beginning so you can FEEL THE FEELS.

〮CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT 〮

Of all of Gavin's quirks that he'd shared with me, one of my favorites was when he'd serenade in the van, despite the fact that he had a voice that was a happy medium between tone-deaf and musical-worthy singing. A lot of the time when we'd be listening to acoustic covers, he'd start singing the lyrics to his favorite classics, like, "'And we walked off... to look for Amaaarica!'"

"'Emma, I said, as we boarded a Greyhound to Pittsburg...'" He found humor in changing the names. All I could do was cover my face and groan. "'Michigan seems like a dream to me nooow-' aw, c'mob Emma, haven't you ever heard of Simon and Garfunkel?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna sing with you," I laughed.

"What a killjoy—oh wait, here's the part! 'Playing games with the faces, she said...'" He turned his eyes away from the road to give me the cue.

I rolled my eyes and said it anyway, "'the man in the gabardine suit was a spy.'"

Screaming the lyrics loudly, he sang, "'I said, "BE CAREFUL HIS BOW TIE IS REALLY A CAMERA!"'" I might as well've been crying, because I was laughing so hard, doubled over with my arms over my stomach.

He kept belting out the lyrics like some crazed opera singer, dancing in his seat while barely keeping his eyes on the road. He had a thing for jazz hands, and shimmying his shoulders to the beat, or when there was an instrumental, he bobbed and swayed, and whenever he thought it was a good idea to let go of the wheel, I started screaming, "For Chrissake! Gavin! We. Are. On. The. Road!"

"'EMMA! "I'm lost," I said though I knew she was sleeping... "I'm empty and aching and I DON'T KNOW WHYYY!"'" He sang with such vigor, and with such a brilliant smile I could've sworn he was a kid again, on a road trip with his parents, listening to Simon and Garfunkel, probably on a cassette tape in a soccer mom van, performing elaborate acapella numbers. In the van they probably kicked out the middle seat and made a bed out of the floor. They probably had a guitar, too, maybe a harmonica.

At that point, he flipped on his headlights. The clock said five, but it was already starting to get dark. I glanced out at the side mirror, now unable to even detect that Yosemite was just an hour behind us. I was already starting to miss the mountains—they reminded me of the canyons back at home, but with more foliage and a lot more people than beasts.

"What're you thinking about?" Gavin inquired, and it took a second for me to realize that America had passed and we were back in the real world. I turned to look over at him and blinked twice to clear my mind.

"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering about Yosemite. I wish mountains like those were everywhere."

"Yeah, that'd be pretty neat. It sure beats flat land too. Kansas could use some mountains to spice life up," he confessed, and I couldn't tell if he was kidding until he started laughing at his own joke. I reached over and shoved him in the shoulder for good measure before dissolving into my own fit of giggles.

As we drove on, we passed the three hour mark since leaving Yosemite. According to Gavin, our goal was to reach Los Angeles, spend the night, and leave the next morning. Tomorrow we'd have a six hour drive that would land us halfway through Arizona, and on the route to New Mexico. Gavin calculated that it'd take approximately a week for us to reach Stonecroft, and if we made it on time, we'd be arriving on Christmas day.

Suffice to say, I was excited for that day, but for the moment, I found myself enjoying the shenanigans that came with traveling alongside Gavin. I'd gone and fetched a bag of apples as I came to this revelation, and after I swallowed a bite, I brought it up.