Daddy's Little Girl

Chapter 4: Gas?

"She's an amazing, strong, confident, brave woman and just, gorgeous. And Carl's my 12 year old son, he's kind, brave, compassionate and plenty smart, but acts dumber than a doorknob sometimes."

"I can tell you really love 'em." I say.

"How?"

"The way you talk about 'em, your eyes light up and your smile gets bigger."

He smiles at me, "What about your family?" He asks.

"It's not much of a family, I never met my mamma, she ran off when I was a baby... All I had was my daddy and his dumbass older brother." I sigh, "But I love 'em, always been there for us. And my daddy, he was like my best friend, we did everything together. Hunt, fish, camp, shot. You name it." I could feel a tear escape my eye, Damn it Dixon! Pull yourself together! I wipe the lone tear away before Rick could see it.

"He sounds like a great man." He tells me.

"He is." I say with a smile.

"We'll find them, don't worry." He says, "We'll find all of them."

***

Once again, I find myself waking up from an unexpected nap. This time Rick is in the car, he's looking at a family picture, His family picture.

"Hey." Is the first thing that comes to mind as I stretch out.

"Hey." He returns with a little smile.

"That your family?" I ask.

"Yeah, here's Lori and there's Carl." He says pointing at each of them.

"She beautiful." I tell him.

"Yeah, she's a real gem." He says with a smile. He takes the picture and puts it in his jacket pocket. "Come on." He says.

"Where too?" I ask excitedly, "I need a get outta this damn car, can barely feel my legs!"

He shakes the empty gas can in front of my face, "Gas!" He jokes as we hop out of the car. "Peaceful ain't it?" He asks looking around at the trees and open field.

"Yeah, sure is. Is it just me or does the air seem fresher out here?"

"Yeah, yeah it kinda does." And he leaves it at that, 'cause what else are we supposed to say. We just walk, walk and walk and walk. We eventual find a house on our quest for gas. Rick and I give each other a shrug as we head towards the front door.

"Hello? Police officer out here, can I borrow some gas? Hello, anybody home?"

He puts down his bags as we walk closer to the front porch. Eventually the only thing in his hand is his hat. We walk up the steps and knock on the door.

"Hello? Anybody home?" We walk around looking in all the windows until Rick goes and looks into one of the windows on the side, stopping dead in his tracks.

"What? What is it? Rick?" I ask as his face is full of sorrow.

"It's nothing." I raise an eyebrow at him and put my hands on my hips, "Nothing you want to see, anyways." He corrects himself. We walk back down the walkway and he takes a seat on one of the benches in the garden.

"You okay?" I ask.

"Yeah... yeah. Just give me a minute." He says as he rakes his hands through his hair. I turn around and something catches my eye. "Rick." I say giving his shoulder a light nudge. He looks up from the ground and turns to where I'm pointing at. It's a truck, and a truck means gas! He gets up and walks to the truck and I behind him. Is this becoming a thing, every time we go somewhere I walk behind him? I think with a smirk on my lips. He opens the door and looks for keys, nothing. Crap! Now what? Just as we were about to walk back to the car, we hear something. We turn around and the biggest smile appears on my face.