The Wings Of A Caged Bird | First Draft

chapter 8 : tortoise shells

We say goodbye to Mr. Azim without much dramatics.

As we watch the back of the bus get smaller and smaller, July says, "That was so fun. Never imagined I would experience something like this."

After that confusing conversation, the two of us kept silent while the bus moved. I kept feeling hopelessly confused at the way he was behaving. I'm not as idiotic as he thinks I am; it's not like I don't understand what he was indicating. I'm just not sure what to think of it. And I also have doubts about my own interpretations. It's way too exhausting to think about all these. Thankfully, he returned back to normal after the bus stopped in front of the trail.

"Me too," I smile, then turn back and look at the forest. There is a green sign board right beside the trail saying "NIRAZ MOUNTAIN HIKING TRAIL — 44 MILES" with an arrow pointing inwards to the forest. Luckily, my relatives of the cedar family are not 44 miles, but only 20 minutes away, according to Mr. Azim. I hope this family will not disappoint me the way the other one did.

I take out my phone and check the time. Three minutes past 2. Still more than three hours left till sunset, so we can stay for two hours if we want. Though I doubt there would be much reason to stay. I turn to July and say, "Let's go, shall we?"

"Yep. Let's go meet your family!"

I frown. "Did you completely forget rule number 2? You're not supposed to read my mind whenever you want."

"Eh?" He looks at me like I just accused him of the worst crime ever. "But I didn't! I haven't read your mind even once in the last few days."

"Oh . . ." Then that just means that the two of us share the same braincells. Laughing at my own thought, I say, "Sorry. Let's go."

Just as we are about to head into the forest, a red car slowly passes us by. I don't pay any attention to it before it drives backwards and stops in front of us.

I look at it as the window of the driver's seat slowly comes down, revealing a girl wearing sunglasses. The car is rather old, with loads of scratches and pulled off paint here and there. I recognize the model from my cars-obsessed days as a Mitsubishi Raider, probably a 2006 model. I'm kinda proud that I could recognize it.

The girl takes off her sunglasses and lets her hand dangle over the window. I can see another person sitting shotgun beside her—a boy, seemingly uninterested on what's going on in this side.

"Yo, Nova here," the girl says, shooting me a salute. I only raise my eyebrows to acknowledge her. "You know where the, um– say what again, man?" She turns to the boy beside her, nods, turns back to me and says, "Yeah, do you know where the Lenny's Donut Shop is?"

"I'm not a local," I reply.

"Eh, dammit. There's no one else around." She brings her head out more and checks both front and back to hunt for life. Then she again turns to me and asks, "Oy, you have 4G network on your phone?"

Do I? I check the top of the screen, and find a 3G symbol beside the network triangle. I raise my head and say, "Unfortunately no. You need GPS?"

"Ayeh!" She sighs exhaustedly. "There's no network in this shithole. Only trees. And death. Dammit."

Only trees and death, huh? Interesting outlook. "Hmm . . .wait, let me check still." I take out my enter Chrome and type in a random word on the search bar and wait. I was almost about to give up when the search results pop up. "Oh! I think my net is working a little."

"Really?" Her eyes pop out in excitement and she turns to the boy and seemingly slaps his shoulder several times, chanting, "He has internet! He has internet!" The boy smacks her hand away and she laughs before turning back to me, "Come 'ere, kid."