Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

Hitting The Road

“Remember the winter, when we weren’t able to move like we used to, but we never change,” I turn around and look at Sam again as the singer keeps on going with a long ‘no’. “That’s the essence of us,” I sing, a smile tugging on my lips, teasing Sam. She smiles back and joins in, surprising me by singing her heart out in front of Tane. But why wouldn’t she? This is our song.

“We’re the one thing we don’t fuck up!” We both laugh, huge grins on our faces as we keep on singing. “That’s the essence of us, everything else we leave erupts!”

I turn back around to look at the road, and I see Tane glancing at the rear-view mirror, a little smile tugging the corners of his lips up.

“I’ve got another one!” I say as I look through the list. A few moments later, I’m singing as loud as I can.

“And a thousand times I’ve seen this road…”

“A thousand times…” Sam joins in.

“I’ve got no roots, but my home was never on the ground,” we sing together. “I’ve got no roots, but my home was never on the ground.”

“I’ve got no ro-oo-oo-ts,” I sing alone, and we are both laughing again. 

“I’ve got no ro-oo-oo-ts,” Sam mimics, and then we both crack up laughing. 

There's nothing in this world, that's brighter than my best friends laugh. 

After a bit more singing, I turn the volume down and find some nice background music.  

“So, Tane,” I say after a while. “Tell us, what was your plan for this trip?”

“Oh,” he glances quickly at me. “As I told you yesterday, there’s some family business I have to attend here and there… and I thought I’ll do a roadtrip while I was at it.”

“Where exactly did you plan to head to?” I ask as I shift my body to face him.

“Hm,” he seems to ponder for a moment before answering. “I was actually going to head to the beach first, so agreeing to your itinerary wasn’t hard in that sense, Coromandel sounds as good as any other beach to me,” he replies with a little one shoulder shrug.

“Oh, that’s perfect! But, it’s Sam’s itinerary, not mine.”

He glances at the mirror once more, and I look at Sam through the corner of my eye just in time to see her look up at the mirror, and then back down to the floor.

“Is it?” Tane asks. 

“Yes, Sam is the big organiser here, I’m more like a free spirit, I just like to play along and see what happens, seek adventure, you know,” I wink, but his eyes are back on the road and I don’t think he notices. “Are you an adventurer, Tane?” I add after he doesn’t reply.

“Oh, I don’t know…” He looks thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe I am,” he says after a while. “Why did you come over to my country, anyways?” He asks, turning the questions our way.

I look at Sam, and she shakes her head ever so slightly, letting me know with just one look that she doesn’t want him knowing about her family dramas. 

“Just holidays!” I say. “We thought, ehm, it was time for a good… adventure!” I say after a moment's pause, and I wonder how fake that sounded. I hope not too much, I don’t know why I mumbled so badly, I’m normally better than that at lying.

We keep talking for a while, me and Tane that is, as Sam leans over the window again without saying a word, and she seems to drift off.

✢✢✢