6 weeks before forgetting
The rain was falling from the sky and my shoes were soaked. I hated wearing wet clothes. The others didn't seem to bother it as much as I did, though. Raiden's childish side seemed to have awakened because he and Blaze were excitedly jumping from one puddle of water to the other.
I shook my head at the sight of Raiden, who was a 19-year-old boy – basically a man if he acted like it – jump into a huge puddle with a wide smile, causing Blaze, who was standing next to him, to be completely splashed. She burst out in laughter when Raiden lost his balance and fell backward. He was now lying in the pool of water, his clothes entirely wet.
Luckily, he wasn't wearing his backpack, because I was currently guarding those in a small bus stop that had a roof so my clothes could slowly dry.
Raiden got up from the water and, like a dog would do, shook off as much water as possible. He turned his head to me, and then bent down to whisper something to Blaze. She nodded her head up and down and chuckled.
Raiden ran towards me. At first, I thought he was going to grab some dry clothes, but his grin gave it away. When he almost reached me, I realized what he was gonna do, and I quickly unleashed the force in my mind to stop him from running to me to give me a hug so that I'd be even wetter.
He kept running, not realizing that I was onto him, and so he suddenly clashed with the invisible shield that I made with my telekinesis. He stumbled for a moment, trying to find his balance. Surprisingly, he managed to stay standing but gripped his nose while he exclaimed a loud 'Ow!'
Behind him, I saw Blaze bend down, completely losing it. She was laughing so hard that she clutched her stomach, and I just sheepishly smiled at Raiden.
"Whatcha doing?" I asked to tease him.
"I'm getting killed, that's what I'm doing! I think you broke my nose!" he dramatically accused me.
"Oh, get over it, you big baby. Shouldn't have tried to mock me. Let it be a lesson for next time."
He pouted, making me grin even more.
Blaze, who was still chuckling, started to walk towards us.
"Hey, what are you laughing at? Your sister over here just wounded me!"
His melodramatic voice made me roll my eyes, but I was actually quite amused.
"She does not hold back," Blaze agreed. "It's your own fault, really."
I started to chuckle and pointed her at the fact that I saw that she had agreed to Raiden's plan, but she just shrugged her shoulders at that, her eyes still twinkling.
In the meantime, the rain started to stop. After changing into dry clothes, we decided to start walking again. We didn't really have a destination, but we were in Tennessee now, heading east. We were close to the borders of North Carolina and Virginia, but we weren't sure yet where we were gonna go.
Raiden and Blaze started to walk ahead of me – in Blaze's case, hop – while I followed them.
Blaze seemed so happy. I had never seen her smile more. It had been such a long time since I have seen her genuinely hopping around. She was always optimistic, yes, but I could always tell that she was sometimes just pretending. It made me wonder if she was keeping that act up for herself or me.
I admit I am not the most positive one. I was more of a realistic person, which, looking at the state our lives were in, made me pessimistic a lot of times. Actually, I was pessimistic most of the time. Something however changed when we met Raiden. We didn't know him very well yet, but I could just see that Blaze was happy having someone else around, and I can't deny that I was too.
Raiden behaved like a big brother to Blaze, and she seemed to immediately accept that. I just didn't know what Raiden behaved to me yet, but for now, we were talking buddies, he said. It was nice of him for sticking around and worrying. It made me feel less pressure on my shoulders.
I shook my thoughts off and tried to focus on the conversation that Blaze and Raiden were having.
"My legs are killing me. If I could drive, this would be so much easier," Raiden complained. To add a dramatic effect, he raised his arms.
Blaze's hair that was tied up in a ponytail moved with every step she took. She was about to say something, but Raiden wasn't done with his complaints yet.
"I just wish we could get a car and drive away," Raiden sighed.
"Morgan knows how to drive a car," Blaze promptly said.
I froze up and Raiden immediately turned around.
"Really?"
"I've had lessons," I hesitantly admitted.
It was true. When we were still living with our grandma, she had given me lessons. She probably knew that there would be a point in my life where I needed this and she wouldn't be around anymore.
We never put it to practice, though. Since we were still in hiding, we couldn't actually drive a car, because people could see me. Instead, she just told me the theory. She described everything in the car. What it looked like, what it did and how I should use it. She would make me memorize it all. Since we survived on our own, I've only driven a car one time, when we were in a rush to get out of a small town. I only drove for about 10 minutes.
We never got a car after that again, because we would also have to steal one, which would give us unwanted attention. We never thought we could pull it off and we thought that the PSFs would be able to track the car via the license.
"Can you teach me?" Raiden asked.
I sighed.
"I barely know how to drive. I only know the theory."
"But you do know how to drive the car."
That's true, but I didn't feel like it. I never liked the idea of driving a car. It gave me too much control. If I messed up one thing, we could end up on the side of the road.
After not being answered, Raiden tried it a different way.
"What if we ever need to run? What if we are in danger and driving is the only way out? What if you are passed out in that case? Oh, and if you teach me, you will never have to walk whole marathons because I can drive you around. You only have to teach me, and then you never have to drive."
I ignored him and supressed the urge to correct him that you don't walk marathons.
"Pleeeaaaseee???"
I heard Blaze chuckle behind my back and turned around to face Raiden.
"What are you, five?"
He grinned. "Pretty close."
It was very appealing, I admit. Never walking in the rain again with soaking clothes. I sighed again, scolding myself for giving in.
"Fine. But I won't drive, I'll just teach you the theory."
15 Minutes later I was sitting behind the steering wheel of an old Subaru with a face like I was the biggest sourpuss in the world. Don't ask me how, but they had convinced me to do a practice round.
I took in a breath, clasped my hands around the steering wheel and put my feet at the gas and brake pedals.
We were on an almost empty parking spot in front of an abandoned KFC and I did not feel right at all.
My mind was haunted by a million thoughts about what could go wrong. Let's just say that my confidence in driving was very low. The last time I drove, I hit almost everything that was in the way. A car reacts very differently than, say, a bike.
I checked in the rearview mirror if Raiden and Blaze had their seatbelts on. I didn't want to crash and cause them to get seriously injured. That's also why I made them sit in the back.
My breathing was a little irregular, and I tried to calm myself, ignoring the sweat in my hand palms. I don't know why I was so stressed about this.
Raiden and Blaze didn't seem to notice, because they were cheerfully chatting in the back. I turned away from them and focused on the road in front of me and the car that I was in.
It felt uncomfortable. I tried to think of everything my grandma had taught me. She taught me that the most important things are the steering wheel, the pedals, and the clutch.
I slowly pushed down my right foot on the gas pedal and the car began moving. Immediately I grabbed the wheel even tighter, even though we weren't going fast at all.
Blaze and Raiden looked with fascination at that one action that I performed.
Just wait until you also have to steer, look at the road, keep an eye on your speed and everything else, I thought bitterly.
After about 10 minutes of driving at a slow speed, I stopped the car.
"I think that's enough."
"Ahww, we want more," Raiden and Blaze started pouting.
"Nope. No no no. Definitely not. I only said to teach you and that was it."
I moved to the passenger's seat, while Raiden swapped seats with me. He looked puzzled at every button and handle and pedal.
"So this is the steering wheel," I pointed.
"You don't say..." Raiden looked at me like I just insulted him. "I'm not completely dumb."
"Oh really? Because sometimes, your behavior seems like that."
He gave me a playful tap on my cheek.
"Hey, hasn't anybody told you to not hit your teacher?" I rubbed my cheek.
"You better behave well or no lessons for you mister."
He growled something I couldn't hear, but I paid no attention to it.
I started patiently pointing out everything I knew what was in the car, and this time he listened carefully, not interrupting me, even if I was explaining the simplest things. It was like I did the exact lesson my grandma gave me, only I could use a real car for my explanation. After naming everything and its purpose, I took a deep breath.
"So now, onto driving. It's probably gonna take a while before you completely master it, but the basics will get you far already."
I started to point out everything again, and after a while of listening, I finally allowed Raiden to push the gas pedal. The car started to roll forward a little too fast for my liking.
"Slower," I demanded.
"Yes, ma'am."
I heard Blaze softly chuckle behind me, but paid no attention to it.
"More to the right. Don't hit the brake too fast. Slower. Go to the left."
After a whole day of giving instructions, Raiden's driving was definitely improved. He groaned when he realized it was only the basics, but I reassured him it wasn't gonna be much harder. Now I was sitting behind the wheel again. I promised to drive us to a place away from the road. Blaze had fallen asleep on the back seat and Raiden was still watching every action I did with great interest.
"How did you learn this?"
Raiden's voice broke the silence that had been hanging in the air.
"My grandma taught me," I answered without looking up.
"Your grandma sounds like she was an important person in your life."
"She was," I admitted.
My grandma had been my only parental figure, and also my only role model. She was caring and kind. Losing her was probably the hardest thing that happened in my life, but I needed to be strong for Blaze.
He interrupted my thoughts.
"And your parents?"
I flinched a little, but he didn't seem to notice. We didn't exactly bring up our parents to Raiden and I wasn't planning to.
"Our parents were definitely memorable." No lies there. Absentmindedly, I started to bite my nails. "They were tough on us, but whose parents aren't, right? Always busy with their job, but they were our parents, you know?"
"Yeah, as a kid you never appreciate them enough. You only think about your early curfew and things like that, but looking back, you appreciate them anyway."
He had a shy smile around his lips. Maybe he was thinking about his parents, but I could not relate.
With him lost in thoughts, I focused on the road again and realized that the feeling of driving a car was growing on me. Even though it was only a car, it made me content, because it made me feel that I was the one in charge.
I had a little bit of control in an uncontrollable world.