“We’re going on a road trip, Mrs. Marin,” Otis explained.
He didn’t seem too bothered by her seeing us kiss.
She’s lived in the trailer next to ours for as long as I could remember, but seeing us kiss was probably a bit too much to handle for her old heart.
“Is that how you touch family?”
Mrs. Marin did not give a shit.
She was disgusted, just what I thought would happen if we’d show the whole town that we loved each other.
“I don’t think that’s your concern,” I hissed under my breath, and Otis tried to calm me by caressing my back.
“Have a good year, Mrs. Marin.”
And with that, she continued to walk her rat-like dog down the street.
“I thought you were the one who said you wouldn’t care what people say about us,” he said, studying my face carefully.
“Yeah, well, maybe she shouldn’t have added to the disgust on her face,” I muttered.
Otis chuckled and nodded to the RV behind me.
“I hope you’re not going to change your mind about us.”
I shook my head. “Never,” I promised him, then got into the passenger seat and waited for him to get in himself.
There was a possibility that Mrs. Marin would forget about what she saw, and not tell everyone around town.
That would make it harder for us to come back.
But for now, I just wanted to go.
Leave town and not look back.
“Stop worrying, Genesis,” Otis said, as he pulled out of our driveway.
I looked over at him and sighed.
“I’m not worried. I’m upset.”
“Then stop being upset. You said it yourself. We’ll leave today and won’t come back for another year. Until then, Mrs. Marin might be dead and no one will ever remember what she said one year ago.”
I wanted to laugh, but just a snort came out.
I looked out the window to take in our neighborhood one last time.
“Hey,” Otis said, reaching his hand over to me to grab mine. “Look at me,” he demanded, and I did.
As he stopped at the crossroad to head onto the main street, he turned to look at me with a big smile and hopeful eyes.
“We’ll have the time of our lives, all right? Don’t think too far ahead, and don’t think back to what we’re leaving behind. Stay here in the moment with me, and enjoy every single thing we come across. Can you do that for me?”
I watched him for a while, then nodded and smiled back.
“Okay.”
He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it before letting go again to grip the steering wheel.
“Good. Now, is there anything you wanna get before we head toward the highway? A certain snack I forgot yesterday?”
I puckered my lips and shook my head, but then I remembered something.
“I wanna get one last coffee from Gio’s.”
Otis grimaced and then chuckled.
“You sure?”
“Yep.”
Gio’s was a gas station Otis often brought me to buy me a lollipop after kindergarten. And when I got older, I started to go there by myself before school to get a coffee.
It was much cheaper than Starbucks, or any other coffee shop in town, but it tasted horrible.
Still, it helped when I was tired in the mornings.
“Who knows if I will taste that coffee when we’re on the road?”
Otis let out a laugh and then nodded.
“You’re right. One last coffee from the gas station it is then.”
Otis stopped the RV in one of the parking lots next to the gas station, and I grabbed five dollars out of my backpack to buy the coffee with.
“Sure you don’t want anything?” I asked, before stepping out of the RV.
“Uh, no, I’m good. Hurry up,” he said.
I got out of the RV and walked over to the entrance, then went straight to the coffee machine they had standing in the back.
It wasn’t a normal coffee machine, almost like a little kitchen with three coffee makers on it.
But then, this was a gas cafe.
As I waited for the coffee to come out, someone stepped next to me.
I turned my head and didn’t say anything at first, but as the man smiled at me, I replied with a “hi.”
“You’re Otis’s kid, right?”
I didn’t recognize this man.
Why did he know who I was?
“Yes. Do I know you?” I asked.
Talking to strangers wasn’t something Otis taught me, but I was safe in here, and he was right outside.
“No. I don’t think you do. I’m an old friend of his. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t. What’s your name? I will tell Otis you said hi,” I offered.
He chuckled and reached for a donut from the baked goods section. “Colson. But I don’t think he’ll remember me.”
“Well, I will let him know I met you. Unless you wanna see him. He’s outside,” I explained.
My coffee was finally done, and I poured it into the cup.
“Yeah, I saw him. Are you headed somewhere? That RV looks pretty packed.”
“Yes.” I smiled brightly. “We’re going to Ottawa. And after that, we just follow a road and see where it takes us. A road trip,” I told him, happy as I’ve ever been.
“Oh, really? Well, I hope you have fun. Enjoy your trip, Genesis.”
With that, he left to go pay.
How on earth did he know my name?
I shook it off, thinking I might have told him but didn’t realize, so I walked to the cashier and paid for the coffee, then headed back outside to get back into the RV.
“Ready?” Otis asked with a grin, and I nodded.
“Yes, I’m ready,” I replied with excitement.
As he started the RV and drove onto the main road, I thought I’d tell him about my encounter with an old friend of his.
“I talked to a man inside the store. He said his name was Colson and he’s a childhood friend of yours.”
Otis furrowed his brows and kept his eyes on the road.
“He talked to you? Why?”
“I don’t know. I was making my coffee and he just came up to me. So you know him?”
“Yeah, I do. But we weren’t really friends,” he explained.
I nodded.
That conversation was over.
I took a sip of my coffee and leaned back in my seat, then breathed in deeply.
“How are you feeling, kiddo?” Otis asked, reaching out to place his hand on my thigh.
I smiled at him, remembering all the times he asked me that question when I was little.
“Happy,” I replied, making him smile and squeeze my thigh.
Our road trip had only just begun, but I couldn’t have been any more overjoyed.
A six-hour drive wasn’t so bad.
We still had two hours to go until we arrived in Ottawa, but with some of Genesis’s favorite music playing loud, the time passed quickly.
She was lying on the recliner right behind me, reading one of the five books she brought.
We’d stop by a few bookstores so she could grab new ones once she’s finished with the others.
She was still a big lover of books, and I liked to think it was because of me taking her to libraries all the time when she was little.