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The Long Haul: Chapter 2

Don't say that. Look at you now.

Look at me?! Look at you!

Don't worry about me. Everyone always worries about me, let's worry about you for once.

-

-Nicholas-

The day was getting long and old for me in the back of the family car which I had outgrown years ago. My legs were squished into the back of the driver seat, so I had scooted into the middle seat early, but it wasn't much better with the boxes that contained our stuff one either side of me. I was crammed and uncomfortable.

We had been on the road for so long. Driving up from the town of Fairbush, leaving my old home behind.

I disliked moving. I had to let go of friends and everything familiar. It felt like a waste of time to up and go, but it was life, and I didn't have any control over it.

So, I spent the time to pack up the boxes, making sure not to leave anything behind and load it either into the moving truck or the car. I said my goodbyes and promised to stay in touch with the few good friends I had made. However, I had moved enough to know that we would text for a few weeks before those stopped, and we all moved on with our lives. It was a depressing realization, but one that I had made peace with a long time ago. This was not the first time I had moved, and it wouldn't be the last.

There were woods everywhere here. We were driving past nothing but trees for the last hour of the trip. I never realized just how fast forests could be until I was in one.

"Nothing like home, right kiddo?" My dad tilted his head back towards me from the front seat where he and mom were.

"Don't call me kiddo." I pouted. He had always called me that, and it was okay when I was five, but I was eighteen now. No longer a pup.

My dad, a mastiff who came a little short when compared to many others of his breed, snickered. "You'll always be my kiddo." He leaned forward over the steering wheel. "Look at those mountains." He smiled, and we all looked as best as we could with the car so packed with boxes from our last home.

The annoyance at my father's nickname for me faded quickly at the stunning view of the snow-capped peaks. I came from the south where it was very flat with only a few rolling hills that we called mountains. Our mountains had nothing on these jagged peaks that rose so abruptly from the ground.

"This really is nothing like home." I managed to say. "Summer just ended, and they're already covered in snow." It was only the top, but still. The last time I had seen snow in person was when I went to visit my uncle on the coast; he took me skiing. I was horrible at it and sprained my ankle.

"Actually." My mom raised a finger. "They're covered in snow all year long. This is from last winter." She was the kind of dog that needed to know as much as she could glean from the internet about a place before she would even consider going there. Trust me; she could tell you the entire history of the area, and she had during the twelve-hour drive here.

"Love to go hiking on those." My dad grinned. "Right, kiddo?"

"Honey." Mom held onto his thick arms. "I don't think there are trails leading to the top of those mountains. You can't get up there to the snow."

"Where's your sense of adventure, Maura?" Dad nudged her, and she rolled her eyes. "We don't need trails. There weren't trails here when the first settlers colonized the area. They didn't need them, and neither do we." He pointed at the tallest mountain he could see, which reached above the tops of the trees surrounding us. "As soon as we're settled in, I want to climb that one."

"You don't know anything about climbing." Mom wasn't going to give up so easily. "Plus." She added. "They made trails afterward for a reason."

They were both stubborn in their ways which was why they were married, oddly enough. Always having lighthearted arguments about everything from the day they met. I guess it kept everything exciting between them and to be frank it was always entertaining to watch them go at it and eventually drag me in.

"Nicholas." My dad said to me, cutting off my mom who gave him a quick glare before looking at me. "Don't you want to be an adventurer like in those history books from school?"

"Uhh." I was tempted, but cautious. I was the right mix of my parent's genes. My dad always wanted to rush off and do things right now. My mom was the exact opposite. She was more than complacent with sitting down at home with a book each day and never leaving. I, on the other hand, would go out and do things, but only if I had a little time to think it through. Lot's of people back home noticed it and often commented about how I was their son. "Aren't there wild animals and plus." I gave the mountain another glance. "It looks quite steep."

"See!" My mom quickly turned my words into a weapon to be used against my dad. "He has a very valid point."

"Puh-lease." He rolled his head like a teenage girl. "Wild animals are more afraid of us than we are of them. They won't be a problem for us men." He gave me a wink in the mirror. "We can handle it, and if there are steep cliffs, we'll climb them with our claws." He threw a first into the air.

He could get rather righteous at times.

The conversation never really died down until we came to the small town that was nestled in the mountains. I think it was called Sherfield or something like that. I didn't take the time to learn it. We had moved so fast that it had caught me mostly off guard. It shouldn't have; we moved a lot. My dad loved to travel and so whenever he got the opportunity, he moved us to a new place, often getting his job to pay for it.

He worked for a mining company, and he had brought us out here because he was to inspect some different portions of land that had gone up for sale and to determine if it was suitable for mining. After that, he would set everything up along with a few others that were moving here as well. The amount of time we spent in one place varied, but my dad guessed that we would be here for a least two years which was good since we had only been at our last home for eight months.

The town was small, very small. There must have only been a thousand people living here versus the fifty thousand from before. It only took ten minutes to cross town to get to the apartments that my dad had already gotten ready. The money had been handed over. We just needed us to move in now.

We parked in front of the apartments which was the largest building in town, which wasn't saying much. It was a seven-story, red brick structure. It looked old, and the inside looked even older.

My dad got the keys from the main office where there was an older raccoon chewing bubblegum and listening to a sports broadcast on the radio. He barely looked at the papers my dad brought before handing over the set of three keys, one for each of us.

We walked down a stuffy hallway and up two flights of stairs before we reached out room.

"Room 312." My dad quickly checked the number on the key to the one on the door before sliding it into the deadbolt and giving it a twist. There was the sound of the bold sliding out of the way, and the door opened.

It was small, and there was the slight odor of cigarettes to it. The curtains were a shade that was somewhere between brown and red. The carpet might have been white at some point. I could see a few doors leading to the bedrooms and bathroom and there was the kitchen off to the side. It very rudimentary, with just enough room but no more than was necessary.

"Remember." My dad said, not at all fazed by just how cheap it felt. "This is just until we find an actual house."

I couldn't wait for that already.

It was already getting dark when we had arrived. By the time we had brought in everything from the car, which was some sleeping bags, cooking pots, essentials until the moving truck arrived, it was approaching midnight.

My parents were chatting in the kitchen over the pot of mac and cheese that was our dinner when I decided, out of the blue, to go out.

"Where are you going?" My mom yelled from the kitchen. "It's dark out. You can explore tomorrow."

My dad, in his usual manner, cut in. "Let him go. He's a grown man; he can take care of himself. If he wants to take a look around, then let him."

My mom was too tired to argue at the moment. "Fine. Just bring your phone with you."

I didn't tell her that I had zero reception up here. I had lost it about seven hours into the drive which was about the time that the mountains became visible. I would need to figure out if there was even any reception of any kind for any company up here, but that could wait once the internet was set up. At least the apartment had that.

I grabbed a coat and my phone and headed out, passing someone on the way out that was muttering about some fox and a chicken coop. Didn't know what that was about, but hearing of a fox made me veer towards the woods. I wasn't planning on going in far. Didn't want to get lost my first night here.

It was very quiet in the town. There were scarcely any cars on the road this late, and there was nothing else to make much noise. I could hear squirrels deeper in the woods chattering about something, so I headed that way, always making sure that I knew which direction town was.

About ten minutes in, I came across a small stream. The water slowly trickled from somewhere uphill and out of sight. I dipped my paw into it. It was cold and refreshing on my pads. Maybe this place wasn't very bad. I was a bit skeptical at first. I was used to being walking distance from the mall. The nearest mall was an hour and a half drive away from here.

I followed the stream, having never found the squirrels or what they were chattering about. I watched the stars as I walked. I could see the Milky Way and there were more stars than I ever knew would be visible. There was no light pollution here at all. It was even hard to pick out the constellations with all of the small points of light covering the sky.

I did my best and found the Canis Major and Canis Minor. I then found Andromeda using the trick with Cassiopeia, and it was incredible, I could see the Andromeda galaxy. If I didn't know better, it would have looked like a fuzzy star, but the fact that I could see it and tell what it was with my knowledge. This place had so much to offer, so much that I didn't even know I was missing back in the city.

My feet were beginning to get tired when I reached the source of the stream, a cave. It was pitch black in there, but it was night, what did I expect. I'll tell you that I didn't expect someone to come walking out of it.