Page 21 of Almost There
9
Tessa
“How does this look?” Mason angled the notebook toward Tessa as he reached for another strip of jerky. The colored pencils slipped to the floorboard and were rolling around under her feet. She kicked the box back from the gas pedal and glanced at the page from the corner of her eye to see a purple mountain topped with orange and red flames.
“It’s good,” Tessa said dryly as Mason chugged the rest of the water bottle.
“Mine’s better.” Emily crawled to her knees, twisting her body as she tried to get comfortable between Robin’s and Mason’s elbows. She paused and frowned at the page. “Never mind. It needs more pink.” The pencils rolled under the seat as Old Blue started up the next hill and Tessa groaned.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got it.” Robin laughed as she reached down to the floorboard and started digging around for the runaway pencils. She pulled out the hatchet instead. “What is this? A tomahawk?”
Heat warmed Tessa’s cheeks as she remembered how handy the thing was two weeks ago when all she had to worry about was one random woman breaking into the truck. “Landon always keeps it in here though I’d be damned if I know why.”
“Da…” Emily caught herself. “That’s a bad word, Mommy.”
“I know.” Tessa sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Robin tucked the hatchet under the seat and came back up with a handful of pencils, adjusting her own notebook on her lap as she handed one pencil to Emily. “I need pink too but you can have it first.”
Death Valley lay behind them, the twisting and unmaintained roads as foreboding as its name. But after everything that had happened, the open and lonely desert was a comfort. Her dad would have an I told you so moment. Maybe he was right. Though Moose City had its own problems too, at least it was isolated in the wild.
But there was no ceremonious moment when they crossed the state line and Tessa didn’t feel the relief she thought she would. They’d put all of Southern California behind them, the twelve inch blue “Welcome to Nevada” sign marked the occasion, but the pull of the string felt so taut it was threatening to snap. He’s back there somewhere.
Deep in her heart she knew he was still alive and trying to get home. She knew it like she knew how to breathe. Landon was somewhere in the west while they were heading further northeast. A vast ocean between them and even more miles they’d driven, but he was out there. And she wouldn’t be waiting for him when he got home. You should have been nicer to your neighbors. The back of her neck burned with shame. You should have done more.
“What about this one?” Mason moved his drawing closer to the steering wheel. Tessa blinked her tears away as she looked at it. The lines were crude, half erased and scribbled over again, but there she was, clear as day, her hands tied in front of her and Mason wearing a superhero cape while pools of red covered the page by their feet.
“It’s great, buddy.” She forced a smile. Do therapists still work during the apocalypse? “Could you draw me something happy, though? Or is this all you’re feeling now?”
Mason chewed his lip as he took in her words. “Oh, I know.” His face lit up. “I’ll draw Dad coming home.” Tessa’s chest squeezed in on itself and she turned to look at her son, catching Robin’s eye.
“It’ll be okay,” Robin mouthed the words.
Tessa nodded and tightened her grip on the wheel as she focused on the empty road past the old cemetery and read the mileage markers for the turnoff.
“Are we there yet?” Emily bounced her legs against the seat. “I’m so bored.”
“Almost.” Tessa put the truck in reverse as she turned it around and glanced at the house number on the page of Arthur’s directions again. The mailboxes had skipped the one she needed, so she inched slowly along the main road back to where she’d started. The driveways were spaced a quarter mile apart, open stretches of desert lots, and to her left was an old dirt trail with unbent weeds nearly hiding it.
“Do you think this is it?” Robin leaned across the kids to look out of Tessa’s window.
“I don’t see anything else that would say it wasn’t.” The needle on the gas gauge dipped closer to empty. Each click of the dial felt like a heartbeat, the tick of a clock in her ears. They still had a few more miles left, but nowhere near enough to make it the rest of the way. Trust your instinct. Tessa nodded once to confirm. “We might as well check it out.”
The rough trail led past the houses on the ridge and dipped down into a washed-out crevice formed during a time when ancient waters had brought life to the barren landscape. Tucked behind the rugged and wind burnt sagebrush was a wooden shack with sun bleached antlers attached to the sides and tin cans hanging from strings on the porch. On the roof was a thick box five feet high that looked possibly like a chimney. Rain barrels and a greenhouse sat to the left of the yard and a wire fence wrapped around the back of the house.
The front door flew open and a leather skinned woman with a long silver braid slung over her shoulder stared at the truck from behind the barrel of a rifle. Tessa hit the brakes and shoved the kids to the floorboard.
“Ouch, Mom. Why’d you do that?” Mason groaned.
“Stay down,” Tessa hissed.
“Should we say hello?” Robin scooted herself further down on the seat. The woman on the porch squinted in the western sun behind the truck as she took aim.
“I’m not sure this is the right place.” Tessa’s pulse raced as she looked over her shoulder, trying to find a spot on the hill to turn around. The crack of a gunshot rang through the desert and vibrated in the cab of the truck.
“Mommy!” Emily screamed, kicking Moose in the head and kneeing her brother in the back as she tried to get onto the seat.
“I said stay down,” Tessa commanded, anger and outrage rushing through her veins. Did that witch just shoot at us? She looked to the porch with wide eyes. The woman stood waving them forward with her rifle pointed in the air.