And Then She Stopped

chapter thirty

Lucas exhaled slowly looking out to his classmates. Mr. Matthews had told him that he didn't have to do this – but Lucas knew that he couldn't live with himself if he didn't. He grabbed the clicker off of Cory's desk and took a step forward, forcing on a smile.

"The Wander New York Assignment," He clicked the remote, changing the slide to a photo of Maya, "I'd thought it was kind of dumb when I first heard it. But not her, no, not her. Maya made plans for our assignment before I finished writing my name on the worksheet. This whole thing was mainly her actually, I just had to follow three simple rules." He clicked to the next slide which laid out Maya's three rules for wandering.

"Rule number one, we go where the road takes us. If I were to turn right instead of left, we'd go to wherever the road took us – no detours, no u-turns, just pure and natural wandering. Rule number two, no phones. We navigated using nothing but paper maps we purchased at gas stations. And rule number three, if we were to see something strange, beautiful, or unbelievably ordinary, we'd pull over and embrace the moment. This is the rule I found hardest not to break because, if I pulled over every time I saw something beautiful I'd have to pull over every time I looked at her." He held his head low and started laughing,

"And if she ever heard me saying anything as cheesy as that she'd probably laugh at me and give me a whole new nickname to go along with Huckleberry, Ranger Rick, Bucky McBoing Boing..." His voice trailed off and he turned around, steadying himself on Mr. Matthews' desk.

"Mr. Friar you don't have to finish." Cory started to stand up from Lucas' seat, where he was sitting to watch and grade all of the presentations.

"No... no I can do this." Lucas whispered and clicked to the next slide, which was a picture of Maya's completed drawing from their first wandering.

"It was the Chimney Buffs – her pick. We spent hours driving there and what felt like even longer climbing up there." He turned back to his peers and almost smiled, "Despite me being in baseball, football and basketball Maya still managed to beat me to the highest peak. She was insane. She was beautifully insane." He clicked on to the next slide.

"Howe Caverns. Yet another wonder chosen by Maya. She was more prepared for the day than I was, so we went to her picks."

"She loves dark places but she also loves nature." He stopped and chuckled down to his feet, "Loved." The word stuck to his tongue, they'd buried Maya five months ago and he still wasn't used to using past tense. He still wasn't used to her empty space. Lucas set the clicker down on the table and turned off the screen. The entire class watched in confusion as Lucas moved around the room, flicking on lights and making sure people were paying attention.

"Mr. Matthews assigned for us all to see what New York has to offer beyond SoHo and the Statue of Liberty. But I didn't see any of it. I went places and I saw things but the entire time I was looking at her, learning about her. The way Maya smiles when she looks back at you walking down the slippery steps into the caves, the way her skin feels when it's cold and 140 feet above ground, the way her hair flows when you're chasing her around a castle." He stopped, catching his breath because he noticed he was going too fast.

"It's us." He continued slowly,

"We're the natural wonders of New York. Live, you guys. Live with each other while you still can." He turned to screen back on and Maya's face, smiling back at the camera as she held a promise ring around her neck slowly came into view, "It doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what you do. An old warehouse can be a better adventure than Niagara Falls if you're with the right person." He looked down at the corresponding promise ring he still wore on his hand and held his hand up to the photo of Maya's on the screen,

"And I was."