Eva's Expedition

Chapter 26: The Bean

Since I had drove the four hours to St. Louis, Logan was driving the four and a half hours to Chicago.

The arch and St. Louis had kinda been a bust with the rain and all, but I couldn't have everything be perfect. A day was a day and another destination was checked off.

We were over halfway done with my list now, and I couldn't help but feel that my trip was starting to near the finish line.

After I had to return to New York, I'd have to kick my ass into gear and see what I could do about my career and where I was going to start.

I was chewing on some M&Ms while scribbling down yesterdays events in my journal. It was beginning to get full, with all of the things I was slapping in it and the pages I was using.

I flipped through the pages to look back on everything, running my fingers over the knick knacks I had picked up. The fishing hook, a shell, the river stone, etc, etc.

My hand went to my neck where Madame Zulu's crystal hung. Logan had noticed it eventually and refused to believe it was magic, but did admit it was pretty.

I used my free time not driving by napping and wondering what else we could do in Chicago, other than see the Bean. We would probably walk around millennium park and see the other arts, but I wanted more of course.

After Chicago, Logan and I were in for about a two day drive to Wyoming. We'd have to rest up after that, so I figured we should have fun.

The streets became more crowded, the buildings grew taller and the people walking around were in thicker clumps.

Again, we were in the big city.

I raised an eyebrow as Logan drummed his fingers on the steering wheel rather nervously.

"What's wrong with you?" I chuckled.

He glanced at me and shrugged, "Huh? Nothing. I'm good."

I nodded and sat back, returning to my journal. Logan rolled his shoulders to relieve some tension.

"Logan," I sighed.

"I don't like Chicago," he grumbled eventually.

"Why?" I laughed, closing my magazine.

"Haven't you- no you probably don't watch the news..." he mumbled, trailing off. Right, my parents didn't let me see things like that. Unimportant imagery, they called it.

"I watched some news. World news."

"Yeah well, Chicago isn't exactly as pretty as the pamphlets say. There's gangs and gun violence, riots and deaths nearly every night. It's overrun by crime in some places. I just...," Logan ran a hand through his hair worriedly, "I want you safe."

I'll admit, I was horrified one of my destinations was a dangerous, gang run city. But I knew every place had its dangers. We just had to be smart, that's all.

Logan was a worrier since the day I met him, I knew that. He was overprotective and always cautious. More responsible than me.

I thought my purpose of this trip was to get away from home and have fun. He thought his was to take care of me. Now that we were...a couple, I could tell that his worrying had doubled up on itself.