Secrets

Chapter 8: The Mysterious Path

Chapter 8: The Mysterious Path

"Ryan, are you packed?" I yell to Ryan's room.

"Yes!!!!!!" Ryan yells back. What is going on? What did I agree to do? Everything hits me for a second time. Ryan's Dad, North Carolina, Christmas. I have agreed to go with Ryan. I have to tell my parents.

I slowly type in a number (568) 457-5060, my Mom's number. I bring my finger down and press the green 'call' button, not knowing what to say. The answering machine barks at me. "Riley Healy is not available, please leave a message and she will get back to you as soon as possible." A loud beep follows the message. "Hi, Mom umm..." I stop not knowing what to say. "I'm going to be out of the house for a while. I'm going somewhere with Ryan." Quickly I press the red 'end' button. That is the closest I will get to the truth.

I walk down the hallway to Ryan's room. Everything was the same from the first time I saw the room, well almost the same. The first time I went into Ryan's room, his stuff was everywhere, now the only thing in his room is a bed with plain white sheets standing in the middle of his room. "Ryan, what happened to all your stuff?" I ask.

"Oh, I had to pack it up. My Dad usually pays the rent. I tried to pay it I did but I couldn't. I could never get enough money..." Ryan trails on. I could see just the slightest, littlest tear in his eye but he wipes it away too quickly like he's trying to hide something from me. Just another reason to go with Ryan. Another thing to save, his Dad, his house, and his life. Ryan's life is falling apart right before my eyes. They only thing stopping it from collapsing is the hope of finding his father.

"I'm going to start the car," I tell Ryan before I leave his house and go outside. What I need right now is time to think, alone. Ryan just nods as he continues going through boxes, finding what clothes he has, then putting them in his suitcase. I take my own suitcase and walk outside to Ryan's car. With Ryan's keys in my hand which he gave me earlier, I click the button that opens Ryan's car's trunk. I walk around his car and put my suitcase in. Thank goodness Ryan has his own car or we would be getting nowhere at all. I take small steps to the driver's side of the car and plop down in the seat. There is no need to start the car yet. Ryan will take another hour going through his stuff. So instead of starting his car, I start rummaging through the many objects in Ryan's messy car. Yes, this is vandalizing his privacy but I need to find something, a GPS perhaps. And then I find it, a fairly new GPS in the glove box of his car. I turn it on and I press a button that says 'set destination'. Quickly I set the destination to a random place in North Carolina. The web page didn't say where yet. Ryan and I need to just get the North Carolina and then check the web page again. If I forget to check the web page this whole trip will be a big waste and Ryan will have no chance of finding his father. When I am done putting in the state which was all I knew the GPS lights up. I check the bottom of it for the time it will take to get there, eight hours. Ryan and I have ten days until Dec. 25th and we weren't going to waste another second who knows what we will come across along the way. "Ryan come on, we need to leave!" I yell into his house. Just like that Ryan locks his house and runs into the passenger seat of his car. I put the keys into his car and off we go.

We have only been in the car for an hour but I already have the "when are we going to get there feeling." Ryan and I sit in suspense while the car GPS counts down the number of minutes till we get to North Carolina. A billion things are buzzing through my head, a thousand miles per hour. Is this real or not? Is one of his parents alive? Will this save his life? For the first time, I am having doubts on if this is safe. I could only imagine what is happening in Ryan's head.