Chasing Nirvana

Seventeen

It was past eight by the time we got into Brooklyn. The sun had sat a long time ago and for a bigger part of the ride, we spent the time dozing off in the dark, waiting the cars in front of ours to inch along. The roads were jammed pack with the evening rush hour crowd trying to get home from work and every now and then, someone would honk impatiently. As if that would help the situation. To kill time, I used a travel app on Jimmy phone to find the cheapest places in the NYC area and managed to book a pretty neat looking place overlooking the east river using her dad’s credit card. It was just within our budget (less than a hundred bucks a night) and seemed to pass all our requirements for a place to say (bed and airconditioning for Georgie, TV and internet for Taylor, and clean bathroom for me. Jimmy didn’t care; she told us she would sleep in the car if she had to.).

As soon as we got out of the jam, Jimmy hightailed it down the streets, cutting corners and zooming past unfamiliar neighborhoods at the instructions of the car’s GPRS (thank god for modern technology) and it wasn’t long before we arrived at the corner of India and Franklin St, where our B&B was located. We split into two rooms as we had done the night before, and I let Scooter shower first, knowing that he was dying to get into bed as soon as possible. The room was much nicer than the one we had at the motel and I spent some time browsing through the TV channels before settling on HBO, which was showing reruns of Harry Potter. Scooter came out just as Harry was battling Lord Voldemort in an old graveyard, naked except for the towel wrapped around his waist. He yawned as he dug inside his duffel bag for a pair of pajamas and then shrugged nonchalantly and threw himself onto the bed, sans clothes.

“Gross, dude! Put some pants on,” I said.

“I will – if you find me some,” he yawned again.

“You’re an asswipe,” I said as I threw a pair of sweatpants at him.  

He didn’t reply, instead just thrusting his legs into the pants without so much as an inch of embarrassment for his nudity.

“Shameless bastard,” I mumbled as I turned away, but not fast enough to escape a scarring glimpse his butt.

I jumped into the shower, grateful for the hot water gushing over my head, and thought about everything that had happened so far. We had accidentally attended a funeral, met a waitress who was dreaming big dreams to escape from her current life, and even helped an estranged pair of brothers get back together. We’d pretty much seen and done all kinds of interesting things, with the exception of one glaring fact: we still hadn’t managed to find Nirvana. And to be honest, we were getting tired. It was all good fun for a while, but being cooped up in the car for two straight days had taken a toll on all of us. Just look at Scooter, whose snores could be heard even through the bathroom door and the sound of water pouring out from the shower. Or Georgie, who had somewhat lost her sassy attitude towards Jimmy and was basically just trudging along after us. I’m betting all the cash in my wallet that she was zonked out on the bed right now, just like Scooter. And don’t even talk about Jimmy and I. Instead of becoming closer to her, all I’ve done so far was to mess things up.

What we needed right now, I decided, was a break. Take some time out to stretch our legs and breathe fresh air for once instead of the car’s air conditioning. Maybe go to a park. Maybe see the city. That would be fun! We could do all kinds of touristy things like go up the Empire State Building or drive along the Brooklyn Bridge. Maybe feed some ducks in Central Park. If they were even there. I wasn’t sure when their migration season was. And I’d call my mom, I decided. Tell her I’m alright. Maybe even talk to my dad. By the time I got out of the shower, I was feeling much better. We were in New York City alone, unsupervised, we were young, we had a car and a credit card at our disposal…it would be alright. Heck, it would be more than alright, it would be great! It was going to be our adventure! Our epic last summer as high school students!