Over the Wall: A Collection of Short Stories (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Day 21: A Vacation

The entrance to the tunnel was his only way out. It was dark and musty and he did not feel safe going in that direction. But it was the only direction.

He grabbed his flashlight and his bag and walked down the path. Well, it wasn’t a path exactly. It was more the empty space between the two walls of the tunnel. The dusty, dusty, walls. He shuddered as yet another burst of wind made its way through the tunnel and through his soaked clothes. He was so lucky his flashlight still worked.

He only used the flashlight when he truly couldn’t see anything due to his lack of knowledge about how far he was walking and how long it would take. He could not afford to lose his flashlight now.

Thinking about how he had gotten in this unfortunate position, he silently cursed himself for his stupidity. There was no other way to describe it: stupidity. Actually, there was. The words were, but not limited to: idiotic, moronic, laughable, ludicrous, naive, shortsighted, and senseless. He was all of those words but somehow so much more.

It had all seemed so simple. A vacation. An escape. A way to relax. How had it become so different from that? Why did he have to make so many bad decisions? Also, what was with the universe punishing him like this? He hadn’t done anything especially bad. He was no saint but he was not a sinner, per say. He was human and he deserved to be cut a little slack. He deserved some water. He had run out a long time ago, before he realized maybe a little rationing would be useful. He just got more and more idiotic.

He should have just stayed home.

Two weeks ago.

“You should go on a trip.” Chase said, over breakfast.

“Excuse me?” He said, almost choking on his english muffin. Chase did have the habit of vocalizing her ideas at the exactly wrong moment.

“You should go on a trip.” Chase repeated.

“I heard you.”

“Then why did you say excuse me?”

“Because I don’t get what you mean.” He said.

“What is there not to get?” Chase looked genuinely confused.

“Why you suddenly want me to go on a trip? You trying to get rid of me or something?”

“Of course not! You know I love having you here with me. It’s just...”

“Just what.” Chase was always saying something then giving up. She was sneaky like that.

“It’s just that you haven’t done much since you’ve arrived. You need to get out, live. You’re still young.”

“So are you.” He said.

“It’s different for me.”

“How?”

“I have a life. A home, here in London.”

“I have New York.”

“But not a home.” She said, her newly acquired accent making everything she said sound very logical.

Chase was always good at assimilating to new places, you’d have thought she had lived in London all her life, instead of just the past couple of months. He cursed the British and their elegant accents.

“If I were to go on some vacation, where would I go?” He asked. She chuckled as if he was a small child and pulled out an atlas she very conveniently had on hand.

“Choose. Go anywhere, I don’t care.”

“Chase you know I can’t afford to go anywhere. And even if I go somewhere cheap I can’t afford to stay for long.”