Lost Along The Way

Kids born in cities don't see the sky the same way as kids from the small towns. In a small town, you look up more because there's nothing on the ground. You look up, and all around you is sky. Great, endless sky. Setting suns that turn everything shades of pink, purple, and rainbow. Night skies full of stars and possibilities. Kids search for chaos in dusty cornfields and trees that aren't meant to be climbed, growing wild as they look up. No one ever feels as small as they do in a small town, looking up at the sky. That's why everyone wants to leave them, because they grow up staring at that big sky, and they want to go somewhere where the ground is just as exciting as the stars. You can't have that in a small town, and Eeva Henderson knew it.

Eeva was my best friend. She was different, and everybody in our small Illinois town knew it. While we all looked up at the night sky, she threw things towards it, trying to knock the stars down so that she might catch one. Eeva was unique. She grew her hair long and wore animal claw necklaces and beanies. She was always up for an adventure, and I was happy to join her. There was only so much one could do in a small town, so at some point you had to start learning how to make your own adventures. Eeva was good at that. Over the years, we had broken into rated R movies and burned our own permanent records. After we graduated high school, everyone started taking bets on the future. Everybody said they were leaving town and never coming back, but we all knew that never happened. Small towns only survived because the kids who said they'd never return came back to raise families of their own. I was one of the kids they bet would stick around. Hall Williams! They crowed at me. He'll never leave! Eighteen and never even been outside of Illinois! They had a point. I was even commuting to college. Other kids weren't. The theater kids were all heading to New York or Hollywood, saying they were gonna be the next Keanu Reeves or Amy Winehouse. They wouldn't be. I'd seen all the musicals our school put on— there wasn't a lick of talent among us. If anyone in the town became famous, my money was on Eeva. She had never done anything famous worthy in her life, but you just got the aura from her that she was gonna be something.

I wasn't in love with Eeva, despite what you might be thinking. I know it's the old trope- guy and girl are childhood friends, girl grows up to be pretty, so boy falls for girl and vice versa. But not this one. Eeva was different, but not in a way that would make me fall in love with her. I'd marry a girl as boring as our town one day, and we both knew it. Eeva was eccentric where I was normal, and neither of us saw that as a bad thing. She always said yes and I never said no, so when she threw pebbles at my window one night, I had already agreed to whatever she wanted before she opened her mouth.

"Get the car, Hall!" She yelled up at me, a bag swung over her shoulder. "We're going on an adventure!"

It was 3 a.m. and dark as hell, yet Eeva was standing on my front lawn wearing a pair of aviators, like she was a rejected Blues brother.

"Where are we going?" I asked, leaning out the window a little bit.

"I think it's about time we stopped singing along to the Lumineers and actually met them for once." Eeva grinned. I had no idea how she planned to meet her favorite band, but hey, it was Eeva. We'd only been arrested once for her ideas.

"I'm in," I declared.

"Duh!" She flipped me off and laughed as I rolled my eyes. I never had an explanation for the things she did. My father always thought Eeva was constantly high, thinking it was the only reason for her behavior, but I knew better. Eeva was too pure for drugs. She got high on the meaning of her name- life.

Eeva flung herself into the car the second I unlocked the doors, and I followed even though I had no clue where we were going other than that it would involve the Lumineers. I never quite understood her obsession with the band- I'd always expected her to be more of a death metal kind of girl. But that was one of Eeva's favorite things to do- throw people off guard with what they expected from her.