Avalon Bombshell

Episode 11: Ever On

The Chorus of the Road

The road stretches
out before us
like a never-ending
concrete ribbon.

I'm sitting shotgun,
with my wheelchair

bumbling up and down,
folded up in the
backseat behind us

Pea, of course, is driving

(She's hands down
the best driver I've ever met.

Trust me -

Pea has seen
all thirty-seven
Fast & Furious movies,

So, she's basically
an expert.)

I watch the landscape

whizzing past us:
flat as a pancake &

nothing but miles
& miles & miles...

of fields full of
waving corn

Pea turns to me, sunlight filtering through thick green hair: "Number One?" she says.

"Yes, Ma'am?"

(I even throw in
a joking salute)

Pea grins, & her customary deep dimple forms at the side of her cheek: "I've been driving since last night. I need something to keep me awake. Preferably a loud something. There's only so many cornfields my eyes can take before they start bulging out their sockets."

"As you wish." I reply.

Pea rolls her eyes & I can just hear her mutter the word "nerd" under her breath.

(Pot, meet Kettle!)

I laugh &

lean over
to unlatch

the glove compartment
in front of me.

I rummage through
a pile of dusty cassette tapes
and CD cases
scattered about inside.

my hands feel
something...

a CD inside a homemade
paper case.

I gasp & pull it out
into the open air:

I can tell it's been
through a lot –

my fingers feel
the rough texture,
the little rips, tears –
familiar abrasions;

well-loved & then

~ forgotten ~

Pea glances at the paper case. Her eyes grow wide for the briefest of moments.
"Is that-?" She doesn't even finish her whispered question.

She doesn't have to.

"Yup." I say finally.

"Should I?"
I gesture in the direction
of her car's (Darwin's) CD tray

Pea doesn't even answer. At least, not with words. Instead she brusquely nods and then does it for me. She takes the CD out from its flimsy (yet, now, suddenly so precious) paper case and lifts it towards the CD tray.

Just as I remember... –

The label of the CD
is completely blank,

not even a sloppy mixtape title
written in sharpie –

just a blank.

(the CD
is a mixtape
Ava made –

all the way back
in Junior year.

She'd called it
"Mix't of Avalon"

&

every song on there
is painfully, unquestionably
her.