The Hermes Endeavor

Chapter 2 - Nathan

Nathan Baily looked over at his daughter Cameron sitting in the passenger seat, who was busy acting as if he didn't exist. They had been on the road for over an hour and a half now, and she had not said a word for nearly that entire time. Instead, she was on her phone – doing who knows what. Nathan stopped trying to find out what was so interesting about the five-inch screen perpetually held in front of her face about a year ago. He figured it would be one less thing for them to fight about, and with the limited time he had with her, he wanted to make it as pleasant as possible.

Nathan took another sip of his energy drink as he reset his focus on the taillights in front of him. The drive so far had gone smoothly and he felt like he was making great time. He quickly glanced down at the clock and saw that it was almost 2:30 PM. 'Only thirty more minutes to go,' he thought to himself as he stretched his neck.

Nathan had lived in San Antonio for a little over twelve years now. At one point in time, Nathan was constantly on the move. After leaving the military though, he thought it was time to put roots down. He grew up in San Antonio, so decided it was time to go back home. For most of that span, his ex-wife Sasha also lived in the San Antonio area, only about fifteen minutes from Nathan. Sasha had custody of Cameron, but shortly after the divorce, Nathan had her nearly every weekend and saw her regularly throughout the week as well. Then about five years ago, Sasha's new husband, Patrick, was offered a job in Dallas. The offer was quickly accepted, and just like that, Nathan's daughter was nearly three hundred miles away from him. They tried to make bi-weekly trips to meet half way between the two cities, but the travel wasn't working with Sasha's new schedule so they cut it back to once a month. As the visits grew further apart, so too did the relationship between Nathan and his daughter.

The weekend that was quickly drawing to an end had not gone the way he had hoped. It was the beginning of summer, and he thought that he and his daughter could reconnect to a degree with a trip to Six Flags. Instead, Cameron acted as if she would rather be anywhere else in the world than on a roller coaster with her father. Nearly every attempt he made to start a conversation was met with a quick one or two word answer. His frustration got the better of him and after about six hours of the silent treatment as they waited in the long hot lines for each attraction, he yelled at her. He didn't know what he was hoping for – maybe just any real emotion at all. Instead, she just stared blankly at him and calmly responded with, "Maybe we should just go home." They immediately left and then barely talked to each other the remainder of the day.

As he thought about the weekend that was, he desperately tried to come up with something to say to break the tension and at least end on speaking terms with his daughter before returning her to her mother – but nothing came out. Instead, he sat silently and lost himself to the drive at hand. The obnoxious singing/screaming coming from the front speakers continued to wear on his nerves, but he resisted the temptation to change the music or even say anything about it. Nathan always let Cameron play DJ on their road trips ever since she was barely a teenager, and he did not intend to change that ritual now. He felt like it gave him a glimpse into the mind of the daughter he now barely knew, and did not want to lose that insight. He watched and listened as her taste in music gradually changed from pop, to hip-hop, to a surprising but short-lived journey into country music, to the underground punk/hardcore scene she was into now.

The last thirty minutes of the trip were more of the same. Cameron would occasionally make a noise that Nathan instantly hoped was a line of communication to him, until quickly realizing she was just laughing or murmuring to herself about something she was reading or watching on her phone. Eventually Nathan saw the familiar sign that signified he covered his half of the trip – 'Welcome to Belton, Texas'. Nathan took the next exit, and then pulled into the parking lot of a Denny's restaurant. When Cameron was younger, Denny's was her favorite place to eat. The location of this particular restaurant was nearly exactly between San Antonio and Dallas, so even though Cameron's tastes had changed throughout the years they kept the meeting spot the same.