Voracious - Alice Henderson [96]
“Sure,” said the driver. “Hop in!”
“Thank you!” Madeline said gratefully. “Just let me get my car off the road.”
“You need help?” asked the passenger.
Madeline looked at the level ground and shook her head. “No, thanks. It’ll just take me a sec.” She jogged back to the driver door, stooped in, and inserted the key. Then she put the car in neutral, disengaged the emergency brake, and started pushing the car off the road. The Rabbit was light and easy to push on such level terrain, and in less than a minute, it was safely parked in the short grass along the road.
She locked up her car and moved to the back door of the Subaru.
“Oh, shoot! Carly, can you move some of your stuff?” the driver asked hastily.
As Madeline opened the door, a heap of gear spilled out, including a tent, an unrolled sleeping bag, as well as a bunch of bananas, a well-worn boot, and two unwrapped toaster pastries that looked older than the boot.
“Sure thing,” Carly said, turning around in the passenger seat and helping Madeline pull in the unruly gear and place it back on the seat.
With a small space cleared, Madeline sat down and closed the door behind her. Her fingers touched the vinyl seat of the car.
The two sisters hiking in the high country, backs laden with heavy packs, stopping at a rock pile to watch for pikas …
Carly as a teenager, sitting in the backseat of the Subaru on the way to a piano recital, nervous as never before …
The other sister, crying, ankle broken after a fall on a skateboard, Carly driving her to the hospital …
Their mother, in mid-lecture, warning them of the dangers of not following a more traditional path, wanting them to be lawyers or bookkeepers …
She pushed the myriad images to the back of her mind. The driver took off, and Madeline gave a long, mournful look at her faithful VW. I’ll be back, she mouthed to it. Don’t worry.
It was the only time she’d ever had to leave it somewhere like that. In all the time she’d had it, it had never broken down once. Now ragged holes gaped in its underside.
“I’m Meg,” said the driver.
“And I’m Carly,” added the passenger.
“Madeline,” she answered, smiling at them.
Meg sized her up in the rearview mirror. “You been out here for long?”
“Standing on the side of the road or camping in the park?”
She laughed. “Camping.”
“Not long. Four days. But it’s been one hell of a four days. What about you guys?”
Carly scratched her head, the dreadlocks on that side moving up and down. “We’ve been out for what, three … three and a half years, I think.”
Madeline’s mouth gaped. “Three and a half years?”
Carly nodded, turning to the side in her seat so she could see Madeline. “Yeah … it’s been awesome. We just go from job to job, you know? Meg here’s a cook, and I mostly do housekeeping—you know, changing sheets and that kind of thing.”
Meg nodded. “We just go from park to park, depending on the season, finding odd jobs and room and board.”
The idea of such a carefree life appealed immensely to Madeline. She studied the two women with admiration. “That’s terrific!”
“Yeah, we sure think so. Mom doesn’t so much though.”
At the mention of their mother, Meg laughed. “Nope. Definitely not. She wants us to be stockbrokers.”
“Or work for a PR firm.”
“But not us.”
“Nope.” Carly pushed a handful of dreadlocks out of her eye and smiled. She was beautiful. A stunning, natural beauty. “We’re free spirits.”
“You two are sisters, then?” she asked.
“Yup,” Meg answered. “You got a sister?”
They were nearing the intense traffic of the trinket store and restaurant area of West Glacier, and they slowed to a crawl behind a line of cars waiting to get gas at the little service station.
“Only child,” Madeline answered. But she thought of Ellie and smiled sadly. She was the closest thing to a sister that Madeline could ever want.
She took in the pile of gear in the backseat next to her and in the trunk. “Looks like you two are heading on