literature

The Traveler (Original Short Story)

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“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Alburt Camus

-

    The road stretched on for miles. It cut through the barren land like a blackened blemish, aiming straight for the high mountain on the edge of the horizon. The heat of the mid-day sun bounced off the tarmac to create visible waves, and the shriveled shrubs that dotted the rocky terrain swayed in the sparse wind that managed to counteract the harsh temperature. A small reptile that seamlessly blended in with the rocks around it scuttled across the dirt, escaping from the dark shadow that flew high above it. An almost eerie silence blanketed the desert.

    Except for the muted clicks of a pair of boots against the asphalt.

    Her red patterned skirt swayed in the sparse breeze as the young woman strolled down the side of the road. A worn suitcase rolled behind her, and the scorching sun glinted off her sunglasses, hidden beneath the tan sun hat she wore to protect the top of her head. Small beads of sweat slithered down the side of her face, and her light skin was an enflamed red thanks to the sun.

    But none of that seemed to bother the slender woman. She walked down the road with her head held high, and the tight curls of her sun dyed hair bounced along with each step she took. It was a stride that signified a woman comfortable in her own skin—one that wouldn’t mind the odd looks she might have gotten had anyone driven past her at that moment. Years of being on her own had taught her not to show that she cared.

    A rare gust of wind caught her by surprise as it kicked up the loose sand that surrounded her. The hat resting on her head was knocked off by the force of it, but it was saved from blowing away by the string that caught on her neck. She was too busy hacking from the dust that had trapped in her throat to hear the first vehicle of the day riding up on her until its heavy brakes were squealing to a stop beside her.

    The young woman reached up to readjust her hat as the passenger’s window on the eighteen wheeler slid down. A greying head peeked over the edge down at her, and more wrinkles were added to the old worn face as his peppered mustache hid his friendly smile. “Howdy there! This aint exactly the type of place I thought I’d see a young face.”

    The blonde beamed back up at the truck driver with her own charming smile and unconsciously fiddled with the charm bracelet that loosely hung from her wrist. “If only I had a dime for every time I’ve heard that. I’d never have to walk anywhere again!”

    The man chuckled along with her, the collar of his checkered shirt popping up in response to another strong wind. “Where ya headin’ chickadee?”

    The woman hummed in thought before vaguely gesturing off in the distance. “Oh you know, that way I guess.”

    “One of them, huh? I might be headin’ in that direction. Would ya like a ride to the nearest city?”

    The woman reached up and swept away one of the curls that had gotten loose from the elastic band holding it back. She examined the man—face worn with age yet still managing to hold onto the playful twinkle that shone in his dark eyes. He seemed like such a nice man; his kindness to random strangers could land him in serious trouble.

    “No thanks,” she replied after a long moment. She dusted off the light colored sand that clashed horribly with the color of her skirt. “Your accent is cute and all, but hitching rides with strangers isn’t exactly my style. I’m a stubborn girl who likes to do things on her own.”

    “You sure? Been hearin’ on the news ‘bout people gettin’ heat strokes in this weather.”

    “I appreciate the worry, but I’m a seasoned traveler at this point. Been walking across the country for the past eight years now.” Her whitened teeth twinkled in the light as she sent him a teasing grin. “Besides, how do I know you’re not a serial killer who picks up pretty ladies from the side of the road?”

    “What’s your name hon’?”

    “Natalie.”

    “Well Natalie, ya sure I can’t drop you off anywhere closer to the city? I’d feel bad for just leavin’ ya here.”

    “I’m sure. But thanks for the offer. Really.”

    The man shrugged and ducked back in to roll up the window. Natalie watched from behind her glasses as the friendly truck driver slowly rolled away with his long trailer, and she was left alone once more. She glanced back in the direction he had come in and started walking again, the familiar sound of her suitcase’s wheels and the click of her heels against the road resonating in the quiet setting.


-

       The bar Natalie sat in was much nicer than the other ones she had lighted since she had arrived in the big city. The familiar scent of tobacco smoke invaded her senses as she casually twirled the bottle in her hand. The few patrons scattered amongst the tables conversed together in low voices, and a little group was currently enjoying a casual game of pool on the far end of the room while quiet music played in the background.

    Natalie’s blue eyes bounced from each person—a quiet observer on the edge of the crowd. This was far more preferable to the places she had visited in the past week. The atmosphere was calmer than the clubs she had been visiting while in the city.

    “You could’ve just ordered a glass of water.” Her eyes snapped away from the pair of men playing poker at a table close to the pool game and focused on the older bartender behind the counter. He didn’t flinch under her stare and continued to rearrange the glasses beneath the bar. “Or soda. We’ve got that too.”

    “What’s the fun in that?” Natalie teased, though she stopped playing with the beer bottle that went untouched. “If I wanted something like that I would’ve gone to the fast food joint across the street.”

    The bartender snorted and picked up one of the glass tumblers to polish it. “You waiting for someone? ‘Cause he isn’t coming.”

    “How pessimistic.”

    Realistic. You’ve been sitting here for two hours without talking to anyone.”

    Natalie nodded her head in acceptance of his logic and went back to playing with her drink, using one finger to tilt it back and forth while the other hand kept her head propped up on the counter. The man sighed at her silence and stored the tumbler before leaning his elbows against the counter. “Alright. Let’s get this over with.”

    “Hm?”

    “I’ve been working this job for over twenty years now, and I’ve learned how to tell when a person comes in to spill their guts to a total stranger. You’ve got that vibe kid, so spill. Ol’ Rick’s all ears.”

    Natalie rolled her eyes and angled her head to look up at the silent TV above the bar. It was set to play one of the national news stations, and the black bars of subtitles flowed across the bottom of the screen, completely out of sync with the newscaster’s lips. She sighed, and her charm bracelet knocked together with her movements. “Just thinking about where I’m going next.”

    “Come on,” Rick insisted after she fell silent. “I work in a bar. I’ve learned to pick up when someone’s lying. Let’s try this again.”

    “That’s the truth!”

    “Not all of it. Spill or buy a soda to drown your worries.”

    “You’re getting a little demanding here.”

    “I don’t like having depressed customers sitting at my bar. It scares the others away.”

    Natalie sighed again and leaned back from the bar, conscious of the way her stool wobbled beneath her. “Fine! Give me a coke. With a lemon.

    “Lemon?”

    “So I can squirt it in your nosy eye.”

    Rick snorted and turned to fill her order. He returned with a full glass of soda, minus the lemon. Natalie reached for it and took a long sip. She was surprised at how dry her mouth had become. Half of it was gone before the man spoke again. “You new to town? ‘Cause not that many new people pop into this bar on a daily basis.”

    “Just passing through,” she answered. The young woman lifted her bracelet and jiggled her wrist to get the charms to knock together. “Next stop: wherever the road takes me.”

    “Ah, so you’re a traveler then.” Rick nodded towards the multitude of charms Natalie had just shown off. “Are those supposed to show where all you’ve gone?”

    “Yep.” Natalie picked through the charms until she found one shaped as a cactus. “Just added this one yesterday. It took me a month or two, but now I can officially check Nevada off the list.”

    “You traveling with someone else?”

    “Nope.”

    “Must get pretty lonely then.”

    Natalie shrugged after another sip from her glass. “It’s not that bad. Kind of liberating actually. I don’t have to worry about anyone but myself.”

    “Lonely it is.” The blonde woman scowled as he completely ignored her statement and pulled out a small writing pad and pencil from beneath the bar to jot down a few words. “What got you started? Travelling around isn’t something a person just wakes up and decided to do one morning.”

    “What if that’s how it worked for me?”

    “It didn’t.”

    Natalie’s scowl deepened at Rick’s response. Who did he think he was, assuming he knew how she functioned? Maybe she had woken up one morning and decided to abandon the life she knew to travel cross-country; maybe she wasn’t lonely; and maybe she just wanted him to mind his own business. That tip jar at the end of the counter definitely wasn’t seeing any new additions from her.

    “Now you’re getting mad,” Rick said, amusement flickering at the edge of his lips as he jotted something else down. “Good. That’s better than the beaten puppy expression you had earlier.”

    “I did not look like a beaten puppy.”

    “Stubborn…as a…mule. And quick to anger. Got it.”

    “Are you taking notes?”

    “Hey, this is the only time I can put that psychology degree to use. I go all the way, or I don’t go at all.”

    A spiteful curse sat on the edge of her tongue. “Do you do this for all your customers who sit too long at the bar?”

    “Nope. Tony over there comes in every Monday just to watch his crime shows. He doesn’t look depressed though.” Rick used his pencil to tap a random rhythm on the bar top. “You avoided my first question. What got you started?”

    The ice in Natalie’s glass clinked together as the soda was drained from it, and the young woman glanced around the bar again. The pool game had concluded, and the players had left, leaving the bar barer than it had been before. The other patrons weren’t paying any attention to her or the man, though one sat only a few stools away, staring up at the silent television.

    Natalie turned her attention back to Rick, who waited for her to continue. A defined pattern had emerged from his random taps. “Why are you so interested?”

    “You’re new here; I know nothing about you, and I’m a curious person. Since you won’t answer my first question: where’d you come from?”

    That was a harmless enough question, and Natalie couldn’t find any reason not to answer. “Nebraska.”

    “Must be pretty different from this place.”

    “Not really. It just has more grass, tornados, and it isn’t as hot. I guess in a way, it really is different from this place. The desert sucks.”

    Rick chuckled. “Did you do anything before taking off?”

    Another harmless question. “I was a student at the University of Nebraska. I was going for a major in statistics.”

    “Statistics?”

    “Hey,” Natalie said in slight offense at the expression that went along with his question. “I’m good at math, and it was a major that was offered. My ex-boyfriend thought it was stupid, but I said the same thing about botany.”

    Ex-boyfriend? So, that’s why you left?”

    Natalie rolled her eyes. “No, I didn’t leave because of him. In fact, we broke up on very good terms; I was even really good friends with his new girlfriend before I left.”

    Rick focused his hard brown eyes on her face before he nodded. “All right, now that’s the truth. What about your parents? They couldn’t have been too happy with you dropping out to start bouncing around the country.”

    “My dad’s always told me to do what I feel compelled to, and my mom doesn’t care. She’s never cared.”

    The man slowly nodded as the young traveler clamped up after that. His tapping pencil had ceased by now. “Why did you leave?”

    Natalie shifted on her stool and hopped down, pulling out a thin wad of cash from her back pocket. She flicked through the bills and plopped down two tens beside her empty glass. “Well, it’s been swell, but as much as I just love your nosy curiosity, I’ve gotta be heading back to my motel. Gotta be ready to head on out tomorrow morning.”

    She was halfway towards the door before Rick spoke up. “You’re not gonna find it.”

    Natalie turned back to see him putting his notebook and pencil away before he started to clean the little area she had occupied. A few heads near the door had turned to see what was going on before they turned back to their own mugs or conversation. “Find what?”

    “What you’re looking for.” Rick looked up at her as he placed her glass behind the bar. “With the way you move around so much, you haven’t given it a chance to appear.”

    The young woman stared at him for a moment before she turned away without another word. A slight grin found its way onto Rick’s face when he saw her pause through the window, staring directly at the help wanted sign he had placed on the door that morning before she walked away. 

~Resubmitted~

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Alburt Camus

The short story I wrote for my creative writing class a couple of months ago. It was recently published in the college's literary magazine, and after rereading it and realizing that I really like the piece, I wanted to resubmit it without using a PDF file because I've come to realize that sometimes the PDFs don't load for every browser. I would do it for every PDF I've uploaded at this point, but that would mean reuploading a lot and breaking some of my...wordy stuff into multiple pieces. 

So, sorry for the reupload of an old piece ^^;

The image used for the cover art was found through Google Images and served as the main inspiration for the short story.

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IcySkittles's avatar
Another marvelous read!

Your writing has really made my morning so far! :D