Summary: Sage, a New York City teenager who desperately wants to be back there, is now living in a hot, sticky Wisconsin town after the death of her mother. She hasn’t even been there for ten minutes when a guy her age says she’ll get over it. If nothing else, she’s no longer stuck in a haze.
Inspiration: College Writing Competition
Date: 12/21/2018
Word Count: 1,558
They had been wrapped in silence for the past seventeen mile markers, Sage noted. It had been thirty-five mile markers since they had passed another car and seventy-one since Sage had last seen one of the big rig trucks that had been commonplace in their trip. At least, they had been. Then they had gotten closer and closer to the very top of Wisconsin and it was like the entire world had fallen apart around them.
“You know, pup, I think you’re really going to like the town. It’s small, like most places up here, but we don’t get as many tourists as other places. There’s this one place I know that always seems to be under construction. You wouldn’t believe the cars that get piled up in a town that’s only meant to hold a couple thousand.”
Only half-listening to the rambles of the Sheriff beside her, Sage sighed and looked down at where the window dropped down into the door of the car. There was a line of condensation against it and Sage knew it was because the air-conditioner was doing its best – and failing, it seemed. A glimpse in the side mirror showed that her hair was frizzed up and escaping the ponytail she had tried to tame it with due to all the heat and humidity.
“And we have a pretty decent movie theater! It’s nothing like what you’re used to seeing in New York, but we show some pretty good movies for some pretty cheap prices! I swear I find half the teenagers in town shoved into that movie theater all hours of the day.” Right. Sheriff Allan Greene still wasn’t saying anything that was really important. Looking back out the window, Sage frowned. Seventy-two mile markers since a big rig and thirty-six since another car had been seen. Sage would have thought the man driving was going to take her out to some distant road and kill her, but he was honestly too nice to do so.
They had seen three motel rooms since their departure from New York and the man had slept on the floor twice when there was only one bed in the room. Sage could admit it was sweet of him, but she wasn’t about to make his job any easier. She had basically been kidnapped from her home, after all. She was allowed to enter a vow of silence.
“I know it’ll take some adjusting, pup, but this was what your mom wanted.” The Sheriff’s voice dropped to something more like a whisper at a funeral, Sage refusing to focus on it and instead moving to fiddle with the radio. The man didn’t complain when she did nothing but flip through radio stations for the next five minutes with little success to anything that wasn’t shrieking static that hurt her ears. It was enough that she finally turned the radio off altogether. “Do you want to play with the scanner?”
Glancing up at the Sheriff and thinking that he was probably hiding a smile under that stupid mustache, Sage turned her head to look out the window of the police car that she was a prisoner of. The interstate had ended about twenty-four mile markers ago and they were now on a highway with nothing but trees on either side of them. Sage could sometimes catch a glimpse of water every now and then, but overwhelmingly it was nothing except nature.
“You know, the town has a lot of great hiking trails nearby. I’m sure there are a few starter ones that you’d come to enjoy.” Hiking. The Sheriff who had barged into her life and kidnapped her after her mother’s funeral wanted her to go hiking. Sage didn’t dignify him with a response, instead fiddling with the vents that were trying their best to blow cool air out. “Right. Well, we’re almost there, if you’re starting to get hungry or need a break. Just another fifteen miles or so.”
Fifteen miles couldn’t go by fast enough and Sage entertained herself by fiddling with little things and going through the dashboard for the hundredth time. Like every time before, the Sheriff didn’t complain, only volunteered answers and stories when she looked at something for too long.
It felt like an eternity, but they finally pulled into a parking spot outside a police station with two other police cars already there as well. As Sage kicked the door open, she spared a moment to be thankful that the man at least hadn’t made her ride in the back of the police car. They had also made great time from New York to Wisconsin considering they couldn’t be pulled over for speeding.
Her thoughts vanished as quickly as the cold air as the summer haze attacked in earnest and Sage honestly felt like she was about to melt into a puddle and die. The air felt like she was trying to breathe through a cloth over her face, the heat was pressing against her like a physical force, and there was the overwhelming sound of bugs that were everywhere. Sage went from the car to the inside of the police station fast enough that she probably could have impressed a track team.
“At least the air is working today,” the Sheriff muttered under his breath as he entered behind her at a calmer pace. Sage figured he hadn’t wanted her to hear that, but it looked like they were both out of luck. “I’m back, Beth. Anything that needs my attention right away?”
“Your puppies decided to visit,” said a lady at the front desk, not looking up before pointing a pen to a section of uncomfortable looking chairs that were filled with almost half a dozen teenagers.
“Of course they did,” the man muttered, looking down to Sage. He was probably already regretting kidnapping her. “You want to take a seat over there, pup? We’ll leave soon.”
Sage, due to her vow of silence, didn’t respond, and instead walked over to a chair that was in the far corner of the room and looked to be right under an air vent – thank god. As she walked, she saw the teenagers were perking up and all looking over to the Sheriff, two of them waving enthusiastically and another giving a wave that was halfhearted at best. One of them shouted, “Uncle Allan!”
“It’s Sheriff Greene when you’re in my station and looking like you just got in trouble.” Ah, family friends, then, probably – or these kids got into a lot of trouble a lot of the time. “What did you all do this time?”
“Nothing, Uncle Allan, we were framed, I swear!” While one of them pleaded their innocence which was probably faked, another looked over to Sage and gave her a grin.
“Hey there, new kid. What are you in for? Dressing in too much black?” That was just rude. Sage was in mourning of her entire life being destroyed, after all. She was… in mourning. Right.
“That’s Sage,” the Sheriff answered, Sage looking away towards the window. Even the road looked like it was melting with how hot it was outside. “She’s the one I’m going to be looking after. The one from New York.” It seemed her story had already been gossiped about because most of the teenagers immediately blanched and looked guilty. Great.
Three of them began a spiel of “I’m so sorry.” and “Let us know if we can help.” and it took everything Sage had to not snap at them to shut up. She had heard those words so much over the last few weeks and she was so sick of them. Before she could give into the urge to yell at them to shut up, one of the teens that had yet to speak gave a snort of laughter.
“Well,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning back with a smirk he probably thought was cool. “That sucks.” Sage stared as the teen had the Sheriff and his friends all yelling at him immediately about his insensitivity, but the teen only shrugged as he spoke over them. “Well, what else am I supposed to say? Shit happens. She’ll get over it.”
Still staring, Sage took a few steps forward until she was right in front of this arrogant teenager who said that her mother’s death and her complete collapse of life was something that she could just get over. She saw the Sheriff step towards them as if ready to intervene and stop a fight, but Sage only stuck her hand out.
“I’m Sage.” They were the first words she had spoken since the funeral and it was clear to hear as her voice creaked from disuse. Giving a rough cough, she stuck her hand out even further. “Nice to meet you, asshole.”
The others all looked some form of shocked or surprised, but the teen in front of her laughed and stuck out his own hand, wrapping it around hers before speaking, “Al. It’s nice to meet you, too, you goth wannabe.”
The summer heat pressed down around her like a second skin, the sunlight was bright enough that it could have rendered the entire world blind, and Sage’s black clothes seemed to lose some of their grief as she felt her lips tilt towards a smile. This could be fun.