This Road is for Lovers

Riding with a full tank of gas into the sunset with a beautiful young woman behind their RV steering wheel was the stuff dreams are made of for Nicholas. Gina was from a conservative household. Her father is black and her mother is Cuban. She was told she had Native American roots on her father’s side. She always felt like the womb she was birthed out of wasn’t what she was originally formed in. She always believed an discovered planet in the infinite galaxy was where she originated. That’s what connected her and Nicholas. He also felt like he was from another part of the galaxy. He’d tell people he was from Mars and his girlfriend, Gina was from Sirius because it’s known to be the brightest star. Both of his parents are black americans. They felt their insides consist of particles unlike the other people they encountered on the road less traveled. They didn’t feel what they were doing was dangerous, it just felt a bit unique because it wasn’t planned. They were figuring things out along the way. The life they lived together, which was fine and full of spontaneous moments from time to time because they both like to surprise each other, had taken a detour and now there was no time to reverse because the door had been shut on what they once knew to be true. 

Gina was an excellent driver. They played electric guitar instrumental tunes along the way. Nicholas was laying across the bed in the back of the RV, on his back, eyes closed, breathing at a steady pace. Gina pulled into a parking lot to a diner. She already knew what to order for the both of them, they’d discussed it earlier. She parked the RV and went inside the diner. There weren’t too many people inside eating. When the next available waitress was ready Gina gave her orders and waited patiently at first at the front counter. There were televisions on throughout the diner. Gina wore dark shades and a bandana tied around her dark shoulder length hair. By the time she stood at the front register to pay for their meals she looked up at one of the televisions reporting about a couple on the run, being accused of homicide and injuring another. The footage captured in the bar of the terrible incident was blurry and the faces of the couple couldn’t be clearly seen. Gina thanked the lady at the register and took her change and the food and walked out as calmly as possible. She gets into the RV and pulls out of the parking lot. Nicholas hears a bit of nervousness in her voice when he asks how everything went. 

“They’re onto us.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“We’re on the news.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah, I saw it on the television in the diner.” 

“Alright, just relax, you want to pull over?”

“For what?” 

“So you can relax.” 

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.” 

They found a vacant spot miles from the diner. It used to be a movie theater there. Now the building was a broken down shell of itself. They ate and drank a little bit of red wine afterwards and fell asleep. By the time they woke up a full moon could be seen in the open dark skies. Gina washed her face at the sink and started up the RV and they were back on the road again. 

Nicholas held Gina in his arms, dancing slowly outside the RV together. They had music playing from her cell phone. The weather was cool and the sun was shining bright. Kids could be heard screaming and laughing not too far away. Gina got tired of dancing so she let go of Nicholas and took her cellphone and began walking to where the kids could be heard. He followed her, keeping his distance while looking back occasionally at their RV. 

Gina walks into the playground where several kids ran and played together. Their laughter made her heart swell and her eyes became blurry with tears. She wiped her eyes and walked to the swings. She sat on one of the swings next to the little girl. The girl smiles at Gina as they swing together. They smile at each other. They both start out swinging slowly and then they begin to go higher and then higher. The little girl was very good for her age at swinging by herself. Gina felt like her feet were touching the clouds. 

Gina walks back to Nicholas with two ice cream cones in her hands. She hands him one. She looks worried though. 

“What’s wrong?”

“The guy in the truck.”

“What? Who?”

“The guy in the ice cream truck, he was looking at me weird.”

“Maybe he thinks you’re pretty.”

“I’m serious Nick, he might be a cop.”

“A cop?”

“Yeah, undercover.”

Nick chuckles. 

“I’m serious.”

“I see. You’re just worried too much.”

“Let’s go, we need to go.”

“We’re going to have to sell this thing.”

“What?”

“The RV.”

“I know, eventually.” Gina said keeping her eyes on the road while driving.

“I think sooner than later. We’re an easy target.”

“Now who’s worried?”

“I’m fine, I’m just saying, they can spot us a mile away in this big thing.”

“You’re just now figuring that out?”

“You didn’t say anything.”

“No, because I’m not ready to give it up. Too many sweet memories here.”

“I know, but it was part of the plan.”

“Not this plan, it became a part of it after what we did back home.”

“Yeah...home.” Nick looks out the passengers’ window. 

“You heard from anyone?” She asked.

“From back home?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

“It’s best we don’t, I guess.” 

“Yeah, one of them might give us up if the cops talk to them.”

“If? You mean when. We’re wanted baby, they’re going to do whatever they can to get us.”

“But they won’t.” 

“No, we’re too smart for them.” 

They smile at each other. He leans across and they kiss on the mouth.  

Nick comes out of the river naked and walks towards Gina. She hands him a towel. He dries himself, upset. 

“We can’t even take a decent shower.”

“We don’t want to take any risks by checking into a hotel. We’re trying to avoid any pitfalls.”

“I know. I didn’t want this for us, I wanted to buy you a house. Give you a better life than-’

“Hey…’ she wraps her arms around his waist. “...I want you to stop right there...there’s no one I’d rather be with...no one. No matter what we face. That’s why I married you. You make me feel safe.” 

He wraps the towel around his waist and picks her up and carries her back into the RV. 

After having sex in the RV she made coffee for the both of them. He sits quietly outside the vehicle drinking coffee watching the sunset over the calm riverbank. She sits outside as well, painting. They decide to stay that night in the deep woods far away from the next town.

Nick stands at the bar. He ordered their drinks already. He looks over his shoulder at Gina, she sits at the small round table near the back of the bar. She has her head down, looking at her cellphone. Nick grabs their drinks and walks to their table. He sees a tall middle-age white man at their table talking to Gina. She politely declines giving him her number. Nick puts their drinks on the table. The middle-age white man looks at Nick. 

“You didn’t bring me a drink?”

“Do I know you?” Nick asked. 

The white guy smirks. “You got a beautiful lady.”

“Go find your own.” 

“Watch your tone, blackie.” The white man walks past Nick, back to the bar. 

“What you say?” Nick turns. 

“Nick let it go.” Gina says. 

The white man turns back around and steps up into Nick’s face. “You better cool down nigger, you could get hurt.” The white man pushes Nick. 

Nick pulls out a pocket knife and stabs the white man a few times in his side, puncturing his lung. The white man gasps and falls to the floor as blood comes out of his side. The white man’s friend hurries over to him. The friend rushes over to Nick and punches him in the face. Nick falls over the table and the guy viciously begins choking Nick. Gina takes one of their drinks and smashes it over his head. He falls to the floor.  

Outside the bar Nick and Gina rush to his four door car. They speed up the street. That evening they packed quickly and threw whatever they could in her RV which she hadn’t used in years. It was just parked in the garage.  The following day after they already left their hometown, they heard the man Nick stabbed died and he was an off-duty police officer. 

The landscape is open wide grassfields. They pass farms with cows and pigs on them. The weather has cooled down a lot. The skies became cloudy, the sun disappears. Strong winds began to blow. Far up the road there was traffic. Nick is asleep on the bed in the back of the RV.  Gina looks further ahead and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was a tornado heading towards them. She stops the RV. She looks back at Nick who is sound asleep. She’s about to get up out of her seat then she decides to stay behind the wheel and puts her seatbelt on. She puts the RV in reverse and sees the tornado sweep up some of the cars that were in traffic. The cars were tossed across the fields. It was getting closer and closer. 

“Nick! Nick!” Gina shouts. She makes a U-Turn. “Nick!” 

Nick opens his eyes and hears Gina scream as he feels the whole RV being lifted up into the air. His insides feel like they dropped out of his body. The RV goes upside down. Their bodies feel weightless. The crushing and crashing and banging and the tumultuous noise deafens their ears. Nick’s body crashes and breaks. Gina suffers head trauma after the tornado releases them out of its grasps. Suddenly an eerie silence comes over the town.