Van Life Is Best

“ No,” I scream in my Mom’s face. “I won’t do it...I can’t” I looked down to the ground and looked into the cracks that littered the pavement. I can feel my mother’s intense stare into the deepest part of my soul. She says nothing for a while. I meet her eyes and I can see her wheels turning. Her lips were pursed and you could see the disappointment wafting from her facial expression. 

“Well fine since you’ve grown moral grounds now guess I'll do it myself”. She says

I look at her with horror. “No please...please don’t kill her.” I plead.

She stares at me with cold eyes. “We made a deal Danielle. This was supposed to be your first target. A chance to prove to us that you were ready to join the family business. A chance that you were the stone-cold killer you claim to be. Now, look at you. You're pathetic you can’t even take out a measly girl.” 

I feel a deep rage begin to fill me. “She is no measly girl.”

My mother's eyes widened at this statement. She smiled and began to walk back and forth. “You're in love with her aren’t you Danielle? I gotta say cliche but on the bright side at least it is not for some measly boy,” she says.

Great for the moral standards the size of a penny at least they include not begin homophobic thanks, mom. “I...I do. I do love her mom. I don’t want to kill her because someone says she needs to die and paid us to do the dirty work for them. Why would anyone want to kill such an amazing person anyway!?” 

“You know we don’t ask why anyone wants to kill anyone. We just get the money and kill the person..it's as simple as that. Your girl might seem innocent but there’s always a reason to want someone dead.” she says plainly

“But I don’t see the reason!  Victoria wouldn’t harm a fly and she cries whenever one of her plants dies! She wears dresses and dances in the rain! Victoria is the most innocent person I know.” I blurt out.

“ You once love to dance in the rain. You're not so innocent Danielle if it wasn’t for her you would have already killed someone. You’ve always said you would join the business. It has been standing since the 1950s. That's how long this line of family has been killing and you're not going to stop it now.” She steps closer to me “ You're going to kill her or I will. you can’t back out of this not now.” 

“Fine,” I say no longer want to have this conversation.

“Good.” and with that my mother walks away and goes back into her house. I walk back to my Jeep and hop inside it.  I begin to drive to Victoria’s house. I drive down the winding roads and stop at stop lights until I'm finally here.

Victoria’s house is a small blue house, it has big windows and you can see the plants that live there. It has a white door, the grass is green, and flowers are planted next to the porch. It's a lovely home, well taken care of and very comfy.  I sit there in her driveway and try to come up with something. I try to think of ways that I have to tell her that I was sent to kill you and I'm not going to but that’s not stopping my parents. Your life is in serious danger. I slam my head into the steering wheel. It's not going to be easy. 

I hear a knock on my window. I jump and see Victoria. She was wearing a white sun hat with a blue and white striped sundress. Her dark brown hair was down to her shoulders and she was brushing her bangs away from her eyes, she kept forgetting to trim them. Her blue eyes were piercing into me and her face in an inquisitive look. I forget the moment I'm here and soak in her beauty. Her dark skin tone looked so beautiful in the sun. 

“I was wondering if you were going to come in or not,” she says “you took an awfully long time to not get to my door”. I smiled and got out of my car.  Victoria leads me to the door and we step into the place. We go to the kitchen and I sit at her bar stool. She hands me a cup of tea, and I can tell she knows that I'm worried about something.

“So what's on your mind,” She asks me. She sits down on the stool next to me and looks me in my eyes. My heart shatters a bit.

“Now what I'm going to tell you might sound insane. it might not make you not see me in the same way ever again.” I say and I feel tears well up in my eyes.

Victoria smiles at me and grabs my hand. “Don’t worry about that,”

I give her an uneasy smile. “My parents are hitmen... And they were trying to get me into the business with them.”

“Ok….”

“I was going to because the money they get is wicked and also a shit ton. My first assignment was you.” I say as we look into each other's eyes. 

“Why didn’t you kill me?” She asked.

“I'm in love with you. The more time I spent with you I fell deeper in love and the more I hated everything and everyone because I had to kill such a lovely thing. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I'm sorry that this is how we met but I'm grateful for it at the same time.”

“I love you to Danni, I'm just glad you never killed me,” Victoria says. “Now I won’t look too much into why and how but I say let's blow this place” and she smiles. 

“You mean it? You want to leave everything behind and run like some weird romantic movie.” I say

“I would love that so much. I'm so down to spice up my life with you. Let's draw all of our money from the banks and travel across America. Let's even go to Canada! Let’s live in my van. Throw as much as we can in the back and drive and never come back. I'll sell my house through the internet and if we have good money management skills it will last us a long time. Doesn’t that sound perfect?” She asks me.

“You really would want to do that with me? It’s all so crazy. I mean wouldn’t sleeping in a van get uncomfortable? Are you sure you want to run away with me?” I ask.

“I'm dead if I don’t do it otherwise. It would spice everything up, it would be a fun adventure! Our Adventure!  I would love to have this with the person I love most in my life.” Victoria says.

I feel tears come down my face and a smile go on my face. Victoria smiles back. “Ok...Ok, let's run away with each other and never look back.’’ I say.

We begin to pack up everything Victoria wants to keep. She keeps some of her best house plants and packs practically all of her clothes into a box. She has a box of utensils and other things she might need. She packs some pillows and blankets and with that, she says that she is done. 

“Don’t you want to pack anything love? We could stop at your place and grab everything you need.” She exclaimed

“Sure, there are some clothes I would like to keep still,” I say

We hop into her van and go to my place. It’s nothing special, just a dingy old apartment. The only thing I really want is my clothes and a few books of mine. Everything else I didn’t care if I left. Once I was done, I sat on the couch where Victoria was waiting for me. 

“One more thing before we leave is that I want to write a letter to my mom.” Victoria’s face says that I was crazy. “I'm not going to say where we are going, I'm just saying that I'm going to run away and I will never see her again. “ I say.

“Be quick” Is all Victoria says.

I write my letter and seal it up. We head out of the apartment and drive the van to the post office. I drop my letter down and we leave. We drive to the highway and leave town, hoping to never be seen again.

It was three days later when Danielle’s mother received the letter and opened it up. Here is what it said.

Dear mom,

When you get this I will be long gone. You always told me that I could never run away from my problems well here I am doing that exact thing. I said I wouldn’t kill Victoria and I won’t. I have convinced her to run away with me and go somewhere else. I plan to never see you again, no hard feelings right?  You were a good mom and you raised me well, other than you know trying to make me a killer thing. So as to not become a missing person I have sent you this letter to let you know that everything will be fine and that I'm ok.  Also, I'm quitting the job in the business that I never had but oh well. The point of this letter was to tell you I'm running away and don’t contact me or try to find me. Thanks.

Sign, Danni

And this is what her mother had to say that was  “Oh you bastard”.