Melody's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The light at the treeline gave way to open ground. Melody walked until the camper was gone behind her. Then the shaking set in. She was free, and night was coming, and she had nothing. She knelt and opened her backpack on the grass. Snacks for Jeffery. His charger. His gum. His bandaids. She dug to the bottom and found no money, no water, no blanket. Everything in the bag was his. She sat back on her heels. The cold was already rising from the ground. She had packed for him for months and had not once packed for herself. The thought made her chest tight. She almost laughed. She had escaped and still could not get through one night. The white cat circled her and sat. It watched her with steady green eyes, as if waiting. Behind it, the two glowing girls stood between two trees. They had not left her. Their pale light held soft at the edge of the dark. One of them lifted a hand and pointed, not deeper into the woods, but along the treeline to the left. Melody followed the gesture. In the low light she made out a shape. A camper, old and tilted, one window broken. Not his. This one was wrecked, long abandoned, half swallowed by vines. Melody looked at the girls. They did not speak. They only waited for her to choose. For months someone else had chosen for her. Her stomach turned at the idea of trusting her own read of a thing. But her whole body said the wrecked camper meant shelter, not danger. "Okay," she whispered. "Okay." She stood and walked to it, barefoot in the wet grass. The door hung loose. Inside, dust and leaves, a torn seat, a rusted sink. On a shelf she found a dented water jug, still a quarter full, and a folded wool blanket gone gray with age. Her hands closed around both. Then she turned to her backpack. One by one she lifted out his things. The gum. The charger. The snacks. She set them on the wrecked table and left them there. She was done carrying him. Into the empty bag she put the water and the blanket. Hers now. She pulled the zipper shut. It felt lighter, and it felt like hers. The cat jumped onto the torn seat and curled up. The glowing girls stood in the broken doorway, their light filling the small room. Melody wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and sat on the floor beside the cat. She was cold and she was hungry. But she had shelter, water, and a bag that finally held something of her own. She would make it through the night. For the first time, she had packed for herself.