A Hand To Hold - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Last Day

As I open my eyes, I hear a noise that must've woke me up. I look at the bed side clock: 05:00. Military time. Cool. Another knock came from the door, and I got up to answer.

"Hi Mrs. Leziah, what's the matter?" I ask groggily.

"Deputy Leggio called for you. He is in the living room." she answers. "Says he wants to show ya something, I'm not sure."

"Okay, thanks ma'am. Please let him know that I'll be down soon?" I say as she heads back down the stairs.

"Sure honey." She calls back, "OH! You might want to put on hiking clothes, Just sayin'."

Confused, I obliged and dressed for hiking. I took longer than necessary to get dressed. I felt like making him wait. He was the one that woke me up at five AM.

"There's the jackal!" Jonathan says as I got to the foot of the stairs, "Good God, you take forever to get ready."

"Did you just call me a jackal?" Laughing a little, "Where are we going at five thirty in the morning anyway?"

"Hiking." He says still chuckling. "It's a surprise anyway. I figured that since this is our last day in South Carolina, I would show you something. Also, I need to stop at the house before we get to our final destination, anyway."

"Fine be all secretive. Totally doesn't worry me at all." I say laughing at my own joke, "It isn't like we're not in the middle of nowhere."

"I'm not going to murder you." Holding the door for me.

"Hey, you said it not me." Hands at the sides of my shoulders jokingly.

We rode on his motorcycle to his house. (It was more like a cabin to be honest). He went inside and came out with a cooler. Maybe that's for my heart... I thought and I sniggered. After he attached the cooler to the saddlebag, we went to the local state park and stopped.

"You see that trail? It is about two miles long. Think you can handle that?" He asked me while pointing at a break in the trees. I nodded.

We began the hike. It only took about an hour to get to the end of the trail. He then led me off the trail to a clearing. There was a small trail here that he followed to get to the clearing. It seemed that he came here often. It's funny how "at home" he looks here. He seems to know that everything I'm tripping over is there. As the trees began to thin, birds started chirping and flying around in search of food. Soon we came to a clearing in the woods. We were right near a 100 foot drop too the ground with treetops barely reaching the edge of the cliff. The grass was up to my knees and just below his. Looking around to the cliff again, I see why Johnathan brought me here.

"Wow, John." I say astonished, "This is beautiful. How did you find this place?"

"Believe it or not, my dad and I would come up here after he and Ma divorced." He answers watching the sun rise, "Every summer, we would come and camp here. Once we had a fire going right there," Pointing to a spot to his left, "And had our sleeping bags there." Pointing again to another spot more in front of him. "He almost rolled off the cliff, actually. 'Nearly gave myself a heart attack.' Is what he said. Ironically, that is how he passed. The heart attack, I mean."

"Oh, man. I'm sorry for your loss." I say suddenly remembering something from forever ago, "do you remember that one time when you broke your arm at my birthday party?"

Laughing, "How can I forget..."

"Do you remember what he said to you?" He nods slightly.

"He said 'Suck it up, John. Be a man. Get in the car dumbass.'" Laughing now.

"Yeah. Then he told me 'He will be back after he's done being a baby.' Even though you weren't even crying. Then he drove you to the hospital." I say with tears burning at the back of my eyes. "When I heard from your mom that he passed, I balled for days. I went to the funeral in Florida even though we didn't have anything to bury. Your mom had a service at the bay."

"One a lighter note, I brought breakfast!" Raising the cooler in his hand for me to see.

"Ooh! Grubs! What did you bring?"

"I brought fresh bread straight from the bakery, bacon, quiches, bottled smoothies, strawberry were your favorite if I'm remembering right." He must've saw me drool because he started laughing at me. "I thought so. I also brought pie. I figured it would be a morning to feast."

As we ate, we would make jokes and laugh at each other. A little finch started eyeing the bread so I through a piece at it and missed narrowly. It flew hardly even inches from its little head. Then it hopped over to it, took the piece in its beak, and it flew away. As we finished eating, we started talking about our memories of our parents. About my only time sneaking out of the house and being grounded for three months after. He apparently tried to do the same thing but got off worse. He had to actually go around the house with scissors cutting the grass. I found this funny.

We were on the way back down the trail to the bike when I tripped and fell into a puddle of mud. Johnathan started laughing at me as he helped me up. It was funny after all just not to me at the time. When we got to the bike, we remembered that I was covered in mud and went down to the river to rinse off. After I rinsed off. we continued laughing about stupid crap we did when we were kids. He got into dirt biking until he broke his shoulder falling off of one. My first time driving a car, and my first accident. I backed the car into a tree. Johnathan thought this was funny until I reenacted him falling off a dirt bike. (I thought it was funny anyway).

After Johnathan and I got back to town, it was well after noon. I went up to my room at the B&B to change and pack up the rest of my things. We planned to leave in the morning to head to myrtle beach. I finished packing and just sat on the bed. Today was... fun. It was fun. I can't believe I actually fell in mud. I threw a mud ball at his face! And BULLSEYE! I told Mrs. Leziah about it, she found it funny. John came for dinner and then he left because he had to go finishing packing for the trip. I went up to bed but didn't sleep until 03:30.