Page 58 of Misguided
TWENTY
Mel
Who would have thought there’s so much involved when it comes to planning a rally? Dates that coincide with school holidays so the families can all go together, booking campsites, ensuring the crash van is stocked with the spare parts that are most likely to be needed when fifty or more bikes are traveling two thousand miles, and of course food. So much food.
I kneel on the tall chair beside the breakfast bar in the kitchen, a can of Red Bull to my right and a mountain of sticky notes and scribbled place names on my left. I’m hunched over my phone, finger scrolling my way around Google maps when Beth walks in and stops at the fridge.
“What you doin’?”
I haven’t told anyone about my plan; I wanted to have it all mapped out and ready to go so I could announce it as a surprise once all the details were finalized. Kind of like a thank you gift to the club.
“Research,” I answer simply.
She pulls a carton of juice out and then crosses the kitchen to get a cup. “Anythin’ I can help with?”
I glance up at her. She really is gorgeous with her naturally blonde hair and big blue eyes. She’d scrub up well as a pageant queen but I get the feeling she isn’t that kind of girl.
“Not sure. Can you keep a secret?”
“I’ve kept so many, I’m sure I’ve forgotten most of them,” she says with a chuckle.
“I’m planning a rally.”
“Yeah?” Her eyes go wide, the excitement clear. “When?”
“Not sure yet. I’m trying to nut out the details first.”
“You lodged a request for a permit with the local council?”
I blink a couple of times at her. “Huh?”
“You’d find that most places”—she points to my mud maps—“want you to let them know if you plan on staging an event over a certain number of people. Crowd control, you know, that kind of thing. So they can plan around havin' us all on the roads and let the public know in the town notices.”
“I never thought of that.” I slump my head on my arms.
“Hey.” She taps me on the shoulder. “It’s easy-peasy. Show me what you got.”
We spend the next hour and a half mapping out a route that has a decent size campground outside the city limits for us to stop at each night. By the time we’re done, there’s so many sticky notes everywhere the counter is invisible beneath our project.
“All we need to do is settle on a date,” Beth says re-writing our layovers in a list with their contact numbers.
I sigh and stare out the windows to the back yard. “Yeah.”
“Problem?”
“I guess I wanted to wait until Hooch is back, of course, but I don’t know how long he’ll be gone for.”
A week has passed since I returned home and nobody’s said a thing to me about where my brother is. I get the impression they don’t know, but of course, if that’s the case they don’t let on either.
“Well,” Beth says as she stacks some of the notes up. “We have a plan. It’s all laid out so as soon as we know when he’s back, we can get right on with phoning up these campgrounds and lockin’ it in.”
I smile over at her, resting my head on one hand. “Thank you.”
“Lord, it’s been my pleasure.” She pats me gently on the arm. “Anything to change my days up from cleaning and cookin’.”
“You’re too good to these guys,” I muse. “Crackers especially.”
She flinches, yet doesn’t say anything further. I know I’ve struck a chord when she looks away and swallows before dragging in a deep sigh.