The twins Frank and Claire found themselves exceeding bored over Winter Break their third year on the Las Cruces campus of NMSU. Full of longing for the delights they dreamt of when they could return to camping over Spring Break, and decided to include Jude, Claire's partner.
Waiting another month felt too long for them, and it would be beautiful by February. Therefore, they spent the week poring over the websites and airfares and maps to Cabo, or Myrtle Beach, filling Jude's spreadsheet with ideas but finding their minds changed each time they talked. They just couldn't agree on a plan. Each dream that might be possible was dashed by Jude the practical, because the money could be spent on such wiser things and not extravagance.
In the end, in no small part because they were iced in and short on coffee, Jude said one or two unforgivable things, then said "Hang it!" and quit both the trip and the relationship. The siblings stared at each other in shock and, over tears and ice cream, agreed they had really seen it coming.
January passed in a blur of classes and Claire's healing. But as days lengthened, Frank became convinced that some journey was indeed called for, and he hatched Plan Get Out Of There.
In secret, Frank rented an RV for the third week of February, conspiring with their friends. In fact, Matthias offered to come along and cook for them. Frank thought that was an awesome idea, because he'd been along with them for most of their college hijinks and was an easy peaceable presence.
So Friday the 22nd, Frank and Matt sprung the trip on Claire, who looked at their eager faces and went along with it. But they still hadn't decided where to go!
Claire had the answer for that. She had everyone pick up a pencil and printed out a map with a few hundred miles' radius. Claire had Matthias, as a neutral party, drop the pencils on the map, and agreed that the three lines pointed at Highway 10. They agreed, then, to do that every time they found a highway, and stop wherever they found something interesting. Worst case, they'd end up camping somewhere boring.
They drove out Highway 10, agreeing that they'd roll again at Deming, where six highways came together. In Deming, they found they'd forgotten the pencils but forks worked - and those sent them up 180. From there, they had two choices - camp up in the mountains, or explore a state park named City of Rocks. They'd never heard of it - so off they went!
It was definitely the right choice - they'd never heard of the place, but it was this huge sprawling formation of rocks up to four stories with almost streets between them, wonderful nooks and crannies tucked in everywhere!
In fact, when they got to Sunday, they discovered that Matthias didn't want to leave. He assured them he'd be fine, but he'd found God's Country and he wasn't leaving. Well, you know, college students - that wasn't as unusual as you might think.
The weird thing is that Matthias was never heard of again. He disappeared in those rocks, happy as a clam, doing what he felt called to do.
There are worse fates.
— FriarMir
Waiting another month felt too long for them, and it would be beautiful by February. Therefore, they spent the week poring over the websites and airfares and maps to Cabo, or Myrtle Beach, filling Jude's spreadsheet with ideas but finding their minds changed each time they talked. They just couldn't agree on a plan. Each dream that might be possible was dashed by Jude the practical, because the money could be spent on such wiser things and not extravagance.
In the end, in no small part because they were iced in and short on coffee, Jude said one or two unforgivable things, then said "Hang it!" and quit both the trip and the relationship. The siblings stared at each other in shock and, over tears and ice cream, agreed they had really seen it coming.
January passed in a blur of classes and Claire's healing. But as days lengthened, Frank became convinced that some journey was indeed called for, and he hatched Plan Get Out Of There.
In secret, Frank rented an RV for the third week of February, conspiring with their friends. In fact, Matthias offered to come along and cook for them. Frank thought that was an awesome idea, because he'd been along with them for most of their college hijinks and was an easy peaceable presence.
So Friday the 22nd, Frank and Matt sprung the trip on Claire, who looked at their eager faces and went along with it. But they still hadn't decided where to go!
Claire had the answer for that. She had everyone pick up a pencil and printed out a map with a few hundred miles' radius. Claire had Matthias, as a neutral party, drop the pencils on the map, and agreed that the three lines pointed at Highway 10. They agreed, then, to do that every time they found a highway, and stop wherever they found something interesting. Worst case, they'd end up camping somewhere boring.
They drove out Highway 10, agreeing that they'd roll again at Deming, where six highways came together. In Deming, they found they'd forgotten the pencils but forks worked - and those sent them up 180. From there, they had two choices - camp up in the mountains, or explore a state park named City of Rocks. They'd never heard of it - so off they went!
It was definitely the right choice - they'd never heard of the place, but it was this huge sprawling formation of rocks up to four stories with almost streets between them, wonderful nooks and crannies tucked in everywhere!
In fact, when they got to Sunday, they discovered that Matthias didn't want to leave. He assured them he'd be fine, but he'd found God's Country and he wasn't leaving. Well, you know, college students - that wasn't as unusual as you might think.
The weird thing is that Matthias was never heard of again. He disappeared in those rocks, happy as a clam, doing what he felt called to do.
There are worse fates.
— FriarMir
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