Chasing Nirvana

Fourteen

We dropped Robbie off at his house, and then followed his instructions to a small diner for our first meal of the day. We were half way through our meal when Georgie’s phone rang.

“Uh-oh,” she said uneasily as she fished it out of her bag. “Who is it?”

She looked down at her phone and went pale. “It’s my mom. Shit, she’s going to kill me.” She pushed it away from her and it skidded across the table towards me, where it lay still ringing.

“What are you doing, George! Pick it up!”

“I can’t pick it up! I just can’t!”

“Why not?!”

“I’m going to die. Oh, she’s going to kill me!”

“Just pick it up and get it over and done with!”

“I can’t I can’t I can’t!” she wailed. “Oh this is worse than getting a B+ for Social Studies! What am I going to do?”

Just then, my pocket buzzed. And then The Killers began to sing. Even before I pulled my phone out, I knew it was my mother. Scooter looked as though he wanted to laugh. Georgie was on the verge of tears. Jimmy was rolling her eyes at all us.

“Bunch of pussies!” she cursed. She grabbed Georgie’s and picked up the call. “Hello?”

I couldn’t hear what Georgie’s mom was saying, except that judging from Jimmy’s eye roll, it wasn’t anything good. I looked down at the phone in my hand.

“HEY KIDS! YOU GON’ PICK THAT UP OR WHAT?” someone from the next book yelled.

I didn’t reply. I dashed out of the diner with my phone and found myself a nice secluded area by the parking lot. I pressed answer.

“Hello?”

“NATHANIEL CARTER DAVIS! HOW DARE YOU? YOU COME HOME THIS INSTANCE!”

“I-I can’t, Mom –”

“YOUR FATHER IS BESIDE HIMSELF WITH WORRY! THE WHOLE TOWN IS GOING CRAZY! AND BRING THAT AIRHEADS GEORGIE AND JIMMY JACOBS HOME WITH YOU!”

“No, Mom, I’m really sorry, I just can’t.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T?”

“Please stop yelling at me, Mom…”

“I WILL YELL AT YOU IF I WANT TO! HOW DARE YOU JUST LEAVE BECAUSE OF A GIRL?”

“I’m not leaving, she just needs help, and it’s not running away if I’m coming home in a week –”

“I DON’T CARE HOW LONG IT IS, YOUNG MAN! GET YOURSELF HOME RIGHT NOW! I MEAN IT, NATE!”

There was a click. She had hung up on me. I sighed.

“I can’t,” I said to the silent phone. “I promised Jimmy I’d try to help her.”

And of course, there was no reply. I went back inside the diner glumly. Georgie looked as miserable as I felt. “I’ve never disobeyed my mom,” she kept saying. “And it’s all your fault.” She looked as though she was on the verge of tears. Scooter, for once, was keeping quiet.

“Why isn’t your mom calling you?” I asked Jimmy.

“Because I called her earlier,” Scooter said.

“And what did she say?”

He shrugged. “None of your fucking business. Where are we headed to after this?”

Our next stop was a city located in Virginia called Winchester. It was more than four hours’ drive away from Eden and we had initially hoped to be there by noon but with the delays and the stopovers, we would be lucky if we managed to reach there before nightfall. We made a quick one out of our meals, and then went on our way. The journey was a quiet one. After our disastrous phone calls with our parents, Georgie and I were in a pretty bad mood. I sat behind again with Georgie, and Jimmy and Scooter took turns driving.