Eka Breaks Down
Eka brought her left foot up on the cab seat next to her and rested her arm on her knee against the window, the road smooth ahead. Finally, she’d be on time for a job, maybe even early.
“This is the life.” She sighed contentedly, tapping on the steering wheel to a song on the oldies station. Suddenly, bright, rainbow-hued light erupted inside the truck’s cab, blinding Eka and upending her usually innate sense of direction. She swerved right across the rural road, her cheek slamming her knee, and onto what felt like the most uneven bit of grass shoulder in existence.
“Whattt tthhee…” Her rattling voice cut off as her phone flashed a blinding rainbow light again, just as she was starting to make sense of the line between grass and asphalt. She instinctively threw her arm over her eyes and flipped down the visor, which, of course, did nothing to block the blinding light. It did, however, aid in the escape of a box of Tic-Tacs, which bounced off her forehead, followed by a few maps and a butt-load of bills, all of which managed to cartwheel off her face.
“Hey!”
Eka finally managed to pull off the road completely, slamming her truck into park on the grass between the narrow lane and the ditch. Rubbing her forehead, she tentatively reached for her phone on the passenger seat. Just as she made contact, the sneaky little bastard buzzed to life, startling her head into the window with a third burst of color.
“Ow!”
Then, the phone lay suspiciously quiet.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
Still no movement, the screen lit only by icons. Taking a deep breath, Eka closed her eyes and snatched the phone, tensing for fireworks. Nothing. She slid one eyelid open. Still nothing. Then her second eyelid inched warily open, but the phone just lay there, in her palm, innocent and quiet. For now.
“Don’t think I trust you.”
Sighing, she blinked away splotches of rainbow colors floating in her vision blocking parts of the wooded, nondescript, lacking-in-signs area surrounding her.
Shit, I’m lost.
She tossed the paper map of Florida off the passenger seat and onto the floorboard trashpile of empty water and soda bottles. She really needed to figure out where she was, which meant using the phone. Another breath, tension gripping her body, she tapped on a mapping app and…it opened. Without the multi-colored blitz of light.
After a moment of shock she relaxed. Until she saw the screen with a ton of waiting, unread texts. All from the same person.
“It’s so time for a new number,” she muttered as she pulled back onto the road. “Seriously, how many times can she text?”
Her truck creaked and she eyed the dashboard. “What?”
Years of driving alone left her talking to the truck and now she found it to be a better listener than most. Almost as if she were talking to herself. Almost. Because admitting to constant conversations with yourself was definitely that one step too close to the cliffs of crazy.
Just then the truck creaked and she shrugged. “I had to sneak out. I mean she was getting clingy.” Without waiting for another creak, because when would that happen, she switched to talking to the quiet dashboard. “A bedroom window is, too, an exit. Besides, she didn’t have any sense of humor. What?” As if she needed a prompt to continue this very one-sided tale. “It was funny. And, it’s not like I meant for her tires to fall in the molasses when we hid them.” Her right hand came off the stick shift as she animated her story with gestures. “I mean, we got her car off the tracks with almost no damage. You know,” she shook her head, “some people can’t take a joke.”
The next creak seemed to mock her and she narrowed her eyes at the dashboard. “Like you know anything about humor. Or dating.”
Just then, a memory resurfaced, of a midnight swim, clothes left on the shore, skin pressed against skin. Eka smiled. “She had her moments, though.”
She caught the steering wheel with her knee and entered her destination into the map app, blinking at the ETA.
“Eight frickin’ hours? That can’t be right.”
Eka lunged for the fallen map, toppling bottles and swerving along the road. She finally managed to grab the grubby, folded paper and, by some fortune, stay in her lane. Mostly. When she finally checked her route on paper against the app, it showed the same thing. She’d missed her exit by forty-five miles. Tracing and retracing the route ended at the same spot. “Ninety miles of gas and time gone.” And late for her gig.
“Ahhhh!” She threw up her hands, just to slam them back on the wheel as her rig swerved across the road. “Jees!” Eka eyed the dashboard. “What’s your issue?”
Without waiting for an answer, she shifted down and started to maneuver into a U-turn. Just then she caught a glimpse, in the rear-view mirror, of familiar rainbow colors dancing across the sky behind her. She spun around in her seat just in time to watch a palm tree fall across the road. And block her way back to her missed exit.
Eka blinked at the tree spanning the road, then slowly sat forward. “Great.” Outside, blue skies stretched as far as forever, cloud-free.
She glared at her phone. Had that lightning really been the same color as the weird flash from her phone? Outside, no other rainbow flashes marred the clear sky. What the hell was going on? It was like something was playing with her.
“I’m not a toy!” she yelled at the sky.
Who am I yelling at?
“Get it together. Probably some weird local weather thingy.”
Probably.
“And a phone glitch. With similar color bursts as the weather.”
Right.
Eka stared at the sky, then back at her phone, and finally shook her head to clear out all the weirdness. “Focus on getting to that freakin’ job.”
She inhaled deeply, the air distracting her enough to focus, then blew out and scanned the fold-out map. After a few moments, a long, winding, maze-like route took shape. “Okay.” Leaning out the window, she took a last look at the suddenly inconvenient palm, then the road ahead. “Guess I’m going forward.”
Driving a few uneventful miles relaxed her shoulders, then her back, and finally her mind. The radio came on and ‘That’s Life’ blared in the cab, her voice challenging Frank’s for volume, if not pitch. As she sang along, swaying to the beat, her left hand undulated in the gusty breeze, moving to the rhythm. As the song ended, lightning, this time the standard bright- white variety, flashed across the sky to frame dark clouds rolling towards her from the left.
“A storm? Are you kidding me?”
She eyed the folded map again, which only highlighted the miles of roads before she was back on track, and slumped down the bucket seat. “I’m never gonna make that gig tomorrow.”
Overdue bills, now strewn across the cab, almost shouted their demands at her, while outside, thunder grumbled closer and a few raindrops hit her windshield. Squeezing the steering wheel, she glanced between the clouds and the bills.
“Ugh. Fine, I’ll stop until it passes.”
Deep breath.
Eka sat up, raising her eyebrows at all of it. “I could really use a nap and shower anyway. And Ron will totally see that, late or not, his aerial show can’t live without me, rigger extraordinaire.”
This time, the creak was right on time, a perfect segue.
“Exactly. I’ll just turn on the charm. Always worked before.” She winked at the dashboard then glanced back at the phone. “If I’m gonna find a proper camping spot, I need your help. But if you so much as flash a rainbow emoji, I swear I’ll throw you out the window.” She brought the phone close to her face. “One piece at a time.”
The mapping app continued to move the little car on the original route she’d typed in, no strange flashes lighting up the truck’s cab. Satisfied, she searched for an RV park nearby and hoped there was time to hook up the camper before the storm caught up. “Focus, Eka. Do not get distract—?” A worn wooden sign flashed by, hanging at an angle with the words
‘Hapton’s Place’ painted on it in sun-worn blue.
“Hapton. Huh.”
The name had a faintly, familiar feel. A faded, hazy agitation, swirling in darkness and fear, caught her breath, crawled across her skin, and set off a wave of goosebumps. Before she could suck in any air, a rapid fire of sensations drowned out the fear; a long-ago flash of rainbow light, a memory of trees, the smell of earth and heavy humidity, her grandmother hugging her, a sense of love and connection, belonging.
Belonging.
She shook her head and cracked the memory’s hold on her. “Home is where the heart is, right?” She patted the dashboard. “And my family is with me wherever I go.”
No creak always meant it was implied, because a conversation needs two. So off she went in answer to the unspoken creak.
“Yes, Sema and Win are family too. Speaking of which.” The sensation of her grandmother’s hug, from her memory, flitted back. “Maybe Sema knows something about Hapton’s Place.”
She smiled and tapped her grandmother’s icon on the phone, listening to the few rings.
“Hello Little Bird.” The familiar voice danced out of the phone.
“Hey Sema.” Eka smiled. “How’s Bali?”
“Oh, I left there weeks ago. Win and I are off to New Zealand. How’s your travels?”
“Of course you already left.” Sema could never sit still. “I’m driving down the coast of Florida right now. Hopefully to a gig. Listen, I saw a sign that seemed familiar. You know a Hapton’s Place?”
“Oh.” Sema sucked in a breath. “Are you there at Hapton’s?”
“You know it?”
“Um, yes. It’s a great place. Wonderful people.”
Eka squinted as more rain drops hit the windshield. “Did we go there once? The name seems…familiar.”
The line went quiet and Eka frowned. “You okay?”
“What? Oh, I’m fine. Just memories. Anyway, we went there, right after…” Sema coughed. “Um, when you came to live with us. There’s a farm and a preserve. And the Haptons are wonderful people. You should stop by; maybe you’ll remember more.”
At the mention of that time period, Eka’s chest tightened. She grabbed the twisted vines of her childhood bracelet, turning it around her left wrist to the smooth surface of a lone shell. Rubbing the shell with her thumb, breath expanded and contracted her chest until her heart slowed, and pushed thoughts of her parents and Ke from her mind.
“Eka, I didn’t mean to bring them up.”
“No, no I’m fine. Just distracted by the weird weather. I’m stopping soon at an RV park. Probably should go.”
“I could call Shirley Hapton. She’s an old friend,” Sema almost whispered. “I’m sure you could stay there.”
“Um, the weather just turned. Gotta go!” Eka heard ‘love you’ as she hung up.
Don’t think about them. Focus on the road.
A few, slow heartbeats later she sighed and threw the phone on the seat. Her truck purred down the quiet road and Eka turned up the radio even more, joining back in and drowning out any lingering memories. A few miles farther, the road angled up onto a causeway, a large river flowing languidly below.
Eka gazed across water, sparkling in the few rays of sunlight fighting their way through heavy, dark clouds while pelicans glided inches over the surface. Despite the strangling thoughts of a few moments ago, a laugh bubbled out of her as a dolphin broke the surface of the water and undulated in and out of the waves. A second dolphin jumped straight up, a few rays of sun glinting off its back before it splashed back down. The shimmer off the dolphin’s skin reminded her of something. Another dolphin, a beach, her parents. Images flashed through her thoughts and Eka’s temples erupted in pain as a strange memory played in her mind.
***
“Mama, dolphins!”
Eka pointed to movement in the water as her small legs pulled her to
the edge of the ocean. Without a single hesitant step, she plunged into the waves, the sound of her parents’ voices fading as water flowed around her and wrapped her in a liquid blanket. Beneath the surface, the ocean opened up to her and she lost herself in an unending playground. Darting through bluish-green water, Eka searched for the dolphins as warmth rolled in her chest, morphing to heat as it spread out to her finger tips. A giggle of bubbles escaped her at the glowing violet shimmer of her skin and the suddenly swirling water. Her violet light mixed with the pale, greenish-blue glow of the ocean and she was gently pulled forward by a watery caress. Just then a rough surface brushed against her leg. She instinctively grabbed at the dolphin’s fin, which turned and dragged her up, up, up until they broke the surface. She sucked in air as the creature pulled her along, giggles eventually tumbling out of her and mixing together with the dolphin’s chatter as they cut through the waves, then jumping high above the water. A tickle suddenly danced across the back of her neck as the warmth of her mother flowed over her.
Eka, come home! Her mother’s silent call went through her.
She let go of the dolphin with a hug, then relaxed on the ocean’s surface as it glided her to the beach, rolling her ashore. She giggled as she tumbled onto the sand, only stopping when she bumped into her mother’s feet.
“Ekanam Rahasia, what did you think you were doing?” Her mother frowned down at her.
Eka wiped sand from her eyes and smiled up. “I was playing.” She pointed to a disappearing fin and rolling waves.
Her mother helped her up and took her hand, leading her back to their blanket. “You haven’t started your training. You’re not ready to do these things alone.”
“But she is already in tune with water, dolphins, air. Amazing,” her father said, popping up from the sand Ke had buried him under.
“I’m amazing too!” Ke stomped his foot and glared at Eka.
“Of course you are.” Their mother swept him up in a hug and he wrapped his arms around her neck.
“Really?” Ke asked.
“Of course!” Their father laughed as he broke free of the sand, shaking
his body and sending sand spraying every where. He picked up Eka, then stumbled into the others and they all fell to the blanket, giggling and hugging.
“See,” Ke stuck his tongue out at Eka, “I’m amazing.”
“I know.” Eka smiled at Ke and squeezed his hand.
The four of them lay on the blanket until the sun started to appear.
The pinks and blues of sunrise outlined the few clouds floating by and reflected off the water.
“Look how late it’s getting.” Their father sat up. “We’ve got to get you two home and in bed.” He tousled Ke’s hair. “Don’t want to be tired for the first night of training.”
Her mother ran a hand through Eka’s hair. “I can’t believe my babies are seven already.”
Her father grinned and pulled a bundle from his pocket, untying the cloth to reveal a small, brown clump that crumbled to pieces. Eka squinted closer and touched the pile, dirt moving around under her fingers. From his other pocket, he pulled out a seed and pushed it into the dirt. His body glowed a bright orange that flowed from his hands to the earth and a moment later an a’ali’i sprout popped up from the soil in his hand, exploding in growth. Tiny banches pushed out of the sapling and leaves emerged along with buds that opened into bright red flowers. Eka and Ke watched with wide eyes as the plant slowed it’s growth to about the size of Eka’s arm.
“This a’ali’i plant marks an incredible family moment.” He stood up and spread his arms, as if announcing to a crowd. “The time Eka and Ke started training and changed the world.”
His voice seemed sillier today and Eka giggled but Ke crossed his arms. “Dad, this is important.” Ke actually stomped his foot and their father put on his more serious face.
“Of course. This is serious for all of us.” He nodded and Ke seemed to relax a bit.
Their mother, smiling slightly, gently took the plant and held it between them. “We’ll plant it at home and it’ll grow with you both. You’ll always remember your first step as a Waker.”
Their father, grinning again, pulled them all, even the plant, into a giant hug. “Okay, first step, training. But then, the world!”
***
A pothole jerked Eka back to the present. She’d barely noticed the road, only vaguely aware of leaving the causeway and river behind. Dense stands of trees now whizzed by on either side, the hint of water sparkling through the trees on her left.
“What the hell?” She shook her head trying to clear out the weird memories. “I am not going crazy.”
Even though there wasn’t even a hint of a creak, she really needed to talk to someone, or something.
“No, I’m not. Just because I remember communing with the ocean and dolphins? Or dad growing a plant in his hand in seconds. Or my family…” Her suddenly shaky hand touched the picture taped to the dashboard, an image of her parents smiling, their arms wrapped around her and Ke. Eka slapped her face. “I’m just tired.”
Yet the memory kept replaying. She could almost feel the cool, fluid blanket of the ocean and the rough skin of the dolphin as it pulled her through the water. Another pothole woke her from this second, shorter trance, but the thought of her family lingered as her chest squeezed the breath out of her. They were gone, lost long ago and a few memories were all she had now.
But she knew for a fact, the movie that had just played in her mind wasn’t one of those memories. Frantically spinning her childhood bracelet, she twisted it until her wobbly fingers found the smoothness of the shell. Her tension eased and Eka scratched at a wet tickle on her cheek, smearing a tear across her face.
“No, no, no. Not going there. No looking back, only forward.” She rubbed at her eyelids, eyeballs flashing light from the assault. “Nothing there but pain and dead-ends.” She patted the dashboard again. “In other words, Crazy Town. So, just you and me, and adventures ahead.”
A dimmer flash of colorful light erupted from within the cab and she looked down to find her phone’s screen pulsing with those frickin rainbow hues. Eka’s brow creased and she shook the phone, then banged it on the dashboard. The pulsing light faded and the map popped back up.
“What is going on with this thing?”
“Turn right in point-five miles.” She jumped at the app’s robotic voice. “I really need to pick a better voice.” Setting the phone back down, she readjusted in the seat and looked for the turn.
The turn was quick and she eased her truck and camper onto a two-lane road already showing signs of civilization. Old buildings replaced dense woods along the river’s edge. A few men with cold beers sat outside one of the buildings, a small, blue shack with a sign that sighed, more than stated, that this was Salty’s Bait and Beer. Tom’s Orchid and Bonsai sign was much more dignified, and maybe a bit judgmental of Salty’s sign, as it sat on a large plot across the road from the bait and beer. Tom’s plot had an old seafoam green cottage out back, and on the front lawn a large group of people gathered up stuff from picnic benches ahead of the impending storm. Despite these signs of a community, Eka passed nothing that even remotely resembled an RV park or campground. After a few miles, the community ended and the sides of the road became densely wooded again.
Nothing? Not even a rest area?
She flipped the headlights on just past the last street lamp’s fading light in the darkening afternoon. The glowing map display hinted at a route that would take her into a large patch of undeveloped land, not towards an RV park. Apparently the map had been reset.
“Hapton’s Place in two miles.” The robot voice echoed through the cab.
“What?” Eka pulled over onto the grassy shoulder. “Hapton’s Place again?” The strange memories, her family by the ocean and her grandmother hugging her, returned along with the tightness in her chest.
“I’m not going to Hapton’s Place,” she growled at the phone.
She scanned the narrow road and the ditches to the sides, estimating her turning radius, then glared at the map display. Was she being herded to Hapton’s? Her forehead scrunched at that weird possibility. “Ha!” She shook her head. “That would just be crazy.”
Eka grabbed the paper map and traced a route back to a main road through the town she’d just passed.
“Okay, that’s doable.” Thunder grumbled. “Hopefully.” She scanned right and left then pulled forward in a turn, using the entire road. “Just as long as no cars show up in the next twenty minutes.”
Her turn didn’t clear the opposite ditch so she put the truck in reverse just as a flash of colorful light ran across the sky, striking the base of a palm tree just ahead and to her left. The tree wobbled and, in slow motion, toppled across the road, blocking her return route. Her mouth dropped open and she stared at the palm.
“Did I piss off a unicorn?” She looked around for the source of the strange, colorful lightning. “Maybe a leprechaun?”
After moment followed moment without a real answer (seriously, had she expected one?), Eka pushed open the door and got out of the truck. She crept over to the felled palm and lightly tapped it once then jerked back her hand. Nothing happened. “Normal tree.”
For now.
There seemed to be two options. Continue on or move the tree.
“Okay, I can move this. No problem.” She arched her back and touched her toes, then grabbed a palm frond and pulled, straining against the truck- sized tree laying casually across her escape.
“I. Am. Not. Going. To. Hapton’s. Place,” she grunted at the immobile hunk of tree. The frond slipped, getting in a few slaps to her face before she tumbled back.
“Oh, you want to make this personal.” She glared at the tree then strode back to the truck. “There’s still a turnoff at the end of the road. Ha!” she yelled.
Eka jumped in the truck and slammed into gear. Singing ‘My Way’, her voice drowned the radio as adrenaline pushed her faster down the road. “I’ll be at an RV park before the rain starts.” She looked at the blackened sky, the few drops not yet turning into rain. “What’s it waiting for? Is luck finally smiling at me?”
She grinned at the strange but hopeful weather, then another multi- colored flash ripped through the sky. Illumination spread across the landscape, a tight curve appearing ahead as a crack exploded beyond the turn.
Her face dropped. “Oh no.”
She held the wheel tight as the truck and camper rushed into the turn and slid around the curve, barely gripping the asphalt. The whole shebang almost two-wheeled it around the curve.
When the road straightened, and her truck finishing bouncing, she exhaled and glanced back.
The vardo’s still attached and in one piece!
But, when she turned forward, the source of the crashing sound lay in front of her. A massive oak branch blocked the road ahead. She gripped the steering wheel for, like, the hundredth time, and swerved left to avoid it. A front tire bounced off the limb and the steering wheel ripped from her hands and spun right. She grabbed it and pulled with everything she had to the left but the back right tire hit the branch and lifted briefly, jolting the cab like a shaking roller coaster. Her phone flew off the passenger seat and out the window.
“Damn, damn, and double damn!” Eka eased up on the brakes and hung on to the steering wheel, managing to pull off to the side of the branch and stop without jackknifing the trailer. When the world, thankfully, stopped moving, Eka finally exhaled and looked out the window.
And sucked in another lungful of air as she stared at a canal that dropped off just inches from her front bumper. Moments later, her lungs screamed for fresh air. She finally exhaled and breathed, then slid out of the cab and walked around to the back of the truck. The thumping in her chest drowned out the sounds around her, even the thunder.
“Crap.”
The camper, still hooked to the truck, sat at a strange angle. Her wobbly legs finally gave way; she fell against the little vardo and slid to the ground.
What was she going to do?
She absently reached up, gently running her fingers across the intricate wood carvings attached to the outside of the wooden camper. Another memory, a familiar one of the smell of used oil and rusty metal, drifted into her mind. That wonderful day, in an Oregon junkyard, she’d nearly stumbled over the broken wheels of the discarded vardo. She’d stood there, falling in love as the minutes went by. Her grandfather just shook his head when she’d dragged it home, later laughing at her plan to bring it back to life. She ran her hands over the decorative white shells and dolphins she and her bemused grandfather had carved, carefully attaching each one to the exterior over a seafoam green coat of paint.
“And he thought I wouldn’t stick around to finish.” She smiled, then sighed. “But now look at you.”
Patting the camper’s jacked-up wheel, she assessed the damage. “What to do, what to do?” Another deep breath, then she hopped up and kissed the camper. “Nothing to do but get help. Now, where is that phone?” She patted her pockets.
“Oh, yeah.” Yet another sigh as the image of her phone flying out the window and disappearing into the dark, flitted through her mind’s eye. “But it has to be here somewhere.”
With no other option, she scanned the ground, crawled under the truck, waded through brush and tall grass. But despite an epic search, the phone remained elusive. After a third pass underneath the truck, she lay on the ground with her legs poking out from under the pickup bed. She stared along the ground, gravel pressing into her cheek as her mind stalled.
Fortunately, the weather jump-started her motivation as raindrops hit her legs and the wind picked up, running across her back.
“Eka, get a hold of yourself.” Crawling out from under the truck was trickier, and less graceful, than getting under it, but she squirmed out and brushed off the dirt and pebbles, then eyed the sky. “Okay Universe, now what?”
As if on cue, colorful light flashed above a house sitting back from the road. Around her the sky dimmed further and the rain fell like little pellets against her skin. The wind blew colder, rushing over her face and yanking her hair straight back.
“Weeellll.” She slowly scanned her surroundings. Her broken truck and camper, the giant branch that blocked her way, her missing psychotic phone. Then there was the stalkery rainbow lightening. “Maybe I’ll take a quick break.” She backed away from the destruction on the road, closed up the truck, and power-walked towards the house. “Yeah, can’t hurt to stop for a minute.” Another flash crossed the sky. “Or longer.” She broke into a run, heading straight for the house, and wondered just what flavor of crazy was taking over her life.
