Her smile glistened in the fading light, as she laughed at a joke she would not remember. She bounced around in the car as orangey dust was kicked up from the cracked ground. Her hair lashed around her face, as she danced and shouted song lyrics that cracked out of the old radio into an endless expanse of Earth. He beamed as her beautiful voice filled the old blue Cadillac that sputtered along the roads and filled the universe.
They drove fast into the sky. They were broke and lost, but were more certain of where they were going than any in the world. Her green eyes reflected the purples and oranges of the desert sky and gazed into his. She had a secret smile on her lips that he knew well.
She loved the way he looked at her. Even though they were clueless as to what might happen next, she knew she always had him. They pulled the car over and leapt out. The sun was almost fully set and the sky was the most magnificent colors she had ever seen. He scooped her off her feet and hugged her close to his chest.
It had been almost six months since she left her life and home, a big house where creativity wasn’t nurtured and beds were always made. Right then, the world felt like hers, theirs, and it was much more real, beautiful, and grander than a big house. With him, she didn’t need to worry if she was good enough or if she followed others’ guidelines for her.
Just a few months ago she was a student at a prestigious school in New England. But then she met him. He only visited her city to see what a different life some had, a life of ignorance, but no bliss. For some reason, though, when he saw her in a crowd full of people, he didn’t laugh. He knew there was still the innocent spark of adventure and hope in her. He wanted her to know what it was like to lean out your car window and touch the stars or dance in the streams that flowed down mountainsides. So, he told her about all he had seen and done and watched her eyes brighten as they stared into his brown eyes that were the warm color of the Earth.
In the desert, the sun had set into a deep blue, the color of the parts of the ocean only the bravest would ever witness the beauty and terror of. They lay with their heads touching on the dusty ground, watching the universe drift over their heads and listening to the crackle of the fire she had just made next to them.
“What is life but one grand adventure?” he whispered softly into the night sky. His words twisted and turned in the air, like a breath in the cold.
But then it stopped. A pair of dull green eyes opened in a white bed. And got dressed and went to work. They opened their laptop and quickly reflected the colors of the desert on their lock screen, before moving on to a different task. The eyes tried persistently to forget the dream they had last night, to forget that that life could have been real. But she could not forget the adventures that could have been if she said yes to that beautiful, bizarre man many years ago. She said no when he came to the campus of her school. She said no to a life of adventure and spontaneity, even though that was the only thing and he was the only person she ever wanted to have. And everyday she wondered if that one word was the right thing to say.
Molly Caspar is a sophomore at North Penn. She enjoys singing, acting, and writing and is very friendly and outgoing. She is also a perfectionist and a procrastinator, which makes for an interesting combination and a lot of sleep loss.