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A year had gone by since the strange events beneath the mines of Possum Springs, and a lot had happened by then. After much pushing from her friend Mae, Bea realized that her father was not just her responsibility, and she was not at all qualified to help him in any other way than the physical. With a little extra cash saved up by cutting costs here and there, as well as some help from other members of the town, she was able to get him help to get back on his feet. Although still not at one hundred percent, he began to help out at the store much more, taking over the reigns alongside his daughter. Together, they managed to hire more staff to help manage the store, and business was booming. With the extra profits, as well as the extra help, Bea was left with much more freedom than she had ever had since her mother’s death.
Mae, meanwhile, was beginning to repair her own life as well. With the help of friends and family, she was returning to some semblance of normalcy within her old home. Despite a few bad days still here and there, things were much better than she had ever seen them before. She even managed to land a job alongside Bea, being one of the new hires to help out around the shop. WIth the extra money, she was able to help her parents maintain the home she had grown up in, and they were no longer forced to move. In her free time, she worked on planning a roadtrip to the west for her and Bea.
Despite the unlikeliness of it all, they had both managed to pull together enough free time and money to make the dream vacation occur. The shop was in good hands with Bea’s father and the new hires, and Mae had left enough money from working at the Pickaxe for her parents to continue to make payments upon the house with money to spare. They set the date for mid-fall, when business would be at the slowest for the store. On October 14th, Bea and Mae packed up their suitcases and hopped in Bea’s car to begin their journey across the country.
Mae whipped out a map from the bag on her lap, struggling to unfold it and taking up the entire right half of the car as she did so. “So, where do you wanna go first?”
Bea scoffed, rolling her eyes at the dramatic scene beside her as she adjusted the mirrors. “Are you seriously using an actual paper map? You know we have a thing called GPS now.”
“Yeah, so? It makes the whole ‘road trip experience’ more authentic.”
“Authentic. Riiiight. Anyways, didn’t you plan this whole thing out? You should be telling me where to go.”
“I mean yeah, but I marked a whole bunch of shit to see along the way there and back. So we don’t have to just drive straight home. So it depends which of the things you wanna see there, and which back.” As if to emphasize her point, she poked a few portions of the map that were marked up, all in her own messy handwriting.
“God, how many places are we even going?”
“Depends on how many you wanna go to. I’ve got hundreds.”
“Hundreds? Really? Are there even that many interesting places in the entire country?”
“Yeah sure. You won’t believe the amount of research I put into finding cool shit to see.” She dug out several more maps from her back, each displaying a label for a portion of the country.
Bea grimaced at the amount of maps beside her, before starting the car. “If you get us lost, I’m ditching you on the side of the road and making you hitchhike back home.”
“Hey, getting lost is half the fun of roadtrips! Plus, you’d get pretty lonely without me. Not to mention I’m the one with the maps.” She grinned, winking at her friend beside her. “Anyways, we have several places to head to a few towns away from here. We have a candy factory, the world’s largest rubber band ball, a corn maze, and some weird novelty shop some people claim is haunted.”
“Haunted, huh? Haven’t we dealt with enough ‘ghosts’?”
“Well, turns out you were right and they weren’t ghosts. Remember? And I’ve already heard your ‘I told you so,’ so save it. Plus, you need a little excitement.”
“I think I’ve had enough excitement to last me a lifetime, thank you very much. Anyways, that candy factory sounds pretty cool. Let’s head there first.”
“Aye aye captain. Pull out of the port and set sail for candyland!”
“If you’re navigating, doesn’t that make you captain?”
“Nah. I’m the cool first mate who just leads from the sidelines. You’ll be the one going down with the ship when we crash. I just tell us where to go.”
“Wow. Thanks for the confidence in my driving skills, Mae.”
“No problem Beebee. You know I love you.”
“Yeah, love you too Mayday. Now tell me where were going so I can get some candy to sweeten your salt.”
“Hey! You’re the salty one.”
“Says the one who says I’m gonna crash the car.”
“Alright alright. Let’s go.” And with that, Bea pulled out and they set off for their first stop of the trip.
Surprisingly, they managed to avoid getting lost during their journey across the country, managing to see several interesting things as they went. The candy factory was more impressive than either had imagined, and they had managed to even get several sweet snacks to take along with them after the tour. They also did wind up stopping at the haunted novelty shop, which was really just a joke shop with a bunch of creepy dolls around the area. Although, there were a few unexplained noises and movements of items that Bea passed off as showmanship, despite Mae’s protests that it might actually be haunted.
The further west they got, the more the landscape flattened out, with hills and trees turning into corn and wheat fields aplenty. They saw several more attractions along the way, including a museum of toy rocketships, an upside-down house, and the world’s largest pretzel. With conversation and banter to spare, plus plenty of snacks, it was incredible fun for the both of them as they continued their journey westward.
The next stop they chose was a little town resembling something straight out of a western. A popular tourist attraction, the town of Little Bastion was filled with rustic buildings older than even the town of Possum Springs. Several actors bustled through the town, dressed in 19th century attire and looking as if they came straight out of a history book. A few tourists were peering at the shops, staring in awe at the western town come to life.
“Wow, this is actually…impressive.” Bea eyed her surroundings, staring in amazement at the old timey saloon and the people surrounding it. “I can’t even tell if those guys are acting being drunk, or actually are.”
“I know, right? I told you it would be cool.” Mae then looked over to the saloon as well. “Honestly, I’m pretty sure they are. I mean, if my job was to dress up like a cowboy every day for the amusement of tourists, I’d be fucking wasted all the time."
“Maybe I should change the dress code at the Pickaxe. Make you wear a ten gallon hat and chaps.” Bea grinned.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Maybe I would.”
“I’ll quit if you do. Then who will replace me?”
“I bet I could find someone a lot better.”
Mae shot a glare at Bea, a hurt expression coming across her face even as her eyes betrayed her amusement.
Bea raised her hands in defense at the look, chuckling slightly. “Alright alright I won’t. Plus I’m pretty sure my dad wouldn’t approve very much.”
“Exactly. Plus you’d have to wear it too.”
“Nah. I’m the co-boss there. I can do what I want.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s an abuse of power.”
“Yeah...you’re probably right. But who would stop me?”
“I would. I would lead a revolt against the tyrannical boss Bea and her horrendous dress code.”
“Oh no, I’m so scared! What ever shall I do?” As Bea said this, she held her hand over her heart dramatically, faking a swoon.
As the two laughed over their banter, the clock tower near the end of the street chimed, and the actors whirled into motion. Many of them rushed indoors, peering out windows of the buildings and hiding behind posts as the streets cleared out. With the clip clop of hooves, a man upon a horse rounded the corner, dressed in black with a curled moustache donning his face. The horse stopped in front of the saloon, and he climbed down, a wicked grin stretching across his features as the tourists watched on in awe at the performance.
“Alright everyone, I’m here to take half of ya’lls profits. Now come on out and hand over your valuables or I’mma start shootin’.” As he said this, he pulled out a silver pistol, modeled similarly to the ones found in the days of old.
“Not so fast, Jumpin’ Joe, I can’t let ya do that,” a voice said, as another man dressed as a sheriff came from an alley beside the saloon.
“Well, we’ll just see about that, Sheriff Burr. Let’s you and me have a gunfight. Winner gets the town. Loser gets dead.”
“Works for me, pardner.”
The rest of the scene played out much like an old western, with a duel ending in the sheriff being victorious. Afterwards, the man in black stood up, taking a bow alongside his co-star before they exited to prepare for the next performance. The tourists applauded, before going back to exploring the town once more.
“Wow...that was….”
“Amazing.” Mae finished, grinning at her friend.
“I was gonna say awful, but that works too,” Bea replied, shaking her head with a smile.
“C’mon! You can’t tell me you didn’t love it.”
“I mean...Jumpin Joe? What kind of name even is that?”
“That’s what makes it so great! It’s so bad that it’s good!”
“Okay. You do have a point there.”
“I know I do. Now where do you wanna go next?”
“I was thinking we could find something to eat, actually. I’m starving.”
“Well there is a really good diner about fifteen minutes from here. I hear they have the best milkshakes in the world.”
“In the world, huh? I guess we’ll have to see about that.”
Their road trip continued in much the same fashion, with many interesting and amusing attractions, as well as a shared companionship that had been lacking between the two for so many years. The last stop westward was a day spent at the beach along the west coast, on a surprisingly warm day for the month of October. The ocean was something new to both of them, and they spent much of the day splashing amongst the waves and building sandcastles alongside the water. It was a day filled with much enjoyment for the both of them, and afterwards they enjoyed pizza and ice cream as they watched the sun go down.
“You know, this was really fun. Thank you Mae, for convincing me to come along.” Bea mused, leaning back in her chair slightly as the sun began its descent behind the waves.
“Shouldn’t I be thanking you? I made you drop your whole life to come with me.”
“Well, I think I needed this. I think we both did, actually. I can’t remember the last time I had a vacation. For the first time in three years, I finally feel…”
“Free?”
“Exactly. This is the first time in a long time that I feel like I can do something, be something. And it’s thanks to you, Mae.”
“Well, you helped me too, you know. I don’t know where I’d be if you didn’t help pull me out of that pit. Both physically and metaphorically.” She cracked a grin at that.
“I guess we both saved each other, in a way.”
“Yeah. I guess we did. Mayday and Beebee for the win.”
“Hell yeah.”