Fluke

Bonus 4: Stranger to Blue Water

John Denver was pretty generous when he was describing West Virginia in Take Me Home, Country Roads. The scenery was gorgeous, of course, but it couldn't possibly be almost heaven when there were no whales around.

Everywhere I went was automatically a little better with Logan, though.

"Hey," I said. "Thanks for coming with me. I know this is practically a village compared to where you're from, but I left a lot here, and it'll be nice to revisit it with you."

It had been about four years since I left home and refused to come back without proof that it was all worth it, but with Logan and a spot on Dr. McCann's team to do my whale thing, as my dad put it, it finally felt like I had something worth being proud of.

"I figured this would be a good opportunity to find out why you are the way you are. There are a lot of mysteries to be solved here," he said. "Now where the hell am I supposed to go?"

"Still a few miles down this road, and then where you'd think there should be a stop sign or light or something, turn left there."

Explaining directions to him was definitely easier than cleaning vomit out of my car, so I handed him the keys back in Maine at two in the morning, and a little over seventeen hours later, I was ready to return to an old life I left behind.

My dad seemed excited to hear all about what I had been doing, and even if he was just trying to encourage me, that was perfectly fine with me. I knew my decisions were tough for him. No matter what I tried to pretend, while they were easy for me to make, they were much more difficult to live with.

I had grown up in a small town called Oldham in West Virginia, and unlike Paradise City, there was, in fact, grass that was green, and when it rained, it was especially fresh and pretty. The house was just big enough for my parents, my three brothers, and me, and there was plenty of land for us to run around, play basketball, and dream of being somewhere else. But nobody came, and nobody ever left, especially for an expensive college in Maine to pursue marine biology while she had the perfectly logical and viable option to stay close by and play basketball.

New flowers decorated the area right in front of the porch of the house, but the rocking chair that used to be there was gone. There were no cars in the driveway either, even though we told them that we'd be there at around seven.

Oh.

"I'm pretty sure we passed more horses than people in this entire state. That's one mystery solved," Logan said.

I smiled and shook my head. "That doesn't explain anything about me. Correlation and causation aren't the same thing."

"Shut up, nerd. I'm sciencing."

"You're not doing a very good job."

"I'm doing a fantastic job."

There was no sense in arguing with him. He knew who was really right.

The two of us walked up to the door, and with no one home, I went through my keys to find the right one. If I remembered correctly, the key to the front door was the most silver in color, but before I could try it, Logan let out a sigh next to me.

"It's been a while since I unlocked this door, Logan. I think this is the right key, but I can't remember for sure," I said.

"That wasn't at you. It was just in general."

"Yeah, it's been a long day. Do you want to see my room?" I asked as I swung the front door open. So I did remember. I kept my smile to myself.

He smiled. "I would enjoy that very much. It'll be a nice addition to my collection of data on why you're like this."

How long was he going to continue with that?