The Orphans in the Woods

"What time is it?" Rohan asked his sister as he turned off from one County Road and unto the next County Road.

Gertrude looked down at her watch which was difficult to read in the dark. She pulled out a small flashlight that was in the glovebox to shed some more light on the device.

"10:05," she told her brother and put the flashlight back.

Rohan was doing the math in his head while he took a quick peek at the gas gage. He knew they had about two more hours of driving on this County Road to get to the cabin area.

"Can you hand me that bottle of water?" Rohan asked his "co-pilot".

Gertrude reached to the floorboard where they had set a few water bottles and grabbed one to hand to her brother. He quickly glanced at it trying not to take his eyes off the dark and narrow road. He noticed she hadn't taken the cap off.

"Would you please remove the cap so I can keep both hands on the wheel?" he said trying not to sound irritated.

Gertrude quickly removed the cap from the bottle and handed it to him again. He quickly took a sip of water and then handed the bottle back to her. She put the cap back on and set the bottle back on the floorboard near her feet.

"You're doing a good job driving," she told her brother hoping that he knew she was proud of him.

"I'm following the rules and I haven't seen any cops," Rohan said cautiously, "We've got about two hours to go so if we just keep doing this, we should make it."

Gertrude started thinking about the scenes that would occur if a police officer was to stop them. They probably wouldn't actually go to jail if they explained to the cops how scared they were after finding their parents dead --- But they would probably get sent to Aunt Velma's in Alabama or separated in some way. She sighed trying not to think negatively, silently hoping and praying that Mom and Dead were in Heaven and protecting them on this trip.

The next half hour the road was boring and quiet. Lots of trees, evergreens and oaks mostly, and very few streetlamps or speed signs. They had both door windows cracked open for fresh air so the sound of driving on that County Road was mostly just the wind swishing against the Mustang and through the leaves of the trees besides the sounds of the Mustang's engine. The Mustang was a smooth ride and not loud at the coasting speed of 40 miles per hour.

Rohan tapped on the brake pedal for a moment as he noticed something dark and blurry up ahead on the road. The Mustang slowed to about 25 miles per hour and Rohan's heart started beating faster. The dark, blurry image became clearer to Rohan's eyes --- it was a large deer. Rohan slowed the car to almost a stop as they neared the animal. The vision of the deer was very clear at about twenty feet away and Rohan hit the brakes bringing the Mustang to a sudden hault. The deer, completely still standing in the middle of the road, stared through the glaring headlights as if he was looking right at Rohan and Gertrude.

"Oh my God," Gertrude said, "Wow Ro, what a beautiful deer!"

Rohan didn't say a word about it - he just stared back at the deer wondering how long they had to stay stopped. The interaction didn't take that long. After the deer was certain that Rohan wasn't going to run him over, the deer finished crossing the road and disappeared into the woods. Rohan put his foot back onto the accelerator pedal and got the Mustang back up to 40 miles per hour.

"Phew," he whispered as if he was talking to both himself and his sister. "That was intense."

"Like I said, you're doing a great job," Gertrude reiterated.

Rohan smiled and kept on driving through the night as carefully as he possibly could on that dark, narrow County Road.