literature

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere

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Somewhere in the middle of nowhere

"Fields, fields and still some more fields. Apart from the occasional country houses, that was pretty much all I could see."
"I wonder if this is was what people meant with the edge of the civilization, the vast unknown..."
"Well, that's obviously an exaggeration, but it was still true that this place was pretty far away from just about everything."
"I let out an empty sigh, kicking a nearby pebble forward, as I took another step." "Thinking back, just how had I ended up out here in the first place?"

"It was the beginning of summer, when it all started..."
"Well, that was only yesterday, so effectively it was still the beginning of summer."
"But that was of little importance right now. Either way, the story goes that my folks had somehow decided to send me on a summer visit to my grandparent's house..." "Actually, it's my father's grandparents, to be more accurate, but it's not like that matters either."
"So, returning to the current moment, I was walking along the seemingly endless gravel road that traveled past this countryside."
"It's not that I had some special reason either, it's just that, a place as empty as this one, there was very little else to do."

"And so, I took yet another step on the road, kicking that small pebble as far as I could. By now, it had a become a game of sorts for me."
"I chuckled at myself, wondering how stupid this would look if someone else saw me now."
"And just when I thought that, it became true. Even if it had to be a coincidence, it kind of felt like some goddess of fortune had just played a joke on me."
"The girl looked at me, apparently trying her to best to keep a poker face, but I could tell what she was really thinking."
"This girl had short hair with a slightly red tint, and if I was pressed for an answer, I guess I'd have to say she was cute, a little bit."
"But what really caught my attention, was how she made her appearance."
"Sure, a girl riding a horse probably wasn't that unusual out here in the countryside,
but when an animal of that size suddenly appears next to you, it's a different thing altogether."
"Not to mention, she was looking down on me and in more ways than one..."
"Seeing the annoyed look on my face only served to amuse her, apparently to the point where she could no longer control herself."
"-Hey, it wasn't THAT funny..."
"-Heh, Sorry. It's just that the look on your face made it all even more comical..."
"It wasn't a minute since we met and I could already tell she had a mean personality with a twisted sense of humor... Just great."
"Apparently, she suddenly thought that she owed me an introduction as she climbed down from the back of her horse, taking off her riding helmet."
"The complete opposite of the girl riding it, the horse stood still and waited obediently as the aforementioned girl introduced herself."
"-I'm Vivian, but my friends call me Viv."
"Either we were already close enough to be called friends in her mind, or maybe she just thought using her real name was too much of a pain. Probably the latter..."
"-Sure, I'm Cy."
"-Just Cy? I guess you're new around here?"
"-Uh, not really... Just an obligational visit to my grandparents."
"-That's cool, I'm only visiting my aunt, since I'm helping out at the staples. There's a riding course starting next week, but it's pretty quiet right now..."
"That would explain why she was riding a horse, I guess."
"-Ah, Same here. I was taking a walk around... and you know the rest."
-Heh, yeah..."
"An awkward silence followed, as we seemed to have run out of things to say."
"-I guess there's not much to do around here, eh?"
"That was the result of my frantic thinking, the best line I could come up with? Really smooth, idiot."
"-I think there's a town close by, but there isn't that much to see or do by yourself..."
"I guess she had seen through my intentions and was probably just as bored as I was."
"Yet she still came up with this roundabout way of making me to ask her out..."
"*sigh* -How about I'll take you there tomorrow? It isn't much, but we can probably come up with something."
"-Oh well.. Since I happen to be free and there isn't too much to do around here..."
"-Hey, don't treat me like I'm some sort of a last resort... It's as if you're mocking me."
"-But you're making it so easy for me..."
"So, she was mocking me... Looks like my first impression of her was just about right."
"Still, I guess going out with a girl beats doing nothing at all..."

"Fast forward to the next day, and I found myself waiting for the said girl at the town square."
"It was actually my first time visiting this town. Thinking about it, my grandparents probably went to this town on a regular basis, but there hadn't been such a need for me, since these visits to my grandparents were only for a single weekend or so."
"But when I tried mentioning that much to Vivian, she had told me to 'use my head a little' and find the meeting place yourself..."
"Of course, there's maps and such, but it still meant that I had to wake up early in the morning and leave an hour ahead or so."
"Thinking about her character, she definitely wouldn't forgive me for being late, not even if I had a fairly reasonable explanation."
"But in the end, I had still arrived a good fifteen minutes earlier, so I had no choice but to wait..."
"The town itself was pretty small and consisted of only a few streets, with a small cafe, an old pub, and a big store that looked terribly out of place here in the middle of nowhere."
"Since they sold everything from food to clothing and hardware, the store chain could probably make a business even out here, I guess."
"There was also a tiny antique store, that sort of small shop which was probably run by an old, grey-haired man, mostly as a hobby of some kind..."
"As I was wasting my time pondering such meaningless thoughts, 'her highness' finally decided to make her appearance."  
"She wore shorts along with a brightly colored tank top, a major difference compared to yesterday's riding gear."
"-Hmm... You're looking unexpectedly cute."  
"There was a short pause, and you could have easily thought that the slight compliment had made her blush for a second. However..."
"-Hey, just what do you mean with 'unexpectedly'?"
"-Well, you've got a mean character, so..."
"Before I had time to say anything more, I felt a sharp jolt of pain as she suddenly stepped on my feet."
"-Yeah, that's just what I meant..."
"-You were asking for it! As a compensation, you're paying for the coffee."
"Honestly, I had wanted to get back at her for yesterday's exchange, but my attempt had more or less backfired already, so any further struggle would probably have been meaningless."
"So, off we went. The cafe itself was more like a small shop which sold bread and pastries on the side."
"A few empty tables were lined up on the terrace outside and all in all, the store gave off a very homely feeling."
"Yet it seemed we were the only customers in the whole cafe at that moment. I guess that goes to show how far in the middle of nowhere we really were."
"After picking one of the tables at random, the waiter came to take our order. Judging from his face, he was probably a student working here part-time."
"With cups of coffee now in our hands, it was time to get down to business. Well, not really... But I still needed to come up with something for this 'not-a-real-date'."
"-So..."
"-What do you mean, so?"
"-Uh, I mean, what should we do next?"
"-Huh? Isn't that your duty? Remember, it was you who asked me out..."
"-Hey, you were practically begging me to..."
"-Nope, I only said that there's a town with hardly anything to do. And you instantly thought that I was interested in you..."
"I'm pretty sure she conveniently forgot the part about 'nothing to do by yourself' but she was obviously enjoying this little game of teasing, so pushing the matter would only invite more trouble."
"-Look, you knew that I've never even been to this town before..."
"She let out a theatrical sigh, and shrugged her shoulders in a grandiose manner. Somehow, I was starting to feel as if she had planned all this from the start..."
"-I guess it can't be helped. Well, there is this one place that I could show to you..."

"-Your place is the big department store?"
"I asked her with a mix of sarcasm and curiosity, when we stepped inside the said store."
"-Idiot, we're here to get some 'necessary supplies', you can't properly enjoy this sort of occasion without the right stuff."
"As I wondered what she might have meant with 'occasion' and 'the right stuff', she led me to the foodstuff shelves, scooping up a wide range of the said 'stuff ' to the shopping basket that I was holding for her."
"Salt crackers, chips, canned peach, choclate... Was she planning on having a picnic or something? Or was this her usual way of shopping, I wondered."
"-Cider? Don't tell me you're already eighteen?"
"-Well, I'm turning eighteen in a few months, but the clerks here aren't too strict about this stuff anyways..."
"-Wait, don't tell me you've got something against it?"
"By that time, I was more surprised that she was actually a year older than me. There was no way you could have guessed such a thing from her attitude at least..."
"-Nah, not really..."
"I was obviously faking confidence since I had only tasted a bit of wine on a family dinner, but apart from that I had no experience with alcohol..."
"I have to say I was more than a little bit nervous at the cash register, but the clerk didn't even bat an eyelid towards us."
"Viv was 'generous enough' to split the pay in half, although most of this stuff was in her taste..."

"After safely acquiring the said stuff, we headed out of the town. Of course, I had no real idea on why, but either way, it seemed like Vivian sure knew where she was going..."
"At first, we followed the gravel road that I had taken earlier this day on my way to the town."
"But then she suddenly told me that we were going to 'take a shortcut' which apparently went straight through the woods... "
"Not to mention that I was the one carrying all the 'necessary supplies'. A good 15 minutes later, just when I started thinking that we were lost..."
"-We're here!"
"Except that there was nothing here. All I could see was a rocky hill that seemed to be rising almost straight up..."
"But Vivian started climbing up the hill, and with her pace, you wouldn't have believed that she was supposed just a cute girl."
"-Hey, what are you waiting for, don't get left behind!"
She smiled at me from above. Either she had already forgot that I was still carrying our 'supplies' or maybe that was just the reason why..."
"In any case, I tried my best to keep up, and eventually both of us arrived at the top of the hill..."
"-So, just what was the point of coming all the way here?"
"What's the point?! Take a good look around yourself!"
"Well, I had to admit that this hill had a pretty nice view. You could see the fields,  the small town further away, and even a small river in the horizon..."
"Combined with the blue sky, white clouds and plenty of sunshine, it definitely wasn't a bad place for a picnic."
"-Well, I guess it's a nice view..."
"-Isn't it?"
"She asked with an excited look on her face. There was something a bit childish about the way how she enjoyed all this, but I had no real reason to complain either."
"-I found this place by chance a few years ago... I thought it could be the perfect place for something like this, but obviously, you can't really enjoy that just by yourself..."
"-Heh, yeah. That would definitely be a bit weird or even downright creepy..."
"-Hey..."
"-So, she had come here before by herself... Either way, we soon forgot about all that, as our picnic started and we soon found ourselves locked in a fierce battle over the last slice of canned peach..."
"-Haahh, that hits the spot!"
"She opened her cider and took sip, turning her head back in an exaggerated manner."
"-Stop acting like some old man..."
"I said this while trying to enjoy mine in a more moderate manner. She felt like the sort of a person who could easily go overboard once she gets drunk."
"Maybe it was lucky that we only had one cider per each. Though I had to admit that the taste was somehow fitting for this occasion."
"Or it could have been that I was a little drunk, and in higher spirits than usual..."
"We quickly lost track of the time, and the sun was already setting by the time we finally realized that we should probably head back..."

"The next day, Vivian invited me over to the stables. Of course, I don't a know a thing about riding, but I thought that I might as well give it a try, just for the heck of it, if nothing else."
"The truth was, I was somehow starting to enjoy being with her, so going along with her whims seemed like a small price to pay..."

"-Cy, meet Hendrix. Hendrix, meet Cy."
"I was standing in front of a dark brown stallion, that stared straight back at me, the way someone would look at a sack of potatoes."
"It wasn't really a fated meeting or anything like that, but still, she sure had an odd sense for names."
"-Hendrix? As in Jimi Hendrix?"
"-Yeah. I mean, doesn't he feel a bit like Hendrix?"
"I had no idea what she was talking about, but somehow I got the feeling that it would have been pointless to ask about it."
"Since the introductions were done with, Vivian opened the stall and led the horse out to the yard."
"She handled the huge animal confidently, and somehow, you could feel a mutual trust between the two as she saddled the horse and then checked everything just to be sure."
"-Well, what are you waiting for?"
"-Huh?"
"Apparently, she was motioning for me to get on the horse... Well, it's not that I was scared of the horse itself, but you could probably understand that I wasn't all that confident about myself either."
"-Uh, what about instructions and all that?"
"-Oh, come on... It's pretty simple, really."
"-Are you supposed to be an instructor or what?"
"-Fine... Here, I'll show you."
"-You just put your feet here and hold the reins in your hands like this."
"Having said that, she climbed back down from the horse's back and was now expecting me to repeat what she just did."
"So, I put my foot on the stirrup and climbed carefully on the horse's back. Luckily, the animal waited patiently for me to get my another foot on the stirrups as well."
"As soon as I did, the horse started walking, doing a neat circle with a slow pace. It was somehow a bit annoying, since it felt like the horse was just pulling his own little maneuver, while I was simply sitting on its back."
"Thinking about it, the horse probably had a fair amount of experience on new riders, so all this was probably like a routine to him..."
"-Soo, how was it?"
"She asked me, after the whole thing was over."
"-Oh well... To be honest, it felt like I was just sitting on its back, while the horse took a little walk on its own."
"-Ah, that could be... Hendrix is a bit old, he's got his own ideas about everything."
"Apparently, that name wasn't just a joke she had told me..."
"-Anyway, are you free tomorrow? That riding course is also starting, but it's only a few hours a day, really. Or you could even join the course..."
"You could see just how excited she was, but as I was about to answer, I remembered something..."
"I was actually supposed to be returning from this summer visit tomorrow..."
"Having told her that, 'Sorry' was all she could say. Neither of us knew what to say anymore, and an awkward silence hung between us, before we finally separated to our own ways."

"Walking back from the stables, someone could have doodled on my face, snatched my wallet and laughed at me while he was at it, and I probably still wouldn't have noticed it."
"Well, this was the middle of nowhere, so, luckily enough, there wasn't anyone who would pull off such a thing."
"Having finally made it back to my grandparent's place, I collapsed on the guest room's bed and laid there, staring at the ceiling."
"Not that it was a particularly interesting ceiling. In fact, ceilings rarely are. But that aside, thinking of the reason to my current state..."
"I guess that this time had just come all too quickly for the both of us."
"At first, we weren't too far off from enemies, only hanging out together since neither of us had nothing better to do."
"And just when we were starting to get along with each other, it's already time to go."
"As things stood now, I had no real idea of what she really meant to me. So, that would probably explain this state of confusion that I was in right now."
"Well, let's try giving this idea some thought, I told to myself."
"I certainly liked being with her and if we had met in my hometown, for an example, I  would have probably started dating with her eventually."
"But in this situation... Even if a long-distance relationship was possible, could we really deal with that?"
"Well, probably not. We had known each other for three days or so and there were no guarantees it would work out either."
"It was more like I was just asking to get hurt. In the end, it's not even worth thinking about something like that."
"At least, that's what I told to myself, pushing these thoughts to back of mind."

"The rest of evening passed without anything mentionable. It seemed that she wasn't going to mail me either, which probably meant that neither of us knew what to say anymore."
"While it's not like I've known her for too long, the way she fell silent after hearing about my leave somehow felt so... not like her."
"'Hey, you never considered my feelings for a second, so why are you suddenly trying to be considerate?'"
"Oh, well... If I'm thinking about her this much, then I could ask the same question from myself..."
"For what it's worth, I ought to at least tell her my goodbyes properly. Luckily enough, I should still have just enough time for that tomorrow..."

"When thinking of goodbyes like this, it would probably be better if she had something to cherish with this occasion."
Well, it wasn't being remembered by her or anything like that, but since I was going out of my way to tell her my goodbyes, I might as well do it properly."
"The tiny antique store which I had spotted the other day seemed like they could have something that suited the occasion."
"And since I was leaving on the afternoon, I had invited her to meet me at the town on noon. Of course, I still had no guarantees that she would actually show up..."
"Either way, I had arrived an hour early, in order to look for something that could suit her tastes."
"The department store was out of the count, since I couldn't imagine buying a farewell gift from such a place..."
"So, the only place left was that tiny antique shop . I wonder if the shop owner really was an old grey-haired man, like you'd imagine?"
"Stepping inside the store, a variety of 'odd stuff' was lined up on the shelves, the floor and practically everywhere you looked."
"...From decorations to teacups, small furniture and even old books. Rather than a selection, it seemed more like someone's personal collection."
"Strangely enough, the shopkeeper was nowhere to be seen, so I wandered around a good while, pondering what this sort of items had actually been used for?"
"Finally, I laid my eyes on a set of ceramic kittens, playing around an old hat. It was a little on the expensive side, and maybe even a bit too cute for someone with a character like hers, but all in all, I think it was still a pretty good choice."
"At the counter, I noticed a small, handwritten note saying that the shopkeeper was 'out for business', whatever that actually meant."
"There was also a small wooden box on the counter, apparently left there for payments, which meant that the shopkeeper was either very trusting or simply didn't care all too much."
"So, in the end, I paid the price for the kittens, stuffing them in a small paper bag, and headed out with time to spare..."
"Even if it was still early, I couldn't keep myself from thinking if she would actually show up."
"On one hand, it could be that she didn't even want to meet me, knowing that it would only make things harder."
"On the other hand, it could also be that she didn't even care about this whole thing. After all, we had only known each other for 3 days or so..."
"Anything but that, I thought to myself as I waited for her..."

"After what felt like the longest half an hour in my life, Vivian finally arrived. But even if I had ran down this scenario several times in my head by now, I still had no idea of what I should say to her."
"For a good while, both of us would only look at each other... on her face was an apologizing smile, though I can't say for sure, what sort of  an expression I had."
"-Sorry, this isn't like me at all..."
"She was the first to break the silence. Somehow, a small sense of relief filled me when I heard those words."
"-Yeah, that's certainly true..."
"-Hey, don't agree so readily!"
"-Heh, sorry. Anyway, I brought you a gift."
"I handed over the small paper bag, which she opened. For a second, you could see a genuine surprise on her face."
"-I chose these, since kittens are mischievous, kind of like you..."
"By now, she would have already smacked me in the head for what I just said, but instead, she only wiped a tear out of her eye, saying..."
"-*sigh* Why do you have to be like that, even now?"
"I had no reply for her, although I knew it all too well."
"In the end, I knew what I should have said to her, but actually telling that to her would have only made things harder for us, since I had no real idea of when we could see each other again, and if we could still make all that work out."
"But before I had time to think any further, she stepped forward and placed a kiss on my lips."
"-You're a coward and a huge idiot!"
"Again, I had no reply for her, but for a completely different reason."
"-...But I still like you."

"Two months have already passed since then..."
"Thinking back, she had been completely right about me. I was trying to be considerate of her, but doing so, I had forgotten about the most obvious thing..."
"Nowadays, we've been keeping in touch from time to time, but I still have no idea of when we'll have the chance to meet again. Though, I already know that I'll wait for her, no matter how long it takes."
A short story about weekend trip to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and a certain coincidental meeting.

writer comments:
-i wonder if it's possible to write something bitter-sweet and slightly romantic when my narrative focuses on sarcasm and humor...
-this sort of protagonist is so typical of me. It's partly because I keep projecting myself to him, partly because of my admiration towards Kyon's sarcastic narrative in Nagaru Tanigawa's Haruhi.
I kinda get the feeling that i'm stuck with this style of narrative, but frankly, it's the only way for me to have fun while telling a story. 3rd person just sounds so much more stale and old, even if it's all in my head.
-The female lead is modeled after my first love, even if it makes the whole thing twice more pathetic, I wanted to write something like this for a long time now.
© 2012 - 2024 Desulishor
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Another-Hitchhiker's avatar
I really like the overall tone of this piece -- it's light and even humorous, but at the same time, a bit bittersweet and wistful. The ending is very effective, leaving the reader with the room to hope with the protagonist, and to imagine the future of both Cy and Vivian. Overall, you've painted an intriguing picture of young love in a unique and compelling setting. Bravo.
My one thought, though, is about the formatting. I assume the use of quotation marks and separate lines rather than paragraphs are to create the sound of a narrative, as though the story is being read out to the reader. In some places, however, I found this to hiccup the flow a little, and it was hard to tell what was dialogue between characters or narration.
Still, I enjoyed the piece and I look forward to reading future works. :)