The wind whipped through the open windows of the little Honda Civic, bringing relief from the summer sun beating down through the windshield of the car.
"How much farther you think?" asked Carmen from the passenger seat, tucking her auburn hair behind her ear as the wind promptly blew it right back where it started.
"I dunno. I've never been out this way before but I'm guessing it's at least another three hours." said Elliot.
"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Carmen. "We've been driving for eight hours already!" They both burst out laughing at her profane use of the Lord's name. The pair were headed to Bible Camp to work as camp counsellors.
Elliot and Carmen had been friends since the fifth grade, attending the same Christian school for almost as long as either of them had any meaningful memories. Carmen had been there since Kindergarten and the Christian world was the only thing she had ever known. The elementary school was part of a larger campus that was run by a church ominously named The Tabernacle. Every aspect of her life was encompassed in religion.
When Elliot came to the school in the fifth grade, he had moved to her small prairie town from Toronto and to Carmen he seemed so worldly and fascinating. A boy from the outside! His clothes were new and trendy, unlike the thrift store hand-me-downs most kids at the school wore. He used words like "shit" and "fuck" that at first triggered her rightous indignation. Eventually though, her curiosity had drawn her to him like a six year old kid seeing their first dead squirrel. Morbid curiosity? She often found herself watching him and the strange way he carried himself, which was always a little disdainful of small town religious life.
When Elliot first moved to her town he'd hated it. The other kids seemed sheltered and naive, mostly came from poor families and had horrible taste in music. They seemed to know nothing about the world outside their weird little town. He hadn't wanted to move there but his parents had recently become "born again" and decided to move to this small podunk bible town where his father had gotten a job as Head of Maintenance at the Christian school. Despite the small town, the school was large and it's campus housed hundreds of students ranging from Kindergarten to Graduate School, all with the sole purpose of developing missionaries to spread the "good news."
"Fuck it's good to be out of that town" said Elliot, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter and clenching his jaw. Aside from Carmen, nothing in the religious school had ever held any interest for him, and he had hated being forced to memorize Bible verses and attend chapels and Bible Study groups. Heading to a Christian summer camp might not have been his first choice for things to do after grad, but at least he would be away from the suffocating presence of those conservative teachers who were always on his case about everything.
He and Carmen had formed a friendship over what now seemed like the silliest thing. He had brought his nintendo DS to his grade five class and was playing pokemon with the volume off, keeping it out of the teachers foreboding line of sight. Carmen had never seen a DS and had stared intently from the desk beside him, watching the screen with fascination. "Quit staring" he hissed, "you're gonna get me in trouble!" At the end of class she worked up the nerve to ask if she could try it, and Elliot acquiesced, more out of pity for her sheltered life than anything. It almost made him feel like a time-traveler from the future, as everyone in this town seemed a couple of decades behind.
The two of them began playing pokemon every day at recess and after school. Carmen was nothing short of obsessed with the game. Eventually Elliot's pity had given way to amusement of their time together, seeing as most of the kids regarded him as a bit of an outsider anyway. Her fascination with him was flattering and he found himself thinking of new things to introduce her to just to see her reaction.
By the sixth grade Carmen had saved her allowance money and bought her own DS unbeknownst to her conservative parents who most certainly would not have approved. Elliot secretly enjoyed "corrupting" Carmen and introduced her to non-Christian music, R-rated movies and had even convinced her to try drinking some coolers he got from Marty, a high school kid who could grow a beard. Carmen was fascinated with this new world, the new sounds, visuals and tastes that were strictly forbidden by her parents.
Over the next few years together, the two formed a friendship that felt like something from a movie. Elliot found Carmen reasonably attractive but her innocent and naive nature kept him from ever seeing her as being someone he would date. Instead the two of them spent hours walking on the train tracks, watching bad sci-fi, going for bike rides or just hanging out at the only coffee shop in town. He was grateful for her, as she was the one person who he could stand being around in this dull town. His influence had managed to slightly lessen her staunch religious way of being, at least when she wasn't around her parents or the other students. She even swore occasionally if no one else was around to hear.
When the opportunity to work at the summer bible camp had presented itself in the middle of their senior year, Carmen immediately applied. The camp was in a remote forested area on the coast of BC and the pictures looked like paradise on earth. Mountains, lakes, trees, the ocean and a host of wildlife seemed beyond exciting after a sheltered life on the prairies.
Not knowing what to do after high school, Elliot applied as well, thinking at least it was a good way to get out of town and still be able to hang out with Carmen.
Despite the misgivings of their parents, the two teens managed to convince them that they should drive out together since Carmen didn't have a car. Elliot had always played the part of a good christian kid around Carmen's folks and they trusted that he would take good care of her.
The pair left at sunrise on what seemed like the most beautiful day of the year. The Civic was almost 15 years old and the air conditioning didn't work, but driving with the windows down still seemed like a luxury after the long harsh Canadian winter.
So far the trip had been smooth, with just a couple of stops for food and fuel. They were able to stay on the Trans-Canada highway through the soaring rockies and out into the smaller mountain ranges of Central BC for most of the trip thus far. To get to the camp they took an exit off of highway 1 and began a meandering journey down a narrow winding road lined with trees close in on either side. It was breathtakingly beautiful and the fresh scent of greenery and rotting forest floors blew through the open windows. It was exhilarating.
"I can't believe we're actually doing this!" exclaimed Carmen after a long pause in their conversation. The suddeness of her exclamation jerked Elliot out of a trance and brought him back to the present.
"I know right? This feels amazing!"
"The longest I've been away from home was the camping trip in grade twelve" said Carmen. "This is crazy."
"It's gonna be good"
"Yeah"
"We are legit in the middle of nowhere. When's the last time you even saw a car? I kinda spaced out for a while back there." yawned Elliot, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I don't know. It's been like... a while" said Carmen, placing emphasis on the word 'while' the same way she'd heard the cool kids talk in the movies.
There was always something just a little bit 'home school' about the way Carmen tried to emulate a more worldly way of being. Elliot found it endearing. She was trying, at least.
An hour passed as they rounded corner after corner weaving through the rocky forests, when suddenly the car lurched and then slowed down. Carmen looked at Elliot with surprise on her face, "what the fuck was that?!"
Elliot sat upright "I don't know, but we're slowing down!" He frantically looked at the gauges on the dashboard. The car was indeed slowing down, and as the wind noise faded they both realized the engine was no longer running.
Elliot coasted the stalled vehicle to the side of the road, the gravel crunching under the tires where it came to a pathetic stop angled halfway onto the shoulder.
"Fuck."
In shock, Carmen looked at Elliot who was still staring in disbelief at the gauges. Finally he turned his head, the stunned expression on his face matching hers.
"Uh... what do we do?" asked Carmen.
