[Open] The long road

[maggie]

-Houma, LA-

It had only been a day since she left home but it felt too short. It felt like she should have been away for months. Those twenty four hours felt like they happened ages ago. Maggie didn’t understand but she didn’t give a damn. She needed to get away. Her momma had pissed and upset at the same time. Maggie knew she should be more upset but it wouldn’t happen yet. Everything took time and maybe Maggie was still in denial about her daddy’s death. The hunt was five or so days ago, Maggie had injuries. Her face had cuts along with the rest of her body. She was sore from being thrown into the tree and she looked like she had gone a couple rounds with a tree and lost.

Now she was in Houma, Louisiana trying to get away from everything. She hadn’t really checked her phone; but, she knew she had calls from Sarah that she had to answer. However, Maggie didn’t want to talk to Sarah or anyone at the moment. She wanted to sit on the beach with a beer and become lost to the world. Maggie knew that’s what she was going to do considering she was on the cost of Louisiana. There were a lot of swamps here and Maggie knew what swamps meant. Swamps meant snakes. Snakes meant Maggie ran away in terror. Maybe she should just go to a bar or something to get a beer. Bars could be the best place. She could get lost in her head along with people watching. That was always fun right?

When a bar came into view, Maggie pulled into the parking lot and stopped near the front door. She turned off the engine and stepped out of her truck. Maggie was wearing jeans, boots, and a sweatshirt covering a tee-shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun. When someone looked at her face, they would see puff, red eyes and a pale face. On top of her puffy eyes, she had the injuries from the hunt she had just been on. It was obvious that something bad had happened. Maggie tried to hide it but sometimes pain was just too visible.

Inside the bar, it had a relaxed atmosphere. There were all types of people here. Young, married, old, friends, college aged. There was music playing in the background. It sounded like classic rock but she wasn’t paying attention enough to hear the specific song that was being sung. She gravitated to the bar and sat down in an open seat. She waited until a bartender came over and took her order. The bartended didn’t question why she looked like a wreck. They had seen it enough times that it didn’t even matter anymore. They had seen people in all sorts of conditions.

The bartender came back with a Samuel Adams and she started to drink it slowly. Maggie took out her phone and saw she had a couple voice mails. She listened to all of them. Three were from Sarah and the fourth from her brother Nic. They were both asking her to come back home. Apparently momma wasn’t well off but she couldn’t go back. She needed to get over this before she could go back. She’d call Sarah when she stopped at a motel. She’d only talk to Sarah if she promised not to give the phone to Momma.

Just as Maggie was about to put her phone away, it started to vibrate. She looked at it and saw it was Sarah’s number. Maggie stared at the phone unsure of whether to answer. The big sister protector role took over and she answered the phone. “Maggie finally!”

“Yes?” Maggie sighed resting her forehead into the palm of her hand.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for a while. We need you here Maggie.”

She knew this was what Sarah wanted. “I can’t, you know that. I’ll come back when I can. Love you.” She closed the phone and closed her eyes. Opening her eyes, she sighed and set it on the bar top taking another drink of her beer.