Small Talk: Sweetgum & Ash (Ch 5 added 7/29)

[Nropyub]

Another chapter! Worth the wait.

If they know they're being followed, it's time to be a little chaotic. Double back for two days, then had straight north or something. Drive through the night in the wrong direction, sleep in a day or two. Do not let anyone see the little lady, at all, ever (they're getting sloppy).

We're headed for confrontation!

[Heny]

If they know they're being followed, it's time to be a little chaotic. Double back for two days, then had straight north or something. Drive through the night in the wrong direction, sleep in a day or two. Do not let anyone see the little lady, at all, ever (they're getting sloppy).

Yes, I too I think

[Firewall]

We're headed for confrontation!

Very much inevitable.

Chipping away at the next chapter as we speak but here are a few facts about the story.

1. I originally wanted Darla to speak with a southern accent but after drafting a couple of chapters, I kept forgetting that detail. Instead, I'll leave it to the reader to determine that in their head if they want her to speak proper or with a southern twang.

2. This is the first Small Talk story that I have a proper location in. The rest of them so far are in "Any town, USA" as of now though for the main story, I'm looking at some big cities that I want to place it in.

3. The states this story takes place in I have actually never been in except Colorado which was briefly on a road trip.

[waffs]

It was a mellow dream of being in the empty fields back home.

Purely out of curiosity, is she dreaming she's big or small?

“Everyone deserves a safe place to land.”

“I’ve made my decision.” she said, a little firmer now. “I’m sticking with you. Not because I need a ride. But because I WANT to.”

Woo!

Darla grinned. “You cannot not sing to this song. It’s a rule.”

But I don't know the lyrics past the first line.

The manager squinted. “You said you were hired by the family?”

"Well, if I see her, I'll let her know they want to get in touch."

But Gideon had time and now, he had a direction.

Wait, does that make a difference? He's already been stopping everywhere they stopped.

Then he moved. Just his head. Not toward Kyle. Toward her.

Darla froze as his eyes met hers.

Oh stars, oh stars, oh stars

At the counter, the old woman ringing him up didn’t look up from her paper. “Y’all heading west?”

“Something like that,” Kyle said, sliding cash across the counter.

Hmm? I'm not sure why they would be. I mean, I'm not exactly well-versed in the interstate system (let alone smaller highways), but if you're anywhere in New Mexico, you're south of somewhere in Colorado.

“Watch out past Roswell. Lots of patrols lately. And not the usual kind.”

?? Roswell is in the southeast part of the state. Unless they went far south of Oklahoma before reaching the NM border, there's no obvious reason for going west to take them anywhere near it.
I wonder what kind of patrols would be "usual". (Perhaps I'd know if I'd ever lived out past the suburbs or gotten on the wrong side of any authority.)