Phoenix and the Wild Princess

A large tree fell across the road and blocked my view, I slowed the car down to a crawl and peered through the branches, looking for a gap in the foliage.

"You know this is your responsibility right, it's literally in your name." The voice on the phone was like nails on a chalkboard. "You have one job and you can't even do that."

I always tell her that she's being hard on me but she doesn't care, I'm her son after all. But this time I had nothing to do with it, it was the forest service who cut down trees in a national park; they were understaffed as usual. It didn't make any sense to me either, why would they cut down trees when there are people flocking to see them anyway? It's like cutting off their own legs so they can hobble around on crutches.

The damage was done now though, and my aunt was understandably upset with me that I wasn't able to get through the road sooner. She told me how much of an embarrassment I am and how dumb it was that I didn't even have a car of my own yet.

"It takes three hours by car from here to Macon and you're saying it'll take me five days?" Her voice cracked with anger, "What am I supposed to do for five days? Can't you just rent a helicopter or something?"

"No," I sighed into the phone from the front seat of my rental car. "It's too dangerous for airplanes because of all the trees down over the roads, there's been a lot of serious accidents lately."

"Well what about a boat?" She asked suddenly calm. "Can't you just use a boat?"

"I don't think so," I answered confused by her sudden change in tone. "There aren't any big rivers around here that run by this area."

She scoffed in annoyance at my ignorance, "Of course not you idiot! You don't need a river just get one of those small paddle boats and tie it to your car!"

"I already tried that," I explained shaking my head at the ridiculousness of her idea. "I hit some low hanging branches on an old logging road and got stuck." It was embarrassing enough to tell her that without adding insult to injury as well.

Her voice returned to its frantic tone as she yelled into the phone, "Then ride your bike! You said you rode it here so why can't you ride it back home?"

I rolled my eyes again at her ignorance before answering, "Because I'm two hundred miles away from home!"

A long silence filled the line before she finally spoke in a tired tone, "Well what am I supposed to do then? How am I supposed to get there? Can't someone else drive me?"

In my mind I saw myself strangling her with her own hair until she passed out but instead I answered calmly, "No mommy's stuck here till the road gets cleared up."

Another long silence followed before she asked quietly, "Did someone die?"

My mother has always been overly emotional but now with her dad dying she got even worse. She always thought we were going to die too whenever we went out hiking or camping together when we were kids and now when things don't go exactly as planned she always assumes someone died.

"No mommy just some trees fell over some roads," I replied sarcastically rolling my eyes for what seemed like the millionth time today. God this woman drove me insane sometimes.

"Oh thank god," she sighed in relief before asking again,"Well what are you going to do while you wait then? Are they letting people into day passes or something?"

I could feel a vein pulsing near my temple as I screamed into the phone, "Why would they let people into a national park during this emergency? They haven't even let people leave yet!" If anything people were trying desperately to get in but they wouldn't let anyone pass because of all the fallen trees blocking every road out of there!

She sighed again before asking another stupid question that only proved more annoying than anything else she could ask at this point: "Well what if you met somebody nice? Couldn't they take care of you for me while you wait for your aunt?"

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*-------#---------#--------#------#-#----#-#-#----------##--------##--------------###_#----###__##_~##__~##_~##__~##_~##___~####______~###____####_______##___________###_____________###______________####_______###_______########_______####____####__####____########_###____####################__############___###__########################_########___########__########################_##___###__########################_##___###__########################___###__########################______###___################################___ ##_______########################______#_________################_______####_____________################+++++++++ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\| / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ | | | | | | | | X|_______| | ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| | : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : ##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----##-----# #------#------#------#------#------#------#------#------#------#------#------# #-----|--0-----|--1-----|--2-----|--3-----|--4-----|--5-----|--6-----|--7-----|--8-----| #--9-| #------#------#------ #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- #--------------- [18:25] -Mandre [18:25] -Lurendre [18:25] -Dremath [18:25] -Yveni [18:25] -Caleb [18:25] -Kaanz [18:25] -Oliwey [18:25] -Uyaric [18:25] -Mikaela ------- -- -- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- -------------------- ##------- ##------- ##---------------------------- -- ----- ---- ------ ------ ----- ---- -------- ---- ----- ------ ---- -------- ------ ---- -------- ---- ----- ------ ---- -------- ------ ---- -------- ---- ----- ------ ---- -------- ------ ---- -------- ---- ----- ------ ---- -------- ------ ---- -------- ---- ----- ------ ---- -------- ------ -- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- Soaked through and covered in mud, Nicolas arrived at his Aunt's house later than expected after his plan failed miserably when he got stuck in a puddle not more than 5 miles from his destination; he couldn’t believe his luck. He had heard stories of swamps where cars would sink instantly but he never thought he’d be able to experience it first hand; he shook his head as he stared at his ruined pants clinging tightly to his legs but he couldn’t help but chuckle at how ridiculous he looked clambering out of his vehicle with socks soaking wet inside boots soaked just as bad as his clothes outside ankle deep water while everyone walked by laughing at him; they probably thought he was drunk already but how could he blame them when his own parents left him alone when they went on vacation somewhere while telling him “make yourself comfortable”? He chuckled again thinking how ridiculous that sounded considering everyone knows everyone else here and he didn’t know any children old enough or brave enough to go against their parents wishes so no matter what happened next he’d certainly look totally ridiculous if not downright lost so screw it...if he lived through this it’d be worth it no matter what happens next! He hopped out holding up his pants as best as possible trying not slip in the puddles around him while moving towards his Aunt’s front door; it took quite some time considering how muddy everything including himself was but eventually he arrived at her front door dripping wet with mud dripping down his face leaving brown streaks across his cheeks dripping onto his chest with more mud slowly sliding down his arms revealing more skin than normal mixed with deep dark brown stains exposing white areas mixed with red from blood running from scrapes all over his body thanks to falling face first into all sorts of sharp rocks hidden beneath even more mud finding its way onto any exposed part of him all throughout this entire ordeal! Why did