Winter in May

~5~ Shall we go to Istanbul?

"Well, sir, what do you suggest? We stand here and shed tears and call each other names... or shall we go to Istanbul?" Kasper Gutman ~ The Maltese Falcon

👹👹👹

We slowly wraith down the last of the hall, slipping out the side door unnoticed, and onto freedom. Skirting unobserved around the buildings, we wind our way down the hills towards empty the Plunger pool parking lot. We slip through a rabbit hole in the back of the chainlink fence that I "found" with a pair of Aces bolt cutters, during the one week I worked the Plunge. Then with one final glance back at Hell, take the last mad dash to delinquency.

I insist on carrying May on my back to cross the street and for the first half a block. Until we are finally out of sight of the All-Seeing Eye of Doom. Or any of the potential elder orcs lingering about looking for trouble. We end up on Mulberry Street across from the school. Just two streets up and one over from Elm, where my Deathwish awaits us at the House of the Blazing Raisins.

"Are you okay, Dare?" She inquires sweetly after I set her down in the shade of an ancient twisted Mulberry tree.

"I'm good," I heave though some deep breaths. 

May might be on the shy side of a hundred pounds soaking wet? But that weight starts adding up with every step after a thousand. Sadly, I am starting to think that I might actually owe Captian Midnight an apology after all. Because I don't think I would have made it as far or as fast as I have, without his slightly psychotic morning man-making miles.

"FYI the sidewalks suck on this side of town," I inform her between deep cleansing breaths. "Thanks to all the old ass Ent trees that rooted up the sidewalk uneven as all hell. So either you let me piggyback you all the way home, or we walk along the yards and through the hedges? Pick your poison?"

"I vote for the yards then." She smiles brightly, clearly enjoying the misadventure.

"Then let's start strolling." I sigh in relief.

I navigate a longer and more circumspect route around the oleander hedges of Mulberry Street. One that will hopefully provide us with more cover when we cross over to Elm street. May is steadier on her feet now that we have escaped Hell, so I think I can even relax a little. So we begin to meander across manicured green grass yards, stopping to smell the various poison flower beds of Mulberry Street.

"Do you ever wish we were like this all the time ...not just after school?" She grins up from smelling a belladonna flower.

"Every day, May." I sigh for her amusement. "I even have an island in my head I go to get away from class. Devil May Care Island, I think you'd like it."

"The weather is perfectly pleasant all year round. With gentle trade wind breezes, for naps in wide swaying hammocks hung between palm trees. Oh, and very doable path around the island that is not too long, but just long enough to be interesting." I instantly decide to make some girl friendly additions to the old imaginary island paradise. "With lots of tropical flowers to smell ...and none of those weird nasty tropical bitting bugs."

"Sounds interesting. So tell me more about your mind island, Dare?" She echoes prophetically in her otherworldly voice, all very "Tell me of the waters of your homeworld, Turtle."

So as we walk the winding grass paths through the oleander hedges, I start to tell her about my favorite spot on Devil's May Care Island, overlooking the clear breaktide lagoon. Where I set my fishing pole out, before dozing off in my hammock gently swaying between the twin palm trees.

We wind haphazardly down the street and cut through two hedge paths between the streets. Skirting down a narrow gap between fences, that I never even noticed were there. But that somehow seems designed for this very purpose. It's truly amazing to me the strange things one runs across, that you never knew were in your own neighborhood, when you are hiding out from the authorities.