1 Midnight Mystery Drive

I feel the wind rushing through my hair as my friend Lana speeds down the highway. I could hear the sound of traffic all around me; and the smell of old beat up cars speeding their way down the interstate. I sat quietly in the passenger seat thinking to myself, " there's no way on backing out of this now, is there?". I glanced towards Lana, she seemed to be hyper focused on the road like she always is whenever she drives. I bet she wouldn't even notice if I called out her name right now. . . I think to myself for a minute then turn my attention to the soda in Lana's cup holder. I mischievously smile to myself and reach out my hand slowly, hoping that I wouldn't catch her attention. As my fingertips reach the drinks lid, my hand gets aggressively smacked away.

"Tryin' to play me for a fool, Cal?," Lana pulls out her most southern accent, and quickly glares at me then focuses back onto the road, " I saw you eyeballin' my precious lil' gal before you even realized it!"

I quietly snicker to myself, "you really used all your six senses to catch me with that one now didn't ya, Sheriff?," I say to Lana, as I play along with my most beautiful, and soothing country accent.

" Gosh, Cal," Lana playfully gags , " you sound like a wannabe Chuck Norris," She sits there laughing to herself, as I lean back with my mouth open and hand on my chest.

" I never knew your words could cut so deep, Lana," I shake my head for a second, then the car fills with laughter.

After the laughing and jokes had died down a little bit, Lana pulls out a blindfold and holds it out to me. "Cal, I know how weird and creepy this is, but you're gonna have to put this on," I grab the blindfold from Lana's hand and look at her confused. I take a good look at the blindfold and put it on my head. Afterwards, Lana turned the radio onto full blast, so all I could hear was the loud, catchy rap music thats bass shook the entire car. A long while felt like it had gone by until we said anything to each other, and I started getting nervous. I truly didn't know anything about this surprise; and she has never done anything like this before to me. I wonder what the surprise might be, or if it's really so special that I have to be blindfolded for it. . . All of a sudden the music gets turned down and the car stops.

"Okay, we're here," Lana says as she unbuckles her seat belt and steps out of the car. I hear the gravel hitting beneath her feet as she walks over to my side and opens the door. I feel her hand grab mine and she gently tugs on my arm "let's go," she says to me in a soft voice. She leads me out of the car and walks me over to what feels like railing of some kind. The air feels cold and thin here, and I can hear the loud noises of a forest sitting behind me, next to the quiet sounds of the car radio. The gravel that I heard Lana's feet touch now sat under mine, and made a loud crunching noise with every step I took.

I feel a soft hand reach towards my face and slowly remove my blindfold, " sorry for making you wear this. I just wanted you to experience this all at once," Lana's voice sounds so calm and sincere. I slowly open my eyes to reveal an old abandoned highway that sits on top of a hill overlooking the town. The bright lights were like nothing I had ever seen before. I look towards Lana with my mouth wide open.

"Woah. . .This is. . .," I look back out to the view and stand there speechless. Lana takes my hand then rests her head upon my shoulder. I could feel her smiling.

"I've been waiting to show someone this for a long time," Lana says in a sad tone.

I finally snap back to reality and put my attention to Lana, "i'm glad I got to be the one to see it" .

Lana and I sit in silence and stare out into the view for awhile. I would've never expected her to show me something this incredible. The soft yellow lights faded into the dark blue sky. It felt like I could see for miles and miles of endless life that I had never seen before. HazeDale always seemed like a small groggy town, yet that's so far off from what it really is. There was so much more going on from the outside than it looked like there actually was. What amazed me the most was how quiet it all was from up here. You couldn't hear all the loud noisy people, cars that'd drive at 100 miles an hour in the middle of the night, or parents that'd get into screaming fights with their child. Right now it was just peaceful. Right now. . . It's just us.

I look down to Lana and kiss her forehead, "thank you for showing this to me," I quietly whisper to her.

She grabs my arm tighter and digs her face into the sleeve of my shirt. I had never seen her be so shy and emotional before. This place must really be special to her.

"Hey, how'd you find this place?," I ask curiously.

Lana looks up to me and sighs, "my mom used to bring me up here all the time whenever I was younger. I've found so much in that forest, Cal. I want to show you everything." she says in an excited tone and smiles to me.

"Well then, where shall we go next, m'lady?," immediately, she grabs my hand and rushes to the car. This was going to be a really long night.