[ WP ] Hitchhiker

Amber. Her hair, not her name. Amber, like the crystallized goo that hardens around mosquitoes so you can extract DINO D-N-A and terrorize Jeff Goldblum. 
 
 She gets in and the crushed scent of pine floats in with her. California is something else this time of year. Her bag goes into the backseat of the beat up Camry and she sighs. 
 
 `` Thank you. I only get a stop every hour or so; it's been slow.'' Her voice is a mesmerizing tune hummed low across a harp. 
 
 `` No problem. I'm heading North up towards Oregon,'' I rush out, a little disarmed by her soft voice. `` I'm just shooting straight up the interstate. You?'' 
 
 `` North is perfect. Just drop me off when you get to the California border.'' She smiles. `` Thank you again, I've got cash for you.'' 
 
 `` Do n't worry, I'm going the same direction,'' I say putting on my blinker and pulling back onto the mostly deserted highway. `` You're in charge of music if you have an iPod, or you pick from mine.'' 
 
 `` I'll see what you got, tiger.'' 
 
 I can tell it's just a phrase she uses, but her voice is like a rivet to my brain and I feel myself blush a bit. She selects M83 in a few minutes and the beginning of the album sends the same chills as it does every time I hear it. I keep stealing glances at her as she rest her arms on the window and her head on her arms, the freckles on her smooth skin stand out like flecks of coffee on a white bed sheet, the result of a playful touch on a cold morning. 
 
 Her hair, like an ocean of color and texture, soft and inviting, dances in the breeze away from me. I reach over and turn the music up as the lyrics float in, `` We did n't need a story/We did n't need a real world/We just had to keep walking.'' 
 
 My mind floats away and I'm rifling through everything I know about anything that's interesting to get her to speak again. That mouth, those eyes, I want them to flash my direction, coral red lips and azure glass watching me as my mouth begins to take shape. 
 
 `` This band is amazing.'' 
 Fuck. That was shitty. 
 
 `` Yeah. I think this album is awesome. I always feel like I'm getting ready to go on an adventure when this song comes on. So it's terribly appropriate for what's happening now, I guess.'' She does n't really move except to angle her head inside the window. She reaches over and turns it up a little more. 
 
 `` I feel like I'm running down a pier in cold October,'' she says, `` wrapped up in my favorite hoodie and I can watch time pass as quickly or slowly as I want. I'm not running from anything, but towards something. It's over the horizon and coming towards me but I wo n't know what it is until I hold it. It's scary. It's exhilarating. I want it more than anything else.'' She pauses, looks up as the sun shatters through trees, heat radiating through the massive California wilderness and onto us. 
 
 I smile and reply, `` I always felt like it was about finding something new, too. A new life, a new world, a new person; something fundamental has changed and this person is ready for the unknown for the first time in their life.'' I reach up and adjust the rear view, looking behind me. I turn and she's smiling. 
 
 `` Sounds like you're on your way somewhere, too. Glad I'm with someone like you for this.'' 
 
 `` I'm Mark.'' I say, captured by her eyes: blue and soft like a caress of sky around my spirit. 
 
 `` Autumn.'' She pushes back her amber hair and smiles at me. 
 
 The volume goes up one last time as the track sustains its final note. I drive on, pushing asphalt away and shifting my gaze to the yellow lines beside me. In my mind I'm running down a pier to find someone waiting at the end. I know she'll be turning around in time to see that I was just beyond the horizon but now she could know me better than she'd known anyone.
