Catspeaksart

Okay, I have to admit… I like to write drama more then comedy. 

Arnold kicked a rock with the toe of his sneaker. It bounced across the hard-packed tan dirt and landed in a puddle of mucky water.
“Why do we need to leave?” A.J., Arnold’s younger sister asked again. She still didn’t understand.
“‘Cause, it’s not safe here nomore.” Arnold explained for the fifth time.
“But what about my toys, and my friends, and our house?” She pulled at the hem of his shirt, and asked into his face.
“We gotta leave those behind A.J..” Arnold shook his head, and took his six-year-old sister’s hand.
“Come on, I left the car running.” He said as he scooped her up into his arms and began to walk towards the driveway. A.J. watched over her brother’s shoulder as they made their way towards the red pickup truck parked in front of the hose.
The weapon had contaminated the entire state of New Mexico when it went off. The government had been attempting to create something that would be frightening enough to put an end to war all together. It would scare other countries into obeying commands, and holding their fire. The government had succeeded. Why was it though, that a person intelligent enough to create such a weapon could neglect to remember that the other side could have the very same weapon? When the United States loosed their new killing machine on the boarder of Mexico, they were astounded to find themselves face to face with their own mass-murder formula.
None of this occupied Arnold’s thoughts as he buckled A.J. into her seat, and rolled down the driveway and into the street. The one thing that rocked back and forth in Arnold’s brain right now was what his mother had said before she died.
“Life is the most important thing. Whether it be better off living, or dead, life is the most important thing.” Arnold had no idea what his mother had meant when she said these words. He had been so distraught by the events taking place around him, that he hadn’t even asked for further clarification. Arnold’s mother had been close to the border when the weapon went off. She was safe for the first explosion, but when Mexico’s weapon went off in retaliation to America’s, she wasn’t far enough away. Arnold had been allowed to visit her once before they put her down. She was in so much pain. The vapors of the weapon had coated her skin, and breathed into her lungs. It was literally eating her from the inside out. Arnold remembered those few hurried moments, the barrier of diamond shield that kept him from touching his mother. Diamond was the only thing that wasn’t porous enough to be eaten through by the weapon, which was a genetic manipulation of the leprosy disease.
Arnold sucked in a heavy breath as he recounted this memory, and a tear squeezed out of the corner of his eye. This wasn’t a sad tear – all of his sadness had been used up already. This was an angry tear. The anger and hate for the inventor of the weapon, for the US government, and for anything else that had taken his mother away from him.
“Where will we live now?” A.J. broke the silence with a question.
“Don’t know A.J..” Arnold said in a voice rougher then he usually used with his sister.
“What about school?” A.J. continued to ask questions that her brother didn’t know how to answer.
“We’ll find out when we cross the border.” He said through a mouth set in a tight line. Arnold and his sister had lived in Las Cruces, and they had a long drive ahead of them before they reached Denver Colorado, which is where the vapors had dispersed enough to live safely. The station of detoxification was in Colorado Springs, and Arnold had heard that is was slightly painful. The intention of the process was to remove all traces of the state they had just left, and that included the air that they had breathed. Arnold hoped that his sister would make it through okay.
“You sleepy A.J.?” Arnold asked as he watched his sister’s head loll to the side, and her eyelids droop.
“No.” She mumbled as her eyes slid shut. Arnold was happy when she finally went to sleep, he didn’t like her to see the things happening around her.
“Hey!” Arnold shouted as he swerved the truck to the side in an attempt to avoid hitting a person standing in the road. His breath came out unevenly as Arnold put his hands on the wheel and looked stared ahead of him with wide eyes. The sun had gone down, making it difficult to see, but Arnold could just barely make out the form of the woman approaching his window. He deliberated rolling it down to talk, people had become dangerous after the repercussions of the explosion, and the thought of being mugged for food, or something worse, made him cautious.
The face of the woman appeared behind the glass, and Arnold relaxed a little. She was nonthreatening when she lifted her hands to the sides of her head, to show that she was unarmed.
“Hey?” Arnold said, as he rolled down two inches of the glass. He left it mostly up, just in case.
“I need a ride.” The woman said simply. She didn’t need to further evaluate the situation, Arnold knew that if she said she needed a ride, it meant she would die if she didn’t get one. Without a word he unlocked the door, and she wound around the vehicle to the passenger side.
Humanity in New Mexico had been divided into two portions. The first one was the mass majority that had reduced to looting, and robbing for survival. They didn’t trust, or rely on anyone, and they were what had made Arnold so cautious when he saw the woman approach his window. The second side was made up of people like Arnold. They knew that their survival depended on the strength of human compassion, and gave whatever they were able. The first half was all about mine, the second was all about us.
“So where you from cowgirl?” Arnold asked as the woman situated herself on the bench seat with the still-sleeping A.J.. She lifted her cattle-hand hat off of her head, and let it drop in her lap. It was the only thing that she carried, outside of the clothes on her back, and a tiny brown bag slung over her shoulder.
“Rosewell.” She answered.
“You been walking the whole way?” Arnold stared down at her tattered brown sandals.
“Yeah.” She answered.
“You know where you’re staying when you get to Denver?”
“No.” Arnold nodded and looked through the windshield. It seemed that he had just collected a companion.

The sun glared through the glass of the car windows, and Arnold lifted his head sleepily. He had pulled over to rest at around midnight the night before, and had fallen asleep within moments. His head swiveled on to the side, and he stared at the still-sleeping bodies of his companions. A.J. had been asleep since the moment the sun had gone down the previous day, and had yet to meet her new travel-buddy. This didn’t stop her from curling her tiny baby hands around the shirt of the woman she slept beside, in a childish dependence. Arnold had seen her do the same to their mother, and this made him curious as to the face of the woman that his sister had become attached to.
She was young, maybe in her mid twenties, with hair that looked as though it had once been a vibrant shade of red, but had been bleached out by the sun to a pale shade of strawberry blond. Her cheeks were slim, and her chin pointed, and her eyes were closed, but Arnold could see that they were small, and squinted. Her skin was dark pink from repeated sun burns, but Arnold could clearly make out the signs of a person coated with freckles. All together, it was a plain face that was used to hard work, and going without. Arnold stared at his sister’s olive toned fingers as they gripped the white t-shirt of the stomach her black head of hair was cradled on.
The woman stirred slightly in her sleep, then her brown eyes blinked open. Arnold started the truck, and drove off of the side of the road onto the black tar of the street.
“Good morning.” The woman mumbled as she rubbed a sleepy hand over her eyes.
“Morning.” Arnold said, glancing to the side to see that his sister was just waking up.
“Looks like I’ve made a friend.” The woman said as A.J. lifted her head to stare at the stranger.
“Arnold, who is that?” A.J. asked as she backed up slightly.
“This is a new friend. She’s going to travel with us.” Arnold told his sister.
“I’m Sal.” The woman told A.J. with a smile.
“I’m A.J..” A.J. said hesitantly. “And that’s my big brother, Arnold.”
“Nice to meet you A.J..” Sal nodded her head.
“Were you here when the weapon went off?” A.J. asked Sal.
“Yeah.” Sal nodded.
“Did you see it?”
“As well as anyone else in New Mexico.”
“I saw it too.” A.J. nodded with a sigh. “But not as well as my mama. She was right inside of it.” Sal’s expression turned to a frown, and she glanced up at Arnold for a second. His face was contorted with memories, and he flicked the radio dial on. It didn’t work, as the local station was no longer operating, and the scratchy fuzz that filled the vehicle was deafening. Arnold flicked the dial off, and turned back to the road.
“Do you know where we’re going?” A.J. contined to question her new favorite stranger.
“Denver.” Sal told her.
“Is there school, and toys in Denver?” A.J. asked.
“Yes.” Sal nodded.
“I hope my mama will be in Denver.” A.J. said to herself. Arnold’s expression tightened, and his eyes stared forward like stones in a pool of water. The car was caught in an unbearable silence as they drove across the hellish landscape of a destroyed culture.

“She alseep?” Arnold asked Sal after the sun had gone down.
“Yes.” Sal nodded, and stared down at the sleeping face of the girl in her lap.
“Good.” He nodded and stared out at the road.
“How old is she?” Sal asked.
“Six.” Arnold replied.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Are you her father.”
“She don’t have a father.” A long pause followed this conversation before Sal broke the silence for a second time.
“Does she know?” She didn’t need to say the word for Arnold to know that she was referring to his mother.
“No.”
Sal stared out at the landscape as it rushed by in a blur. There was no need to obey the speed limit, and Arnold drove as fast as he was comfortable – the sooner they got to Denver the better.
“Stop the car.” Sal said flatly. Arnold didn’t hesitate to brake the vehicle to a halt, then watched Sal as she flung her door open, and lifted the flap off of her brown bag. She walked with determination towards a deer lying in the road. It didn’t move as it would have if it were healthy, instead it lay limply on the boarder of black tar, and lolled its head from side to side. Sal pulled something out of her bag, and Arnold’s eyes widened as she aimed the gun, and pulled the trigger at the animal. An explosion sounded through the air, and A.J. whimpered in her sleep. Arnold flung his door open and ran towards Sal, as she turned to walk back to the car.
“What the hell did you just do!” He shouted at her.
“I put an end to hell, that’s what I just did.” She said without looking at him.
“You just killed something – you took its life! Life is the most important thing!” Arnold shouted.
“Of course it is.” Sal looked at his face. “That’s why I did that.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Arnold demanded.
“You said that life is the most important thing. You got that right, but you forgot the other half.” Sal told him.
“There is no other half, that’s it – no questions asked.” Arnold pointed his finger to the ground and stomped to stand closer to Sal.
“Yes there is, life is a thing just like anything else, and sometimes it’s better off when it’s taken away.” Sal told him.
“And what gives you permission to take away life? You like to play god? What now, you gonna g build a fancy bomb to blow the world to smithereens because you can? Huh?” Arnold paced back and forth in front of Sal, but she remained where she was.
“Of course not Arnold.” She said.
“Well, you’re on the right track – that’s for sure!” Arnold waved his hand through the air, and stared hard at Sal. She took a step forward, and began to speak.
“Sometimes bad things happen, and it’s too late to do anything about it. But working with what you have is better then doing nothing at all. I’m just trying to make things better then they are – even if better then they are is nowhere near being something good.” She frowned and moved towards the truck. Arnold remained where he was for a few moments longer then she did, but eventually went to take his seat in the driver’s chair. A.J. was still sleeping on the front bench, and Sal slid her over to sit down.
“I miss my mom.” Arnold said to no one. “I can’t make that better.”
“Yeah you can.” Sal said without looking at him.
“How.” The word was a question, but Arnold said it like a statement.
“Look at her.” Sal said with her hand on A.J.’s head. “Even destruction leaves behind hope. And it’s sitting right next to you.” Arnold’s frown increased, but his mouth relaxed.
Life is the most important thing. And life was sitting right next to him.