I was depressed about the old man dying. We kept driving though. Eze was right, the further that we got away from that death the better off we would be.
We stopped and fueled up. I bought a couple of Coke’s in a bottle. They were ice-cold and went down easy. Eze tipped his bottle down and Cat took a taste, and liked it. We finished our Coke’s and took off.
Eze was interesting to talk too. He wasn’t very forthcoming about where he had been for the last two years but I knew that he had been in some bad places and somehow survived.
That’s it! That’s what was different about Eze. He was a survivor. I knew that he could be in a tough spot and find a way through. I wished that I could be more like that! Maybe I would, after all, we both survived running through a burning house. I didn’t know anyone who had ever done that.
“What time is it?” asked Eze.
I looked down at my watch, “It’s 12:30, Why?”
“You just looked at your watch three times in the last two minutes and you didn’t even know what time it was when I asked you! You need to start living your life on Navajo Time…it happens when it happens. Now take that damn watch off and throw it out the window, or get out of the truck. You’re gonna drive me to drinking with all of your quirky habits!”
“What do you mean, Navajo Time? Where did that come from?”
Eze kept driving, but his tone became serious as he explained, “There are a lot of differences between us and the Indians that are from where we’re headed.”
“Why are we talking about Indians now?” I asked.
“We’re talking about some of their philosophies that go back thousands of years. They had a few things figured out a long time ago. It doesn’t matter how old they are, if they’re right. So, take that damn watch and throw it out of the window. Where we’re going you won’t need it!”
I didn’t even hesitate. I took my watch off and threw it out of the window at 70mph. I had always known what time it was to the minute, and what had it gotten me? If I were going to do this, then I was going to do it all of the way.
Eze continued to look ahead and drive and smiled, “You’re gonna do alright Pooh!”
CHAPTER UNFINISHED ~ END OF DRAFT