During the summer, three years ago, Heather and I were supposed to go to summer school. Both of us had been up since seven in the morning. Her mom had to work that day, which meant we had to walk to the high school. The day was scorching hot and humid, which made us not want to walk in those conditions. Half-way there, we were debating whether or not we were actually going to go or turn around. We were almost to the stop sign by the elementary school; we had come up with a plan to walk to Clear Lake.

My conscience kicked in saying, “You most definitely should turn around, and Daddy’s going to kill you for doing this.” There goes that, I didn’t listen to my conscience, of course! Our feet scurried as fast as they could go to be far away from the school just in case someone saw us. Our stomachs were very angry with us. They sounded like lions roaring. We were over by the bus garage just enjoying our time together, looking around at the scenery. It was hard to make the walk interesting because everywhere we looked, there was litter. It made the scenery look like a dumpster.

Further and further we went, there were dead animals on one main side of the road. The stench and sight made Heather and I so sick. It didn’t help us since we hadn’t eaten any breakfast. Time was ticking by really slowly. Our legs had been getting weaker and we were about to collapse. We had already hit County Road J, and the heat had started to rise in temperature. Tons of cars were flying by with windows down trying to have some cool air circulate through their car. We were counting every vehicle that had passed us. There was construction further down the road from us. Dump trucks had been racing passed us to reach the job sight.

As soon as we reached that big turn on County Road J, my phone died. Heather’s phone was confiscated by her mother a few days before. Roughly around 11:30 we had estimated about three miles and we’ll be in Clear Lake. Thinking, maybe if we pick up the pace, we’ll be there around 12:30-one. Neither of us could take another step. Sitting down was definitely the option for us. Right over by a big dirt pile we went. I’ve never been to the desert but that sure felt like it. No water, no food, our mouths are dry, legs trembling and are body’s shaking. We tried to saver every last bit of saliva we had left. We needed to be strong and go further. The sitting we did wasn’t going to let us accomplish anything. Finally, we had made it to the highway. Now all we needed to do was cross safely without any cars hitting us. We ran like there was some crazy murderer behind us, screaming with laughter because we thought it was funny.

Being able to see the Clear Lake sign, with a population of 1,065 had been such a relief. We had accomplished something we’ve never done before and never doing it again. We were both so happy that we made it, alive. Since my phone died on the way here, lucky us we have no way of calling anyone to hangout or bring us home. What were we thinking?!